Le Scaphandre et le Papillon

9641 Steps

This should translate to "Horrible True Confessions" for the purposes of this blog entry, but it translates to THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY - a film I saw last night at the Broadway Screening Room in Times Square right by my work. This is the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby the editor-in-chief of French Elle who suffers a stroke at 43 and is paralyzed fully except for his left eye. He goes on to write a book through blinking out the letters to a translator. Amazing film by blustering American artist/director Julian Schnabel. I know some critics and those cheaper and even more thoughtless than yours truly will cheekily refer to this as "My Life Eye" (remember you heard it here first!), but it is such a lovely, lovely film. Go see it when it opens wide for you peons.

The reason I said "Horrible True Confessions" is because as much as I was engrossed in this film and was moved so deeply by it, here are a selection of devil/shoulder thoughts I had whilst viewing:

"He was editor-in-chief of French Elle at 43? What have I done with my life?"
"What a nice car and nice clothes."
"What a nice house in the country and he has a place in Paris as well. He is 43!"
"He's taken a lover and he has a wife? Have I taken enough lovers? How do I do that?"
"He wrote a book?!, I want to write a book."
"He called his father's apartment in Paris "small"? I would KILL for that apartment."
"He still has his father at 43."

This man was 43 and could only move his left eye. God help me turn my thinking to how fortunate I am as temp Director of Scheduling and Programming at 45. No living parents, yet all my working parts today. Grazie Dio.

This of course makes me go to last year's excellent Oscar winner, the German film about a couple's lives RUINED by spying from the East German police, the Stassi - THE LIVES OF OTHERS and my thoughts with this intense film about loss of personal freedoms:

"Wow, he is a successful playwright and lives in Berlin with all those books and he gets to be that good looking and he's my age and successful with a beautiful girlfriend and drinks wine and smokes cigarettes? That's it. After I get out of this cinema in Los Angeles I am going to move to Berlin and drink wine and smoke and write plays."

The lives of others is exactly what I need to stay out of.

SOOOOO... I got to go to this screening care of my excellent friend Robin who took me. As I was waiting for Robin this woman gets off the elevator with shopping bags and a knitted wool scarf and gives the "name on the list" woman a whole story about how she is just in from LA and was supposed to meet a friend here but he couldn't make it and she is eligible herself to be on the list but doesn't have her card but she SO wants to see this film and if it is at all...." I thought to myself "Do I believe her? She seems nice and not jaded. Yes, I believe her." Then I thought "This is so bad that I am listening to this and I wonder who she is and I need to just not talk to her as is my wont." Then I thought "Will I tell her I just moved here from LA and then talk about that?" And then I thought that is just so eye rolling I will leave the poor woman alone. I never thought "Later on you will be hugging this woman on 50th and Broadway and having a stranger take your photo with her." Life is truly grand that way.

Deux Belles et un Papillon

So Robin shows up and Marina is a friend of hers and we all sit together. It was great. Robin is a fantastic new friend in my life and I do not write this SOLELY because she is reading this, but also because she told me so. NOOO, because it happens to be true. So Robin Palmer moved from LA a month before me and is a writer and her book "Cindy Ella" is on Amazon so click on her name and buy it. (In my quest to NEVER be misunderstood, I can't figure out how to underline on Blogger so I had to use quotes around the title so don't think for a minute I don't know...) And Marina Zenovich is an accomplished filmmaker who has just completed a new film "Roman Polanksi: Wanted and Desired" that I hope will be screening at Sundance this year. Look out for it.

This moment I can walk, blink with both eyes, live in a lovely brownstone in Manhattan, work at a great company and have a Friday night out with a writer and a filmmaker, and more importantly, two engaging women.

"My Left Brain" is the title of where I need to be and stay out of everyone else's.