A long and eventful day draws to a close and which included two contrasting male film personalities. Today we live is a 1933 released film of a William Faulkner story, set in England in the first World War, of love and heroic self sacrifice starring a young Joan Crawford, a mature Gary Cooper with Robert Young and Franchot Tone. Joan Crawford, as Diana, has grown up with her brother and his friend, played by Robert Young. They have been and remain inseparable and as the two men go to war as sailors piloting a small, one torpedo, motor boat, back and forth across the English Channel, she agrees to become engaged although this is more as caring best friends rather than lovers, and her fiancée thinks it is odd that they should start to kiss as a consequence of the development. For some reason, during a few minutes when I needed a quick break I missed why Gary Cooper took over the family home resulting in Diana moving into the gatehouse with her brother, as the death of the their father is announced on the day of Cooper’s arrival.
The couple, Copper and Crawford quickly fall into unstated sexual love and after wrestling with her conflict over loyalty to her friend and to her brother, and her feelings for Cooper, her fiancée becomes blind as a consequence of a daring and successful raid on an enemy vessel. She decides to go with her sense of loyalty and long standing friendship. This is a decision which Cooper understands because he has been cast from the same oak, and which perhaps is why he volunteers for a bombing flight where in the unlikely event that he survives, he will receive a medal. Such is the power of love in all its many forms, for on arrival in the UK Cooper declares his neutrality when asked which side he is on, and then quickly decided to volunteer as a flier after meeting Diana, brother and friend, and amazingly the three men appear form the core of a special ops unit, so that Diana’s brother is present when Cooper is advised that his mission is essential and suicidal. Out of loyalty to his sister the brother decides to put to sea in the motor torpedo boat and try and sink the enemy ship before Cooper can take off on his mission. Diana’s fiancée, although blind insists on partnering in the venture and they discard the rating who usually travels with them, knowing from the outset that their chances of survival are slim. From the previous mission we learn that the torpedo launch mechanism is temperamental and this time it fails to work so the brother decides to accomplish the mission by becoming the second World War era kamikaze. As Robert Young refuses to leave his friend by taking to a survival craft, the two comrades power into the enemy just as Cooper arrives in his plane. Cooper and Crawford are free to get together to live happy ever after, honouring her brother and his friend although in reality the guilt flowing from the voluntary self sacrifice will haunt to the detriment of their future relationship. Given that the film was made six years before World War II it is significant in preparing people for the self sacrifices that were to come. It is something with a chunk of the youth of to-day have no idea and I fear they would not be up to the task if called upon.
The three men and Diana are mature and heroic figures who put their principled beliefs before the individual needs and feelings. Cooper in particular is a man few words, and none of them are expressive in the modern manner. This contrasts with the sensitive and understanding Adam Sadler in a surprisingly well written and acted warm hearted, comedy Spanglish written and directed by James L Brooks whose previous work includes Terms of Endearment. Sadler plays the only male of significance in the film and his character is that of a sensitive, empathetic, intuitive, understanding and caring chef and restaurateur, and despite the picture being presented as a comedy and primarily about the problems arising when a Mexican woman who only speaks Spanish works as a general factotum in an only English speaking household, this is also a film where the three main adult characters put their marital and parental responsibilities before their natural feelings and interests, and where the level of performance, and the a script have greater depths than Today we live, with truths about adult relationships and parenting popping up all over the film, and foremost how an intelligent and sensitive child, and then young person can often see more of situations than the adults around them.
I was tempted to view the film when it was released in 2004 because of the Spanish English theme and the Gibraltarian Spanish English language of my childhood. The film is reported to have lost over ten million dollars, having cost $80 million to make and I suggest this is because of the miss selling trailer when in fact this is a powerful film about the complexity of love and sexual relationships as couples become over familiar with each other and lose their separate identities and then becomes attracted by new faces which appear to meet the voids that have developed in their lives. The film is very funny but as one contributor to the DVD extras rightly describes, it is always generous and tender and I would add full of exquisite nuances. Adam Sadler mentions that he lives in the same neighbourhood as Brooks and met him when out one day and the film maker was deep in contemplation while writing his new film, He hoped there would be a part for him and suspect, because I cannot remember his other work, that Brooks wrote the part with Sadler in mind because what we saw of Sadler on screen is what he is like in real life, he had a part for him in mind. In fact the screen character is good version of Adam Sadler being Adam Sadler.
