PARTICULARISM VS. UNIVERSALITY Freshly released on the internet, (http://tinyurl.com/d89ahv) is a film deceptively named "Sarah read her first book tonight." Similar to Andy Warhol's "Sleep," but shorter, it revolves around a single uncut image of a richly voiced protagonist (who is also shorter than Warhol's character). Like Warhol himself, the main character has admirers slowly entering the scene as the camera deftly pans. We are drawn in by this spellbinding heroine, so that, due to the film's simplicity, each grimace and captivating wink, each subtle movement of hand and leg, assumes a rich deep meaning, opening universes of emotion. We hear the adult character, apparently a mother image, and see a young man, smiling proudly as if from his soul, and asking existential questions with his facial expressions, but remaining wordless. The message is both particular and universal: If we help the reader, we will be nurturing, and she will read faster, but she will not learn. If we do not help, she will struggle, which is painful, but she will learn more completely, although then we are not allowing her to grow up in the most nurturing possible environment.
Will she complete the book? The question remains to be answered only in the mind of the viewer, but without revealing the final scene, the viewer easily, in his or her heart, will find the answer. The film, we finally see, is shot completely in a bedroom, on a bed. Does this signify that warmth and softness improve our ability to learn? One thinks of the Turing hypothesis of Artificial Intelligence. This film suggests that while machines may learn to read, only we humans will ever love, and that's what gives the words we read true meaning. It likely turns out that there are multiple answers to the question, "Will Sarah finish the book?" Sarah has admirers from New York to California, and from Europe to the Middle East. One never sees Sarah’s face, yet we are sure she smiles a smile so endearing that it would seem, if heads of state, sheiks and emirs, presidents and prime ministers could only see the film, all wars would end. Two thumbs and eight fingers up for this plea for world peace. -----D Goldberg, staff writer.