Went with a friend to see Sex and the City in a Berkeley movie theater up the street. I didn't expect a Hollywood movie like this to be popular in a countercultural place like Beserkley, where fashionistas are like an endangered species, but when we arrived a little after the previews started, we ended up in row four because the rest of the theater was packed. With men, young ones, as well as women.
Not having a television (a Berkeley cult), I had only seen a couple of episodes of the television show when it first began a decade ago. I didn't have the patience to watch it then, but I found the movie riveting ...maybe because I didn't know what to expect.
The four friends in Sex and the City want to have it all: freedom, equal rights, and the consumptive delights like fancy shoes and stride-in closets that women since Cleopatra are heir to. The women in the movie all wanted relationships but didn't want to give up their independence, whether for work or enjoying each other's company. They were buddies, the way men are buddies. Only for women, the buddy experience that includes sex, work, and independence within a romantic relationship is novel.
That's why the men hooted along with the women at the ribald humor. It's got universal appeal.
It's a Berkeley cult not having a television? Of course it makes sense, but I had no idea. I do have the television, but I don't have tv channels. I occasionally watch films on dvds. Otherwise, my tv is there to gather dust. Many times when I (or somebody else) mentioned my tv "status", I would get surprised looks and boring questions. I guess I was a weirdo for not having tv channels. Anyway, I'm glad there are other peps that feel like me.
Sex and the City isn't something I thought I wanted to watch, but I ended up in a theater as a part of a birthday group. To my surprise, I liked the film and the way modern women were portrayed - independent and equal to men.
Posted by: gordi | June 02, 2008 at 02:40 AM