A Letter From My Sick Bed

My sister and I have a shared devotion for the movie, “Persuasion” -particularly Mary… the attention-starved diva who feigns illness every chance she gets.
“I am so ill… I can hardly speak.”
(warning: this trailer is misleading in that it gives off the movie being filled with action and passion, and it’s kind of really not)

And so my sickbed has been filled with Sister Maryisms, “What if I were to be seized in some dreadful way? I’m not able to ring the bell!”

Thursday after work, I came home and tangled myself up in a few comforters in my Dad’s old recliner and there I stayed until the middle of the night. My body ached ALL over. I napped for three hours and watched movie after movie with a groggy head and a fire-filled throat.
The bright side to all of this is that I have a few movie recommends for ya. And you do know that I’m always TAKING movie recommends, right? I mean, I’m so starved for movie recommends that I’ve started loosely watching, “Once Upon a Time” which goes grossly against what my Inner Hipster labels as acceptable behavior.
We might as well start there: Hipstering.
I’ve been streaming “Liberal Arts” and falling in love.

I want everyone to watch it, but if you can’t or won’t… just watch The Best Parts:
This scene -though the video isn’t the best -won me over.

But this is really the scene that sealed my devotion to the movie because I am a music major/lover/appreciator and a literary person:

The first half of “Liberal Arts” is irresistible, but the second half? eh. The amazingness of the first half nearly negates the mediocrity of the second half.
yenta2

I’ve tried getting into “John Adams” on Amazon Prime Instant Streaming, but there’s something about it that I can’t connect with. I think it’s the shaky-camera-close-up-scalping-at-a-drama-filled-angle that is distracting me.
See it in action:

Who needs scalps and steady cameras? Philistines. *spit*

I did find a gem on Amazon, though, in “London Hospital” which was cancelled -fair warning to those of us obsessed with cinematic closure -and which is not for anyone with a weak stomach. The children and I hid under blankets for every surgery scene.

I’m still pretty bummed over Thursday -it was a rapid succession of movie fails on a sick day. Isn’t that sad? The only nice thing about sick days is movies, and I didn’t watch a single one worth watching.
Lemon, lemon, lemon and no jackpot to show for it.

The worst part about it? I actually own some truly amazing movies and I haven’t watched them in years.
(#netflix)

This morning, my husband dusted off our DVD collection and put in “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” which has significant meaning in our household for reasons I’ll list here:
1) I once went on a date with a man kid to see this movie in theaters. I was so deeply moved and touched by the breathtaking cinematography, the realistic plot, and the music (oh! the MUSIC!) that I turned to share my rapture with my date and found him soundly asleep. And that’s when I knew: Philistine.
2) My husband bought me the movie and soundtrack (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World)
for my 19th birthday (two weeks later I married him. I was SO YOUNG).
3) On our honeymoon, we stumbled -though I like to think God led us by the hand -onto THE SHIP THEY USED IN THE MOVIE. It was amazing. We toured it and soaked it all in, got burned by the California sun and fed pigeons.

I did watch “Moonstruck” for the first time and laughed out loud -and not because I was supposed to but because (for the love) Nicholas Cage pointing at his “false” hand and yelling, “HE TOOK MY HAND! HE TOOK MY BRIDE!” while wearing a wife beater that showed his sweat and tattoo in the light of the brick oven fires below his bakery.


I couldn’t take it seriously. Not even -nay, especially -when Cher’s hair thought it was a disco ball.
The only truly touching part of the movie was the bits of Italian Opera, but all that came crashing down when Cher slept with her the ridiculous brother of her ridiculous fiance and I couldn’t help but wonder why CHER was the one slapping and yelling, “Snap out of it!” when it’s more or less (or more) of a black kettle situation.

I guess it’s a classic, but it’s no “Philadelphia Story” or “You’ve Got Mail” or even “While You Were Sleeping” and that’s all I’ll say about that.
Except maybe “The Shop Around the Corner” which is really “You’ve Got Mail Senior.”

And if, when you’re done watching “Liberal Arts” and find yourself hankering for more classical education, the music major and mortal in me highly recommends BYU’s documentary on Handel’s Messiah which is guaranteed to change (at the most) your life and (at the least) your perspective:
HERE

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