Valentine's Day Film Suggestions

The Princess Bride 1987

The Princess Bride is, according to my 17 year old son, the best film ever! And very romantic.

Westley: I told you I would always come for you. Why didn't you wait for me?
Buttercup: Well... you were dead.
Westley: Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.
Buttercup: I will never doubt again.
Westley: There will never be a need.

A Knight's Tale 2001

A Knight's Tale is also a fairy tale, a sort of Cinderella tale for the guys. Anything is possible if you believe.

William: It is strange to think, I haven't seen you since a month. I have seen the new moon, but not you. I have seen sunsets and sunrises, but nothing of your beautiful face. The pieces of my broken heart are so small that they could be passed through the eye of a needle. I miss you like the sun misses the flower; like the sun misses the flower in the depths of winter. Instead of beauty to direct its light to, the heart hardens like the frozen world your absence has banished me to. I next compete in the city of Paris, I will find it empty and in the winter if you are not there. Hope guides me, that is what gets me through the day and especially the night. The hope that after you're gone from my sight, it will not be the last time that I look upon you.

Shakespeare in Love 1998

Shakespeare in Love is romance itself. Who better than The Bard of Avon to teach us about love.

Queen Elizabeth: Playwrights teach us nothing about love. They make it pretty, they make it comical, or they make it lust, but they cannot make it true.
Viola De Lesseps: Oh, but they can! 

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest is romance with a comic twist. Oscar Wilde mixes equal amounts of love and silliness.

Cecily: You must not laugh at me, darling, but it has always been a girlish dream of mine to love a man named Ernest.

Sense and Sensibility 1995

Sense and Sensibility takes a wonderful book by Jane Austen and brings it to life on the screen so well, it will make your heart ache.

Elinor Dashwood: What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering. For weeks, Marianne, I've had this pressing on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature. It was forced on me by the very person whose prior claims ruined all my hope. I have endured her exultations again and again whilst knowing myself to be divided from Edward forever. Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.

Jane Eyre 2011

Jane Eyre is an incredibly romantic book. The recent film leaves a lot out, but not the romance!

Rochester: I offer you my hand, my heart. Jane, I ask you to pass through life at my side. You are my equal and my likeness. Will you marry me?
Jane Eyre: Are you mocking me?
Rochester: You doubt me.
Jane Eyre: Entirely.

Miss Potter 2006

Miss Potter is sweet and romantic. You're never too old for love! (and bunnies!)

Let me teach you how to dance
let me lead you to the floor
simply place your hand in mine
and then think of nothing more
let the music cast its spell
give the atmosphere a chance
simply follow where I lead
let me teach you how to dance

Lady Jane 1986

Lady Jane is a tragedy as well as a romance. It is not historically accurate, but it will make you believe in true love. Hey, Carey Elwes is in 2 of my picks! Fancy that.

Jane: [reading] The soul takes flight to the world that is eternal... invisible. But there arriving she is sure of bliss, and forever dwells in paradise.

An Ideal Husband 1999

An Ideal Husband is another Oscar Wilde, but this one is more of a commentary on the kind of love you find in an established marriage. Still a bit silly, but a very lovely ending.

Lord Arthur Goring: Gertrude, it is not the perfect, but rather the imperfect who have need of love.
Gertrude: You seem to know a great deal about it all of a sudden.
Lord Arthur Goring: Oh, I hope not. All I know, Gertrude, is that it takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it. And even more courage to see it in the one you love. Gertrude, you have more courage than any woman I have ever known. Do not be afraid now to use it.

Persuasion 1995

And for my final suggestion, Persuasion 1995 for the letter scene alone...

"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago."

Sigh! Please add your romantic film suggestions in the comments. I just listed period dramas, but tell me which ones you can't live without, period or not. Happy Valentines Day!

West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire, England- Filming Location

West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire, England

The Importance of Being Earnest 2002 uses the lovely National Trust Property West Wycombe Park almost as another character in the story. As the country seat of Jack Worthing (Colin Firth) this drop dead gorgeous property is showcased both inside and out. Someday, I will get there and see it in person. (By the way, please visit Lacey Green Walks to see more gorgeous photos of the estate).

Colin Firth and Rupert Everett at a door of West Wycombe Park

The weathered yellow of the exterior of the house is very distinctive. You may recognize it in other productions (see below) because of it's colour.

Frances O'Connor and Reese Witherspoon on the stairs of West Wycombe

Thankfully as the story progresses, we get to see lots of amazing views of the interior as well as the exterior of West Wycombe.

Rupert Everett, Judi Dench and Reese Witherspoon in front of the ornate fireplace of West Wycombe

The yellow of the exterior is brought into some of the interior rooms to wonderful effect.

Some more views of the grounds which I have shamelessly borrowed from the Lacey Green Walks website.

The Music Temple, situated on one of the islands on the SWAN-SHAPED LAKE at West Wycombe

You can see why this estate is popular for weddings as well as for filming locations.  It is open to the public from early April until the middle of August from Sunday to Thursday (April is grounds only). The weekends are reserved for weddings or private functions and the Dashwood family live in the house, as they have done since the 18th century.

