I hadn’t wanted to see this film but sometimes you have to give in. And I did want to see Julie Christie. I still carry the image of her with Dirk Bogarde in the 1965 movie Darling. She is no less beautiful in Away From Her. Julie Christie’s character Fiona is struck down with Alzheimer’s disease.
This movie shows the sadness for Grant ( Gordon Pinsent) her husband of 45 years as he watches her decline. There is the pain of watching him adapt to the changes and the hurts it inflicts upon him.
There are many ways Alzheimer’s can develop and these are quickly outlined near the beginning of the film. Fiona was struck in the kindest way and I believe that many people who have watched their loved ones with the disease will feel a sense unreality.
I find Alzheimer’s is a disease that is as frightening as cancer. Of course cancer is more universal, striking all ages. Dementia will strike more and more of us as we find more ways of living longer and longer. It is one of the saddest diseases.
Those who saw the film Iris where Iris Murdoch reverted to a child may see a more common manifestation of Alzheimer’s.
Away From Her moves slowly through the snows of Ontario. There is coldness in the scenery and this reflects the way Fiona’s and Grant’s warm and loving relationship is heading.
It is a slow meandering movie sometimes going into the past and forever moving through scenes of snow but your attention is held.
On reflection the film isn’t so much about Alzheimer’s as it is about a relationships and how one person can be left to struggle with the changes on their own.
The film was adapted from a story by Canadian writer Alice Munro called ‘The Bear Came Over the Mountain’. I like that title much better. ‘Away From Her’ is some how clumsy.
There is publicity suggesting that Sarah Polley, the director, should be up for an Oscar. My money would be on Julie Christie.
I’d be interested in your view.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
St Kilda Beach - early morning
Low tide and an early October morning at St Kilda Beach in Melbourne creates a sort of magic. There's no better tonic to start the day with.
Are other beaches just a good for the spirit? Let me know.
DEATH AT A FUNERAL - REVIEW
This is a laugh out loud movie...
We had thought that it would be very predicatible, you know the sort of thing - funeral jokes etc. That sort of thing.
We were wrong. We laughed from the opening sequence. It was predictable with a street map and a coffin moving along it, but it was funny. Was it the day, our mood or the fact the movie is very funny in a slap stick, farcical way? It was probably all those things. I laughed out loud, I was moved by the emotions and at others times caught up in the tension that was there.Well known faces popped up - Matthew MacFadyen, Jane Asher, Robert Graves Peter Egan and Peter Vaughan etc. The story is the funereal of Daniel and Robert’s father at his country estate and the dysfunctional family that is brought together for the event. There is also a blackmailer who has come to expose unsavory episodes in the father’s recent past. Some of it is predicable, some plain silly, some scatological and some gloriously funny. It is also a family drama and full of family problems.If you want to lighten the day go and laugh. We all need something to make us laugh. The shots of the inside of this country house are fascinating – what a beautiful house.
Let me know what you think. I need to get someone elses opinion.
We had thought that it would be very predicatible, you know the sort of thing - funeral jokes etc. That sort of thing.
We were wrong. We laughed from the opening sequence. It was predictable with a street map and a coffin moving along it, but it was funny. Was it the day, our mood or the fact the movie is very funny in a slap stick, farcical way? It was probably all those things. I laughed out loud, I was moved by the emotions and at others times caught up in the tension that was there.Well known faces popped up - Matthew MacFadyen, Jane Asher, Robert Graves Peter Egan and Peter Vaughan etc. The story is the funereal of Daniel and Robert’s father at his country estate and the dysfunctional family that is brought together for the event. There is also a blackmailer who has come to expose unsavory episodes in the father’s recent past. Some of it is predicable, some plain silly, some scatological and some gloriously funny. It is also a family drama and full of family problems.If you want to lighten the day go and laugh. We all need something to make us laugh. The shots of the inside of this country house are fascinating – what a beautiful house.
Let me know what you think. I need to get someone elses opinion.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
BLOG ACTION DAY………..
……….and the environment. I thought I’d leave global warming, deforestation, and all the huge issues for others to write about.
I want to write about how one person or in this case one shop can cause a shift in our thinking.
There’s a book shop I know that makes a difference. I believe it gives every customer a mental nudge – a little green nudge.
‘Book Talk’ houses over $15,00 pre-loved books and an unknown number of new ones. All these are displayed very carefully, cleanly and neatly around a café. The café tables wander through the area with a few ending up outside.
A notice near the café counter tells us that we can’t take NEW books to the café tables. We can browse these as we stand at the shelves and numbers of people do.
Another notice tells us that you can bring in your own books to exchange.
And yet another notice tells us that if we buy a book and return it we will be refunded 50% of the purchase price.
The latest best sellers are on display. The Booker Prize short list was up when I was there last and those books available. I saw ‘Mr Pip’ by Lloyd Jones in both the pre-loved and the new section.
