Connecting Little Dorrit with Pride and Prejudice

In the weeks leading up to Christmas I watched the BBC’s 2008 adaptation of Little Dorrit starring Claire Foy and Matthew Macfadyen as Arthur Clennam. As always with the BBC’s costume dramas, it was excellent. When I was given a Kindle for Christmas, Little Dorrit was the first book I read on it and I enjoyed it immensely.

A few weeks ago while out shopping I picked up some reduced price DVDs and one of them was Pride and Prejudice made in 2005 and to my delight when I started to watch it Matthew Macfayden was in the role of Fitzwilliam Darcy! Of course, I’ve read the book many times and seen different adaptations of the story. This was a real treat

Looking him up on Wikipedia, I discovered that Mr Macfayden has had a lot of really interesting roles . it’s a pity he hasn’t been on French television much at all.

I found this beautiful video on yourtube, set perfectly to music…

O Captain! My Captain!

Robin McLaurin Williams 1951 - 2014

Rob woke me up at around 3 am. to tell me that Robin Williams was dead. Our family spent many happy hours enjoying his films. My favourite has always been 'Dead Poets Society' 

"My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, "

Walt Whitman

The Book of Eli

Last Night I finally watched ‘The Book of Eli’. It was a little bit bloody for my taste, but I did enjoy it and didn’t fall asleep once. I was delighted to hear Reverend Al Green singing ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?’, which must be one of the saddest songs of all time. It got me thinking about how lonely it would feel if the world was wrecked by an apolyptical event.


Denzel Washington is a great actor and, as always, Gary Oldman is the perfect baddie!

Sleeping with the Enemy

I’ve had the DVD for several years and watched it several times. Starring Julia Roberts the film is about a young woman, Sara/Laura, abused by her husband who fakes her own drowning to start a new life without him. Of course in her new life she falls in love and lives in fear that her husband will find her again somehow…

I went to a charity shop a few weeks ago. They have a foreign books section and I was delighted to find the book written by Nancy Price, that the film was based on. I couldn’t put it down. It had a lot more depth than the film, helping readers to understand why a lot of women stay with abusive partners. There is also interesting detail; the heroine uses the last of her money to rent a modest apartment, she has no belongings because she’s supposed to have drowned. How can she survive until her new job starts?

If you’ve seen the film and enjoyed it, you’ll enjoy the book.

Knowing

Yesterday evening we took some time off and decided to watch a film/movie. Nothing too demanding and nothing that we could fall asleep to, so we chose Knowing (‘Predictions’ in French). A time capsule is buried by school children in 1959 to be opened in 2009. One of the papers buried contains sequences of numbers which of course falls in to the hands of Nicholas Cage who is capable of deciphering them and trying to do something about it. We did stay awake, but we thought that there were a couple of weak points, like the first number just happened to be 9.11 and how did he know that the car that crashed was the one that she (The leading lady) had stolen? Other than that a good film if you’re looking for something not too challenging on the brain cells.


Rob and I had a conversation this morning. In all of these kind of films at the announcement of impending doom, everyone starts running around looting. Do you think that’s what you’d be doing if you knew that the earth was going to blow up within the next few hours?

Which chick flic ?

Every summer on Thursday evenings there are Night Watchman’s tours of La Rochelle. Members of the public are taken around the town by the night watchman visiting various venues from different epochs where little scenes from history are acted out. When we went several years ago the tour finished in the bunker built by the Germans as their head quarters in the town. This week it’s Rob’s turn to work during the evening, opening up the St. Nicolas tower for the actors to change in and checking the public’s tickets.

As I’m on my own I’ve decided to watch a DVD which I will choose and no moaning from anyone else. On Monday Unchained Melody was played on the radio station used by the supermarket I was in at the time. I do love that song especially the Righteous Brother’s version used in the film Ghost. There is a Wikipedia page on the song and I’ve discovered that it was born in 1955, which doesn’t surprise me at all as all the best people were born in 1955!! In was written for a film about prison ; ‘Unchained’. I discovered that Bing Crosby sang it too, though it doesn’t quite have the same power as the version used in Ghost.

Ghost is on my list, Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend, Forrest Gump, Pretty Woman, North by Northwest or perhaps Spellbound. Which to watch? If I’m not careful Rob will be home before I’ve decided.



To save you from having to look it up.

The Bridges of Madison County

Back in 1995 I heard about the film being released and thought to myself ‘I must see that’. Last night I finally go to see it. It was worth the wait and I really enjoyed the bridges, the country side, the era and the relationship between the photographer and a lonely housewife. Rob enjoyed it too, though I didn’t really expect him to. He was quite thoughtful afterwards and asked me what I got up to when he went away on courses in the past. I reminded him that I had three small children to look after at the time. It reminded me that when he was away we used to put a chair in front of the front door at night. The idea being that if anyone tried to get into the house they’d knock over the chair and wake us up. We all slept better for it.

Most of my boyfriends before I met Rob were well travelled or had lived abroad, Rob had lived in Sweden and France before I met him. There must be something about travelling men….

Limelight

When I was small I used to play with a music box at my granny’s house. It was a little Swiss Chalet which played ‘Limelight’. I didn’t know what ‘Limelight’ was but I liked the name and the tune. I must have driven her mad, listening to the music over and over again. My granny died when I was 15 and I presumed that the music box was given to my cousin who was 4 at the time. A few years ago I went to see a film about Charlie Chaplin and was delighted that the theme tune running throughout the film was ‘Limelight’. I knew that he finally settled in Switzerland and presumed that was why the music box was in the form of a chalet.

At the end of the summer I was preparing a postcard of a Swiss Chalet for sale and it reminded me of that little music box so I emailed to my cousin who didn’t remember the music box at all. My aunt put a note in my birthday card a few weeks later explaining that when my step-granny’s first husband died she went to Switzerland for a holiday and bought the little chalet back as a present for my granny (they were next door neighbours). When she married my grandfather we presume that the music box went back to her.

Last night Limelight was on TV. A lovely film made in the 1950s with Charlie Chaplin and a very young Claire Bloom.