I remember the English moors and here she is, Jane Eyre, trudging through the moors, lost and alone. Love the moody setting, period costumes and Gothic manor of Mr Rochester, and Mia Wasikowska who brought to life the passionate intelligence of Charlotte Bronte’s heroine. Quite so, since she desires to be an independent woman in the Victorian age, an age where women were corsetted in every sense of the word.
I looked at April’s sky over barren rock.
Its calligraphy of red ink
on balsam, as shadows moved
over monumental terraces.
The breath’s intake,
when a man coughs the whole night.
I have been riding since yesterday,
then fell asleep. The morning light stole over
my pale body, lying down on a rocky dune
shielding wind.
A pocket knife, a camera, a notebook,
a longing sullied by thin air
making an odyssey.
This matters more than the imprint of a dying body:
the soul sniffing its snout on
a bunting of rock.
Process notes: Napowrimo #26. The title is borrowed from a movie of the same title, about a Japanese man who travels to Yunnan, China, as a way of making recompense to his estranged dying son. It is a very un-Hollywood movie, and the quiet, stoic father’s search has the unexpected result of embracing another father-son story which reverberates and heals his own.
Rachel Portman, We Had Today
A beautiful soundtrack indeed.
O I just love Anne Hathaway, and the movie. I’ve yet to read the book.
This is the year, the breath will be rigged
up to something other than a machine,
the dull roles cast off as dead skin,
and leaning out of the window will be
the soul you’re calling your own.
Everyday the train passed by the window,
where the woman stood, beauty softened
by melancholy, a look so charming
it filled the pores of your longing,
seeing her still, or ballroom dancing.
The house that was wan and mild,
a standstill between work and duty,
wasn’t as offbeat as the dancing–
holding the woman in your arms,
your bracing walk began to curl.
Process notes: Inspired by Masayuki Suo’s award-winning 1996 Japanese film, Shall We Dance? The original soundtrack was from The King and I. There was a remake of the movie in 2004 starring Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez.
Johnny Depp + French movie + Radiohead = f**king special
You know how it is…when you’re in the middle of a really bad movie. Here’s one.
It has maybe, one great line. I want not to want him.
To quote a Rotten Tomatoes reviewer, it’s “neither romantic nor comedic. Sort of defeats the whole point of the exercise, you know?”
OK I confess, the only reason I took this out is Kate Hudson. To check her out. I feel like I’m having one of those Jennifer Aniston let-down movie moments. Yea, I’m counting, since the last good one, “Friends with money”. Alright I’m straying off topic. And I’m still in this movie. And straying.
Post movie note: Happy ending. Oh, gimme Amy Adams. Or Anne Hathaway. Meow.
Colbie Caillat, You got me (theme song of Letters to Juliet)
If you check out the super intelligent reviews of Letters to Juliet at Rotten Tomatoes, you’d hear stuff like “It’s all rather pleasant but it’s also all rather conventional” and snider, “This is an all-fudging, all-sludging Cheesepocalypse Now of a movie.” Well well well, aside, but I suspect my poems if chanced upon by these critics would receive similar visceral reactions. Where is the edge? Where is the grumpiness? Where are the life-shattering truths? And the truth is, there is nothing new under the sun. There are vineyards in Italy. The people eat cheese a lot. And people continue to fall in love. Even grandmothers in search of love like in this movie. (I rather like that storyline.) I admit, I’m struck by the many cliches, but I’m just a sucker for cinematography and a cheesy love story set in Tuscany if there’s a good soundtrack and if the acting’s believable and there are lines that sometimes hit the mark. Preferably brilliant although there aren’t any in this movie, but well, there is just enough chemistry and a bit of an English accent to boot, so there’re far worse ways to spend two hours. So, add this to my list of shallow pursuits, whilst I’m still stuck in Chapter one of Les Miserables. Boo!
“Way back into love”, from Music & Lyrics, one of the best rom com I think..
Hugh Grant, rom com extraordinaire, rocks.
“Pop! Goes my heart” is so arrestingly cute..
Sex and the City 2 crept up on me. I must be in la la land, and suddenly it’s here.
It was a chick flick of all chick flicks. Don’t ask. It’s almost like having a fetish over toes.
Or shoes, as the case may be.
The story so far. Carrie got married to Big. What happens after you get married? End of love quest. Beginning of hum drum boredom. Or the story shifts. What if the One turns out to be not the One? Big shift. The ultimate, for me, is a love that deepens and deepens.
Of course what I like about Sex and the City is the dressing up but mainly the characters, their female bonding and their endless urban talk. Simple and neurotic talk like,
Mr. Big: Nice dress.
Carrie: Meaning?
Mr. Big: Nice dress.
Carrie: I’d like to think that people have more than one soulmate.
Samantha: I agree! I’ve had hundreds.
Carrie: Yeah! And you know what, if you miss one, along comes another one. Like cabs.
Carrie: Therapy? It’s just so self-indulgent. Ancient man didn’t need shrinks to survive.
Miranda: Ancient man only lived until thirty.
Carrie: My Zen teacher also said: the only way to true happiness is to live in the moment and not worry about the future. Of course, he died penniless and single.
Samantha: He did something to me that was so perverse! Okay, I’m just going to say it. He tried to hold my hand.
Carrie: You mean to tell me that Smith is a hand-holder? And to think he once served us food.
Carrie: Dreams are a really good way to experiment… It’s like buying a dress and keeping the tags on.
Quick and dirty quotes. Yum.
