WAITING FOR THE NEW EMMA - BBC PRESS PACK

BBC PRESS OFFICE has just released EMMA 2009 Press Pack with lots of details about the latest adaptation of Jane Austen' s novel (1816) which is part of Autumn 2009 Programme.

Adapted by BAFTA-winning writer Sandy Welch (Our Mutual Friend, Jane Eyre, North And South) this humorous and perceptive serial from BBC Drama Production provides a rich insight into one of Austen's most complex characters. This adaptation of Jane Austen's comic masterpiece Emma is described as fresh and witty.

Read the introduction HERE, Michael Gambon (Mr Woodhouse) on EMMA 2009 HERE and Romola Garai about her role HERE.

RELATED POSTS AND SITES

Waiting for the new Emma or the ambiguous pleasure of freedom

OFFICIAL TRAILER

EMMA ADAPTATIONS BLOG

EMMA at austen.com

HOW TO GROW OLD

I remember I read this essay - HOW TO GROW OLD by Bertrand Russel - when I was 15 ,at school with my English teacher. It was an ironical text about how to grow old the right way keeping up strength, will and mental energy.
Why am I thinking about that now? Because it was my birthday some days ago - I know , I didn't tell you anything but I was not in the mood to celebrate, completely alone at home, husband and sons still at the seaside... I realized that every year more I wish to forget my birthday. There's something wrong in that: we must face reality, not escape it, that's something I'm sure of. And once we face it, we must try to handle it and finally accept it. Now, I know many women my age or even over, would think I'm mad because we are still "young", but it is really saddening to reflect on the passing of time. Then, don't tell me that turning forty-something is like turning 30-something! That's lying and you know.
This is why I decided to re-read some pages from that old book I had completely forgotten.

Do you want to read some lines with me?

"In spite of the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old, which, at my time of life, is a much more important subject. My first advice would be to choose your ancestors carefully. Although both my parents died young, I have done well in this respect as regards my other ancestors. My maternal grandfather, it is true, was cut off in the flower of his youth at the age of sixty-seven, but my other three grandparents all lived to be over eighty. Of remoter ancestors I can only discover one who did not live to a great age, and he died of a disease which is now rare, namely, having his head cut off. A great-grandmother of mine, who was a friend of Gibbon, lived to the age of ninety-two, and to her last day remained a terror to all her descendants. My maternal grandmother, after having nine children who survived, one who died in infancy, and many miscarriages, as soon as she became a widow devoted herself to women's higher education. She was one of the founders of Girton College, and worked hard at opening the medical profession to women. She used to tell of how she met in Italy an elderly gentleman who was looking very sad. She asked him why he was so melancholy and he said that he had just parted from his two grandchildren. 'Good gracious,' she exclaimed, 'I have seventy-two grandchildren, and if I were sad each time I parted from one of them, I should have a miserable existence!' 'Madre snaturale!,' he replied. But speaking as one of the seventy-two, I prefer her recipe. After the age of eighty she found she had some difficulty in getting to sleep, so she habitually spent the hours from midnight to 3 a.m. in reading popular science. I do not believe that she ever had time to notice that she was growing old. This, I think, is the proper recipe for remaining young. If you have wide and keen interests and activities in which you can still be effective, you will have no reason to think about the merely statistical fact of the number of years you have already lived, still less of the probable shortness of your future.
As regards health, I have nothing useful to say as I have little experience of illness. I eat and drink whatever I like, and sleep when I cannot keep awake. I never do anything whatever on the ground that it is good for health, though in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.
Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of these is undue absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories, in regrets for the good old days, or in sadness about friends who are dead. One's thoughts must be directed to the future, and to things about which there is something to be done. This is not always easy; one's own past is a gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that one's emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and one's mind more keen. If this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably not be true". (...)


After Bertrand Russel's words, I'd like to share with you a very short poem by Nazim Hikmet, which one of my friends/colleagues used in her wishing card as a consolation for my sad thoughts about age and the passing of time. She is great! Once again -it's not the first time - she chose the most perfect words to cure my negativity:

The best sea has yet to be crossed.
The best child has yet to grow up.
Our best days have yet to be lived;
and the best word I wanted to say to you
is the word I have not yet said.

(Nazim Hikmet 1902-1963)

Translation from the Turkish Richard McKane

I am there, like Frederick's romantic wanderer, standing high on a sea of fog, astonished at the sublime vastness of nature and life but also melancholic at the thought of how fast everything comes to its end... anyway confident that our best days have yet to be lived!

“DON'T YOU SEE I CAN'T LOVE YOU UNLESS I GIVE YOU UP?”

