"A thin line separates love from hate, success from
failure, life from death, a line as difficult to walk as a razor’s edge."
-- W. Somerset Maugham.
I'd also add, reality from illusion. What are the stories we
tell ourselves? How much of what we believe is real and how much is based on
molding our thoughts and feelings to a scenario of our own making? As the
characters traverse the mountainside, they're traversing this thin line by
throwing out ideas, holding onto some and rejecting others, because they either
don't fit, or they hit too close to home.
Both of these journeys take maps; one is a chart of the
region and the other is a script, full of the past and present blending
together, creating a fertile field of self reflection. I like maps. I want a map
of sorts, to sort out what is going on in this movie. I'm going to take
Valentine's arm as my map. There are three dominant tattoos and they may have
some insights into the story.
The eye from the painting Guernica: Some say the eye
represents the sun, others, interrogation. Picasso himself said it wasn't up to
the artist to define the symbols, but for the public to use their own
understanding. So if I were to try and look at it through Valentine, I might
see it as representing her as the observer, seeing all and interpreting what is
paraded before her. Maria dismissed her impressions as too simplistic, but
sometimes greater truths are very simple and unfortunately for Maria, biting.
Three fishes from a David Foster speech: "There are
these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish
swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, 'Morning, boys, how's the
water?' And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of
them looks over at the other and goes, 'What the hell is water?'" Foster
goes on to say, "The immediate point of the fish story is that the most
obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the
hardest to see and talk about." He continues on explaining, how often what
we think is certain, turns out to be completely wrong. I know this is the case,
more often than I'm comfortable with. Yentl had it right. "The more I
learn, the more I realize the less I know." As the personal assistant,
Valentine is constantly having to negotiate the "waters" and
accommodate Maria's viewpoint. For a long time, she is willing to be told she's
wrong and is open to learning. Maybe too long. Her ability to consider other
truths and her desire to be with Maria, keeps her in a less than ideal
relationship and it takes its toll.
A smile at the foot of a ladder: This is also a title to a
fable written by Henry Miller, who's aim was to write truth, the way he sees
it. About the main character he said, "[he is] unique in that he came from
the blue. But what is this blue which surrounds and envelopes us if not reality
itself? . . . We have only to open our eyes and hearts, to become one with that
which is." I like to think of Valentine hiking, while working through all
that she has gone through with Maria and coming to the realization that her own
instincts are right and should be honored." That blue sky and the clear
air awakens her to what she must do.
