About boxes and the movie *the talented Mr. Ripley*
I was thinking about sexuality and categories. I don’t want to make it political. I want to talk about art.
I get more and more interested in things that are not clearly and strictly categorized. Feelings which just exist, behavior that people show, loose thoughts in brains.
I am inspired by a review about the movie the talented Mr. Ripley that I listened to the other day. (I am sorry that I cannot reference this right now.) I found it so interesting because the author of the book the movie is based on… how do I say that… apparently, she wasn’t using categories for herself, or at least not publicly, or at least not when she was younger. It was a different time. And you can see that reflecting in her book/in the movie so beautifully. It’s so hard to explain what I mean, I don’t want to make it so long here… argh.
I know the movie for such a long time already and always really loved it, but I never consciously realized that what makes it so good is that it’s so subtle, I mean the gay or whatever story of the main character. You feel with him, but you might not even understand what that is. I think it actually flew right over my head when I first watched it (as a teen I guess?). You could claim that the MC himself also doesn’t really understand his feelings.
It’s so smart. A good example for where ambiguity is used so well in a movie, at least in my opinion. The movie differs with the person who watches it. It changes with time. You rewatch it and see different things. It’s so subjective. So beautiful.
What brings me to this: I want to write like that. In my stories I also write about lesbian or queer or something things, and it makes me even more convinced that I don’t want to explain too much. I don't want to put things into boxes. I just want to tell a story and keep the right things unclear.
I want to be subtle; I want to give space for interpretation and personal projections. I think the uncertainty of things makes them rich of… opportunity, maybe? For being relatable? For beauty? Something like that.