After watching BBC THE BUCCANEERS (1995) for my Period Drama Challenge, I absolutely wanted to read Edith Wharton’s works. I decided to start with THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize), and I was right: believe it or not, it has been the best read of this 2009, one my best ever. It grabbed me right away, it actually took me to another place and time and I loved Wharton's use of language.
The story of Newland Archer 's impossible love for the disgraced Madame Olenska is a perfectly wrought book about an era when upper-class culture in the USA was still a mixture of American and European extracts, and when "society" had rules as rigid as any in history.
I really related to the characters, I mean to the protagonists, Newland and Ellen, Mr Archer and Countess Olenska: I felt their passionate transport hardly controlled, their silent empathy and their desperation at being prisoners of the stiff cruel hypocritical rules of that decaying upper- class culture.
There are so many beautiful and masterfully written pages that I was tempted to read passages aloud just to hear them trip back to me somewhat physically. Anyhow, I didn’t do it, I just re-read them more than once silently.
The story is set, both with nostalgia and condemnation, in the cloistered world of Wharton’s youth, the 1870s-80s, a time when society people “dreaded scandal more than disease,” when style and etiquette dictated that every fork, every servant, and every piece of furniture needed to know their place and when the people that commanded them so well better knew their place. In love, an individual’s lack of freedom could turn his/her life to hell .

The Plot (SPOILERS!)

Newland Archer, gentleman lawyer and heir to one of New York City's best families, is happily anticipating a highly desirable marriage to the sheltered and beautiful May Welland. Yet he finds reason to doubt his choice of bride after the appearance of Countess Ellen Olenska, May's exotic, beautiful thirty-year-old cousin, who has been living in Europe. Ellen has returned to New York after scandalously separating herself (per rumor) from a bad marriage to a Polish Count. At first, Ellen's arrival and its potential taint to his bride's family disturbs him, but he becomes intrigued by the worldly Ellen who flouts New York society's fastidious rules. As Newland's admiration for the countess grows, so does his doubt about marrying May, a perfect product of Old New York society; his match with May no longer seems the ideal fate he had imagined.
Ellen's decision to divorce Count Olenski is a social crisis for the other members of her family, who are terrified of scandal and disgrace. Living apart can be tolerated, but divorce is unacceptable. To save the Welland family's reputation, a law partner of Newland asks him to dissuade Countess Olenska from divorcing the Count. He succeeds, but in the process comes to care for her; afraid of falling in love with Ellen, Newland begs May to accelerate their wedding date; May refuses.
Newland tells Ellen he loves her; Ellen corresponds, but is horrified of their love's aggrieving May. She agrees to remain in America, separated but still married, only if they do not sexually consummate their love; NewNewport, Rhode Island. New land receives May's telegram agreeing to wed sooner.
Newland and May marry; he tries forgetting Ellen but fails. His society marriage is loveless, and the social life he once found absorbing has become empty and joyless. Though Ellen lives in Washington and has remained distant, he is unable to cease loving her. Their paths cross while he and May are in land discovers that Count Olenski wishes Ellen to return to him, and she has refused, despite her family pushing her to reconcile with her husband and return to Europe. Frustrated by her independence, the family cut off her money, as the Count had already done.
Newland desperately seeks a way to leave May and be with Ellen, obsessed with how to finally possess her. Despairing of ever making Ellen his wife, he attempts to have her agree to be his mistress. Then Ellen is recalled to New York City to care for her sick grandmother, who accepts her decision to remain separated and agrees to reinstate her allowance.Back in New York and under renewed pressure from Newland, Ellen relents and agrees to consummate their relationship. However, Newland then discovers that Ellen has decided to return to Europe. Newland makes up his mind to abandon May and follow Ellen to Europe when May announces that she and Newland are throwing a farewell party for Ellen. That night, after the party, Newland resolves to tell May he is leaving her for Ellen. She interrupts him to tell him that she is pregnant and that Ellen had been told of it two weeks before. Newland guesses that this is Ellen's reason for returning to Europe. Hopelessly trapped, Newland decides not to follow Ellen, surrendering his love for the sake of his children, remaining in a loveless marriage to May.
Twenty-five years later, after May's death, Newland and his son are in Paris. The son, learning that his mother's cousin lives there, has arranged to visit Ellen in her Paris apartment. Newland is stunned at the prospect of seeing Ellen again. On arriving outside the apartment building, Newland, still reeling emotionally, sends up his son alone to meet Ellen, while he waits outside, watching her apartment's balcony. Newland considers going up, but decides that his dream and memory of Ellen are more real than anything else in his life has been; he walks back to his hotel without meeting her. (from Wikipedia)

How much I loved Newland’s choice in the end! I found it sad and poignant but so romantic. Have you noticed? I’ve been turning more and more sentimental lately. “Maybe I’m becoming soft in my old age” , quoting a line from a TV movie someone may recognize. Mind, I’m honest though, unlike the character who says that.
Let’s go back to our THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. I‘d like to share some excerpts I particularly liked with all of you.

