Aspects of desire

"They could not live with eachother, they could not live without eachother"

La Femme d'acote , a film by Francoise Truffaut

notes on a film

Separated by time

the lovers reunite

but they have never been apart

wherever she goes

he is always with her

wherever he goes

she is always with him

whenever they are near

they can not but be together

reunited

whenever they are apart

they again find eachother

till the end

when the restless soul of a woman

stops the struggles of the body

puts an end to the desire that burns

them both alive

and so they are together

their bodies entwined

like branches of one tree

their souls at last

find serenity

when the body ceases to desire

stops to want

more and more

peace comes when the souls

leave the earth

somewhere

looking down at mortality

the lovers reunite

at peace

watching their eternal bodies

disappear

while they can continue

to be together

without the struggles of this mortal coils

without the hunger of the heart

that always wants more.

Desire killed them

as desire united them

knowing only peace

when they remain

pure souls

eternal

without the bonds of the desires

of this earth

without the day to day torture

looking through a window

knowiing they may never

dwell in one house

they can never live

together

desire is the fire that destroys

life

but the soul

it never stays away

they will never be apart

united in eternity

without desire

without struggle

peace comes and blesses them

at last

serenity of the soul comes to stay

as the body  slowly disappears

turning to branches leaves

the earth

the sweet gardens that die

with autumn

reborn in the spring

a baby sheep

a rose

a green leaf

will sleep now ;

a temporary repose.

"La femme d'acote"-the woman on the  side -prose

Francoise Trauffaut's film is about two lovers who find themselves as neighbors

when the woman's husband purchases a home not knowing the father of the family

in the neighboring house was once his wife's lover some years before..

the two lovers eventually find eachother

the woman has a nervous breakdown, the man loses control as well

but the quiet and well balanced wife seems to hold the family together, the small boy, she is pregnant with another baby, the other woman is away at a clinic recovering from her deep despair

One night the man wakes up hearing some noise, a window is open , a door

the woman came for him

they fall in eachother's arms reunited by a desire they can not deny

"come to me", the woman says to him and kills them both with her pistol as they lay in eachothers arms..

"They could not live withouteachother , they could not live with eachother"

The French strong in desire, accepting of its role in life,

disruptive of day to day life, destroying family life ..

I once read that the French court accept jealousy as a legitimate reason to kill

i dont know how true it is , but the language which i do not speak fluently, can somehow read and have to watch with subtitles (in German no less!)

is enchanting, the people beautifully, well dressed, silk suits, pretty dresses

After i watch the film i read the teachings of Buddah concerning desire;

"The cause of human suffering is undoubtedly found in the thirsts of the physical

body and in the illusions of worldly passion. If these thirsts and illusions are traced to their source, they are found to be rooted in the intense desires of physical instincts.

Thus desire, having a strong will to live as its basis , seeks that which it feels desirable , even if it is sometimes death.This is called the truth of the cause of suffering"

The New England poet Emily Dickinson said it in a much easier way

when she said that desire is all we know of heaven and all we experience

of hell..

No one presents desire as well as the French, how it can cause pain and suffering

after it is the source of so much pleasure

and how facinating is this force of life , in Freudian terms, that turns so abruptly to be a force of death ..

Desire seems to be like a bottle of poison, when not guarded by reason

it can destroy the very vessel it enters

and yet what a sweet pain it is

only those who have suffered from it can watch the film and sigh

glad not to have gone all the way, accepting that sometimes love is  simply not enough..