bright star

Bright Star is my second installment of movies that should have won an oscar in march. this one is about  the poet John Keats, whose house I recently visited (but didn't get to go inside) in London. the movie itself is a poem, and is so beautiful I could die. Really, I think I could. It is the most literary-based movie i've ever seen: Keats' poetry is integrated perfectly into the script.

It balances simplicity and drama in such a perfect way.

John Keats: I had such a dream last night. I was floating above the trees with my lips connected to those of a beautiful figure, for what seemed like an age. Flowery treetops sprung up beneath us and we rested on them with the lightness of a cloud. 

Fanny Brawne: Who was the figure? 

John Keats:  I must have had my eyes closed because I can't remember. 

Fanny Brawne:  And yet you remember the treetops. 

John Keats:  Not so well as I remember the lips. 

Fanny Brawne:  Whose lips? Were they my lips?

Fanny Brawne: I still don't know how to work out a poem. 

John Keats: A poem needs understanding through the senses. The point of diving into a lake is not immediately to swim to the shore but to be in the lake, to luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not work the lake out, it is a experience beyond thought. Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept the mystery. 

Fanny Brawne: I love mystery.

You don't have to work through a poem, systematically, to know that or how it affects you. I did get a bit emotional when i heard Ben Whishaw's reading of Ode to a Nightingale. I'm not necessarily proud of that fact, but there it is just the same. And here it is, if you'd like to listen. See if it doesn't strike a certain cord. I bet it will.

the young victoria

The Young Victoria is, as the title states, a movie about Queen Victoria immediately before and after her rise to the throne. More than that, though, it is a movie about love. It's so rare to be able to watch a historical (i use that term loosely) movie about royalty that is also a happy love story. So that fact is a luxury in itself, not to mention the beautiful soundtrack, exquisite costumes, and to-die-for sets. It is a stunning and immense piece of artistic work.

Prince Albert: I just got your note. I was riding. 

Queen Victoria: Sit, please. 

Prince Albert: The park is marvelous. 

Queen Victoria: Im so pleased you like it. I do want you to feel quite at home... I'm sure you're aware why I wished you to come here. Because it would make me happier than anything, too happy really, if you would agree to what I wish. 

Prince Albert: And stay with you? 

Queen Victoria: And stay with me. 

Prince Albert: And marry you? 

Queen Victoria: And marry me! 

Rupert Friend's portrayal of Lord Albert is so heartbreakingly sweet and perfect that it makes you want to hope that men like that still exist. He is so thoughtful and genuine that you can't help but fall in love with him immediately. 

He spends hours learning to waltz so that he might make Victoria happy, and with his first letter sends sheet music of a Schubert song that reminds him of her. 

here is the clip:

and, not to forget Emily Blunt--her role as Victoria is astounding. Her strength and gracefulness underlined by a youthful innocence is nothing short of inspiring, not to mention her utter and absolute beauty.

Sir John Conroy:  You're too young! you've no experience. you're like a china doll, walking over a precipice... 

Princess Victoria: Well then I must smash! for it's too late to mend my ways now. 

I happen to have a list of movies that were nominated for Oscars this year but didn't win and should have. That may just be my opinion, but I tend to get pretty riled up when I watch the Oscars nowadays. Credit rarely goes where it's due. Anyway, this movie happens to be on that list. It was nominated for art direction, costume design and makeup. It won costume design and makeup, but that was it. I'm not saying it didn't deserve those two--it absolutely did. But it also deserved to win for best actress (hands down, Emily Blunt could act circles around Sandra Bullock…if that's possible), and maybe even best movie. that's a tough one, but yes, I do believe so. Admittedly I'm quite the sucker for period films, but nevertheless.

oh, and i'll be back next sunday with my opinion of what Bright Star should have won.

Two for the Road [movie sunday] 1967

Mark Wallace:   "Who are you?"

Joanna Wallace:    "Some girl."

Mark [Albert Finney]:   Darling, what's French for 'Inspector, I don't believe a word you're saying and you're not gonna get a damn penny?' 
Joanna [Audrey Hepburn]:  'Oui, monsieur.' 

I'd like to start a weekly movie sunday post, and figured it would be most appropriate to begin with an Audrey Hepburn classic. I have a special, sort of sentimental love of really good, old movies. My dad's of the generation that listened to the Rat Pack and the Four Seasons, watched old Westerns and Singin' in the Rain and falls asleep to TCM every single night, without fail. 

I know that most girls (maybe not most, but I certainly do) idolize Audrey Hepburn and want to look just like her, but not as many people comment on the way she speaks. I would give anything to have her voice and talk the way she talks.

When Two for the Road first came out, it was considered confusing and choppy the way it jumps around to different times and places, but I completely disagree. The execution is flawless, and the placement of each little vignette perfectly displays the stages of their relationship--first as unlikely hitch-hiking partners, then lovers, then volatile husband and wife--they provide an exquisite juxtaposition of single, carefree life to married, married life. 

In the beginning, she's so naive and eager; he's so "wise" and full of little quips and full of himself. He's arrogant and annoying. Throughout the movie, you love him and you hate him.  


"If there's one thing I really despise, it's an indispensable woman," Mark says--and that's exactly what she is to him, an indispensable woman who always knows where his passport is when he doesn't.

The way that the movie portrays the couple, or love, is so real--it isn't nearly perfect, but in some twisted way it works. 

Mark:    "If you want to live in one half of a suburban shoe box like your parents, you married the wrong man."

Joanna:   "I don't want to live in one half of a suburban shoe box, and I married the wrong man."

They are so in love and then they take each other for granted, he resents being married and having a child. But, despite it all and through everything, they're stuck with each other. In the end I think that's what love really is--knowing that no matter what, no matter how much you can't stand the person you're with, you couldn't live without them.

 


Out of four stars, I give this movie ten.

last lines of the movie:

Mark:    "bitch."

Joanna:    "bastard." 

source

Audrey playing around on the set between shoots