TOP MOVIES TO WATCH ON VALENTINE'S DAY

The best kind of love stories, my personal belief, is the one that contains a good amount of angst and my selection below contains just that. Check them out!




SABRINA (1954)


 My favorite movie of all time and cannot stop re-watching; about a love triangle between two wealthy brothers and Sabrina, the beautiful and very sweet daughter of their chauffeur. There's a 1995 remake and that's one worth watching too. (Humphrey Bogart & Audrey Hepburn) (1995: Harrison Ford & Julia Ormond)

Memorable line:
Sabrina: It's so strange to think of you being touched by a woman. I always thought you walked alone.
Linus: No man walks alone by choice.

(remake)
Linus to Sabrina: I think you know I love you




AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER(1957)


   



 I first heard of this film while watching Sleepless in Seattle and after seeing it on TCM, I understood why! Two people meet and fall in love on a cruise, promising to meet each other on top of the Empire State building in 6 months but alas... only one of them made it to the rendevous... (Cary Grant & Deborah Kerr)


Memorable line:

Nicky to Terry: There must be something between us; even  if it's only an ocean



JANE EYRE (1983) 



Charlotte Bronte's story about a governess who falls in love with her employer and vice versa is a popular watch and read on Val's day. It has many adaptations but I recommend the 1983 version starring Timothy Dalton & Zelah Clarke

Memorable line:
Edward to Jane: Jane, you strange, almost unearthly thing... I love you!



THE NOTEBOOK (2004) 



The very moving story of two people of different classes who fall in love in the 1940's is definitely a must watch! (Ryan Gosling & Rachel McAdams) 

Memorable Line: 

Allie: Do you think our love can take us away together? 

Duke/Noah: I think our love can do anything we want it to do.




THE PROMISE(1979)
Another story about a couple of different classes; the main antagonist being a snobbish and evil mother who succeeds in separating the couple after a car accident that ruins the heroine's face. I'm not talking about the Bollywood remake Yeh Vaada Raha starring Rishi Kappor & Poonam Dhillon but the original starring Stephen Collins & Kathleen Quilan and later novelized by Danielle Steel.

Memorable line: 

Michael: How can I believe such a thing as beauty could die?

Nancy/Marie: Michael... (they kiss)



HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK(2001)




A business woman in her 40s meets a 20 something young man while on holiday. A fling or is he the one??? (Angela Bassett & Taye Diggs) 

Memorable line: 

Stella to Winston, in reply to his earlier marriage proposal: Yes... Yes!
(They hug and kiss)



GHOST(1990)





                 

Keep the tissues handy for this moving story. A man is murdered during a robbery but his ghost keeps watch over his beloved girlfriend as the man responsible for his death is still very much around.
 (Patrick Swayze & Demi Moore)

Memorable line:
 Sam to Molly (as he's about to go to heaven): It's amazing Molly... the love inside, you take it with you. 


SOMETHING NEW(2006)





An interracial couple meet on a blind date and fall in love afterwards but the heroine has to  listen to her heart and decide what she really wants; not listen to the opinions of her friends and society. (Saan Lathan & Simon Baker)

Memorable Line:
Kenya: You're the one I want Brian, I love you.

Brian: I love you too Kenya, I never stopped loving you. (kisses her)





TIM (1979) 





Starring Mel Gibson in one of his earliest roles and Piper Laurie, it's the story about a 20 something rather mentally challenged young man who falls in love with his employer/mother figure; a businesswoman in her 40s; much to the dismay of his older sister.

Memorable moment: Tim and Mary walking along the beach after affirming their love.



PRIDE & PREJUDICE

Jane's Austen's tale of a spirited young woman who falls for a rich snob after an initial dislike for him is always a must watch for Val's day. I recommend the 1995 version starring Colin Firth & Jennifer Ehle.

Memorable Line:
Liz: Perhaps I didn't always love him as well as I do now but in such cases as these a good memory is unpardonable.


MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE(1999)




A columnist finds a message in a bottle and tracks down the writer, a widower. They fall in love but he still has trouble letting go of the memory of his late wife. (Kevin Costner & Robin Wright Penn). Adapted from the best selling novel of the same name, written by Nicholas Sparks

Memorable Line:
Garret: Teresa, I don't want to lose you.

Teresa: Then don't.



YOU'VE GOT MAIL(1998)




Two business rivals reluctantly and gradually fall in love with each other, at the same time unaware they are each other's online penpal. (Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan)

Memorable Line:

Joe: Don't cry ShopGirl, Don't cry...

Kathleen: I wanted it to be you, I wanted it to be you so badly! (They kiss)




NOTTING HILL(1999)



A simple, unassuming travel bookstore owner falls in love with a movie actress. Will their love overcome the obstacles between them? (Hugh Grant & Julia Roberts)

Memorable Line:
Anna to William: I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy... asking him to love her.