1. One of the most passionate moments

(Newland Archer) "Don't be afraid of me: you needn't squeeze yourself back into your corner like that. A stolen kiss isn't whatI want. Look: I'm not even trying to touch the sleeve of your jacket. Don't suppose that I don't understand your reasons for not wanting to let this feeling between us dwindle into an ordinary hole-and-corner love-affair. I couldn't have spoken like this yesterday, because when we've been apart, and I'm looking forward to seeing you, every thought is burnt up in a great flame. But then you come; and you're so much more than I remembered, and what I want of you is so much more than an hour or two every now and then, with wastes of thirsty waiting between, that I can sit perfectly still beside you, like this, with that other vision in my mind,just quietly trusting to it to come true."

For a moment she made no reply; then she asked, hardly above a whisper: "What do you mean by trusting to it to come true?"

"Why--you know it will, don't you?"

"Your vision of you and me together?" She burst into a sudden hard laugh. "You choose your place well to put it to me!"

"Do you mean because we're in my wife's brougham? Shall we get out and walk, then? I don't suppose you mind a little snow?"

She laughed again, more gently. "No; I shan't get out and walk, because my business is to get to Granny's as quickly as I can. And you'll sit beside me, and we'll look, not at visions, but at realities."

"I don't know what you mean by realities. The only reality to me is this."

She met the words with a long silence, during which the carriage rolled down an obscure side-street andthen turned into the searching illumination of Fifth Avenue.

"Is it your idea, then, that I should live with you as your mistress--since I can't be your wife?" she asked.The crudeness of the question startled him: the word was one that women of his class fought shy of, evenwhen their talk flitted closest about the topic. He noticed that Madame Olenska pronounced it as if it had arecognised place in her vocabulary, and he wondered if it had been used familiarly in her presence in the horrible life she had fled from. Her question pulled him up with a jerk, and he floundered."

I want--I want somehow to get away with you into a world where words like that--categories like that--won't exist. Where we shall be simply two human beings who love each other, who are the whole of life to each other; and nothing else on earth will matter."( from chapt. 29)

2. An example of Wharton’s condemnation of upper society’s hypocrisy

Are we only Pharisees after all?" he ( Archer) wondered, puzzled by the effort to reconcile his instinctivedisgust at human vileness with his equally instinctive pity for human frailty.For the first time he perceived how elementary his own principles had always been. He passed for a youngman who had not been afraid of risks, and he knew that his secret love-affair with poor silly Mrs. ThorleyRushworth had not been too secret to invest him with a becoming air of adventure. But Mrs. Rushworth was "that kind of woman"; foolish, vain, clandestine by nature, and far more attracted by the secrecy and perilof the affair than by such charms and qualities as he possessed. When the fact dawned on him it nearlybroke his heart, but now it seemed the redeeming feature of the case. The affair, in short, had been of thekind that most of the young men of his age had been through, and emerged from with calm consciences andan undisturbed belief in the abysmal distinction between the women one loved and respected and thoseone enjoyed--and pitied. In this view they were sedulously abetted by their mothers, aunts and other elderlyfemale relatives, who all shared Mrs. Archer's belief that when "such things happened" it was undoubtedlyfoolish of the man, but somehow always criminal of the woman. All the elderly ladies whom Archer knewregarded any woman who loved imprudently as necessarily unscrupulous and designing, and mere simple-minded man as powerless in her clutches. The only thing to do was to persuade him, as early as possible, tomarry a nice girl, and then trust to her to look after him.In the complicated old European communities, Archer began to guess, love-problems might be less simple andless easily classified. Rich and idle and ornamental societies must produce many more such situations; and there might even be one in which a woman naturally sensitive and aloof would yet, from the force ofcircumstances, from sheer defencelessness and loneliness, be drawn into a tie inexcusable by conventional standards." (chapt. 11)

From the book to the movie

As soon as I finished reading the last page of the novel, I started looking forward to seeing the 1993 film by Martin Scorsese I had carelessly watched on TV - never from the beginning to the end - many years ago. I have a DVD I’ve never watched so far , so I’ll put it in the player just now that I’ve finished writing this book review. (...)

Done it . I saw the movie. I told you I wanted to do it soon. I’m still so excited and moved …I don’ t want to write much. So ... this is the shortest and best review I found online. I agree with every single word.

"A sumptuous, achingly moving tale of love thwarted by duty and convention in turn-of-the-century New York. Camerawork, direction, costumes, set design, colour and, not least, the performances of Danny Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder are uniformly magnificent. Possibly Scorsese's finest achievement".

I only want to add that ...
- watching this movie was one of those very rare occasions when I saw exactly what I had already imagined. It was like reading the book a second time…or even better
- there were just few slight meaningless changes
- I was hooked by Danny Day-Lewis. His performance was touching in more than one scene

- I was just a bit confused at the beginning because May was a blonde blue-eyed beauty and Madame Olenska a dark one in the book. While in the film version May was Wynona Ryder and Ellen Olenska Michelle Pfeiffer!
- I especially appreciated the care to every detail: clothes, furniture, tapestry, props, hair-style, music, paintings, buildings, accessories, balls, carriages, hats
- It is a splendid period movie and .... this is my favourite scene (below)

RELATED SITES AND POSTS

READ THE BOOK ONLINE


THE AGE OF INNOCENCE AT IMDB

EDITH WHARTON ORGANIZATION OFFICIAL SITE

A Soirée with Lady Susan : Journal of a Grand Event

It's time to wrap up at Austenprose. The winners have been announced, the schedule has been completed.