There are children’s books both new and pre-loved and stands of beautiful cards for $1.00
The atmosphere is relaxed and slightly bohemian. The café tables are used by people in heated discussion, by people studying, by people writing, by people reading (there’s a great selection of newspapers and magazines) and by other’s sipping coffee and watching the world. The café food is wholesome and delicious and slightly under priced for the area.
Their plastic bags do not have the name of the shop on them, instead they advertise the bags degradable properties, a suggestion to re-use them and an explanation that they disintegrate by heat, oxidation and sunlight. They will not be littering our beaches and our landfills. There is a web site written there where this can be checked and similar bags ordered. www.maxpak.com.au. Many people following the conservation theme pop their new book in a bag they have with them.
After a coffee and a browse through the well tended shelves I come away thinking ‘re-useable’ and don’t litter and I have a feeling of wanting to care for my fellow human by doing the right thing by them. I’m very careful to put my pay-and-display ticket in a bin. I also wonder why these plastic bags are not used by my local supermarket.
In my view this shop is making us aware of eachother and of our environment and our need to share it and our need to sustain it – encouraging us to make one further step towards ‘green’. It’s a message that has a ripple effect. If all of us take one step today the world will be a greener and better place for everyone. Sometimes we have to think small to get big results
I want to write about how one person or in this case one shop can cause a shift in our thinking.
There’s a book shop I know that makes a difference. I believe it gives every customer a mental nudge – a little green nudge.
‘Book Talk’ houses over $15,00 pre-loved books and an unknown number of new ones. All these are displayed very carefully, cleanly and neatly around a café. The café tables wander through the area with a few ending up outside.
A notice near the café counter tells us that we can’t take NEW books to the café tables. We can browse these as we stand at the shelves and numbers of people do.
Another notice tells us that you can bring in your own books to exchange.
And yet another notice tells us that if we buy a book and return it we will be refunded 50% of the purchase price.
The latest best sellers are on display. The Booker Prize short list was up when I was there last and those books available. I saw ‘Mr Pip’ by Lloyd Jones in both the pre-loved and the new section.
There are children’s books both new and pre-loved and stands of beautiful cards for $1.00
The atmosphere is relaxed and slightly bohemian. The café tables are used by people in heated discussion, by people studying, by people writing, by people reading (there’s a great selection of newspapers and magazines) and by other’s sipping coffee and watching the world. The café food is wholesome and delicious and slightly under priced for the area.
Their plastic bags do not have the name of the shop on them, instead they advertise the bags degradable properties, a suggestion to re-use them and an explanation that they disintegrate by heat, oxidation and sunlight. They will not be littering our beaches and our landfills. There is a web site written there where this can be checked and similar bags ordered. www.maxpak.com.au. Many people following the conservation theme pop their new book in a bag they have with them.
After a coffee and a browse through the well tended shelves I come away thinking ‘re-useable’ and don’t litter and I have a feeling of wanting to care for my fellow human by doing the right thing by them. I’m very careful to put my pay-and-display ticket in a bin. I also wonder why these plastic bags are not used by my local supermarket.
In my view this shop is making us aware of eachother and of our environment and our need to share it and our need to sustain it – encouraging us to make one further step towards ‘green’. It’s a message that has a ripple effect. If all of us take one step today the world will be a greener and better place for everyone. Sometimes we have to think small to get big results
Monday, October 15, 2007
Death at a Funeral
I saw this movie on the day Melbourne made a brief returned to winter. It was cold, bleak and drizzling. (Of course the drizzle is a good thing in this rained starved country.) Parking was a problem and we were a little late and had to blunder into our seats in the dark.
We laughed at the opening sequence. It was predictable with a street map and a coffin moving along it, but it was funny. Was it the day, our mood or the fact the movie is very funny in a slap stick, farcical way? It was probably all those things. I laughed out loud, I was moved by the emotions and at others times caught up in the tension that was there.
Well known faces popped up - Matthew MacFadyen, Jane Asher, Robert Graves Peter Egan and Peter Vaughan etc. The story is the funereal of Daniel and Robert’s father at his country estate and the dysfunctional family that is brought together for the event. There is also a blackmailer who has come to expose unsavory episodes in the father’s recent past.
Some of it is predicable, some plain silly, some scatological and some gloriously funny. It is also a family drama and full of family problems.
If you want to lighten the day go and laugh. We all need something to make us laugh. The shots of the inside of this country house are fascinating – what a beautiful house.
We laughed at the opening sequence. It was predictable with a street map and a coffin moving along it, but it was funny. Was it the day, our mood or the fact the movie is very funny in a slap stick, farcical way? It was probably all those things. I laughed out loud, I was moved by the emotions and at others times caught up in the tension that was there.
