PK
Virginia White is a simple secretary working for a big publisher in London who lives in a miserable apartment in a small West London borough. She has written a book rejected by most publishers in London, and lacking in confidence she has not proposed it to the Editor for whom she works. Her friend Tania, another secretary, tries to convince her to present her book to the Editor and the same night invites her to play part in a psychokinesis experiment at the University of London. The parapsychologist Dr. Brown explains to them that the Extrasensory experiment is very simple, there are four lights in front of them and they need to try to influence the apparatus so the lamp number 4 will light up more than the 3 others. If the result is over 25% it cannot be due to chance alone and they have proven their psychokinesis ability. Tania is not very successful, she rates way under 25% but Virginia rates a perfect score of 100%. Dr. Brown is very impressed by these results, he declares Virginia the most psychic woman alive and she should be using her skills to better the human race. He tells her that she can influence events and perhaps people by will alone and that in life she must be a very “lucky” and gifted person since she obviously can get information via other means than her 5 senses. In reality Virginia is very shy and unsure of herself. She is not particularly lucky or gifted. Dr. Brown suggests that perhaps she is not using all her potential and that he would like to try a different approach with her, he wants to see her again the next night. The next day Virginia is back in the office and plucks up the courage to give her book to the Editor, under the eyes of an excited Tania. That night at the University Dr. Brown asks Virginia to lie down on a bed and he connects her to some machines. He asks her to sleep and to think about what she believes will happen the next day. Then, when she will enter REM sleep, he will wake her up and ask her what she was dreaming about. So Virginia falls asleep just to be awoken an hour later. She tells Dr. Brown that in her dream her Editor invited her to a chic restaurant to announce that he will publish her book as it is the best thing he has ever read. She can now go home, live the next day and report back about what really happened. So the next day Virginia lives in the hope that the Editor will ask her to lunch. So far his schedule appears to be full and he is not even in the office. She has to cancel all his appointments and she tries to contact him without success. She discusses her dream with Tania and they both seem horrified that the Editor is not here. At the end of the day he enters the room, the book of Virginia in his hand. He wants her to come to the restaurant and sure enough he wants to publish her book. She goes back to see Dr. Brown and they try the experiment again. This time she dreams that a red car will collide with her car and that her friend Tania will die. The next day when she picks up Tania on their way to work, Virginia explains to Tania her dream and they are now both very worried. Virginia appears to be in a trance for a minute, she is trying to influence the events so the red car will not hit them. She drives very slowly and when she reaches the location of the accident, she can see the red car and she does not accelerate as she was in her dream. The red car takes another direction anyway so they are safe. They discuss that somehow Virginia has influenced the future, even changed the destiny of Tania. Perhaps she can push this further and hope for a big book award in order to live as an author and even maybe move to a leafy suburb or somewhere in the countryside. That day in the office Tania is worried. A woman who hates them both has backstabbed them by reporting a series of mistakes that are not exactly their fault but now that woman blames them. Tania feels that this may be it, they will both be sacked. It is the not the first time that this woman strikes and every time Personnel gets involved and there are meetings after meetings to find out who made the mistakes and eventually it always ends with a written warning. Tania feels that this time it is the final written warning but Virginia is suddenly very confident. She knows that it will backfire and the bitch will be blame and take responsibility for her mistakes. Sure enough this is exactly what happens and now Virginia feels weird about her new abilities. She meets with Dr. Brown to discuss what is going on. Is she now predicting the future or influencing it? She now dreams what will happen the next day and she can change the events to her advantage. She feels that she is no longer living, she believes life has become an unchallenging state of affair, like a video game. She is telling the Doctor that she will win the most looked after book prize in town and that he is invited to come with her when this happens. In fact, to her knowledge, her book was never submitted and she has no chance of winning. The next day she learns that somehow her Editor presented her book to the committee and she has been nominated. When her Editor all excited hopes for her to win, she is very sad when she announces that she will win for certain. She appears to have lost the will to live and she gets more and more depressed even though she now lives comfortably in the countryside with a much healthier bank balance. On the night of the book prize, Virginia, Tania, the bitch secretary, the Editor and the Doctor are all sitting around the table. Virginia wins and she goes to the podium to give her speech. She is very distressed, unhappy, she says that she has influence the events somehow so she could win. She announces that she has cheated on life, that she does not deserve the prize, in fact, she does not even deserve to be published. She is a simple secretary and leaves the room crying. The Doctor runs after her to discuss the situation some more. Virginia announces that she dreamt her own suicide that same night. That she could no longer live if she knew exactly what would happen in life and if she could influence everything to her own advantage. This is when the Doctor tells her that perhaps ignorance is bliss. She should forget about psychokinesis and ESP, about the mechanisms of existence, and try to live a normal life. A glimpse of light comes back in the eye of Virginia. She appears to have an idea. The end of the movie is Virginia signing her new books at a book launch. She seems very happy and the title of the book is Ignorance is Bliss. But when the Doctor asks her if truly ignorance is bliss, she does smile and do not answer.
