Tuesday, July 27, 2010

I gamed abit and paused the movie 1900 for awhile. Now on resuming, it seems this talent 1900 saw a girl one day on the ship, and played the most romantic, tear-jerking piece of music ever while looking at her. He was in love. He tried to reach her. He went to the women's bunk to look at her, admiring her, and leant down for a kiss. He was just like a little boy, inexperienced, shy, fearful; that's when love's the most interesting and adventurous. They had to part, and the only thing she gave him was her address. Finally, 1900 decided to leave the ship in search of her. When his best friend said goodbye, this sentence hit me: "How many people have I seen saying goodbye without giving a damn? But when I said goodbye to 1900, it was a real blow. We laughed, we kept saying see you soon, but inside we both knew we'd never see each other again." Sigh... damn sad sia... people all just made use of him to get beautiful music and sell it to earn money. He needed to get off that superficial ship! Departures are always sad... we lapse into denial that this isn't the last time we'll be seeing each other, but what's the reality?

Another sentence that caught me came when 1900 was almost about to step on land, but he didn't. He paused and surveyed the mechanization of the city, the pollution clouds, and went back onto the ship: "He was strange for a long time after that. He wouldn't talk to anyone. He preferred to keep it to himself for days and days. He seemed taken by very personal matters." This, reminds me of her... especially when the narrator continues to tell us that one day 1900 suddenly was all cheerful again and thanked him for the cloak, saying "I'm much better now, I'm done with all that". The next scene shows 1900 back to playing the piano passionately, as if nothing had happened before. What a bizzare fellow! He seems so in touch with the finer side of human nature that he's all innocent and pure, not caught up by rules or war or arguments. However, he's always silent, emo, pensive and eccentric :/ Around 15minutes before the end of the movie, 1900 said this about the city: "I just couldn't see an end to it." He refused to get famous by spreading his music around because firstly, he believes his music goes where he goes. Secondly, he thinks fame and fortune only brings out the negative side in people. He elaborates this at 1.47 of the movie: "It's not what I saw Max... it's what I didn't see... With all that sprawling city there was everything except an end."

Next is an inspiring long talk which tells us that we must believe in ourselves and not be narrow minded: "There are only 88 keys on a piano...They are not infinite. You are infinite. And on those keys the music that you can make is infinite. That I can live by.... How do you even choose one woman... one house... all that world weighing down on you, you don't even know where it comes to an end... I was born on this ship, and the world passed me by 2000 people at a time. I played out a happiness but on a piano that was not infinite. I learned to live that way. Land? Land is a ship too big for me. Is a woman too beautiful for me... at best, I can step off my life. After all I don't exist for anyone, with you as an exception. You're the only one who knows I'm here." At this point Max is breaking down in tears coz 1900 won't get off the ship, and will perish because the ship is going to be destroyed and blown up. The next shot starts with a bottom-up view of 1900 standing tall, then max walks in, and they embrace. I think the purpose of this is to show how they triumph over the world... how great the two of them are such that the everyone must look up to them. 1900 played a song on an imaginary piano before the ship blew up. The last lines that were said by the shop owner that Max was telling his story to were: "a good story's worth more than an old trumpet." This is an amazingly moving and meaningful movie!! One of the above phrases brings a thought to my mind: Sometimes it's not what people do, but what they don't do, that's worrying.

Well then!! I have a good story too! But I won't tell it to you bleah :P