I've watched current air traffic on flightradar24 go from between 14,000-16,000 planes in the air at any given time, down to below 10,000 currently. The heaviest concentration of planes is still over the USA. I wonder how many flights are actually earning money for the companies. I also wonder how low the flight count in the air might go. Detroit is still showing 3700 flights for this week, a little above average.
Locally, there is still lots of traffic on the roads, though not as much as usual. People still are not staying home, and likely are finding it almost impossible due to bad cases of the squirmies. People in general can't sit still for long, and can't even remain on their own property for long. It got me to thinking about long voyages for humans in space. Ask someone who is healthy and sane if they could remain in their house and yard for one year. No leaving. Food, medicine, etc can be delivered, but they cannot step outside their property. How many could really do that, even with all the comforts of home? Next, skip the yard--they must remain in the house for a year. Windows can be opened at will. Now limit this even further. How many could live in just one large room for a year. Windows cannot be opened. Now make the room smaller, and add perhaps five more people in there. We are finally getting close to what space travel will be like if we wish to go to Mars. Except if anything breaks, fix it yourself, or possibly die. If you can't love they neighbour for that long, then what? If humans cannot even stay home during a virus epidemic, can we really expect to conquer space?
My film choice this week was called Edge of Heaven, directed by Fatih Akin. From 2007, it tells two or three linked stories about characters who live and work in either Turkey or Germany, and how they meet and why. It is a very human drama, and well acted and the story well plotted. An old man, Turkish but living in Germany, goes to a Turkish prostitute and more or less wants to buy her permanently to live with him. Needless to say it doesn't work out. He strikes her and she dies. He goes to prison. His son had become interested in the woman because she was searching for her daughter, living in Turkey, who had dropped off the radar. He takes up the search for the girl. The girl is in Turkey fighting for freedom, and has to escape the country. She goes to Germany, is taken in by a young female student, and the story goes on and the plot thickens.
The ending at first seems a bit up in the air, but we soon realize that finally all of the characters still living (another one dies) might actually be brought together finally. But that isn't really the point of the film. There are some brilliant cinematic touches, such as the loading and unloading of cargo onto a plane, and the way the director uses flashbacks and flashes into the future are used.
Now showing on Criterion, and highly recommended.
And now, to the forest, as promised by today's blog title. Entrance to the Forest Near Kelhiem seems to me to be an interesting comparison to where we are headed. Deep into the unknown. It promises to be a fascinating, if unsettling, journey. It might also be a bit bumpy.
Entrance to the Forest Near Kelhiem, 1871, by Carel Nicolaas Storm van s'Gravensande. Dutch, 1841-1924. Black chalk on blue wove paper, 13" x 20". Collection Detroit Institute of Arts.
Detail of above
Detail of above.
Mapman Mike
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