And Then We Danced Again

Were I a bit site-savvier, I could probably find the earlier reviews and comments about this extraordinary film - which I was lucky enough finally to see on the big screen today. But as I want to make only a point or two about it - different ones from those I recall reading here - I'll make a new post.

If, down the road, there are still DVDs, I'd like to imagine a 'twofer' box for sale containing CMBYN and Danced - not because they are so similar, although in some obvious ways they are, but because they represent such profound dichotomies - two VERY different sides of the same coin. Casa Perlman is a spacious dwelling, and not only architecturally; it has (and makes available) space - for diverse ideas and individuals and languages and customs, and it seems to accommodate them all with ease. And our Elio P. knows a degree of acceptance in his home few viewers can even imagine.

Merab lives his life in constrained and constricted straits (pun intended): his dwelling, his society, his environment, his religion - they are all very much the opposite of what Elio knows, the acceptance he enjoys, and the opportunities that await him. Merab's professional and personal opportunities are few and his challenges many; nothing comes easily for him. But while much has been written here and elsewhere about Elio's terrible sadness that we witness and share in at the end of CMBYN, at the end of Danced we leave the theater having witnessed instead a truly astonishing demonstration of self-affirmation and resolve. It's not cheap - not in any sense; it comes at great cost and is accompanied by great loss, but it is surely impressive and uplifting to watch.

Many will know of the considerable difficulties experienced with the making of this film and of the violent and frightening demonstrations surrounding its premiere in socially conservative Georgia - demonstrations funded in large part by Vladimir Putin, himself effectively in bed with the Orthodox Patriarchate. The film both presents and represents bravery of several kinds, and if there is a human emotion not memorably conveyed by Levan Gelbakhiani's face, I don't know what it would be; the man nearly defies belief.

What a gift this film is!