For Ogbashan (and others)…”Hanover Street”, “84 Charing Cross Road”, and “The Turtle

[amicus]

For Ogbashan (and others)…”Hanover Street”, “84 Charing Cross Road”, and “The Turtle Diaries”

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005LB88/002-3220564-9956053?v=glance&n=130 (search under, ‘movie, hanover street’, many options.)
Harrison Ford and Lesley Ann Warren

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072593/ (search under ‘movie, 84 charing cross road)

Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft

http://www.littleman.com/movies/films/7/000056537.html (search under, ‘movie, turtle diary)

Ben Kingsley and Glenda Jackson

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Well, I mentioned ‘Og’ as I suspect he might be one of few who has the years and the sensitivity to have seen and thought about all three.


Okay, so, well…where am I….watched ‘Hanover Street’ again…and thought to pose the question to the erudite Lit composium of just how a woman, a married woman, falls in love with a man, (Harrison Ford) the opposite of her intellectual husband, (Christopher Plummer), and how that woman deals with the emotional conflict as she lies in the arms of both men, at different times.

I have always been curious as to my observations, that intelligent women seem to choose less intelligent or less spontaneous (distinction made) men, to mate with, (not necessarily love, distinction made).

Aside from all that, I, personally have an unexplained and not understood, attraction to this type of British woman, portrayed in this film; fragile, sensitive, cultured and gentle.

Perhaps it’s in the genes?

I thought to leave it there…a slightly erotic and sexual, perhaps even misogynistic, subtle comment on femininity…but then…lo and behold, a second film came on my telly.


That happened to be one of my favorite Brit films of all times, 84 Charing Cross Road.

Well, I visited London, in my youth, a scant 25 years after the close of world war two, and road the underground at Charing Cross Road.

But this film is so much more, for those of you who have seen it; so much more.

This is music and art and history and conflict and war and suffering and striving to ‘become’ in a truly existential definition.

So much is said, and not said, but implied, that it makes one think and think and think again, about many things….

The third reference, ‘Turtle Diary’ was just an afterthought, as I have not seen the film in years, but because of the English content of the other two, reminded me of it.


There was a thread, earlier, that asked; what is the author’s forum. I thought about that. I find it the best and perhaps only venue to comingle with those who think about prose and poetry and literature and films and music, perhaps the best I have yet discovered.

But then, again, perhaps I just wanted to expand my perception beyond neo con.

Who knows….?

Amicus…

 

[oggbashan]

I know 84 Charing Cross Road very well.

I read the book when it was first published. I saw the BBC television production and the film. I have been to a couple of the stage productions.

I have read and still own most of Helene Hanff's adult books. I had read and appreciated 'Q' and still have most of his works.

I was an infrequent customer of Marks and Co. and most of the other bookdealers in and around Charing Cross Road. I had met most of Marks and Co. staff at various times and recognised the description of Frank Doel.

Helene Hanff's book, and the stage, TV and film productions based on it only show Marks and Co. as she experienced it from the other side of the Atlantic. The people who worked there, and the owners, were very helpful to almost all their customers and it was a pleasant oasis in busy London.

Helene Hanff's experience could have been repeated by many. Her skill was to make her interchanges with the bookshop into a perfect miniature of a relationship built over time and distance. Her writing is the polish on the jewel even if some of us would not recognise the finished product as the place we remember with affection.

Og

 

[amicus]

Thank you, Og. I did not think many would know of the film, much less the book and the stage play, but you were quite as I thought you might be.

Thanks again.

amicus...