where the wild things are | The Importance of Being Idle

In Art History, our prof let us watch a movie. It was “The Artist” against “Mona Lisa Smile” and the former, thankfully, won. I knew about the movie and I expected it to be in black and white and to be a silent one. I was a little surprised that my blockmates weren’t familiar with it. They didn’t even know it won an award and that it came out recently. But then some people just aren’t in to movies. Most of them got bored in the middle and though some parts of it were a little dragging, I certainly enjoyed watching it. Though I’ve watched many black and white films, I’ve never watched a silent one. I suppose that’s what the movie is trying to tell us, that even silent movies can be as much fun as ‘talkies’.

It’s the ending that gets to me. For a long time, George Valentin struggles with trying to keep talkies from taking over the cinema but fails due to Peppy Miller’s rise to success. Valentin eventually gives in and allows Miller to have him as the co-actor in the talkie “Sparkle of Love”. Now while Valentin looked pretty happy in the end, I felt a little depressed by what I saw. Valentin was a very passionate artist and a good one, too, but even though his acting skills were great he still had to give in to the new form. The movie tells the truth that all artists have to sell out at some point if you want to be a success. Not just artists, though. Everyone has to sell out. And many people will deny it. Sometimes you might not even be aware that you sold your a part of your soul for a quick buck. But it still happens in the end.

Now, quite unrelated to the above, here are four drawings of people I didn’t expect to draw.