Saturday 8 February 2014

From West Germany to your nightmares


Did you know that The NeverEnding Story was a West German film? Well, it was. As a child I went to see it in the cinema with my mother and we had to leave before the movie started, because I took a far more literal reading of the title than the vast majority of the movie going public. My memory of this incident is vivid. The thought process in particular. I think it came to Australian cinemas in 1985, which means I would've been three. I don't remember a lot of things from when I was about that age. I remember my 'uncle' Marius letting me destroy a cheap flashlight to show me that they don't work underwater, and I remember forgetting the sound of my own voice, which is the kind of thing I wish I didn't remember.

It was probably for the best. By the time I actually saw it a couple of years later, I came to the conclusion that it was hewn from the nightmares of the broken. The West Germans made this thing for children. I'm not saying all the West Germans were broken. Just some of them. And some of those were involved in making this film. I'm not sure that children need a really distinct concept of nothingness. Kids watching this film are either going to go, "Wow, that's not good" or they are going to incorporate a deep seeded fear of oblivion into their day to day lives. That's about what I did. Then the horse dies as a result of his crippling depression. I don't remember it very clearly. That might not be what happened, but you do get the impression that you don't need to be afraid of dragons and nagas, because oblivion and depression are where the real fear lives. This is the kind of thing that may impact your decision making process in important ways. Safeguarding against dragons is both costly and mostly pointless. Not because dragon related loss and damages are covered by most major insurance companies, because they aren't. It's just that you don't get a lot of dragon related losses and/or damages. So, anything that pushes the decision making process towards prioritising just about anything non-dragon related over anything dragons related is a good thing.

Kids are pretty useless decision makers anyway. I used to get stuck in things. It was a decision that I used to make. Decisions really. It happened frequently. There isn't even really a story there. It is just something that used to happen to me. Actually, I did it to myself. I guess there is kind of a story. Well, stories. I'm not going to tell them. Not right now. I might later. Not later today, but at another stage entirely. You might be wondering now. Maybe. Probably not though. If it is the kind of thing that you are likely to get stuck on, causing you to not pay attention to the rest of what I wrote, I guess I can say that I've been cut out of a work bench. I also got my head caught under the front seat of a car while at a drive in cinema. I used to go to the cinema a lot, so statistically something like that was bound to happen eventually.

I've been to the cinema a few times recently. On none of those occasions did I see The NeverEnding Story, which is a combination of adult decision making on both my part and the part of the people who run the screens. Instead I saw that Secret Life of Walter Mitty one. The ad convinced me. I thought I might see a movie that would make me feel like anything is possible. Not eating lava though. Not while it is still hot anyway. You might be able to eat it when it has cooled down, but I don't think that eating hot lava is possible, nor is it implied in the movie. I saw the other one that they made right after that war that made the two Germanys once too. Not recently. I saw the new one recently. The one with Ben Stiller. The other one I saw a long time ago. I kind of feel like I have a secret life. Not like his in which it actually comes to fruition and he has an adventure and he gets a cinnamon bun. I just imagine things that aren't real, and then only occasionally get a cinnamon bun. I also imagine things that are real. Well, were real. I guess that is remembering though.

3 comments :

Mrs Binfield said...

Wasn't sure who the author was until you mentioned the work bench. :)

Mrs Binfield said...

Well that name is super awkward... And I don't know how to change it..

Jacob Henwood said...

I can help you change that. Don't worry no one reads the comments for my blog.