Just a couple of scenes from this very successful film. We are trying to not to judge, so we will not comment...yet.
1. So what do you think so far? Like? Dislike? Why?
2. Elizabeth: what's the problem for her? Define her issue. What is she missing? What does she want?
3. And how is her traveling the world—eating often—the solution to her issue(s), her problem(s), her wants and/or needs?
4. Go for it: there's a "horror" here. What might, would, that be? And how so?
We'll see what she gets to eat and discover tomorrow. See you then!
1. Well, the sets of the film are visually appealing so that's a plus. I like that Liz is trying to abandon other idea of the relationship-based female identity (ex. that bit about how if a man did what she did there would be no comments about relationships). I'm curious as to whether or not she ends up conforming to the women-defined-by-relationships norm that is so prevalent in movies directed at females. "Love" is in the title, so I'm kind of expecting it.
ReplyDelete2. I think that Elizabeth struggles to conform to the family/marriage/relationship lifestyle because she craves constant change, and she hasn't found a partner who shares this craving. Her husband tells her that he doesn't want to go on the Aruba trip that she was excited about at the beginning of the movie. She's being told by society that women want to have steady, settled relationships and she's internalized it (she says that she hasn't really been single since she was 15), but deep down she craves a life that doesn't conform to the societal ideal. I also think that she relies too much on her surroundings for happiness. Society tells her to find happiness in a relationship, and because she doesn't know how to make herself happy, she does what her influences say (going on the trip was meant to be a break from obedience to external influences). One of the lines from the movie talked about choosing your thoughts, and I really doubt that Liz is able to do that.
3. She goes on the trip despite the advice of her peers (and society) against it. At least deep down, she knows that she has to discover what truly makes her happy. Maybe if she constantly changes her surroundings, the unchanging parts of her (if any) will be illuminated. There are traces of the idea of abandoning societal expectations for women, for example, Liz announces that she doesn't care if she gains weight and buys bigger jeans, and she is open about eating a lot at the Ashram.
4. Maybe it's Liz's lack of understanding of herself and what makes her happy. Maybe it's the societal lie that marriage and babies will make women happy, and the fact that many women internalize gender roles and struggle when their inner desires don't conform to the norms. Maybe it's Liz's inability to maintain relationships. We don't see her writing to any of the friends that she leaves behind in the US, in Italy, or in India. Maybe it's the movie's prioritization of her relationships with her ex and her boyfriend--she contacts them, but not her friends (halfway kidding).
1) So far, "Eat, Pray, Love" has done nothing to make me think of it as an especially good or bad movie. It has some entertaining parts, but it also has some not so great parts. I found the parts in Italy quite funny, and liked the section in India. At the beginning, though, I really didn't like David, and thought that it just didn't make sense for her to like him. A "hot panini?" My god.
ReplyDelete2) She wants to feel special. She doesn't feel special any more with her husband, so she seeks a divorce and jumps into a new relationship, one she hopes will make her happy. When that doesn't work, she goes first to Italy, where she eats in hopes that just the pleasure of good food will make her feel better. After this, she actually tries to approach the problem and face herself through meditation in India. This only ultimately works when she starts to think about others, showing that she needs to look outwards more. And, if the title is anything to go by, in the final step of her journey she will finally find someone who makes her feel special.
3) As I said before, she approaches this problem first through a new romance. When this fails she tries to go to Italy to solve it through "the sweetness of doing nothing." Though this is obviously enjoyable, it's not a long-term solution, so she goes to India to look inside and try to grow religiously. Finally, my guess is she finds someone to love and he helps her feel special.
4) Liz moves through several areas where there seems to be extreme poverty and doesn't really notice it. From homeless people in Rome to children on the side of the street in India. She is taking a rather extravagant trip around the world, and doesn't notice as she passes by so many who can't make the same trip, like her boyfriend. This arbitrary luck of the draw could be seen as the "horror."
1. I’ve got mixed feelings about this film so far. Elizabeth has, in my opinion, proper prerogative in going on her journey—she’s making, I think, a smart choice to spend a little time on her own and get to know herself. However, I’m not sure if I think she’s going about the journey the right way. Despite the killer apartment in Rome, something just feels a little bit too much like, well, actually I’m not sure how to define it—her journey just seems to lack the substance that I feel as though it should have.
