with love, sasha

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟

[love-from-sasha]

my letterboxd top 4 (all you really need to know about me)

Chungking Express (1994)

dir. Wong Kar-Wai

"we're all unlucky in love sometimes"

two melancholic hong kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal server at a late-night restaurant

The Taste of Tea (2004)

dir. Katsuhito Ishii

"the mountain is alive, the mountain is alive"

the taste of tea is a surreal 'slice of life' film following the eccentric lives of a family in the rural tochigi prefecture

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

dir. Michel Gondry

"what a loss to spend that much time with someone, only to find out that she's a stranger"

Joel, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same

Stalker (1979)

dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

"you can't be happy at the expense of other's unhappiness"

a guide helps a writer and a professor to infiltrate a restricted area, the zone, in which they seek to fulfil their desires

with love,

sasha

[love-from-sasha]

Nobody Knows (2004)

dir. Hirokazu Koreeda

"she's not coming home today"

Nobody Knows is set in a small Tokyo apartment, where twelve year old Akira (Yûya Yagira) must care for his younger siblings Kyoko (Ayu Kitaura) Shigeru (Hiei Kimura) and Yuki (Momoko Shimizu) after their mother (Yukiko Ehara) leaves them. based loosely on the Sugamo child abandonment case of 1988, the film delicately balances art and realism in a raw depiction of neglect

the narrative follows the perspective of the children, which is reflected in the cinematography with tender observations of small mundane details. the slow, meditative pacing depicts the gradual deterioration of their living conditions as they barely scrape by with what little money their mother had left, yet through it all the children retain hope in a progressively decaying environment

"I simply want to look at people as they are" - Hirokazu Koreeda

Nobody Knows is an evocative juxtaposition of childhood innocence with cruel deprivation, making for an overall, beautifully devastating film

a plane flies overhead,

sasha

[love-from-sasha]

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

dir. David Lynch

“and the angels wouldn't help you. because they've all gone away”

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me was released in 1992 as a prequel to the 1990s television series, following Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) through the last week of her life, the murder of whom was the central mystery of the show

“quit trying to hold on so tight. i’m gone, long gone”

the original run of the show relied upon the pristine image of Laura Palmer and the quaint northwestern town of Twin Peaks. this established narrative is fractured by the murder, and soon the dark, supernatural truth begins to seep through the cracks in a grief-induced dreamscape

the film completely eradicate the foundations of this image in its entirety, revealing the true Laura Palmer, rather than the romanticised memory everyone projects onto her. Lynch strips away the lighter, dreamier qualities of the show, instead conceiving a surreal, visceral assault that refuses to let us avert our eyes from Laura's immense suffering 

with love,

sasha

[love-from-sasha]

Stalker (1979)

dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

"you can't be happy at the expense of other's unhappiness"

Stalker is a hypnotising dystopian tale that delves into ideas of religion, morality and human desire. set in an unknown country at an unknown time, the film follows a pilgrimage undertaken by the Stalker (Aleksandr Kajdanovsky), the Writer (Anatoly Solonitsyn) and the Professor (Nikolai Grinko) into The Zone - a mysterious, abandoned area located in the midst of a post-apocalyptic wasteland where the natural laws of physics do not apply. The Zone, guarded by the government, is said to hold The Room which can grant an individual's deepest desire upon entering

the three figures are representative of conflicting philosophies. the Professor - a man of science, is decisively pragmatic, and sees knowledge not as a useful tool but rather a lethal weapon if fallen into the wrong hands. his deep-rooted skepticism of the human condition challenges the conviction that mankind is inherently good. the Writer - a man of art, is a devoted idealist. however, he has grown disillusioned by the world around him, and has seemingly lost faith in his own talent as an artist. they place all their remaining hopes in the Stalker - a man of faith, an altruist for whom the meaning of life is rooted in his desire to ensure the happiness of others by guiding them to The Room, with no interest in entering himself. it is precisely these virtues and moral conviction that both the Writer and the Professor evidently lack that make them incapable of entering The Room once they reach its threshold, being equally plagued by cynicism and terrified of a force beyond their comprehension

The Room allegedly grants one’s innermost desire, but that does not mean that it is what one believes to yearn for the most. this is illustrated when the Professor recounts the story of a former Stalker ‘Porcupine’ who had lost a brother, and entered The Room in order to bring him back to life. however, upon his return, he instead came back home to a large sum of money - meaning that, subconsciously, he longed for wealth more than the return of his dead brother. this unbearable realisation drove a guilt-ridden Porcupine to suicide soon after. much like Porcupine, the Writer and the Professor are afraid of what they may discover once their desires are manifested. for them, ignorance is bliss and far preferable to confronting their lack of integrity - even at the expense of fulfilment. The Zone then becomes, in a way, a judgment of character. there are the obvious moral dilemmas that one must confront in the Room, that can only be ascertained by embracing what you seek