Virginia White, a simple secretary working for a big publisher in London, arrives to work late on a cold morning. She rushes in the office and see the beautiful Raymond. They exchange a big smile and suddenly her eyes falls on Lucy, a woman younger than her who looks at her watch after looking at Virginia from head to toe with a condescending air. Then she leaves the room. Another secretary called Tania comes closer and gives us an idea of what is going on in the office. Virginia: what is that bitch up to now? Tania: who does she think she is? Our boss? She’s just a secretary like us. Virginia: who makes many mistakes… Tania: and somehow always succeed in getting us blame for them. Virginia: I hope being late is not a sackable offense, with my final written warning that would be it. Lucky you, you don’t have your final written warning yet! Tania: I’m the lucky one with my three written warnings… And they laugh about their situation before talking about the business of the day. We learn that they are working for a big publisher and their boss Mr. Pemberton is the main Editor, also that Virginia is interested in the beautiful Raymond and that it would be sad if she was fired. Tania tries to convince Virginia that she should give her manuscript to the Editor, before she is sacked, perhaps it would save her. Virginia: can you imagine? He would be so red with jealousy that it would be all he needs to decide to fire me on the spot. Tania: it would certainly shut Lucy up. We learn that the book Virginia has written was rejected by every publisher in town and she lacks the confidence to give it to her boss. Then Tania invites Virginia tonight to an experiment at the University of London about psychokinesis. Virginia agrees to accompany her. At the University the parapsychologist Dr. Brown explains to them that the extrasensory experiment is very simple, there are four lights in front of them and they need to try to influence the apparatus so the lamp number 4 will light up more often than the 3 others. If the result is over 25% it cannot be due to chance alone and they have proven their psychokinesis ability. Tania is the first to try and she sits down at a table with the remote control so when she feels ready she pushes the button and one of the lamp lights up. On the other side of the window, seeing that all the lamps lights up except number 4, Dr. Brown asks Virginia if perhaps her friend did not understand the experiment and is trying instead to get all the lamps to light up except number 4? He is very impressed anyway because he explains that it would also be significant if lamp number 4 were to light up less than 25% of the time, it would mean she could affect the event in a reverse kind of way. But then lamp number 4 lights up twice in a row and all his hopes are gone. Now it is the turn of Virginia to sit down and Tania to talk with Dr. Brown. While they start talking about the experiment and the fact that perhaps Tania is some sort of an anti-psi-star, and therefore might be inviting bad luck into her life, we can see in the background that every time Virginia presses the button, the lamp number 4 lights up. After a while Virginia turns around and says that perhaps the machine is not working? Dr. Brown rushes to check it out. Pressing the button and seeing that it works fine, he cannot believe his eyes. He asks Virginia to try again. Once again lamp 4 lights up all the time. Shaking, he brings her into his office pushing away Tania who is a bit insulted as she thought for a moment that she was some special subject and was already dreaming of going out with Dr. Brown. In the office, Dr. Brown is delighted by these results, he declares Virginia the most psychic woman alive and she should be using her skills to better the human race. He tells her that she can influence events and perhaps people by will alone and that in life she must be a very “lucky” and gifted person since she obviously can get information via other means than her 5 senses. In reality Virginia is very shy and unsure of herself. She is not particularly lucky or gifted. She explains that the man she hopelessly fell in love with in the office, Raymond, is gay. That she is about to be sacked from her job and her first novel cannot find a publisher. Dr. Brown suggests that perhaps she is not using all her potential and that he would like to try a different approach with her, he wants to see her again the next night. In the meantime he tells her to have more confidence and to confront reality, to provoke the circumstances, and everything should happen beyond her wildest dreams. The results of the experiment shows that she should be able to affect the people around her, turn everything to her own advantage. The next day Virginia is back in the office and plucks up the courage to give her book to Mr. Pemberton, the Editor, under the eyes of an excited Tania, but under the funny reaction of her boss. With a very patronizing tone, he just cannot believe that her secretary can have any aspiration as a writer. In his opinion good women writers are very rare, as a prime example he mentions that to this day he has never seen a woman who published a book about philosophy that was recognized as a great body of work. In fact, he knows no woman who ever wrote philosophy. Virginia is quick to point out that perhaps it is because they had male publishers who thought exactly as he thinks. Perhaps those publishers were so frightened at the idea of publishing a woman that they published the book under a pseudonym, a male name! Maybe every great philosopher is actually a woman! In fact, she would not mind to be published under the name Raymond if he wishes. And then a smile comes across Mr. Pemberton’s face, he