The Poetry Collective Special Events

A new topic where we can share events, both in person or online.

Something new! How about we watch a film together?

The film I suggest is Paterson, about the week in the fictional life of a bus-driver in Paterson New Jersey home of William Carlos Williams, and who also happens to be a poet.

For those interested in joining the group watch, try to watch it sometime in the next few weeks, then come back to this topic to share your thoughts.

In the US it is available to buy at Fandango for $14.99 and on Amazon Prime Free with Ads. I understand it is also on the BFI player in the UK.

Please share any other streaming sources you find.

It is highly regarded by critics, in the awards its received, and from the public at Rotten Tomatoes. A film about a poet! How remarkable is that.

Intriguing idea! I am at capacity for the moment in terms of online and offline events, but keeping my eyes open for the film and the chance to join discussions here.

>3 elenchus: Cool. Whenever you can. Your thoughts are always welcomed.

I'm in!

I will live through the commercials on Prime.

I'll confirm once viewing is complete.

>5 hamlet61: Yay! I'm so glad you will be with us. I hope to watch this weekend.

Any chance you will join in for the February group read of Simon Armitage's translation of the epic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight over on TonjaE's It's a GoodThing Group Read group?
https://www.librarything.com/topic/378224

Also see the roster for other monthly group reads planned for the year, each one selected by a member.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/375895#9026026

Everyone who sees this is invited to join for any monthly read listed there, or to select something for us to read in one of the available months.

Yes. I signe up for Sir Gawain.

PATERSON the film.

I watched it last night and am still riding high on it today.

One of the things I loved about this film is its perfect simplicity with all the space in the world to enjoy it. It let me breathe, to feel what I feel before rushing me into the next bombastic scene change as if our lives aren't rushed and pushed around enough, as if that is all we can respond to.

It is about quietness in the ordinary routines that our lives are built upon. It's about loving your life, your wife, your menial job, your lunch, overheard conversations. It's about having time to speak to and acknowledge the existence of to others, to listen without high drama, just life living itself in a billions and billions of molecules. It's about noticing your life. Just noticing. God, I loved that.

And it's about poetry. I confess that tears popped up in my eyes just from the pleasure of that permission to hear. I think you will love the poetry being written by the main character, a bus driver named Paterson who lives in the hometown of Paterson, New Jersey which is also the hometown of William Carlos Williams, the poet and doctor whose two most famous poems are about the chill bump beauty in minor moments, about noticing the deliciousness and coldness of a plum or how so much depends on chickens, a wheelbarrow, and rain.

There is beauty in repetition, in routine, in just living your life in moments that repeat themselves. It's about being open to them, each time. In a way, It's a great homage to WCW, the poet who seemed like a man happy in just that way, and wrote about it with unforgettable simplicity. There's a place--a large welcoming place--for that kind of poetry too.

The film acknowledges just how many moments you might discover (let yourself discover) you have something in common with a complete stranger. The diversity of characters in this film made my eyeballs sing, happy to see real faces, real colors, real variety in creation. And the soundtrack...I actually heard it, registered it (at one point I heard a morning call of the mourning dove--that was the only thing happening, that faint sound and I felt joy because of it). The whole film heightened my awareness. I didn't feel the usual sensory manipulation common in films, which paradoxically made me more sensitive. I was enveloped instead of yanked.

The film was a palliative force for me while we endure these times we are living. It reminded me all the moments I could simply gather into my arms of aliveness if I would make the room to listen and breathe.

I have found my new most favorite film.

I love your descriptions as much as your enthusiasm for the film! Really, your own enthusiasm is infectious and itself a good thing to witness. This would be true even if the film were not one that compels me personally, though in this case I'm very drawn to it.

Not sure when I will see it, I'm in a phase of life (have been for a good while) that doesn't include regular and large amounts of film viewing time. I love film but I also don't mind that I'm spending time away from screens, so not pushing back on it too hard, for the moment. Especially as I'm not sated with non-screen activities yet!

>9 elenchus: It sounds like what you are doing is enough; life doesn't have to include screens activities. When you are ready, it likely will be there to watch. And if that's all you watch before you go screen-free again, it won't discombobulate you, wreck whatever you have going. I can't imagine another film that would be so accommodating that way. Depending what you have going (hope it's a good thing), you may not even need to watch it. Me, I needed it, to remind me what I love about films (I don't watch many any more because they are so wrong for me) and what I love about real living.

Watched Paterson.

Still not sure of my opinion

But I noticed the twins all throughout the film and the crushing daily sameness without the wit or humor of Groundhog Day.

And I re-read Paterson so I am starting to get it. I need to rewatch it after I read the poem again.

Adam Driver is under-rated. My opinion is that he got subsumed by Star Wars and being a new Keanu Reeves (which he is not)

I look forward to finding more films togehter.

--Matt

>11 hamlet61: It doesn't sound like the film moved you as much as it did me. I loved the slowness of it, the mediocre days that, for all of us, are what our lives our built on, slowly, bit by bit. And the poet is the one who slows it down even more, by capturing what we blow past. The film is about that "noticing" that you are so good at in your own poetry, Matt.

You and I do agree, though, Adam Driver is a magnificent actor.

It did move me.

I was tryiing to put it into a place in my head and still cannot.

I still cannot reconcile it with the poem and maybe I am not suppoesd to. The personifcation of a city

Sometimes for me, actors are bigger than the film itself and I struggle to fit them back into the film.

I am open to any all film suggestions and might come up with some of my own.

I love the conversation

--Matt

Just seeing this today. I watched Paterson when it first came out (I use dvds from my public library for most viewing). I was born in Paterson, NJ so have a special affiliation for anything from/about it . . . including WCW.
My vague recollection of the movie was "interesting but not great"

>14 LucindaLibri: I bet you do have a special affinity for Paterson. How splendid to be associated with a place known for William Carlos Williams! Isn't poet Allen Ginsberg also somehow associated with Paterson?

Me, I loved the film. I keep meaning to watch all of director Jim Jarmusch's films since the ones I've seen are all memorable, kind of quirky, and don't mind taking their sweet time. ha