Dear IF readers,

Grandma Ellen here.

I’ve had occasion this past week to think deeply about the concept of “art
for art’s sake”. What occasioned these thoughts was seeing the film “The
Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and the reaction to it by friends in St.
Louis. My husband, the friends who saw it with us, and I all thought the
film was remarkable, “a masterpiece of cinema”, as I wrote to the Baltimore
Sun’s movie critic. But only I sobbed at the end of the movie. The
protagonist was a cad in his former ‘whole’ life. His life in the film is lived in a post-stroke body. And in his reminiscences, which give him solace from his now-transformed existence as an inert body with a fully functioning mind, he does not gloss over his past misspent life, nor does he become introspective and remorseful. (My husband says that his lack of reflection and remorse is in itself interesting). But somehow the director enabled me not only to see how the now-depleted ‘hero’ sees, but to feel how he feels. A remarkable cinematic achievement, and the effect that led to my sobbing, I realize now. I could not identify with the man, but somehow I was able to empathize with him. This, to me, was the result of the art of the film. My St. Louis friends, however, dismissed the film because they felt the protagonist was a shallow, unreflective “ornament” and, therefore, found the film uninteresting. I think they were unable to separate the film itself from the character portrayed - a critical error in art criticism. I wonder if they dismiss “Madame Bovary” because Emma Bovary is a less-than-admirable woman.

And I wonder if the age of the film’s ‘hero’ - 43 — when he suffered a
devastating stroke - had something to do with his inability to admit to his
callousness. The movie leads one to this line of thought because the most
affecting scenes in the film are the two in which Max von Sydow appears as
the man’s 92-year-old father. Maybe a total of ten minutes of film time,
but certainly one of the most touching portrayals of wisdom and empathy
hard-won through years and years of living ever seen on screen. Von Sydow
makes us believe that the art of life can be achieved simply through the
living of it.

Well wishes and fufilling lives, Grandma Ellen, Ellen Blaustein, US, grandmaellen@internationalfamilymag.com

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