Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2004. Mattie was only two years old, and to me he had a very angelic face. This picture was featured on our Christmas cards that year. In the early years, taking a picture of Mattie was a royal challenge. He did not like sitting still for half a second, and the thought of smiling for a camera was pointless to him. Nonetheless, thanks to digital cameras and taking LOTS of pictures, I was able to capture that beautiful face.
Quote of the day: Your heart has brought great joy to many. Those hearts can never forget you. ~ Flavia Weeden
I am happy to report that Peter made it home safely. He tells me his flight was quite bumpy and rough, and not for just a couple of minutes, but for the entire flight. He was thrilled that I wasn't on the flight. I am thrilled that I wasn't on it either, since I would have been a basket case by the time I landed, and I have no doubt I would have made Peter's trip absolutely miserable. Our cat, Patches, has been reunited with her buddy, and I am happy they have each other. Clearly Peter and I are both independent adults, but since we lost Mattie spending time apart has its complications. We miss each other and somehow feel the loss of Mattie even more.
Today was rainy, extremely foggy, and chilly in Los Angeles. So my parents took me to the movies. As some of my readers may know, I RARELY go to the movies. I certainly wouldn't waste the money on most of our American movies. I can't stand the violence, sex, language, and content in most of them! I would say I was somewhat like this prior to Mattie's cancer, but NOW I have absolutely no tolerance to sit still and have content flash before my eyes that is disturbing to me. However, I usually can be talked into going to see a foreign film. The film my parent's selected was King's Speech. I asked them what it was about and they did not want to tell me, I suppose they wanted me to absorb the story and plot for myself.
Many of my readers may have heard of this movie. I hadn't. Mainly because since Mattie's illness and death, I have closed off a good portion of the outside world. I am slowly letting it back in, but I am still very guarded about taking in national and world news. I just can't handle the content anymore. It is as if my circuits were frayed during Mattie's battle with cancer, and even though new pathways and circuits are being re-established, I am still on emotional overload and my mind just can't handle more.
I am ALWAYS in amazement when I see a British film. Why? Because I wonder how on earth they can create a meaningful, substantive, and touching work of art, and we here in America produce one worthless and unforgettable movie after another? It makes you pause. King's Speech is a superb movie and since it was based on a true story and the life of King George the VI, it made it even more fascinating.
What caught my utmost attention in the movie was the relationship that developed between King George the VI and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue. King George stammered when he spoke, or in other words he was a stutterer. A MAJOR problem for a public figure, and a public figure leading his Country through WWII. He tried traditional methods to address the issue, but nothing worked. Nothing until his wife introduced him to Lionel Logue. Lionel turns out to be a brilliant therapist, yet we learn he has absolutely NO credentials. Just years of work experience, he is a good listener, understands human dynamics, and unlike other professionals takes the TIME to connect with his clients. It is the FRIENDSHIP between these two men, NOT their professional relationship, that allows King George the strength and fortitude to learn to speak without stuttering.
The movie gives its viewers a bird's eye view of what life must be like for the English royalty, and the complexities of such a title. It is through the beauty of this friendship and their open dialogue, we learn that there was a psychological explanation for the stuttering, not a physical one. As King George learned to speak in front of his trusted friend ("therapist"), he gained the confidence in his verbal ability, and I have no doubt this enabled the King to be the great leader that he was destined to be.
When the movie ended, the audience was clapping. When does that happen when viewing an American movie?! I can't recall! I attached a review of the movie from the Hollywood Reporter below as well as a trailer to the movie, if you haven't seen it yet. All I know is that for two hours and 13 minutes, I was able to forget my own issues, and be absorbed into a wonderful, captivating, and sensitive story. This rarely happens for me which is why this is SO noteworthy today!
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A Review from the Hollywood Reporter:
Lately, British filmmakers have zeroed in on personal moments and back stories that go a long way in not only humanizing their royal family but also creating a much greater awareness of the trials and difficulties faced by those in such "exalted" positions.
It perhaps started with The Queen, continued with Young Victoria and now achieves the most intimate glimpse inside the royal camp to date with The King's Speech.
Each of these films features a mesmerizing central performance. Although Speech requires shared billing, with no disrespect to Geoffrey Rush's spot-on work here, Colin Firth, following up on his Oscar-nominated role in A Single Man, now can claim a place among Britain's finest film actors with his performance as the man who became King George VI.
The film is a sure winner in the British Isles and many former colonies. How its most rebellious and historically challenged colony will react when the Weinstein Co. releases the film domestically Nov. 24 is hard to gauge. Perhaps only decent box office can be anticipated.
The thing about Bertie, as George V's second son was called by the family, is that he never is going to be king. A good thing too because he suffers from a terrible stammer and what nowadays would be called low self-esteem. Then history conspires against him.
But this is getting ahead of the story, ably written by David Seidler and directed by Tom Hooper. While dad (Michael Gambon) remains on his throne and his elder brother, David (Guy Pearce), gadding about as an international playboy, Bertie (Firth) has to give a speech. He looks like he is about to attend his own execution, and words stick in his throat so badly that what comes out is unintelligible.
His wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), seeks out speech therapists but only disaster results. Then she stumbles onto Lionel Logue (Rush).
The movie establishes him as an eccentric, lower-class and somewhat ignoble version of Henry Higgins. He and his family live in a large, oddly wallpapered flat that contains only a fraction of the furniture necessary to fill it. What's worse, he's Australian and a failed ham actor specializing in eloquent though thoroughly bad Shakespeare. Yet even when he realizes a royal is summoning him, he insists that it's "his castle, his rules": The royal must take his lessons in Lionel's home.
Thus the movie sets up an Odd Couple dynamic that, like the famous Neil Simon play/movie/TV series, measures out comedy and drama in nearly even doses. Bertie and Lionel -- the therapist insists on a first-name basis -- discover common ground, quarrel bitterly, share a drink, make a breakthrough, then break off all contact. At the root of Bertie's problem, it gradually emerges, is a wretched childhood, no matter how rich and glorious it might seem to outsiders.
Now comes history's little trick. Brother David eventually becomes Edward VIII; you know, the irresponsible sap who decides he'd rather marry a well-traveled, twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson, than be king of England. Following his brother's abdication, Bertie becomes George VI, which means a lot of speech giving -- especially on the eve of World War II.
The movie lets everything build to George VI's first wartime speech. In the early days of the wireless -- long before television, of course -- this means a king can stand alone in a room with only a microphone and speech coach to get him through those three minutes (egged on by Beethoven's mighty Seventh Symphony). It's an understandably moving moment, but the film has nicely paved the way with long therapy sessions, conversations and comic fights between its couple.
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As the movie trailer says..... Some men are born great, others have greatness thrust upon them!
Movie Trailer to King's Speech: http://kings-speech.movie-trailer.com/
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