John Cassavetes

I'm watching a movie by John Cassavetes called "A Woman Under The Influence."  It stars Gena Rowlands and Peter Faulk.  The premise is the insanity of the wife.  Faulk is the husband who seems to be only minutely more rational than his wife.  She ends up waco and institutionalized.  He ends up with the kids.  At best, Cassavetes is sort of a loose cannon.  His improvisational style was pioneering and you could say influenced other improv type movies by Christopher Guest, although Guest used comedy as his way of telling the story.  Cassavettes toys with madness.  To me he brilliantly portrays the inherent insanity thickly woven throughout our culture and lives brought about by the pressure society puts on us to conform.  I don't think most people understand.  Maybe I don't understand.  Nobody wants to think they don't have a handle on their life.  We look at other people and judge them as to their degree of sanity.

Last night I watched a pirated copy of "Silver Lining Playbook."  I didn't get to see the ending as the pirated version was not complete.  But I could see where it was going.  It romanticized mental illness.  I sort of took umbrage until remembering it was a movie and movies are made to sell tickets.  I'm sure it ends up with the protagonist gaining a sense of self and reality.  Maybe that happens in the unfilm world but I haven't seen it yet.  Too many of us walk around with the silent demons rolling around, pretending we have it handled.  We make our worlds comfortable, decorating our houses to make us feel comfortable.  I do, anyway.  When it isn't right, neither am I and I suspect that holds true for most.  Comfortable house, comfortable car, comfortable clothes.  Comfortable with who we are?  Sometimes.  Getting there.  Sunshine is manna.