The Day of Silence and Take Back the Night yesterday made for an activism-filled day. The latter consisted, at Princeton, not of a march (we don't have much of anywhere to march), but of a series of speakers and performances followed by a candlelight vigil. This was actually in keeping with an article I read in the newspaper over my silent breakfast (having gotten up so, so early to sign up for courses, I had time to go to the dining hall for it) about activism at Princeton, and how it consists of talking and not shouting. I'm not sure how I feel about that in general, but last night I was grateful for it because I was completely exhausted. Five hours of sleep (I am an abnormal college student and usually get nine) + silence all day = soooo sleepy.
Anyway, the keynote Take Back the Night speaker was Katie Koestner. She was such an amazing orator (not loud or bombastic but quiet and perfectly paced) with a horrible story to tell. She told it well and we were moved to a stand ovation.
Afterwards I collapsed into bed with my computer and watched Pedro Almodóvar's La mala educación (Bad Education), which I had missed when it was shown in Residential College during the week but which I had wanted to see so I rented it from the library.
Three Things:
1) Gael García Bernal. I need say no more.
2) Almodóvar is the new Hitchcock. I suspected as much when I saw Volver, but this completely confirmed it (and Roger Ebert agrees with me). It had the music, the mistaken (and taken) identities, the femme fatale. Now I want to see Talk to Her and All About My Mother.
3) This was the first movie I've seen that jumped the MPAA R barrier. It wasn't too much more graphic than HBO, and I'll never understand why sex tips the balance of taste so much more easily than violence. Having seen Sweeney Tood on Thursday night and La mala educación on Friday night, I can tell you which one I found more disturbing: the one "Rated R for graphic bloody violence," because there was no context that necessitated anything beyond a handful of the barbaric barber-isms. Whereas each element of La mala educación, whether disturbing or not, is intricately weaved into the plot.
3a)Graphic and bloody? No, that's not overkill (pun intended).