Sabina Holtby - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a thought provoking movie. I was surprised to hear so many people talking about how much they loved the film and how it was one of their favorites. I found the movie fascinating; the concepts covered in the film were very real and relevant.
I found the mixing of myth and reality very interesting, they were so intertwined that it was quite a job to figure them out. I liked very much the strong colors and fast moving shots, it was a great tactic to allow the viewer to leave their world and be caught up in this one. Another factor that contributed to the ‘other world’ feel of the movie was the complex story line, if the viewer missed one line it was potentially fatal to the understanding of the story, so the viewer listened very closely.
The corruption of time was an interesting theme, the viewer came to understand that time is not linear, and that all time affects all other time. Take the scene when Joel returns to childhood and is hiding under the table, he brings Clementine to this place thinking that if she is there she will be safe from the future of being erased. He thinks that all that he has ever been is what makes up his present, so as long as something or someone fits into his life at some point it cannot be removed from his present.
The surreal-ness of the film made it seem fable like, the director and actors were trying to teach the viewers a lesson, embrace your past because you cannot escape it. Overall I feel that the film was beautiful and very interesting but too emotionally racking for repeated viewing.

Sabina Holtby - The Jacket

I already posted this one but I forgot to put my name so I am re-posting it:

I had a very strong emotional response to the film The Jacket. The opening scene of the movie was filled with strong images of violence and brutality. The oppressive colors and sounds were overwhelming my senses to the point of overload. Mere ten or fifteen minuets of the film I knew that I could not stand this assault on my senses. I found the montage in the institution for the criminally insane to be totally de humanizing. The total lack of respect for the main character was far too much for me to bear. The moment that caused me to leave was when the main character was dragged down the stairs and strapped into a stained jacket and put in the cold temperature chamber, the sense of claustrophobia and the raw mortality was too intense for me.

Sabina Holtby - The Practice of the Presence of God

I think hearing the stories of others is one of the most powerful connectors on earth. I love to listen to bad music with good lyrics; I like music that tells a story that shows emotion. I like to relate to the lyricist. This is the same feeling I got when I read The Practice of the Presence of God. I felt as though the book was a intimate exchange between friends, which it is, it was never intended to be published the first line in the first letter of the book is as follows;
“Since you desire so earnestly that I should communicate to you the method by which I arrived at that habitual sense of God’s Presence, which our LORD, of His mercy, has been pleased to vouchsafe to me; I must tell you, that it is with great difficulty that I am prevailed on by your importunities; and now I do it only upon the terms, that you show my letter to nobody. If I knew that you would let it be seen, all the desire that I have for your advancement would not be able to determine me to it.”
This is so neat to me that we are able to see into this conversation and I think that it is funny that so many copies of this book have been sold.
The power of this short book is so wonderful, we see so closely into the life of the man who wrote them, he was a monk, Brother Lawrence, he would have had ample opportunity to cultivate a ‘habitual sense of God’s Presence’ we get to benefit from his experience. This is the most important function of the church, to support and grow from one another, to be a community, to create an environment in which it is safe to ask questions and to hear the deep stories of another traveler on the road of life, to listen to their pain and learn from it. This community has been lost and Brother Lawrence seeks to cultivate in his reader the idea of community with God. I love the feeling of two spirits dwelling together; nothing can rip me away from a person who has made themselves venerable to me. Their stories are gold, so this communion with another human being means to be hearing their heart, to be experiencing their life feeling what they feel, so communion with God must be the same thing, but according to Brother Lawrence:
"There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God. Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it." Brother Lawrence

Sabina Holtby - Wholeness

The biggest issue that I have had to deal with this semester is my stability in dealing with the world. That does not make very much sense so I’ll explain. I have mentioned several times how I attended a Christian school. Well, this has formed my way of approaching a situation, every time I get a new piece of information it should fit neatly into my worldview. Maybe I am not using the word worldview properly, I see a worldview as a big circular puzzle, if all the pieces are present then the puzzle can not break it can only be added to, I feel that my puzzle is missing pieces and when ever I get a new piece the rest of them fall to the ground and I must scramble to put them together.
I have not known too many strong intellectual Christians and having a class with Dr. Strehle last semester and a class with Dr. Redick this semester has been a very valuable experience. I have always felt as though Christians do a bit of a sham job when trying to explain the world through the scriptures. The thing I have taken away from this class most has been that it is possible to be a Christian and to have your puzzle all put together. I love to see how when Dr. Redick speaks it is as if to point us to something whole, a worldview into which everything fits and it is so refreshing and beautiful.

Sabina Holtby - Cold Fever

I have a strong reaction to the medium of film. I get entranced as the images dance across the screen. I also begin to identify very strongly with the characters. I would like to relate how I reacted to the film Cold Fever. I am prone to anxiety, I am at least a little bit afraid all the time, while I was watching the film I felt my fear creep up and cloud my thinking. The man was on a journey for peace. While watching the film I made a list of all the things that would make me the most happy that I could be, the list contained things like a green grass, bright colors, warmth, and a knowledge of God’s presence. I found that these things all had a direct connection to the film. I found myself being angry with the journey that this man was taking thinking that it was a foolish way to find peace. My ideas of peace were so different from this man’s and I felt angry that I could not offer anything to the world; I felt that my views on peace and wholeness were so elementary that they were foolish and not useful. I struggle with my strong personal reactions to films. I feel that they speak into my life, they show me people who I will never see, I want to know the people and I want what I see to fit into what I know, but especially in this class that has not been possible, challenging me to broaden my worldview and strengthen my faith in God, and his sovereignty and his wholeness. He created the world as a whole place that all fits together.

Sabina Holtby - Miracles

I have been reading C.S. Lewis’ book Miracles in which he argues for the existence of miracles. The chapter I read this week dealt with the human resistance to the idea that nature is not self sustaining. It was interesting for me to see Lewis’ view of nature, how he felt that it was profane to take any amount of power away from mother nature, and how he came to the conclusion that nature is a creature same as any other creature.
He concluded that nature has many different faces and moods, when watching a sunset one may call nature serene, and later when battling the sea call her a vicious master. He recalled that this juxtaposition made it difficult to understand nature, because many see nature as a deity, it is the unmoved, and from the deity we expect consistency. He recalls discovering that nature was a creature and that all creatures are unstable and is capable of many moods and seasons.
God created nature so she is subject to the rule of God but capable of many inconsistencies. Nature does play such a vital role in the lives of humanity and it is so large it is part of every life and is therefore difficult to see as a single creature.

Sabina Holtby - Spirited Away

I judge films by my emotional response to them. Of the films I enjoy I say, “I sat Indian style,” meaning that I enjoyed the film so much I began to get sucked in and ignored what was going on around me. I sat cross legged during Spirited Away, the film was beautifully animated and the story was interesting and moved quickly.
The best part of the movie for me was all the little details; I especially enjoyed the boiler room. The little creatures running with the coal and all the drawers, I loved the complexity of the bath house and the beautiful interior scenes. The very beginning when Chihiro walks down the long stairs and into the beautiful, dancing boiler room I was drawn into the story, I wanted to know everything I could about the place.
I find that I react first to the visuals of the film, even a story that I know ends happily is still painful and depressing to walk if the colors are filmy and dark. The Borrowers is a great example the filter used for filming makes the visuals very heavy, on the other hand Spirited Away begins with lively colors and interesting complex characters.