‘The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.’
A quote by Marcel Proust that stuck with me ever since I came across it around twelve years ago.
I paid homage to the venerated French writer and his magical quote by embedding its central message in Behind The Mirror: The Movie.
In this film the notion of a formative journey becomes central. The main characters, Xavier and Victor, have been reimagined from the original Behind The Mirror: Short Stories And Reflections (or BTM: SSAR) storyline, their vivid correspondence diminished to make way for a new plot surrounding Xavier’s life.
Xavier, our conflicted MC; his family and work, his psyche and dreams, the impulses that drive him, all brought to the fore and made salient to tell the tale of a man discovering a new world with a fresh mind, a disrupted way of looking at things. Hues and nuances heretofore unregistered suddenly make their appearance. The answers always there, waiting to be evoked.
To help this new storyline and plot, the setting was elaborated on, the town drawn out and expanded. Life in the countryside was explored in some detail, not much, just enough to trace out small town dynamics. The supporting characters were strengthened, engineered to either offer their help or antagonize the protagonist. A world in flux was drawn out, rich in emotion, steeped in vested interest, bursting with tension and intrigue and jealousy and lust of the kind that is felt, never told, forcing people’s hands. Righteousness and sanctity left their mark on those involved. Familial bonds were tested. Words were spoken and boundaries were crossed and initiatives were taken that changed people’s lives forever.
All in a day’s work in the life of the homo sapiens, a creature strangely enough more emotional than sapient, at least in the grand scheme of things.
Such is the material I work on, deeply interpersonal, immersed in heated contradiction, in visceral human conflict and the burning desire to either augment one’s life and help one’s significant others, or crush those standing in one’s way. Human passions mixed with a reason ever so steely and efficient. A peculiar and oftentimes explosive mix, garnished with history and culture. Tendencies that drive humanity and life in general to this day, in the age of mass information and self-awareness.
Who would have thought that we would still be bound by the basic need to prevail or perish? Such is the cold reality. We fight daily and with great viciousness for our ways to endure, for the survival of what we deem most precious.
Crisis-bound and revolution-driven, we are the stuff of comedy, tragedy, action and love, folly and lore, themes to accompany the human journey from start to end.
My kind of material.
The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
Watch this space for Part 4