Movies

I am watching Take Shelter again, along with Melancholia and Another Earth.

I am not sure whether Another Earth is in the same group as the first two.
Take Shelter and Melancholia become more and more engrossing each time I see them; they also become more frightening. They are the paradigms of Burke's Sublime, which overwhelms those who view it.

I am suddenly thinking Another Earth gives us another outcome for the disaster awaiting the characters in these films:  
Take Shelter has the family resonating with minute head movements, a silent accord saying "Yes. There is indeed a disaster waiting to pounce after all.", as we wonder if there is any possible way to avoid the tidal wave and tornadoes and lord knows what else;

Melancholia takes us into the disaster, but the main characters have drawn a magic enclosure and built what I called a "naked wikiup" - a wikiup uncovered by matting or woven material - which surprisingly enough seems just possible to protect some article of their being from immolation;

Another Earth might be seen to provide an alternative reality, hopefully better, than that in which we find ourselves. However, there is more to it than mere alternate reality; there is a hint that what we see as reality has at least one other layer, a layer which is not altogether a different reality, but another stratum of the same universe.
Things are not as they seem, certainly not to someone who has lost their sense of self-worth and is living a shadow of life as a punishment for their "crimes".

These three are very important films for me. I do not know about the rest of the world, but for me they are like flocks of blackbirds, swarming into impossible arabesques, listening to some unseen piper.

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