The Greatest Blog Entry Of All Time

So The Kid In The Front Row typed up a nice post posing five questions pertaining to movies and I liked it so much I thought I would try to answer them in a post here on Cinema Romantico and as question #5 was "When you think of your love for movies, what one image comes to mind?" I knew immediately what the answer was and Googled "Jodhi May Last of the Mohicans" to find an image from the scene at the end where she commits beautiful suicide by throwing herself off the cliff - a moment that 1.) Made me cry 2.) Made me want to write movies and 3.) Made me once author a piece titled Why The Tale Of Alice Munro Is A Metaphor For Life, in which I understatedly declare it to be "the most beautiful moment in the history of art." Which, of course, it is.

ANYWAY, the first result that flashed up was a post at the movie blog Victim of the Time written way back in July 2007 titled "The Performance That Changed My Life" - namely, Jodhi May as Alice Munro in "Last of the Mohicans." (Note: He made this post exactly 365 days before I launched a week long celebration of "Last of the Mohicans" on my blog. Which is to say, how the f--- does anyone not believe in a higher power?)

The perfect movie shot.

Seriously? I think I stared at the screen, mouth agape, for about four-and-a-half minutes. Naturally, the author and I don't completely agree, which is to say he does not apparently care for Michael Mann's 1992 film in any other way, shape or form, which is fine, while it is, as we all know, my #1 favorite movie of all time, forever and ever. Nevertheless......he writes about how this particular performance of May's as Alice, the younger sister of Madeleine Stowe's Cora, is The Performance That Changed (His) Life primarily because of that moment right there at the end when she commits beautiful suicide by throwing herself off the cliff. He elegantly writes:

"Basic description does not do this moment justice. Perhaps what I'm going to say is hyperbolic, but it is also the truth. Have you ever experienced a moment you can't explain, where something affects you in a way you never expected, in a way it will probably never affect someone else, in a way it may not ever affect you yourself again? This is what happened to me here. The look that Jodhi May gave to the camera in that tiny second of film startled me, made my heart stop, made me weep- and I didn't understand why. There had been no build up, no groundwork- it was simply a sudden, unexpected moment. It was overwhelming in its despair, its sorrow, its harrowing hopelessness. I've never had a moment like it since. I've never watched the film again for fear that I would lose the remnants of the feeling."

......sorry, my mouth was agape again. (......getting it together......) While I vehemently disagree about there being no build up and no groundwork, well, everything else resonates in a way that stuns me beyond all inane metaphors. How the is this possible? How can someone else write "what I'm going to say is hyperbolic, but it is also the truth"? That's my line!!!!! I was going to leave Victim of the Time a glowing, raving comment but he went on to write: "I doubt that you, if you watched it, would feel the same, for I can only feel that it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment. It is MY moment. Is there anyone else in the world who felt so strongly, from feeling so disinterested, in that piece of film? I doubt it, and, more importantly, I hope not."

I mean, I can't leave a comment! Right? How would this dude feel if he knew I knew took a pilgrimage (spelling courtesy of my friend Ashley) to North Carolina to see the sites where this movie was filmed, specifically saving the spot where Jodhi May gives the look he writes about for last and sat there for, like, two hours?

Then again, I wasn't disinterested in the rest of the movie. But still. I don't want to risk it and spoil it for him. So I'm not leaving a comment. And even though I'm linking to him (because it wouldn't be right, obviously, if I didn't) I hope he never reads this. But I would also hope that he would understand why I had to write this and link to his post. It's just, you know, weird when you truly find a kindred spirit, someone who gets it.

Do you think he's also obsessed with Kylie Minogue? No, no, no, no, no! Never mind! I don't want to know!