The Wife-An Award-Winning Movie about Writers and Writing

We saw this movie on Netflix just recently. We enjoyed the movie so much as it reminded me of my article in my blog wondering if good writers are born or made. **(https://myarticlesfromviewshound.blogspot.com/search?q=born+writers, 12/11))

One sentiment in the movie that all writers should know: No matter how good or accomplished is your writing, if no one reads it, it will just rot in the book shelves.

Here's the trailer:

https://youtu.be/d81IM0loH7o

If you have not seen it, it will be worth your time. Here's what Wikipedia says:

The Wife is a 2017 drama film directed by Bjõrn L. Runge and written by Jane Anderson. It is based on the novel of the same name by Meg Wolitzer. It stars Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, and Christian Slater. The story follows a woman who questions her life choices as she travels to Stockholm with her narcissistic husband, who is set to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The film premiered on September 12, 2017, at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, and was released in the United States on August 17, 2018 by Sony Pictures Classics. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with Close's performance garnering high praise. Close won the Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress for her performance, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress.

**Excerpts from my article on my blog about writers( born or made) and writing:

Most writers that I know write because they love writing. To them writing is just like breathing. These born writers do not work hard to create an excellent article, because their writing comes from the heart and their soul. Others write with a lot of work, training and pain. Good writers run in the family as exemplified by the family of Stephen King. Most writers however are made and only become good writers through hard work and constant practice. The most common traits of good writers are patience and persistence, whether their writing talent is inborn or just developed.

Allow me to quote Jan Bird from her recent article, The Writing Bug. "Writing for me right now, is like love. It isn't something I do, it happens to me. It takes me completely by surprise when I least expect it and then it absolutely refuses to let go until it wants to. It's intoxicating and irrational".

Time for One of My Favorite Music Today

I feel like listening to one of my favorite music today!

My favorite section is On the Trail. Enjoy

https://youtu.be/IVGOUHcdXy4

Ferde Grofé (27 March 1892 – 3 April 1972) was an American composer, arranger and pianist. During the 1920s and 1930s, he went by the name Ferdie Grofé. Grofé is best known for his composition of the Grand Canyon Suite (1931), a work regarded highly enough to be recorded for RCA Victor with the NBC Symphony conducted by Arturo Toscanini (in Carnegie Hall in 1945, with the composer present). The earlier Mississippi Suite is also occasionally performed and recorded. Grofé conducted the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in his Grand Canyon Suite and his piano concerto (with pianist Jesús Maria Sanromá) for Everest Records in 1960; the recording was digitally remastered and issued on CD in 1997.

My first posting on the Grand Canyon National Park: https://lifeinus1960present.blogspot.com/search?q=grand+canyon+suite

The Sound Track of the Movie-The Hours by Philip Glass

Its time for some great music: Macrine and I just finished watching an old movie-the Hours. The movie was great and sad but what really attracted our attention was the music or sound track of the movie. Macrine kept asking me during the movie, what was the title of the music during some of the dramatic scenes, because she thought it sound familiar. So I did my web search ( Wikipedia) and was not surprised that this sound track received numerous awards as follows:

The album won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media (lost to the score of the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers).

The Hours is the original soundtrack album, on the Elektra/Nonesuch label, of the 2002 film The Hours, starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. The original score was composed by Philip Glass. Not all of the music in the film was composed specifically for it: earlier music by Glass, including a theme from his opera Satyagraha, was also featured and credited separately at the end of the film.

Michael Riesman and Nico Muhly arranged the soundtrack for piano solo. This score was published in 2003 as a 64-paged book containing most of the tracks (excluding "For Your Own Benefit", "Vanessa and the Changelings" and "The Kiss").

Here's the sound track for your listening pleasure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrXyMywvHF0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrXyMywvHF0

Track listing
No.
Song title
Time
1.
The Poet Acts
03:40
2.
Morning Passages
05:30
3.
Something She Has to Do
03:09
4.
"For Your Own Benefit"
02:00
5.
Vanessa and the Changelings
01:45
6.
"I'm Going to Make a Cake"
04:01
7.
An Unwelcome Friend
04:08
8.
Dead Things
04:21
9.
The Kiss
03:54
10.
"Why Does Someone Have to Die?"
03:53
11.
Tearing Herself Away
05:00
12.
Escape!
03:48
13.
Choosing Life
03:50
14.
The Hours
07:44

Total time
56:43

Note: This is the first time that both Macrine and I enjoyed the music sound track more than the story line of a movie. The movie had received also numerous awards for acting ( Nicole Kidman), but to us the score composed by Philip Glass is outstanding and worth our time. It is a sad movie with two suicides and one attempted suicide. The acting however is superb particularly the child actor playing the boy, Richard. Kidman, Moore and Strep were also fantastic. We highly recommend this movie if you have not seen it.

