Fanny

I just have to say that I love TCM.  This month they've been focusing on Oscar-nominated movies, calling it 31 days of Oscar.  And yesterday they showed one that I've never seen before, but really is a gem.  It's called "Fanny" and is based on a play by Marcel Pagnol (who also wrote "Jean de Florette", "Manon of the Spring", "My Father's Glory", and "My Mother's Castle", to name a few).  Starring Leslie Caron, Horst Buchholz, Maurice Chevalier and Charles Boyer, it's the story of a group of family and friends who live and work on the waterfront in Marseilles.  It's sweet, it's tender, and it gives Chevalier and Boyer probably their last great roles.  It has a lot to say about love, and what it really means to love someone.  I don't want to give away too many details and spoil it for you, but I highly recommend it and hope you'll add it to your list.

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

It is said that the Chinese wish everyone five happinesses: Wealth, Longevity, Good Health, Virtue, and a Peaceful Death in Old Age.  There is also a sixth happiness, but that is something each one must find for himself.  Based on the true story of a Christian Missionary in China during the 1930's, "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" is about how one woman finds her sixth happiness through her service to the people of a small mountain community.  It's a picture that I thoroughly enjoy, and don't mind watching again and again.  It stars Ingrid Bergman, who is incredible in it.  She seems to radiate love despite every hardship placed on her.  And perhaps that's why I like it so much.  It sends the message that service doesn't have to be drudgery, and that it's what gives meaning to life.  She finds love as a direct result of showing love for her fellow man.  I think it's a message with which the Lord Himself would agree.

Top 5

"State Fair" was on TCM tonight.  So in honor of one of my home states, I thought I'd share my "Top 5: movies about Iowa.

1. Field of Dreams - Farmer Ray Kinsella mows down his cornfield to build a baseball diamond, and in the process comes to know the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson, and his own father.  "Is this Heaven?" "It's Iowa."

2. Music Man - Musical about con man Harold Hill, who sells the town of River City on a boys band, and finds love with Marian the Librarian.  "You really ought to give Iowa a try."

3. State Fair - The adventures of a family at the week-long Iowa State Fair.  "Oh I know all I owe I owe Ioway."

4. The Straight Story - An elderly man decides to visit his brother in Wisconsin, using a unique mode of transportation, that only an Iowan could truly appreciate.

5. Ice Castles - A young woman from Iowa becomes a figure skating champion, is blinded in an accident, and learns to skate again with the help of Robby Benson.  "Looking through the eyes of Love."