Spanish Dir J L Guerin's THE ACADEMY OF MUSES

"The Academy of Muses" is a loquacious, erudite film that centers around Prof. Raffaela Pinto (playing himself) and his pompous posturing on poetry and women's roles as muses for inspiring the creation of the arts.  The film begins and returns to his lecture hall where he does most of the talking while the camera lingers on several attractive women in the class.  The camera's lens captures these enraptured beauties, who have captured the wandering eye of the Prof.  His wife (played by Pinto's actual wife) is seen seated amongst the students.  The camera doesn't linger upon her elderly & wrinkled face amongst the young students.  The few male students are never heard from in class.  Pinto & his wife are filmed from outside a glass window.  We are voyeurs into their marital discord.  They speak without looking at each other.  His wife critiques his lectures.  It doesn't require Socrates to show Pinto is not one to accept criticism or miss an opportunity to seduce his female students.  Amongst the beguiling women muses in the classroom there is one with the gumption to defy the professor's set construct for poetry.  She's then berated by a classmate whose besotted by him and questions the quality of her prose.  Pinto tells his wife after she accuses him of philandering "teaching is seducing."  The overweight & overbearing prof. lavishes language, poetry & philosophy onto his attentive disciples who also love to hear themselves talk.  The spurned wife blames poetry for creating the myth that love exists.  Pinto's pretentious pandering argues "poetry brings light to the world."  Music, literature & nature are extolled for enhancing emotions & passions.  "Dancing is everything in life." Other than Pinto men are sublimated to the background.  Yet, the women are portrayed mainly as passive participants for inspiring rather than creating art.   Spanish dir. screenwriter Jose Louis Guerin aims to overflow one's cogitation on everything that adds luster to life.  This is a master class in the power of words and fathoms love, desire & jealousy.  The mundane is sometimes viewed as sublime.  Love is considered omnipotent & unattainable.  Love is also equated to the sharing of bookshelves.  Eros shot a golden arrow at Apollo who fell madly in love with Daphne and then launched a leaden arrow at Daphne so she would be repulsed by him.  There's a plethora of philosophy to muse and garner from this endlessly fascinating film for whom many will find endless to endure.  Dante has oft expressed "Love can move the sun and the stars."  "I love to doubt as we all as know."  I loved this film, although I'm not so sure.