Becoming Jane

Money or Love? Becoming Jane portrays this classic battle of humanity through an account of young Jane Austen’s relationship with Tom Lefroy. Being a girl without a prominent family or a great fortune, her only choice is to marry someone that possesses matters of “greater importance.” Unfortunately, having a talented mind was despised.

“If a woman happens to have a particular superiority, for example, a profound mind, it is best kept a profound secret. Humour is liked more, but wit? No. It is the most treacherous talent of them all.”

Especially for the young Austen, marrying rich is the only solution to resolve the family’s difficult financial situation.

“Affection is desirable. Money is absolutely indispensable!”

Yet the young lad stirred her heart. Tom Lefroy, how he had embodied the very essence of charm! Charming, witty, and handsome, what woman can remain untamed by such presence?! Love need not take eternity to develop; all it takes is a spark – in this case, an arrogant comment in regards to the four page speech performed by Austen to her sister Cassandra.

“A metropolitan mind may be less susceptible to extended juvenile self-regard.”

An insult, a quarrel, memorable start, isn’t it? Amongst grinding teeth, Austen and Lefroy had been acquainted.

Prior to Lefroy’s departure back to London after summer had ended, their love blossomed. In an era even the basic act of holding hands was only permitted in dancing, they kissed – timidly, but lovingly…

Jane Austen: [she has just kissed him] Did I do that well?
Tom Lefroy: Very. Very well.
Jane Austen: I wanted, just once, to do it well.

They belonged to each other, heart and soul…

She went with him to London to obtain the approval of Lefroy’s uncle. However, a letter that contained defamation from an old admirer of Austen destroyed it all. Lefroy’s uncle was furious at the account of Jane portrayed within the letter and disapproved of Jane in entirety. Lefroy, whom was completely dependent on his uncle, not established as a successful lawyer, and had more than enough siblings to take care of, he shivered at the thought of such financial burden. He had nothing to substantiate their love. Austen left London with a broken heart…

When they met once again, Austen was engaged to Mr. Wisley and Lefroy was engaged to a woman with great fortune. Yet after seeing the pain and the struggle Austen revealed, he sealed her frustration with a passionate kiss and proposed an elopement to Ireland.

“Jane, I have tried. I have tried and I cannot live this lie. Can you?”

She accepted the elopment proposal, which was extremely frowned upon during the 18th century. They knew they were risking everything…

While on the way, after she secretly read the letters Lefroy’s family wrote to him, reality shattered her to pieces… The allowances which Lefroy received from his uncle, he sent them back to his family and siblings in Ireland (I did some research, Lefroy had 11 siblings and he was the oldest!). Once branded with elopment, he would never be able to become a lawyer despite his brilliance and his uncle would completely cut off the financial support. It would have been impossible to make a living. How do you run away when you have such big family on your shoulders?! This time, Jane fully realized the severity of consequences that would be brought about by their love. She could not possibly do that to him! She refused to do that to him and returned home. In front of reality, her love was guillotined…

As a woman with a great mind and a stern pen, she bravely and daringly chose to live by her pen – Jane Austen was never married. She refused to be engaged in a loveless marriage solely for the sake of money. Lefroy became the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and had seven children; his first daughter was named Jane, Jane Christmas Lefroy…

Jane Austen: [reading Pride and Prejudice] “She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her. His understanding and temper, though unlike her own, would have answered all her wishes. It was a union that must have been to the advantage of both. By her ease and liveliness, his mind might have been softened, his manners improved, and from his judgment, information and knowledge of the world, she must have received benefit of greater importance. But no such happy marriage could now teach the admiring multitude what connubial felicity really was.”

Sense or sensibility, one cannot be employed without the other.

Sunshine Cleaning

A pool of blood, decomposed smell in the air, blew up body parts – this isn’t really an everyday job in which you process at the comfort of a 6’ by 6’ cubicle. As a result of her son being kicked out of public school due to a newly developed licking habit, Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams) was forced to think of a way to put her son in private school. As a single mother not really having any technical skills to show for a resume besides being an ex- head cheerleader, Rose started cleaning up crime scenes in order to raise tuition for her son to go to private school. With the help of her sister, Norah Lorkowski (Emily Blunt), they turned it into a business, Sunshine Cleaning. As she wiped off blood stains and wrapped up broken pieces of others’ lives, she learned to cope with her own.

Two of my favorite scenes from the movie are what I called the “blow up” and the “make up”. Norah accidentally set a client’s house on fire when she went chasing a cat. As Rose arrived at the house after the not-so-great birthday shower party hosted by her old school friends, she was devastated at the sight! Everything was burning right in front of her eyes – fragments of her glorious days, disheartened affair with her high school sweetheart, damages and expenses incurred as a result of the fire, destruction of her newly established business… That was not just a fire; it was a robbery. Life has robbed her of everything she held dear to – mother, love, and job…

The “make up” scene was the point when Rose forgave Norah for the fire and both sisters reconciled, even their differences. After the mother’s suicide, Rose was forced totransform from a child to a parent by default overnight. It was not her job, but she had to take the job of taking care of the sister while she was still learning how to cope with the aftermath of the suicide. It is not a mere Hollywood script; it is something that might even be happening right next to us. Vanity, loss, mistakes – these are things that hit each one of us differently and which we need to learn to cope at least sometime during life’s marathon. Through the film’s subtle portrayal, our main characters deal with them in the best way they knew how.

