Clarissa's love: Sally or Richard?

 Clarissa looks at her lover for ten years, at the women she always told herself she loved. At the person who lies next to her in bed. The woman she kisses in the morning and in the evening. Her partner, her lover, her girlfriend, doesn’t matter. But when she looks at Richard, her eyes tell a whole different story. You thought you knew her. You thought she loved Sally, and perhaps she does. But that one look she gave to Richard, that one kiss, one touch, change your whole perspective on Clarissa. Does she truly love Sally?

Perhaps Clarissa loves Sally because she allows her to be herself. Sally knows her pain, her deep thoughts but never brings it up. When Sally looks at her, she’s got a kind of sadness in her eyes. A sadness that might be because somehow, she knows that Clarissa will never truly be hers. That she’ll always have to share her, in a way. But she never says a word, she lets it be, she loves Clarissa and she accepts the sacrifices she has to make. I think that’s why Clarissa loves her, because there are no questions. Clarissa is a very melancholic woman. There’s always pain, hurt and a deep sadness around her even when she seems happy. And Sally knows that.

But then what about Richard? Is Richard her true love and Sally only someone she shares her bed with? I don’t think so. Clarissa will always love Richard because he shares her melancholy and pain. Because he feels the way she does. At least, that’s what I believe and understand from the book and the movie.  I think Clarissa’s love for both Sally and Richard are nuanced. It’s not black, it’s not white, it’s grey. It’s not left, nor right, it’s in the middle. I don’t think I could end this post just by saying: Clarissa loves Sally and doesn’t love Richard or the other way around. I don’t think it’s that easy. Michael Cunningham breathed life into this complex character named Clarissa. All her emotions are so deep, but so difficult to follow. Complicated, intense and complex just like life itself.

When Clarissa takes Sally’s head in her hands, looks deep into her eyes and then kisses her, she shows how much she loves Sally. I think she loves Richard and Sally equally, but just in a different way. 

A Grey World: The Giver!

Imagine a world in which deep emotions, love, anger, agony, pain, hurt, disgust, fear, regret and doubt are banished. A world in which nobody can perceive colours. A grey world, a harmonized community. What is the point of living? What is the point of life if life is nothing more than an organization? If love is not possible, if killing doesn’t hurt and doesn’t torture you with guilt? If the only thing you can feel is accomplishment and a slight sympathy for someone? There are no memories and building a life and a history are not possible. Let’s talk about… The Giver!

The Story

The Giver tells the story of a community in which no one can feel, remember nor perceive colours. It is an organized society in which absolutely everything is controlled to obtain a world in which no one is different and war and misery aren’t possible. Morning injections take all emotions and memories away.

At the head of this grey community is the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep). Jonas (Brenton Thwaites)  is selected to become the Receiver of Memory, to keep all the history of life before the community. Before ‘sameness’. The Giver (Jeff Bridges) trains him to become the keeper of Memory, but soon they both realize that they don’t want colours and emotions to be history. They want to live it. Jonas risks his life and the one of his lover, Fiona (Odeya Rush) to bring back colour, emotions and memories.

The Chief Elder and The Giver

Am I the only one who was incredibly upset with the ending? Meryl Streep staring straight into the camera, in her eyes you can see her regrets, pain and fear. And then a black screen, end credits and me staring at my computer, somehow shocked that this was it. Stop, over, done, go ahead and figure it out yourself! I could have cried!

Anyway, what I wanted to discuss is The Giver and The Chief Elder. Does someone remember that scene in which The Giver says: ‘The Girl has a name’, and upset, the Chief Elder answers: ‘Did you think I could forget that?’ (or something like that). He says: ‘I tried to share my trainings as well’, and then he looks at her. And then she gives him a look and the only thing I could truly think is: did they have a love affair? Do the Giver and the Chief Elder have a history together? Is Rosemary not only his, but also her child? What happened between these two characters that created a certain tension between them. A tension that could be suppressed love or even hatred.

The Community

The reason this community controls feelings, colours, climate and relief is to prevent people from being jealous, to stop wars, to create sameness and equality in every possible way. But when you think of it, the chaos of life is necessary. Who would want to live a life that isn’t yours. An organization that has been made and designed for you. It is true that so many people feel pain and hurt, regret and sickness, but if you can’t feel that, you can’t feel happiness and love either. Everything sticks together. There are no ups without downs…

The Chief Elder

Sometimes I feel like The Chief Elder doesn’t always take her morning injections. You can clearly see how she’s upset or scared, when she fears something. Mostly when she’s in the presence of The Giver, you can feel  something you don’t know about happened between these two people. Something she can remember, which she couldn’t if she would have taken her morning injections. She’s cheating while playing her own game. Perhaps she knows how love feels, has seen colours and has felt so many emotions. Perhaps she can’t turn it back now that she knows how it feels? Perhaps she loves The Giver but doesn’t allow her to? Anyway, that’s just my look at the movie.

