'She's Gotta Have It' & 'Gertrud'

You might not think there's a lot of common ground with Spike Lee and Carl Theodor Dreyer.

Granted, Gertrud was released in 1964 and is Danish. She's Gotta Have It is Lee's first full-length. It was released in 1986 and is irretrieveably black and set in Brooklyn.

However, the stories are remarkably similiar.

She's Gotta Have It features Nola Darling as a 20-something liberated single artist. She lives in a kickass studio apartment in Brooklyn. She also has three lovers that bring three different scenes. There's the smart and kind Jamie, the hunky and stuck-up Greer and the aloof, poor and goofy Mars.

When forced to choose between the three, she makes a choice (Jamie) only to learn that she can't settle down with just one man. She needs variety.

Whereas Gertrud's Gertrud is married and within 10 minutes of the film's start, she asks her lawyer husband for a divorce in order to run away with her young, pianist lover.

Unfortunately, he's not that into her and a past lover comes into the picture wanting to stir up their old flame.

I hate both of these females. But I probably hate Gertrud the most. She sits there most of the movie looking all forlorn and lonely with that 1,000-yard stare as if life has dealt her some raw circumstances that no one should ever have to live with. She also says shit like this:

"No, one never remembers everything, but the creed went: 'I believe in the pleasure of the flesh and the irreparable loneliness of the soul.'"

Over and over with his bullshit. She winds up alone. As it should be with a idiot like her.

Actually, both Gertrud and Nola end up alone. Nola probably a bit more upbeat and Gertrud still starring off into space. However, both had three potential lovers and all three failed. So, good for them.