Spin-off Blogathon- the Poet and the Wife

             For her new blogathon, Sati asked us to choose a character who appears briefly in a movie and who we would like a whole another movie about. I must confess, I had to do a lot of brainstorming for this, partly because my memory is awful and partly because the characters I *did* remember were all amazing and it was pretty difficult to choose from them. As a result, I have two choices (sorry, Sati!) and I hope you like them.

Honourable mentions: Julian from Children of Men, Lt. Archie Hicox from Inglourious Basterds, Wallace Wells (or really anybody) from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

         My first choice is the street poet in Before Sunrise who Celine and Jesse meet by the Danube canal. He was played by Dominik Castell. I am cheating here a bit because I had already written something related to this in a long-forgotten post. I have always been fascinated by him- the way he just appears, the way he writes poems instead of begging, the poem he writes for them, the way he recites it, how it is totally perfect for Jesse's and Celine's situation- it's all so romantic and almost fairytale-like. I think of Before Sunrise as a fairytale because the entire possibility of something happening like that is nothing less than pure magic. And the poet is the most fantastical element in it for me.

          So here's my pitch for the movie about this poet: it is a tale of magic realism. The poet is a man who was cursed by the woman whose heart he had broken after he had wooed her with his words. His curse is that he has to live forever, eternally appearing to lovers and writing poems for them which deepens their affections for each other but he himself can never fall in love. He will witness all kinds of romances and meet all kinds of couples. Being in their company but incapable of feeling the words he writes, he will begin to hate love but it is his burden to keep seeing true love all around him. As in the case of Before Sunrise, there will be a lot of conversation and it could perhaps be called "Fantasy Parade".

         My second choice is Laura Linney's character in The Truman Show, Hannah Gill who plays Truman's wife Meryl Burbank in the show about his life. It is a rare feat that in a movie starring Jim Carrey I find another actor the funniest one in it, but so is the case with Linney's Hannah. All her product placements are so inane and her utter confusion at the change in Truman's character is one of my favourite things about the movie. Agreed, hers is a pretty big role (cheating again! Soz) but I would love a film about her. I know how in the film, the "actors" talk about how it is a privilege to be part of this grand concept and production, but I have always been curious about what kind of lives the people who willingly become a part of this whole fake world might lead. And of course, Meryl is the most fascinating out of all of them- she actually becomes someone's wife and they share a physical and somewhat emotional bond together. Also, this was before the reality TV era so it is doubly fascinating.

        My pitch: The film is set after The Truman Show has come to an end and Hannah is without a job. She is addicted to being on TV and has problems connecting with people because she has relied on scripts for so long. The only acting jobs she gets are those in which she plays characters just like Meryl. People all around her treat her differently. In flashbacks we find out how she started working in The Truman Show and how she fell in love with a woman during its shooting but she had to give her up to become Truman's wife. I can imagine the film having elements of To Die For and Young Adult. Tentatively, let's call it "Product Placement" because why not.