Swoon and Sigh

I wish you'd hold me when I turn my back...

The subject of "love" has always been dubbed trivial. I think the theme of love in movies stopped being "finger-tingling" after Tuck Everlasting (though I secretly swooned on The Adjustment Bureau). All those predictable lines drastically make the whole theme of being in love very... trivial!

Just last week, my boyfriend and I watched Breaking Dawn (or the installment where Bella was disgustingly skinnier than that guy on Stephen King's "Thinner"). *Warning: Serious rants ahead* You cannot imagine the intensity of my eye rolls during the whole flick, I mean, if the movie was about 4-hours long, I'd probably be cross-eyed right now! Every.Line.Was.Predictably.Unoriginal!!! All the "I cannot live without you" shit made me want to barf my intestines out! Geez! How can he not live without her when in fact HE'S BEEN IMMORTAL FOR 100-SOMETHING YEARS! Fvcking stupid! God! Phineas and Ferb had more original themes than the whole Saga!

But really, my point here is "love being trivial", common, copied. At least in movies...

And thus, here, I will be listing my favorite Romance movies of all times (excluding those mentioned earlier EXCEPT Breaking Eclipse whatever!). Originality, swoons and sighs, the whole shebang! 

1. Casablanca will always be number 1. Though it featured a tad bit of oblivious adultery but still, it spoke of love being selfless and coincidental.
2. The Sound of Music was just perfect! "Somewhere in my miserable childhood and youth, I must have done something good..." Seeing the film at the age of 4, Christopher Plummer (Capt. Von Trapp) was practically my very first crush. Made me want to be a nun back then... and I do not know why.
3. My Best Friend's Wedding. Talk about unrequited (more like, delusional) love. 
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was OH.MY... what was I talking about again? Literally heart-wrenching... than...
5. The Notebook, of course... because I too am a girl!
6. Moulin Rouge is also worth the acknowledgement. Heck, even...
7. Phantom of the Opera. And I'd definitely go for the phantom!
8. Leap Year was rather infatuation-esque but still.
9. I've been a fan of Studio Ghibli since 2 months ago and I have to say, Howl's Moving Castle was eccentrically romantic.
10. Love Actually, though not generally my type, had a sub-theme on language barrier-ed attraction (Collin Firth and the cottage/house keeper), it was perhaps the only parts of the film that I genuinely liked.
11. Troy (Briseis and Achilles), because you know what they say, the more you hate the more you love.
12. A few Asian films are also worth noting... I had 3 in mind but I can only remember the one where this recently dumped girl met a carpenter/construction worker, eventually fell in love, married, and then it turned out that the girl had a long-term memory problem, ended up pissing on her shorts, and calling her husband by her ex-boyfriend's name... That one! The other two are (nope, NOT My Sassy Girl or Windstruck) set in ancient China.
13. I had to watch The Fountain at least twice to finally realize that unrequited love is better than love in death. 

If you were wondering why I did not place Pretty Woman or the Seven Year Itch here, it's probably because I've yet to see them.  And yes! Though Gone With The Wind would have been a very notable addition to my list (I've seen it, yes!), I did not quite had the hang of the whole story. I'd definitely watch it again soon... especially now that I have all the time in the world... yes, that's exactly how long the movie is.

Have to go! Enhanted is on Disney Channel!

Romance in Monochrome

Casablanca. hmmmmm. The word itself smells like the aroma of an early morning coffee. Casablanca. 

Last time I saw the movie was some 2 years ago, with my grandmother, after a four (excruciating) hour marathon (yes! marathon!) on Fiddler on the Roof. 

That famous "Here's to looking at you, kid" still makes me swoon like a 14-year old on a Beatles concert. Then "Well, only one answer can take care of all our questions." and BOOOM! Just 2 (of the many famous) one-liners and the movie got a staggering 8 (point something) on IMDB some 70 years from then. Not that the ratings matter (well, actually, they do) but I still think the greatest movies in Hollywood were the ones in monochrome. Easy for me to say, yes, with the advent of IMAX, BluRay and 3D in my time but still, just as antiques become more expensive by the years and scores that they stand, I guess, so are the films. 

To be honest, I've only seen a few flicks in black and white, not more than what I could count with my fingers (on one hand!), but I wish times were just as when these flicks came out. When movies houses are full on the weekends and "drive-in cinemas" are sold-out on popcorns. With the rise of internet streaming and downloading, I think the movie experience has gone a far lower notch (not unless you've got a full-set movie theater complete with Dolby sound system and a 1920 x 1080 display resolution monitor/projector). 

Nevertheless, as long as the flick is worth watching (and of course, worth buying! NO TO INTERNET PIRACY!hihiiii) may it be on a barn, or a pub, or on your Windows 97 PC, then it automatically becomes a blockbuster... to any generation.