I go to the movies a lot. Probably a hell of a lot more than the average punter. In fact my ultimate indulgence is going to the movies alone, preferably to a Palace Cinema with one of those huge (you know those “feature pour”) glasses of wine in hand.
This obsession began when I was an hormonal young teen, desperate to leave my hometown and overly… dramatic. My little city, Christchurch, had a beautiful art house cinema centred in the middle of town. To curb my moods my Mum would take me to the movies now and then, and this experience opened my eyes to the world of European and Old Hollywood film - all whilst allowing me to bond with my mother away from our house, which was always chaotic with siblings, school work and pets.
I was so captivated by the foreign places I was exposed to during these cinema sessions. They felt so much further away, so much more authentic, so much more aspirational, than what I could access via mainstream media. This obsession with worlds beyond ultimately ended up with me becoming an exchange student for my final year of high school, studying art in Sicily for a year. I know, I’m terribly lucky. And of course it was half wasted on me as a lot of the time I spent in Sicily was focused on pursuing Italian boys and smoking as many cigarettes, and as much weed, as possible.
However that experience cracked open my kiwi facade, and brought out my old soul - my true, authentic self. Living in Sicily made me who I am more than any other experience I've had to date. My appreciation for the past began to blossom each day that I was there, with it’s poetic ruins as my backdrop.
I felt even more at home once I escaped the clutches of my initial host family (literally a washed up soap opera actress and her spoilt son) and ended up living with a second, loving Italian family, which was also run my a single-mum matriarch. With them I lived in a 19th century building that was decorated with old fashion frescos and tiled floors. It was here that I first lived in an apartment and in the inner city. It made me so besotted with the world above the ground floor that I’ve never not lived in an apartment since.
Haley Bennett in my dream apartment, playing Roxanne in Cyrano.
Last night I went to the movies. I coaxed my friend Vicki into being my date as I needed an escape from the midweek madness of writing my book and hunting for a new copywriting job.
We saw Cyrano, of which every moment was utterly captivating. Usually I can’t stand musicals, unless they’re totally raunchy à la Rocky Horror. However this film took my breath away. So romantic, so picturesque, so dramatic. The songs don’t make you cringe in the slightest, they just fit. And overall the film never misses a beat.
As it turns out this movie was filmed on location around the south eastern part of Sicily, which is precisely where I lived for my year as an exchange student. As I watched the film I immediately recognised the nooks of Noto, and the cookies and cream landscape of Mt Etna in winter. It made me long to go back there and to go back in time.
In the film the cast and crew all showcase their genius. It is a perfect storm of creativity. This movie is the old world captured by the mind of Joe Wright, any romantic chick-like-me’s favourite filmmaker. His fiancée, Haley Bennet, played Roxanne, the leading lady. I had seen her before here and there, and was really moved by her performance in Swallow, an indie psychological drama about a housewife who develops Pica disorder. Yet in this she dazzles. A star is born.
You know a movie is good when you can’t stop thinking about it long after you leave the cinema. It’s almost that same feeling after a first date, when you walk away enraptured in that other person and proceed to imagine a whole, perfect life together (or is that just me?). I love that feeling. And Cyrano has me thinking all about the 17th century and real romance.
This film is irresistible storytelling at its finest. And I’m going to go again on Monday. Come with me, why don’t you?
Image source: Pinterest.