iselima: (Default)
iselima ([personal profile] iselima) wrote2012-01-06 12:43 am

Ladies in Lavender

Watched Ladies in Lavender today for the first time. Beautiful, quiet movie. I liked the scenes of the life in a small fishing-village in Cornwall, short after WWII. It looked very authentic.

But of course, the main reason I bought it was for Maggie Smith and Judi Dench and I loved them! They made it so easy to feel how a different past made them react differently to the young man who suddenly entered their lives. They were so believable as the older and the younger sister. Can never get enough of watching them, and that goes especially for Maggie Smith.
 
Maggie Smith, marvellous as she is, is always the person who she acts, utterly believable and captivating. (Unlike for instance Robin Williams, who is always Robin Williams IMO, no matter which role he plays.) I've not seen enough of Judi Dench till now, to know about her acting.

They had me in tears, for the wish that everybody ought to have a lover at least once in his life. The yearning for love, for the touches that go with it...if you never had it in your life...it must be destructive. It takes a real strong person to be able to do without such love, I believe. And I'm not talking about sex here, when mentioning the touches. Just, to know there was someone who loved you, who was interested in you, even if only for a few days...it's a fulfilment and it gives strength and self-belief. I feel we all need and deserve it!

It's both sad and great that we are made like that. 

In a way I'm talking from experience, as I believed myself to be 'unlovable' when I was in my twenties. Sometimes I can still hardly believe that I suddenly found my partner and that we're together now since over two decades. Seeing a film like 'Ladies in Lavender' reminds me of that time when I was rather lonely and hurt.

Maggie and Judi portrayed most convincingly what it means to have been loved and not to have been loved. They made me want to see 'them sisters' many times more! 

[identity profile] iselima.livejournal.com 2012-03-12 08:49 pm (UTC)(link)
So the actor who played the Polish violinist and the painter were not really Polish? I found the German of Maggie and Judi quite charming :)
So Antje is your youngest! I had seen you mention her name a few times, but thought she was perhaps a friend.

[identity profile] minervas-eule.livejournal.com 2012-03-12 09:33 pm (UTC)(link)
No, Daniel Brühl (the violinist) is German, and Natasha McElhone (the painter) is English :-); the scene when Daniel is peeling potatoes with Miriam Margolyes had my Polish friends laughing so much.