Recently, for some reason, Jim and I got talking about “Gone With The Wind”. He hadn’t read the book (not surprisingly) but also had never seen the movie. Perhaps also not surprisingly but less so. Of course, every adolescent girl read the novel and the movie came periodically to the movie theatres so we saw the movie. I loved the book and the movie. So, it was interesting to get the movie and also read a bit of the book. I only read a few pages but the book didn’t disappoint in those few pages. In fact, I was quite impressed with the writing. Even so, I doubt whether I’ll read very much of it.
The second paragraph of the novel which I think captures the character of Scarlett and also the society she is a part of:
"Stuart and Brent Tarleton in the cool shade of the porch of Tara, her father's plantation, that bright April afternoon of 1861, she made a pretty picture. Her new green flowered-muslin dress spread its twelve yards of billowing material over her hoops and exactly matched the flat-heeled green morocco slippers her father had recently brought her from Atlanta. The dress set off to perfection the seventeen-inch waist, the smallest in three counties, and the tightly fitting basque showed breasts well matured for her sixteen years. But for all the
modesty of her spreading skirts, the demureness of hair netted smoothly into a chignon and the quietness of small white hands folded in her lap, her true self was poorly concealed. The green eyes in the carefully sweet face were turbulent, willful, lusty with life, distinctly at variance with her decorous demeanor. Her manners had been imposed upon her by her mother's gentle admonitions and the sterner discipline of her mammy; her eyes were her own.”
“her eyes were her own”…wow, that’ pretty amazing writing as far as I’m concerned.
The scenery and sets are pretty spectacular but it was difficult to watch even 10 minutes of it. It was very tiresome. I suppose I can’t really judge it after 10 minutes but enough is enough! We were both ready to turn it off after 5 minutes.
Another novel and movie I loved was The Agony and the Ecstasy. I’ll have to give this the same test. I think the movie will come out better and also probably the novel.
modesty of her spreading skirts, the demureness of hair netted smoothly into a chignon and the quietness of small white hands folded in her lap, her true self was poorly concealed. The green eyes in the carefully sweet face were turbulent, willful, lusty with life, distinctly at variance with her decorous demeanor. Her manners had been imposed upon her by her mother's gentle admonitions and the sterner discipline of her mammy; her eyes were her own.”
“her eyes were her own”…wow, that’ pretty amazing writing as far as I’m concerned.
The scenery and sets are pretty spectacular but it was difficult to watch even 10 minutes of it. It was very tiresome. I suppose I can’t really judge it after 10 minutes but enough is enough! We were both ready to turn it off after 5 minutes.
Another novel and movie I loved was The Agony and the Ecstasy. I’ll have to give this the same test. I think the movie will come out better and also probably the novel.
The Agony and the Ecstasy is a 1965 American film directed by Carol Reed, starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II. The film was partly based on Irving Stone's biographical novel The Agony and the Ecstasy. This film deals with the conflicts of Michelangelo and Pope Julius II during the painting of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. It also features a soundtrack co-written by prolific composers Alex North and Jerry Goldsmith.[3]
The film was shot in Todd-AO and Cinemascope versions. The Todd-AO version was used for the DVD release because of its superior picture quality.
