“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be”
- Marcel Pagnol
Watching a French documentary about Catherine Deneuve, where of course everyone smoked all the time, I was reminded of my very early fascination with French culture. Smoking a cigarette in a café, leading that troubled life of an artist, all in a very fashionable manner. Clubs, pubs, cafés, parties - the penniless writer hanging around cafés and smoking and reading and writing all day, and partying with the closest all night. A creature of the night, not caring about convention, money, or anything at all. Just The Arts. This translated into reading French books, Anna Gavalda is a big favorite, smoking French cigarettes (Les Galoises Blondes), listening to Piaf and Gainsbourg, watching obscure french movies... And I've missed that. What I've also missed is their reverence for Les Arts and L'Amour, Their impeccable feeling for the portrayal of emotions; it's like they're the only ones who really understand Love and what art is all about... It's about disorientated devastation, floating around in a hazy world with no connection, where a few beams of sun light might bring chaos to you're entire existence. L'Amour - it's like it's worth it, even if you will never be the same ever again, and you will suffer the more for it. But life takes on new shapes, and you will be more sensitive to what things are, see everything in a different light....