The story of the film is that a Mexican Spanish woman (actress Paz Vega) enters the USA illegally with her daughter (Shelbie Bruce) and after living and working in two jobs, one at night, in the Hispanic community of Los Angeles, decides she needs one better paid day job as her daughter reaches adolescence and attracts the interest of young men. Mother is taken to the American English only speaking family help job by her bilingual daughter and together they charm their way into being offered the position which pays fifty percent more than the previous two jobs together. Because Sadler’s wife ((Tea (accent over the e) Leoni)) has always lacked self confidence and is of low self esteem, and loses her day job she finds being a full time housewife a challenge and despite having a live in mother (Cloris Leachman), needs the home help to make coffee and carry parcels and provide care for her daughter (Sarah Steele) who is overweight and wear teeth braces, and a younger son with a preference to staying in bed. Over a short period Tea appears rejecting of her own daughter as she is, and takes up the impressionable and ambitious daughter of Paz Vega and then commences an affair at a time when her husband has been declared possible the greatest chef in the USA and their daughter needs understanding and reassurance if she is not to grow up like her mother. Paz also intervenes in the dynamics of the family, first in relation to the daughter and then providing the understanding and emotional comfort to the husband that he desperately needs and is no longer able to get from his wife. At the point when marriage is about to end, Sadler and Paz hold back and Tea being warned what will happen by her mother, moves back from the brink, but by nature has to confess everything and to know everything, and for once the two are forced to talk and to listen to the reality which their marriage has become, and which in truth was a point that had to be reached if there was any prospect of its survival. The solution is one of reality in that Paz and her daughter have to break from the family which has offered and provided so much and we are left with the understanding that Paz will go back to work hard within the Hispanic community while her daughter will also grow up within the umbrella culture of her mother until she can attain independence and greater fulfilment. The film opens and closes with the daughter’s application essay for a scholarship to Princetown University on the subject "Who has been the most influential person in your life?"
I was puzzled by the fact that Adam Sadler was familiar to me except that I could not remember specific previous performance but on checking his background the one that comes first to mind is the Wedding Singer. He has written film scripts and produced and is a recorded musician and someone I will now pay closer attention
Sadler’s wife in the film is played by Tea Leoni was born Elizabeth Tea (with the accent over the e) Pantaleoni and her parents and relatives are exceptionally well connected with one, the musician and Polish Prime Minister Jan Paderewski and her paternal grandfather {(Former President of UNICEF for 25 years. She has a difficult role in the film as she is the least likeable character but in part because of the writing but because of her acting skill she draws sympathy because we understand her predicament. The other noteworthy thing to mention is that she is now married to David Duchovny, the star of the X files
For me the star is Shelbie Carole Bruce who was only 12 when the film was released in the USA. Her maternal grandparents are/were Mexican and Spanish and from her father’s side she is part Indian, part Scottish and half American but considers herself Mexican American. The fascinating aspect of what appears to have been an exceptional childhood is that she has been home schooled and was trained as a child model and she already has her own jewellery and perfume selling brands. I hope I will hear and see more about this extraordinary young person who is not yet sixteen.(Perfume branded Mr and Mrs Beckham is for sale at the Asda Lottery, Cigarette and newspaper counter so she is in good company).
I bet no female adoring person can help but become infatuated with the Spanish actress Paz Vega who comes from Andalusia. My understanding is that she was still a Spanish speaking actress for the film and had to have an interpreter with her. She had established herself in Spanish theatre, film and TV for about eight years winning several awards including one at Cannes and many nominations, before this first film in which speaks some English and became a Hollywood sensation. I hade immediately recognised her, one seen always remembered, although I could not place the role until checking that it was the Pedro Almodovar film Hable con ella (Talk to/with her)
Cloris Leachman, as the grandmother, was also a familiar screen face who in a career of sixty years has appeared in some seventy screen films and some seventy TV programmes and series, winning an Oscar for supporting actress in the Last Picture Show in 1971 and bearing four sons and a daughter from a marriage which lasted 25 years, with her husband known as a ladies man with the most talked about relationship with Joan Collins. One of her sons is the second husband of Sharon Stone. She became a friend of Marlon Brando who she met in the 1950’s while studying with Elia Kazan and her husband who became a close friend of Brando wrote a book about his friendship.
