Testament of Youth ~ Review

Most of you should remember my Testament of Youth pre-gushing post I did several days ago, don't you? I wrote that post when I kinda of discovered the movie 'Testament of Youth.' I described in great gusto my burning wish to watch the movie because it looked so stinking amazing. I swooned over the pictures I had endlessly pinned on Pinterest. My dear commenters shared my enthusiasm, and one of them, a certain Emily, said she had found the movie online and she sent me the link. 

I was SO HAPPY. The movie was online!?! (It still is, so grab your chance to watch it while it's there, folks.) The movie was THERE! I could watch it!?! I told my Dad that I wished VERY much to watch it as soon as possible, and he, being the good chump he is, said, 'Oh let's watch it on Saturday' and I said, 'OKAY YES LETS.' I checked the website every day to see if the movie was still there. I couldn't wait to see it.

And then I saw it!

Now, I warn you in advance, the movie online is very soft. So soft, we thought when we watched the beginning that it had no sound at all (I freaked out in quick disappointment.) Like, you-have-to-lean-close-to-catch-all-the-words soft and a-cough-of-a-fellow-watcher-will-make-you-loose-a-sentence soft. This was pretty difficult and made the movie a bit of a challenge to watch sometimes. I was straining my ears the whole way through.

But YET, I loved it.

It broke my heart. It was beautiful. It made me cry. It was just squeefully adorable and bitterly ending-wrenching-like.

Now, if you don't like sad movies, don't watch the complete movie. Watch the first half, which, in my opinion can be watched as a story on it's own, and stop at the scene where Vera and Roland fly a kite together on the cliffs near the sea, as a newly and happily engaged couple. The first half of the movie is ADORABLE and I just loved it. We watched the first half on Friday and the second half on Saturday, and I can tell you, the ways I went to bed on Friday and on Saturday were very different. On Friday I went to bed with happy feelings, thinking about the darlingness of the movie and pinning pins and gifs of the movie till it was super late. On Saturday I went to bed with knots in my neck and tears in my eyes (but more about that later.) 

So yeah, the first half. It's cosy and family-like and romantic and fuzzy-feelsy and you frankly can't do much wrong with having millions of scenes in there stored up in your head.

So, let me talk about the first part of the movie first, okay?

The story is about a young girl, perhaps nineteen, called Vera Brittain. She loves writing and desperately wants to go to Oxford university and reach a proper degree and do what she loves, but, due to being a girl, her parents have difficulty accepting the fact that their daughter is a complete bluestocking. They try to shove her onto the piano and finding-husband-thing instead, but she bluntly says that she won't ever marry. Not now. Not ever. That's pretty clear, isn't it?

Vera has a younger brother, Edmund (more about him later, folks, because he's my favouritest character ever) who often brings his two good Oxford pals with him to home. The three boys, Edmund, Victor and Roland are the kind of slap-on-the-shoulder, play-in-the-mud, gather-around-the-piano, loud, typical hungry kind of lads, and good chums, always laughing a teasing around. I loved their friendship, and the way they are all so gentlemanly to their pal's sister, Vera.

Vera often finds herself hanging around the boys, and she also finds herself attracted to Roland, who's a fellow writer and encourages her to pursue her dreams.

I really love that Roland wasn't this drop-dead handsome hero - he was very kind, funny, and he had a huge sense of duty and love. He was a bit shy, unlike Vera, and oh, their romance was just impossibly squeeful. I loved the scenes where they went out on trips and their big bustly chaperone kept on squishing in between and slapping away any physical contact.

I also love what Roland said to Vera. "You're not odd. Just Interesting." It's a new favourite quote of mine.

Roland was exactly what Vera needed, and vice-versa. Someone who was at her side about her being a writer and an Oxford student, but also someone who made her feel like a lady, someone who looked at her in beautiful ways and loved her. When he tried to put his hand on her shoulder during the cinema, with the chaperone seated between them, I decided I loved him. 

He just lovely. And a writer too! That definitely makes him more of a hero, doesn't it?

To be honest, Vera annoyed me a lot in the beginning. I loved and cried with her by the end, but I found her rather cumbersome with her snappy, direct and sigh-ing ways. Of course, she perhaps needed to speak up a bit to get what she wanted, but she could have been a bit more, um, calm, patient. 

