Love and Silk

I spent yesterday afternoon watching two films at Grandquelly's place. Had a terrible headache from being sleep-deprived, blame it all on the documentary I saw about the past five presidents of the Philippines which ended at 1AM that day. So to help me alleviate that dozy feeling I had, my dear friend and her sister prepared delicious lunch and dinner. I especially enjoyed the sisig, salad with cranberry sauce, bangus and chicken yakitori. Yes, I wolfed down those dishes! Thanks Q and R for a great time yesterday!

Okay, those two films. The first one is Love and Other Disasters written and directed by Alek Keshishian. Released last year, this funny and charming British film stars Brittany Murphy and a host of brilliant English actors such as Matthew Rhys and Catherine Tate who portray the lives of single and successful men, women and gay in London. The lines are stylish and the continuity of the story is flawless. There are only a few British movies on my list but this one is sure climbing the charts of good romantic comedies along with Four Weddings and A Funeral and Notting Hill.



Meanwhile, Keira Knightley shows her best in yet another period piece entitled Silk. Written and directed by François Girard, this art film is a story of Hervé Joncour, a trader of silkworms who marries his beloved Helene with the help of his employer. Now being indebted to his employer, he journeys to Japan as he was ordered to buy silkworms for use of the town's silk mill back in France.



But in another world, he finds himself becoming obsessed with a concubine of a Japanese warlord. His wife begins to suspect as letters are being communicated to Hervé. This movie makes unrequited love as well as unconditional love strongly apparent. Silk, released in 2007, stars Michael Pitt as Hervé Joncour and Keira Knightley as Helene.

I can compare Silk with another period movie which is Love in The Time of Cholera. Just as Silk had memorable lines like "Come back or I shall die", as the letters to Hervé are being interpreted, so does Love in the Time of Cholera, when Florentino tells Fermina Daza, "51 years, 9 months, and 4 days. That is how long I have loved you."