Saw this on a friend’s Twitter feed. Too funny to not share. Made my day! I later found out it’s by Dave Coverly @speedbumpcartoon.
Words are not needed here; it says it all, but I couldn’t resist. Welcome back to the school of life. Seem familiar? Did we learn our lessons well? No? Having to repeat a class? Time for a fresher course, and then some! Maybe we’ll get it right this time around. You think? If not, there’s always the next class, the next life, with more lessons to be learned. 🙂
COMING BACK FOR LOVE IN FIVE ROMANTIC FILMS
When it comes to getting it right for love, I recommend my all-time favorite romantic movie: Made in Heaven (1987), about two souls, played by Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis, who meet and fall in love in Heaven. Annie (McGillis) is sent to Earth and Mike (Hutton) makes a deal to be reborn (Elmo) to find her (Ally). But he’s given a time-frame of 30 years in which to do it, otherwise he’ll lose her forever. It’s a magical movie filled with surprises. Read more about it on Wikipedia. You can rent or buy it on Prime Video.
That year, Wim Wenders came out with his amazing film, Wings of Desire, about an angel who tires of overseeing human beings and wishes to become one himself when he falls in love with a mortal.
Ten years later it was adapted for English audiences as City of Angels (1998). Wenders co-wrote the screenplay. Nicholas Cage plays the angel who falls in love with a doctor, Meg Ryan, because of her beauty and concern for her patients. She doesn’t believe in angels, but when he reveals himself to her she falls in love with him, and has to decide between him or her fiance. One patient, a former angel, tells him how he became human for a woman. He does the same and experiences the joys and sorrows of love and loss.
Another great movie is Somewhere in Time (1980) adapted from the 1975 novel Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson who also wrote the screenplay. On a getaway to Mackinac Island, Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve), a playwright, falls in love with a picture of Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour), an actress who had performed there a long time ago at the Grand Hotel where he is staying. He discovers he was also there then and finds a way to travel back in time to win her heart. It works, but something unexpected happens that changes everything.
The SAG strike and lack of funds prevented the film from being effectively launched that year. When it was finally shown in New York, critics panned it, squashing plans for a national release. But, with the advent of cable television and late night movies, it soon became a cult classic and went on to win numerous awards.
John Barry composed the beautiful soundtrack including the haunting 18th variation of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Barry had been mourning the death of his parents and was not making himself available for work, but Seymour, a close friend, and the script, persuaded him to get involved. He channeled his emotions into the music, which contributed to the film’s success.
Enjoy this 16-minute synoptic video of key scenes from the film. You can also explore this official fan website to find out more: http://www.somewhereintime.tv.
Another beautiful time-travel love story is The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan, a 1979 made-for-television movie based on the much-loved classic novel Second Sight by David Williams.
After trying on a dress found in the attic of an old Victorian house her husband purchased to try to save their marriage, Jennie Logan accidentally travels into the past. After several visits there she discovers true love. Returning to the present she investigates who he was and how he may have been killed. She travels between both worlds in an attempt to save her lover’s life and alter history. Find out more at IMDb and the Amazon book description and comments. Watch it on YouTube, if it’s still there. Also found a slightly shorter video of it. The picture quality is better.
Portrait of Jennie (1948) is also a magical little film worth watching. A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist. Eben Adams is a talented but struggling artist in Depression era New York who has never been able to find inspiration for a painting. One day, after he finally finds someone to buy a painting from him, a pretty but odd young girl named Jennie Appleton appears and strikes up an unusual friendship with Eben. See it on YouTube.
For All Time (2000) is another recommended time travel film. A man facing middle-age and a failing marriage finds a time slip that can take him back to the end of the 18th Century. The film was based on The Twilight Zone episode, “A Stop at Willoughby” written by Rod Serling. It’s also available on YouTube.
On a lighter note, Albert Brooks wrote, directed and starred, with Meryl Streep, in Defending Your Life (1991), “the first true story of what happens after you die.” The dead are sent to Judgement City, a vacation-style place for the afterlife where representatives using large amounts of their brain potential help you defend your life in front of a court. The opposition also reviews aspects of your life where you showed fear instead of courage, the intent being to learn from past experiences.
Shirley MacLaine has a cameo role inviting people to the Pavilion of Past Lives, which is quite funny. There is also a love interest between the main characters who meet while their lives are undergoing review before they will be sent onto their different destinations. The question is, will he overcome his fears and sacrifice everything to be with this wonderful woman? You’ll have to see the movie to find out. 🙂
Blending heaven and earth, the divine and the mortal, the idyllic past with the unfulfilled present, or unresolved issues exposed in the afterlife, each film provides a different perspective on the sacrifice the main character makes for love, giving up one to gain the other. The ways of karma are unfathomable, but true love is eternal, and transformational!
LEAVING ROMANCE BEHIND TO FIND ONESELF
There was one movie that made a big impression on me when I saw it on television as a teenager. It’s about love, but more the story of one man’s quest for self-realization in a confused and materialistic world.
