It's been some weeks since my last CINEMA COFFEE talk. During the duration of the #31DaysOfOscar, carrying through to the start of March on TCM, I dedicated the months to my Marlon Brando blog series, highlighting each of the six films to air for the month featuring Marlon Brando, beginning with an introduction piece, HELLO, I'M MARLON BRANDO.
And even more recently since, I've begun a new mini blog dedicated to my #ForMyMom film watch challenge, SATURDAY NITE MOVIE NIGHT DAILIES, to catch up on all the films she and I talked about seeing, film series we were long fans of (Bond, Mission Impossible, Pirates, Alice in Wonderland, etc.), and films I know, without question, she and I would have went to the theater to watch or we would've included in our Saturday Nite Movie Night lineups (for my intro piece on this Saturday night tradition, see the bottom of MY MOM AND MOVIES). Each week, I've picked a set of 5 films to watch when I can, in my free time, which I've been logging myself personally in my journal as well as on my Letterboxd account by way of my blog.
My SATURDAY NITE MOVIE NIGHT #ForMyMom film watch challenge logging journal
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Saying all this to say, if you don't already know by now, we were movie people.
With Mother's Day approaching, my mind wanders even more so on things my Mom and I would do, or would be doing this upcoming Sunday, with my Dad along for the ride (which he *never* minded). For my gift to her, it would usually involve going to the coffeehouse (#WeAreCoffee, just as Eddie Brock is #WeAreVenom ... had to, film fan/Hardy fan, you know), a game of Backgammon, Scrabble, Checkers, or Connect Four to end off Mother's Day night. But somewhere in there for sure, without a doubt was *always* a movie. |
The film of topic this CINEMA COFFEE I'm featuring for numerous reasons. The main reason being, it was the last film my Mom and I would see in theaters, having *no idea* at the time it would be. We always had fun at the movies, at the risk of sounding cliché, it was truly an adventure every time we went. It *never* got old. It was always as if we were going for the first time, though, at the same time, it was like clockwork. We knew, without ever saying a word to one another, where we were going to sit, whose turn it was to hold the popcorn vs. who was the one to get all the napkins in their lap to dump half of the popcorn in (always the tub with the refills), who was going to get the refills each trip to the theater, who was going to buy the tickets. Everything *spot on*. It became comical, as there were a few trips to the theater others wanted to take with us, saying we seem to always have way too much fun going, but ... you had to know ... Don't go messin' up our flow. We don't have time debating where to sit, who ate all the popcorn?, did anyone get more napkins?, I forgot the salt ... *sigh* armatures. #WeCantDeal
I fell in love with WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO + JULIET (1996) as told by Baz Luhrmann, though I've equally loved the more authentic adaptations of, as both his film and the more classical adapt, ROMEO AND JULIET (1968) were classroom watches during my school years. There's room for both. Classic and modern. Baz just sews the two together in a Haute Couture way.
If you haven't guessed which film in topic I'm discussing by now ...
"I'm Gatsby."
From the beginning stages of finding out THE GREAT GATSBY (2013) was going to be adapted by Baz, I was instantly intrigued and excited. He doesn't turn out films every single year. In fact, his Feature Film filmography is limited, but powerful. Which, for fans like I, makes the excitement to his theatrical releases all the more anticipated. Much as I feel with other filmmakers like Scorsese, Nolan, Ritchie ... Patiently waiting. Eagar to find their next project announced. No matter what, agree or disagree, you're there for it.
My eagerness was only further heightened when TCM, as they used to do between films, aired an in-depth look into the origins of THE GREAT GATSBY in honor of its 2013 upcoming release, discussing from its author of the 1925 written piece, set in the summer of 1922, the Great American Novelist, F. Scott Fitzgerald, to its now lost and first adaptation in 1926 starring Warner Baxter as "Jay Gatsby" in addition to all the other line of Gatsby's that were to follow, leading up to this more modern/recent adaptation with Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of "Jay". The likes of Alan Ladd (1949) and Robert Redford (1974) in his wake.
