cameron

We're going over Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte in tomorrow's lecture. I am always reminded of this clip from Ferris Buehler's Day Off when I think about this painting, and in fact I put it on our Class Blog for the class to watch (aren't I a hip professor?). I actually think it's a brilliant way to present the piece. Ferris and Sloan are making out in front of stained glass, blue light flooding in, they are happy and making a personal connection. Cameron is alone. The little girl holding her mother's hand captures his attention, and as he focuses in on her, he realizes she has no face, just a collection of painted daubs. It's like his own relationship with his parents, where he is invisible. We meet Cameron feigning to be on death's door, a bid for his parent's attention, and we leave Cameron after he has destroyed his father's most prized possession and gaining a certain level of manhood by doing it. He connects with the little girl because he is similarly faceless, not only to his parents, but to himself. By the end of the movie though he has attained a certain level of self-actualization and indepedence.

Yeah...I just analyzed Ferris Buehler's Day Off, but it IS a good coming-of-age movie if you follow Cameron's story. And any movie that has a scene in the Chicago Institute of Art (where I've also never been) gets a thumbs up from me. And any movie with coordinated, spontaneous dance scenes. And any movie with Matthew Broderick.