I didn't read the book, so I can't say if it's a good adaptation. But I think The Giver is truly a wonderful movie. It contains everything you want: love, drama, mystery, action and suspense. I really enjoyed watching it, great acting, beautiful soundtrack. And as you know me a little better now, you probably know that the soundtrack is so important to me! A good movie is not only a good story and good actors, it is also a good soundtrack! 

Memories are forever 

The Beautiful Streep

Beauty is something very funny, don’t you think? It’s something very personal. You can’t discuss it. Do you like the hawk nose, the outspoken cheekbones, big breasts, small breasts, no breasts? Are you drown to these big, glistening, brown eyes or to these small, green, slanted eyes? Is it the personality you’re attracted to, or the legs, or the full red lips or the small pink ones?

Beauty is like flavours and tastes, but above all beauty is overshadowed by kindness and love. It’s called inner beauty. Some people take it for granted, but someone’s kindness, warmth, love and friendship can truly change your perception. Not only your perception on him or her, but also on the whole world. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps because love, happiness and hope make someone sparkle? Or maybe you were blinded by your love? Maybe because that smile captured you? Those eyes hypnotized you? Does it matter? No. Should it matter? No. What is beauty? Love.

Meryl Streep

A hawk nose, outspoken cheekbones, thin, pink lips, green eyes, pale skin and blonde hairs (actually brown), small breasts. People would define her a character actress. Sometimes I truly ask myself why some people don’t like the way she looks. I look at her and ask them: what exactly makes her an ‘unattractive person’? I found the answer myself, without them. She never appeared as a simple ‘sex object’, a stupid, blonde bimbo in a film, she never did naked photoshoots or showed her boobs in every movie she was in. Does that truly make a person ‘unattractive’ or ‘not sexy’? Do the things that distinguish her from the big, grey crowd make her ‘ugly’? What is your definition of ugly anyway?

Aging in grace

Something lots of people do agree on is the beautiful way she ages. She seems to blossom with the years. Her confidence has become greater, she accepted herself the way she is, she ages with grace and beauty. She hasn’t become an object of ridicule, a woman yearning for youth and the beauty she used to posses (and still possesses). She skips plastic surgery and botox (which apparently a lot of people doubt). Some people seem to have trouble with accepting wrinkles and signs of the aging process. Society today is photoshopping every pimple and wrinkle. What's wrong with nature? 

An actress = sexy bimbo?

Why does an actress have to be a sexy bimbo, not necessarily intelligent. In lots of movies, especially action films, women are portrayed as sex objects, as stupid girls only to be ‘f*cked and raped and rescued from the evil by a male’.  

Meryl Streep graduated from Yale Drama School and had a career lasting for almost four decades. Why? Talent.

Confidence

When she was young, she didn’t have confidence in her looks and her beauty. In her Barnard Commencement Speech she has stated how she yearned to look like the girls on the cover of magazines, wanting to be liked by the boys and accepted by the girls. Her advice now, fifty years later: ‘Don’t worry so much about your looks and your weight. Develop what you do, what you put your hands on in the world.’

After all, these are the footprints you leave behind.

Inner beauty

I do think lots of people appreciate Meryl Streep and find her a gorgeous woman because of her personality. The advice she gives, the inspiring things she says, her talent, the absolutely beautiful movies and the fact that she accepted herself the way she is. That’s something people like and admire. Also the fact that she made it a successful, rewarded actress just because of her talent.

Clothes

When Meryl Streep attends a premiere or a talkshow there are two options:

-She’s a fashionista and overshadows everyone in her presence.

-She looks like she’s wearing a garbage bag.

I think it makes her even more adorable. Fashion is not something that necessarily interests her or something she wants to spend time on. It’s something that makes me love her even more.

Remember when she wore the same shirt last year, during three days on three different talkshows? But even with a garbage bag as dress, Meryl Streep shines like a star. She can really pull of anything…

Personal happiness

That Meryl Streep has success in absolutely every part of her life, has become clear. Not only her career is unstoppable, also her love for her husband, friends, children and family. I’m certain that personal happiness makes someone glow. So maybe we should all thank Don?

So what is beauty to you?

Merry Christmas! (or shall I say Meryl?)

*sinks through the ground of shame*

Today I decided that it was time for an update and I made a shameful discovery. The seventeenth of August. That was my last post. It has been almost five months since I’ve written anything for about-streep. Yes, I’m sorry. Yes, I’m embarrassed. Yes, it’s shameful. Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a joyful day full of warmth, happiness, love, family and friends, and may 2015 bring you these things as well! Nothing is more important than love. I know it sounds cliché, and although it is very cliché to say so, most clichés are true.