From the beginning stages of finding out THE GREAT GATSBY (2013) was going to be adapted by Baz, I was instantly intrigued and excited. He doesn't turn out films every single year. In fact, his Feature Film filmography is limited, but powerful. Which, for fans like I, makes the excitement to his theatrical releases all the more anticipated. Much as I feel with other filmmakers like Scorsese, Nolan, Ritchie ... Patiently waiting. Eagar to find their next project announced. No matter what, agree or disagree, you're there for it.
My eagerness was only further heightened when TCM, as they used to do between films, aired an in-depth look into the origins of THE GREAT GATSBY in honor of its 2013 upcoming release, discussing from its author of the 1925 written piece, set in the summer of 1922, the Great American Novelist, F. Scott Fitzgerald, to its now lost and first adaptation in 1926 starring Warner Baxter as "Jay Gatsby" in addition to all the other line of Gatsby's that were to follow, leading up to this more modern/recent adaptation with Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of "Jay". The likes of Alan Ladd (1949) and Robert Redford (1974) in his wake.
Now, I'm not here to defend my reasons for liking this adaptation, and I'm not here to sell this film to anyone. I'm here to share what it means to me.
I remember walking out of the theater in awe, as is the case for me when seeing any film that inspires me to such a personal, influential level. But this time, it *felt* different. It felt more alive, vivid, fresh, exciting ... new. It was unlike any other feeling I'd felt before coming out of the theater. So many different spirited emotions. The colors, the sounds (and by sounds, I mean the Orchestral Score more so than the modern collaborations to the music itself, though "Young and Beautiful" by Lana Del Rey is a song that never leaves my side for more than a few days at a time to this very day), the art deco-esque style, the costumes ... the green light. I got it. I understood it.
We all have our green light. The green light we try to get back to, aspire toward, remember, hold on to, reach, find, hope for. Whatever our green light is, may not be all the same light, for the same reason or purpose, but it's something to live day to day for. To keep us going. A reason to wake up in the morning. Wretchedly for Gatsby, this unfolds in the most tragically hopeless romantic way on someone who it seems to us, the reader or the audience, didn't quite deserve to what pedestal Jay has placed her on. Daisy, Daisy, Daisy.
We all have our green light. The green light we try to get back to, aspire toward, remember, hold on to, reach, find, hope for. Whatever our green light is, may not be all the same light, for the same reason or purpose, but it's something to live day to day for. To keep us going. A reason to wake up in the morning. Wretchedly for Gatsby, this unfolds in the most tragically hopeless romantic way on someone who it seems to us, the reader or the audience, didn't quite deserve to what pedestal Jay has placed her on. Daisy, Daisy, Daisy.
"Young and Beautiful" (DH Orchestral Version) by Lana Del Rey from THE GREAT GATSBY
All these things running through my mind as I walked out of the theater with my mom, smacking my lips a mile a minute talking about every detail in broken sentences, trying to keep up with my own thoughts, I suddenly stopped and said, "Thank you mama. Thank you so much for coming with me. I had so much fun," as if she and I didn't go to the movies on a regular basis. She went on to share the enthusiasm in how much she enjoyed our movie vacay. But it struck me, in that moment, at that exact time how wonderful it was to go to the movies with my Mom, having a girls day out, and enjoying myself more than anything else I could think of doing anywhere else in life. It was a surreal moment. A moment I can't explain, but could feel inwardly as if I were being jolted. A moment I have not only captured in my eternal memory, but is a very, very personal connection with me and my mother now ... Unknown of the next years to come.
So continuous did I go on and on about this film in topic and discussion with anyone who would listen, and twice so with those who felt the impact I felt watching it, that same year at Christmas ...
So continuous did I go on and on about this film in topic and discussion with anyone who would listen, and twice so with those who felt the impact I felt watching it, that same year at Christmas ...
