I am Love and Solaris response post

 This week we watched I am love and Solaris.

 Reha's character and relationship with Chris rings true to what we have been discussing in class thus far. she said in the movie "my voice sounds the way it does because that’s how you remember it to be and I want to commit suicide because that’s how you remember me" the audience has no idea what Reha was like- they couldn’t even tell if how she looks is truth, or if that too is part of the illusion. Chris cannot undo his perceptions, like what Lancan said in the mirror stage, we cannot go back to knowing what life was like before the illusion. Chris impression of Reha even after she committed suicide, is still positive he remains in love with her despite the fact she got an abortion without talking to him about it, and she was drifting from him.  in the additive model of impression formation in psychology there is a theory that our impressions are based on simple characteristics that we add together and that equals a impression. in this theory  you can add a negative character trait and it still leads to a  more positive impression because the positive traits weighed more heavily. why do we do this, why do we still maintain positive impressions of those we love even when they have hurt us, even when we know that our love is an illusion. We cling so desperately to something uncertain. Desire causes physical arousal, our hearts start beating faster, butterflies in your stomach (the blood in our stomach rushes to our heart in order to pump more blood and prepare for an adrenaline rush), sweating, heavier breathing. we begin to feel what it’s like to be alive. When the repetition of life gets to us all we desire is to feel alive, like there is something to live for, and at times to affirm that we still contain life. Chris was living his life day by day knowing exactly how it would begin and end, being a passive participant. Then he gets called to something extraordinary, it reawakens him. he loves the feeling so much he dies for desire. but on the other hand the physical arousal we feel is similar to the experience of fight or flight. When we're afraid we have a choice to run or to stay and fight. I find that ironic because in love and desire your presented with the same choice, you stay and surrender to desire or you run away, when you run the desire follows you and never really goes away, unlike predators in the wild desire doesn’t die. I think that’s why Chris at first rejects Reha but then he realizes it will follow him weather in a physical sense or in his dreams. When you stay you’re always fighting, trying to maintain the illusion.

I am Love is a beautiful movie, and found many ways to express desire and love in its many forms, but the part of the movie that  remains vivid in my mind is the section when Emma and Antonio make love in the garden. This is a recurrent theme in most of the films and book we have reviewed. Gardens symbolize nature and innocence- something untouched. In the film there are clips of insects ravaging the flowers much like Antonio was doing to emma. Emma was content in her life before never really questioning it. But after this garden scene she is reminded what it is to be primal. So there is a contrast between what the garden represents and what occurs in the garden. she later experiences tragedy and is left with the choice to stay in a life she now knows she cant stand to live in or flee with her lover and have a chance to experience desire with all her senses.   

After watching both of these movies I sit here and wonder who is worst off; those who run from desire or those who stay to fight. Personally I am the one who runs away, I recently come to the realization that running seems to cause just as much pain as staying. Those who run become even more trapped in an illusion because you never achieve that moment of reality that occurs after physically indulging in desire, you constantly wonder and desire what that will feel like. So in some ways I applauded these characters for taking the incentive and making that choice to do something kind of crazy.These characters knew a kind of truth that is often surpassed, desire isn't something you can not contain, and it knows your weakness and will exploit it. Sometimes it means rebelling against social norms in order to be happy.