My Seussical Life for 2005 June 3

I've known this since the day I named my blog, but not until now am I fessing up. How awful to have so publicly misspelled "Seuss."

Dave and I aren't of the camp, necessarily, that doesn't watch any R rated movies. There are some that we make a point of seeing. But I am really bothered by nudity and sexuality on the screen. I'm a kind of romantic that doesn't like to imagine my bedroom activities happening anywhere else to anyone else. I feel a sort of revulsion even when I'm watching mouthy kissing in movies. It is partly a privacy thing, I'm sure. So, we thought we'd try the 30 day free trial subscription to "Clean Flicks," a company that edits out language, gratuitous violence, nudity and sexuality.

We've watched some really great movies that we have wanted to see for a long time. Here is my list of favorites so far: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums, Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Cold Mountain, Love Actually, and others that are not as worth remembering as the ones I've listed. I realized last night, as we were watching Eternal Sunshine, that some things weren't making total sense. Obviously, having been edited, there were some holes in the story. How ironic. I couldn't understand because someone had erased those moments from the memory of the DVD. So I started thinking. Most of these movies say really meaningful things about life and relationships. They are much more enlightening than most of the PG and PG-13 fare that are supposed to be "good movies," but are little more than mindless garbage. So I should bring those into my life?

Then there is this question: would fabulous movie makers like Wes Andersen, Michel Gondry, Richard Curtis, and Anthony Minghella who made my list of favorites be so happy about their movies being changed? I'm glad that the situations that make me uncomfortable are not playing in my living room, but is that really fair? After all, there is a little bit of sex in life, and I'm sure I see more nude bottoms running around my house in a day than I've ever seen in movies (I'm not saying nudity in movies is the same thing). But how much should art imitate life, and how much do I miss when I explore sexuality by myself, without suggestions from movie makers? Blah, blah, better stop before I start to ramble.