Three films and a weekend

After that weekend post on my peaceful coexistence with clutter, on a bit of a rebound, I decided to clear up our CD collection. Did I tell you we got rid of cable/Tata Sky a few months back? Yeah well, so over the weekend, the kids watch their DVDs, and I thought it would be a good idea to get them in order.
However, I stumbled upon some long forgotten films – a treasure, really. As a result the cleaning was quite forgotten and I sat down for a film-festival of my own.

First it was You’ve Got Mail

I could do an entire post on that one. Kathleen (Meg Ryan) owns a tiny bookshop while Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) heads a giant bookstore (that drives her out of business). The two bump into each other in a chatroom and a love story unfolds. Films on books and book lovers are a complete treat. Wasn’t Kathleen’s Shop Around the Corner just the cutest? I loved how cosy her storytelling sessions were and how she knew just the right book for every child. 

I felt her heartbreak when she could not meet the competition from Joe Fox. And yet I couldn’t hate him for he’s sweet too. Their interactions are absolutely heartwarming. 

Some of the dialogues really spoke to me. Consider this one:
Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life – well valuable, but small – and sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven’t been brave?
and this:
When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life ever does.
My favourite however, is this one:
Kathleen: ….What happens to me when I’m provoked is that I get tongue-tied and my mind goes blank. Then I spend all night tossing and turning trying to figure out what I should have said.

Kathleen Kelly was definitely the hero of this film for me.


Then I watched Mary Reilly

This one was hidden away with a bunch of more famous Julia Roberts starrers and I had completely missed watching it. Roberts plays Mary Reilly, a maid to Dr Jekyll, with a dark past and an abusive father. She gets embroiled in Dr Jekyll’s experiments as he changes each night to Mr Hyde. He’s a little in love with her but can’t tell her and she’s a bit in love with him too. Mr Hyde however has no such compunctions. He scares her and yet she feels an unexplained attraction. It’s a bit of a dark film but very engrossing. Do catch it if you can.

And finally Sense and Sensibility….

for the hundredth time. 

**Gush Alert**

Jane Austen’s story is of course a favourite (and I won’t even go into that. If you haven’t read it you just should, rightaway) but I also love everything else about this 1995 film. The setting is lovely, the English countryside is breathtaking and the two characters of Elinor and Marianne contrast beautifully. Each of the supporting characters are just right for their parts.
But the bestest part of all was that I completely forgotten it starred Alan Rickman (Snape) as Colonel Brandon. As the strong silent Colonel, he was …. perfect. I could have whacked  Marianne on the head for ignoring him so but then he does get her in the end so it was all forgiven. 

Then there was Hugh Grant being Hugh Grant – the perfectly awkward gentleman – quite his forte. The two ladies Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet were a treat too. Lovely lovely film.

All in all a weekend well spent. As for the cleaning  – that’ll have to wait yet another day. 
How was your weekend? Do you like to re-watch old films?

Linking up with Mackenzie at Reflections from Me

A is for Austen

Jane Austen

1775 – 1817

Can a book written in the
19th century find admirers in the 21st?… two hundred years later? Sure, if
Austen is anything to go by. And so I let Jane Austen kick off my A to Z
challenge. It was a tough choice from among greats like Ayn Rand, Aldous Huxley
and more recently the controversial yet highly enjoyable Amy Chua.
But when I let my heart choose it has to be her.

Isn’t it unbelievable that
she was first published in 1811 and we’re still reading her and enjoying her
novels?

The beginning

Jane came from a large family of six brothers and two sisters. She was born at Steventon, a small village in North Hampshire England. Apart from a few years at Oxford when Jane was just 8, she spent all her life within the circle of her family. Even before she hit her teens she was writing short plays and stories. At about 14 years (1789) she had made up her mind to become a professional writer. However her first novel, Sense and Sensibility (earlier known as Elinor and Marianne), went into print some 12 years later, in 1811. 
Her other works include, Pride and Prejudice (earlier titled First Impressions), Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.
Like regular women of her times and like her heroines as well, Jane could play the fortepiano (an early version of the present day piano), was a decent enough seamstress and could dance pretty well too.

Jane, the romantic

Strangely enough for someone whose romances are so popular Jane never married. She did have one not-quite-proper romance with Tom Lefroy a law student. However they were both penniless and his family had him sent away. They never saw each other again.
She received a proposal of marriage too, the only known proposal. Though she accepted it, she later withdrew her acceptance. The reason is not known. However later in a letter to her niece who had asked for advice on a relationship, Jane told her not to commit as “… Anything is preferred or endured rather than marrying without affection“, she cautioned. 
Sounds so much like Lizzie from Pride and Prejudice.

Finally..here is why

I love Austen

.. for her wit

It’s not the laugh out
loud kind of thing. It’s way more subtle and unexpected. It’s an ironical kind
of wit that makes you smile sentence after sentence.
Check out these gems.. 
Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure
Or Mr Darcy’s 
I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

..for her heroins

They follow their heart.
They’re strong and passionate yet gentle and sensitive. I wonder how that went
down with the gentry two hundred years ago but it sure sits well with women of
the 21st century.

.. for her plots that always end happily

I’ve always maintained I’m
a sucker for happy endings. I love that ‘All is well’ feeling by the time her
books wrap up.

.. because her books are still
relevant

I can certainly vouch for
India in this regard. How becoming an old maid is considered such a horror (Maybe
not by the woman herself, quite like Lizzy in Pride and Prejudice, but by her
family, her relatives, her neighbours and her neighbour’s neighbours). Not for
nothing is she Helen Fielding’s (of Bridget Jones fame) favourite who famously
said.. “Jane Austen’s plots are very good and have been market researched over
a number of centuries, so I simply decided to steal one of them. I thought she
wouldn’t mind and anyway she’s dead.” In a sense Austen in the mother of all modern day chick-lit. (Yikes I hate that term, so! Makes women sound like hens).

On the other side are her
critics who maintain..

…her novels lack
‘passion’.

Well she did skim over
that bit but then I’m sure she never intended to write sexy books. (She would
probably be reaching out for her smelling salts hearing that Fifty Shades was
inspired by her Pride and Prejudice). 

… she suffered from a
narrow vision 

because she only drew upon the small society she lived in for inspiration.
Yet, how well she did it! And that her heroines could think beyond what was expected of them, speaks
of her broad mindedness.

So which side are you on?

***********

This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014, for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.

Also linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge.