I forgot to write a point in my last post so I’ll write it here; it was supposed to go at the end of the previous post. Arne is the example of not “playing the game” so to speak, and he has a major impact on Eben; but Jennie seems to prevail in this matter. Not fully mind you, because Eben still paints landscapes; but Jennie opened him up to new possibilities.

I believe Jennifer Jones was David O. Selznick’s Jennie. He actually goes on to marry her a year after the debut of the film. Selznick was madly in love Jones and I feel he might have been venting his feelings for her out across the screen.

I didn’t like the fact that we saw the portrait before Eben had finished it. Jennie’s arms were not there and maybe a few other little things. The majority of her body had been done, though, and when you see the final piece that really doesn’t seem to be much of a difference. When I saw the finished product later, I wasn’t as anxious because I had already seen it. When we watched the clip of Eben finishing the portrait, we didn’t even get to see it right away; Jennie and Eben have a conversation with each other first. But I wanted to see the portrait, I wanted to see what was so amazing about it. That moment in the film, unveiling the Portrait of Jennie for the first time, would have had this moment of awe, especially if viewers had seen the book’s cover and were hoping for something better. I just feel like that could have been an even greater moment in the film if I hadn’t seen the portrait earlier. Basically, they blew it.

I need to point out that while Eben is signing the portrait, with an incredibly silly look on his face, he looked like Stephen Baldwin; but the latter looks like that all the time, not just when sign things.

Jennie did inspire Eben to sketch/paint her, but more even than that she gave him a reason to live. He had someone or something to belong to, which is Jennie. She gave him a cause and reason to stay alive. Jennie kept telling Eben to wait, and that is exactly what he did. Eben worked on pieces of art that people would actually buy (flower pieces and more works with Jennie in them). And he survived in the world because of what Jennie made him feel and simply because she came into Eben’s life.

If you look at the novel and movie in this way, the reason Jennie is literally ripped away at the end, even though she had made it to the desired age to be with Eben, is because he had figured out how to survive in the world. Think back to Errol Morris with the way he made his films and received hardly any recognition. We said in class that if he would just “play the game,” then he might have been more widely appreciated. I must be honest though, I don’t really know what Errol Morris would have had to do to “play the game;” he’s sort of a special case. But now read the book and film in this way. If Eben would only “play the game” then he would be able to sell more art. People don’t want landscapes of things that will always be around or that anyone can find anywhere. They want art that presents life right now, portraits of people; especially women in the case of Mr. Mathews and the restaurant owner. Because of Jennie, Eben began to create pieces of art that people wanted; he also held to his own landscape preferences as well. Jennie allows Eben to realize what he must do in life, and her time and purpose in the world is up at that point.

I also feel like actress playing Jennie captures the character from the novel, but at times she goes over board with it. Acting very strange and making weird noises.

Jennie also always seems to head toward a light when ever she leaves a scene. She also almost always has a light of some sort position behind her head resembling a halo, as if she is an angel, Eben’s guardian angel. She gives him the opportunity to prosper as an artist, and propells his career to a level unknown to him. Within in doing all of this, the film is continuing to imply that Jennie is a ghost/angel or just simply dead.

There is a ton of forshadowing within the film; maybe a little too much at that. Every time Jennie sees a portrait having to do with an ocean, she freaks out and becomes incredibly scared. Eben is also painting those pictures, landscapes of the place where he is caught in the hurricane (I think it’s the same place, but don’t quote me on that). Then Mr. Mathews walks his dog, who just happens to be SKIPPER (an allusion to a the sea, with the skipper=captain thing) and who just happens to run to Eben, the man who is fighting the sea in the end of the novel.

I just jotted down these things while watching the film and thought I would share.

I’m having a hard time figuring out what Jennie was exactly. At first she seemed like a ghost, but Eben could touch her and everyone could see her as well; she even rode in Gus’s cab at one point. But she keeps going away and coming back a few weeks or months later looking much older and saying it had been years since she had seen him. Then she washed away by the hurricane, and a newspaper from the current day states that a Jennie Appleton had fallen overboard and was lost at sea during the storm. I’m a little weirded out by this. She seemed real but I was certain she was a ghost anyway. I agree with the idea that this book is a bit spooky, but not scary.

I think Jennie was trying to reach the same age as Eben, she might have even stated that that was what she wanted. But once Jennie reached that point in her life, when she and Eben could be together, she is killed. I feel that Jennie, at the point where she is climbing up the slippery hill, had actually taken her true existence where. She was not going to have to go away anymore, this was the point when she would be with Eben forever. Unfortunately, Jennie decided to come back to Eben during a terrible hurricane and was in turn killed. I just do not know what that girl was and it is bothering me. My theory of Jennie being a ghost could be wrong, since Robert Nathan became angry when the first film clearly portrayed Jennie as a ghost. So I’m as lost as Eben was through the whole novel.