And I could still draw.


Nothing had lessened it as much
as I had abused it, abandoned it.


It was a gift, and it was still mine.


And everything else was less real.


--Finn Bell (played by Ethan Hawke) in "Great Expectations"

I enjoyed this movie again. One that I have watched over and over; just as warm starts to fill in - Gulf of Florida Hot, and this movie with its hot glow, every character dressed only in green, with close shots of glistening skin, and then New York, the art world, a warehouse turned living space, Robert De Niro and how he makes you want to tremble with fear but also take the subway with him to wherever he is going. It has the intensity of emotion, said more through the music and the stares than the dialogue, but sometimes I just want to believe it all. I sink into the beautiful drawings, the Italian esthetic sense of the director.