... A gift from the folks (my Mom in particular). Because what she didn't know was one day while she and I were out shopping, there was one store she told me she'd stay in the car for. While I was at the checkout, my eyes caught my Mom in the distance rushing. I can see that image in my mind so clear, it's as if it's happening to me right now. I didn't know what was going on, but there she was in the car as if nothing had happened. My mind began turning on what could she have bought? This was Fry's after all, and unless it was she and I on Black Friday or we were shopping for a electronic item for the house, this wasn't exactly her favorite store to pass the time in ... AH-HA! Gatsby!! I kept my mouth shut. But when Christmas came. No Gatsby. Hmm? A sweater ... How did I go so terribly wrong? Then, holding up the sweater to get a full view of it, a thump. I looked down in the box ... "I'm sorry old sport, I thought you knew." ... So did I. There looking up at me was "Gatsby? What Gatsby?" My mom laughed heartedly at my reaction to the whole gift opening as it transpired, as I must've given a "Ralphie" expression as he did when he saw the pink bunnies staring up at him. Though, with my Mom's in vogue taste, the sweater was as rockin' as Gatsby's cream white suit itself. #StyleGoals
Beyond happy, I watched it that night as if for the first time all over again. Only this time, as to not miss any of it, with the captions on (something we'd always do when having movie nights), and all the extra footage, details, behind the scenes, deleted scenes, costume history from vault of the Brooks Brothers and vintage Prada, unfolded in "Razzle Dazzle: The Fashion of the '20s - Fitzgerald's Visual Poetry" ... all in a deluxe double disc DVD set. For me, it was as if getting Chanel or Dior in a bottle.
Like a favorite scent of perfume to wear, so are films to me. I put them on daily, by decade, genre, effect, aspect ratio (which I'm picky about), sound, color; Technicolor, Eastman Color, black and white. Never do they become boring, old, or stale. Cinema is lasting. As long as we are here to take care of it. To continue to keep the bottle full.
Like a favorite scent of perfume to wear, so are films to me. I put them on daily, by decade, genre, effect, aspect ratio (which I'm picky about), sound, color; Technicolor, Eastman Color, black and white. Never do they become boring, old, or stale. Cinema is lasting. As long as we are here to take care of it. To continue to keep the bottle full.
Fresh off coming from the theater, the same weekend, I rewatched the 1974 adaptation of THE GREAT GATSBY with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. I remembered having to watch it when I was in school after our required reading of the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and I remember enjoying the novel more than the film, though at the time, I was already noticing my love affair with classic cinema over more modern films becoming more frequent, so I can't say I disliked it altogether, it just ... did register with me. But for the person I've become with cinema now, my taste, my style, my persona, my balance between appreciating those modern films with the classic film homages paid to them; THE GREAT GATSBY (2013) adaptation was me through and through. With this one, I love the film as much now as the novel, equally, which I too have went back and reread since that moment in time at the theater with my own personal copy of 'The Great Gatsby'.
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Reading the novel as a teen compared to reading the novel now, especially when ... life happens, the words, context, and meaning take on a much more complex understanding that can be related to and a bit lived in as if you see you, yourself in the language, idea, or even characters, in a much more carved out, personal way. The green light. Being "within and without." The search. The desperation. Such beauty can be so very, very sad. Vulnerable.
but my life, old sport, my life ... My life has got to be like this. It's got to keep going up.
I remember watching an interview with Leonardo DiCaprio at the time saying he too read the book as required reading in his youth during junior high school, and he understood it differently in his adult years before taking on the role of "Jay Gatsby" than he did the first time he read it in school. I could respect that. And though my opinion could matter not to DiCaprio or anyone else, I thought he did an attractive job with and as Gatsby. I bought it. I believe his composed, compressed emotions of the character spoke to me more than anything else in the film. His obsession leading to tragedy, though a tragedy that would've came just the same if ever he learned or realized the truth about Daisy ... His Daisy, no longer existed outside of the memory of her, I believe that would've killed him in the end anyway.