Austenprose, Laurel Ann’s wonderful blog, has hosted an exciting group reading experience named “A Soirée with Lady Susan”from September 1 to 14. Reading Jane Austen’s minor works was also part of my EVERYTHING AUSTEN CHALLENGE so I decided to read Lady Susan according to the schedule suggested by Laurel Ann and take part in the soirée. Among Austen's minor works, I have already read SANDITON, a fragment completed by Juliette Shapiro, and still have to read another fragment THE WATSONS.

Lady Susan

An “epistolary novel” written almost entirely in the form of letters sent between characters, Jane Austen’s Lady Susan has rarely been staged and never filmed, despite its audacious heroine and lively plot. Fascination and deception come naturally to the beautiful widowed Lady Susan who manages, “without the charm of youth,” to captivate every man who comes within her orbit. She schemes to marry the gentlemanly Reginald De Courcy while enjoying the attentions of the rakish Manwaring and consigning her sweetly intelligent daughter to dubious marital felicity with a vacuous dandy – all to the chagrin of her highly respectable former sister-in-law.
Jane Austen’sLady Susan has never received much attention in comparison to her other six major novels. It is only 70 pages and consists of forty-one letters and a conclusion. Scholars estimate that it was written between 1793-4 when the young author was in her late teens and represents her first attempts to write in the epistolary format popular with many authors of her time. In 1805, she transcribed a fair copy of the manuscript but did not publish it in her lifetime. Lady Susan begins to explore many of the themes of Austen’s later works, and amply demonstrates the wit that would become the author’s hallmark.
Although the themes, together with the focus on character study and moral issues, are close to Jane Austen's published work, its outlook is very different, and the heroine has few parallels in 19th-century literature. Lady Susan is a selfish, attractive woman, who tries to trap the best possible husband while maintaining a relationship with a married man. She subverts all the standards of the romantic novel: she has an active role, she's not only beautiful but intelligent and witty, and her suitors are significantly younger than she is (in contrast with Sense and Sensibility and Emma, which feature marriages of men who are old enough to be their wives' fathers). Although the ending includes a traditional reward for morality, Lady Susan herself is treated much more mildly than the adulteress, Mariah, in Mansfield Park, who is severely punished.

Was young Jane fascinated by her wicked creature? I actually think so. Lady Susan Vernon is a totally free woman who, unlike Austen's major heroines, isn't molded nor bent by conventions, formality and good manners but bends them at her own convenience.

My Journal of the Soirée

September 2nd - Letters I – XI

Lady Susan reveals herself surprisingly … unconventional. I thought Emma was the most “imperfect” – and for this reason the most human , realistic and likeable - among Austen’s heroines but reading the first eleven letters I’ve immediately realized Lady Susan was pleasantly … evil: vain, selfish, enterprising, free, cold, emotionless, deceitful. May I stop here? Despite all that, just like Mr Manwaring or Reginald De Courcy, one can but be charmed by “the most accomplished Coquette in England” because she indeed “possesses a degree of captivating deceit which” IS “pleasing to witness & detect”.
If I have to be utterly honest there is something I do NOT like in her: as a mother, I found incredibly disturbing her indifference, if not cruelty, to her daughter, Frederica. Her calculated subtle deceiving trick of faking an interest in her daughter’s education - but in a boarding school far from home and everybody the girl knew - in order to push her to marry Mr James ( a man Frederica deeply disliked) was awfully evil!

September 5th - Letters XII – XXII

- I’m enjoying this reading more and more. Twists and turns make this second part, letters XII – XXII , quite thrilling. For instance, the unexpected attempt to escape reveals Frederica’s personality and real situation to the reader who, so far, has known her only from her mother’s point of view - which is not very positive at all.
- Another satisfying turn involves the character of Reginald de Courcy who, after meeting Frederica, realizes he has been blinded by Lady Susan skillful charming art : she has manipulated him just like any other person around her. When that happened, I was a bit disappointed at seeing him take Lady Susan's bait, since I had had a different impression of him at the beginning ( Mr De Courcy to Mrs Vernon - IV).
- Now that Frederica asks HIM for help against the wicked plans of her mother everything seems to turn against wicked Lady Susan. But reading the last lines of letter XXII I expect new turns and twists due to her devilishly vindicative rage : “She –Frederica- shall not soon forget the occurrences of this day. She shall find that she has poured forth her tender Tale of Love in vain, & exposed herself forever to the contempt of the whole world, & the severest Resentment of her injured Mother”. She is terribly jelous, she had not expected to find a rival in her daughter! Reginald seems to prefer Frederica to her! I’m looking forward to discovering what is going to happen … I’m avoiding spoilers as much as I can and respecting the deadlines in our reading schedule!

