9 posts tagged “movie”

the Happiest time of the year

I was watching a Christmas movie on Hallmark last night. Henry Winkler was the wise fun uncle who comes to stay for Christmas and  collects a handsome stranger at the airport, who of course falls in love with the uptight, corporate niece with the oh so cute kid.  I had one of those happy inane smiles on my face that you get when you watch a happy inane fluffy romantic comedy Christmas movie.

Mr FD must have been stunned by the sight of a smile upon my face – the first in a few days probably. He must have thought I had some secret supply somewhere and not sharing, so sat down and started to watch the movie with me. In the hope I would share no doubt. It wasn’t long before he was getting annoyed at the “bad guy” fiancé, who was boring and rich and distant and controlling, and cheering for the handsome stranger.

Just after the bad guy manipulates the good guy out of the picture and the wise uncle is telling uptight, list making girl to throw caution aside and run after the good guy, the cable station had some sort of break down. The frame just froze. It was the network’s problem and after a few minutes in which we imagined the lone person at the cable station , drinking coffee in the staff room, realising that the movie had frozen and running down the dark empty corridors to flick a switch, the channel when into an endless string of commercials.

Mr FD became quite distraught – how were we ever going to know what happened next? I said , relax, she will chase after him to the airport, but will not be able to find him and just as she is leaving he will appear from somewhere and all will be well.

No, not good enough for my man. He is obviously not going to sleep until he knows the outcome. I said, look even when it comes on again, they will skip a chunk to make up for lost time. I know the ways of this world, yes I do!

His eyes were like deer in the headlights. I could almost see and hear his mouth forming the word “NNNNOOOOOOOO!”. The man was in serious suffering.

The movie eventually came on, and yes they had leapt a chunk, but we got to see the scene where she is leaving the airport and he sees her retreating and calls out to her. Segway to car returning home and good guy running out of the car to embrace cute kid. Closing scene he and she kiss as the door closes. Sweet.

Mr FD was somewhat mollified, but the missing minutes of the storyline really upset him.  I think he went to bed a little empty.

This morning the #$@$#$%#$%@$#$^% parrots woke be at 5am, chirping away in the trees outside our bedroom, so I gave up the thought of sleep and came downstairs for a tea and one of the coffee muffins I made last night. I flipped on the television and LO! the movie was on replay and I was able to catch up on the missing storyline (I won’t tell in case you are yet to watch!). When Mr FD came downstairs I was able to relate the details to him. Oh happy day, he regained his happy glow.

It really doesn’t take much to keep a Mr FD happy. Perhaps you should buy one sometime. I got the family size.

Marjorie Lawrence - Australian opera soprano

I have just spent the evening watching an old movie about the Australian opera singer Marjorie Lawrence. Marjorie was born on a farm in 1907 and somehow managed to go from distant Australia to France to study and then onto New York to rise in the operatic ranks. Being an Australian girl she was very physical and she was the first soprano to perform the immolation scene in Götterdämmerung by riding her horse into the flames as Wagner had intended. Good old Marjorie also performed the Dance of the seven veils in Richard Strauss's Salome^[1] "more convincingly" than most other sopranos!

Not long after she married she contracted polio and was left confined to a wheelchair.  She managed to resume her career and sang for some time afterwards. She even travelled overseas to entertain the troops after WWII and I think even during the Vietnam War. Marjorie died in 1979.

The movie starred Eleanor Parker as Marjorie. Dear Eleanor I believe was nominated for an Academy Award. I can only think that it was either in the category of "most overacting actress" or "worst lip synching by an actress in a muscial". Hey Brittany Spears wasn't born yet! [In case you missed it in other parts of the world, little Brit is in Australia and audiences are walking out because she is lip synching her way through the concerts and badly at that!]

Anyway, the movie was the usual Hollywood bad retelling of a great story. Marjorie was disappointed with the result saying that it did not represent her life at all. Bad movie, as it may have been, the subject, Marjorie Lawrence, really interests me. I want to know more about her now.

I went online and was able to track down a 2nd edition copy of her autobiography "Interrupted Melody" which is what the movie was called also.  The blurb says it is a little damaged, but heck it was published in 1949! It claims to have been signed by the author also, so I am a little chuffed. I don't usually buy second hand books as I love the feel and smell of new books, and I worry about introducing book worm into my own library, but in this case there was no choice, To get a copy reproduced through a library would be more expensive.

