Valentine’s Day is in two Thursdays. The preceding sentence should be read with a profound lack of enthusiasm. Western culture fetishizes romantic love to chocolate-covered, floral-festooned extremes. What about the single people? What about monks? What about people underneath the age of consent?
According to the Greeks, there are four types of love: Agape, Eros, Philia, and Storge. Agape is the unconditional love of humanity, where Jesus is probably the easiest example to use. Or Superman. Eros is romantic love, characterized by a need to develop a deep emotional connection with another person. Philia is friendship, sometimes developing from shared activities, but eventually transcending them. Storge is the fondness that comes from closeness, like with family, or through shared experiences.
So here’s five movies that cover the four types of love.
Agape: Casablanca (1942)
Rick (Humphrey Bogart) runs a nightclub in WWII Casablanca frequented by Nazis, refugees, and petty crooks alike. His determined neutrality is threatened when he comes into the possession of two letters of transit allowing their bearers to travel unimpeded around Nazi-controlled Europe, followed soon after by the reappearance of his former lover, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), and her husband, Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid), both desperate to leave Casablanca.
Its reputation as one of the best movies ever made was the only reason I ever watched Casablanca. Did it live up to that reputation? Sort of. I mean, best movie ever is hard to live up to. But the acting was good and I certainly empathized with Rick’s decision as to who should get the transit letters is the eventual triumph of Agape over Eros. It’s a refreshing change from when modern action heroes give up their superior strategic positions to save the girl. I don’t know if I’d do the same thing in Rick’s circumstances, but I hope that I would.
Eros: Django Unchained (2012)
Two years before the start of the American Civil War, Django (Jamie Foxx) is unexpectedly freed from slavery by Dr. King Schultz (Christopher Waltz), a German dentist-turned-bounty hunter. They partner up to hunt criminals and rescue Django’s wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), from the clutches of Calvin Candie, a brutal and unstable plantation owner.
Dr. Schultz’s primary motivation for helping Django rescue Broomhilda is his own German heritage, and maybe because he was a bit of a romantic as well. A Germanic legend tells of Brynhildr, a Valkyrie imprisoned in endless sleep, bounded by a ring of fire, until the hero Siegfried awakens her: a love story older than dirt.
Given the epic status of Broomhilda’s namesake, I found Django Unchained to be sufficiently dauntless. The heroes and villains of Tarantino’s latest film are indeed larger-than-life, and wield improbably good aim and loquaciousness. The mooks bleed and scream more than I thought humanly possible. I was very entertained. But is Django Unchained a love story, exactly? It’s been called a love letter to spaghetti westerns and blaxploitation films alike. All in all, the Norse liked a bit of action in their love stories. I think Django Unchained sufficiently represents the passion of Eros.
Philia: Thelma and Louise (1992)
Two women embark upon a weekend road trip in a Thunderbird convertible. At a restaurant on their first night, a man assaults Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) shoots him in self defence. Rather than turn themselves in to the unsympathetic authorities, they flee the scene and attempt to escape to Mexico. It doesn’t go well.
Thelma and Louise really touched me with the depth of the titular characters’ friendship. Although it was Louise who shoots Thelma’s attacker, the women both run. Their shared desperation and intoxication of freedom allow them do things like rob convenience stores, engage in vigilante justice, and lock a cop in his trunk. In patriarchal vernacular, they both grow a set of iron balls over the course of the movie, which was very fun to watch. Even when their escape plans fall apart, but their relationship endures, even over the edge of the Arizona border.
Storge: Lilo & Stitch (2002)
An illegal alien experiment escapes from galactic custody and crash-lands in Hawaii, where he is mistaken for a dog, adopted by a girl named Lilo, and renamed “Stitch”. Stitch’s hobbies consist of eating metal and destroying scale models of San Francisco. There, he learns the way of Elvis Presley, whom Lilo considers to be the epitome of good behaviour, while agents of the Galactic Federation attempt to recapture the ersatz refugee.
The emotional tone of the movie is set by the phrase “Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind, or forgotten.” which reflects the sense of belonging and security that comes with Storge. At the end of the day, who doesn’t want to go home and be accepted? Who doesn’t want to be loved? *sniff*
Ahem. Distancing myself from my obvious weakness to the Disney doctrine, Lilo & Stitch is a lovely, colourful romp, with Elvis on the soundtrack and hula dancing on the screen. It’s as friendly and cuddly as a rehabilitated blue-furred, six-armed genetic experiment .
Reviewer’s Choice: Pride and Prejudice (2005)
At a ball sometime in the late 18th century, Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen) makes some uncomplimentary remarks towards Elizabeth Bennett (Keira Knightley). Elizabeth vows henceforth to loathe Mr. Darcy for all eternity, to her mother’s despair. But they get together at the end after exchanging two hours of witty British banter and longing looks.
I actually was going to cap off this column by recommending Blue Valentine, but in the interests of the spirit of Valentine’s Day and optimism and such, Pride and Prejudice is not a bad movie to watch on February 14th. It was the cinematic equivalent of frolicking through a moor on a sunny day with a friend who refuses to speak to you unless you speak in iambic pentameter, but stares at you the whole time. One of the best kinds of friends, really.
Happy Valentine’s day and Single’s Awareness Day to all!
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