The Cost of Living

The Cost of Living by The Physical Theater gave me mixed feelings.  Perhaps it was hard for me to interpret this film because the film itself was meant to have no connections (no literal meaning).  The film was about the role of physical movements and actions.  At first it came across as showing a society of physical strength over mind.  This idea slightly felt degrading to me at first.  I also have bad initial impressions of looking at circus as art.  When I think of the circus I think of one of the lowest and slap stick forms of entertainment.  The film really made re-look at my view of physical acts as demeaning and the circus as slap-stick.   A person's physical characteristics we are usually asked to overlook and instead interpret a person for their mind.  Here we were not given a mind.  We were interpreting and judging people strictly by their physical nature.  The movie also revealed how much of human nature is physical.  Sometimes we do feel like these physical being just moving around and not being seen for anything else. The film ultimately made me look at one of the simplest concepts of human.  I was watching the physical nature of each person.  Maybe this can almost be considered an honest film.  With movies like Twilight getting number one ratings it begs the question what is the audience truly watching (my opinion worst movies ever).  The audience is watching the actors and actresses.  That must be why they are interested in watching the movie.  Maybe it is a social constraint to watch a film about simply the physical nature of the characters. So Twilight has a plot so that people can say they are interested in the story. The The Cost of Living has no plot and makes this known.  If you watch The Shape of Things you are interested in the physical nature of humans.  This interest is not hidden by plot or effects. The Cost of Living may be trying to shed commentary on this idea.

At the beginning when he stops moving his head with all the clowns, I loved.  I love it when people talk to the camera or break the action.  This is a power that film really has.    In film you have the ability to pause life or change life so easily.  I love to see "what ifs" happen.  There is something very liberating about changing something that seems so set in stone, such as a job.  I loved that the film opened with this.  Kinda like you are in my world now.

Also, what is the cost of living?  Is the cost to be seen for our physical nature and not fully be judged by our spirit.