I also felt the performance of Sarah Steele was remarkable for its sensitive understanding of the plight of a daughter wanting to find and be herself and not become a creation of maternal frustration and ambition. She was only 15 when cast for the film and although she has since appeared in two films and acted off Broadway, she is presently concentrating on studies at Columbia University and is another who I say I hope you have a fulfilling life with as little unhappiness as is ever possible and I hope I have sufficient more life and improved memory to learn of your future screen progress not to miss them. Perhaps I should create an index of those who I should check their biographies in five to ten years time, but I already have more than twice enough to do that can be fitted into my long days leading to exhausted nights times.
Yesterday my new refrigerator arrived and is all that I had hoped for it with lots of usable space on the door and taller but with less depth than the one it replaces. Alas the delivery men immediately decided against trying to take the old fridge freezer, a problem made difficult by the new laminate flooring, and therefore a longer term problem and which makes me apprehensive about my two other outstand repairs which are now the priority. I previously mentioned that forecasting there would be a problem I brought back in the on last legs refrigerator which is being used until later today when the one will have completed the standing time and cold down. I then sped off to make a couple of visits which included taking the printer, scanner copier for a service. It had no problems other than reaching the counter when surplus ink needed to be drained away. Previously the cost was £25 for less than fifteen minutes works but this time because of the combination unit it was £40. While waiting a young woman arrived at the speaker controlled door and the upstairs receptionist misunderstood and had to explain that parcel deliveries had to be taken and signed for at separate entrance. There was a vicious wind and earlier I was not been able to hold the car door when opening but fortunately there was sufficient space between vehicles. In this instance the combination of the wind and a temper slam of the door created such a bang that I feared the glass would shatter and remain amazed that it did not.
I also received yesterday from America a copy of the Antwone Fish autobiography, Finding Fish which I aim to have read between now and Easter, taking precedence over what has become a substantial pile of books to read, some partially read such as the George Melly and the La Carre.
Yesterday was also budget day and such was my lack of attention that I only realised this was so when switching on the car radio. I might not have bothered in terms of the any narrow personal position gain or loss as the only change of future interest as an increase in the Winter fuel grant from £200 to £250 to those over 60 and from £300 to £400 for those over 80 with in total less amounts where there are more than one eligible adult in a household, The state pension notice for next financial year has also arrived showing a small increase which is just as well there is the occupational pension.
I also checked to see when Barnsley Wembley Cup tickets might be on general sale, if any are any over from other supporters as 4 are being offered to season ticket holders although for some reason the £9 anywhere offer from National express rail had been placed directly in the spam file and was out of date when I went to check and clear
The couple, Copper and Crawford quickly fall into unstated sexual love and after wrestling with her conflict over loyalty to her friend and to her brother, and her feelings for Cooper, her fiancée becomes blind as a consequence of a daring and successful raid on an enemy vessel. She decides to go with her sense of loyalty and long standing friendship. This is a decision which Cooper understands because he has been cast from the same oak, and which perhaps is why he volunteers for a bombing flight where in the unlikely event that he survives, he will receive a medal. Such is the power of love in all its many forms, for on arrival in the UK Cooper declares his neutrality when asked which side he is on, and then quickly decided to volunteer as a flier after meeting Diana, brother and friend, and amazingly the three men appear form the core of a special ops unit, so that Diana’s brother is present when Cooper is advised that his mission is essential and suicidal. Out of loyalty to his sister the brother decides to put to sea in the motor torpedo boat and try and sink the enemy ship before Cooper can take off on his mission. Diana’s fiancée, although blind insists on partnering in the venture and they discard the rating who usually travels with them, knowing from the outset that their chances of survival are slim. From the previous mission we learn that the torpedo launch mechanism is temperamental and this time it fails to work so the brother decides to accomplish the mission by becoming the second World War era kamikaze. As Robert Young refuses to leave his friend by taking to a survival craft, the two comrades power into the enemy just as Cooper arrives in his plane. Cooper and Crawford are free to get together to live happy ever after, honouring her brother and his friend although in reality the guilt flowing from the voluntary self sacrifice will haunt to the detriment of their future relationship. Given that the film was made six years before World War II it is significant in preparing people for the self sacrifices that were to come. It is something with a chunk of the youth of to-day have no idea and I fear they would not be up to the task if called upon.
