My Top 20 Movies and The Clouds of Sils Maria

I was lucky to be invited to a movie premier the other day and trotted off in a bit of finery to see The Clouds of Sils Maria, a movie I hadn’t heard about.

Going to see movies which we may not have especially earmarked as must-see is good for us I reckon, and takes us out of our movie comfort zone. It gives us something to think about and talk about. Definitely a component of living the good life by way of keeping our minds active.

Not knowing what to expect, except what I’d gleaned from a two sentence write up in the ‘blurb’, I settled in with popcorn and some lollies, oh and I might have had a glass of wine too 😉

“A veteran actress (Juliette Binoche) comes face-to-face with an uncomfortable reflection of herself when she agrees to take part in a revival of the play that launched her career 20 years earlier.”

Righto. Let’s get stuck in then.

The movie stars Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart and the film’s set in a remote region in the Alps in Switzerland with beautiful backdrops which captured my attention right from the start (who has Switzerland on their bucket list? Below is a picture I took in Interlaken last year)

The movie was all about youth and aging and the way different generations perceive each other. It threw up lots of questions and irritations about how two generations of women can love each other deeply and yet be frustrated with each other, not get each other and be totally perplexed by each others behaviour.

Okay, I’m rambling. But if you have daughter’s you’ll get this. We don’t set out to be different, and we try to be both mother’s and friends, but once daughters are all grown up with their own lives and opinions there’s suddenly a distance between us which is not of our making at all.

The Clouds of Sils Maria was a commentary on inner reflection, a movie that seemed to me to have no real beginning or end. Perhaps it was a metaphor for the aging process? It delved into the female psyche for sure.

Edgy in places

To tell you the truth I didn’t understand what the movie was really getting at some of the time (Duh is me) and if you’ve seen the film, please add your thoughts in the comments below won’t you?

At heart it was an uncomfortable movie, edgy in places, sometimes confusing – for instance were the actors acting as if they were in a rehearsal for the play or was it real life they were acting out? I think we were left guessing about this, but I think there were parallels we were meant to draw on too.

It was great though to see Juliette Binoche in the buff in a river scene. Why? Not because I’m a perv or anything … but because it was comforting to see a real woman of my age with lumps and bumps and folds, quite confident to strip off for all the world to see without any photo-shopping or accent on good angles and not give a damn. Go Girl!

Anyway, if you’re up for a little philosophical musing about life, the universe and everything, then put your thinking cap on and off you go – it’s worth seeing, and I bet you might be popping into Flight Centre to book a trip to Switzerland on the way home too 😉

My Top 20 Movies

As I was writing this review, it made me think about some of the movies I’ve really loved over the years, and I thought probably my favourite movies would come to mind really quickly. They did – here’s the result of that little brainstorming session – do you agree? What movies would you add?

In no particular order …

1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
2. The Graduate
3. Out of Africa
4. Ghandi
5. Pretty Woman
6. Gone with the Wine (er Wind!)
7. Titanic
8. The Sound of Music
9. Les Miserables
10. E.T. The Extra Terestrial
11. Apocalypse Now
12. Saving Private Ryan
13. Dr Zhivago
14. Platoon
15. The Kings Speech
16. Wuthering Heights
17. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (click for review)
18. The Piano
19. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (actually the book was better)
20. Atonement

Over to you Lifestylers – what are your favourite movies?