September 9th – Letters XXIII - XXXIII

I’ve just closed my copy of Jane Austen’s Minor Works at page 304. I was SO tempted to go on reading but this forcing myself to respect the deadlines of our schedule is making the experience much more thrilling and , as I already wrote, great fun.
1. Reading and re-reading this third group of letters, I started reflecting on young Jane Austen being so masterful in the use of language. If she created an incredibly skillful heroine who could master people and the same course of the events with her ability in using words like Lady Susan, how good did she herself have to be with words? She was indeed an already wonderfully talented young writer though only in her teens!
2. I’ve been particularly charmed by evil characters recently. Especially well written or well acted ones. Not the stereotyped flat villains but those with a certain complexity and psychological insight. This Lady Susan is the result of a particularly free Austen. She is definitely and devilishly wicked. In the letters to her friend, Mrs Amelia Johnson, L.S. reveals the most evil of her feelings, her most unscrupulous soul, she confesses with no dismay all her worst thoughts. She is so confident in her skills and feels no sense of guilt at all nor any regret for what she does. Once her affair with Mr Manwaring is revealed to Reginald – who wants to marry her! – and to Mr Johnson by Mrs Manwaring herself Lady Susan is so bluntly sure of herself: “Reginald will be a little enraged at first, but by Tomorrow’s dinner, everything will be well again”. These evil soul are so fascinating! Don’t you think so?
3. I like Mrs Catherine Vernon ( Lady Susan sister-in-law) much. She is the only one who is not subjected to Lady Susan’s schemes and tricks. So, this means she must be quite intelligent and very sensitive. She is balanced and pragmatic, so different from Lady Susan. But she is her only real antagonist, the only one who can cope with her in a fair confrontation.
4. Last but not least, I hoped Reginald was the hero of this novel but it seems Jane Austen had not a very high esteem of men in that period of her life (What about the rest of her short life, I wonder?!?) if we have to judge from the men we meet here and so far! What disappointment! They are really at the mercy of the women around them! Look at poor Mr Johnson, dead Mr Vernon, Lady Susan’s brother , Mr Manwaring (soon found out by his wife!), young Reginald. Not a dashing bunch of heroes!

12 September - Letters XXXIV – XLI

Even the epilogue of this novella is rather unusual. Lady Susan is bad to the bone - forgive me for this not very Austenish expression - and she ends up happily married with a well-off younger man. She is not fully rewarded but not punished either. She does not fullfil all her plans but she is not beaten either. Incredible Jane Austen!

Boldness, impudence and brass prevail in Lady Susan’s behaviour till the end. Once her falsity and her secret affair with Mr Manwaring are revealed, she doesn’t show any discomfort nor regret. She plans her revenge on Reginald, who dared disert her, and on Mrs Manwaring, who ruined her affair . She will use fragile Frederica to get to her revenge: “… Frederica shall be Sir James’s wife … She may whimper & the Vernons may storm; I regard them not. I am tired of submittin my will to the Caprices of others – of resigning my own judgment in deference to those… (Letter 39 p. 308)
Is there any good in this woman? Not at all. She is one of the most wicked and unscrupulous heroines I’ve ever met in fiction. Never as a protagonist, anyhow, rarely as an antagonist.
What about the last sensational turn? When she apparently seems worried about her daughter’s health? No way. She is not changing, no motherly affection: she just wants to get rid of Frederica, leave her at her aunt’s and uncle’s, in order to enjoy her marriage to Sir James!
And how about my hero? Reginald . Again, I was quite disappointed. It took him 12 months to propose to Frederica! Was it because he had been pondering the fact that, so doing, he was going to make Lady Susan his mother-in -law? If so , his indecision can be forgiven.

"Adieu, my dearest Susan, I wish matters did not go so perversely. That unlucky visit to Langford! but I dare say you did all for the best, and there is no defying destiny". (Mrs. Johnson, Letter 38 )

Thanks Austenprose. Thanks Laurel Ann. Till next soirée. Adieu. Arrivederci.

FANCY A WALK IN THE CLOUDS?

I did it. I went for a couple - of - hour’s walk in the clouds this afternoon. It was an attempt to escape blue mood and even depression at the idea of spending my Sunday afternoon coping with a massive ironing session. So, as I usually do, I chose a DVD from my collection, put it in the player and… walked in the clouds. It was so romantic! I must confess I sometimes stopped ironing and stayed still, punches on cheeks, bent on the ironing board, staring dreamingly at the beautiful landscapes, in rapture when the most romantic scenes appeared on the screen. Don’t worry. I did my duty of perfect housewife, I mean, I ironed till the last little piece of clothes.
A WALK IN THE CLOUDS is the latest acquisition in my DVD collection. A gift, actually. From Spain, from my niece who spent there her summer holidays, double audio English or Spanish. It is, a 1995 American movie , directed by Alfonso Arau and based on the 1942 Italian film “Four Steps in the Clouds”. I never happened to see it on TV, though I remember it has been on more than once.

