Come Downstairs Now

Vilaa: Hi Nuo!!
Daddy: Oh!! She’s being fake!! She’s watching the TV and talking to you!!
Vilaa: I’m trying really hard not to hit you right now.

I send an e-mail to my family to let them know that I am alive, not ready to turn 22, and dying under impending thesis deadline. My father sends this back: deadlines are part of a life full of life! … Glee! If you only knew how matter of fact and pessimistic my father is, you would really understand how great this line is! He’s a workaholic at heart who gets boyishly excited by deadlines. Wow wow.

Just finished watching The Prince Bride (Part 1 & 2), one of the 3 films I am discussing in my film thesis. Here is a detailed plot synopsis, just to give you a taste of the twisted tales that fill Ghanaian popular filmmaking today (oh what a field to mine!):

PART 1:
In Accra, a young man runs over a beauty pageant contestant, Solange. She escapes with a mere bruise, but verbally abuses him until he promises to pay for the laptop he just broke. A computer technician, he promises to return the next day with the fixed computer.  When he returns, Solange discovers that he is Akila, the prince and heir to the throne of Mazula. She suddenly changes, throwing praises at him and adoring him. But Akila leaves.

Back in Mazula, Akila hears of his father’s death.  Akila continuously hears a young girl singing sadly in the morning and soon discovers that this young woman is royalty: Zazi, the daughter of his late father’s best friend. They fall in love but, as he is about to propose, we discover that she is engaged to another prince. Devastated, Akila starves himself and mourns. Zazi cries on her wedding day.

Back in Accra, Solange and her best friend, Bernice, take part in a campus beauty pageant. During a commerical break, Bernice, who is slated to win, gets a phone call: her sister’s been kidnapped and she must withdraw immediately if she wants to see her again. She protests, but ultimately withdraws. Solange wins. Bernice lets the whole debacle go, not wanting any trouble.

The next day, Akila’s messenger arrives at Solange’s house to tell her that the Prince wants to see her. Akila has returned to Accra to find a bride, and Solange is his first choice. Solange goes to meet the prince, bringing her excited friends (Bernice and Nina) along. Once the prince sets his eyes on Bernice, however, he falls in love with her. On Bernice’s birthday, Prince Akila arrives to wine and dine her. Solange lets Bernice know that she has stolen what is hers. When Solange goes to see the thugs, we realize it was she who set the thugs on Bernice’s sister.

Akila gets news that Zazi, pregnant, is in hospital with fractures. Zazi dies in childbirth, giving birth to a girl. Zazi’s death urges the prince to find his bride: he proposes to Bernice. Solange is devastated.

PART 2:
Solange pays another visit to the thugs, where she asks to have Bernice paralyzed and blinded, but not killed. After the attack, Bernice gets sent to the hospital, where she dies. Her spirit leaves her body and she enters the spirit world. Bernice soon discovers that she cannot be seen or heard and, as Solange makes a phone call, she also discovers that Solange paid for her death in an attempt to get Akila.

Bernice is suddenly in the spirit world, dressed in white. Her mentors in this world let her know that her anger is futile, and that she’s still on earth because she has immortal affection. Bernice is forced to watch Akila’s devastation and Solange’s deception. She watches Solange’s attempts to seduce Akila. Bernice wants Akila to move on. One of her spirit friends introduces her to a psychic, Alicia. Through Alicia, Bernice tries to communicate to Akila that he should move on and stay away from Solange. He doesn’t believe her, thinking that she was sent by someone that wants something from him.

On Valentine’s Day, as he’s mourning for Bernice, Akila meets a beautiful woman named Navida. They connect and begin dating. Because of her, Akila is able to move on and enjoy life again. Navida takes an interest in Bernice’s sister, Gina, personally seeing to it that she is financially sound. She also loves swimming, just as Bernice did, which reminds Akila too much of Bernice. Solange gives the couple trouble, but their love is not shaken.

Akila is ready to take their relationship to the next step and introduce Navida to one of his best friends, Fred, whom he hasn’t seen in a long time. Fred has been through a similar tragedy: the death of his fiancee, Judith (who was killed in a car crash). Surprisingly, Fred faints when he meets Navida. We see flashbacks of Navida as Judith, the fiancee Fred just lost.

While Akila takes Fred to the hospital, Navida rushes about the house panicking. In the hospital, Fred tells Akila that he must follow him to Judith’s family home in Kuforidua. There, he sees Navida’s picture on the wall and realizes that Navida is actually Judith, who is dead. Akila thinks he’s losing his mind, saying that he’s been living with a ghost. Back at home, Navida continues to panic: she’s been found out. She goes to meet Akila in the hotel room where he’s staying. There, she confesses to Akila that she is the spirit of Bernice. She confesses that Solange killed her. She confesses that the family of Judith’s body is coming for her. She exits Judith’s body and it falls to the ground.

Akila pledges never to marry, but this causes problems for the royalty of Mazula: who will rule when they are gone? Years later, however, a woman that looks exactly like Zazi arrives in town. This turns out to be Kalisha, Zazi’s daughter. Akila marries her.

So much theory on the page and now I’m stuck on how to explain the importance of a close reading/content analysis. Also, re-reading “Postmodernism or, The Cutural Logic of Late Capitalism” and pissing myself silently. So much work to get done!

One week of workshops and I’ve already grown tremendously as a screenwriter. So happy to be taking these classes! Focusing intently on plot so I can do all the bells and whistles and meanings and implications and experiments when I’ve got something solid. Feeling good!

Thesis-ing for a large portion of the day and only have 4 pages! Need to do 9 times that work in double the time! Being so stupid, so avoidant…cleaning my suite of the smell of alcohol while, all around me, seniors get ready for the Winter Gala. Creating characters, bent over the deflating air mattress.

In a mood.

Based on my script treatment, McKenna suggested I check out three films by Roman Polanski. They’re the three films of his Apartment Trilogy: Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Tenant. Click to enjoy old-time trailers!

Missed section again out of sheer stupidity. I was actually awake (again)!!

I will be able to read Greek phonetically by the time I’m done catching up with the readings for my Embodiment class. Score!

Also, is anyone else immensely excited by this: “and the soul, leaving the tent, i.e., the body, … gives up the cold and mortal image to bile, blood, phlegm, and flesh” – David Aune quoting Hippocrates. I am really enjoying this essay!

Anyone interested in going to see The Best of the African Diaspora Film Festival @ BAM with me? I’m most interested in seeing When The City Bites at 3:40pm on 2/20. So specific! Also, Aïssa Maïga and her copious beauty are in it.

God knows I only lived through two years of the 80s, so why do my insides sing when they hear the riff of Bizarre Love Triangle?

First breakthrough!!