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. 

       

    

Adaptation: Just a passion...

Just a passion is what Susan Orlean wanted. Just a passion. She went so far that the desperate search after a passion became a passion itself. She wanted to care so much about something like Laroche cared about orchids. She wanted to feel it, to be in tune with it, to obsess with it, just simply something to care about passionately.

"I suppose I do have one unembarrassed passion. 

I want to know what it feels like to care about something passionately."

Adaptation is one of the most insane movies I've ever seen. The most insane, but the most powerful and entertaining as well. I think I can list this one as one of my favourite movies of all time. Incredible performances by Nicolas Cage, Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep in this tragic comedy/thriller. I think I can add thriller because of its ending... If you know what I am referring to. Little hint: crocodile. 

Adaptation's beginning is remarkable, the thread of the whole movie. It's dark, we hear nothing but Nicolas Cage's voice telling you how pathetic he is. And he will repeat himself throughout the whole movie, so don't forget it : Charlie Kaufman is pathetic. Bald, fat, old, his toenails have turned strange and absolutely very pathetic. Kaufman is a screenwriter and agreed on doing the job of adapting Susan Orlean's novel, 'the Orchid Thief'. But how to write a movie about... flowers? How to write a movie about a woman in desperate search of a passion, talking about orchids? Changing the story by bringing in some action and new events that weren't described in the book? No way, Charlie wanted to write something beautiful about orchids and he was determined. During his way to writing the perfect script, events take a shocking and unexpected turn: Susan Orlean isn't who we ever thought she was and Charlie's twin brother discovered that. 

Susan Orlean is such a fun character in the movie. During the film, she changes from a woman living a normal life with a husband, job as a writer and friends into a drug addict when she meets John Laroche. He takes her into his special world, shows her his fascination for orchids and that led to Susan's fascination for his fascination. How could he love something so incredibly much? She wanted so desperately to feel the same and lost it the search for a passion became a drug addict.  Drugs transported her to another world, which orchids did to John as well, so maybe it was a passion?

Reality or fiction?

One of the tricky things about this movie is that reality and fiction are difficult to distinguish. Susan Orlean and Charlie Kaufman are reality. While writing the script, Kaufman involved himself and Susan Orlean, but the events in the movie never took place (thank goodness), so that is pure fiction. The movie is so well constructed that at the end you've got the feeling that it was real, as if it was a journey into Kaufman's imagination. He writes a script, you see the story behind the writing of the script, and then the movie becomes his script. A movie to pay attention to while watching, but also very fun and tensive! 

I don't own the pictures.

Found them on Tumblr. 

La Divina

"Masterclass", an HBO film that will be directed by Mike Nichols tells the story of opera singer Maria Callas. The story of her life, her love affaire with Arisotle, her career and the voice master class she holds.
In honor of Callas, here this post, entirely dedicated to the wonderful soprano.


I, being a huge fan and admirer of La Divina, jumped off my seat, did a little dance of joy, there must have escaped a little scream from my lips, was in a state of shock when I heard that my all time favourite actress Meryl Streep would be playing the divine opera singer Callas. The woman who could make you shiver with one tone, one sound of her voice. A song sung by Maria makes you drop everything in order to listen carefully to her, it's like an attraction, addiction, you're hypnotised. If God had a voice, then it would be Callas'.

Callas performing "Casta Diva"

When I first "discovered" Callas, I was obsessed with her. Surprised much? No. So I, of course, googled her - thank God for Google - and read her whole Wikipedia page, which took me eternity. Callas' Wikipedia page isn't in any way comparable to Meryl's, which is four times smaller. Unfortunately, I have the memory of my great grandmother (I think that even she has a better memory than I do) and the only thing I remember from the whole article is that she had a love romance with Aristotle, who then left her for Jackie Kennedy after JFK's death, blablabla. Her lovelife has no importance when talked about her career and voice.

Callas performing "Carmen Habanera"

Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos (Callas), born in 1923, was and is one of the world's most famous opera singers. Her voice was different, she wasn't the strongest technical singer, she did have something dramatic and emotional in her voice, which made her become La Divina - divine. Meryl hasn't hidden her admiration for the opera singer at all and during the interview on the French journal this year, has said how much she loved that woman. It was, by the way, a horrible interview; the questions were bad and sometimes made it very uncomfortable for Meryl to answer. Anyway, when the reporter played "Casta Diva", sung by the amazing Maria Callas, Streep immediately started singing along, knowing the lyrics. Emotional and on the verge of crying, she gasped and said: "she's the greatest artist of the twentieth century... to me.", when asked what she felt hearing Callas' voice. "She's in tune with something divine. But because.. because it's also: music. Because music brings something...." "Takes you away", the interviewer finished. "Exactly!" And yet again, Streep is right on it.