Love vs. Marriage in "Blue Valentine" | ArtiFact 68: Christina Behnke, Alex Sheremet

Derek Cianfrance's "Blue Valentine" (2010) remains one of the greatest and most realistic depictions of marriage on film. It eschews melodrama in favor of granularity, avoids the typical pitfalls of "relationship films," and probes both characters' psyches, ensuring that neither of them can avoid blame for the state of their marriage. Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) deliver great performances that the film's psychological realism demands. You can also watch this discussion on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI9c95zSC7A Become a Patron and get the show ad-free: https://www.patreon.com/c/automachination

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Timestamps:

1:05 -- introducing Derek Cianfrance's "Blue Valentine"; who's that white girl???

2:59 -- initial and later impressions of the film; the effectiveness of its time-jumps; the symbolic and imagistic power of the opening scene; does Dean have a stronger relationship to Megan than her mother?

8:45 -- biases against Dean from female viewers; Dean is a playmate but not really a parent; Alex defends "feral children"; Dean is oddly good with women, but also fears them; Dean's alcoholism; Cindy might not be a drug addict, but she has other addictions and emotional dysregulation

15:49 -- she buys a lot of alcohol for the hotel; Cindy's many sexual partners and inability to connect emotionally; self-loathing & self-abnegation; how people pick and choose their addictions and patterns

21:16 -- substance vs. emotional abuse; Dean's romanticism kills him; personal neediness in both creates this relationship; limerence and projection

26:24 -- Dean says women settle, yet he settles; Dean only begins to drink after this marriage; do they have a deeper "reason" to be together; if she did not get pregnant by an ex, they would have broken up; why did Cindy refuse to go through the abortion?

30:28 -- men's simulated selflessness; Dean and Cindy knows each other's vulnerabilities; impulsivity in both; male/female hero complex; doing your best in the face of hypothetical "meaninglessness"

35:51 -- male sexual strategy in "Blue Valentine"; lack of attraction in this marriage; Alex: the male point of view is idealistic, but not innately unjust; relationships are the ONLY place for cosmic justice

40:36 -- their courtship is sweet and charming, but not necessarily romantic

44:48 -- Dean should have never made his offer; genuine moments of tenderness in "Blue Valentine"; is there an actual "good partner" for Cindy out there

52:12 -- don't start with relationships based on ambiguity; the bus scene soundtrack is rather creepy and ominous; "Blue Valentine" is one of the best depictions of relationships on film

57:42 -- "Blue Valentine" is tied to the times; the "meet cute" inversion; the endpoint of Millennial hipster culture; the Lena Dunham connection

1:00:44 -- the dangers of love at first sight; how fast crushes tend to flame out; Alex shares a GRIM story from his youth...

1:05:13 -- why Alex thinks their marriage might have ended; the anti-symbolism of the film's ending; why Dean has grown more than Cindy; filming around a dying battery; the conversation in the love motel

Tags: #film #review #relationships