THE THORN BIRDS(1983)








A forbidden  but long lasting love between the only daughter of a sheep station manager and the parish priest who later became a cardinal. (Richard Chamberlain & Rachel Ward)


Memorable Line:

Meggie: Do you know how terrifying it is, that power you have over me?
Ralph: How could I fail to know? (kisses her)



50 FIRST DATES(2004)



An aquarium vet falls for a lovely girl who has short term memory so he goes out of his way to make her fall in love with him and remind her of their past encounters... every day. (Adam Sandler & Drew Barrymore)

Memorable Line:

Henry to Lucy: You're the girl of my dreams and apparently, I'm the man of yours.



SWAN PRINCESS(1994)



A prince goes in search of his fiancee- believed dead- not knowing she is under a spell.

Memorable Line:

Odette: Will you love me Derek, till the day I die?
Derek: No, much longer than that Odette, much longer. (they kiss)



PRETTY WOMAN(1990)




A hooker and a cynical business man unexpectedly find love with each other (Richard Gere & Julia Roberts)

Memorable Line:
Edward: So what happens after he climbs up and rescues her?
Vivian: She rescues him right back (They kiss)

BEST T.V COUPLES OF ALL TIME II



This is my first blog post of 2014 and I bid my kind visitors a belated happy New Year and my profound apologies. I DO try to update this blog as much as possible but the current power problem in the country and lack of enough funds for my Internet subscription are the main obstacles to my task. But I'm praying that this year will be my year of triumph by God's grace and I promise to do better. To my visitors who have been leaving comments; thank you so much for the encouragement. Also, it's NOT definite yet but I hope to post recaps of a very popular telenovela soon, so please stay tuned.

Last year I posted pics of my favorite T.V Couples: BEST T.V COUPLES OF ALL TIME. Now that particular post wasn't easy because I really had to narrow the choices down; I'm T.V/Movie buff so I like a LOT of couples. After posting it, I saw that there were several I missed out so here's the next "batch"!


Sydney Bristow & Michael Vaughn  Alias

   



                                                    
Gary & Valene Ewing Knots Landing/Dallas


                                         




                                                 
Alex & Maria Jose Lombardo  Sortilegio Amor




                            
                                     
                                   
                                        
Dwayne Wayne & Whitley Gilbert A Different World
                                 
                                 


                                      
                                        
Paul Williams & Christine Blair The Young & The Restless

                               


                            
                                
Tom Cudahy & Livia Frye Cudahy All My Children




                             
Snow White & Prince Charming Once Upon A Time 




Shane & Kimberly Donovan  Days of Our Lives 

                                           
                                       

Farewell To A Great Man: NELSON MANDELA





I wasn’t born when Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964. I got to know a lot about this great man via news reports, photographs of him in the newspapers, songs demanding for his release, documentaries and Social Studies classes at school. It was Dad who answered my earlier questions: “Who is Mandela?” “Why is he in prison?” “What is the meaning of apartheid?”
 I clearly remember that night in February 11, 1990;  when my father excitedly calling Mum from the kitchen and we all saw him on T.V, a suited grey-haired gentleman triumphantly holding his fist in the air as he finally walked out to freedom after 27 years in prison. The whole world not only celebrated his long awaited release but the end of the immoral regime of apartheid; where black South Africans were treated as third class citizens in their own country. A documentary followed by the musical SARAFINA! told me a lot of things about that terrible time (including the massacre of protesting workers and students); years later I learnt even more after reading Alan Paton’s CRY; THE BELOVED COUNTRY and Athol Fugard’s SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD. The latter in particular made me cringe; black Africans having to carry identity books and work-seekers’ permits, the racial inequality and other things they had to put up with at the time e.g. “Whites Only” signs really sickened me, that and the fact that apartheid in South Africa was actually legal.
This is what Nelson “Madiba” Mandela fought against and in the end, his (and his supporters in South Africa and other countries) paid off big time; independence, end of apartheid, freedom and in 1994, he became the first democratically elected black president of South Africa. What I liked best about him was his efforts in bringing about racial reconciliation in South Africa after that; wanting both the blacks and Afrikaans to get along from then on and let go of the past- not an easy thing of course, especially if one looks at how long apartheid reigned in that country; from 1948 to 1990. His commitment to World Peace and willingness to forgive the people who had put him in prison in the first place really moved me. He said, “As I walked out the door toward the gate of freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.
When he was sentenced, Mandela was 45; when he was released, he was 72,  over two decades in incarceration. Yet, his defiant spirit remained unbroken all those long years and he was a symbol of hope to those who abhorred racism and apartheid and motivated them to continue fighting. While in prison, he recited William Ernest Henley’s poem- INVICTUS ("Unconquered" in Latin) - to other prisoners, influenced by the poem’s message: 

  INVICTUS


“Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquered soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scrolls,
Iam the master of my fate:
Iam the captain of my soul.”

The world is now in mourning of a great man but we must not be sad, even though naturally we all are right now. Like Gandhi before him, Madiba cared about his people and fought for the end of tyranny and inequality. He did and achieved a lot of things; including influencing thousands. Now he has gone to rest. As we say goodbye to Nelson Mandela; we pray to Almighty God to grant his soul eternal rest, to give his family and South Africa the fortitude to bear this loss. And the rest of the world, particularly world leaders to remember what Madiba fought and stood for and do their best to emulate him. REST IN PEACE MADIBA. 

"I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying"- Nelson Mandela








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