So here is my Christmas gift to all Streepers, the year in review through the eyes of a Streeper.

Golgen Globe nominations, Oscars in sight… Everyone is already gossiping and talking about the award season that is yet to come., but let’s see if you remember what happened during last year’s award season.

August Osage County

“I adored it, definitely my favourite movie of 2013!” or “What an awful movie”. Much controversy caused by the movie August Osage County, in which Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts play opposite each other.

I can imagine why people don’t like this movie. It’s dark, it’s overwhelming and sometimes a little exaggerated. It comes at you as fast as a train and you don’t have the time to decide whether you want to be a part of this story. That’s how I experienced it. I was overwhelmed by the secrets, the shocking truths, the family issues and the dialogues, yet I did enjoy the movie. It is not difficult for me to understand why my aunt, for example, left the movie theater silent and in a state of shock.

Although August Osage County didn’t always receive good reviews, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did not agree and rewarded Streep and Roberts with a nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Streep) and Best Supporting Actress (Roberts).

The Oscars!

It was not Meryl Streep but Cate Blanchett who took the golden statuette home for her, may I say, brilliant performance in  Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmin. Perhaps no Oscar for Streep, but she did tweet for the first time and as always, Streep does it with grace. What should have been just a selfie of Ellen DeGeneres and Meryl Streep, became a real Hollywood selfie and became the most retweeted picture in history! With that, Ellen also beat President Obama.

Two, three, four, five… Wait how many upcoming movies?

That Meryl Streep’s retirement is not yet in sight, I have already said. When The Homesman released, I immediately rushed to the movie theater and found myself watching a bre  athtaking performance by not only the great Tommy Lee Jones, but also Hilary Swank, Grace Gummer, Hailee Steinfeld. Even Meryl Streep stole our hearts during the five minutes she appeared in the movie.

I saw The Giver about two weeks ago and I was positively surprised. I adored it! Every part of it, the message, the dialogues, the actors, the performances, the moral. A gorgeous movie with a coldhearted, brilliant Streep as the Chief Elder opposite the amazing Jeff Bridges.

Suffragette and Ricki and the Flash started filming last year. Masterclass, about Maria Callas, has been confirmed but has not started filming yet.

And then… guess which movie released in the States today, on Christmas Day? Yes, Into the Woods. An astonishing cast, beautiful performances and divine voices are the main ingredients of Stephen Sonheim’s musical. An adaptation of the play directed by Rob Marshall, director of Chicago.  So what do you wish for this Christmas?

A loss…

Director Mike Nichols recently left us. My prayers go out to his family and friends. Whether he was a friend, a husband or the director of your favourite movie, we all thank him for the joyful moments. Thanks for the beautiful movies you gave us.

So many great people left us this year, let’s take a moment to think of those who lost a close friend or a family member. Losing someone is like an incomplete puzzle, it’ll never be complete, just like you.

A Great Honor

We already knew that President Obama's favourite actress is Meryl Streep, but he never confessed his love for the actress like he did while honoring her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. "I love Meryl Streep. Her husband knows I love her, Michelle knows I love her, and there's nothing they can do about it!" So Barack Obama has been a secret Streeper for years... Good to know! Welcome to the fandom, Mister President! 

And what happens next?

Into the Woods received a Golden Globe nomination for best musical, best supporting actress (Streep) and best actress (Emily Blunt). We are impatiently waiting for all upcoming movies (Suffragette, Ricki and the Flash, Masterclass, The Good House (if this is still happening)). 

An Inspiration

To end this post, I want to thank Meryl Streep. I've said it two thousand three hundred fifty six times, I know it, but thank you, Meryl. This year you've inspired me a lot, through movies, interviews, things you said. Thanks for being not only my, but also thousands of other people's inspiration.

I wish you a Merry… Meryl Christmas! 

Thank you, Meryl

Thank you, Meryl, for the movies we can relate to.
Thank you, for the emotion you have given ous on screen.
Thank you, for the inspiring things you say.
Thank you, Meryl.

Thank you, for reminding us to stay true to ourselves.

Thank you, for telling us that we're all beautiful in our own way.

Thank you for being the greatest rolemodel someone could wish for.

Thank you, Meryl.

Thank you, for the movies that make us cry.

Thank you, for the movies that make us laugh.

Thank you, for the movies that make us think.

Thank you, Meryl.  



Thank you, Meryl Streep.

I would like to devote this post entirely to every inspiring thing Meryl has learned us. Every advice she has given us. Everytime she has said something so overwhelmingly true and comforting. A thank you, for every time she made our look at the world wider and brighter.

