Monday, January 28, 2013

Random Formula # 2: Popcorn + Movie = ME (Featuring My All Time Favorite Movies)

“Books and movies, they are not mere entertainment. They sustain me and help me cope with my real life.” --Arlaina Tibensky

Like all works of art, a film begins as a blank slate. When additions to the slate are influenced by the Hollywood studio system, often the purity of the film-making itself becomes compromised, and thus a good production is made. When people patronize and support these productions, they create big names in the industry and hence will make history.

When my reading lifestyle did not regain it's spark yet, movies have been a comfort zone of mine. Whenever work stresses me a lot or just when I'm left with nothing to do, I find solace with them. Movies  make me quench with whatever thirst I have within my system. Whenever I'm able to watch a marathon of movies, I feel satisfied. Satisfied in the sense that it fills whatever is lacking within me.  Of course it's the genre of the movies which I think is a great factor that soothe my soul. :)

A typical girl is usually attracted to romantic movies. I, for one, is a living proof. I always find myself crying each point I'm affected by all those turning points in the film. But sometimes, it's always nice to have a product of two which is why I am an avid fan of movies which are romantic and at the same time comedy. Thus, I will fall in love and will have fun whenever I'll have such genre at hand.

It just feels so nice to curl up once in a while and watch such kinds of movies. They make me fall in love with the characters and then later on will find myself in my own reverie spending a day with my man with laughter filling the atmosphere, plan for our wedding, and  live happily ever after all in just ninety or more minutes. YES! It sounds so silly but those are what I have when I watch these movies. However, it is just sad to say that right after a movie will be done, I, as well, will be snapped back to my own reality.

Here are some of my ALL TIME FAVORITE romantic/romantic-comedy movies which I accompanied by their respective remarkable lines:

(In chronological order according to my top most like)

1. Fireproof



2.  The Notebook




 3. The Lost Valentine


 

4. The Vow






5.  A Walk to Remember





. . . I am definitely a BIG TIME fan of Katherine Heigl, not because a few had told me I look like her though I'm not (hhahahaha) but because she is undeniably good in romantic-comedies. So I've watched and compiled her movies,too! ^^

* 27 Dresses








* Life as We Know It




* The Ugly Truth



*  One For The Money

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* New Year's Eve
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. . . other romantic-comedy movies which caught my attention. ( In no particular order)

* License to Wed


* Fifty First Dates



* Crazy Stupid Love



* Letters To Juliet




* Dear John



* Leap Year




* Love and Other Drugs


* Love Happens




* Love Wedding Marriage




* No Strings Attached




* Pride and Prejudice




* The Proposal




* This Means War



* When In Rome

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These are just a few of those movies which had inspired and moved me a lot. Daydreaming as if  I'm the lead actress of all these stories is not bad at all. ^^

But then let me quote Efren PeƱaflorida Jr.'s line for us to be reminded that all of us, girls, should never compare our love story to those we watch in movies. They're written by scriptwriters, ours is written by God.^^

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice


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 The novel's opening line, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” gave me an idea that it will be another boring love story. But  as I did finish reading it, I've realized and unlocked Jane Austen's way of writing the novel. Pride and Prejudice is evidently a novel  full of wit and charm down from the author up to its characters. Jane had given justice as to what classical novel is and, to have it as my first novel being read gave me a well so good impression to novels.

 

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The Story

This is the story of Elizabeth Bennet and her family, which includes her parents and her four sisters.  Living in England in the early 1800′s, the focus of young women was on who they were to be compatible with and subsequently marry.  In the story of this family, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have no male heir to their estate.  Subsequently, their home and wealth is slated to go to a cousin, Mr. Collins upon Mr. Bennet’s death.  As such, it is seemingly more important to Mrs. Bennet than other mothers to marry off her five daughters as soon as possible to ensure that they are cared for in the event of Mr. Bennet’s passing. 

