Hunting and Gathering

It has been some time since my last movie and the one today definitely left me walking out of the cinema with the ultimate feel-good sensation. Audrey Tautou almost always manage to put a smile on my face...coupled with the whimsical nature of French films, it's a perfect blend.

The feel-good part of the movie probably stems from the fact that the movie is so full of possibilities:

1. you can have a neighbour who cares about you without expecting anything in return
2. you can get past the fact that you are born out of wedlock / have a mother who complains perpetually and get on with life
3. you can start as a struggling chef and become a successful restaurant owner
4. you can turn a grouchy man into the sweetest boyfriend
5. (and the list goes on)

My steps were definitely sprightier after I walked out of the cinema and was definitely in high spirits until I got onto the bus and became a captive audience to the story of a schizophrenic woman on TV mobile.

And then I begin to wonder why are we made a captive audience and to pay for the bus fare while SBS makes extra bucks through advertising dollars from TV mobile thanks to our audienceship? (and why do bus fares increase despite $2450 per month per bus paid to SBS for advertisements on its exterior?)

It get better when I was approaching home from the bus stop. There was obviously an event going on at St Georges Road which I could hear perfectly while walking home...and the best part is that I continue to be disturbed by the din when I got home. My immediate instinct was to call the police post to put a stop to the noise and regain my right to peace, which I did. My high spirits did not return to me until the din died down 30 minutes after.

How the little things in life can easily become a dampener.

I then got back to thinking about Hunting and Gathering...why is the movie so named?

Hunting and gathering are subsistence activities and perhaps the title reflects how these characters are living on merely subsistence level in terms of human needs...there is no anticipation of something better coming along....it's simply a matter of getting along with life.

Then I did a google and found this: "Societies that rely primarily or exclusively on hunting wild animals, fishing, and gathering wild fruits, berries, nuts, and vegetables to support their diet. Until humans began to domesticate plants and animals about ten thousand years ago, all human societies were hunter-gatherers. Today, only a tiny fraction of the world’s populations support themselves in this manner, and they survive only in isolated, inhospitable areas, such as deserts, the frozen tundra, and dense rain forests"

And then the fact comes through that the four characters were not only living on subsistence means but the sense of isolation and inhospitality of the surroundings made the seemingly funny movie a even sadder undertone. The good thing is that the movie ends with a "happily ever after" kind of ending and puts a happy closure to the lives of the four characters.