"Being a celebrity has taught me to hide, being an actor has opened my soul."

-Barnard Commencement Speech.

Fame is a very complex subject. We all want to be loved, to be successful. But something people might forget is that success isn't equal to fame. You only realize how much you need privacy, when it's been stolen from you.

"The minute you start caring about what other people think, is the minute you stop being yourself."

Stay true to yourself, to who and how you are, to your personality and don't change to be liked. After all, the only ones who will stay forever are those who like you for who you are.

"You don't have to be famous, you just have to make your  mother and father proud of you."

-Barnard Commencement Speech.

Fame isn't the importance it never has been. Yet again, Streep claims how unimportant and even deeply bothering fame is. The ones you love make you the person you are.

"Sometimes, with my children, I remember exactly how I felt as the child in this situation, not only how it feels to be me."

I think this quote points out why she's - in my eyes - one of the greatest actors.

"Be who you are, know what you know, because your own fingerprint is so indelibly unique. You should exploit what's different about you, not try to look like everyone else."

Personally, one of my favourite quotes. It's a reminder for absolutely everyone, to stop worrying about the things that differ with that grey crowd of people heading towards the same direction. Take a new way. Take your way!

"My advice: Don't waste so much time worrying about your skin or your weight. Develop what you do, what you put your hands on in the world."

-An evening conversation with Jane Pauley.

Something many girls have lots of issues with: their looks. Try to forget, to leave this pressure of trying to look nice and appealing to others. What matters are the things you do, the things you want to reach in life and the things you'll leave behind.

"Don't be married with beauty. Mix it up. Surprise people."

"You have to embrace getting older. When you've lost a lot of people, you realize each day is a gift."

Why this obsession with youth? I think the years bring with them (in some cases of course) intelligence and a wider look at the world. Be grateful for each day you can do the things you want to do and love the people you love.

"But blinders on to those things that conspire to hold you back. Especially those in your own head."
Don't let anyone take away the happiness in you. Don't let anyone take away your hope and desire.

"My feelings about fear is, if you voice your fears,

they may come true. I'm supersticious enough to believe that."

"I want to feel my life while I'm in it."

"If you think you can, you can."

Finally, thank you, Meryl Streep, for being who you are.

Who is Kate Gulden?

Who is Katherine - Kate - Gulden? 

I'd like to talk about my favourite movie/ book character with you: Kate Gulden, from One True Thing. Her husband, George and their daughter Ellen Gulden had always thought of her as a "simple" woman. The one you couldn't share the deep thoughts and conversations with. To George, she was the light in house, the lovable woman he would tease, he had flings with other women and shared his thoughtful conversation with others, sometimes his daughter. To Ellen, they were too different. She was a simple woman, and everything she had done had always been so naturally. Until she wasn't able to do it anymore.

When Kate got ill, Ellen returned home to take care of her, mostly because her father had asked her to, and she wanted to proof that she wasn't heartless as he had said.  But as she takes care of her mother, does the housekeeping, she realizes how tiring leading her mother's life is. It isn't as naturally as she always thought. Her mother isn't as simple as she thought. She has a complex personality, and it's only now, little time before her death, that she gets to know the real Kate Gulden. Which was at the beginning a difficult, stiff and distant relation ship became a close bond. The real deep thoughts could be discussed with her mother, she might even have learned the most useful thing Ellen has learned in her whole life, something that even her father she had admired, couldn't learn her. Kate learned her to be happy with what you have, instead of yearning for what you don't.

I will always admire Kate in a way. Once my best girlfriend told me: "Sally, you talk about those film characters as if they were real people. You'd never say: "Meryl Streep in The Hours", you'd say "Clarissa Vaughan"" and she's got it right on it. 

I will admire Kate for her light, her joy, her smile, her laughters, her positive look at the world. I will admire Kate for what she has been through. I will admire Kate for the inspiring things she has said. I don't admire Meryl Streep in One True Thing, I admire Kate Gulden. 

Meryl Streep's upcoming movies!

She is called the Leading Lady of Hollywood, and I don't ask myself why. When you are a sixty-five your old actress with six upcoming movies, you are allowed to be called The Leading lady of Hollywood. She's called the greatest actress in film history, after one hundred and twenty-one awards, including the record of Golden Globe wins for an actress, Golden Globe- and Academy Award-nominations, three Oscars a number of 55 films (including only five being not so good, in my opinion) admired by all actors, going from Jennifer Lawrence, to Jack Nicholson to Bette Davis and a career lasting for almost four decades. The mysterious woman is called Meryl Streep and will be starring in six new movies. Retirement for Streep is not in sight. Meryl will stop acting when she's a hundred and fifty-three years old, no one will stop the unbeatable Streep.

