In a Nutshell

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It does not matter how awful anything is.  Anything can make you think, analyze, compare, and write.  Or not.  It is not a film review per se; it is more or less a letter to myself.  I need to express my feelings, even though I might be the only one ending up reading it later.  I felt that “The Barefoot Contessa” was a terrible choice.  Why would I pick an old film in the first place?  Well, I am poor these days and libraries don’t charge for renting movies, but variety is rather limited.  And when I am not in the mood for reading or doing anything useful around the house, I love to indulge in watching movies.  I picked “The Barefoot Contessa” and watched it despite my better judgment.  And it made me think.  It gave me the point of reference.  I can compare my thoughts with what others thought and wrote about the film.

“Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written letter.”

That line comes from another film “The Jane Austen Book Club”, the first that I watched from that library bunch.  It is as lovely and romantic and elegiac and contemporary as I need these days.  Apparently, Jane Austen characters loved writing letters at important junctures and they were crucial for the plot and the fate of characters.  I should probably read Jane Austen in English.  Well, why not?  I have seen the adaptations of her novels and they were lovely, too.

Coming back to “The Barefoot Contessa”.  It is an old film, made in 1954 and as I was watching it, I was swearing to myself never ever ever watch another old movie again.  It is too deliberate and boring, I might add, but I was wondering about characters why they were so roughly drawn.  So extreme, so unbelievable, so out of touch.  At some point, my interest was engaged (finally), when Maria after all her waiting for a Prince Charming found an Italian Count with whom she fell madly in love.  She married him and on the wedding night he chose to deliver her a letter in Italian (language that may very well be romantic, but the one she does not understand).  I would not judge how well the letter was written but it was to tell the wife that her husband could not be a husband as far as intimate relationship was concerned (war accidents happen, some parts were blown off).  I put it for myself that “Maria was married to a letter.”

She decided to make the Count happy nonetheless by bearing another man’s child without consulting the Count first.  The Count misread the situation and killed his wife, unborn child and the sperm donor.  And I think, maybe it would be a better motif for the movie, if Maria would have taken the time and trouble to write a letter.

Not to criticize the movie, the acting, the plot and everything else, but I am attached to the idea of writing letters in difficult situations.  The major piece in Russian Literary Tradition is the poetic novel by Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”.  Two culminating points are the letters – one written by a young woman, Tatiana, being in love and being rejected and another one by the object of her love, Eugene Onegin, only a few years later when he caught up with the foolishness of his refusal to love an exceptional woman such as Tatiana was.  Only by then it is too late, she was married and though still in love with the gentleman in question but unwilling to become unfaithful.  Tragic and beautiful.  Not to say that nobody died, someone did, but it was a foolish mistake.

I guess I was unaware of the effect that literature had on me, that I used to write love letters too.  Being a girl, a woman, that is.  All of them had different effect.  So, I do agree that we should not underestimate the power of a well-written letter.  And there should be more of them, not less.  They may not help in avoiding tragedies, but they certainly contribute to the Beauty.

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Posted on April 24th, 2010 under Chapters, English, Films, Literature • Tags: "Eugene Onegin", "The Barefoot Contessa", "The Jane Austen Book Club", adaptation, Alexander Pushkin, beautiful, beauty, film reviews, Italian, Jane Austen, letters, murder, power, tragedy, tragic. • • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback