Tuesday Tea: What's your favorite love story? Fiction or nonfiction. Books or movies.
Our hearts are open to receiving all the love.
We don’t pay too much attention to Valentine’s Day around Strong Sense of Place HQ, but… Dave loves a good rom-com movie (Trust me, watch Amêlie or Rye Lane. — Dave), and I will take any excuse to eat chocolates. A plain white See’s box is probably the best, but I would not turn up my nose at a red shiny heart filled with bon-bons (or a bright orange Reese’s peanut butter cup wrapper).
Although I devoured Harlequin romances as a pre-teen, I prefer an unconventional love story now: the family devotion in the face of mayhem in Spoonbenders, the oddball romance between a Mexican teenage girl and the Mayan god of death, the will they/won’t they friendship of two tough guys in Peru, and the platonic devotion of two lost souls in Bulgaria. (See also: The Mars House, The Kingdoms, The Comet Seekers, and for the most yearning-est yearning: The Remains of the Day. Alternately, sparkling romance is afoot here and here.)
Swoon...A Room with a View...hands down my favorite love story. Both the book by E.M. Forster and especially the 1985 movie with Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands and the incomparable Maggie Smith. Not to mention Daniel Day-Lewis! I have memorized every line and adore it. Set in Italy and England- STRONG SENSE OF PLACE! love and romance, society and class, self-discovery and independence, conformity vs. rebellion, beauty and art. I can't be the only one who feels this way. lol.
I adore both A Room with a View and Amelie - good reminders to do a rewatch soon. Another favorite is The Princess Bride. Inconceivable, but true.