THE STORY

Shortly after the surrender of Japan, marking the end of World War II, Paul Sutton returns to San Francisco to reunite with his wife Betty, whom he had married just the day before he departed for the Pacific. The war has left him with emotional scars and he experiences flashbacks on a regular basis.
Paul's reunion with Betty is strained, especially after he discovers most of the letters he wrote her were set aside unopened. He is determined to make a go of the marriage, however, and hopes to establish a new career for himself. Betty insists he continue to sell candy door-to-door, and he sets off to Sacramento.
En route, he meets a beautiful young woman Victoria Aragon, a Stanford University graduate student whose Mexican-American family owns a vineyard in the Napa Valley. When he learns the unmarried woman is pregnant by her professor, Paul offers to introduce himself to her very traditionalist family as her husband.
Victoria's father is infuriated, not only that she married a man below her social standing, but without his permission as well. Paul's initial plan to quietly slip away and continue on his journey, leaving Victoria's family to believe he abandoned her, is derailed when her grandfather Don Pedro encourages him to stay and help with the harvest. Paul and Victoria try to ignore their growing attraction for each other. His desire to salvage his marriage prompts him to return home, where he discovers his wife is involved with another man. This was an extremely weed winding situation. She has applied for an annulment, to which he readily agrees, and he returns to the Aragon estate to ask Victoria to marry him. An argument with her father leads to a disastrous fire which destroys the vineyard, but the family are certain they will recover from their loss with the help of its newest member.

The director chose to give this tale the colours of a dreamy romantic fairy-tale. Magic sunsets and sunrisings make the visual setting of the story incredibly beautiful, fit for a fairy-tale in fact.
The two protagonists are young and charming, disenchanted, good –hearted, and hit it off immediately with Fate playing with their lives. Several mistakes and weird events make their paths cross more than once. They are destined to be together.
Paul falls immediately in love with Victoria’s beauty and, especially, with the fact that she has a large loving traditional family around her. Something he has always only dreamt about since he was brought up in an orphanage. So he is sort of hooked by the atmosphere there in that great mansion and doesn’t manage to go away. He actually wants to stay more than everything else but his strong sense of honour and duty stirs him to go back to his wife.
Victoria falls immediately in love with Paul’s generosity, disenchantment, sincerity, kindness, loving care for her. He is so incredibly different from all the men in her life. Her strict old-mannered father who promises to kill anybody who stains the honour of the family or her lover, the professor who diserted her when she discovered she was pregnant; none of them have never loved her nor treated her like Paul.

The script sounds rather melodramatic more than once, some turns of the plots are rather expected or unbelievable. But a walk in the clouds is something suspended above reality, something you can go for only suspending disbelief… this is what you have to do to enjoy this romantic tale … believe in the unbelievable, accept the idea that “everything is possible” .

Finally, the international cast includes wonderful actors: Keanu Reeves (Paul), Aitana Sànchez-Gijòn (Victoria), Giancarlo Giannini (Victoria’s father, Alberto Aragon) , Anthony Quinn (Don Pedro Aragon, Victoria’s grandfather), Debra Messing (Betty, Paul’s wife).

AND THE WINNER IS ... ME?!? NO, COLIN FIRTH!

It's just lovely, isn't it? Nice promising cover for a good historical book. And intriguing title too. No, this is not a review of this novel. Why? Because I haven't read it. Not yet, at least! Are you curious to know why this cute picture of a book cover is here? Well, like it or not, I'm proud to introduce you ... my first win ever. Yes, I've just been informed that I won this book and I am immensely happy since I've never won a penny or a teddy- bear in my life!

Listen to this! One of my Net friends, Ms Lucy, hosted Michelle Moran, the author of Cleopatra's Daughter, in her wonderful blog ENCHANTED BY JOSEPHINE , on August 30, and linked to the event there was a givaway of an autographed copy of the book. I read the interview and commented convinced that, as usual, I wouldn't read that book without buying a copy at Amazon. No hope of winning, just commented to say I'd love to read Ms Moran's new novel. So, when on September 10th I checked Ms Lucy's blog to see who the winner was, no surprise at reading ... APRIL. The surprise was today when I found a comment signed by Lucy under my latest post - a bit out of focus but so welcome! - which said : "Maria Grazia!!! Did you see my post about the winner of Cleopatra's Daughter...??GO CHECK IT OUT!!!"

Now, Enchanted by Josephine is in my blogroll and I immediately know when something new is on. I've had a look at it this morning and commented the latest post I found there. How could it be that APRIL was ... MARIA GRAZIA? Very simply but unexpectedly, April has renounced her copy 'cause she had alredy won the same book from another blog! Great. Thank you, April. I'm so happy, as happy as a child blowing off candles on her birthday cake. I'm looking forward to having this precious gift in my hands. Thanks Lucy!

