| I played hooky Friday to catch a 9:15 a.m. screening of "New Moon"—with, to my surprise, a theater full of women over 40. I hadn't expected so many of my contemporaries, much less my mother's, but when Jacob tore off his shirt, revealing those much-heralded abs, all became clear. A collective gasp, redolent of a deeply felt nostalgia, burst through even—or perhaps especially—the most wizened lips. However willing the spirit, the flesh remains weak. New Moon, according to reporters and religionistas is either a slick case for abstinence or a screed against feminism, but I see it as something both more and less. More than a sexual parable, it's a disquisition on souls. Both Edward and Jacob are more concerned with Bella's salvation than she is, suggesting that monsters—those who have lost the possibility of receiving God's grace—may appreciate its value more than a human being who takes it for granted. And less an argument on women's roles, the movie is more a meditation on manliness, pitting urbane, cosmopolitan vampire aesthetes against half-naked man-boys from the rez. It's secular humanists versus fundamentalists, which makes Team Jacob's appeal all the more delicious.
Would there were similar excitement for less commercialized instances of religiously dappled art. Last week I saw Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan at the Asia Society. Pakistan is all over the news, but it's difficult to penetrate beyond reports of military and political strife to get a sense for the texture of daily life. The exhibition's 15 artists offer insights into fraught and shifting notions of gender, sexuality, religion and violence in an array of colorful and arresting pieces. What appears to be a red-and-grey rendering of an intricately woven rug is, on examination, a collage of tiny photographs depicting dead animals in bloody slaughterhouses. A series of miniatures looks to capture religious figures in pensive moods. But deciphering images of beards, barbells and camo socks elicits a second question: Just who are these men and women?
The pressures of journalism have always militated against deep thinking and complex analysis; there was never enough space or time to do justice to a story. But the problem has worsened as the industry slips into free-fall. "New Moon" eclipsed box-office competitors, so reporters race to wrote about abs, teen angst and abstinence. Religion is just more grist for the mill. But one of the pieces in Hanging Fire puts religion and gender relations in a helpful cross-cultural perspective—and finds a point of contact in "New Moon." In soulful shots and tense cutaways, the movie makes much of Bella's reliance on Jacob to help her rebuild and ride a motorbike. Adeela Suleman, a Pakistani artist, cuts to the chase: she creates motorbike helmets for women made of brightly colored cooking pots. Bella, who knows her way around a kitchen, could definitely use one.
Diane Winston
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