A good soup

I ran across a reference today to Betty Blue, a French movie I saw several years ago. I remember having no patience for the main character, a man who goes to ever greater extremes to accomodate his insane girlfriend. I think the idea is that she is schizophrenic. She eventually dies--suicide, I think. Which was a relief at that point for me and also possibly for the main character, Zorg. The movie appears to be a meditation on love and its attendant insanities, writ large. What would you do for the woman you love, etc., etc. Betty royally screws up everything for him, alienating everyone who can do him good, getting him fired, and forcing him to abruptly leave his pleasant seaside home to follow her crazy ass around. (At this point in time, I'm reminded of my ex-husband's girlfriend, who is bipolar and also alienates everyone around him, although not so much with her mental illness as with just being a freeloading, repugnant narcissist. ANYWAY.)

At any rate, the movie opens with Zorg making some sort of bean stew on the stove of his beach house. He makes his living as a handyman for the beachfront community. He's self-sufficient and seemingly self-contained, as epitomized by his quiet, nourishing meal at his kitchen table. Then Betty arrives on the scene and he doesn't get a good meal again until the end of the movie. After grieving for a while, he's back to cooking for himself again and seems to be renewed by eating his soup right out of the pot at his kitchen table. He has grief, loss, and a good meal and that seems like a good start for him.

As I'm trying to get back into my old-maid groove, which I was so happy in, once I got the hang of it, I'm hoping to achieve that eagerness he shows to regain himself and his peace as he spoons his self-made meal into his mouth.