ReplyDelete2. Elizabeth’s issue is that she’s achieved the goal: the career, the house, the man, etc., that society’s told her she needs to be happy. She’s been led to believe that all of this will make her live a lovely little life when, in fact, she realizes it leaves her fairly unfulfilled. She’s at the pinnacle, yet she only wants to jump off. She doesn’t have anything to wake up in the morning for, after the realization that her world was somewhat hollow. She wants to figure out who she is in wake of this understanding and what her resulting new purpose is.
3. Elizabeth gets to discover new things and have new experiences, and, quite honestly, the freedom that goes with making those choices. She’s spent years getting herself into the cookie cutter, now she gets to destroy it. With each bite, she’s putting off the career, removing herself further from the house, and ignoring the man. The food’s a mere vector for her newly discovered rebellion-meets-independence.
4. The horror is Elizabeth waking up in the morning realizing that her life has no real purpose. She doesn’t know who she is or what she’s living for, despite having been told for years that she was reaching the height of perfection (by attaining the magical trio).
1. I like the movie, but it isn’t something I think I’d watch it again. I think I mostly like it because I really like travel and fantasize about exploring and adventuring like Liz does. Liz as a character sort of bothers me though. On one hand, I like how complex she is and how she is non-traditional in some ways, but something about her also feels superficial. That’s not to say that her problems aren’t legitimate, because a divorce would be really heartbreaking to go through.
ReplyDelete2. Elizabeth is searching for something in a place far away that will give her life meaning, purpose, and a reason. However, she doesn’t realize that the problem is herself. She needs to look deep within herself to find the answer, as cheesy as that sounds.
3. I think anyone can gain something from traveling – they can learn more about the world and themselves. However, I don’t think that relying on external things to make you happy will ever work. You need to rely on yourself so I think a change in attitude or outlook would be the solution.
4. I think the horror is that no matter how much Liz travels or where she goes she can’t find the answer because she doesn’t want to face who she really is. I also think there’s a horror in having so much but not being satisfied and capitalizing on others to find something.
I haven't really formed a definite opinion on the movie so far. It's fine, I guess. It's mainly sad, I think, but there are a few funny parts thrown in there too. It seems like your average lifetime movie to me. Who knows, maybe I'll love it by the end.
ReplyDeleteShe wants to be able to feel things again. She wants to be able to experience love, happiness, and just live her life without being tied down by a husband that she doesn't love. She wants to live for herself and do what she wants to do with her life, and she thinks that traveling to experience life is the way to do that. She goes to Italy to eat, and India to pray. We can bet wherever she goes next will be to love. We don't know, however, who she's going to end up loving.
Traveling the world helps her to see and experience new things, and meet new people. These experiences and people help her understand her life and herself more and more until eventually she'll understand herself and what she wants for herself in life. Right now she doesn't know what she wants, which is the whole purpose of her traveling to these places anyway.
I think the horror here is the fear that life may be pointless. Elizabeth is having a sort of existential crisis, and it's scary thinking about the fact that we may be insignificant and everything we do is essentially for nothing. The thought definetly qualifies as a horror. Death is inevitable, and I think Elizabeth wants to travel and try to figure her life out for herself by using food, religion, and the people she meets/friends she makes.
1. I think it’s a cute movie. It’s a nice chick flick and it definitely has made me very hungry so far. I had never seen it before so I didn’t really know what to expect, but so far it’s pretty good. However, I don’t think it is as empowering as the director and producers had planned. I do really like seeing all the beautiful imagery of the beautiful Italian streets and skylines, and food of course. I like the soundtrack a lot too. Overall, it’s a good cute movie to watch for fun but analyzing it and looking at its messages on a critical level ruins it.
ReplyDelete2. Elizabeth’s main problem is how much she struggles to form an identity of her own. To the Italian family, she describes herself as a daughter, then a wife, and then a writer. To this, a man responds that her profession doesn’t define her. I also believe her issue with men relates to this: she can’t be independent and develop her own beliefs because she has constantly created her views based on the men she dates or marries. This goes to the extreme of her attempting to conform to how her husband believes she should behave, and later what David wants, shown when she tries meditating and going to the place of worship for the guru. This damages her into feeling that the excitement has left her life, because she relies on other people for feelings and certain things (for example, an apology) that she needs to learn to give herself. I think she wants to feel passion in her life again, and knows that she can’t get the superficial passion that she gets from a man.
