Well Nightwalkers, February is at a close and time to move on forward and look ahead a little. As always, the housekeeping first. While there are still a few days left in February, I’ve decided not to push in one more themed week just for the sake of it. I’ve pretty much covered everything that’s been simmering in my head for now, and I’d rather move forward with intention than stretch things out. There’s plenty of space across the year to revisit these ideas from different angles, moods, or perspectives. Nothing’s lost, it’s just saved for when it can mean something.
I’ve once again updated the site’s public domain stream and I’m wrapping up Romance Month with two classics: All Night Long (1924) and Guest Wife (1945). Simple, easy viewing to close out the month with no fuss… just charm. Sometimes that’s exactly how a month should end.
This week’s theme for the anatomy of desire in cinema focused on regret and looking a little deeper at cinematic toxicity versus healthy love. Some of the questions I’ve been probing through film are: can they co-exist, and what are the contrasts?
My lens looked at some unlikely pairings, which were:
- Late Spring (1949) – A subtle, restrained story of duty and societal expectation, showing how love and obligation can pull in different directions, and how regret can linger quietly over a lifetime.
- L’Avventura (1960) – Slow, hypnotic, and unsettling, it explores emotional detachment and the gaps between desire and connection, leaving us pondering the cost of drifting apart without confrontation.
- Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999) – A haunting dive into obsession, secrecy, and sexual temptation, where desire is both a mirror and a trap, and the line between fantasy and danger is razor-thin.
- Manchester by the Sea (2016) – Raw, painful, and heart-breaking, showing how grief and loss shape desire, often leaving no room for resolution or easy redemption.
- Brooklyn (2015) – Gentle, wistful, and full of longing, it contrasts personal ambition and romantic attachment, exploring the quiet regrets of paths chosen and paths abandoned.
- The Age of Adaline (2015) – A more fantastical take on desire and consequence, where the impossibility of eternal youth highlights the emotional cost of love and the inevitability of change.
Through each film, we saw how those themes unpacked, and that there isn’t always a happy ending. We watch the characters evolve (or not), and the price that can be paid for desire. Sometimes it was subtle, sometimes it was brutal, but each story gives us a different way to consider longing, obsession, and regret, and the choices made along the way.
Looking ahead to March and beyond, yours truly is heading back to Uni, juggling some real-world writing deadlines, and finally getting my finished novel into the editing phase. With the usual ebbs and flows of health and life in general, my longform essays will be coming a bit less frequently but the film curations will keep rolling!
I have actually been inspired for my next Midweek Musings article by recently watching a YouTube video of a cast member of one of my favourite TV shows, watching it for the first time with her husband. I found it endearing and hilarious at the same time, and will unpack that very soon. Also, since so much has already been written and analysed about this show, I will avoid the general repetitive claptrap and come at it from another lens. I won’t give away which show it is just yet, but those who know me well would have guessed it by now….and for everyone else, let’s just say there might be a few surprises waiting.
Looking ahead at March, I have been thinking about exploring cinema anomalies such as unresolved narratives, genre accidents, and other tonal shifts. The films I curate will reflect that in some way. Sometimes I may leave a single film for you to ponder over, and other times it may be a duo, because you know I just love doing the cinematic contrast. And if you’re tired of pondering, then just sit with it and enjoy it or not.
A lot of the films I post, to be honest, I don’t even actually like. But at the end of the day, it’s not about how I feel about it but the journey of opening your eyes to something new, different, or overlooked. That’s the whole point.
All art is subjective.
It will either excite, disturb, frustrate, or bore you…but it will always give a response unique to the observer.
Until next time Nightwalkers!
~S
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