First things first: Thank you for 200 episodes! It's been continuously joyful to keep showing up for y'all, to chat about the art form that fuels my love and obsession. I gave myself a goal to get here by December, so the fact that it's May tells me I've put a decent-sized proverbial fire under my ass.

Today, I interview Bille August, the director of the new romantic drama THE KISS, about soldier-in-training Anton (Esben Smed) courting wheelchair-bound aristocrat Edith (Clara Rosager) in 1913 Denmark.

At first, this sounds like the stuff of airport love novels, but Anton's main concern is to pull himself up by the bootstraps out of poverty. This pursuit of upper class ends up creating a rift between his feelings for Edith because his prejudice, quiet though unchecked, ensures, in his mind, that a serious romantic relationship would be judged negatively by his community.

He does care for her, so he won't be callous as his fellow soldiers do behind her back, but he also won't defend her. He overcompensates with compassion to soften any blow regarding blowing off plans or sneaking in a lie to cover his whereabouts. Compassion bleeds into pity, reflecting the warning posted in the title of the Stefan Zweig novel on which the movie's based: BEWARE OF PITY.

August and I spoke about pity, the idea of too much compassion being the real villain of a decidedly thorny, frustrating story. Anton hits too close to home regarding how we pity others, how our own prejudices go unexamined due to cowardice. In this, the movie's evergreen.

THE KISS is currently playing in select theaters.

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