Rainy Days and Sundays
Okay my sneakers and socks are soaked. It’s a weekend and I’m at home. Storm signal number 2 is up over the metro and I dread the rainy season. However, one thing to love about all the raining is that I have an excuse to stay in my warm comfy bed for twelve plus hours. It should be hibernation time for me though I chose to do something I haven’t done for quite some time already - DVD marathon alongside with my favorite mix of chicken soup and brown bread.
I have racked five titles to satisfy my melancholic cravings. Here are my top picks:
Somewhere in Time [1980] - Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour
The story starts off on a creepy note when an old woman approaches Richard Collier a playwright, played by Reeves, just right after a gathering or celebration of some sort that is primarily hosted by/for Collier who reaches out and gave a pocket watch while saying “come back to me”. Spooky since that old lady is the very woman, Elise McKenna a renowned 20th century stage actress played by Jane Seymour, Collier fell so deeply in love with several years back. He just needs to rediscover it somewhere in time.
So it’s like the Lake House movie though in this movie, the lovers had the chance to meet and know each other in person at the Grand Hotel. The con in this movie imho is the time traveling technique Collier used to get back in time to be with McKenna which I find it kinda awkward since it felt like the movie shifted from the supposed romantic tone to a sci-fi one. The pro is the movie soundtrack Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini which is played on most sequence of the film and exceptionally captures the emotion expressed by the actors and writers of the movie.
Before Sunrise [1995] - Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy
I literally fell in love with this movie. Two thumbs up for this movie as it has been rated by critics a perfect score and is considered one of the best romance of all time. This is one of the many movies that teamed up Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy together. Never have I seen a discourse so perfectly constructed and played that it got me writing most of the movie lines down that first time I watched it. Paris could never have been lovelier. An absolute favorite and I am speechless right now.
City of Angels [1998] - Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan
Yep! You got it right. It’s that song you’re humming right now. One of the more popular romance movie of its time alongside with the popular soundtrack it came along with, you just can’t avoid being sad on how this movie ends. It’s like a bittersweet ending making one feel how it is to love and be loved and making the other feel how it is to live. Living in the sense of experiencing joy, love, laughter, pain, sorrow, and sadness without exception. I just can’t imagine being in that position and still having the guts to live despite of it all.
Il Mare [2000] - Jun Ji-hyun and Lee Jung-Jae
This was kinda tough since I originally wanted to watch My Sassy Girl but figured out that the movie was on a lighter tone as compared with Il Mare in Italian or the The Sea. The Korean movie title of this film is Siworae or Hanja in Chinese which translates “time-transcending love”. What I love with Korean movies in particular is the music played on parts of the movie when there is heavy drama expected. It really has been a perfect compliment to the way actors play their scripts. I don’t know but there is really something in melancholy that I find rather comforting. As noted earlier, Somewhere in Time and Il Mare are similar in the aspect of love versus time and/or space setup.
Before Sunset [2004] - Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy
From the team that brought you the highly acclaimed 1995 movie Before Sunrise comes a sequel entitled Before Sunset which took place at Paris as well. Same quality discourse and quality acting, this movie is set to put more romance on the unfinished business the main actors left upon ending their first meeting in which they’ve promised to meet at the same location they’ve separated after six months.
This failed to materialized since Delpy’s characters’ grandmother suddenly died before the two ever got the chance to meet up again. This led to Hawke being married and having a son of his own and Delpy in a relationship of her own though both parties weren’t that particularly satisfied or happy with their respective commitments. I guess that’s what happens when one had one too many what if questions going on his or her mind. As the song goes, “it’s sad to belong to someone else when the right one comes along.“
7 Responses to “Rainy Days and Sundays”
By 1minutefilmreview on Jun 22, 2008
Nice reviews. We’re Linklater fans too.
By istib on Jun 23, 2008
@1minutefilmreview >> yep! that’s good to know.
will drop a comment or two on your site/blog. saw great movies I think I’ll be interested in. ;p
By Riz on Jun 24, 2008
ANG SENTI NAMAN ANU BA.
SERYOSO, BUONG ARAW KANG MARATHON? EMOOOOO
By istib on Jun 25, 2008
@riz LOL. Am I the one who’s senti now? Aw come on. A dude can’t find comfort in great movies? Where’s the love? TRANSLATES into NO. I was working at home. LOL.
By Susan from UK web developers on Jun 28, 2008
Here just today ended few days marathon of storms and raining. I like rain… especially after a long period of hot and dry weather. It is so refreshing. It is completely different from the rain when it is the beginning of the spring, or during fall…
I have to admit: I do not have the mood for romantic movies often, but I saw the Lake house, which you mentioned, because I like Keanu Reeves (of course only as an actor, I’m not the kind of person who falls in love with somebody only because he is in the TV and looks great :-)), and I liked it and I saw the City of Angels in the TV - at the end I have cried like a baby… I hate when somebody looses a beloved person…
By istib on Jun 29, 2008
Yep. Mr. Reeves is simply dreamy though I’ve come to admire him as an actor in movies like Speed, Devil’s Advocate, Constantine, and Matrix.
Well, I’m not much of a rain person because it makes me unproductive since you’ll just catch me laying at the sack as in all day.
I just want that weather wherein it’s sunny but the wind’s breeze is cold. It’s very rare but I sometimes get lucky and experience it. 
By Susan on Jul 9, 2008
I love him in the movie Something’s Gotta Give
In that movie he smiles a lot 
I saw him in those movies, you mentioned, and he mostly was unhappy there.
But it is maybe only because the make-up. There is something special about him… Maybe it is because of the sadness in his eyes… I would not be surprised if it was because of his past… He had gone trough very difficult times…
I cant believe that he is so old… almost like my parents, but he looks as good as he were in my age