The Razor’s Edge tells Larry Darrell’s story and his search for meaning after a comrade dies saving his life on the last day of World War One. Larry leaves love behind to find himself. He rejects the conventional life in search of a more transcendent experience, which takes him to India where he meets a guru. His search for enlightenment fulfilled, he may not have to reincarnate if he can walk the razor’s edge, live in the world and not be overtaken by it, anchored to his Self.
Larry returns to find his friends who are suffering due to a reversal of fortune brought about by the Great Depression. He shares what he’s learned to help them. Read more of the story on Wikipedia. I saw the original 1946 version starring Tyrone Power, based on the book by W. Somerset Maugham, which I later read. I found an audio version of the book (BBC Saturday Night Theatre), and the film on YouTube.
It was remade in 1984 with Bill Murray in his first dramatic role. Murray also co-wrote the screenplay with director John Byrum. Visit Wikipedia for a full summary. Byrum couldn’t find a studio to finance it. Dan Aykroyd suggested Murray could appear in Ghostbusters for Columbia Pictures in exchange for the studio funding The Razor’s Edge. Murray agreed and a deal was made. Though the film lost money, Ghostbusters went on to make millions.
Both versions of The Razor’s Edge are worth watching for their own values, but I prefer the earlier one. You can see the essence of the original film in Darrell’s search and achievement of his peak experience high in the Himalayas.
This poem by William Stafford—The Way It Is—perfectly describes the kind of perspective Larry Darrell developed and how he lived his life.
I was asked to read and write a review for this book: Alan J. Steinberg’s debut novel reminds me of the age-old quest ‘To Be Enlightened’ I first read about in Somerset Maugham’s ‘The Razor’s Edge’.
PERSONAL NOTE
Larry Darrell’s quest spoke to me as a young person and unknowingly foreshadowed the direction my life would take during my college years and beyond when I would discover Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his Transcendental Meditation technique. Our generation was so fortunate to have received the many gifts Maharishi brought out from the Himalayas. He inspired us to develop our full potential as human beings with TM and its advanced techniques, and to work with him to help make this world a better place to live in by applying his life-transforming Vedic knowledge and technologies in health, education, rehabilitation, virtually all areas of life. We are forever grateful. JGD
To find out more about Maharishi, see this HuffPost article by Philip Goldberg on Maharishi. Also watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise and the 2007 A&E biopic on the International History Channel.
UPDATE
I just discovered The Love Letter (1998), a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, starring Campbell Scott and Jennifer Jason Leigh. It’s based on a short story of the same name by Jack Finney that was first published in “The Saturday Evening Post” on August 1, 1959 and reprinted in the same magazine on January/February 1988. James S. Henerson wrote the made-for-TV screenplay and produced it.
This love story touches two lives that live a century apart. A letter from the past will change their future forever as these souls cross lifetimes for love! Scott, a 20th century computer games designer, exchanges love letters with Elizabeth Whitcomb, a 19th century poet, through an antique desk that can make letters travel through time. We witness parallel lives interact as they fall deeply in love with each other, weaving past, present, and future in a moving, magical way.
There are differences between the movie and the short story. For one thing, Elizabeth Whitcomb’s poetry, somewhat important in the movie, is entirely absent in the short story. It adds so much more to the film. You could read more about it on Wikipedia, but first watch this excellent made-for-television movie (1:39) on YouTube.
Interestingly, Ms. Whitcomb also lives in a town called Willoughby, the same name for Rod Sterling’s Twilight Zone story, which became the basis for the film, For All Time, mentioned above.
Inspired by a question, I saw the film again and transcribed the beautiful poem voiced over by Elizabeth Whitcomb towards the end of the film and posted it in a comment below. It succinctly sums up the essence of the film in 8 short lines.
Of course, when it comes to love being tested by time, The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009) is one worth watching. Rachel McAdams stars as the wife, whose husband keeps disappearing on her at different stages of her life. About Time (2013), is another film about time travel, and how a father teaches his son, who has the same ability, how to improve situations with time travel when he messes up trying to win the heart of a pretty woman, also played by Rachel McAdams. She also stars in The Vow (2012), as a woman who wakes up after a car accident with severe memory loss and forgets that she’s married to her husband. He has to work hard to woo and marry her all over again.
It reminds me of the 1993 blockbuster Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray. Here’s a sort of related cartoon in The New Yorker by Roz Chast.
When it comes to a war between words and pictures here’s a poem in a movie inviting you to be who you are.
Newer Updates
‘How Long Will I Love You’ sung by Ellie Goulding highlights 4 Romantic Comedies by Richard Curtis, which includes About Time, starring Rachel McAdams.
Speaking of time travel, romance, and Rachel McAdams, she starred in the 2009 film, The Time Traveler’s Wife, directed by Robert Schwentke, where a Chicago librarian has a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel, creating complications in his marriage.
The Time Traveler’s Wife was made into a 6-part HBO series in 2022, based on the 2003 novel by Audrey Niffenegger, and starred Rose Leslie as Clare. Developed and written by Steven Moffat, the TV series was cancelled after one season.
Writing, literature, life and love intersect in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
Sage advice from William Shakespeare in the film “All Is True” on how to become a truthful writer.
The Uncarved Blog 