points out that Raymond is gay, if she did not know that by now. She wonders if being gay is worse than being a woman, to that the Editor answers that he knows gay people who wrote great philosophy. Exasperated she tells him to read the book and to chuck it in the bin if he does not like it. She adds that everyone else in town rejected it anyway, so she was not expecting miracles here. At that he panicked: who else has read this before? Every publisher in town, she answers. So what, you won’t read it now? He then says: I cannot publish something that has been rejected buy the whole planet, I would be a laughing stock! I can already read the headlines: George Pemberton, desperate for any new author, publishes the book of his secretary, a book that everyone else thought was garbage! Virginia, completely out of her mind, shouts: read it or else I won’t do your presentation for the third quarter meeting, or better, I will fill it with obvious mistakes and you would never know the difference, but your boss will. At this idea he reminds her that she is on her final written warning, to which she adds: exactly! I don’t care anymore! All right, all right, I will read it tonight! Satisfied Virginia leaves his office. She is greeted by Tania who wants to know what happened. Virginia: after all these insults, I don’t think for a minute he will read it tonight as he said. He just wanted to get rid of me! Who was insulting who, Tania is afraid to ask? We were both insulting each other, Virginia adds, before putting her two hands in front of her face in shame, just as Lucy passes by, wondering what is going on. She goes right into the office of Mr. Pemberton. Both Virginia and Tania are trying to listen to what is happening in the office. They hear loud laughter and they are just completely discouraged. That night at the University Dr. Brown asks Virginia to lie down on a bed and he connects her to some machines. He asks her to sleep and to think about what she believes will happen the next day. Then, when she will enter REM sleep, he will wake her up and ask her what she was dreaming about. So Virginia falls asleep just to be awoken an hour later. She tells Dr. Brown that in her dream her Editor invited her to a chic restaurant to announce that he will publish her book as it is the best thing he has ever read. She can now go home, live the next day and report back about what happened. She points out that Mr. Pemberton does not think much of women as writers, in fact, he does not think much of her. It is very unlikely that this will happen. So the next day Virginia lives in the hope that Mr. Pemberton will ask her to lunch. So far his schedule appears to be full and he is not even in the office. She has to cancel all of his appointments and she tries to contact him without success. She discusses her dream with Tania and they both seem horrified that Mr. Pemberton is not here. At the end of the day he enters the room, the book of Virginia in his hand. He wants her to come to the restaurant, but instead of the chic restaurant that she saw in dream, it is a disgusting little café on the corner of the office, filled with horrible people walking around them, dropping stuff on the table and pushing her in the back. She seems unhappy and Mr. Pemberton asks her what’s wrong. Nothing, it is just that in my dream you were bringing me to the nicest restaurant in town. What else did you see in your dream, asks Mr. Pemberton? You were telling me that my book was the best thing you ever read and that you would publish it. Don’t worry, I am not dreaming now. So, tell me the bad news, I am a bit surprise that you would bring me to the restaurant to tell me it is crap. Well, he says, the book is great and I want to publish it. What? she says. Are you serious? Yes, I am. Of course, you will have to rewrite it completely at least five times, but I believe this is a winner. Ok, ok! I don’t mind! she says. I will rewrite it ten times if necessary! So he asks: you had a dream about this? Yes, she says. In which you were not asking me to rewrite it another five times, if I may add. Weird, he says. You might not have to rewrite it you know, it all depends on the committee, they might accept it as it is, though I would be very surprised, it would be a first. And under which name will it be published, she asks? Your name of course, this is way too feminine to be written by a man… unless you were gay, of course. It is too… how shall I put it, too emotional, too pink to my taste. Too many details, too much intuition, only a woman could be that hysterical. Or intelligent, she says, after doing a weird face. Yes, intelligent, he admits. You are full of surprises, I would have never suspected that my secretary could be so observing of society and be capable of writing such a book. If I did know you better, I would have thought this was written by a Doctor of psychology who has three PhDs from Oxford University. She is surprised to hear that, but does not fail to mention that Dr. Brown said something similar two days before. Perhaps she is a different person when she writes as when she just lives her life. Perhaps this is all about to change, he finally says. And by the way, I love those two monsters you described so well, who in the world could be so mean and blind? he asks. Oh, it is based on real life, just look around and you will find those monsters creeping around you, she says. Really? he adds. Yes, and they are particularly blind, as you say, she says finally, obviously talking about him and Lucy. She goes back to see Dr. Brown and they try the experiment again, pleased with the success of the first attempt. This time she dreams that a red car will collide with her car and that her friend