Anecdotes …keeping that dreams alive

Photo by Myke Simon on Unsplash

Hey there…. I hope today will be a breezy day for you too..Life on a slow motion reel for me too. Today’s musings were brought to me via one of the latest episodes of Adriana Trigiani’ podcast :”You are what you read”. This is an episode capturing some of the anticipation around the Oscars and Adriana talks with two film historians .

You can find the episode here or on any platform you listen to your favourite podcasts. I love Adriana’s vitality and great insights, fascinating movie-like books, her laughter, sharp wit and deep compassion, also her must have red lipstick and overall it just makes a better week for me. Mostly listening to her on the boat back home in the evening and sometimes climbing up my hill. I laughed out loud few times on the hill….climb climb, one more set of stairs, stop for a little belly laugh!

Adriana Trigiani- You are what you read

This is what she says in the introduction of the episode :

“There are certain weeks of the year when there is just a little more stardust in the air,and that is certainly true of the Oscar week. We are joined by film historians and bestselling authors ,Jeaning Basinger and Sam Wasson for a conversation through Hollywood history( which is chronicled in Jeanine and Sam’s exceptional biography,Hollywood: The Oral History). We are what we read and also what we watch.[…] A vibrant episode about the movies that built our souls.”

I also loved the fact that they did not have to agree on everything with each other and yet it was lovely how supportive and respectful they were for each other’s opinions and firmly punctuating the episode with “I agree!” …..A very very nice brief talk with so much to take away and stirred up my curiosity again to anything cinema, movies, and at the end Hollywood related. As I admit I have a deep connection with that world and we will get to those anecdotes soon.

The episode talked quite a bit on how the stars were in the older days, how they were dressing, how devoted they were to the craft, but also to inspire through their posture and the way they were holding up through life. A golden era of a different nature. And to me personally it just brought back a memory so clear on how much I would attach myself growing up to the cinema world. I think we listened already to so many stories of artists starting their creative path by sneaking in cinemas from early years, or having the weekly cinema show as their only escapism.

No- that was not me. My escapism was always somehow through the written words.

And I would tell you why perhaps it was meant for me to start this way….

After the first anecdote:

Many many years, generations, ages ago when I was just a kid and my brother was in highschool I guess… one of the babysitting ways ( of no other choice I mean and I am sure he was not having as much fun as I had!), my brother took me to watch a movie with a group of his friends, colleagues and some of our neighbours .We went to our local cinema. Small town, small community. I cannot remember if that was first time in the cinema- no idea really.I do remember the impact was huge and multiple fold too.

We were watching a movie with Julio Iglesias- I just researched it and is called “ La vida sigue igual”- it says” A promising soccer player is forced to renounce his career after a car crash.Sick of his misfortune he moves to a seaside hotel where destiny brings him onto a stage”. I will leave you with it.

I remember even today the fascination with the screen. I do not remember if I was in school or I knew how to read subtitles. But I felt that movie and Julio’s pain! So, all wrapped up in my feelings I found myself standing up from my cinema seat and screaming my lungs out with passion and indignation to the beautiful actress in the movie who was really upsetting me and of course among all the small town audience” Do not take his walking crutches! He will fall again! “ .

I think the end of the movie was positive and all went well.Julio was jus fine and really happy to see him later thriving in his career!

I was so upset and revolted though .I can relive the entire moment over and over again.

And sure, not hard to guess, my brother never engaged in this baby sitting method again.

Sure, I would have more and more memories of going to our local cinema except the fact that the period I was growing up into was a-bit gloomier by the day, the cinema itself was not very nicely kept, a bit old and decrepit, and sometimes there would be some disturbed people too, making fun of girls, whistling and picking on us, using some bad words…. Normal kind of things unfortunately except that if you were just walking downtown you could change the sidewalk at least while in the cinema you pretty much had to give up the movie! And the escapism for me was really mostly a group, a community escapism -we had to be more of us and always better to be a mix group with different ages too. Kind of. Later or we just gave up going to the local cinema altogether. Was not pleasant anymore really.

Time for the second anecdote.

Moved to a foreign country and I have been dating this guy. Big love for cinema ingrained in their culture, they had a tradition to going to midnight matinees ( quite hard for me to stay awake that late but loved the vibe and the group and all!).

