Saturday, March 14, 2009

Blog about Bella

Can being sick be a blessing? Perhaps. Instead of being outside running around a nearly springlike day in Calgary, I'm in with a hacking cough. My wonderful hubster did all our errands and rented some movies. Which leads me to this: Get out a piece of paper and write down this recommendation for an incredibly moving film, Bella.

Then, Do not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200, Go Straight to Movie Rental. To paraphrase Jon Forman who has one of the beautiful songs on the soundtrack: It is understated, honest.. it feels like a foreign film (this is a good thing!) It's for thinking people. It's not the kind of movie that will come down and just entertain you. There are no bandaids in the movie, just raw, real life and true emotion, and choices that women, thankfully, still have.

You can see the trailer on http://www.bellamoviesite.com/ or skip it - sometimes trailers can say too much... and go rent it and then we can discuss.

Likewise, you've got to see all the Oscar-nominated Best Picture movies: Milk (Sean Penn deserved to win), The Wrestler, Frost/Nixon (too bad Frank Langella couldn't have received a runner-up Oscar,) Slumdog Millionaire, and our favorite, The Reader. They'll have you talking or you're not a thinking person. (hee hee)

We also saw The Duchess, with Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes (who is also in The Reader.) At first glance, it seemed like just another period piece, about the challenges facing a intelligent, headstrong 18th-century noblewoman Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, brokered by her mother to an older, aloof Duke who only wants a male heir. The similarities to Princess Diana, a distant relative of Georgiana's, abound. Yet, after listening to the Duchess' biographer's comments on the DVD, the movie's symbolism deepens to becomes an account of not only a remarkable woman from an earlier era but also a reminder of our forbears and the battles, personal and public, they've fought for us.
Next up: Culinary Creation or Crashes

2 comments:

Sada said...

sorry to hear you are sick. I hope you get better soon. That weather better warm up or you might be in trouble!!

Anonymous said...

I wrote down all these movie names. I saw my first hockey game tonite, stevie got us tickets. we lost, but a fun evening. Jane