Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site mit-vax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!mit-vax!oaf From: oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Summary - books/movies/plays about friendship and change [125 lines] Message-ID: <4992@mit-vax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 4-Apr-85 14:59:02 EST Article-I.D.: mit-vax.4992 Posted: Thu Apr 4 14:59:02 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 7-Apr-85 04:19:28 EST Reply-To: oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold) Distribution: net Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA Lines: 118 Keywords: Movies, friendships - another new subject (now old) A while ago, in response to mention of the film "The Return of the Secaucus Seven," I asked for recommendations on films/plays/books about relationships changing with time. [The original question was as vague as the preceding sentence.] Here is a short summary of the answers I received: Names have been deleted to preserve epigraphic purity. 1. I liked "Four Friends" and "The Big Chill." 2. I think Alan Alda's The Four Seasons is a very good meditation on changing relationships and age. In particular, there's a wonderful scene between a 20-years-married couple as they listen to a pair of newlyweds going at it in the next (badly-insulated) berth. 3. Do you mean works dealing with the way specific relationships change over time, with the way people's patterns of socialization change as they age? Assuming the former, Edward Albee has several interesting plays, including "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" and "A Delicate Balance", both of which have been made into films. I suppose "On Golden Pond" might qualify, though it (and, for that matter, the Albee works) deal more with spouses and relatives than friends. Al Stewart's "Modern Times" (song) on the album by the same name. "The Big Chill" also deals with this topic. An Italian movie called "We All Loved Each Other So Much" is an excellent treatment of both (relationships among friends and spouses). "The Duellists" could be said to be about a relationship changing over time, though the relationship is not exactly friendship. 4. I'd include Scenes From a Marriage, from Bergman. 5. Two plays/movies authored by Harold Pinter: "the Collection," and "Betrayal." Both are very scary plays about communication, friendship, and trust. They also deal a lot with power in relationships. Although the portrayal of survival and passion in these plays has mostly negative overtones, they still really stretched my conception of what was possible in relationships that I had felt utterly powerless to change. The realization that I had the power to change relationships if I took risks and did apparently very strange things was critical to my own socialization. "Betrayal" is in videocassette form now (stars Ben Kingsley from Gandhi and Jeremy Irons from Brideshead Revisited, among others). "The Collection" plays occasionally on PBS and stars Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, Malcolm Mcdowell, and Helen Mirren. 6. In reply to your query about books, movies about socialization as we get older (Is that what you asked about???) Certainly Doris Lessing's novels have been concerned with aging, maturing, growth, change. "The Golden Notebook" is about changes mainly in one woman. The Martha Quest series covers changes over an even longer period from a teenager to a woman in late middle age. Tillie Olsen published a thin collection of short stories that are very moving on change from childhood to adulthood to aged death. One story about junior high school girls is really touching on socialization, differences, pulling apart. The book is called "Tell Me a Riddle," after the longest story. Collette, a French novelist, available in English translation, has written about women changing over time, changing in their work and changing in their love lives. I am thinking of "Cheri," "The Vagabond," "The Shackle." Collette is very explicit about physical change among a group of women who have known each other for twenty years in "Cheri." Marge Piercy writes about changes among a group of people in "Small Changes" and in "Braided Lives." The titles tell you, don't they? Alice Walker's latest novel, The Color Purple, derives much of its power from Walker's effort to bring people through really grim changes over a long period of time, to bring them through with spirit intact. These are all books that have served as road maps for me. Microsummary. Books: Colette: Cheri The Shackle The Vagabond Lessing: The Golden Notebook Olsen, T.: Tell Me a Riddle Piercy, M.: Braided Lives Small Changes Walker, A.: The Color Purple Movies: The Big Chill The Four Friends The Four Seasons Return of the Secaucus Seven Scenes From a Marriage (Swedish) We All Loved Each Other so Much (Italian) Plays: Albee: A Delicate Balance On Golden Pond Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Pinter: Betrayal The Collection Song: Al Stewart - Modern Times Thanks to all who responded. That should keep me busy for a week or so. -- Oded Feingold UUCP: mitvax!oaf MIT AI Lab Arpa: oaf%oz@mit-mc.ARPA 545 Tech Sq. AT&T: 617-253-8598 work Cambridge, Mass. 02139 617-371-1796 home (and answering machine)