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In case the articles, essays and opinions throughtout this site just weren't enough for you, here's my online diary (a.k.a. 'blog'). It's as close as you'll come to the inside of my head, so don't say I didn't warn you
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   Thursday, August 22, 2002

LET'S SEE THAT AGAIN

Forgot to set the VCR to tape tonight's airing of Peter Greenaway's "The Pillow Book" on Showcase. Fortunately, I was able to catch the last half-hour of it (not enough!) when I got home. Watching the ending again, after seeing this movie in the theatre a couple years back, reminded me how a good film can improve with subsequent viewings.

The first time around, I thrilled to a movie that celebrated books, calligraphy, and Ewan McGregor's penis. What's not to like? Well, the second half of the film, it turns out, in which the plot takes some gruesome twists that I found distasteful and ugly, a betrayal of the eroticism and poetry of the first half.

Watching the ending again, however, I found myself appreciating it more, realizing that the vengeance and gore are the dark side of the pleasure and sexuality, all of it pertaining to the body and what we do with it. The surging passions of sex and violence are too similar, too easily linked.

Makes me want to see the entire thing again, and not just because I missed Ewan McGregor. Meanwhile, I was amused to see that, while Showcase was sure to warn viewers of the film's "nudity and sexuality," the bits with blood are apparently fine. It's American movie logic: kill a person and get a PG rating; have sex with a person and it's rated R.