"Alice" Woody Allen
I had not seen this movie "Alice" with Mia Farroh. A Woody Allen movie done in the 80's. Mia is married to a very hadnsome man and lives a very posh, rich life. The apartment that she lives in is abcolutely decandent and beautiful in every way. She is seemingly living a wonderful life except that she is falling for another man she met at her daughters prep school. As are some relationships with lots of money involved, she feels incomplete other than to have everything material she needs and wants. At one point she goes to China town to see an acupuncturist and he tells her that her issue is not her back but rather her mind. To her dismay he hypnotizes her and she talks about the things she has surpressed for a while, one of which is that she loves him but that she is just a wife and that she wants to be more than a wife and mother.
Alice reminds me of many of the women I know who live primarily to be a loyal partner, mother and housekeeper. The women who leave their own dreams to live someone elses dreams or at the very least not work on their own. They are a group of ladies married to a rich guy or not that worry more about thier children and their spouse than themselves. Sooner than later they leave their dreams and sooner or later they become resentful about it and who can blame them. Living ones life for someone else is what too many people consider having a loving relationship. They forget about their own desires and they get tangled in every other person's dreams in order to take the focus off of themselves.
Later Mia goes to the Valentino store and the clerk offers her water. She takes some herbs that the acupunturist gives her, stirs it in with her finger and leaves to go pick her daughter up at school. She sees the man she is attracted to and seduces him, suddenly becoming a person that she is not normally. Assertive and direct she offers to have a date with him specifying every detial about the time and place. He was responsive and agreed to everything. She tells her best friend about the incident who already heard of the handsome man and she encourages her to pursue him. Her life at home has become so mundane that she needs to find another man who might see her for who she is or just see her, unlike her husband.
Again a reenactment of the life of a woman who is not fulfilled in relationship so they look elsewhere. Not all women do that but for some there is this urge to venture out. Unlike men they feel guilty about it. hey look elsewhere because to the man they are with they are invisible. THey long to be seen by someone who is capable of seeing them and yet they don't realize that being seen by their husband shouldn't matter as much as it does. Living their own life is actually more meaningful. If more women became more involved in their own life and their own interests they would be happier in the long run, not that they could make their partner into anything he is not but that they can only change their own interest level and level of interesting activities.
In the movie she becomes more and more dependent on her guru who continues to prescribe herbs for her to drink. In the meantime she has this dream to be a writer so she goes to a friend who is in the publishing business. Later that night she makes the herb inside a cup that smokes up like a huge baloon of dark soot. In the middle of the night she gets up and she hears a man's voice saying romatic things to her, someone who had passed. She has this lengthy conversation with him. Eventually they begin to talk about the guy she is attracted to and that he reminds her of him, the man in her past, the man who is now dead. In the interim of it all her husband gets up and walks her back to bed after making commentary about how strange she was behaving and how she needed some rest. The next day she sees the parent at the school that she has a crush on. He asks her out the next day. In the meantime the man who died is coaching her to have the affair and accept the feelings of attraction.
When women dream of being with someone else it is obvious that there a lot missing in their home life. When she feels romantic feelings for someone else it means that there needs to be more in her life for her to feel alive and feel joy. We think it so unusual that men fall in love with other women or find their relationship so boring as to want to be with someone else but we rarely understand a woman who wants the same thing for the same reason. Women unlike men seem to stick to a marriage even if it is not working or they don't feel complete inside the relationship. Women stay in realtionships that don't work for way too long is what I contend. This movie brings forward what most of us don't like to talk about.
Alice reminds me of many of the women I know who live primarily to be a loyal partner, mother and housekeeper. The women who leave their own dreams to live someone elses dreams or at the very least not work on their own. They are a group of ladies married to a rich guy or not that worry more about thier children and their spouse than themselves. Sooner than later they leave their dreams and sooner or later they become resentful about it and who can blame them. Living ones life for someone else is what too many people consider having a loving relationship. They forget about their own desires and they get tangled in every other person's dreams in order to take the focus off of themselves.
Later Mia goes to the Valentino store and the clerk offers her water. She takes some herbs that the acupunturist gives her, stirs it in with her finger and leaves to go pick her daughter up at school. She sees the man she is attracted to and seduces him, suddenly becoming a person that she is not normally. Assertive and direct she offers to have a date with him specifying every detial about the time and place. He was responsive and agreed to everything. She tells her best friend about the incident who already heard of the handsome man and she encourages her to pursue him. Her life at home has become so mundane that she needs to find another man who might see her for who she is or just see her, unlike her husband.
Again a reenactment of the life of a woman who is not fulfilled in relationship so they look elsewhere. Not all women do that but for some there is this urge to venture out. Unlike men they feel guilty about it. hey look elsewhere because to the man they are with they are invisible. THey long to be seen by someone who is capable of seeing them and yet they don't realize that being seen by their husband shouldn't matter as much as it does. Living their own life is actually more meaningful. If more women became more involved in their own life and their own interests they would be happier in the long run, not that they could make their partner into anything he is not but that they can only change their own interest level and level of interesting activities.
In the movie she becomes more and more dependent on her guru who continues to prescribe herbs for her to drink. In the meantime she has this dream to be a writer so she goes to a friend who is in the publishing business. Later that night she makes the herb inside a cup that smokes up like a huge baloon of dark soot. In the middle of the night she gets up and she hears a man's voice saying romatic things to her, someone who had passed. She has this lengthy conversation with him. Eventually they begin to talk about the guy she is attracted to and that he reminds her of him, the man in her past, the man who is now dead. In the interim of it all her husband gets up and walks her back to bed after making commentary about how strange she was behaving and how she needed some rest. The next day she sees the parent at the school that she has a crush on. He asks her out the next day. In the meantime the man who died is coaching her to have the affair and accept the feelings of attraction.
When women dream of being with someone else it is obvious that there a lot missing in their home life. When she feels romantic feelings for someone else it means that there needs to be more in her life for her to feel alive and feel joy. We think it so unusual that men fall in love with other women or find their relationship so boring as to want to be with someone else but we rarely understand a woman who wants the same thing for the same reason. Women unlike men seem to stick to a marriage even if it is not working or they don't feel complete inside the relationship. Women stay in realtionships that don't work for way too long is what I contend. This movie brings forward what most of us don't like to talk about.
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