elective affinities / the 6th day

'elective affinities' was a film by taviani brothers set in italy. it was a goethe story about how an idyllic marriage falls apart when both individuals in the marriage develop a destructive attraction for other people – the first the husbands childhood friend, the second the wife’s adoptive daughter. for a story whose title refers to a scientific concept the movie does take some strange turns into the mystical, like when a child is born with the hair of one lover and mole of the other to the married couple; or when each character chooses suffering and guilt over a happiness that lies just around the corner; maybe, not everything can be explained by science – especially human behavior.

on the other hand in the 6^th day the arnold action film about cloning, science has finally given humanity the power to make human life eternal- and arnolds too. an arnold clone has taken over his life and arnold 1 is pissed off. he wants his life back and will do anything to get it. robert duvall plays a scientist in a thankless cameo; and arnold adds 'genetically constructed' to his repertoire of 'artificial human' roles. isn’t it strange that it is so rare that he gets cast as a normal human being in his films. in the stories there is always something odd about the way he comes to be. something to do with the accent – or the body- i assume.