'A First Premiere' Redundant?

I never thought that I would be the type to walk down a red carpet, lined by photographers with zoom lenses so as to catch my every pore, video cameras, and adoring fans. Well, no, they were not MY adoring fans per se, but, for a moment, I caught myself daydreaming, imagining that in the parallel universe where the other J. lives, teenagers are huge Wagner fans and obsess over the up and coming Heldentenor. Flash of the bulbs and I am back to reality, me in my brown suit in the gray and black suit world. Unfamous, unrich, unbekannt. I think I might prefer this.

Chris told me weeks ago to keep Thursday open for a “surprise”. The need to surprise me at every turn seems to be an inherited, suspiciously perhaps-genetic trait of his entire clan. I don’t know what exactly gives such pleasure in seeing the surprise on their victims’ faces, but they simply must have it, and every member of the family goes to strange, even uncharacteristically obsessive lengths to get that reaction. But, to a control freak whose clock is typically too-tightly wound, surprises typically annoy me. They complicate the uncomplicated, frustrate even the most potentially docile situation and just unnerve someone who has few to spare.

Why is it that Chris cannot imagine how anyone could not love surprises as much as he does? I will le him answer this for you, as the mention of is name undoubtedly has caught his eye…

So I met the Chris at Potsdamer Platz at 6PM on Thursday, walked to the Sony Center, and, turning the corner, saw a giant Wall-E balloon. Now, even though you may imagine that a German movie premiere would not be as glitzy or extreme as its Hollywood version, I can hardly imagine how this version can have paled in comparison. Wall-E, partly because Pixar movies have hitherto for been hits, every one, and partly because the release dates have been scattered across the world, instead of being simultaneous (as has become the norm of late), this premiere in particular was hyped to steroidal levels. They flew in officials of every department who made the movie; the head of Disney Germany introduced them; the dub-over star was there (there’s very little dialogue in this movie), and the little robot who must have cost a mint as he looks exactly like his cartoon version, complete with puppeteers controlling his every move behind the scenes, had been flown in as well. Maybe he sat next to the Pixar people on the plane. There was free food, free drinks, free Wall-E video games, and, of course, the opportunity to hobnob with the German elite. We took advantage of this by standing in a corner like frightened little bunnies, pointing at famous people and wondering who the rest were, and saying things like “we should really introduce ourselves” followed by pre-pubescent giggles. I was standing in the bathroom waiting for a urinal after the movie (when have I EVER had to wait to pee—the benefits of being a man) when a reporter with a big camera around his neck asked me if the guy at the third pissoir from the left was the Minister President from somewhere. I would so like to have been able to give a wittier answer than “I don’t know, sorry”, (if only we had been in france where “pissoir” rhymes so easily with “savoir”) but alas, efficiency of speech seems to take over my brain when it can only focus on commands like “Pee” and “Now”.

A classic ‘methinks he dost protest too much’, I have to admit that I did really like the surprise. Would this involve me admitting such to Chris? I don’t think so. Methinks you dost not know me too much.

And, the movie, oh, the movie. This is a truly great movie! I cannot recommend it highly enough. I remember John Dickerson from Slate mentioning that “The Road” by Cormack McCarthy was one of the best books that he had ever read, because of ingeniously told story. The book had the added benefit, he said, of being called perhaps the best environmental novel of the modern age. This comment came to mind when thinking of Wall-E. The movie is filled to the brim with social commentary galore, yes, but, the over-arching, almost subliminal theme to which our children will be exposed is one of utter imminent environmental desolation barring the powers that be coming to their senses. Of course, the anti-capitalistic ‘beware the giant corporation who claims to be your best friend’ was also one I cannot disagree with. In these critical days, though, when our earth needs vigilance in order to right the wrongs of past generations, the message this movie sends is powerful in just the right dose. Pixar is more than just a trite message summed up at the end à la Disney. It seems the genius of its master works has been outdone once again, at just the time when one would expect a decline.

Well done. Quite well done.

PS I am still pondering the meaning of the inevitable popularity of a movie so named in a city whose wall brought it to the forefront of the world’s focus some 19 years ago.