One of my all-time favorite movies is
Donnie Darko. I've seen it many, many times over the years, so it wasn't that surprising when I surfed into the beginning of the movie the other night and stopped my clicking to watch yet again. What was surprising, however (and what I hope is a bit of a coup), is that I saw something I had never noticed before. At the beginning of the movie, less than about 2 minutes in, Donnie is cycling back to his house after waking up on the road in the early hours of the morning. The soundtrack in the original movie is Echo & The Bunnymen's "Killing Moon," which is appropriate in itself given the role lagomorph-ed Frank plays in the denouement. But what caught my attention this time is that just as the line "I know it must be the killing time" plays, Donnie on his bike is passed by a red sports car very similar to Frank's traveling in the opposite direction. The song continues as Donnie cycles out of camera shot, but the red sports car (I'm sure it's Frank's) remains the central focus until it blurs into the distance a few hundred yards up the road. But the situation gets curiouser and curiouser. I dug out my "Director's Cut" of the movie, and found that Echo & The Bunnymen's "Killing Moon" was replaced by INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart." I don't think that selection is as good as the original choice, but that's not my point. At the same moment when the paths of Donnie and the red sports car cross, the line in the song is "Two worlds collided." Knowing how rich the fabric of this movie is, I really shouldn't be surprised by my seeing something new, even in a chance encounter during a casual viewing, but it did get me excited about the movie all over again.
And talking of coups, lexical this time, I have two coinages coming soon to a dictionary near you (or not). The first is "entomed," which means to be buried in a book. It makes perfect sense, and I was genuinely surprised to find that it wasn't yet a word, but it's not in the OED. Neither is the second, "redwindle," which is what happens to a relationship when a couple breaks up, reunites, then discovers they were correct to break up the first time. Not every reuniting will redwindle, but it happens enough to warrant inclusion in the OED I think. The moral is . . . reuniting doesn't always feel so good, Peaches & Herb be damned. And don't ask how I know that song!
Coinages: If they're good enough for Shakespeare, they're good enough for me. Did I just cast myself alongside the Bard? "Wake up."
