Friday, January 26, 2007

After _Rabbit-Proof Fence_

Occasionally, I’ll watch serious cinema with Li’l A. Our favorites so far have been the Iranian director Majid Majidi‘s delightful Children of Heaven and Danny Boyle‘s somewhat murky Millions.

We started Rabbit-Proof Fence this evening with the caveat that we might have to turn it off if it got too heavy. But it didn't, and anyway Li'l A really got into RPF, which is about three aboriginal children who are separated from their families by the Australian government and trek the 1500 miles back to their home by themselves.

Cousin S wonders if it’s okay to let a little kid watch “real” i.e. non Disneyfied films. And I say yes, because I hope that empathizing with those frequently considered “Other”--
(a) may make him a kinder person
(b) stave off any Gautama Buddha drama later.
(c) Okay, whatever--I didn’t really want to watch it all by myself.

_

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved that movie. It was so incredibly heartwarming. By the way here is another movie for you to watch with Lil A along the lines of heartwarming lessons of life. The Station Agent. http://www.thestationagent.com/ There might be snippets you might want to fast forward but it's so sweet.

I watch foreign films that we have to slow down and translate and talk about thru the entire movie with the little tykes in my life. They really enjoy it. We just watched Amelie together.

maya said...

JOAT,

Way cool suggestions! Thanks much! The Station Agent looks edgy and i'll just FF the orgasmic parts of Amelie ;).

This kid reads subtitles so i have to be a little careful. In fact, i didn't really realize how fast he could read until he breezed through _Godzilla and Son_, which in these times of Jurassic Park 7.0 comes across as super corny, but so much fun for precisely that reason!

Anonymous said...

I have to second The Station Agent. It's one of my favorite films of all time. And that's saying a lot, because I like lots of films. Or maybe that's not saying a lot then... but either way, it's great.

maya said...

That does it. The Station Agent is on my netflix now.

(Thanks Tamasha!)

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