Before the movie
1 How did you first come to see this movie?
I saw it in a repertory theater. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this movie outside the theater. Sometimes when you watch a movie on the small screen, it makes less of an impact. We will see.
2 What makes it a movie worth owning?
I probably liked that it was about a clown, more or less. Another movie that takes place in a circus I might like to own is The Unknown starring Lon Chaney.
3 What are your favorite parts?
I only have the image of the clown. I remember she gets bought from her poor family and travels the road under the guard of a strongman.
4 What do you relate to in the movie?
I’m not sure.
5 Who is your favorite character and why?
I forget her character’s name, but Federico Fellini’s wife, Giulietta Masina, plays the clown with perfection rivaling Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton for physical comedy and facial expressions.
6 How did this movie make you feel?
Whimsical.
After the movie
1 How accurate were your memories of this movie?
I had forgotten what happens in the movie, how it ends. What happens to the characters, their journey.
2 How much had you forgotten?
I forgot its sadness. The way that the clown sacrifices herself for the strongman and what ends up happening to her.
3 Do you still like this movie?
Yes.
4 Did you have any new feelings or experiences?
I had a lot of thoughts and feelings. I thought about the way the clown and the strongman had their own lives, they were trying to survive in their own ways that seemed to be mutually exclusive despite that they were supposed to be working together. And but how they needed each other and how the stronger person was the clown who realized that and sacrificed herself. And even though what happened to her happened, and what happened to the strongman happened, she still had a richer existence for giving of herself.
5 What is the take-away?
The strongman girded himself against the world. He filled himself up with machismo and this superficial strength. But he was very sad and he never let himself need anyone. “I don’t want no friends. I don’t need anyone. I want to be alone,” he says towards the end of the movie. “I’ll leave you to your fate, then,” the person he’s talking to says. He has doomed himself because he hasn’t opened himself up to be hurt, to be loved.
6 How do you think watching the movie impacted/ will impact your future actions if at all?
Everything has a purpose, the clown learns. Every pebble has a place in the grand scheme. And you and me.
1 How did you first come to see this movie?
I saw it in a repertory theater. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this movie outside the theater. Sometimes when you watch a movie on the small screen, it makes less of an impact. We will see.
2 What makes it a movie worth owning?
I probably liked that it was about a clown, more or less. Another movie that takes place in a circus I might like to own is The Unknown starring Lon Chaney.
3 What are your favorite parts?
I only have the image of the clown. I remember she gets bought from her poor family and travels the road under the guard of a strongman.
4 What do you relate to in the movie?
I’m not sure.
5 Who is your favorite character and why?
I forget her character’s name, but Federico Fellini’s wife, Giulietta Masina, plays the clown with perfection rivaling Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton for physical comedy and facial expressions.
6 How did this movie make you feel?
Whimsical.
After the movie
1 How accurate were your memories of this movie?
I had forgotten what happens in the movie, how it ends. What happens to the characters, their journey.
2 How much had you forgotten?
I forgot its sadness. The way that the clown sacrifices herself for the strongman and what ends up happening to her.
3 Do you still like this movie?
Yes.
4 Did you have any new feelings or experiences?
I had a lot of thoughts and feelings. I thought about the way the clown and the strongman had their own lives, they were trying to survive in their own ways that seemed to be mutually exclusive despite that they were supposed to be working together. And but how they needed each other and how the stronger person was the clown who realized that and sacrificed herself. And even though what happened to her happened, and what happened to the strongman happened, she still had a richer existence for giving of herself.
5 What is the take-away?
The strongman girded himself against the world. He filled himself up with machismo and this superficial strength. But he was very sad and he never let himself need anyone. “I don’t want no friends. I don’t need anyone. I want to be alone,” he says towards the end of the movie. “I’ll leave you to your fate, then,” the person he’s talking to says. He has doomed himself because he hasn’t opened himself up to be hurt, to be loved.
6 How do you think watching the movie impacted/ will impact your future actions if at all?
Everything has a purpose, the clown learns. Every pebble has a place in the grand scheme. And you and me.