Member-only story
Temporal and geographical alteration are forbidden.
This takes place here and now.
Every once in a while, I stumble across something that reminds me what art should be. That I want something real. In my life. In the beautiful things I consume. All around me. Susanne Bier’s phenomenal Open Hearts was such a reminder of what’s real. From the very first shots, it’s just brimming with this wonderful, acute sense of reality. No pretense, just this.
The story’s basically about two couples where the woman from one runs over the man from the other. While the driver’s husband’s offering to help and console the victim’s girlfriend, the two fall in love, which kicks up quite a whirlwind for them both. I loved it because although it falls into a fairly predictable predicament — the man, Niels, is forced to choose between his family and the mistress he falls desperately in love with — none of it is forced or feels artificial in the slightest.
It got me thinking and somehow had me circling back to an idea that’s been on my mind all day — that no matter how you try to alienate and manufacture reality, it’s all only just here. This is all we have. And just like that, art ties into life and vice-versa, the way it should be.
The here and now, that’s your life. And isn’t that just fantastic and frightful, both at once? I’m a big…