"what comes true here is that which reflects the essence of your nature. it is within you. it governs you"

overall, the true essence of the film lies not so much in the destination but in the spiritual pilgrimage these three individuals undertake on their way to the Room. it possesses a poetic, magnetic quality that pulls you in, much like the Room lures in the individuals that the Stalker guides

“Stalker is a tragedy, but tragedy is not hopeless. Tragedy cleanses man. I believe that only through spiritual crisis healing begins. In this film I wanted to make some sort of complete statement: namely that human love alone is - miraculously - proof against the blunt assertion that there is no hope for the world. This is our common, and incontrovertibly positive possession - that essentially human thing that cannot be dissolved or broken down, that forms like a crystal in the soul of each of us which is all a person can count upon his existence”

with love,

sasha

[love-from-sasha]

The Fall

Albert Camus

“we are going forward, but nothing changes”

The Fall is a philosophical novel written by Albert Camus, published in 1956. it follows the story of Jean-Baptiste Clamence - a soul in turmoil. over several drunken nights in an Amsterdam bar, he regales a chance acquaintance with his story, exploring themes of innocence, imprisonment, non-existence, and truth

Jean-Baptiste Clamence claims that he once lived a good, self-satisfied life, believing himself a model citizen. in his position as judge-penitent, he embodies the human necessity to condemn - the innate desire of human beings to judge acts as the very source of false morality. he creates an illusion around himself based on self-appeasing traits, but this soon falls apart with the collision of his true self with his inflated self-image, and the final realisation of his own hypocrisy becomes painfully obvious

 

“people hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves”

awakened to the reality of both his own, and the whole of humanity’s guilt, Clamance retreats from his settled life and chooses to spend his days recounting his story in the hope that others will be awakened as he has been, and so alleviate the burden he carries. he takes to this misanthropic life with ease, declaring himself a “judge-penitent”, both condemned and condemning. the face of ‘morality’ represented by Clamence, is built around false notions of righteousness as opposed to integrity. however, the narrative props up an underlining truth, which is that this facade takes birth out of necessity to live a seemingly virtuous life in the eyes of others, leading to an inauthentic, hollow existence

in this way, the 'fall' experienced by Jean-Baptiste Clamence is not just his fall, but the fall of humanity as a whole

“let's not worry. it's too late now. it will always be too late, fortunately!”

with love,

sasha

[love-from-sasha]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

dir. Michel Gondry

"what a loss to spend that much time with someone, only to find out that she's a stranger"

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a gut-wrenchingly raw depiction of what it means to love someone

the film revolves around Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) who discovers that his former lover, Clementine Kruzcynski (Kate Winslet) has completely erased him from her memory. upon learning this, Joel consults the company responsible for this erasure, Lacuna inc, to do the same for his memories of Clementine

the narrative core takes place within Joel's memories, whilst he relives them as they are being erased. as a result, the relationship between Joel and Clementine is revealed in reverse, which makes the gradual descent into turmoil even more intense. in midst of the erasure process, however, Joel comes to the realisation that he would rather the memories of clementine be unpleasant in the context of their relationship, rather than for them to not exist at all

letting go is one of the most difficult things a person can do. we hold on to things we value as if they will cease to exist when we let go, and in that way we grieve for what is not truly dead

the film ultimately arrives to the conclusion that having a spotless mind does not bring eternal sunshine, as you may forget a past memory but you cannot forget the intrinsically linked emotions. this is explored in the subplot following Mary Svevo (Kirsten Dunst) who discovers that she had her past love affair with Dr Howard Mierzwaik (Tom Wilkinson) erased, and she arrives to that discovery through the rebirth of her love to him

the core message is that pain is what fundamentally shapes us into who we are. we can wish it away and repress it, but the thoughts and memories will always remain, no matter how hard we try

the film opens with a scene that takes places following the memory erasure. on valentines day, Joel feels the inexplicable urge to go to Montauk instead of work, and there he meets Clementine, as she too had experienced that impulse. on that cold day at the beach, they fall for each other all over again

after Joel and Clementine learn they had their memories erased when things didn’t work out, they somehow decide to try again - they know what is waiting at the end of that road and yet they choose to go through it anyway. their journey had been erased after all, and they therefore have an opportunity to re-experience it. perhaps that’s the only way they can understand the nature of their previous destination, or maybe, they share a mutual hope that there could be a different outcome

CLEMENTINE: I'm not a concept, Joel. I'm just a fucked-up girl who is looking for my own peace of mind. I'm not perfect. JOEL: I can't think of anything I don't like about you right now. CLEMENTINE: But you will. You will think of things. And I'll get bored with you and feel trapped because that's what happens with me. JOEL: Ok. CLEMENTINE: Ok.

meet me in montauk,

sasha