Both in the novel and the film adaptation, I can't say I haven't worn a little Gatsby myself when I reflect on my own personal makeup in life.
Or the hope and optimism felt by Nick Carraway when he begins to see what lies beneath the exterior of Gatsby underneath for the first time.
I have heard mention on how beautifully Alan Ladd played the character and long to see it for myself one day.
I mentioned before, this isn't a sell and it's not really a review, just my personal reflection of the film, what it means to me. My personal connection. As I've found, (with the exception of THE GODFATHER (1972), which for me, myself, and I, is the greatest film in cinematic history), all films I call "my favorites" may seem vast and endless, because what I take into consideration on where the film places in my own list of "favorites," "Top x List," is the circumstances surrounding the film itself when I first watched it. Everything, from where I watched it, who I watched it with, the mood I was in, what it made me feel ... Everything. Cinema has a personal connection with us all who love it.
So this weekend find your personal film connection with Cinema and watch it as if it were the last time.
So this weekend find your personal film connection with Cinema and watch it as if it were the last time.
My "Stella" for a Star.💕💕
For my other CINEMA COFFEE blog pieces:
#ForMyMom Cinema Coffee ... | COFFEE CINEMA: Talking Streetcar | CINEMA COFFEE: "Et tu, Brute?" | CINEMA COFFEE: "La Chocolaterie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Milk? I loathe milk!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Elderberry Wine ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The choice I never had ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The smell of Mimosa" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Mighty like a Rose" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Don't cry on the rolls" | CINEMA COFFEE: "You're the first Kansas I ever met" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Everybody calls me Gracie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "What the devil are Belinskis?!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Hello friends and enemies." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Stop remindin' me of heaven." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Even Gatsby could happen" | CINEMA COFFEE: "I made a wish" | CINEMA COFFEE: Audie Murphy | CINEMA COFFEE: Put The Blame on Mame | CINEMA COFFEE: "Just Singleton." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Where I Come From, Nobody Knows" | Film Therapy: Coping through Cinema | CINEMA COFFEE: Socks fall down | CINEMA COFFEE: "The moon's reaching for me" | CINEMA COFFEE: The Horne: Luso World Cinema Blogathon | CINEMA COFFEE: Aunt Bettye Lightsy | CINEMA COFFEE: I never lose | CINEMA COFFEE: "I have a mother!" | CINEMA COFFEE: THE SIGN OF GEMINI | CINEMA COFFEE: Venus Rising | CINEMA COFFEE: Stan vs Geek | CINEMA COFFEE: "Positively the same dame"
#ForMyMom Cinema Coffee ... | COFFEE CINEMA: Talking Streetcar | CINEMA COFFEE: "Et tu, Brute?" | CINEMA COFFEE: "La Chocolaterie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Milk? I loathe milk!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Elderberry Wine ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The choice I never had ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The smell of Mimosa" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Mighty like a Rose" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Don't cry on the rolls" | CINEMA COFFEE: "You're the first Kansas I ever met" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Everybody calls me Gracie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "What the devil are Belinskis?!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Hello friends and enemies." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Stop remindin' me of heaven." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Even Gatsby could happen" | CINEMA COFFEE: "I made a wish" | CINEMA COFFEE: Audie Murphy | CINEMA COFFEE: Put The Blame on Mame | CINEMA COFFEE: "Just Singleton." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Where I Come From, Nobody Knows" | Film Therapy: Coping through Cinema | CINEMA COFFEE: Socks fall down | CINEMA COFFEE: "The moon's reaching for me" | CINEMA COFFEE: The Horne: Luso World Cinema Blogathon | CINEMA COFFEE: Aunt Bettye Lightsy | CINEMA COFFEE: I never lose | CINEMA COFFEE: "I have a mother!" | CINEMA COFFEE: THE SIGN OF GEMINI | CINEMA COFFEE: Venus Rising | CINEMA COFFEE: Stan vs Geek | CINEMA COFFEE: "Positively the same dame"