cinSav hits a milestone!

"What's that?" 

Tomasz has been bringing arthouse films to us for two decades now! 

He wasn't sure of the exact date that he began, but he remembers it being around St. Patrick's Day.

That's him, the standing, white-haired gent at the head of the long table.

"Very nice! And where was the celebration?"

Appropriately enough, it was at Repeal 33, just a couple of blocks from SavCultArtsCenter.

"That's an appropriate inside joke, given the time of year and this crowd!"

For sure. Barbara and I walked down there with Kal, but he didn't stay. 

He's not much for spending money at bars or restaurants and this place was both.

"Looks like a pretty large group!"

We were at a table for 20! See the smiling redhead with the guy in the red sweater? Those are Axelle and Jordan. She just had her 48th birthday.

"Oh, yeah, she's the French artist that's really taking off."

Correct! Continuing clockwise, that's Ivy and Christine, with Ora and Joe capping off the end.

I was easy to spot, as I seem to be one of the few women with long hair these days. You can just barely see the top of Barbara's purple-tinged hair behind the woman in the olive top.

I didn't know the four at our end of the table, but we had a lively discussion not only about tonight's film, but of our favorites from years past.

We also enjoyed some mighty tasty - and expensive! - gourmet foodstuffs.

I had the Crispy Brussels Sprouts, made with chili-lime sauce and pickled carrots - wow!

That was a thirteen-dollar appetizer that I had as a meal.

"Yeah, that's definitely not in the budget."

Hey, when treated as a meal, it's actually comparable to prices elsewhere. All those higher wages for restaurant personnel, and for raw food, has naturally brought up menu prices. It is what it is.

"True that. So, you said there was a movie, too?"

I did say that. And let me tell you this: I had a considerably different perspective on it than did most of the viewers.

"Close" was a 2022 Belgium film that's been nominated for an Oscar. 

It dealt with middle-school kids, 7th graders, in particular two boys named Léo and Rémi. They have a very tight bond of friendship over the summer. 

Then school begins and they start getting teased about being gay because they have such an obviously tight friendship. 

 One of the boys backs out of the friendship, getting more involved with other activities at school, all without explaining why he has become so cold toward his one-time friend. 

That left-out friend ends up committing suicide.

"Oh, no! How did he kill himself?"

To the film's credit, that wasn't discussed. 

In fact, to the film's credit, hardly any discussion was made about the situation, just as happens in real life. 

We hear the silence, we hear the misplaced blame and the unneeded guilt. We see the other friend putting himself in harm's way on the hockey court, trying to get hurt so he will feel something and cry. Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt", and the music video he made for it, cued up on my jukebox.

Ora asked me how I felt about the film and I said it was "very truthful." Then I told her what I just wrote about the silence and guilt and blame, and she agreed with me.

She and her husband had a friend who committed suicide a month ago; they went to his memorial earlier this week. I was the only other person who had known people who took their lives, and I've had four that were family or friends who did so - two by alcohol, two by gunshot. Ora thought she would like to recommend the film to others, but didn't know who. I suggested school counselors.

"Wow."

Truthful, right? 

Most of the conversation was much lighter. We mostly talked about the movie earlier in the month, as well as some from four or five years back. 

When Tomasz made his way to our end to speak with us, I brought up the French dark comedy that featured a detective in love with a married woman whose husband was a bank robber, so they were planning to kill him and take the money and run off together, but things went awry. Tomasz didn't recall it at all! 

Then again, by his own tally, he brings us about twenty movies a year, so I was asking about one out of roughly 400, most likely shown at Muse Arts Warehouse, so that's been maybe close to a decade back.

"Hahahaha! Why not just ask what he had for breakfast that morning!"

For real! 

What a lovely evening it's been... even with such a serious movie.

Perhaps because of such a serious movie, even, that got us all talking about the topic, and then reminiscing about favorites.

How wonderful to have had a JavaFlicks-style evening!

And tomorrow promises to be even lovelier!

(smile!)