My former girlfriend bluevelvet599 sent me a link to this page with her fresh review about Notes From The New World. She didn't tell the whole truth, or rather she avoided certain facts that I think could be of value for the film buffs. The truth is that right after the screening in the Corinthian-Peloponnesian film festival I was very angry with this film and hated it very much. Being myself an artist of partially Russian heritage and a Dostoevsky admirer I felt that Notes From The New World is a profanation of his writings and his philosophy
There's even a scene where the heroine, a former Russian actress who became a high class call girl in Los Angeles while being drunk, nicknames the great writer "an angry old testament prophet" and demonstratively destroys his portrait in a theater lobby
True she was nervous and afraid of the Russian mafia killers who were after her
But why express her feelings (or rather the feelings of the writer/director of the movie) and in a so nasty way?!...On the contrary, bluevelvet599 had an entirely different opinion than mine. She claimed that I'm a conservative, a typical "old European classicist" (or something of this nature – which actually in a certain way is correct and was one of the reasons for us coming to Athens) who prefers the "old world" to the "new world" and don't see, or rather feel the whole picture, the deepest meaning of the film's values (she calls them now in her review "the absurdity and pleasure of our existence")
I told her that she has no right to defend the film without even reading Notes From The Underground (the book that the movie claimed is its source for the adaptation). Honestly, I doubt that at the time we visited Athens, being a typical representative of the computers/I-Pod based generation, she read any of Dostoevsky's books
In short, we had a fight. I angrily left the room in the hotel and had a long walk in the sleepy Corinth. I do recall that there were a great number of wandering homeless dogs in the nighty streets of the city. Some of them apparently wanted to befriend me, followed me and strangely enough managed to calm me
I then bought a couple of hamburgers in a fast food joint for the new friends and returned to my hotel.
Using the computer in the lobby I found the site of Notes From The New World and watched the trailers and some related videos displayed there. Well,although I don't think that the trailers faithfully represent the film, rather they represent a similar sensitivity
But then something happened to me
I suddenly UNDERSTOOD that I
LOVE the film
I do recall that something similar happened to me after the screening of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
First I hated the film very much and then after about a year happened to watch the film on TV again and – using the biblical terms "saw the heavenly light and was converted from Saul to Paul"
or if you wish (using the expression of bluevelvet599) I underwent a transformation from Mr. Hyde to Dr. Jekyll
All in all, as far as the depth of feeling is concerned, Notes From The NewWorld is one of the most truthful adaptation/transformation/conversions of the inner values of the greatest book of the world cultural heritage I've ever seen. Really it's great to be alive! I would suggest to whoever isn't afraid of the Truth in regard to "the absurdity and pleasure of our existence" – go and watch this film whenever available. Back in the hotel in Corinth - I cut a couple of flowers in the inner garden of the hotel (nobody've seen this) and went back to our room. After I'll place this review I intend to give bluevelvet599 a call. Let's see
