Gentle Spiders (et al),
Following the recent acrimony over some postings and the slurs thrown
at some of the southern states in the process, I'd like to recommend a
film: Junebug (USA, 2005). I saw it last Saturday, at the U film club,
and was going to recommend it right away, but didn't have the time to
write that night. By the time I was freeer, the HMO practices hit the
fan on chat and I thought it the better part of the valour to let
things cool off a tad before I wrote :)
The film's director -- Phil Morrison -- grew up in South Carolina (a
"red", ie conservative, state) but lives in the "blue" (ie liberal)
North. And he grew up with a religious mother but an atheist father.
His ambivalence about the "values" on both sides and his dislike of
preconceptions each side has about the other resulted in a thoughtful
and truly universal film.
The story line is simple: a very modern young woman (born into the
diplomatic circles, has lived all over the world, owns an art gallery
in a big city), in pursuit of exclusive rights to represent a
"primitive artist", comes "Down South" with her husband and the two
stay, for a few days, at his parents' home. Where his younger brother
and his expectant wife -- both high school drop-outs -- live also.
What I really liked about this film is that both points of view are
represented in it and neither side is a caricature (as so often happens
when northerners talk about the south and vice versa), though both have
some fun poked at them. Both sides, it turns out, are human afteral :)
Even if each is alien and incomprehensible to the other.
It's one of those low budget films, so it's not likely to play "in a
cinema near you", but it is available on a DVD (our film club has -
alas and alack - moved to that format from the old-fashioned
projector), so it might be available in a rental place near you, to
play at home.
PS It was nice to hear southern speach done to a turn in both accent
and phrasing. Never once was "y'all" used in reference to a single
person, and "bless her heart" was applied correctly, too :)
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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