OK y’all as promised…….will the real Vanity Fair please stand up?

Loooooooong before Vanity Fair the magazine, there was Vanity Fair the book. This literary adventure was written in the 19th century (1847 – 48 to be exact) by William Makepeace Thackeray. He was a contemporary of Charles Dickens (who wrote such classics like The Adventures of Oliver Twist, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, (we loved the Gwyneth Paltrow, Ethan Hawke version by the way!),  A Christmas Carol, etc…). In 2004, Thackeray’s masterpiece was adapted for the silver screen starring the ever captivating Reese Witherspoon as the plucky heroine Becky Sharp. (Filmed while Reese was pregnant, but you’d never guess because the director was so creative.)

Now, Becky Sharp was very unhappy about her station in life to say the least. Never one to leave her fate and fortune in the avaricious hands of others, she determined to climb to the top of the social echelon. She is a truly audacious woman, yet charming for a rogue, and she desires nothing more than to prove that she is just as good as the duchess next door. Though Becky is a fictitious character, she is most memorable and truly extraordinary. In fact, Vanity Fair is one of my favorite movies. It juxtaposes the adages anything is possible and be careful what you wish for and all’s well that ends well. As a woman in the Victorian age of strict class and tight circles, she proves that one can be more than what society deems you should be. As a woman with no title, family alliances or money, she was faced with many, many obstacles and disadvantages, but our Becky took all this in her stride. (Might I add that despite her father being an artist, this prestige was unfortunately cancelled out due to the fact that her mother had been a singer, which was tantamount to saying she was a woman of questionable morals, if you know what I mean.) Through Becky Sharp’s ambitious eyes we can catch a glimpse of English elitism. We can also revel in Miss Sharp’s ruthless desire to hike to the highest rung of the social ladder by almost whatever means possible. This movie is definitely a fun filled romp and I highly recommend you watch it. It is filled with roguish high jinks and spunky, daring maneuvers, yet sweet and still possessed of a certain innocence and charm, and even grace. There are moral pitfalls around almost every corner and keen explorations into the complexity of human relationships. It left me feeling happy and thinking that it is indeed funny how life works sometimes and who and what we end up with when all is said and done. Sometimes because of the choices we make, sometimes because of fate, and sometimes because of luck.

~P.S.~ I wonder what Mr. Thackeray would have thought of this movie? I’m pretty sure he’d be pleased.

So, you have to be dead not to have heard by now the craze that Rob Pattinson has caused as Edward Cullen in the monster hit Twilight. In fact, because of this movie, he has been catapulted into stellar stardom almost instantaneously. Rolling Stone has dubbed him the hottest actor of 2008! Go figure. Even Rob himself is baffled by his sudden effect on women, declaring one minute he couldn’t get a date, now girls are clamoring over him. LOL. Let me tell you, I have stood in line at bookstores accidentally eavesdropping on teenage girls gushing and nearly swooning over this movie!!! It is quite hilarious and painful to admit however, that I, too, have joined the plethora of gaa gaa girls and am a willing acolyte of the Twilight Saga. But I digress. You see, I have been waiting a looong time for a vampire like Edward. Edward Cullen fulfilled all my wishes for the depth of feeling and anguished yearning I ever wanted from Lestat but was never given. If truth be told, I have been waiting a long time for the blatant honesty of Bella Swan, too. She embodied all the earnest awkwardness and angst ridden devotion of being a teenager. Their casting as the lead characters was a stroke of pure creative and instinctual genius. There was an electric chemistry between these two actors. There was a deep ebbing of passion coursing through this movie, yet Pattinson and Stewart were able to retain the pureness and innocence of first love, of true love. My thoughts on Twilight? Beautiful. The film style was up close and personal; it is a character story mostly and the camera feels like you’re actually in the room. It almost felt like spying at times. Forgive the special effects and the $37 million dollar budget. It’s a story about love. Deep, abiding, and eternal. A love worth waiting for. Twilight has loud whispers and strong undercurrents of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It also has deeper, slightly theological nuances and pulse. Eve does fall for temptation, but it is Adam who offers her the forbidden fruit, and desire is the serpent in the garden of the undead. In a surreal twist of fate, Bella Swan is tempted by everything that Edward Cullen is. She is tempted by the very curse that makes him immortal. And she is irrevocably tempted, beguiled, enthralled by the knowledge that she is unfathomably and seductively different from him; human. Edward Cullen is tormented by her mortality, and inexplicably drawn to the one person who could make him want to be human again. How can he stay away from her when she is his life? How can he be near her when his very nature is to lust for her blood?

~P.S.~ If you haven’t seen the movie yet, go see it! You will love it! Folks at Hollywood.com say, “The most epic romance since Titanic.” Justified!