So, I hope all goes well, and hopefully the book will arrive in a week or so. I hope Marjorie told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth....more than what can be said for the movie!

The Class (Entre Les Murs)

Due to the continuing absence of Mr FD I took to my boudoir and watched my 3 rental movies. The last one was The Class, a French movie that follows a teacher and his class through a school year. I believe that it won a Palme D'or award for best picture.

Sunday movie matinee

I have had a superb weekend. That is nothing something I say very often. I have nice days, but a whole weekend of superbness is unique for me. Yesterday, of course, I had the lovely luncheon reunion with my friends, and last night watched movies and ate Thai food with Daughter2. Nice evening.

Today, D2 and I went to the movies to see Ghost Town. I really, really enjoyed watching it and felt quite uplifted by the end of the movie. The man who sat beside me was so obviously enjoying it, and laughing out loud with such genuine pleasure that I think it enhanced my own enjoyment. I am very pleased to report that I enjoyed the movie as initially I had gone into shock at having to pay $20 for a movie ticket and a medium sized zero coke...a bit of a budget breaker for the unemployed I must say. 

Afterwards we had lunch - I had yummy rice paper rolls with prawns and the most delicious dipping sauce. Then some shopping - I really broke the budget and bought 3 cds. Bad girl. Luckily I can save some money from the food budget this week as Mr FD will be away [no declaration of war from the Phillippines as yet, so assuming all ok]

We came home and I baked some gluten free/dairy free chocolate muffins for D2 to take home. In return D2 helped me put fresh sheets on my bed thus saving me the risk of dislocating something and having to have more physiotherapy. Good girl!

 TOMORROW ALERT - Lunch with The Assistant, SHE WHO WAS GOING TO KILL ME WITH KINDNESS and the lovely POD woman. First contact since the apocalypse. The Assistant has organised...I think she wants to whine. I am postwhine now so not all that excited, but one must be polite. Afterwards I am going to see if I can get my student ID photo and card - at least then I can get a discount if I ever go to the movies again! Of course I will need some therapy after having to have my photo taken.

Ninotchka is now on Fox classics and I must watch, lying in bed on fresh, sun kissed, crisp white sheets -

The End.

SIX.

Six Christmas Movies have we watched so far.

Big Christmas movie viewing night tonight - two movies in one night! Although I am not sure that Billy Bob Thornton is actually a good representation of Christmas...That makes a total of 4 Christmas movies in one week!

Oh it's a large life.

Daughter 2 has come home for Sunday night (long weekend). She brought some movies home for us to watch. She always chooses some unreal number like 5 overnight loan movies that she thinks we will watch in one night, The funny thing is that she often has to force me into watching something and I do so more to be nice to her than because I want to, and no sooner does the movie start than she is lying beside me fast asleep and I end up watching the movie to the end. Sort of alone but not. I always watch too, because I know she has probably seen it already and only picked it because she knew I might like it, so I am never sure if there wont be a snap quiz next day. She likes to catch me out. She is a lawyer - what can we expect!

Anyway she brought home the Bee Movie and she organised us into watching it. She knows we are suckers for a kid's movie. You can have you world movies with its subtitles tellling me that the goat herder is lamenting the loss of his favourite goat because the evil central government passed a law prohibiting coats for goats, and he lost his girl friend because she knew he loved his goat and she went out in the 8 foot snow to warm the feet of the goat and  died trudging back through the woods where she was attacked by the local soldiers who were out herding goats for the government. All very world view expanding I am sure but give me a good animated kids movie and I am happy.

I like movies with happy endings. There is enough sadness and stress in the world without having to worry about whether the goat herder will or wont survive until the end of the movie, or whether Nicholas Cage can save the world by crashing 32 or 33 cars ... I don't want to walk away from a movie feeling bad for the next four days.

I obviously respond on a very deep emotional level to the connotations and denotations and whatever in a movie. A sad movie can colour my world for days. So I choose happy. Happy movie, happy ending. Boy meets girl and all is well.

So the Bee movie it was. And we even laughed at the lawyer joke towards the end.

I think the next one on the list is a Robin Williams movie ... well someone has to watch these movies!