The story of Pride & Prejudice starts when a handsome and wealthy man, Mr. Bingley, comes to rent an estate not far from The Bennet Family’s.  As he takes possession of this fine rental, the families in the surrounding area buzz with excitement and anticipation that this fine gentleman will choose one of their daughters as a bride.  Mrs. Bennet  is no exception.  At a ball, Elizabeth’s older and beautiful sister, Jane, becomes the object of Mr. Bingley’s affections.  It is also at this ball that Elizabeth (“Lizzy”) overhears a handsome stranger, Mr. Darcy, state that she is not “handsome” enough to be considered for a dance with him at the ball.  Mr. Darcy is a very wealthy, handsome, and brooding stranger whom Lizzy will soon not be able to avoid.

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This story takes readers from the time of that ball until well over a year later.  During such time, The Bennet family is faced with an issue of family honor when their daughter Lydia runs off with a handsome, however untrustworthy military man, Mr. Wickman.  In addition, Mr. Collins makes an attempt to marry into the family to find himself a suitable wife.  Thankfully, The Bennet Daughters are spared despite Mrs. Bennet’s urging to accept his long-winded proposal.  However, the most important story within this novel is the love story between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.  The reader observes her initial disdain for him grow into an irresistible love that she can not deny.


The Movie

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I was happy to find out that the novel had been filmed in the year of 2005 starred by Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen as Fitzwilliam Darcy directed by Joe Wright. I was so eager to watch the film but then I was a little bit disappointed after watching knowing that some of those what I've read weren't reflected in the movie. I think it's a normal feeling a reader would have once the story he read will be put into big screen. At least, some of those profound lines  I got from reading were evident in the film such as:

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"Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."
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"You have bewitched me body and soul and I love, and love, and love you. And never wish to be parted from you from this day on."






More of the "Quotes" 

CHAPTERS 1-24

"She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me". - Fitzwilliam Darcy

“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.”  - Fitzwilliam Darcy

“The power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance."  - Fitzwilliam  Darcy 

"Affectation of candour is common enough— one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design— to take the good of everybody's character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad— belongs to you alone." - Elizabeth Bennet

"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us." - Mary Bennet

"If a woman is partial to a man, and does not endeavour to conceal it, he must find it out." - Elizabeth Bennet

"Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance." -  Charlotte Lucas

"I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow." - Fitzwilliam Darcy

"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment." - Fitzwilliam Darcy

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” - Fitzwilliam Darcy

"Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast." - Fitzwilliam Darcy

"The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance." - Fitzwilliam Darcy




"I have made no such pretension. I have faults enough, but they are not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch for. It is, I believe, too little yielding— certainly too little for the convenience of the world... My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost is lost forever." - Fitzwilliam Darcy

"Implacable resentment is a shade in a character." - Elizabeth Bennet

"Interested people have perhaps misrepresented each to the other. It is, in short, impossible for us to conjecture the causes or circumstances which may have alienated them, without actual blame on either side." - Jane Bennet

"Nobody can tell what I suffer! -- But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied." - Mrs. Bennet

". . . resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our estimation." - Mr. Collins

"There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it." 

"You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavour to persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger security for happiness."

. . .our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does."

“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” 


CHAPTERS 25-36

"Only the deepest love can persuade me into matrimony."

“A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.” 

“We are all fools in love”  

“I have been used to consider poetry as "the food of love. Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”

"We do not suffer by accident. It does not often happen that the interference of friends will persuade a young man of independent fortune to think no more of a girl whom he was violently in love with only a few days before."

“For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”  

“I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh.”

"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me."


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"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess... of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done."




"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me."



CHAPTERS 37-61

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.” 
  
"He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal."

"My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever."

"Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."

 "Your retrospections must be so totally void of reproach, that the contentment arising from them is not of philosophy, but, what is much better, of innocence."

"As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit."

"I cannot fix on the hour, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun." 