You must learn to clean up after your own mess, one way or another.

Memoirs of a Geisha

Geisha, an artist in essence, is a moving art piece. Accompanied by the grace of floral kimono, the artist dances her way into becoming an object of every man’s fantasy. A simple glance, a mere showing of the wrist, every little motion seduces men to offer the highest bidding price just to taste the ripe forbidden fruit. She never forgets who made her who she is. Over a bridge, he bought the teary little girl a sweetened ice cone. He told her she could become a geisha. His handkerchief wiped away the sweet juice on her chin; his smile made her smile. For him, she picked up her fragile life. With the coins he gave her to buy food, she used them to pray in the temple that she can become a geisha and might one day meet him again.

“Every step I have taken has been to bring myself closer to you.”

Sayuri was almost crushed by the evil rival. Seeing Sayuri has become the geisha of the time, jealousy and sadness burned in those lost eyes of the rival amongst the flame. Not only was she deprived of the man she loved because of her status as a geisha, now the rival is on the verge of losing her career. The rival left, disappearing in the silence of the morning fog.

With the white handkerchief hidden close to her heart, she transcended from a village girl sold to a geisha house due to poverty into the legendary geisha Sayuri. Indeed, she had the most powerful men of her days succumb under her charm – they were in the audience, applauding endlessly for her moving performance; they were her clients, waiting to see those blue eyes that melt them with a single look. Yet the man she secretly gave her heart out was out of her reach… Being the best friend of a man who nearly saved his life in a battle, there was no way he could be with her, especially knowing that his best friend was fond of her. As a geisha, love is classified as a luxury item.

“We didn’t become geishas to pursue our destiny.”

“But I want a life that is mine!”

With the outbreak of the war, she was being taken to a kimono house to work, waiting for him days after days, years after years. Routinely she performed her tasks: rise, work, rise, work. Finally, someone came to visit her. She rushed to see, but it wasn’t him; rather, it was his best friend. Yet the visitor brought her back to him. She was weary of her weathered hands, yet both of them looked as if age has never resided on their faces. Not being able to respond to his confession of love, she put on this act. Yet the act failed because Pumpkin’s betrayal; she wanted Sayuri to feel the sensation of losing one’s most precious. Instead, the man Sayuri loves witnessed the act. He left, she couldn’t catch up, nor even had the chance to explain. She tried to get close to him, but now he’s further than she could imagine.

Perhaps some people were never meant to love. On top of the mountain, she let the wind blow away the white handkerchief, blow away the love she has treasured so secretly, yet was torn to pieces right in front of her. Not only her love was blown away in the wind, her soul also went along.

“The heart dies of a slow death. Hope falls off and gradually fades away. Eventually, the heart is concealed.”

She resumed her career as a geisha. Under layers of kimono, she hid the deformed heart. The powdered white mask masked away her pain; those blue pupils contains only neverending heartache; the painted lips artificially colored the silent lips. Sitting by the window, tears rolled down her cheeks. Its warmth is the only thing that can remind her that she is still breathing. Does living matter when life is deprived of a soul?

As she accepted a new client, the man reappeared. Time clarified all of the misunderstanding. They were finally honest with each other. He apologized; he never let her explain. When two people are meant to be together, do they end up in the same spot after all of the turmoil? Is it destiny, or was Lady Luck just happen to grant her pity on this poor geisha? The destiny she wants starts to blossom…

“You are water. Water is powerful. It curves around and creates its own path.”

Le Voyage en Arménie (The Journey to Armenia)

Instead of receiving surgical intervention to his heart problems, the father left for his country of origin, Armenia. No goodbye, just a yellowed black and white photo left on the table. Anna, the daughter which was never in good relation with the father, decided to look for him. Never raised in Armenian culture nor speaks the Armenian tongue, Anna had to suppress her impatience. While looking for the father, Anna met many people on her way. Each one of them tried to help her to locate possible places his father would be. Instead of searching for the father, it became a search within oneself, one’s roots.

Schake, the girl who speaks French that desperately wanted to work in France, forced Anna to shoot people for the first time. Disgusted at how poor Armenia is and how lack of future this place represents, she dreamed of finding a husband in France and settle there. She desires for a new way of life, a better offer. Yet at the village where the father resides, she fell in love with a stranger upon a first glance. Something was in his voice, in the way he asked to help her, in the eyes.. Love at first sight, perhaps. In an underground hole of an ancient church, she wrapped a red scarf around both of their heads. Within a single act, both of them promised their eternal commitment, till death sets them apart. Instead of one person’s journey, it became multiple people’s searches.

The scene that touches me the most is the last scene: On the way to the airport, Manouk, a chauffeur which willingly drives Anna throughout her journey, stopped in the middle of the road. Side by side, he pointed to Mountain Ararat. “Every man has a dream. What is a man without it? When we have the mountain back one day, I’d sit on the mountain and smoke my cigarette in tranquility.” How much passion do you have for your own country in order to have a longing like that? Tears ran down folded wrinkles on his face. His white hair and white moustache beamed under the sun. His sunken eye sockets, lost in memory and the longing of the beloved country…