Following my husband's death in 2008, I moved from Tennessee to Florida to look after my parents. Now I'm living in a retirement community, making friends and trying new things. The most fun I've had has been ballroom dancing. So far, I've taken intro lessons in all the dances and now I'm starting intermediate. I hardly have time to read anymore but I manage four or five dances a week!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Movies and Memories

I just got such a laugh reading a blog by Karen Rose over at Goddess Blogs.

A special movie memory for me as an author is connected to The English Patient - a film I totally despised. (And which, incidentally, won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1996. Don’t get me started.) But it’s special because, while standing in line to buy tickets, I asked Mr. R - quite out of the blue, “If you wanted to escape your husband and fake your own death, how long before you’d be declared dead?” I’ll never forget the stunned look on his face as he turned and stared at me. “Is there something you want to tell me?” he asked. LOL. It was the plot of my first novel, DON’T TELL, which I sold in 2001. Because Mr. R and I mutually despised the movie, we spent our dinner afterward discussing my book idea. It’s a memory I’ll always keep.

Can you imagine a husband's initial reaction?

So, some memorable movies for me:

Gone With the Wind - Not particularly memorable for me but for my parents. They took me to see GWTW when I was verrrrry young. At the moment when Rhett Butler sweeps Scarlett up in his arms and carries her up the winding staircase where we know they are going to have mad, passionate sex after their fight, I piped up and asked, "What's he gonna do, Momma, spank her?" Snort Apparently, all within listening range laughed.

Romeo and Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli's) - Saw this in college with my boyfriend, roommate and her date. She and I were both English majors and I thought we (at least) would enjoy a little Shakespeare brought to life. When we left, she was crying, sobbing actually. I didn't understand why, as I said to her at the time, it's not like you didn't know how it would end. Wrong. She had no clue, had never read the play or heard anything about it. A college English major! Shocking, absolutely shocking!

The King and I (Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr) - I watched that movie more than any other I can recall. Love the music. And Yul Brenner. Yum. I still know all the words to all the songs. LOL

Gallipoli (1981 early Mel Gibson) - This story broke my heart. It's about young Australians who join up to fight in WWI and are sent to Turkey. One of the young men is an Olympic hopeful. His coach drilled him by saying, "How fast can you run?" Archy would answer, "Fast as a leopard." "What are your legs?" "Steel springs!" At the end, the commanders need a runner to take a message to another battalion so they won't attack as it would be a slaughter. Instead of sending the runner, they send Mel Gibson's character who doesn't make it in time. At the end of the movie, Archy is going over the top and saying his mantra - How fast can you run ... Fast as a leopard ... What are your legs ... Steel springs. And he's shot as the slaughter begins. I get choked up even now as I remember it. That was the end of the movie. I had to sit in my car, couldn't go anywhere because I was crying too hard, for half an hour at least. Really powerful.

I guess I can't end this without mentioning LOTR. It was pure pleasure seeing one of my favorite tales brought to life. It was so well done and Peter Jackson was so faithful to the books. I went by myself, in the middle of the day, to see each one when they were released. I even bought the DVDs, special edition.

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