Ed and I had just seen Julian Schnabel’s movie about Vincent Van Gogh, “At Eternity’s Gate”, and were exiting one of the more tucked away screening rooms at the Landmark 57 multiplex, which required walking down a long, narrow, and lightning bolt cornered exit hall.

And, perhaps inspired by the idiosyncratic cinematography of the movie, constantly challenging the viewer to appreciate light and perspectives and movement in unfamiliar ways…

…  I felt compelled to hang back and take some pictures of the hallway, with the red exit sign, the lights creating shapes and shades on the grey walls, the flares and blurs of light that erupted in my camera phone even more than before my own eyes…

I went down the length of one leg of the exit hall, where it takes a lighting bolt shaped corner…

But then first took a look back at a spare, red free hallway…  like a corridor of a sci-fi space ship…

A woman walked down the corridor as I was taking the picture.  She joked I will have to pay her for the photo.  I sheepishly explained I felt compelled by the movie to capture the unique lights and perspectives of this exit way.  We talked about the movie, its depiction of the artist and artistic process.  We talked about how after a hundred years of people accepting the story that Van Gogh committed suicide, the world is finally understanding that, at a time when his mental health had improved and his fortunes were looking up, he was most likely shot by a youth (under still uncertain circumstances), which this expressionistic movie and the recent “Loving Vincent” (an uneasy if fascinating melange of crime procedural and animated oil paintings) dramatize.

Meanwhile, Ed, already out in the lobby, was wondering what had become of me…

“Was ist passiert?” he texted me.

“What happened?”, in German.

Using German was a way to couch his annoyance in bemused terms.

Meanwhile in the exit way’s double corner, one exit sign points to another.

And I was too busy using my phone as a camera to see Ed’s text…

“Mensch!”  Ed texted.

“Man!”, or the German’s way to exasperatedly say “Gawd!”

I didn’t see this text either…

Turning the lighting bolt shaped double corner, I kept finding new pictures to take…

“Komm schon!”

“Come already!”, you can see him texting, he’s the tall figure past the doorway.

The attendant was looking at me probably wondering what the hell was I taking pictures for…

One more look back at the second corner.

Ed texted: “Genug doch!” which is improper German.  “Jetzt aber genug!” would have been a correct alternative.  “Enough already!”

(We talked about a proper alternative to the syntax mangling “Genug doch” on the way to the subway.  In addition to loving if distractible husband I also function as Ed’s live in German tutor.)

“Oh, hey, Ed.  I just had to take these pictures.  Inspired by the movie, I guess.”

“Mmm hmmm…”

Ach ja.  Es ist schon eine Qual mit mir.

Ed sighs and agrees with relatively good grace.