Four things (Day 1)
Palm Sunday: One of my mom’s favorite Sundays of the church year. They sing it a lot more sedately in England.
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First Day of Passover. I’m humming my crisis song, though. “All the world’s a very narrow bridge. The main thing is not to fear.” I’m sure I’ll feel liberated … when?
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This week in “History Goes to the Movies,” we are discussing Stalingrad (dir. Joseph Vilsmaier, 1993). (The two previous weeks were “The Searchers” and “And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself.”
It’s been about four years since I used this movie in class. I forget every time what a downer it is. This thumbnail shows them laughing but that lasts for maybe ten minutes of the film.
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This week I have to finish the rest of dad’s paperwork (order a new Social Security card), buy a gross of towels and embroider them with his initials, figure out what size of bed to get and buy the linens for that, buy and equip a GrandPad, and figure out if there’s a way to move his gigantic smart TV into his new place, or if we have to get something a little smaller.
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[I’m going to do this for a while — it seems to be working for my non-Armitage blogging buddy Rick. The point is just to mention four things that are on my mind, so that I don’t completely give up blogging in the interval between now and June. Hopefully I will have some words left when this is all over. It’s inevitably going to feel a little like free association. I will also continue to blog Armitage stuff if I notice it and it strikes my fancy. I’m not done with that level of the blog by any means.]
Me + Richard Armitage 
🙂 Go on writing, for students… they need teachers in 2021
Are you a full time teacher again?
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no, I am quarter time at the moment.
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My youngest son and his friend have chosen this film “Stalingrad” to present in their oral examination ( brevet oral) of the school leaving examination of the collège in May. I was really astonished about their choice, it is a downer.
Four things in mind to write about is a good idea to tide over some time.
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It’s really disorienting to watch for me, I find — because at the beginning I do eventually want them to survive — then I feel like, no way, there’s nothing to admire about the Wehrmacht here — and then I start realizing they’re all going to die — then I feel bad about sympathizing with them, and about their deaths. It’s such a useful film for teaching, though.
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I believe that one of my boys or maybe even us have Stalingrad. I know I have seen it once and maybe more than that.
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It was part of the trend of hyper-realistic movies about war that were labeled as pacifist in intent in the late 80s and 90s.
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I know that my husband and boys have watch a few like that. My husbands all time favorite movie is Kelly’s Heroes with Clint Eastwood from 1970 and it is an anti war movie. I am pretty sure know about every line in it.
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I’m glad you’re sticking around like this!
That Hebrew song yet again brings back feelings of childhood for me. 🙂
I’ve never attempted Stalingrad…
Good luck with your dad’s paperwork and the prep for June.
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If I were going to make a list of “Top Ten Films I Would Never Expect that Esther Would Watch,” I would definitely put “Stalingrad” high on the list. There is no light in the film at all.
Thanks for the good wishes. One thing about those Israeli songs, they are short and to the point — very effective.
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Actually I would watch that if I were in the right mindset (have considered it before from interest in the historical event), but only once. I’d be more unlikely to watch The Godfather (which I still have never watched – maffia movies and I don’t go together well).
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I thought I’d never watch The Godfather — then it was on constant play for some anniversary or other of the first film, so I’ve seen most of the first two films. They really are good films as works of art. But they didn’t persuade to me watch any more gangster films, that’s for sure. I found them about as alienating as I find most westerns.
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Same here.
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I am usually in Venice on Palm Sunday, watching a wonderful procession in Piazza San Marco… not this year (or last year, alas). Maybe next year?
I somehow missed your momentous news re the house and had to go back to get the story. Wow, what a change. I have to say, though it will be traumatic, I think it’s a really brilliant opportunity to break free of a situation that wasn’t good for either you or your father. You must try not to feel guilty (I know you will of course) but you have done so much, and put up with so much, that it really is time to make some changes for your own health and sanity. I send you every good wish for the preparation, the move, and for finding somewhere congenial and convenient for you to live. Leaving the house you grew up in won’t be easy but how lovely that there will be a park bearing your mother’s name! 😘😘😘
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Next year in Jerusalem! I mean, Venice! Let’s hope.
I think you’re right that it is a big opportunity to change things. My initial impulse was that we should move into a more manageable house but December was really unpleasant and it made me think. The geriatric consultant kept telling me we’d get to some kind of equilibrium where there wouldn’t be ongoing intermittent conflict over everything, and that just was not going to happen. As our world contracted, the conflict over ever smaller things just increased, and I realized it wasn’t going to change. Dad was going to continue to fixate on stuff, and there just wasn’t any more space for me to hide.
And I do think a park is a nice legacy. That’s not a binding part of the agreement (if they run into an engineering difficulty) but it’s a current piece of the new design for the property.
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Wow, Stalingrad is a really bleak theme to think or talk about, but it still is important to be tought or at least I think so, so thanks for doing it!
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Thanks. I think it’s important, too. There are also a lot of things about war that are easier to discuss when it’s not “our” military that we’re talking about.
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I like this idea of four things. I struggle with not being able to post anything because I just don’t have enough time or mental energy to post what I would like to post. Good for you for doing this.
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Feel free to modify or otherwise use it. I stole it from someone. Somehow if I say I will just write four sentences it is a lot easier (and more comes out, anyway).
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Thanks. It might just be more the concept that I need to embrace, that I can just post some thoughts here and there.
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