1. When we bought our television and Blu-ray player, I was very happy with the prospect of playing movies again that are not available on streaming services. When I taught at LCC, I developed a particularly strong admiration for movies from the Middle East -- Iran and Israel in particular -- and now I can watch such movies again.
Today I watched The Salesman, an Iranian movie written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, and winner of the 2017 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Its story centers around a married couple, Eman, a school teacher, and Rana, his wife. They are amateur actors currently working on a production of Death of a Salesman. Their residence in Tehran is cracking and about to collapse. They evacuate their flat and find another. Eventually they learn that the last tenant was a prostitute who still has her possessions stored in one room in the flat. Soon after they move in, one of the prostitute's clients, not knowing the prostitute moved, comes into the flat and assaults Rana. Eman becomes obsessed with finding the assailant. The movie then goes back and forth between the production of Death of a Salesman and Eman's efforts to find the man who assaulted his wife.
The movie explores the complicated and complex impact of this assault on Rana and Eman, especially the conflicts it engenders in their marriage. It becomes an intimate examination of humiliation, shame, and revenge, and in its portrayal of humiliation, the movie parallels a central aspect of the story of Willy Loman.
The movie unnerved me. It threw me into conflicts I feel regarding shame and mercy and retaliation. I experienced my sympathies shifting from character to character as the story unfolded, not really knowing for sure what I thought Eman should do, but never wavering in feeling Rana's disorientation, violation, and anger. It's a mature, complex movie, unearthing conflicts in Rana and Eman's marriage otherwise peaceful relationship that likely would have stayed buried had Rana not been attacked.
2. I loved the food at tonight's family dinner, held on our deck. Each of our households contributed a salad so that we could enjoy an uncooked meal in case it was hot out. It turned out not to be hot out and these salads were fantastic. Christy brought chef salad on a stick. Carol made a cabbage salad augmented with fresh produce from her garden. The Deke made a shrimp, avocado, and cucumber salad with a killer dressing. We had leftover melon salad from last week and it was very refreshing.
3. I know I could have figured out a way to watch the final round of the PGA Championship on our television via the World Wide Web. But, I wanted to watch The Salesman more than I wanted to watch golf. I kept an eye on the tournament's development as I watched the movie. It looks to like the tournament's winner, Brooks Koepka, is emerging as one of today's best players in high stakes tournaments. He's won three major tournaments in the last two seasons, a remarkable feat, and yet when the great young players of today are discussed -- players like Jordan Speith, Justin Thomas, Jason Day, Rory McElroy, and others -- Koepka is hardly ever mentioned as one of the Big Four or headlined as a player to watch. My guess is that changed today.
The other remarkable performance in this championship belonged to Tiger Woods who shot a 64 today and rocketed up the scoreboard to finish second, a stunning finish after all of the operations and remaking of his game he's been through. It's hard to believe it's been ten years since Tiger Woods won a major championship and I look forward to seeing if Woods will be a captain's selection for the 2018 Ryder Cup team and if he will continue to play as strongly in the 2019 major tournaments as he did this weekend.
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