30 Day Film Challenge - Day 5: A Film That Reminds You of Someone.
Followers of mine (all three of you) will know that 2 years ago I lost my mother to a battle with cancer. She was a fine woman; warm and caring, with very few vices. One of those vices however was the movie which is the topic of today's rant:
Shirley Valentine
Shirley Valentine is like a mid life crisis movie for women my mother's age. The movie was released in the late 80's, and I think that time of my mother's life was the right time for this movie to be engrained into her psyche.
Shirley Valentine follows the life of a middle class housewife, who is bored of the regime she has found herself in, and constantly re-lives her life through her memories of what she was like before she donned the metaphorical housecoat and became a mother and housewife.
Shirley herself opens up to us through flashbacks and conversations with her Wall (no, I didn't type that wrong. She talks to the Wall... Honest!). She lets you into the humdrum life of a suburban housewife, who has no children left in the roost and only a husband of very simple pleasures to co-exist with.
So, after reaching her breaking point, Shirley packs her bags and trips off to Greece for the holiday of a lifetime. Shirley Valentine feeds into that feeling deep down inside everyone who thinks back to what life was like before, or what they had imagined their life to be in years to come, and finding the current display of existence lacking.
I recently re-watched this movie, in honour of my mother, and found myself shocked at the amount of language and nudity in the movie. Please bear in mind that I grew up watching this movie while my mother (the woman who raised me and didn't like modern films because they were too rude and full of sex) did housework with id on in the background. I'm not sure if it was the age I was, where I simply didn't register adult things like bad language or nudity, or whether it was the copy of the tape we had (which most likely was taped off the television, back in the days when VHS was king) but during the latest re-watching, I was gobsmacked at the language and nudity throughout the movie. There is something surreal when someone who could stand in for your mother swears like a sailor, then laughs about the reactions she gets.
I've grown up with Shirley Valentine in my life. I've grown up talking to the Wall in times of frustration when no one else would listen. I've grown up... wow.. I've grown up. Go figure...
Shirley Valentine
Shirley Valentine is like a mid life crisis movie for women my mother's age. The movie was released in the late 80's, and I think that time of my mother's life was the right time for this movie to be engrained into her psyche.
Shirley Valentine follows the life of a middle class housewife, who is bored of the regime she has found herself in, and constantly re-lives her life through her memories of what she was like before she donned the metaphorical housecoat and became a mother and housewife.
Shirley herself opens up to us through flashbacks and conversations with her Wall (no, I didn't type that wrong. She talks to the Wall... Honest!). She lets you into the humdrum life of a suburban housewife, who has no children left in the roost and only a husband of very simple pleasures to co-exist with.
So, after reaching her breaking point, Shirley packs her bags and trips off to Greece for the holiday of a lifetime. Shirley Valentine feeds into that feeling deep down inside everyone who thinks back to what life was like before, or what they had imagined their life to be in years to come, and finding the current display of existence lacking.
I recently re-watched this movie, in honour of my mother, and found myself shocked at the amount of language and nudity in the movie. Please bear in mind that I grew up watching this movie while my mother (the woman who raised me and didn't like modern films because they were too rude and full of sex) did housework with id on in the background. I'm not sure if it was the age I was, where I simply didn't register adult things like bad language or nudity, or whether it was the copy of the tape we had (which most likely was taped off the television, back in the days when VHS was king) but during the latest re-watching, I was gobsmacked at the language and nudity throughout the movie. There is something surreal when someone who could stand in for your mother swears like a sailor, then laughs about the reactions she gets.
I've grown up with Shirley Valentine in my life. I've grown up talking to the Wall in times of frustration when no one else would listen. I've grown up... wow.. I've grown up. Go figure...