                        

There is no doubt in my mind that people actually invent new movies, new parts and new characters just to have Meryl Streep playing in their film. No doubt at all! Can you name one actress still being asked so many times as her? All actresses above fifty complain about not having a job and then you see Meryl Streep having six upcoming projects in which she will play a leading role? It's sad, that's true because actors don't have that problem, yet actresses seem to have an expiration date. But not Meryl Streep! Let's talk about.... Meryl Streep's upcoming movies! 

A grey wigged Streep in a blue suit in a science fiction movie, nobody saw it coming. The first science fiction for La Streep (aside Artificial Intelligence, but that doesn't really count). She will be playing the Chief Emder in a movie adaption of Lois Lowry's novel The Giver! Starring the amazing Jeff Bridges, Katy Holmes and (surprisingly enough) Taylor Swift's real  film debut (after Valentine's Day in which she appeared ten minutes). 

                                  

In December 2014 on Christmas Day will release... Disney's films adaption of the play.... Into The Woods! A sexy wolf Johnny Depp, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, Tracey Ullman, Emily Blunt and Christine Baranski (have I forgotten any Cast-members?). But above all... A rapping witch being played by Meryl Streep! Her soprano voice being heard for the first time since Mamma Mia, six years ago! 

And after Into The Woods, Meryl Streep will show her singing skills again in the movie Ricki and the Flash, in which she will play an old rock star returning to the family she left behind to make it as a rocker. She will rock, sing some Lady Gaga and play the guitar alongside Rick Springfield (!). Ricki's daughter is played by Mamie Gummer. The reason filming hasn't started is because Meryl Streep has to master the guitar; everything the band has to play, Meryl Streep has to play. Excited much? Yes. 

                             

                             

Meryl Streep is a feminist, we already know, and it was not a big surprise when she agreed on playing the role of Emmeline Pankhurst in Suffragette, the woman who gave her life and freedom for suffrage ! She will play alongside some great actors such as Helena Bonham Carter, Carey Mulligan and Ben Whishaw. Can you hear the Oscar bells ringing? (The academy Awards obviously aren't really important but I am still impatiently waiting for the day she will beat Katharine Hepburn.) 

                    

The life of the greatest opera singer (in my eyes), God's voice, La Divina portrayed by Meryl Streep in the movie directed by one of my favourite directors: Mike Nichols! In Masterclass, Meryl Streep will play Maria Callas. I am not sure if she will sing, though. Meryl Streep is an opera singer and soprano, but I doubt she can do what Maria Callas can. Level of excitement on a scale of ten? Thirty thousand two hundred eighty-four! 

                           

My two favourites of all time: Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep in one movie: The Good House (based on the book by Ann Leary). Streep will play an alcoholic and De Niro her love interest. Is there anything better than Meryl and Robert reunited on the silver screen for the first time in fifteen years after the minuscule part Bob had in Marvin's Room? Plus, big big big big plus: they will play lovers. Nothing is better, my life is complete, I can rest in peace by now.

                                        

Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro in Falling in Love

                          

Some are happy about it, others are sick of seeing her (lovely) face appearing on their television at least three times a week, but Hollywood isn't and Meryl Streep is unstoppable. 

There was only one time I heard Meryl Streep say an untruth: in her Oscars speech when she said it'd be the last time she'd be standing up there. If you're reading this, Meryl, (which she probably isn't but I just like the thought of addressing this to her) believe me, it won't be the last time, so get used to being honored and rehonored and rererererehonored like a goddess. 

The Iron Lady

I recently saw The Iron Lady for the third or fourth time, I don't remember. I had actually forgotten how much I liked that movie. Margaret Thatcher had always intrigued me a lot. She was way before my time but you can still feel her presence, when, for example, people mention something she's done. Sometimes positively, but mostly negatively. When the sentence "it's all the fault of..." pops up, kind of thing. I'd rather not give my opinion about the Iron Lady, because she brings such controversy. But, besides politics, besides  being pro or contra Thatcher, you can't neglect the fact hat she's opened the path for lots of women. I don't believe she was as heartless as the "contra-Thatchers" state. She might have been the Iron Lady, her heart wasn't made from iron. She had been through difficult times, personally and professionally. I think, to get to the position she had, as prime minister, she had to be as hard and seemingly emotionless, but that doesn't make her emotionless. I had once read an article how many times Margaret had been the Iron Lady in public, but afterwards cried and sobbed like a little girl. Anyway, the Iron Lady shows the human side of the woman we portrayed as a monster. 