By the way, Enchanted by Josephine is organizing an interesting charming event. If you like historical fiction , On September 14th to September 18th, you are cordially invited to attend:

THE HISTORICAL FICTION BLOGGERS ROUND TABLE EVENT!!

But someone much more fascinating and talented than me won a very prestigious prize this afternoon and he really deserves it: our beloved Mr Darcy 1995, COLIN FIRTH, has just won the COPPA VOLPI at Venice Film Festival as the protagonist of the movie A SINGLE MAN. He plays the role of a gay teacher in this film directed by Tom Ford.

Congratulations MR FIRTH/DARCY!!!

SPOOKS AT WWI TIME

I got this DVD a couple of months ago but, as usual, I had to wait for some spare time to watch it. THE 39 STEPS starring Rupert Penry-Jones (one of my favourite SPOOKS and, definitely, my favourite Captain Wentworth) and Lydia Leonard was broadcast at Christmas time 2008 on BBC but, of course, living in Italy, I had to wait for the DVD to be released. I ordered it from Amazon UK though I read no positive review on the net (newspapers and magazines on line). They all compared this TV movie either to John Cuchan’s novel, on which it is based, or to Hitchcock’s 1935 version. After watching it just yesterday night, I think it is a pretty entertaining comedy. It seems more a parody of serious espionage films and, just for this reason, I find it really enjoyable. Maybe it is because I haven’t read Cuchan’s novel nor seen 1935 version by Hitchcock. Last but not least, Rupert Penry-Jones is dashing, adorable, as Richard Hannay!

The story starts in London, 1914. Richard Hannay, back from Africa, finds the city “cliquey, claustrophobic and class-bound”. He is extremely bored and spends the nights drinking at clubs. His life is unexpectedly changed into a mystery , a real exciting thriller, when one of his neighbours, Mr Scudder, seeks refuge in his flat claiming he is a British secret agent chased by German spies. Mr Scudder is discovered and murdered in Richard’s flat and he finds himself suddenly accused of being a killer and involved in a deadly conspiracy which not only threatens his life but the safety of the nation.
Forced into this bizarre turn of events, he escapes from London to Scotland hoping to uncover a German espionage ring.

As the police and the spies close in on him, he struggles to decode Scudder's secret notebook. Reluctantly he joins forces with a feisty suffragette, Victoria Sinclair (a character I particularly liked)

Victoria and Hannay don't hit it off, but they find themselves increasingly reliant on each other as they race to unmask a traitor and save Great Britain from invasion.

What I especially love in this movie is that it is thrilling, with quick turns, amusing, with spectacular natural settings (Scotland!) beautiful costumes/houses/cars, and … some very romantic scenes.

Here is my favourite one…

RELATED POSTS & SITES

HITCHCOCK'S MOVIE

BBC PRESS RELEASE

THE 39 STEPS BROADWAY MUSICAL

ENCHANTED BY SYLVESTER

The experience of reading and at the same time – but not simultaneously - listening to SYLVESTER or the Wicked Uncle has been a delight!

It is my first Georgette Heyer ’s novel and I admit that I approached it partly prejudiced (romances!), partly curious, but completely unaware of what expected me. I didn’t want to read much about the writer nor the about the plot before starting. I carefully avoided any review or comment on the book. Then I did something I had already tried with “Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen addict”: I put aside my academic way of reading and went back to when I read just for pleasure. It is not that simple: old habits are hard to remove, but I succeeded again and I owe Mrs Heyer several happy hours in these late summer days.
I AM sorry, it is happening again. I tend to write more about my feelings and emotions before/ while/ after reading or watching something than just write a “prim and proper” review . Maybe I’m too self-focused – and this is not good – but it is just my way of analysing myself, knowing myself, through literature and cinema. I only hope you don’t mind it too much or that it doesn’t disturb orthodox reviewers too much.
Now, back to the point! This story contains all the romance, humour and satirical traits of an Austen’s book but it is a witty novel of manners set in the Regency Era but published in 1957. With its unique juxtaposition of light-hearted romance and meticulous historical accuracy, it succeeded in convincing a “ disbeliever” like me!

THE PLOT

Wealthy Sylvester, Duke of Salford, is looking for a wife and has very particular requirements. Phoebe Marlow is suggested as a possible bride to Salford by her grandmother who is also his godmother. Sylvester doesn’t remember Phoebe though he has already met her at a ball .He, finding her dull and insipid, hadn’t even recognized her the second time they met. Phoebe, instead, found him so arrogant and insufferable that she decided to model the villain of her gothic novel on him: she makes him her Count Ugolino, the wicked uncle in THE LOST HEIR. Not the right premises for a good match, apparently- or just the opposite?

So, when Phoebe’s father and her step-mother want to force her to marry Sylvester and he arrives at Austerby to propose, she runs away with her life-long friend, Tom. But fate throws Sylvester on their way to London. Phoebe and Sylvester, stuck by the snow in the same lonely country inn for a week, begin to understand each other better. But, unfortunately, Phoebe's novel is published and soon all of fashionable London recognise Sylvester as the villainous 'Count Ugolino'...

