OK, I officially don’t get it! What woman would leave the dark, mysterious, black-haired, blue-eyed genius for the mundane, skinny looking Viconte? This idea of the “Phantom of the Opera” I really cannot accept. Oh, he had a mask, hiding that abominable scar of his…Yet with his mask on he looked ten times better that the chosen love of the heroine. I mean, this girl has grown up learning how to sing from this sexy teacher, she heard the “music of the night”, saw all his mysteries, but she falls for the old childhood sweetheart who has nothing sparkling in his looks or personality. Where is the old theory of the girl falling for the dangerous, wild, bad man??? To quote a character of the “Gilmore Girls”, “every girl has to fall for a bad guy. That’s why so many accountants eventually get married”.

I admit if you just watch the movie, it is a kind of boring musical. Nothing more. But if you think a little of its message…The girl who had a calling to be the perfect singer leaves the genius composer, singer and architect for the art commoner. Come on my Romanian friends, you must see it, it really sounds like Eminescu’s “Evening Star”!!! And the phantom, why did they have to make him so blood-thirsty? I mean, come on, he could have been devious, drawn by his dark side, but a cold blooded killer would have never made the supreme sacrifice of allowing the woman he loves to be happy with his rival. I would have bought the story if he would have kept her with him.

And the scar used as the thing keeping her from loving the Phantom. Come on!!! It is more of a bruised soul. And now, tell me, which woman is not tempted by trying to change/save a man, especially when it seems impossible to do so…Another option would be the Evening Star idea: he is the superior being – Hyperion, she is the Princess that falls in love with the superior being that she cannot really have because she is afraid of his world, and the Viconte is the commoner tricking her into loving him, offering her a mundane but safe life. Yet again, the pride of Hyperion, his decision to leave her to her faith, he’s perception of her mortality and mediocrity, all these lack from the movie. Hyperion cannot be a cold blooded killer or try to kidnap her…

Yet this movie marked me more for different reasons. Mostly the red rose with a black lace, the symbol of the Phantom. The red rose has always been my symbol, my secret metaphor of what I am. A good friend even dedicated a poem called “Red Rose” to me. The strange nature of the black lace also reminded me of this poem where I was called “a red strange rose”. And then three perfect lines of a song…”Say you’ll share with me / One life, / One love…” I would like someone to say I will to that. And I also remembered a conversation about red roses with Mr. Completely Wrong for Me – he was all dressed in black.

And there is something else…We are both bruised and left behind and have a scar on our souls. But I managed to somehow get over it and be ready to try again, regardless of the risk of being hurt again. He coped in a very different way. And the fact that made me very sad was that I have a lot to work on my own and I am not sure I have the strength, the patience, the determination of changing/saving someone like him. I think I’ll just run away after the first time he hurts me…

Going by Razvan’s neighborhood is still very hard. Seeing the 34 and 46 trams is even harder. I know I am over him, it’s not that. It is just the fact that I lived there for about three years. I didn’t only lose him; I also lost my home and a lot of people that I used to call friends. But that will pass soon, everything does eventually.