Awakenings

"Seems that I have been held in some dreaming state, a tourist in the waking world, never quite awake" - F+tM, Blinding #np

Awakenings, a 1990 movie based on Oliver Sacks' memoir of the same name, tells a story of medical miracle that happened revolving the life of a physician named Dr. Malcolm Sayer and one of his patients, Leonard Lowe, who was in catatonic stage due to an epidemic called encephalitis lethargica. To me this is not just another movie of discovering cure for illness and such, it tells a story of how life puts people together in a strangest way, and connect them in order for them to take lesson from one another. These two characters particularly, learnt so much from one another, and I would like to write about both of them.

Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a physician with a purest of heart, having difficulties on blending in with society as he prefer to be alone, living life with as minimal contact from another human being  as possible. He was hesitated to take the job as the physician at the chronic-care hospital, as he did not like the idea of attending the patients and work with other doctors as well. Nevertheless, he took the job, with the best intention, he slowly adapting with the environment and became fond of the place. One of the themes surrounding Dr. Sayer is Hope. Dr. Sayer did not conform to anything the staff said, nor he cared to be accepted by the other colleagues. Even at the beginning of his curious discovery about the reasons behind the patients' catatonic state and only Nurse Eleanor Costello believed in him at that time, he kept on researching about the disease until he found the L-Dopa drugs could potentially help the patients. Dr. Sayer believed in himself and hope for the best for his patients. The scene where Dr. Sayer do not have the definite answer to the effect of the drug, but need the consent from Leonard's mother, is one of the most powerful scene on the movie. Just by answering he's not sure what the drugs will do, but instead telling his hope for the drug was convincing enough for Leonard's mother to sign the consent. Ultimately, the drug worked, it woken up Leonard and other patients from their deep frozen sleep. This shows Dr. Sayer did not take no for an answer, but he also convinced people around him with positive persuasions, and not afraid to try new things while observing the patients from different angles than other doctors.

The story continues with Leonard Lowe, when he was awakened from his catatonic state, he was almost like reborn to the world, quickly learning how to live his life after been in the "sleep" for many years. While he was still in the catatonic state, Leonard could not move, making him unable to obtain many basic human needs by himself. His mother helped him, and sent him to the hospital to get more care. After awakened, Leonard slowly obtaining his basic needs. This can be relate with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (Ciccarelli & White, 2014) . At the initial stage of awakenings, Leonard learned to obtain both his physiological needs by eating, walking, talking and cleaning all by himself. As he slowly progress, Leonard starts to question about his own safety, his needs to walk outside alone and be free. It also progress to another stage, which is Love and Belongingness needs where he fell in love with a woman named Paula. This shows as he gets his basic needs, he moved to another higher stage of the hierarchy. It is very refreshing to see the movement in hierarchy from a grown man like Leonard, rather than seeing it from an infant or a child.

Leonard and his love interest, Paula

Other than that, this movie leave an impact to the viewers on the meaning of understanding other people's struggle. The miracle that happened in the hospital changes the perspective of the caregivers, as they learnt the patients are more than just patients, they are all human regardless of their state. At the end of the movie it shows how to staff treat each of the patients as individuals, and caring for them in more loving and humane way.

Reference(s):


Ciccarelli, S. K. & White J. N. (2014). Psychology. United States of America: Pearson Education Limited.

CINEMA PARADISO

"Everything looks better from above, my king." - Lana Del Rey, Salvatore #np

      The first movie for Psychology of Film is the winner for Best Foreign Language Film in 1989 Academy Award, Cinema Paradiso. Watching through 155 minutes of the movie makes me lost onto the screen, in the world of the main character, Salvatore "Toto" Di Vita. Set in small village on an island called Sicily, the movie brings back the flashback of Toto recounting back his memories back in the post world war II era. Throughout the movie, I knew this movie is an instant classic, golden in the way that people will remember not only how the story goes, but how they feel while watching the movie. Simple scenes that describing the life of the people in this village especially when they were watching the film in the cinema make this movie even more memorable, like we ourselves in the lecture theater were there with the crowd in the movie.

6 years old Toto in the cinema

      Although the movie centers on the character Toto from he was a child until he was on his adulthood, this movie would not be loved as much as it is now without the supporting character, Alfredo. Toto became obsessed about learning how to operate the cinema projector merely by watching Alfredo doing them, a prove to Bandura's Social Learning theory? Maybe. But what driven Toto to become attached to the small local cinema was what Alfredo meant to him in his life. Toto's father left for the army, leaving Toto without a father figure in early on his life. Toto kept coming to Alfredo, finding comfort in his presence, keeping Alfredo company in his lonely job. Alfredo did warn Toto about the sacrifices ones have to make for the job. Imagine being the only person showing the people the movies, while sitting at the back alone not joining them. As the person to project the film, the whole community was counting on Alfredo, as their source of entertainment and escape in the boring small village.

Unlikely friendship between Alfredo and Toto

     The story from Toto's flashbacks filled up the holes, answering to the questions why Toto is the man he is, the successful, cold, and unmarried director. The experiences Toto went through since he was a child until teenager affected him so much,. He became a successful director thanks to Alfredo who exposed him to film at such early age and encourage him to get out of the island and never look back to the "nostalgia". Toto took Alfredo's words and kept on finding his way to become a successful director. Other than that, Toto also stayed unmarried, as his mother said "When I call you, a different woman always answers." showing he was unable to have a long lasting relationship with one woman over the years after leaving Sicily. This maybe got to do with Toto's first love or maybe the only love of his life, Elena. Toto lost contact with her making him more determined not to come back to Sicily. After all, when he got back after 30 years, he found that everything came back to him, he was still unable to let go of his old ghost.

     This movie gave a larger impact on me when the closing scene, Toto watching the roles of film Alfredo gave him as present which are scenes that being cut off from the film roles, mostly kissing scenes. Toto watching them in tears, remembering Alfredo kept his word. When he was a kid he insisted Alfredo to give him the film roles as a deal, which was such a simple and quick scene. I was brought back to that scene, and it became one of the important scene in the movie without realizing it earlier. It ended nicely with "back in circle" kind of ending. That is how beautiful the movie is, every characters are important, every night on the cinema is important and most importantly how Toto found his answer in life by only looking back to the pasts that he tried to forget.

The End