3. A problem she had was with the consistency in her life. This lack of change or spontaneity caused her to feel stuck and maybe even depressed. It’s also significant that her friends are against the idea, because this shows her having her own opinion and acting for herself for the first time in the movie. She needs to do things like this that others might view as insane because she needs change and independence to find herself.
4. To me, the horror seems related to her purpose in life and her predicament of not knowing how to be happy independently. On a whim, she decides to take this incredible journey through Italy, India, and Bali because she wakes up in the morning and feels nothing. This lack of excitement in her life scares her so much, it encourages her to find her meaning and therefore true happiness. It’s her epiphany that she can’t define her identity alone, and the unnerving realization that she doesn’t know who she is and can’t make decisions on her own.
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ReplyDelete1. I think the movie’s pretty good so far. I hadn’t seen it before today, but I had always heard people talking about it being good. I like how her personality changes depending on the people she meets and the place she travels. I have a feeling that I’ll probably really like it in the end.
ReplyDelete2. She feels disconnected with her life she had in the US. When she went to Rome she was genuinely happy, but when she arrived in India, she said that she felt just as disconnected as she did when she was dealing with everything in America. Her problem is that she’s always waiting on someone else, but she is the one who should be changing to lessen the separation between her and other people. She misses getting to feel good emotions and she wants them back.
3. She travels around the world so that she can gain new experiences, but also because she wants to feel again. She wanted to feel something. When she woke up one morning with David she said that she didn’t feel anything. This connects to Kurtz in Heart of Darkness. They both want to feel like they are here for a reason. She wants all of those good feelings and she thinks that traveling around the world and meeting new people is the way she’ll get them back.
4. The horror is that Liz doesn’t fully understand why she's on the earth. Feeling, is an incredibly large part of why people live. It makes them feel special and in a way, it’s magical. We don't ever really think about feeling because we do it everyday, but when its gone it’s terrifying to try and understand anything without it. She doesn’t feel love, she wants to, but she can’t. She doesn’t feel that special purpose of being on earth. Without that feeling, you feel like you’re already dead.
1. I'm not sure how I feel about the movie yet. It is definitely not as enthralling as Apocalypse Now, but I guess it is more relatable for many people. I also appreciate that our main character is trying to break free from the stereotypes about women that she has embraced for so long. There were parts of the movie that I thought were cheesy, but there were other parts that I found very important and profound.
ReplyDelete2. I think Liz is looking for an identity for herself that can endure the “chaos” that life throws that her. She constantly looks for something outside herself she thinks is solid: a husband, a suburban home, etc. However, these things are part of the world and, therefore, part of the “chaos”. She needs to look within herself to find a solid identity that she can rely on for support.
3. She goes on the trip in order to surround herself with different cultures that do not have the same norms and barriers that her society back home has. She can explore what parts of herself her culture has been suppressing, and what parts of her self stay the same no matter where she is. From this, she can start to get a feeling of who she really is, and start to feel again.
4. The horror could be the lack of feeling that Liz feels at the beginning of the movie. I think this is closely linked to Liz’s lack of identity. These two factors lead to Liz’s existential crisis, which could also be the horror. I think, similarly to Heart of Darkness or Apocalypse Now, that there are several possible interpretations of the horror.
Yikes!! Didn't do this....
ReplyDelete1) I think it's an enjoyable film, and like I said in class, I'm happy for Elizabeth. I think it's tough to scrutinize these things the way we have been ... whoever directed eat, pray, love definitely did not put as much thought/effort into it as Coppola did.
2) This may be cheating, but I would say she's looking for a balanced life. I think she felt like she was lacking a lot of experiences in New York. I think she also needed to figure out who she was apart from the men she dated. That's where the eating and praying parts came in.
3) I think that she goes on the trip to be alone and apart from everything. I think there's a confidence and a self assurance that can only come from being entirely with yourself. For a social, extroverted person like Liz, I think this 'alone time' was very important.
4) I would say that the horror is, to quote James Franco, being unhappy to be happy together. Settling seems to be something that horrifies Liz, however through her experiences (The Indian girl, Felipe) she sees that the world isn't this simple, and that sometimes settling down with something is the right thing to do.