Why did none of you tell me that Keeley Hawes is in Wives and Daughters?*is extremely angry with all of you on my friends list*-that know that I love Spooks, anyway. Hee, just kidding. But I did receive a shock when I realized she was in it, as I saw Wives and Daughters before MI:5 and only became a fan of hers during MI:5, so it didn't register. Had this profound and baffling realization while stealing much lusciousness from
tartancravat's stash
Here of Wives and Daughters icons-much kudos by the way, and may I direct all of you there-they don't make enough icons of this lovely movie and she's done a fantubulous job. So, I'm assuming she's the somewhat-evil sort-of sister? (Sorry, my memory of the film has faded) Hmmph. Wonders will never cease.
Also, being reminded of my favorite Edna St. Vincent Millay poem by
thynx2much, I looked it up and re-read it. The last line expresses so much of my opinon about things in the world, things which I cannot change; " I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned."
Dirge without Music
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, --- but the best is lost.
The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,
They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Also just finished watching Out of Africa, the old classic with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, based on a true story and winner of 7 Academy Awards. It was magnificent. Having grown up in a country much like Africa, it woke a lot of echoes in me too-so many similar things. But oh, it was bitter. Not bitter as in sarcastic, but bitter as in haunting, an elegy to a fading and now faded land and people, and the bittersweet story of a love between two people. Reminded me much of both The English Patient, The Sound of Music, and My Brilliant Career. Elements of all three-English Patient with its haunting images/symbolism of a plane flying over that magnificent land and being the eventual death of one of the characters, The Sound of Music with some of Redford's debonair charm and the emphasis on dancing-particularly one scene near the end in which they are dancing in a garden at night-and My Brilliant Career with its capturing of a different country and of the dusty, quiet stubborness and heroism which are necessary to survive in that wilderness and often poverty. Lovely, lovely movie-I was caught and entranced several times by certain images-the two circling slowly in a haze of smoke, dancing in the middle of the night around a campfire in the middle of the desert, with the spitting sparks and smoke all around,and Robert Redford's image, his blond hair as he bends his head to kiss her for the first time, silhouetted against the inside of the tent and the dim light coming through the flap...Amazing. Also caught by its interesting exploration of the meaning and relationship of love and possesion. She says of him near the end "You were never ours" and then quietly, "You were never mine". She tried to hold onto him, to possess him, and couldn't. Not necessarily a good thing-that he could not be possessed-but interesting. And I cried several times. Coudn't help it. Bitterly sweet. In general I don't cry in movies, Finding Neverland and Braveheart being notable exceptions, but I did in this one. Another of those movies that captures part of my childhood. The only two others I've seen so far that do that are The Interpreter and Mighty Joe Young, both for their portrayal of an African world, what it means to live and grow up there and the fiercely independent and somewhat lonely women whom it produces. Fortunately, unlike both movies, I have not lost my family. Which I suppose I should be thankful for. :D