The three men and Diana are mature and heroic figures who put their principled beliefs before the individual needs and feelings. Cooper in particular is a man few words, and none of them are expressive in the modern manner. This contrasts with the sensitive and understanding Adam Sadler in a surprisingly well written and acted warm hearted, comedy Spanglish written and directed by James L Brooks whose previous work includes Terms of Endearment. Sadler plays the only male of significance in the film and his character is that of a sensitive, empathetic, intuitive, understanding and caring chef and restaurateur, and despite the picture being presented as a comedy and primarily about the problems arising when a Mexican woman who only speaks Spanish works as a general factotum in an only English speaking household, this is also a film where the three main adult characters put their marital and parental responsibilities before their natural feelings and interests, and where the level of performance, and the a script have greater depths than Today we live, with truths about adult relationships and parenting popping up all over the film, and foremost how an intelligent and sensitive child, and then young person can often see more of situations than the adults around them.
I was tempted to view the film when it was released in 2004 because of the Spanish English theme and the Gibraltarian Spanish English language of my childhood. The film is reported to have lost over ten million dollars, having cost $80 million to make and I suggest this is because of the miss selling trailer when in fact this is a powerful film about the complexity of love and sexual relationships as couples become over familiar with each other and lose their separate identities and then becomes attracted by new faces which appear to meet the voids that have developed in their lives. The film is very funny but as one contributor to the DVD extras rightly describes, it is always generous and tender and I would add full of exquisite nuances. Adam Sadler mentions that he lives in the same neighbourhood as Brooks and met him when out one day and the film maker was deep in contemplation while writing his new film, He hoped there would be a part for him and suspect, because I cannot remember his other work, that Brooks wrote the part with Sadler in mind because what we saw of Sadler on screen is what he is like in real life, he had a part for him in mind. In fact the screen character is good version of Adam Sadler being Adam Sadler.
The story of the film is that a Mexican Spanish woman (actress Paz Vega) enters the USA illegally with her daughter (Shelbie Bruce) and after living and working in two jobs, one at night, in the Hispanic community of Los Angeles, decides she needs one better paid day job as her daughter reaches adolescence and attracts the interest of young men. Mother is taken to the American English only speaking family help job by her bilingual daughter and together they charm their way into being offered the position which pays fifty percent more than the previous two jobs together. Because Sadler’s wife ((Tea (accent over the e) Leoni)) has always lacked self confidence and is of low self esteem, and loses her day job she finds being a full time housewife a challenge and despite having a live in mother (Cloris Leachman), needs the home help to make coffee and carry parcels and provide care for her daughter (Sarah Steele) who is overweight and wear teeth braces, and a younger son with a preference to staying in bed. Over a short period Tea appears rejecting of her own daughter as she is, and takes up the impressionable and ambitious daughter of Paz Vega and then commences an affair at a time when her husband has been declared possible the greatest chef in the USA and their daughter needs understanding and reassurance if she is not to grow up like her mother. Paz also intervenes in the dynamics of the family, first in relation to the daughter and then providing the understanding and emotional comfort to the husband that he desperately needs and is no longer able to get from his wife. At the point when marriage is about to end, Sadler and Paz hold back and Tea being warned what will happen by her mother, moves back from the brink, but by nature has to confess everything and to know everything, and for once the two are forced to talk and to listen to the reality which their marriage has become, and which in truth was a point that had to be reached if there was any prospect of its survival. The solution is one of reality in that Paz and her daughter have to break from the family which has offered and provided so much and we are left with the understanding that Paz will go back to work hard within the Hispanic community while her daughter will also grow up within the umbrella culture of her mother until she can attain independence and greater fulfilment. The film opens and closes with the daughter’s application essay for a scholarship to Princetown University on the subject "Who has been the most influential person in your life?"