Well known faces popped up - Matthew MacFadyen, Jane Asher, Robert Graves Peter Egan and Peter Vaughan etc. The story is the funereal of Daniel and Robert’s father at his country estate and the dysfunctional family that is brought together for the event. There is also a blackmailer who has come to expose unsavory episodes in the father’s recent past.
Some of it is predicable, some plain silly, some scatological and some gloriously funny. It is also a family drama and full of family problems.
If you want to lighten the day go and laugh. We all need something to make us laugh. The shots of the inside of this country house are fascinating – what a beautiful house.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Rabbits on the Prowl
There are times when I want to laugh and dance and forget the problems of the twenty first century. That feeling surged over me when I saw the rabbits in this photo. They are my new slippers. They came as a pair but as you can see they are not alike which only makes them more endearing.
We need some nonsense in our lives. There’s so much to worry about, horror to listen to and disaster to contemplate that I can feel myself weighed down by it.
These ridiculous rabbits progress around my house on my feet. Their ears flap in different directions and two of the paws make a little thudding noise as they connect with the floor. No one else sees these animals on their evening journeys, except me and my cat S. I laugh out loud as look down at them. I don’t want to endow them with animistic qualities but they appear to have a personality and soul of their own. I stroke them and smile at them and I’m careful in the kitchen not to splash them. S watches them pass and I can see her allowing her mind to drift back to the days when she would have pounced on a flip flopping ear and killed it off. She occasionally raises a paw if they get too close but rousing herself to interfere with them is too much trouble.
The grey rabbits will have a short life. They are aging already and I have had to do repairs to their outer skin. Their life at my place has given lightness to the atmosphere and they will be remembered with love.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
October and My Favourite Gym Insturctor
A new month and I’m saving my horoscope to read in a few days time. I thought I would live a week in October and then check out how things are suppose to be going.
Postings from the Northern hemisphere are never up on time for me to read my horoscope on the 1st of the month. This month the 2nd (before I read any horoscopes) produced an unexpected change in my life. Hence my interest in living through seven or so days of October before I read Susan Miller http://www.astrologyzone.com.
I know now why people have relationships with their personal trainer. We lean on them emotionally. I don’t have a personal trainer but from trotting along to regular gym classes I can see how it would be. My favourite gym-class instructor has gone. I arrived on Tuesday and someone else was there and announced they had replaced him. No reason was given. I am bereft. His class is one of the highlights in my week. I go to a couple of other classes but they are a sort of tag-on his.
All through the class I thought about what had made him special. How can you stand out in such a large group as a group of gym instructors? Physically he is unlike the usual mould. He is tall and gangling. Yes gangling is the word. Others are sort of compacted, slim and neatly put together. His face breaks into a wide and cheerful grin and his voice is loud. If he is taking a class as you approach the gym you can hear his voice bellowing out. That always makes me smile and lighten my step. His humour is light and flippant and acknowledges the individuals in his class. He winks at slackers and shouts “keep it moving. Keep the pace up”. He keeps it moving in a casual easy way and we all work harder for him. His classes were packed and it was often hard to find floor space. “Here,” he’d say swinging a step in the air for latecomer, ‘There’s room here!” and he’d lower the step into some space where he felt there was room.
His absence has started October with a sense of loss. I will have to re-build my enthusiasm for the gym. Standing tall, being supple and having some strength will have to be enough to motivate me to go on. The fact that I am hooked into a payment system will also motivate me!
Postings from the Northern hemisphere are never up on time for me to read my horoscope on the 1st of the month. This month the 2nd (before I read any horoscopes) produced an unexpected change in my life. Hence my interest in living through seven or so days of October before I read Susan Miller http://www.astrologyzone.com.
I know now why people have relationships with their personal trainer. We lean on them emotionally. I don’t have a personal trainer but from trotting along to regular gym classes I can see how it would be. My favourite gym-class instructor has gone. I arrived on Tuesday and someone else was there and announced they had replaced him. No reason was given. I am bereft. His class is one of the highlights in my week. I go to a couple of other classes but they are a sort of tag-on his.
All through the class I thought about what had made him special. How can you stand out in such a large group as a group of gym instructors? Physically he is unlike the usual mould. He is tall and gangling. Yes gangling is the word. Others are sort of compacted, slim and neatly put together. His face breaks into a wide and cheerful grin and his voice is loud. If he is taking a class as you approach the gym you can hear his voice bellowing out. That always makes me smile and lighten my step. His humour is light and flippant and acknowledges the individuals in his class. He winks at slackers and shouts “keep it moving. Keep the pace up”. He keeps it moving in a casual easy way and we all work harder for him. His classes were packed and it was often hard to find floor space. “Here,” he’d say swinging a step in the air for latecomer, ‘There’s room here!” and he’d lower the step into some space where he felt there was room.
His absence has started October with a sense of loss. I will have to re-build my enthusiasm for the gym. Standing tall, being supple and having some strength will have to be enough to motivate me to go on. The fact that I am hooked into a payment system will also motivate me!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
