mindmarrow

July 24, 2014 Repository 148: Fifty Shades of Sam Taylor-Johnson Posted In: film

imageFive years ago I moved to a new town, knew no one, and struggled to make some meaningful friendships. Hence my reliance on the internet these days.

At a farmers market one weekend, we bumped into the wife of my husband’s colleague. I didn’t know her well, but attempted a conversation as best I could. I asked what she had been up to, and she eagerly reported she was in a book club, and they were all reading a very controversial book. I was thrilled at the news! This wasn’t a sleepy town, they read controversial books!!! I didn’t know what the book was, this “Fifty Shades of Gray”.

I returned home to research this book on the internet to see if it was a philosophical/world history bending/racial debunking book, after all there are millions of shades of gray between a yes and a no, or a black and a white. And there it was, the description of the book. Wind lost from my sails, I sulked at the thought of a ladies book club reading this. It’s porn, isn’t that a private thing?

Over the course of the next few years I never read it, except for picking it up in the grocery store (it was there next to the Good Housekeeping magazines), I read one sentence at the start of a chapter in the middle of the book and put it right back – horrible writing, dirty content. I have no problem with the latter, but if you read bad writing it is equivalent to brain stain.

Despite my opinion on the book and it’s cult, desperate house wife following, I must announce the movie trailer is out today….and the movie happens to be directed by fine artist Sam Taylor Wood (now Taylor-Johnson)! This is not her first full feature, but a thrilling coup for female directors regardless of the movie content. I was told that for the media world to be more saturated and balanced with female writers and directors they need to have more box office hits. You see the big movie houses look at data from the first weekend of movie’s opening, so if the numbers are low, they don’t consider the work of the director moving forward.

So here’s where I implore you to see, on its opening weekend, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s version of “Fifty Shades of Gray”. At the very least it will be aesthetic and the audience viewing will be curious too. I recommend driving to a suburban movie house for maximum audience participation and excitement.

Seriously though, I really do hope the movie does brilliantly on opening night, only to raise the bar for female directors everywhere and especially in the eyes of those that have so much control on our viewing options.

Peace.

Very goofy trailer here: http://www.fiftyshadesmovie.com

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