Tuesday 24 September 2013

Devouring Films: Out of Africa

Or, The Most Romantic Thing I've Ever Heard

This isn't going to be strictly a review of Out of Africa, because I've seen it a grand total of once, and that was three and a half years ago(ish). What I'm saying is, I don't really remember much about it, apart from that there was this one character who said 'my waters have turned black' which made me HORRIFIED that such a disease could exist, and there was also a supremely awkward sex scene between Meryl Streep and Robert Redford that to this day can still make Frances and I giggle for AGES just at the mention of it.*

Anyway. The fact that I don't remember much about the story isn't important, because there's one more bit that I do remember and, as I have implied above, it's pretty much the most romantic thing I've ever heard. And it's not romantic in a disgusting, cutesy, annoying way, it's romantic in a way that appeals directly to me and my entire way of being. So, towards the end of the film, after Robert and Meryl have spent some time apart (don't ask me why, don't ask me if they end up together, I HAVE NO IDEA) he goes to see her, and he says:
"You've ruined it for me, you know... Being alone."
 Here's why this is so romantic to me: I love being alone. Being alone is pretty much my favourite state,  and much as there are other people I like (it's good to know I'm not a robot person, correct?) and much as I do like spending time with them, I do always need to spend some time alone after spending time with a lot of people because it's exhausting to me. I'm a classic introvert, is basically what I'm saying. So yeah, I like being with people, but I also like being alone, but to find someone I like so much that being alone would become an undesirable state? Well, I kind of want that.

There's also this love letter that Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote to his wife**, where he says, along similar lines,
"Thou art the only person in the world that ever was necessary to me. Other people have occasionally been more or less agreeable; but I think I was always more at ease alone than in anybody's company, till I knew thee. And now I am only myself when thou art within my reach."
I just... Isn't that the best thing ever? To be like 'hmm, people are ok' and then find a person who is necessary to you? Who becomes the one person you can't even imagine living without, and who changes you so that, instead of being happiest alone, you're happiest when they're near? I want that! Everyone wants that, I guess, but these are the two places where I've best heard it expressed, or at least that have stuck with me for the longest.

So, I don't really know if you should watch Out of Africa or not, but I do know the way I want to be in love someday. That's much better, right? Right.

*I tried really hard to find this sex scene for you on youtube, but it's not there. If you can find it, I commend you. And giggle.
**Of course I own a book called Love Letters of Great Men. Of COURSE it was a Sex and the City movie tie-in. I feel no shame about this!

15 comments:

  1. This film is so good, and you've hit on something I've been thinking about lately but couldn't quite express.

    I cherish my alone time. Love it. And yes, when you find someone who enhances that, it's amazing. And makes anything else - even if it's good- not quite the same.

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    1. It WAS a good film, right? It's totally not its fault that that's the only thing I can remember from it!

      And awww. That's all I want! I don't think it's so much to ask.

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  2. Aww this is so cute and I like that you pretty much wrote a post based on that one line.

    (Speaking of introverts, I just bought the book Quiet. So woo for that)

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    1. I really did just write a post based on one line of dialogue! I have to give you guys SOMETHING while I'm all packing and doing other boring crap. It's all true though!

      (Yesssssssss! It has some way interesting points and I am intrigued to know how much of an introvert you consider yourself because how could I possibly know that?! Everyone's an extrovert on the internet.)

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    2. I am looking forward to it and our discussions about it. Cos I actually think (based on what you wrote about it and this video I found that I guess was promo for the book) that I'm a shy and awkward extrovert. But I shall see after reading it.

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  3. I am pretty sure I also own that book of love letters from great men - or I did, I might have donated it during one of my book purges. Love letters, and true love letters like the ones in that book, are so dreamy.

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    1. They are INCREDIBLY dreamy. Kind of my favourite thing. I do love books of letters :)

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  4. Aww, this just made me tear up a little bit because that's totally how I feel about the honeyman and he's going away for 2 weeks for some job training & I haven't gone a day without seeing him in like 5 years :(

    But this post is super sweet. And this sounds like a movie I'll have to see sometime :)

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    1. Awwwwww, Sarah! You'll be alright. But awwwwww that is so cute!

      I honestly can't tell you if the rest of the movie is that good (although... Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. So.) but that one thing is totally cute so yeah, watch it, why not?! :)

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  5. Oh. Hm. That's actually a really nice sentiment to take away from this movie, which I found totally boring when I watched it like six years ago. Excellent.

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    1. It might have been totally boring! I don't know! (although, as I said above, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, dude.) but yeah, that's the one thing that I remember and always reference about it in my brain. Because it's looooooovely!

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  6. Awww...I remember actually really, really liking this movie but I don't remember that line, which is too bad. Because of course that's the perfect statement about love for us introverts (I also own a copy of Quiet, Alley). And that letter from Hawthorne to his wife? That is astonishing. I never would have guessed from reading his books that he was a man of such depth of feeling.

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    1. I think all I know about Nathaniel Hawthorne is that 1) I quite like The Scarlet Letter, and 2) he was suuuuper shy and quiet and would probably have been all up in a tower like Emily Dickinson or whatever but then he met his wife and he loooooved her! That... is not a lot of information to have, I realise!

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