Watching Someone else’s Favourite Film – By @katyedelsten
By Katy Edelsten
Watching Someone else’s Favourite Film
I’m not really not into historical novel film adaptations, but i’m really not that into them.
There’s generally a bit too much speechy talking and wandering around fields in long dresses for my liking.
So, in an attempt to do something a bit different and pin my dad down for some Christmas bonding that wasn’t eating I decided to watch his favourite film, The Leopard, with him.
It was alright.
No really it was actually alright. It wasn’t my cup of tea exactly but I learnt some things about Sicily-at-a-certain-time-
We started off averagely, clearly nobody was paying that much attention as we managed to watch a full 20 minutes before we realised we need subtitles.
Cue, starting again and actually watching it. Scrabble board away.
– Garibaldi didn’t just made biscuits
– There was a very beautiful lady that my dad knew an awful lot about who kept wandering around seducing everyone with her eyes. She was called Angelica and the queen of smizing.
– There was a mournful old (but also beautiful) prince that was very sad about being stuck between Generation traditional and Generation young-things. (I think my dad actually genuinely identified with him which is why he likes it so much)
– Everybody in Sicily-at-a-certain-time-
– My desk is actually less messy than a 19th Century Italian Prince’s, so I felt better about my own life.
– At one point the Prince was in the bath and a priest just walked in, and then dried him to say sorry for walking in. I’m pretty sure thats what was going on anyway.
– There were a lot of motifs (English Degree hello!) that referenced the decay of beauty/ the class system/ the political system /memories. Deeep.
– Some of the young attractive people got lost in an abandoned building for a while and kept hiding in wardrobes and jumping out at each other. Crystal maze dating style.
– There were some very beautiful establishing shots (Thanks Ben G) which were very wide..
– Everybody was using fans basically all the time, which looked like loads of effort but was probably very good exercise.
“Everything needs to change, so everything can stay the same”
Anyway, it won a Palme d’Or and was very much alright. I’m not sure I would totally recommend watching it but I would recommend watching someone else’s favourite film.