A CURIOSITY

(from Austenprose – Read Laurel Ann’s review HERE)

In 1816, less than two years before the events in the novel take place, a strikingly similar scandal occurred that both delighted and horrified ‘society’. Taking her revenge against Lord Byron after their affair ended badly, Lady Caroline Lamb published Glenarvon – a Gothic novel featuring satirical depictions of well-known society figures and, in particular, a bitter, thinly disguised portrait of Byron himself. Although the novel was published anonymously (and became wildly popular), Lamb had her Almack’s voucher rescinded and was exiled from fashionable society. Phoebe would have been aware of the furore – would probably even have read the book – and she would have known of Lady Caroline’s fate.

THE WRITER
With her wit, her page-turning writing ability, and her genius at bringing characters to life, Georgette Heyer still brings new admirers to her novels more then 30 years after her death. Have a look at this site dedicated to this so-much loved writer. Click HERE.

There is also a perpetual challenge going on. If you are interested, you can take part in it. Just click HERE.

THE AUDIOBOOK

It consists of 4 CDs , total time 4:51:46 . It is, of course, an abridged version of the original novel. It is not Richard Armitage’s first experience as a reader. He has also featured on BBC Radio 4’s The Ted Hughes Letters - giving an excellent moving performance - as well as recorded several audiobooks among which THE LORDS OF THE NORTH and others linked to Robin Hood series 1 and 3. ( I’ve posted about these audio-materials HERE, HERE and HERE) . For more information about SYLVESTER recorded version read THIS at Naxos Audiobooks site.

DON'T WORRY! I'M NOT GETTING BIG HEADED!

I don't know you ... but receiving an award a day I really risk to get big - headed! I'll try not to boast too much but I've been nominated ... SUPERIOR SCRIBBLER by Michelle Magill at Torch Under The Blankets.

Thank you so much Michelle for awarding me this Superior Scribbler award – I’m enthusiatic and extremely glad to pass it on!

Here are the rules for this award:

1. Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends

2. Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

3. Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

4. Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

5. Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

Here are my 5 Superior Scribblers!

1. FLORES Y PALABRAS (Elvira)

2.MEET ME IN THE DRAWING ROOM (Kathleen)

3.TABLE TALK (Ann)

4. ENCHANTED BY JOSEPHINE (Ms Lucy)

5. READING , WRITING, WORKING, PLAYING (JaneGS)

Till very soon for a less self -celebrating post. But no need to worry! I'm not getting big headed!

BITTERSWEET LATE SUMMER SEASIDE DAYS

Like every year in September, before starting a new school year, I 'm spending few - but very few! - days at the seaside. It's always the same place, not far from my town, just a couple of hours' drive. These are the legendary shores where Ulysses met the enchantress Circe so it is impossible to remain indifferent. The nature and the sea here are wonderful. I'm reading , relaxing, walking on the beach as usual but, especially, I'm little by little surrendering to the fact that these are and will be INDEED my last few holidays for a long time !

I'm reading Jane Austen's LADY SUSAN and enjoying it much. It is both in my EVERYTHING AUSTEN CHALLENGE list and in the AUSTENPROSE's Soiree. But I'll tell about all this in another proper post as soon as it finishes. At the same time, I've started reading SYLVESTER by Georgette Heyer in the morning and listening to the abridged audiobook version recorded by Richard Armitage in the afternoon. You can't imagine what a delight it can be listening to his amusing reading, to his velvet voice while  looking at the blue sea in front of me...But I'll tell also about  this in another proper post.

So what am I going to post about today? I just want to tell you I can't be blogging as much as I 'd like to in the next few days, then I want to show the nice garden in my temporary home here at the seaside to you (see pictures above), as well as tell you that I'm having a good time, not to worry , and that I'll be back home next Monday.

Then ... emmm... what was it I wanted to tell you, too ? YES! Ive been awarded again. This is funny indeed:

Jane GS at Reading, Writing, Working, Playing nominated my blog for the Zombie Chicken Award. I particularly like the motivation of this amusing recognition :"The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all."

Now I am supposed to be spreading the love by choosing 5 blogs I appreciate and let them receive the Zombie Chicken Award:

1. THE KERR FAMILY BLOG - In order to return Jenny the honour of receiving an award and because we share many little passions and fondnesses. She is one of the nicest and most talented women I've met blogging.

2. STEPHANIE'S WRITTEN WORD - Because Stephanie is a great woman and has given all of us Janeites the opportunity to revive our love for Everything Austen suggesting the Challenge many of us have been taking part in the latest weeks.

3. MISS BLUESTOCKING - June's blog. It's a nice place to reflect on reading and writing fiction as well as period drama.

4. LIVING ABROAD - Antonella is one of my first blogging mates on blogspot and I love her way of posting about her life in York as an Italian mother, wife and translator .

5. LIFE IN ITALY - Reverse destiny for Kathryn, who is an English woman living in Italy. I love her blog and her comments, too!