)(( hannah mello ))(

Casablanca by Night...

Last night, I did one of the most NYC-esque things.
I did it alone.

I went to
The HBO Bryant Park
Summer Film Festival.
Films projected on a big white screen over a grassy space.

I saw the one and only, the classic:
Casablanca.

Following work, I took the 4 to Grand Central, walking along 42nd, I crossed over to the tree-d Bryant Park-- swarming swarming swarming with human forms. The entire grassy area had been opened at 5 and when I arrived at 7, there weren't very many patches of grass visible.

Blankets, dinners, books, and book-reading or chatty-chatting couples, groups of 4-6-- all there, shoeless and happy. Surrounding the grassy rectangle were bench-ed and chair-ed souls, peeps also leaning on the stairwells and such at the back end of the space. I overheard a handful of people saying at different times, 'I really would like to know how many people are here. 1000?'

I eyed a 5 inch by 5 inch patch of grass as I scoped the area from the perimeter. Making my way through the scrunched and chair-ed people along the pathway, I shed my shoes to tiptoe on the blankets to the semi-central grass patch.

Taking out my Delta airlines blanket, retained from a certain flight not long ago, I sat with 4 groups surrounding me. I was the nexus of disparate social networks. :) Oh gosh. :)

I proceeded to dive into a book of mine while enjoying snack-y dinner things of my own, water, and basking in the 1.5 hours pre-sunset. I loved being there with everyone so content... so content shoeless and relaxed.

Every type of somebody.
A lot of 20-30-somethings but every age group.
So content in company.
So content with their creative suppers--
some of them sandwiches from chain delis or delis,
some of them home-cooked pasta,
some of them buffet-style dishes shared between them all.

There was pizza too. I most jealous of that. I haven't had NYC pizza since I first visited the city my sophomore year of college. I must grab some soon.

I was enjoying the space so much. I wasn't "in my own little world", but I wasn't scanning the crowd a ton, searching for snapshot moments of people in the element. Instead, I had a few comfortable glances that landed on faces and forms, groups and their set-ups, that really were beautiful. Beautiful moments of people just BEING. Being with or without facial expressions. Being with or without dinner etiquette. Being with or without conversation. Being. Just being themselves. And me, just being also. Being comfortable myself, content with a very good book.

There were projected lights on the park from the top of a nearby skyscraper that shut off after the WB short film cartoon that proceeded the feature.

There it started.
One of the most famous films of an age of film.

I loved how the audience responded too...
Hand claps. Laughter. Cheers.

Cheers when Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman had their premier moments on the screen.

Cheers at the famous lines:

"Here's looking at you kid"
"I'm the only cause I'm interested in"
"We'll always have Paris"
"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"

I enjoyed every minute, finding that there were quotes in it or references that people have made in conversation that I didn't know to trace to it. I remember a certain Ben Zamora from college that thought it was the best film of all time. I'm finally in the know. Finally in the know. :)

I must say though that I was surprised at some of it being 1942 and yet very raw--
- all the cultures represented-- and military of those cultures-- in a time of GREAT sensitivity-- following WWII!! I felt so aware of all those sensitivities that are real even now about that time period and those nations represented.
- the woman that was asking Rick if she should sleep with the guard in order to get her and her husband's papers-- asking Rick if she could do it without ever telling her husband, and, if, for any reason, if he found out, if he could ever forgive her (and then unassumingly Rick proceeds to force a win at gambling for her husband in order to prevent it indirectly with great grace and goodness)
- that the whole romance itself was an affair, characterized by secrecy and ambiguity, with the after-effects of deep pain and desire (such human human human emotions showed vulnerably and honestly)
- the couple remain separate on their roads of singleness and marriage respectively but with great courage of character portrayed by Bogart's character. Key word: character.


So cheers to the uniqueness of this City.
New York City.

Cheers to diving into film and experience.




Cheers to all acknowledged and unacknowledged characters of character in their various forms.

posted by )(( hannah mello ))( @ 11:36 AM