The distinctive double colonnade of the south side of West Wycombe

Dashwood...I know. Do you think that Jane Austen used this home as inspiration for the Dashwood estate Norland Park in Sense and Sensibility? The property was given to the National Trust in 1943 by the Sir John Dashwood, 10th Baronet (an action apparently strongly resented by his heir). The family retained ownership of the contents of the house and they still reside in the house.

Other films or miniseries using West Wycombe for a filming location:

W.E. 2011
The Duchess 2008
What a Girl Wants 2003
Cranford 2007
An Ideal Husband 1999
I Capture the Castle 2003
Daniel Deronda 2002
Another Country 1984

He Knew He Was Right 2004

Carrington 1995
Austenland 2012

Downton Abbey 2010

Funny that Colin Firth and Rupert Everett were in both Another Country and The Importance of Being Earnest. Everything comes full circle I suppose!

And is anyone else excited about seeing JJ Feild, Keri Russell, Jennifer Coolidge and Bret McKenzie in Austenland later this year?

Jeremy Northam- Actor of the Week

Ah, Jeremy Northam. This guy can do period drama. Or period comedy. Or anything in a cravat! No, seriously, he has been in some of my favourite films. I mean first we have Emma:

Jeremy Northam as Mr. Knightley in Emma 1996

"Try not to kill my dogs."

And then we have him playing the only real life character in Gosford Park, composer/singer/actor Ivor Novello:

Jeremy Northam in Gosford Park

Morris Weissman: How do you manage to put up with these people?
Ivor Novello: Well, you forget, I make my living impersonating them.

Then we have him in Henry James' The Golden Bowl with Kate Beckinsale Anjelica Huston and Uma Thurmon:

Has anyone seen this one? I didn't know this one even existed.  I will have to track it one down and let you know what I think. It looks interesting, even though I am not a great fan of Henry James in general.

As he is maturing, he is getting some interesting meaty roles like Sir Thomas More in The Tudors:

Jeremy Northam as Sir Thomas More in The Tudors

Sir Thomas More: If the lion knows its own strength, no man could control it...

And I loved him opposite Peter O'Toole in Dean Spanley. An adaptation of an Edwardian era novella about a father/son relationship and a reincarnated dog. I kid you not. It is adorable!

Jeremy Northam and Peter O'Toole in Dean Spanley

"It's often occurred to me that pulling a dog away from a lamppost is akin to seizing a scholar at the British Museum by the scruff of his neck and dragging him away from his studies."

And in support of Movember, we have Jeremy Northam playing THE Ideal Husband. I may have my hubby watch this one again...

Julianne Moore and Jeremy Northam in An Ideal Husband

Sir Robert Chiltern: If you are suggesting, Sir Edward, that my position in society owes anything to my wife, you are utterly mistaken. It owes everything to my wife.

And he is uber sexy opposite Jennifer Ehle in Possession:

Jennifer Ehle and Jeremy Northam in Possession

Randolph Ash: They say that women change: 'tis so: but you are ever-constant in your changefulness, like that still thread of falling river, one from source to last embrace in the still pool ever-renewed and ever-moving on from first to last a myriad water-drops.

Be still my beating heart! And last but not least, my fave quote from the film Emma, although it is not to be found in Jane Austen's book, I think she would approve!

Jeremy Northam and Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma

Mr. Knightley: Marry me. Marry me, my wonderful, darling friend.

So...which of Jeremy's films is your fave? There were so many great films, I didn't even get them all into this post! Keep them coming Jeremy!

An Ideal Husband 1999 starring Rupert Everett

An Ideal Husband 1999

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." 

Rupert Everett was made for Oscar Wilde. And of course, he plays the Wilde type character of Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband with such relish that you almost think you are seeing Oscar Wilde himself on the screen. Bravo!!!

Cate Blanchett struts her stuff in An Ideal Husband

I won't give the plot away in case you haven't seen this film or the play on which it is based. Suffice it to say that Jeremy Northam and Cate Blanchett play the "ideal couple" Sir Robert and Lady Gertrude Chiltern in this story who of course find things a bit rocky for a while. Everett plays the confirmed bachelor Lord Goring and Minnie Driver plays the naughty but nice Miss Mabel who is interested in him. Julianne Moore plays the just plain nasty Mrs. Cheveley who stirs things up quite handily for all.

Rupert Everett and Cate Blanchett having a serious conversation

 
"All I know, Gertrude, is that it takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it. And even more courage to see it in the one you love. Gertrude, you have more courage than any woman I have ever known. Do not be afraid now to use it." 

You'll hate Julianne Moore and love Jeremy Northam as you should!

 "A rather charming little idea has come into my head, and now that I consider it, I find it to be a rather charming big idea."

Minnie Driver has a riot with this role as usual

"My dear father, if we men married the women we deserved... we should have a very bad time of it."


Well, I will leave you with Oscar Wilde's wise words and my hearty recommendation of this film. Oh, and the play is pretty darn good too if you are lucky enough to see it live!

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P.S. If any of you have seen the lower budget but perhaps "closer to the play" version from 2000 with Jonathan Firth, James Wilbey and Sadie Frost, please let me know what you think. I love the above version very much, but I am always open, especially to a brother of Colin Firth!