New Year Celebrations

It seemed that the main trend was to stay in this year for New Years Eve. So unlike most of my friends I was at the most lavish party in town, albeit from the comfort of my best friend's sofa, tucked up under a duvet, but elegantly hosted by none other than Mr Jay Gatsby. We had all the music, the vibrant fellow party goers and free-flowing booze a girl could need (ok, so only the booze bit was technically part of my reality, but that's just being pedantic). 

There was a slight pang of guilt that, maybe, I should start the New Year as I intend to go on; watching a good film (that is, critically recognised as so). So the fact that the Godfather: Part II was on FILM4 and I had failed to tune in, almost seemed like starting on a bad note. But then it would have inevitably ended up with the overwhelming desire to greet every wish of a 'Happy New Year' with a brash hug, rather aggressive kiss on the cheek and a 'You broke my heart. You broke my heart!' before enigmatically walking away - probably not the best idea for someone already circling the margins of social acceptance. 

So Baz Luhrmann's 2013 retelling of The Great Gatsby it was. Maybe it is more style over substance, but perhaps it also embodied a few messages that weren't as hollow and shallow as first glance may suggest to start the New Year. Firstly, that money can't buy your way to happiness - or, as I would argue in Luhrmann's case, better art, as, for me, his films were much more interesting before he had an exorbitant budget. But, perhaps most aptly; you can't relive the past. While these are derived from the main source material of Fitzgerald's novel, it seems an appropriate message to take forward into 2014: the past is gone, we can't relive it or recapture it and to do so is futile. So for all the New Year's resolution/new start bullshit that will be doing the rounds for the next 24 hours, maybe my first film of the new year has given me more to ponder than the glitz and glamour of fictional tragic decadence. And maybe, if I really wanted to explore this more, I'd dig out my copy of the novel. But like everyone else, the burst of enthusiasm for the pursuit of such philosophies will probably have dissipated by tea-time.