Musings on...When Books Are Your Bae

Just This One Time, This Valentine's Day, Feel Free to Cheat

I’ve always been bookish, and I had a habit of writing reports on books and topics I loved. I actually assigned myself the task of writing book reports for no grade or recognition. In my free time, for fun! As an adult, I turned my teenage habit into its modern iteration- a book blog. Let’s be honest: a book blog is just a book report with SEO. After some technical issues beyond my coding ability, my website imploded. I was dragging my feet deciding if I should have it redesigned, when I thought of this Substack.  Since I’m always musing about books, I’ll just house it here alongside my other miscellany and revisit the archives from time to time. Substack is also free, so my decision may have been heavily influenced, but thanks for nothing GoDaddy Tech Support. 

Pretty Page Turner now lives on Substack

I believe the best movies leap from the pages of stellar books. I could have made this list as long as the bible, but below are the lucky 7 of my favorite romantic films derived from great literature. Originally published on my book blog as “Best Books for Movie Date Night” February 14, 2017, it features many books I never get tired of reading or the inspired movies that I always want to watch. This weekend, if you don’t feel like reading, you can cheat with a great movie. Whether you spend Valentine’s day under a blanket solo or cuddling with your Boo, make sure you have a few tissues handy, many will cause uproarious laughter, but others will break your heart.

Breakfast At Tiffany’s

Holly Golightly is one of literature's most nuanced characters. The original party girl, author Capote labels her an "American Geisha", when she is really a disciplined escort. His novella shares her schedule of escorting rich men, allowing them to ply her with gifts and cover her expenses. Originally considered too racy and littered with offensive language, the Hollywood rendition is a frolicking and fashionable good time. Colorful and full of witty banter, it took me years to understand the seedy theme at the core. Audrey Hepburn's Holly is whimsical, smart, beautifully coiffed and accessorized. You will immediately fall in love with her blithe spirit and forgive her selfish trespasses.

Watch Audrey as the OG Pretty Woman, get Eliza Doolittle as a bonus

Wuthering Heights

It is more popular to be an Austen fan, but it was a Bronte sister that captured my teenage heart with the feverish romance between Heathcliff and Catherine. Both wild at heart, they spend the entire novel trying to tame one another's fire, to no avail. The perfect case of star-crossed lovers, they haunt each other's lives and dreams. There are many versions, but the original 1939 edition with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon is my favorite. It is sweeping and although I know the end, I always expect a better fate for these kindred spirits. Emily Bronte's only novel, she poured every ounce of love and longing she had into the dialogue. It contains many of my favorite lines:

He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.

If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn't love you as much in eighty years as I could in a day.

Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I can not live without my life! I can not die without my soul!

One can never imagine a love with as much profundity and power within it's dialogue. I’ve watched the movie and read the book more times than I will ever admit. If you watch it, be prepared to become addicted.

Make sure you have tissue handy when viewing this epic love story set on the moody moors.

The Age of Innocence

Set in the posh addresses of post-Victorian era New York City, Edith Wharton's masterful depiction of the forbidden romance of Newland Archer and Countess Olenska is a heart-aching melodrama. Perfectly cast in Martin Scorsese's movie, Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day Lewis allow the red-hot ardor to burn just under their pallid skin. Don't look for a happy ending, just rigid adherence to societal requirements. There’s was a romance of a glorious gilded age with inescapable gilded cages.

Corsets make it hard to breath when your heart is racing. Watch them try to contain the madness within and maintain the proper decorum.

Gigi

I can clearly remember sitting on the couch as a girl and seeing this Belle Époque frolic of a film for the first time. I must have been 6 or 7, so I did not understand the full scope of meaning of this film, but I loved the look of it. Oh, how wonderful Paris seemed to me. This may have been the seed that lit my torch for the City of Lights, one that I still carry. Maurice Chevalier’s Honore and the utterly charming Leslie Caron made me want to learn how to be a lady. The beautiful costumes and grand ballrooms took my breath away. Even when I saw it as an adult and learned the mature themes that the movie portrayed, my love did not wain. I love the songs, the colors, the actors and the final happy ending. Derived from the novella by French writer Colette, this story was the stepping stone for another ingenue that we love-Audrey Hepburn. As always, the written word is grittier, but the movie depiction is pure glamour.

Frivolity, fashion, and French accents. The perfect ingredients for Friday night fun

The Great Gatsby

The tale of Jay Gatsby remains at the top 10 of my favorite books. Considered the true American novel, Gatsby is the archetype of the enterprising American. His laser focus on attaining the unattainable Daisy is inspirational, folly and foolishness. Replete with decadently damaged characters, the frivolousness of the age is the backdrop of a classic story of love unrequited due to class and society lines. I always cheer for Gatsby, simultaneously wanting him to achieve his goal, while warning him to let that crazy broad alone. My wishes are never fulfilled, which I think is what Fitzgerald wanted us to feel-completely helpless. Just like Gatsby, desire seems as close as the light at the end of his dock, but as far away as a lifetime of despair. I love both movie versions, and I'll take my Gatsby as stoic Redford or the sweetly tortured DiCaprio.

I can’t choose a favorite Gatsby: Redford or DiCaprio. Both make me swoon and leave me melancholy in the best possible way. Of course the Redford version has a young Sam Waterson as Nick and Ralph Lauren costuming, but DiCaprio has Baz Luhrmann’s decadent sets and cinematography.

West Side Story

Romeo and Juliet is my favorite Shakespearean play and I have watched every version of the story imaginable. I've seen the classic movie, I've seen it as a ballet (Mercutio’s dying solo still lives in my mind), I've even seen it in Italy (I don't speak Italian, btw). The tale of the star-crossed lovers from Verona is my everlasting love and I get something more from it with each viewing, the words are evergreen. One of my favorite renditions is the musical landmark West Side Story by Bernstein, Robbins and Sondheim. It is a masterpiece with seminal scores, dancing and acting. Reimagined as feuding street gangs, the movie depicts social unrest fueled by class struggle, the questioning of cultural mores and xenophobia. What remains at the center are just kids that want to bridge their familial differences with their love, but whose efforts are fatally futile.

If you can walk away after viewing this without singing these songs for the next week, you’re a better person than me.

Shakespeare in Love

Another version of Romeo and Juliet, this wonderfully acted and arranged film is a skewering of how Shakespeare's greatest romantic tragedy came to be. The film version of historical fiction, many characters are based on actual figures, and many of the characters, lines, and plot devices allude to Shakespeare's plays. If you are a Shakespeare fan, you will giggle at the puns and references to Shakespeare's work. If you are not a fan, you will enjoy the lively pace, plot twists, witty banter and beautiful costumes. As with all Shakespearean tragedies, the desired happy ending is not to be, but you will be amazed at how modern these Elizabethan words become in the mouths of skilled actors.

The movie is set in the golden age of Elizabeth I and looks dappled in a Golden Hour filter.

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