I’m in a reflective sort of mood. Recently I rented Amelie and Kieslowski’s Decalogue. I enjoyed Amelie on an aesthetic level, but couldn’t relate at all to the picture-perfectness of it all and the pat ending (of course, Amelie ends up giggling on the back of a motorcycle with the love of her life as they race around Paris). Kieslowski’s harsh but real Decalogue resonated much more deeply, and I ate up the grim Polish landscape and complicated situations the characters were in.
A week ago or so I was watching Decalogue Six, wherein a young postal worker falls in love with and spies on a promiscuous neighbour through their facing windows. A friend called, I paused the movie, and then noticed some flashing of light outside my own window. I remained seated, not thinking too much about it. The flashing continued, which finally caused me to go to my window, where I saw another friend snapping photos of my open window on Rue de la Visitation. Phone still in hand, I smiled and laughed as she continued shooting, this time allowing her to capture my face in the pictures of my open window. A few minutes later, I returned to my movie, and smothered a wry grin at the synchronicity of the moments between film and life.
Other strange synchronous moments abound. Recently, I resolved to move to Edinburgh, accepting a top secret mission (that will be made clear here shortly). I’ve begun the process of moving my life across the Atlantic, and at this time unearthed two things. In the clean up of my apartment, I discovered an old postcard that I had forgotten I had received – from Edinburgh. “hey kiddo, my postcard selection skills have very much deteriorated since I’ve eaten haggis. The Scots are ruining me!!” it reads in part. And a few days earlier, I received an email from a filmmaker/new media artist whom I don’t know, but am connected to through a mutual friend. She was born in the same city I was, spent time at a university in Montreal, and now lives in (all together now) – Edinburgh.
Not to make too much of these signs, but it did feel a little comforting and strange at the same time, having these resonances occur. If I were to stretch a little further, it might feel like reaching into the past and the future at the same time – a cinematic indulgence with Kieslowski, that reflected what felt to me to be very much a Polish sensibility, which is my ancestry, though shot through with the people in my life now, in Montreal. Followed quickly by two small interventions into my present with flashes of what my future could be. At this moment, I’ll allow myself to be captivated by coincidence.