Wednesday 13 February 2013

Old movie moments


Not a lot to report here... still mainly posting other people's stuff to the new blog. Something a bit different there today...

Meanwhile I've been watching more movies than sometimes... catching up on the stuff taped over Xmas partly. I find a lot of films really average just now. I suppose that's natural with so many being made you're only going to get a few really good ones and at this point in life I've watched so many that they all start to kind of merge together too but I do sometimes envy our daughter who is at the super-enthusiast stage with films instead. She raves about her favourites, really looks forward to certain new releases, watches things over and over again. I still get enthusiastic about some music (see last post) but rarely about new movies. Even in Oscar/BAFTA season... no especially then!

And then I remember movies that I did adore when I was younger (maybe partly influenced by the whole Hopes and Dreams theme over there). When I was about sixteen, for example, I saw "Educating Rita" at a cinema in south London (somewhere like Bromley). It was in one of those tiny little screens (in the days when they were cutting old cinemas up into tinier and tinier pieces... before the multiplexes hit the UK) and I absolutely loved it. I can still remember how I felt when it finished... I just wanted to sit there and never leave. I certainly didn't want to talk about it with the rather annoying bloke I was with (kind of a blind date/friend of a friend's boyfriend thing...) although I imagine I probably had to. I suppose it was to be expected that I would like the film... I was an English Northerner (very much so), I was studying A level English (similar to Rita's studies in the film), I was a bit in love with one of my English teachers (in the days before I had any Gadar worth mentioning...)... but oh, I really adored it and felt like it was made just for me. It comes over as a bit dated now... but then... to a teenager like me... it was movie magic. This clip contains the bit I remember most... the whole thing about her family and friends and the singsong in the pub and how she feels she doesn't fit in there or with the university folk (again that's a bit dated now in some ways). I still think of it though... it even makes me laugh now sometimes when I'm at our folk club and I do sing along (bands like that at folk clubs... not so everywhere!). "Sing a better song..."




And "I'd drown myself"... still makes me laugh. And then cry. Good stuff.

x

12 comments:

The Weaver of Grass said...

I absolutely loved Educating Rita - saw it no end of times - in some ways it mirrored my own story, I think that is what made me love it so much.

George said...

I'm an avid film buff and I've always loved this movie, "Educating Rita."

martine said...

Lovely, lovely film, now you've mentioned it I have to go see if it is on lovefilm instant.
thanks
martine

The Weaver of Grass said...

Hi again Rachel. I have a hopes and Dreams ready for you, along with a photo, but every time I try to get it on your e mail address given (admin etc.) it gets returned as 'run out of time' - any other way I can get it to you?

Rachel Fox said...

I'm guessing it might be the photo causing the problem, Weaver. I've sent you an email.
x

Danish dog said...

In my latest poem I refer to the play/film:

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showthread.php?t=19748

Rachel Fenton said...

Love this. Firm fave. I was just thinking as I watched the clip, though, what it would be like with a new soundtrack....

Education made me an orphan, too - still relevant.

Rachel Fox said...

"Education made me an orphan"... wow. It wasn't like that for me (my Mum was an education pusher... had to be stopped from saying "oh dear" when someone said they hadn't been to university in later years...) but I did feel a bit like Rita when we moved to London when I was 16. It seems funny now, in this age of movement, but then (1983) moving from Middlesbrough to London was a bit like arriving on Earth from Mars!
x

Rachel Fox said...

OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration... but you know what I mean.
x

Niamh B said...

It's funny isn't it, there's nothing quite like that excitement of knowing every line and watching films three times a night at sleepovers... for us it was Grease and Girls just wanna have fun (that was a film, wasn't it?)

Rachel Fox said...

Certainly I queued for "Grease"... but missed the other one you mention (yes, there was a "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" movie from 1985 but I had to look it up - never seen it). There weren't videos around till I was... about 15 and then they were still new and only a few in the back of the local garage/petrol station (and some of them under the counter) so we didn't do the 'watching over and over' as much as kids do now (and I think you're a bit younger than me Niamh so you probably enjoyed the video age earlier than I did!). It's hard to imagine it now... not being able to just get any film you want online or on dvd or whatever!
x

A Cuban In London said...

Educating Rita is one of my favourite films ever! :-)

Greetings from London.