Two funny things come to mind right now really. Some of his friends were into the movie production industry and all so there was always talk and sharing about movies, back stories and stuff. I was somehow bringing up a lot of knowledge to the table that even surprised myself and was always talking with much confidence ( more of a fool’s confidence as we say it! ). I knew movie names, actors, awards, couples, love stories, this and that plenty of stuff. So, sometimes when we were talking they were suddenly stopping and asking me” Wait, when did you watch this movie? “ , “Did you watch this on the big screen? “ “Were you allowed to see that movie in your country? “ or sometimes, some of them being very technical they would talk about some scenes or how that was filmed etc. It was trully fascinating.

Except my answer to their questions. Because my answer was “Oh, sorry to say,I have NOT watched the movie. I did read about the movie. A lot”. So, I knew all the theory really.

Here is why. Maybe our cinema was not super inspiring. But we had something else that just mesmerised me. The weekly “Cinema magazine” and the annual “Almanah Cinema” .I was getting all of them as much as I could. I would read anything cinema related when I was visiting my friends as they had the same passion. And it was my thing and I loved it. Just feeding up all that imagination. I was trying to find better images of some covers and that was not a very easy task. Luckily I can see that there are many vintage booksellers selling some of those now and might go back and check some of those.

By the looks of it, I was still the reader first, yours trully. And of course, it there was a literary adaption, I felt even better in my skin. Pun intended on the podcast again as there is quite a charming debate about this too. What could be first? What would be best first? The book? The movie. And - wonderfully enough, there is never one only answer…. It depends on so much. The period, the access we had and perhaps so much more. Such individual memories to most of us.

Good news the passion for books and movies is pretty much alive! And we all like very different genres and we could also change a lot.

I had quite a big attraction to “dark reality,bleak reality” originally… like very eager to learn life much quicker than needed. Well, not anymore….!

Few more anecdotes on how deeply I am connected to yes, the very Hollywood.

So few years back, one evening I get to meet George Clooney. He was very kind, beautiful smile, all kind ears and nice chat. Just a perfect dream of an encounter. Our chat was really natural, until he picked up some courage and he has asked me to marry him. I blushed, my face took upon all colours, I lost my words. Really shocked I could only utter - “What are you saying? This is not possible. This cannot happen. “ Yet, he was still saying this is what he wants to do, and he thought all well and there is no doubt. I had really a hard time to convince him otherwise and I resorted only one final argument” but you are the George Clooney. You cannot possibly marry me.There must be a mistake. I am you know, Maggie (“on the block” so to say.). He held my cheeks gently, look into my eyes and he said “This is really what I want”. So much gentleness and kindness- I can tell you this is all I could see.

I woke up really baffled. I woke up. Oh, sure. I was right, it has been a dream. Sweet and dreamy. Thanks Mr.Clooney.

One thing I might add though- he did marry for real that year and he seems to have known what he really wants. Big smile.

I do have some similar once where main Hollywood actors take center stage in my dreams and one predominant thread would be that I would work very hard on the production sets. On making movies with them. And I would have this established mental “roster” in my head where for example if I was getting a job with a very famous actress I knew that I would work super hard, there will be plenty of things and details I had to follow and would be literally exhausted. And I would also wake up exhausted. From hard work, in Hollywood, for A. On the other hand, other actors would be quite chill and have quite an equal sort of approach to work. That would be my job, and that would be theirs and it would be a great chill collaboration for the sake of the project. Thanks B! High five.See you on the next set.

Funny enough, I tend to have some different lives in my dreams and I face them with eternal curiosity . I also tend to be much more realistic and asking a lot of explanatory questions in my dreams. There should be some Jungian interpretation to all of it. I chose to embrace all these lives with professionalism at the end. If we work on the movie set or not, just be your best and more!

I wanted to leave you to reconnect with your magic cinematic moments and while doing that I would be also getting curios and ask “Who was your biggest crush among the movie stars when you were growing up? “

This was taken on the Hong Kong promenade few years back…. I guess the first TV we had at home was quite alike….for some of us for sure.

Thank you and see you on next set :).