The actual reason why I started writing about parallel lives and a blog about inspiration was a movie I saw two weeks ago: "Mon inconnue" or "Love at Second Sight".
I guess everyone who has ever seen a French movie knows that they are different. There is a fantastic amount of talking, discussion, dialogue and philosophy in good French movies (not that I have seen any that was bad), which I simply adore. Of course they use metaphors, visual images, music, good storyline, etc. necessary for any art film to be high quality and exciting but for me the most important stuff in them are the words and the meaning (the same things that freak others out.)
"Mon inconnue" is love at first sight, I can assure you. The story starts with a commonplace situation: great love, success, sacrifices, lack of attention on one side, a feeling of neglect on the other, the couple is on the verge of breakup. Then comes the twist when the hero finds himself in a parallel world and has to work hard and give up a lot to reach a happy ending on a much higher moral level than where he was at the beginning of the movie. The ending might be corny for some but this is also a French speciality: to mix sadness, bitterness, pleasure and fun so that you get a balanced outcome and has learned something new - maybe even about yourself.
This movie has made me realize that a perfect life is only accessible to those chosen ones who work hard for it to turn it into a perfect life for themselves. For us, simple human beings there is a balance given and if you get much of one thing, you'll lose something on another side of your life to keep this equilibrium. Maybe some people might think this is just irrational reasoning or a false justification to deceive myself but I don't believe so. At least, I need this theory to give me comfort and a meaningful guide when I face some facts of my life that are difficult to accept when I don't have much chance at the moment to change them. I have made some compromises in my life lately that, sadly, close some doors but open up others at the same time and the movie together with the meaning I have come to realize with its help have given me much comfort and even a happy peace to let some things go but also become stronger in sticking to what I truly consider meaningful in my life. Merci beaucoup, Hugo Gélin.
