Love in a Different Realm

 

It’s the month of love, lust, a love of lust or a lustful love. I’m going to try to have a full month about Love  in one form or another. The 3 films I chose today are a theme within a theme and all 3 made my heart pitter patter. I hope I see Joel here..miss your great comments Joel and love everyone’s comments even though I am lax in replying…my bad but I read them…please know this.

1. WUTHERING HEIGHTS-1939

I saw this film when I was a kid and got so spooked by the beginning of the film and the end that I did not want to go downstairs to my bedroom. I remember crying and screaming no! Ok, maybe not screaming but crying out no much to my dad’s annoyance. I found this film to be one of my favourite versions of this classic novel even though it is only one part of the book. A man, lost in a storm, takes refuge in a once grand home. He is given a room to stay and hears a girl ask for Heathcliffe. When he opens the window, looking into the wintry night he feels a col hand and cries out. An older man comes into the room and asks the man what he saw and felt. The old man leaves and the guest goes down the stairs and is told, by the housekeeper, the tragic love story of Heathcliffe and Cathy. Heathcliffe is an orphan brought home by a kindly older man and becomes friends with the man’s young daughter. The son of the man is a jealous snot who kicks Heathcliffe out of the home when the dad dies. Cathy and Heathcliffe grow up and fall in love and are as one until they climb a tree, one evening to look into the beautiful home of a neighbour who is having a party.  Cathy falls from the tree and is cornered by the dogs. Heathcliffe brings her in and he quickly sees how enamoured Cathy is with this genteel life. Soon, their love turns to hate( well, not really) and makes Heathcliffe mean and vindictive. Cathy ends up marrying the young man, Linton and, Heathcliffe decides to marry Linton’s younger sister. Decades pass and Cathy becomes ill…..it stars Laurence Olivier as Heathcliffe, Merle Oberon as Cathy, David Niven as Lord Linton and Geraldine Fitzgerald as Linton’s sister. Laurence was pissed off because the execs would not allow his big love, Vivien Leigh, to play Cathy but she was a bit tied up in that small movie called, “Gone With The Wind.” I thought Niven and Fitzgerald were wonderful for their thankless roles. The ghost story is a very small part but an important one.

2. THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR-1947

This is one of my all time favourite films( I am finally using this film, again, Stephen) that starts off with no music, you just hear the waves crash against the rocks and see Mrs. Muir going to see this house at the edge of this cliff. She will reside there with her young daughter, played by the sweet Natalie Wood and her faithful maid. Soon you realize they are not alone and poof! In comes the ghost of the captain, played by Rex Harrison, who is not happy that Mrs. Muir, played by the beautiful Gene Tierney, has entered his domain. When she realizes she might lose the place she loves, the Captain decides to help her by writing a book about his exploits. This is an ethereal comedy with a beautiful theme of love interwoven in a ghost story. It’s funny, sad, sweet and made me long to have a love story like this.

3. PORTRAIT OF JENNIE-1948

I’m not a huge fan of Jennifer Jones but she plays this character really well as a little girl who meets up with a struggling artist played by Joseph Cotton who is enchanted by the young girl. The next time he meets her, she is older and he decides to paint her portrait only to realize that each time he meets her, she is older but time is not her friend as she seems to get closer to what she is most scared of. Cotton is falling in love with her knowing that nothing makes sense since she has aged in a few weeks which takes a few decades. I love the cinematography of this film that shows many scene openings as if it is painted on a canvas. I’m very happy to have this film in my list of many films I own. It is worth a look.

Any ghostly love stories you love? I’m certain many of you will think of “Ghost” which is a great movie.