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.