Favorite Moments in Stories and Film

These are some of my most memorable moments from books and film, just a quick collage of cuttings. 

When I first saw The Bicycle Thieves it just ripped me up. A poor father in post-war Rome loses his bicycle to a thief. Jobs are scarce and his bicycle was his only means of employment. "No bicycle, no job." He tries desperately to recover it, by tracking down the thief, but his care for his wife and children, including his young son Bruno, drives him to desperate measures. The film is simple, very real, about the ordinary struggle of a good man as he tries to provide. Real tear jerker and reminder of the unfair misfortunes that befall people in life, and how a little compassion between folk goes a long way. 

Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, by contrast, left me quite unmoved. It is supposed to be a big drama, and I gather the momentous theme music was created specially for the film, as the historical period portrayed, didn't itself have any dramatic music. The theme music does get me going, but the story itself, or maybe the casing, didn't resonate with me, and after watching the film I really didn't care about the character of Barry Lyndon one iota. What did get me was the utterly beautiful photography. I could watch this movie in silence, without dialogue, and be brought to tears. Technically this was no small feat either, as Kubrick had to obtain leading-tech lenses from NASA to achieve the painterly quality of real scenes lit by candlelight alone. Watch it and weep.

I'm trying to be varied but Kubrick keeps coming up for me. I took a friend to see 2001 and she said, "thanks Stef for taking me to the MOST boring film I've ever seen in my life." Nonetheless, even if you don't revel in 20 minute long stargate sequences of abstract light and colour, or the marginally alarmed look on crewman Bowman's face when the sentient computer decided not to let him back into the ship, you have to marvel at the simplest and most brilliant cut in movie history, leaping a million years of human evolution in one frame. Awesome. The apes were pretty good too.

Coming back to life in the ordinary, I went to see 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. I cannot describe the severity of the vast desolate feeling I had as I wandered out into the street late at night after watching this on my own at the cinema. I was separated at the time and had no warm hand to hold. The story about two women's plight obtaining an illegal abortion in Romania was shot in a plain, minimalist and hyper real style. It was cold, very cold. You felt cold to the bone and naked. I'll never forget this film.

Speaking of deep moments, I have to confess I never get Shakespeare. In school I simply couldn't read it, and yet people say he was the most brilliant writer ever. Well, I never got Shakespeare until I saw this, which froze my channel hopping and rooted me to my seat: Marlon Brando's rendition of Marc Antony's oratory. 

watch on youtube

Since seeing Brando's commanding delivery with the depth of insight of the great playwright, I make the effort to learn what I can. Thoroughly enjoyed Roman Polanski's Macbeth, with some help from the commentary in the printed versions. 

There are many films that came and went as favourites for me, like Amelie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Matrix, but somehow in time, they lost their appeal. Oddly other films seem to mean more to me as years go by. Now for some more delightful distractions, like Roman Holiday. Why this old thing?

Maybe it's just that Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn are perfect. Rome looks pretty good too. 

Before y'all think I'm a hundred, let me mention the film that's given me the funnest brain squeeze in a long time is Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. But whether it's just a thrill of novelty, or whether it'll still have a spot in my heart in years to come.... wait and see.

Until then, ciao for now xxx

PS. So what are your favourite most moving moments from stories, films, and literature?