I was puzzled by the fact that Adam Sadler was familiar to me except that I could not remember specific previous performance but on checking his background the one that comes first to mind is the Wedding Singer. He has written film scripts and produced and is a recorded musician and someone I will now pay closer attention
Sadler’s wife in the film is played by Tea Leoni was born Elizabeth Tea (with the accent over the e) Pantaleoni and her parents and relatives are exceptionally well connected with one, the musician and Polish Prime Minister Jan Paderewski and her paternal grandfather {(Former President of UNICEF for 25 years. She has a difficult role in the film as she is the least likeable character but in part because of the writing but because of her acting skill she draws sympathy because we understand her predicament. The other noteworthy thing to mention is that she is now married to David Duchovny, the star of the X files
For me the star is Shelbie Carole Bruce who was only 12 when the film was released in the USA. Her maternal grandparents are/were Mexican and Spanish and from her father’s side she is part Indian, part Scottish and half American but considers herself Mexican American. The fascinating aspect of what appears to have been an exceptional childhood is that she has been home schooled and was trained as a child model and she already has her own jewellery and perfume selling brands. I hope I will hear and see more about this extraordinary young person who is not yet sixteen.(Perfume branded Mr and Mrs Beckham is for sale at the Asda Lottery, Cigarette and newspaper counter so she is in good company).
I bet no female adoring person can help but become infatuated with the Spanish actress Paz Vega who comes from Andalusia. My understanding is that she was still a Spanish speaking actress for the film and had to have an interpreter with her. She had established herself in Spanish theatre, film and TV for about eight years winning several awards including one at Cannes and many nominations, before this first film in which speaks some English and became a Hollywood sensation. I hade immediately recognised her, one seen always remembered, although I could not place the role until checking that it was the Pedro Almodovar film Hable con ella (Talk to/with her)
Cloris Leachman, as the grandmother, was also a familiar screen face who in a career of sixty years has appeared in some seventy screen films and some seventy TV programmes and series, winning an Oscar for supporting actress in the Last Picture Show in 1971 and bearing four sons and a daughter from a marriage which lasted 25 years, with her husband known as a ladies man with the most talked about relationship with Joan Collins. One of her sons is the second husband of Sharon Stone. She became a friend of Marlon Brando who she met in the 1950’s while studying with Elia Kazan and her husband who became a close friend of Brando wrote a book about his friendship.
I also felt the performance of Sarah Steele was remarkable for its sensitive understanding of the plight of a daughter wanting to find and be herself and not become a creation of maternal frustration and ambition. She was only 15 when cast for the film and although she has since appeared in two films and acted off Broadway, she is presently concentrating on studies at Columbia University and is another who I say I hope you have a fulfilling life with as little unhappiness as is ever possible and I hope I have sufficient more life and improved memory to learn of your future screen progress not to miss them. Perhaps I should create an index of those who I should check their biographies in five to ten years time, but I already have more than twice enough to do that can be fitted into my long days leading to exhausted nights times.
Yesterday my new refrigerator arrived and is all that I had hoped for it with lots of usable space on the door and taller but with less depth than the one it replaces. Alas the delivery men immediately decided against trying to take the old fridge freezer, a problem made difficult by the new laminate flooring, and therefore a longer term problem and which makes me apprehensive about my two other outstand repairs which are now the priority. I previously mentioned that forecasting there would be a problem I brought back in the on last legs refrigerator which is being used until later today when the one will have completed the standing time and cold down. I then sped off to make a couple of visits which included taking the printer, scanner copier for a service. It had no problems other than reaching the counter when surplus ink needed to be drained away. Previously the cost was £25 for less than fifteen minutes works but this time because of the combination unit it was £40. While waiting a young woman arrived at the speaker controlled door and the upstairs receptionist misunderstood and had to explain that parcel deliveries had to be taken and signed for at separate entrance. There was a vicious wind and earlier I was not been able to hold the car door when opening but fortunately there was sufficient space between vehicles. In this instance the combination of the wind and a temper slam of the door created such a bang that I feared the glass would shatter and remain amazed that it did not.
I also received yesterday from America a copy of the Antwone Fish autobiography, Finding Fish which I aim to have read between now and Easter, taking precedence over what has become a substantial pile of books to read, some partially read such as the George Melly and the La Carre.
Yesterday was also budget day and such was my lack of attention that I only realised this was so when switching on the car radio. I might not have bothered in terms of the any narrow personal position gain or loss as the only change of future interest as an increase in the Winter fuel grant from £200 to £250 to those over 60 and from £300 to £400 for those over 80 with in total less amounts where there are more than one eligible adult in a household, The state pension notice for next financial year has also arrived showing a small increase which is just as well there is the occupational pension.
I also checked to see when Barnsley Wembley Cup tickets might be on general sale, if any are any over from other supporters as 4 are being offered to season ticket holders although for some reason the £9 anywhere offer from National express rail had been placed directly in the spam file and was out of date when I went to check and clear
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