     

About the movie:

What an intimate look at the woman we all thought we had known so well! Not only a movie about power and politics, but just as well (and even more) a movie about love and loss, accepting and letting go, death and life. It was a very touching story, at some point it brought me to tears, or made my breathing stop for several seconds. For example, when Margaret's personality began to change the more she got power, and became, let's face it, unbearable. Not only Maggie's story, but also Denis'. How it must have felt for him, he was an import figure in Margaret's life but was always pushed to the background. They could have gotten it wrong, perhaps Thatcher wasn't at all like they portrayed her in the movie, it still is their fantasy about how it could have been. Simply a wonderful movie. 

         

About the performances:

Wow. I mean wow. What words are good enough to describe what these actors have brought to life? None. Or maybe one: indescribable. 

Meryl Streep transformed herself in some unbelievable cosmic way into Margaret Thatcher: the voice, the manners, the accent, the personality. I have never, ever seen someone portray a living person as well as Streep did in the Iron Lady. I had seen the Queen (incredible performance by Helen Mirren by the way) in which 

Margaret Thatcher appeared for two minutes and it made me laugh: they definitely should have asked Meryl Streep to do it. Academy award ? Deserved. 

                               

Jim Broadbent? How to play a dead, hilarious and ironic husband? How to play the one nobody knew about ? The man next to Margaret Thatcher people had only seen from far away? The man feeling neglected by his wife? 

Can I say I deeply admire what this actor has done? There was so little information about Denis Thatcher, yet he portrayed him so vividly and real. 

The young Maggie and Denis were played by Alexandra Roach and Harry Lloyd, two British actors. Their scenes were very enjoyable and I loved looking at them. They made a huge contribution to the film and made the movie also entertaining for the younger generations, at least in my eyes. 

Margaret had once said she didn't want to die washing up a tea cup. The last scene of the movie ? A dement, old lady washing up a tea cup. It slips through her fingers and shatters in a hundred pieces when it touches the ground. 

The leading ladies from The Iron Lady : 

Phyllida Lloyd (director) , Meryl Streep and Abi Morgan (screenwriter)

                                       

Meryl Streep and Don Gummer

Meryl Streep and Don Gummer

My mature mind doesn't allow me to even think of using the term "Strummer". Oops. Too late. I can just imagine how your eyes are glittering, how a cheeky smile appears on your face and you slowly start grinning thinking of the fact that I devoted a whole post to my favourite couple of all time: The Gummers. How immature of me. Worse is: I don't even care! Ha! Ladies (and gentlemen?)... Enjoy ! 

                                  

                                      Academy Awards 1979

Once my grandmother asked me, when I -yet again- started talking about Meryl Streep, to whom she was actually married. "Don Gummer, he's not famous , an artist,  and they are married for over thirty years now!" I replied proudly, as if it were my own accomplishment. As if Meryl Streep was my daughter and I the proud mother. And of course, I couldn't help it but mention how a beautiful relationship they have and she said: "but it could be all played." No, grandma. No. No no no no. My immature mind doesn't allow me to let you think that. 

                      

                            

                                Academy awards 2014 

There are two stories I read about how Meryl and Don met:

1- they met through Streep's brother (Harry the 3rd). Don came to Meryl's apartment to make it soundproof and of course completely fell for the ever gorgeous, young and beautiful Mary Louise Streep and after three months married her. 

2- Gummer, a friend of Harry's,  saved Streep from homelessness and let her use his apartment while he was going on a motor trip through Europe and Asia. They stayed in touch and through letters he, of course, completely fell in love with the ever gorgeous, young and beautiful Mary Louise Streep. But, during his journey got injured and had to return to the States. Why letting her go, he probably thought. So he married her. 

Agreed, the first option is way more obvious and the second one is probably made up by some romantico's. Yet, I still love telling this story to friends, it's like a film scenario. I think we all agree that we should make a film out of their lives. Don Gummer has already confessed he would like Daniel Day Lewis to portray him. Of course, who else should he take to play him in a biopic but the three-time oscar winner Daniel Day Lewis ? 

                              

                                  Academy awards 2013

After three decades, four gorgeous and talented children, paparazzi, wrinkles and age we still see Meryl Streep escorted to Award ceremonies by her lovely husband Don. What we have discovered through speeches and interviews is that Meryl Streep isn't Meryl Streep at home. She's a wife and mother and they don't care who she is at work, at award shows or in the press. To Don, she is the woman (I desperately hope) he loves, and to Mamie, Henry, Louisa and Grace she is just their beloved mother. They have arguments and fights, they have family dinners and movie nights. Weirdly enough, she isn't a goddess, as we all thought, and lives a very normal life. Yes, I can understand your confusion, but I guess that's exactly one of the reasons I / we love her. 

