I know I have experienced being in a relationship where you can compare it to a movie. If you break down the basics of a movie, you would assume perhaps this is not the “perfect” relationship at all. If your relationship reminds you of a movie it is because you remember it like one, only savoring the exact frames the editor in this case, your mind, wanted you to see. You pass the time in between with cuts, removing anything that is the everyday. You create a moving slideshow of a period of time, and with the proper filters on them it gives it that epic film feel.
With the right color correction and depth of field you are going to miss the world around anything that may seem imperfect. Instead of the feeling of bliss when your relationship turns into a movie, it should be a warning that you are only watching the highlights of the complete picture. I mean that is what a movie is comprised of, the perfect moments, good and bad, dramatized for the passing of time. Emotion is only needed for portrayal of each character that is part of the movie, not the world around it. You can see this in movies like Godzilla, where we either hate or empathize with the monster, yet the movie ignores the fact that millions of people are dying below the big battle in the sky.
A movie is also easy to critique or judge, but in our real lives, ever decision, every day, takes time and examination. Real life is a balance of your own opinions mixed with feelings, that can be totally dependent on the sleep you had the night before, what you ate, and the feelings of the people around you. A film doesn’t embody this. Sure, life can often fall into a script like approach, revision after revision, but the ability for improv stands in the way of your short films of life turning into a feature film.
A movie is stuck inside it’s own bubble of self, it has it’s own script, that eventually will end, editing techniques to tell that script, and a limited cast and crew to run it. The world a place where your own perfection cannot exist because the the imperfections are part of what make the perfect in the days you spend living. Even this, as I write is influenced by the world put forth around me, intentional or with humility.
So tonight I look forward to thinking back upon the old relationships I had where I thought things did feel like a movie, but now realizing, I am glad most movies don’t have a sequel. If I only have fragments of time and then years skipped in between due to the time constraints of an audience watching the film, the need to circulate new patrons through the theatre to turn a profit, and summarizing exposition so not to confuse the people watching, I would not be giving myself enough life, enough care, enough introspection. My mind will then be unable to mature and reflect, due to the curtain closing, and the credits rolling. I want to be able to see the unspoken sequel to my life and relationships. The time that happens between the cuts. The time that has yet to occurred due even if there is a happy ending. That ending, is superficial, because love is not the end, love is the beginning.
I refuse to skip these unwritten chapters in my life, because there is no rewind, but there is definitely a fade to black.
