Thursday, September 27, 2007

Speechifying About Love...

...though really these aren't speeches because though there have been an untold number of speeches about love, love is one of those things that is sometimes best expressed in those quiet and intimate moments and so these aren't oratories from the stage to shake the heaven, but rather scenes from movies that are so lovely and make me feel warm inside. All three of these come from the very end of the movies so if you haven't seen When Harry met Sally..., Casablanca or Cinema Paradiso you can skip one or all- I won't be offended.

ally: i'm sorry, harry. i know it's new year's eve. i know you're feeling lonely, but you just can't show up here, tell me you love me, and expect that to make everything all right. it doesn't work this way.
harry: well, how does it work?
sally: i don't know, but not this way.
harry: how about this way? i love that you get cold when it's seventy-one degrees out. i love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. i love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're lookin' at me like i'm nuts. i love that after i spend the day with you, i can still smell your perfume on my clothes. and i love that you are the last person i want to talk to before i go to sleep at night. and it's not because i'm lonely. and it's not because it's new year's eve. i came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.


from one of my favorite and probably the most romantic movie ever:

Ilsa: But why my name Richard?
Rick: Because you’re getting on that plane
Ilsa: I don’t understand. What about you?
Rick: I’m staying here with him ‘til the plane gets safely away
Ilsa: No, Richard, no. What has happened to you? Last night we said--
Rick: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you're getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.
Ilsa: But, Richard, no, I... I...
Rick: Now, you've got to listen to me! You have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we'd both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn't that true, Louie?
Captain Renault: I'm afraid Major Strasser would insist.
Ilsa: You're saying this only to make me go.
Rick: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Ilsa: But what about us?
Rick: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.
Rick: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now... Here's looking at you kid.


but of course even sometimes the most beautiful words are superfluous meaningless and regrettable.


pardon me while I swoon. And sigh. And daydream. And cry

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