   

       The Gummer kids - Henry Wolfe, Louisa Jacobson, Grace Jane, Mary Willa (Mamie)

"The man that I love is so completely a part of my body. He's related, he's home, he's me, he is everything." ~ Mary Louise Gummer

"You've never considered yourself a star, you get mad and correct the press if they call you that, but you are, and not only in your work, you are the star that lightens my existence."  ~ Donald J. Gummer

"He's the reason I draw breath." ~ Mary Louise Gummer 

"The greatest break in my life was when I met my husband, Don Gummer. There is no question in my mind about that." ~ Mary Louise Gummer 

Now, melt. Cry, sob, faint, have a temporary nervous breakdown / heart attack and breathing problems because anyone could say anything he'd want; I shall never doubt Meryl and Don's love for each other. So grandma, never ever ask again if it is "all played". Because even if it was (which I highly doubt), my immature mind doesn't want to know it. 

                                 

                                    Academy Awards 2012 

Sophie's Choice

It had been at least a year since I had seen Sophie's Choice. I remember very well, when I began liking Meryl I looked up her filmography - of course - and watched all her comedies I could find in the video store, something that is by the way slowely disappearing now. It's Complicated, The Devil Wears Prada, Julie and Julia, Hope Springs (the first Meryl movie I saw knowing I was watching Meryl Streep), Mamma Mia. And when I had seen all those movies I began to fear. I asbolutely didn't want to see all her drama's, unfortunately for me (at the time), two thirds of Meryl's filmography are drama's. I forced myself to watch Sophie's Choice. It was a mental obligation: I told myself that if I really liked her I should at least see her Oscar winning movies, and I did! I only found Sophie's Choice without subtitles, and I had absolutely no problem with that, until I discovered half of the movie was in Polish and German. Sophie's Choice became incomprehensible, even though I cried during the "choice"- scene, I had no clue what he was saying, besides of course, "you have to choose". And I  never watched it again: I felt like I couldn't. Until last night. When the movie began, and the ever gorgeous Sophie Zawistowska was sitting on the stairs, crying after a fight she had with her lover Nathan, I recalled why Meryl Streep was considered the greatest. After a while in the movie, I forgot I was watching Meryl. 'Who's that Polish person playing Sophie?' Wait, that's Streep, oh yes, I remember. I think I can say Sophie's Choice was the best performance she has given on screen. The best, and I know nobody would have been able to do what she had done.

                               

You all know the story, you all know Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol are beyond great actors, so I'd rather like to talk about Sophie's and Nathan's relationship.

Nathan and Sophie had a beautiful love romance. They needed each other as much as they needed air. There was no doubt. But Nathan had the bad habitude to hit Sophie if he had drunk too much, or he saw events that never took place; like hallucinations. He insulted her of being a whore, of cheating on him. But after the continuous hits and screams, he'd take her in his arms and beg her for forgiveness. She was all he had and his love for her went very far. But, why, you think to yourself. You ask yourself why someone would hurt the one he loved as much. It's a mystery and it will always remain. Further in the movie we discover Nathan's mental illness and all the lies he had told his entourage, his obsession with the holocaust and nazis. We also discover Sophie's deepest secrets, involving the explanation for the movie's name : Sophie's Choice. Maybe their unexplainable love became more understandable ? They had both hidden secrets, had both been broken by the war. Perhaps that's what pulled them to each other? Nathan and Sophie's love is still complexe and difficult to explain to me, but I think I can imagine what these people felt.

It goes without saying why Sophie and Stingo couldn't stay together. At least to me. Stingo couldn't understand that Sophie wasn't able to have a family, kids, a happy marriage and forget what had happened to her. Perhaps that's the reason she loved Nathan; she didn't feel the obligation. 

Sophie returned to Nathan, and together they made an end to the life they didn't want to live anymore. 

But after all, perhaps love just simply isn't explainable at all. 

       

    

The Homesman

I turn on the soundtrack by Marco Beltrami, open my computer and start writing about The Homesman. I delete the sentence I've just written to make place for the one you are reading now.

Let's talk about... The Homesman! An American western/ drama directed by one of the greatest: Tommy Lee Jones! 

I think it must be two weeks now, that I've seen the movie in theater. I was sitting in the screening room on one of those red colored seats, somewhere in the middle of room, in my hand a candy bag, in the other a small bottle of water, emotionally instable and on the verge of crying when the first name pops on the screen: Tommy Lee Jones, one of my favourite actors of all time. Then came a scream: Hilary Swank's name appears. Then another: Grace Gummer shows. There was no third scream, when I saw Meryl Streep in big letters on the screen I stopped breathing and had a contemporary nervous breakdown. I am not even telling you what I did when she appeared in the movie. People must have thought I was mad, although I was the only one in the room, besides five or six other people, most above the age of fifty. The Homesman had been playing for several weeks already but since I had eight exams, there was absolutely no chance my mother would let me go to the cinema. 

