Kelly Reichardt was featured in our "Free Bitch Cinema" film series a few weeks ago with her film "Wendy & Lucy". She also directed "Old Joy" which I mentioned in the previous post. She discusses both below, which helps explain some of the value I found in "Old Joy".
WIGON: The process of turning the political into the personal is so interesting. I thought it was fantastic how, in Old Joy, the two characters seemed to represent different factions of the left today. Will Oldham is the faction that has its heart in the right place, is idealistic, but lacks the pragmatism to actually get anything done; and Daniel London’s character represents the more moderate side, practical, able to get things done, but he’s kind of forgotten the idealism, why he’s there to begin with.
REICHARDT: I wasn’t even really thinking of it like that, so that’s interesting.
WIGON: Do you see that?
REICHARDT: Yeah, totally. It does focus on the infighting within the Democratic party – that’s why we had Air America, which is just a bunch of squabbling Democrats who are so ineffective, and they’re just squabbling and petty. But I thought of the woods, and them getting lost, as the loss of liberalism. At that time, it was a question of alternative lifestyles – where does someone like Kurt, or someone like Wendy, fit in, amongst “real Americans?” If they’re not real Americans, who are they? Are they of any value to anyone?
This was from '05/'06, referring to squabbling and ineffective Democrats. Not much has changed, but that is besides the point.
I very much identified with the character of Mark, who is married and starting a family, cares about putting his ideas into practice, but is super stressed - which makes him awkward and defensive around his old friend Kurt (with whom he used to roam and wander) who is intentionally avoiding such commitments and praxis, because he is not willing to sacrifice his certain freedoms. Kurt made me awkward, anxious, defensive - in very indirect and direct ways. However, Kurt eventually becomes a kind of healer in the film, which overtly revealed my yearning for such.
It's weird, because it's easy to write off the Kurts, or the starving artists, or the monks, the nuns, and other wilderness types - because they aren't "involved". But they are needed. They do have something to give - something we usually think we can buy, or that we deserve, like a vacation, or a new car, or some upgrade or another. The Kurts have something spiritual for us, whatever that may be. For me (and my wife too), it exposed the need for retreat, for rest, for unscheduled time...
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