Happy Easter 2014!



 

 

 

 Eat chocolate and have fun! :)



Brief Encounter (1945)

A suburban woman of Milford, England, Laura (Celia Johnson) once a week travels to the city where, after shopping, she  watches a film at a cinema, returning by the evening train to her conventional marriage and two children. Much of the story centers around the small tearoom, and it's mostly comical residents, near the train's waiting platform, wherein traveller's sip tea and munch on pastries.

On one such visit, Laura stands on the platform when another train, not stopping there, passes, throwing a small cinder into her eye. Inside the tearoom she asks for a glass a water to wash her eye free of the painful bit of grit, whereupon a man, Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), stands up to help, noting that he is a doctor.

This simple event is almost forgotten until the following week the two run into each other again, this time at a busy restaurant where almost every table is taken. Accordingly, the two share a table and, later, an afternoon at the movie house. Charmed by the idealistic doctor, Laura intrigues the married Alec with her strong sense of self and her easy laugh (as he later puts it: "I love you. I love your wide eyes, the way you smile, your shyness, and the way you laugh at my jokes"). Feeling a bit guilty, the couple furtively make plans to repeat their outing the next week, but this time the doctor, who fills in once a week at the local hospital for a friend, does not show up until Laura is at the tearoom at the train station, where he hurriedly explains his absence as his train, travelling in the opposite direction as hers, arrives. The two again plan an outing the next week.

Their next venture together, a comical boating trip downstream, quickly develops into a furtive relationship, in which they both admit their love for one another. When they take a drive into the country on this penultimate meeting, however, he purposely misses his train, intending to stay at his doctor-friend's flat, into which he invites her. She refuses, returning to the station and her voyage back to Milford, but at the very last moment, rushes from her train, running through the rain to the flat in which she has left Alec. At almost the same instant she arrives, however, the friend returns early, so that she is forced to rush out the back entrance, ashamed for what has almost occurred.

 

 

Realising the impossibility of their relationship, and the dark consequences arising in both their relationships with their spouses, he announces upon their final meeting that he will be travelling with his family to Africa, and will never see her again. Painfully, they sit together in the tearoom—which, in fact, has been the very first scene of the film—awaiting perhaps a tender goodbye, until one of Laura's chattering, suburban friends enters, and the two are unable to say anything. When Alec's train arrives he has no option but to tenderly squeeze her shoulder before disappearing forever, Laura rushing out of the tearoom as another train passes, possibly intending suicide to squelch what she describes:

 

"I had no thoughts at all, only an overwhelming desire not feel anything ever again."

 

She returns, however, to the tearoom, riding home with her incessantly chatting friend to suffer out the night, as she mentally repeats the events to her seemingly unaware husband, as he studies a crossword puzzle. As they are about to go up to bed, he approaches:

Fred Jesson: "You've been a long way away."

Laura Jesson. "Yes."
Fred Jesson: "Thank you for coming back to me."

 

 

 

Brief Encounter is one of the most poignant films I have seen.  I love it! :) xx

  

  

  

    

Bonfire Night 2013

In Great Britain, Bonfire Night is associated with the tradition of celebrating Guy Fawkes' arrest on 5th November. The modern festival is, therefore, on 5th November, although some commercially-driven events are held at a weekend near to the correct date, to maximise attendance. Bonfire night's sectarian significance has generally been lost: it is now usually just a night of revelry with a bonfire and fireworks. Celebrations are held throughout Great Britain, in parts of Northern Ireland, and in some other parts of the Commonwealth.

 

Parkin Cake is a sticky cake containing a mix of oatmeal, ginger, treacle and syrup which is eaten on Bofire Night.  Other foods include marshmallows toasted on the fire.

 

 

 

Have fun, everyone!! :)

 

Desperate Housewives (2004-2012)

Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama mystery series.  The main setting of the show is Wisteria Lane, a street in the fictional American town of Fairview in the fictional Eagle State. The show follows the lives of a group of women, seen through the eyes of their dead neighbor. They work through domestic struggles and family life, while facing the secrets, crimes and mysteries hidden behind the doors of their — at the surface — beautiful and seemingly perfect suburban neighborhood.

 

 

The show features an ensemble cast, headed by Teri Hatcher as Susan Mayer, Felicity Huffman as Lynette Scavo, Marcia Cross as Bree Van de Kamp and Eva Longoria as Gabrielle Solis.   Brenda Strong narrates the show as the deceased Mary Alice Young, appearing sporadically in flashbacks or dreams. 

 

 

 

Desperate Housewives is great!  Life behind closed doors is about to be revealed as suburban life takes a funny and dark turn.  :) xx



Oliver! (1968)

Oliver! is a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens's classic tale of an orphan who runs away from the orphanage and hooks up with a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly man.

Oliver Twist is sold to a Dunstable undertaker after asking for more dinner at the orphanage. Escaping to London he is taken in by Fagin to join his gang of child pickpockets. Wrongly accused of a theft he meets a more kindly gentleman who takes him in, to the concern of one of Fagin's old pupils, the violent Bill Sykes. In the middle is Nancy, Sykes' girl whom Oliver has come to trust.
 

 

 

 

Love this musical and all the songs! :) xx

All About Eve (1950)

Margo Channing is a person of opposite qualities, of conflicting needs and desires. On the surface an acerbic and outspoken person, she occasionally allows an underlying vulnerability to emerge. She is clearly competitive with other women but relies on the companionship and loyalty of her best (and unthreatening) friend Karen Richards (Celeste Holm). A dedicated careerist, she nonetheless finds herself tiring of her profession and wanting a relationship with her director, Bill Sampson (Gary Merrill, who later did marry Davis). She would like to keep working but realizes that at her age appropriate leading roles are unlikely to come her way, and she already feels uncomfortable with her latest role, a Southern belle and clearly much younger than Margo herself. Her need for status and professional recognition drives her to want to hold on to her position as Broadway's leading actress, yet she knows that eventually she will be replaced by a younger actress whose ambition matches her own, although she doesn't expect it to be so soon, and she doesn't expect that person to be the outwardly adoring but secretly scheming Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter).



 

This is a brilliant film!  Enjoy! :) xx