I went to a movie theater in Tournai, and unfortunately had to go see the French dubbed version. When I saw there was no original version I could have killed myself, but at the end the dubbed version wasn't that bad. Let's say that after all those years the French people have become skilled at dubbing, thank God. 

The story is very simple: a spinster, Mary Bee Cuddy (Hillary Swank), has the task of escorting three insane women from Nebraska to Iowa, with the help of George Brigss (Tommy Lee Jones). But the unexpected and shocking events that take place on the road, the stories told behind these women and the tragic ending make this a hard and emotional movie to watch. Each and every actor was amazing and gave outstanding performances. I thought Hilary Swank had a very difficult role, but she showed how a great actress she is once again by giving the touching portrayal of Mary Bee Cuddy on screen. After a career of more than three decades, Tommy Lee Jones is allowed to call himself the master and once again had given such a breathtaking performance and made this movie a treasure. I was positvely surprised by Grace Gummer because I had never seen her acting, the small part she once had in American Horror Story excluded. All I can say from seeing this now is that she has a talent, and not a bit. She was able to make me shiver as one of the mad women and I absolutely enjoyed every second I saw her playing. She's got the gift and I hope this is just a foretaste of the emotions she will give us during her career. I definitely want to see more of Gummer! 

Why do you have to see this movie? I think I've used the words performance, touching, shocking and emotional once too many times, but that's the movie, and that's the reason you've got to see it. Meryl Streep is for once not a reason. She had a very small part and even if she wasn't in the movie, that wouldn't have changed the greatness of it. It transported me to the Wild West for a hundred twenty-two minutes of suspense and tragedy. Recommended and worth those two hours of your life. 

Little favour for the Streepers out here (I couldn't help it) here's Meryl's lovely face:

La Tarte Tatin!

Okay so the pie is a huge failure. A dishonor to the art of cooking. A shame and an embarrassment. Guess what? It didn't turn out like I had hoped! But to be honest, I don't really care. At least I tried! *goofy smile*
At the moment I'm listening to the Winner Takes it All, which perfectly describes my feelings with the pie.


Ingredients:
* 8-10 Golden Delicious apples (I just took... you know apples...)
*200 g butter
*300 g sugar
*puffy pastry, selfmade or just like I did: bought in the grocery store. (I'm so sorry, I know it's a shame.)



So the first defeat: I didn't use Julia Child's recipe... Great beginning! I didn't understand a thing of it, so I used the Larousse Gastronomique, which isn't that bad since Julia Child had it too! I mean, it could have been worse, no? Anyway, I opened the Larousse and after reading it seven times in a row I actually understood it.





Peel eight to ten apples and cut into eight parts. Cut the tips of the apple parts. Yes, uptill now everything is alright, I'm following, everything is going great.

Cover the sides and bottom of a copper pan with a mixture of 300 g butter 200 g sugar. I checked at least thirty thousand eight hundred and fifty two times if it wasn't 200 g butter and 300 g sugar.
I don't know if that went well: I put the butter in the microwave to melt, I'm not sure if I was supposed to do that.

Put a first layer of apples in the pan with the ends against the border. Then a second and a third layer.
Note: don't forget to put the ends against the border, I forgot it and believe me it doesn't look like a Tarte Tatin when you don't do it, so I suggest you read your recipe better than I did.

Set the pan over moderately high heat and wait until the butter-sugar mixture comes up foaming and with a light color. That may take about twenty to thirty minutes.

Let the content rest for eight hours. So, I suggest that when the Larousse says you have to let it rest for eight hours, you f*cking listen to what the Larousse says. I'm speaking from experience.

The next day you put a puff pastry above the pan.
a) I know, I'm ashamed, I actually bought the pastry and didn't make it myself.
b) Now that you're here, and I'm giving you suggestions of what you better not do: I also suggest you put the pastry IN the pan, and not just above it. As you see I didn't put it IN the pan okay, don't do it like I did!

Put the pan in the oven for about twenty minutes at 180 °C.

Let the pie cool. Also: when there is written to let the pie cool, let the damn pie cool because: "these damn things are as hot as a stiff cock", quoting Julia Child, you know.

Last but not least: the flipping of the pie.
I have absolutely no tips to flip the pie, not that I have actually given you any advice, I just told you what to not do. Just take the pan and flip it on a plate.
TADA.

So, yesterday I tasted it, and let's say it wasn't that good. This morning I tasted it again and it was much better. So let the pie rest for eight hours, I'm sure you won't regret.