ENNUI!

Ennui is actually one of my favorite words and not a day passes that I don’t find an excuse to use it.  For instance, a few days ago, I was stuck in traffic in downtown Dallas and I happened to notice that there was a pigeon sitting on a guard rail and it looked like it was wondering whether it should jump into traffic or if it should just continue to exist and contemplate life.  So, I rolled down my window and I looked straight at that pigeon and I called out, “ENNUI!”

The pigeon looked back at me.

We had an understanding.

Anyway, this video seems like it’s full of ennui.  To be honest, there’s no way to escape that feeling whenever you’re the only person standing near a swimming pool.  As I watched this video, I thought about that scene in The Graduate where William Daniels forces Dustin Hoffman to sit at the bottom of the pool.  I also thought about the Burt Lancaster film, The Swimmer, in which Burt attempted to swim home by going through all of the neighborhood pools.  And, of course, there was Todd Field’s Little Children, where Kate Winslet spent the whole movie hanging out at the neighborhood pool.

Julia Jacklin has got a talent for these ennui-drenched videos.

Enjoy!