Movie Magic

Sunday 10th January 2010

Today I will definitely continue with the promise I made myself to do more of the things I love so I will go to movies - the big screen - which I absolutely love. After lunching with my family, up the road, in Dainfern, I will go to Cinema Nouveau at Cedar Square to see Swan Lake - yes its at the movies, believe it or not!!!

I love going to the movies. My particular love is art movies, especially European art movies, and offcourse any movie with Meryl Streep, - I mean ANY movie - The first movie I saw her in was Sophie's Choice, a movie that is imprinted in my being. Since then I have seen her change from a harlot, to a politician, a magazine editor, alesbian, an unmarried mother, a nun, you name the character, Meryl Streep has done it. She is my absolute idol - I wish I had one tenth of her creativity and talent.. Her latest movie is Julie and Julia in which she is Julia Childs, the eccentric food presenter of the 50s - again an Oscar winning performance. In fact I got the idea of doing this blog from that movie. Julie was a woman whose life was going nowhere. She decided to spice up her life by learning to cook using Julia Child's cookery book and videos and then blogging about it. Her thinking began to change one day a time, and offcourse her life changed. I am attempting to change my thinking in the same way, focusing on one positive aspect of life in Johannesburg one day at a time.

Hopefully, in doing so, I can to stop blaming the outside environment for my own shortcomings in not being able to build a meaningful life for myself here. By highlightign the positive I will unfocus from the negatives and hopefully something new can find a place to be born inside my thoughts. I guess that's the theory anyway... My goal has to be to interract with the world around me as best I can without blaming or shaming, or making excuses for my own weaknesses. 'Energy flows where attention goes' or something like that... I used to use it as part of my e-mail signature until I got so fed up of its platitudanal overtones I replaced. All this positive thinking is all good and well but how do you see things that you dont believe are there? How do you stop wanting certain things that are beyond your control?

Back to the movies, which is my great addiction. I must say that Cinema Nouveau at Cedar Square and even Nu Metro at Monte Casino, must be not only world class, but top of the best in the world. The seats are comfortable and spacious with lots of leg room. The aircondition is usually pleasantly cool. The sound and visuals are amazing. I get lost in the darkness, enveloped in the sensual experience of sight and sound, in an ergonomically and easthetically perfected sensual incubator. However, my sensual experience has to include taste, so popcorn and TAB are a must. Ster Kinekor has without a doubt the best popcorn around - I dont know if it is the oil they use or what but no other popcorn tastes the same - and I should know because I have been eating plain popcorn for a long time - no additional salt or flavours - just popcorn - yummy, yummy....

OK, so I love that whole movie experience .... especially now that Cimena Nouveau includes ballet and opera performances. Last year I watched The Met Opera production of La Rondine (The Swallow), by Puccini. Produced by Nicolas Joël, and starred the singing world’s much-touted love couple, the soprano Angela Gheorghiu and the tenor Roberto Alagna. This sophisticated, charming and poignant performance complete with art Deco sets and costumes,set in the mid-19th century Frances,was a first for me.

Although I am a lover of Opera, The Met Production was somethign amazign and different. Not only was the sound quality exceptional, my experience was enhanced by the subtitles, allowing me to follow the story word for word. The Interviews before and after the show, of the conductor, the singers, the producer, the director, and others, provided much information that added to my appreciation of this operetta. For example, I learnt that La Rondine was considered Puccini’s problem child as he attempted to crossover from bittersweet Viennese operetta to a ligh romantic comedy. The story is about a young Parisian, Magda, who is the lavishly maintained mistress of a rich older banker, Rambaldo. A modern yet vulnerable woman who harbors fantasies of romantic love, Magda falls for Ruggero, the earnest and adoring son of a respectable family in southern France. Its very first performance was at the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo on 27 March 1917. . . For the next two and a half hours I felt that I was in Monte Carlo.. watching this beautifully sad love story play itself out - that's the magic of the movies...

I am looking forward to Swan Lake as it is one of my favourite ballets...
will report back tomorrow....