vi mødes måske om tusind år

[ink_splotch]

I have a truly stupid amount of love for Shadowlands. On one hand, it does deal with many of my favourite themes: English literature, Oxford, repressed longing, Anthony Hopkins being English and repressed1 - it even deals with religion. On the other hand, I don't even like C.S. Lewis that much (okay, lies, I don't want to like C.S.Lewis that much, because of the Susan issue and because, well, I want to think that he and Oxford and Anthony Hopkins are overrated) and it's a Richard Attenborough film2. Also, it seems to imply that to truly love someone, you or they have to die, a theme I normally resent.

And yet, it doesn't even matter what all my other issues are, because that scene where Jack realizes that he loves her and cries in the church makes me cry. I just - I can't even tell you why that scene is so important to me, why it still makes me cry even though I've seen it at least five times now, but it's beautiful. Paired with the marriage scene (oh, my!), it pretty much is all I need in a love story. That, and apparently, middle-aged people.

Which, incidentally, brings me to a question: do you have a preference for a certain age group in your love stories? I'm kind of curious.

[Poll #1391000]

In other news, as of today, I'm 411/7000, and I have a massive friend!crush on Sarah Vowell, and you should too:

1. See also: Remains of the Day (also, read the book!) and 84 Charing Cross (see previous aside)
2. Look, I realize his Oh! What a Lovely War is a good film, but it kind of broke the point of the play (see also: the film version of Regeneration).

Comments

[arrowwhiskers.livejournal.com]

Whoops. I accidentally clicked "I don't like love stories" when I meant to put "It doesn't matter!" I like love stories of any age, basically, though I do like the young adults thing going on :)

I can't really choose my favorite love story. I guess in terms of a "normal" love story, I do like Garden State, and Stranger Than Fiction. Before Sunrise is good too, but it's almost too cliché...
But the more I think about it, the more I realize that my favorite love stories are ones that have something else outshining or getting in the way of the romance aspect--like Y Tu Mamá También (affairs, love triangle sort of thing), Far From Heaven (interracial during the 1950s), Harold and Maude (HUGE age difference), A Home at the End of the World (queer polyamory triangle)

I guess that's what I like in love stories, then. :P Character conflicts as a result of taboo love, and the issues that come with it. Age doesn't particularly matter at all.

[lattara.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes, I agree with the other comments: I find love stories *boring* if all they have to say is "here are two people! they're in love! look!". I want them to be interesting characters and I want them to have lives - lives that intersect and matter to each other, of course, but no I-will-die-without-you shenanigans. Boooring.

It seems to me that I especially like love stories where the people involved are smart, have integrity and are unusual in some way. Quirky, perhaps, like Amelie, or maybe like the non-resolved love between two people with a large age discrepancy like Lost in Translation.