“In vain I have  struggled. My fee lings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” 






To seal, Pride and Prejudice for me is one among those great classical novels (I'm not being bias since it's the first novel I've read but then it really is) for the reason that the author herself had made a link between her write-up to what we have at hand in our real world scenarios: marriage, etiquette, and all sorts of relationships.  So Jane, you have me with my two thumbs up! :)




Sunday, January 27, 2013

Great Classical Novels: Revisitation to "MY" Archives

 


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  Studying about heavenly bodies way back in my primary and secondary years inspired me a lot. Traveling through space shuttles, eating while floating due to lack of gravity, walking on the moon, studying lives outside the earth, learning things in other planets, and discovering tidbits of rocks outside the universe interest me a lot. Hence being an astronaut was my first  dream course and if lucky enough, work.  Most of the time before, I imagined myself working in NASA and daydream about meteors and all of such sorts around. I found it so so soooo SUPERB! I remembered I once told mama about what work I'd like to have in the future one evening while she slept beside me.

Me: Ma, gusto ko mag-astronaut inig dako nako and magtravel di lang sah tibuok kalibutan pero sa gawas sa kalibutan.  (Ma, I'd like to be an astronaut when I grow up and travel not just around the world but outside our planet.)
Mama: *startled* Day, nanrabaho gani mi ni papa duol nimu daun ikaw molayo nah nuon ka, mogawas pajud sah kalibutan? (Day, your father and I work closer to where you are, but then you want to work away from us, and the worst outside the planet?)

Such convo made me think but never hindered me of wanting to be an astronaut. But, when I came to my senses during my senior years, I realized there's no school offering aeronautics in Phil. so I decided to take Marine Biology when I will enroll for my college years. I was good in Bio back then, hence taking the course would make me an expert in the field AND I'll get the chance of learning how to swim. Everything went smoothly as I passed a scholarship in the school (MSU-IIT) I'm wanting to study for college which offers the aforementioned course,too.

Enrollment day arrived. My father did not allow me to study in MSU because of the chaos between Muslims and Christians back then. So I got no other option but to study in the university (LSU) situated in my own city. The very first Department the guard pointed was the College of Education, so without much ado, I got a prospectus and enrolled. I never noticed that the prospectus handed to me was for secondary education which required a major subject. It made me ponder whether I'll go for Biology which is closer to Marine Bio or English since literature was my second interest.

Flipping a coin made me settle for English. :) (photo from web)

My more than 4-year old prospectus. Crumpled and nearly rotten ;)

And so a sojourn had started. Despite of not becoming an astronaut or a marine biologist, I successfully managed my chosen course. Instead of doing the moonwalk outside the earth or swimming under the sea, I've done reading. Reading made me go what's beyond the universe and those which are under the sea. I've traveled. I've rode all sorts of spaceships. I've tried all submarines.I've made friends with those splendid astronauts, divers, above all, WRITERS . I was acquainted to those great persons both in stories and histories. We'll, what more could I ask for? ;)

...old  exam permits I've kept :)

. . . of all my 25 English subjects (yes, 25! I don't know how I did all those ^^) ,  English 7n "The Novel" was one of my favorite English subjects. For the entire semester, aside from our assigned novel,  we were required to read the novels  of our classmates and did the extraction of profound quotes/lines. I was tasked to do Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It's the very first novel I've ever read. The novel has it's movie as well so when I did the discussion of my novel to the class, I let them watch the film first. ;)


The novels we did read and study are as follows:

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
(hahahahah mine should be first in the list ^^)

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           Click here for remarkable lines from "Pride and Prejudice"


 2. The Tale of Genji by Lady Murashaki Shikibu
 (...the first novel ever written^^)

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 3. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

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4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  by Mark Twain

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 5. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

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6. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

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7. The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway 

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8. Anna Karenina by Leo Toltstoy

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9. My Antonia by Willa Sibert Cather

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10. Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

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11. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

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12. The Pearl by John Steinbeck

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13. Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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14. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

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Im blithesome I was indulged with these great classical novels which were all well-written. A few made me inspired, and some made me fell in love. They made me admire great characters. They made me travel back to lots of events. And above all, they made me learn a lot out from their simple and unique stories.Truly, reading is incomparable.


At one point, I was able to contemplate that I could probably not read when I'll be outside the earth, for sure I will have to chase my book. I could definitely not read under the sea, too, my book will surely get wet. Therefore I know I've settled for what is the best for me.^^





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