Spring Things

It's a little late in the season, true, but better la— oh, you know.

 

Spring read:  The Ear of the Heart: An Actress' Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows. This is the life story of Mother Dolores Hart, Prioress of the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut, who cut short a successful career in film to enter cloistered religious life. I think it's very appropriate for spring, as it is all about dying to an old life and beginning a new and better one. I've only just started it, but I can say that so far it is engrossing, moving, entertaining, funny, surprising, and well written. Co-authored with her long-time friend, Richard DeNeut, with plenty of photographs.

 

Spring watch:  I Capture the Castle (2003), starring Romola Garai, is a charming and fairly faithful adaptation of Dodie Smith's much-beloved novel of the same name, and the story—coming of age, first love—is very spring-appropriate, despite the decaying castle and the blocked writer/father (brilliantly played by Bill Nighy). Return to Me (2000), with Minnie Driver and David Duchovny, is a romantic comedy with a unique premise: Minnie plays a heart transplant recipient whose new heart was acquired from David Duchovny's character's dead wife (got that?). Carroll O'Conner (of All in the Family  fame) is wonderful as Minnie's grandfather, and his poker-playing/bowling cronies are so endearingly quirky. This is one of my favorite go-to films if I'm in the mood for something really sweet, PG, and tear-jerking. And, since spring is the season when God's creatures look for mates, Emma, Jane Austen's irrepressible matchmaker, is a must. For me, the only filmed version worth watching is ITV's 1996 version with Kate Beckinsale. I saw Gwenyth Paltrow's a few times, and the most recent BBC one with Romola Garai once, and that was quite enough  for me. Blech. (If you want a more detailed account than "blech," you can read my Amazon review for the BBC version here, on my reviews page—scroll down a bit—where you can also find my positive review of the ITV version.)

 

Spring listen: I was a pianist, after all, so naturally I'd turn to piano repertoire; namely, Mozart's early piano sonatas and concertos. Specifically, his Concerto in E-flat, No. 9 ("Jeunehomme"—literally, "young man"). Here is the first movement in an incandescent performance by that exquisite Mozartean, Mitsuko Uchida, with Jeffrey Tate conducting the Mozarteum Orchestra.