The Look of Love | Between Covers -- The Bed's and a Book's
The Look of Love | Between Covers -- The Bed's and a Book's
By Cesare A.X. Syjuco [Video Troll + Book Worm]
Published in: The Manila Times, November 30, 1987
The Look of Love
ANY avid soap-opera fan will tell you that the only thing better than a tacky romance is one played out under unusual circumstances. Recent feature films like “Maxie”, “Splash!” and “My Demon Lover” should be some indication of just how kinky a romantic fling can get. Here's a list of readily-available titles from off the shelves that explore the many shades of passion, love and courtship:
A ROOM WITH A VIEW — Adjudged “Best Picture of 1986” by the National Board of Review, this cinematic adaptation of E.M. Forster's Victorian drama of the heart has the welcome quality of English soap without the suds. An aristocratic debutante on vacation in Florence crosses swords with a brooding young Englishman who repels and then ultimately intrigues her. Nipped in the bud at the holiday’s end, the flirtation eventually comes full-circle with fate’s intervention at every turn, surviving an ill-starred engagement, family squabbles, neighborhood kibitzers, and our heroine’s own determination to keep her persistent suitor-cum-tormentor at arm’s length. Anyone who has lived through a cat-and-mouse courtship should have a lot of fun writhing through this classic tale of love among the gentry. Stars Helena Bonham-Carter and Julian Sands.
THE GOOD WIFE — A conservative and unassumig housewife in the hot Australian outback has her hitherto-repressed sexuality released from deep-freeze by her husband's permissiveness. When a charismatic bartender blows into town in classic Clint Eastwood-fashion, she becomes a woman possessed by the thought of having him — virtually standing on her head and juggling steak-knives with her feet to attract this handsome stranger’s attention. The whole film plods slowly onward, building down to a predictable climax in which all hands are pathetically played-out, in a manner not unlike a Greek tragedy. It's plain to see that the moral to this slow and rather contrived passion-play is that some boxes are best left unopened. Rachel Ward and Bryan Brown follow through on the phenomenal success of “The Thornbirds”, almost like an alternative sequel for wishful thinkers.
HEARTACHES — Canadian movies have a strange penchant for waxing ironic. Margot Kidder and Annie Potts are an unlikely pair of roomies who meet by chance on a cross-country bus bound for Los Angeles. Kidder plays a bleached-blonde floozie eager to bag a mate and settle down. Potts is determined to leave her husband, have an abortion, and find her way in the world. But life is a lottery that often plays dirty, and our two vagabond visionaries would probably have been better off switching roles. Also stars Winston Remmert and Robert Carradine.
OFF BEAT — Judge Reinhold and Meg Tilly tangle in this altogether-preposterous comic-romance pitting a crack NYC policewoman against a crackpot library clerk on rollerskates. The plot itself is a bit thin and might never have stood up without a good starching. Reinhold masquerades as a cop in order to substitute for a flatfoot buddy with two left trotters, rehearsing in his friend's place for an inter-precinct charity stageshow. Tilly, who’s also on the chorus line, finds this shy blue knight fascinating; he doesn't crowd a girl with his machismo and looks great in tights besides! Certain that he has finally found the girl of his dreams, Reinhold doesn't dare let her in on the deception for fear that she might drop him outright. The movie breezes through on their tandem efforts. Reinhold in really quite funny in this one, and Tilly is nice enough to eat in uniform.
SHOOT THE MOON — Strike up the band for Women’s Lib! Albert Finney is a successful middle-aged author of children’s books whose extramarital affairs eventually has his picture-perfect marriage on the rocks. His wife, played by a convincingly-gutsy Diane Keaton, has been content all along to dive into the household chores and take stock of their four growing daughters; but she now has other plans that definitely don’t include our penetrant hero. You never know a good thing until you’ve lost it, I guess, and Finney goes bananas trying to win Keaton back. Will she or won’t she? — that is the question.
LILAC DREAM — Born of the same harebrained weekly series that gave us “The Rose Cafe”, this equally-bizarre episode from “Shades Of Love” has a recently-jilted lady executive literally stumbling on a gorgeous hunk who gets washed ashore unconscious. Suffering from temporary amnesia, his memory is about the only thing he hasn’t got, and they fall madly in love with each other. Crisis time beckons when the real Mrs. Hunk pops into view like a Mafiosi’s switchblade, adding vinegar to our wounds. Stars Dack Rambo and a sadly displaced Susan Almgren. Talk about bad!
Book Worm: Between Covers -- The Bed's and a Book's
THE print equivalent of the TV soap opera or the tackily romantic mini-series is any one of the pap-py novelty paperbacks that occupy, sadly, a big percentage of the shelfspace of most bookstores. At the risk of sounding pompous or preachy, we feel that readers who are into the wonderful world of books should sink their eyeteeth into words that are worth the eyestrain.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS AND ROMEO AND JULIET — Two classics that dwell on the love-is-stronger-than-death theme. The former, Emily Bronte’s famous opus, is a fierce vision of metaphysical passion, mystical almost. As for the latter, William Shakespeare’s classic, there is no need to elaborate; there is only a little caveat — one must get used to reading plays.
WOMEN IN LOVE — Very intense love story; nothing whishy-washy. Do not expect cutesiness exhibited by Erich Segal, (in Love Story) who is different from D. H. Lawrence, as night is opposed to day. Excellent craft, shows how the English language should be used.
LATER THE SAME DAY — A collection of short stories by Grace Paley, among which are precious ones on heartbreak and middle-aged lust. Subtle and intelligent.
COLLECTED LOVE LETTERS — Declarations, rejections, accusations, denials — from some of history’s luminaries. Compiled by Lady Antonia Fraser. — CSA
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Cesare A.X. Syjuco, “The Look of Love | Between Covers -- The Bed's and a Book's” (page 1 of 1), The Manila Times, November 30, 1987
