In this case "overheard" is not strictly accurate given that I was the one doing the talking rather than the overhearing in the conversation I am about to relate. However, the whole encounter was just as inscrutable and perplexing as most overheard conversations often are, so I think the title holds up in the end.
A couple months ago, Shannon and I went to see The Seven Year Itch
during the Marilyn Monroe Retrospective at the Brooklyn Academy of Music... |
| via filmforum.org |
The couple sitting in front of us were probably in their mid-to-late sixties (i.e. old enough to have seen The Seven Year Itch when it was released in theaters in 1955). A few minutes before the lights dimmed, the following conversation took place:
Shannon: So what's this movie about again?
Me: I've never actually seen it, but I think it's about the idea that when men have been married for a certain number of years -- seven, I guess -- they start to get an itch to look at other women and feel like they're missing out. I think it's fair to say the sexual politics of this movie are pretty dated.
Shannon: Who does Marilyn Monroe play?
Me: I'm not sure. Tom Ewell plays a guy whose wife goes away for the summer and he meets Marilyn Monroe -- I think she's like a girl who works in his office or something?At this point, the man in front of us turned swiftly around, fixed me with what I can only describe as a menacing glare and said, "WRONG!"
I don't know what was more startling, the fact that he spoke in such a loud, taunting tone or the fact that he said absolutely nothing else. I found myself just staring at him waiting for what I don't know. Maybe some sort of follow up explanation about La Monroe's actual role in the film? It didn't happen. He just gave us another semi-disgusted look and turned back around.
Me: Um, I guess I'm wrong about that. We'll just have to wait and see the movie..."
Shannon: Yeah.Strange times.
xo,
Lindy
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