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!