Binging On an Award Winning TV Series-Shameless

I started watching this comedy drama last week. I am now in Season 3 and looking forward to be current ( Season 8) in the next few weeks. The show makes me cry and laugh. It has some nudity, vulgar language and a lot of sex scenes both hetero and homo. The lead actor and actress won several acting awards. In case you have not heard of this TV show, here's a summary from Wikipedia.

Shameless is an American comedy-drama television series developed by John Wells that debuted on Showtime on January 9, 2011. It is a remake of the British series of the same name created by Paul Abbott. The series features an ensemble cast, led by William H. Macy and Emmy Rossum. Set in the South Side of Chicago, the series is filmed in Los Angeles, with the exterior scenes shot in Chicago.

The series has been renewed for a ninth season, which will make it the longest-running original scripted series in Showtime's history

The series depicts the dysfunctional family of Frank Gallagher, a single father of six children. While he spends his days drunk or in search of misadventures, his kids learn to take care of themselves.

The show's producers sought to distinguish it from previous American working-class shows by highlighting how Frank's alcoholism affects his family. Paul Abbott, the show's creator, has said, "It's not My Name Is Earl or Roseanne. It's got a much graver level of poverty attached to it. It's not blue collar; it's no collar." When John Wells, the showrunner, began pitching the show, he had to fight efforts to place the show in the South or in a trailer park. He explained, "We have a comedic tradition of making fun of the people in those worlds. The reality is that these people aren't 'the other' – they're people who live four blocks down from you and two blocks over".

Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter said that "Shameless is excellent, compelling television from the first moment. As long as it stays true to the roots of the original, it's going to be essential viewing". The show's first season score on Metacritic is a 66 of 100, which is a generally favorable review.

The second season score on Metacritic is a 76 of 100, indicating increasingly favorable reviews. Tom O'Neill of the Los Angeles Times reported on the Emmy buzz about Shameless, especially with respect to the performance of Emmy Rossum, stating "she didn't have much Emmy buzz after Shameless debuted in January, but that changed after she gave powerhouse turns in such episodes as 'But at Last Came a Knock'".

Buddy TV ranked Shameless #8 on its list of 2011's best new TV shows. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season a 'fresh' rating of 74% based on 31 reviews, with the critical consensus "Shameless is a dark, urban dramedy that overcomes its leaps of logic thanks to fantastic casting, intriguing ambiance, and shock value." Seasons 2-5 each have a 100% rating as of January 27, 2015.

For more details on the widely nominated and award winning TV series read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shameless_(U.S._TV_series)

My Prediction for the Three Major Oscar Winners for 2018

I have been following the Oscar Winners for the last three decades. This year my prediction for Best Picture is Call Me by Your Name, for Lead Actor-Timothee Chalamet and for Lead Actress-Sally Hawkins ( from the Shape of Water). The are nine movies nominated for Best Picture, five for Lead actor and five also for Lead Actress.

For the Best Picture category, I based my prediction from the Trailers and Reviews and from opinions of friends and relatives who have seen the movies. I have only viewed the movie, Get Out.

For the rest of the 8 Best Picture nominees: I have read all the reviews, trailers and TV interviews, story lines and viewers reception published in the Web. My second and third choices for best Picture is The Shape of Water and Lady Bird respectively. The nominees for the three major categories ( best picture, lead actor and actress) are as follows:


Best Picture:

“Call Me by Your Name”
“Darkest Hour”
“Dunkirk”
“Get Out”
“Lady Bird”
“Phantom Thread”
“The Post”
“The Shape of Water”
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Lead Actor:

Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread”
Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”
Denzel Washington, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

Lead Actress:

Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”
Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
Meryl Streep, “The Post”

The Oscar nominations for the 90th annual awards in all categories were announced last week from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California.

Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” lead the pack with 13 nominations. “Dunkirk” followed behind with eight nods and Martin McDonagh’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” with seven. All three films earned best picture nominations.

The rest of the category was rounded out by “Call Me By Your Name,” “Darkest Hour,” “Get Out,” “Phantom Thread,” “Lady Bird,” and “The Post.”

The Academy Awards will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and will be aired live on ABC on March 4.