in a land of strings, the puppet is devoted to luck

i watched this for some reason last night, don't know why. the affluent nose's nostalgia for the good old days of cocaine in new york, before crack blew it all to smithereens. released in 1992 but aurally stained with an 80's soundtrack, desperately groping for the profound, finding cheap synths & tinny electronic drums instead. how many movies were ruined by their soundtracks & is there anything we can do to save them? paul loves susan's legs, (as well he should) and the camera willem's torso. i could melt in susan's gaze, but alas, there weren't enough close-ups to bring that simmer to a boil. i still get over the strangeness of willem defoe, and apparently, neither can we, hence a long & productive career. i love how his face changes with the light, how positively angelic when only glancing, the feline gaze struggling & failing to fully soften his brutal, alpine cheeks, and then the light stops dancing, stops flirting, gets serious, and then he smiles, too wide, the face contorting, careering toward ghoulish, too many tombstone teeth, a mouth full of cemetery. the movie made me feel like i was snooping on someone else's delusional glow about how wonderful things were when the wealthy didn't kill us for their high. our feelings grade the stories we write. i liked this scene pictured below. 

they once were a couple, torn apart by drugs, kept apart by sobriety, accidentally brought together by circumstances. he has remained in love and has selectively edited his memories to preserve it. she has revised the love out of the story so she can write a new one without him in it. he insists on love and she insists on pain. they are clearly both right & wrong. there is more than a table between them. a column that refuses to budge, resolutely blocks them. trajectories intersecting, like beams of light on top of a building, crossing in the cloudy night sky. one emerging from darkness, the other descending into. he cannot find the latch that would unlock the gate between him and the woman in his life who is also ascending. in a world of strings, the puppet is devoted to luck and so, seeks a teller of fortunes. this will all end in blood & death, but then life & light gets its chance. don't see this.