November 06, 1999
Pleasantville
Here I sit, with a cat on my chest. Max has apparently decided that when I'm on the computer, I'm fair game. My computer chair is a little reclined, so there's a perfect resting place between my chin and my keyboard. And that place is where Max is right now. I don't mind. He's warm and purring. He does, however, get irritated at me when I type too fast and disturb him. And as far as using the mouse goes? Forget it.
All in all, I'd say it's been a good Saturday so far. I slept in, did my housework, then goofed around all day. I watched Pleasantville and Ever After. I'd seen Ever After before. Fluff, but very fun fluff. It's a fun movie. Pleasantville was a wonderful surprise. I'd heard that it was good, but I was more impressed than I thought I'd be.
The premise is to take two modern teenagers and send them into the world of a 50s Father Knows Best-style sitcom. What happens when they start exposing the TV characters to new ideas? It was a great look at how much times have changed, and (especially) how things weren't as wonderful back then as we made them out to be. What I found most interesting was the use of color -- or lack thereof. The sitcom world is, of course, black and white. The bathroom stalls are empty (no one ever went to the bathroom back then!). The books are all blank. There are no minorities. The world goes no farther than Main Street. Until new ideas start trickling in. Slowly but surely, little things start turning up in color. Eventually, people start turning up in color. The books that were blank start to fill in, and the kids -- who had been flocking to Lovers' Lane -- start lining up at the library.
The revolution starts with the kids, the way revolutions always seem to. Soon the town is divided between those in color and those in black and white. As these two-dimensional stereotypes expand into real people, they change to color. Tension develops between the two groups -- black and white vs. color -- much like the racial tension that followed not long after the same time period. (In a moment of irony, as tensions develop, a black and white store displays a sign: "No Coloreds".)
I won't tell you how it ends, but there were some great images that are sticking with me. A repressed artist viewing color plates of great works of art for the first time, which inspires him to a frenzy of painting. A mother of two, nearly middle-aged, experiencing a sexual awakening all by herself -- the tree that bursts into flames outside her window just made me laugh and cheer at the same time.
Max is now asleep on my shoulder. I think I'm going to go die of cuteness.
Posted by Lisa at November 6, 1999 07:26 PM