Tania will die. She is quite distressed by her dream and tells Dr. Brown her concerns. He is quick to tell her that she should be able to influence the future, it might not happen. She just needs to concentrate and repeat to herself that it will not happen. How does someone do that? How can she actually influence the future, change it? The only thing Dr. Brown can think of is meditation. Try to not think about anything, to stop hearing that stupid little voice in your head for a few minutes, and then make it happen. You just have to make it happen, she sings, as per the Oasis song. The next day we see the miserable apartment of Virginia. She is getting ready to go to work and she kisses her five cats goodbye, telling them that her friend Tania might die today, but again she might not. She wonders if she should stay home with her cats. She sits in the big chair with one of them, wondering how she finds the energy to ever leave the flat when she could be so happy here with her five cats. She could write her next novel all day, giving them nice food, instead of going to work. She could be living in a nice leafy apartment uptown or even better, in the countryside. And for a moment there, she is kind of blank, she is in some sort of trance. When she wakes up, she realizes she might be late and somehow she is convinced that she has changed the future. She tells her cats that soon they will move to a much bigger and better place. In fact, it will be so luxurious, they will all feel embarrassed and guilty for living there. Then she leaves. When she picks up Tania on their way to work, Virginia explains to Tania her dream and they are now both very worried. She drives very slowly and when she reaches the location of the accident, she can see the red car and she does not accelerate as she saw in her dream. The red car takes another direction anyway so they are safe. They discuss that somehow Virginia has influenced the future, even changed the destiny of Tania. Perhaps she can push this further and hope for a big book award in order to live as an author and even maybe move to a leafy suburb or somewhere in the countryside? That day in the office Tania is worried. Lucy, the woman who hates them both, has backstabbed them by reporting a series of mistakes that are not exactly their fault but now that woman blames them. Tania feels that this may be it, they will both be sacked. It is the not the first time that this woman strikes and every time Personnel gets involved and there are meetings after meetings to find out who made the mistakes and eventually it always ends with a written warning. Tania feels that this time it is final but Virginia is suddenly very confident. She knows that it will backfire and the bitch will be blame and take responsibility for her mistakes. Sure enough this is exactly what happens and now Virginia feels weird about her new abilities. A few weeks later, back in the office, everyone is celebrating the success of Virginia’s book. It is still number one after 3 months! She is now a PA instead of a secretary, even though no one is certain what the difference means, at least the salary is much higher. The other secretary Lucy is very frustrated while Virginia and Tania are just delighted by this change of events, enjoying every moment of their success over her. She meets with Dr. Brown to discuss what is going on. Is she now predicting the future or influencing it? She now dreams what will happen the next day, can remember it and she can change the events to her advantage. She feels that she is no longer living, she believes life has become an unchallenging state of affair, like a video game. She is telling the Doctor that she will win the most looked after book prize in town and that he is invited to come with her when this happens. In fact, to her knowledge, her book was never submitted and she has no chance of winning. The next day she learns that somehow her Editor presented her book to the committee and she has been nominated. When Mr. Pemberton all excited hopes for her to win, she is very sad when she announces that she will win for certain. She appears to have lost the will to live and she gets more and more depressed even though she now lives comfortably in the countryside with a much healthier bank balance. On the night of the book prize, Virginia, Tania, Lucy, the Editor and the Doctor are all sitting around the table. Virginia wins and she goes to the podium to give her speech. She is very distressed, unhappy, she says that she has influence the events somehow so she could win. She announces that she has cheated on life, that she does not deserve the prize, in fact, she does not even deserve to be published. She is a simple secretary and leaves the room crying. While Lucy suddenly appears to have regained an interest in life, the doctor runs after Virginia to discuss the situation some more. Virginia announces that she dreamt her own suicide that same night. That she could no longer live if she knew exactly what would happen in her life and if she could influence everything to her own advantage. This is when the doctor tells her that perhaps ignorance is bliss. She should forget about psychokinesis and ESP, about the mechanisms of existence, and try to live a normal life. A glimpse of light comes back in the eye of Virginia. She appears to have an idea. The end of the movie is Virginia signing her new books at a book launch. She seems very happy and the title of the book is Ignorance is Bliss. But when the Doctor asks her if truly ignorance is bliss, she does smile and do not answer. She simply says: well, you will have to buy the book to find out! Roland Michel Tremblay  
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