But I did relate to her when she told a half-stammering, hint-giving Roland with a blunt sigh that she liked clarity, because I do too. And, as I said, by the end she becomes much more likeable, especially when you see what she goes through, and all that. Also she has some very adorable outfits, which helps me to like a person. Apparently. ;-P

I also absolutely loved Victor. My heart just goes out for him. He's so sweet and kind and young and innocent. He reminds me a bit of John Chivery, the way he is quietly in love with Vera and doesn't want to hurt her feelings ever. The way he looks at her with this sweet hopeful glint in his eyes. He's SO DEAR. I just want to hug him.

And when he went and pretended he had a girl, just so Vera wouldn't feel guilty. 'What's her name?' Vera asked, happy and relieved. 'Um, Molly. Yeah. She's keen.' Poor chap. 

Edward Brittain, the younger, musically talented pianish, jokester, kind-hearted chump, was my favourite character in the whole movie (followed closely by darling Victor.)

He exactly 'my' kind of guy, you know, adding the unhelpful fact that he's impossibly handsome, especially when in a khaki. I loved, loved, loved he and Vera's brother-sister relationship. I tell you, it's so beautiful. It's my favourite brother-sister relationship I've probably ever seen in a movie. I loved how they teased each other, relied on each other and clung to each other. My favourite Edward-part was when Vera gave him her letter from Oxford (which contained her results) and he read it with a solemn face and said in a solemn voice, 'You got it.' He's such a delightful tease! Such a boy. Such a dear chap. So kind and good and loyal. I loved him. :-)

So yeah, if you're not one for sad endings, stop right after Vera and Roland's engagement scene - which, by the by, is the most adorable thing ever because they sit there and talk about the white dress and the wedding guests and the cake with tears in their eyes, together alone looking from a cliff to the sea underneath. I know. Aww. - and you're good.

Because as you go on, you'll - heh - notice more and more that this movie has a likely chance of breaking your heart. Because, I warn you, it hasn't got a good ending. Not even rather good. You only get a bit of hope - hope from nature, hope from spring - but nothing that will fully satisfy you. Due to the unwantingness of spoilers, I won't tell you WHAT the sad ending is, but if you'll ask me in the comments I will be happy to oblige you with a tear-filled answer.

Because this movie is really SAD. That's a true war-story for you.

Vera's brother, her fiancé, Victor and all the other friends of her brothers all go off to fight. Vera feels she is wasting away her time and work in Oxford between all the rows and rows of books, and she goes and becomes a nurse. She sees how the war affects lives. She sees the endless lists of names of passed loved-ones in the newspaper. She becomes more broken and broken and sadder and sadder every day. 

It's like the world is peeling off at her sides and she can't do anything to keep her loved ones safe.

Vera ends up having to care for a bunch of wounded Germans. She sees how they cry and talk about their mothers and loved ones just like the English soldiers do. She sees them die too. She sees fields and fields of wounded men, English or German, it doesn't matter. They are all the same, she learns. They all have loved ones, and they all have feelings. They all have a right to live, all the same.

There was this one scene that got me the most. When she goes and looks between the dead bodies to find her brother and realises he is, in fact still alive. She manages to nurse him back to life and she rocks him in his arms as he cries about all the things he had seen. Vera sees how this war is affecting the lives of these young men - many just teenagers. How they shiver and have thoughts that haunt and depress them.

Man, are you crying yet? 

This movie made me weep. My heart was crying and my eyes were a definite wet. I was in need of tissues, especially afterwards, when I re-and-re-thought about the movie in my bed. I imagined what it would be like to say goodbye to my brother, or my father, or my cousin. Or my fiancé (not that I have one, I just imagined it and I happen to have a rather good one. Imagination. Not fiancé.) I mean just THINK. How horrible would it be if you know that every time the postman comes, or the telephone rings it might tell you that one of those lads you have so many memories of and love for might be dead?!

This movie made me really realise what a huge thing that war was. It's definitely a Testament of Youth. Such a sudden death, or change of life, at such a young age!

Wow. I just am stunned by how this movie is made and I highly recommend it.

I was also very pleased with how family-friendly it was, as other people have mentioned. There was perhaps a taaaad to many kisses to my taste (let's just say my brother started talking about random things whenever they kissed) and, of course, there are wounds and dead people (I turned my head twice, just because) but I think it's more of a 12+ movie than a 13+ movie, to be honest. It's extremely good.

The scenery was absolutely, utterly gorgeous, even on the small dusty laptop screen we watched it on. I just want to LIVE where the Brittain's live (in Britain, haha.) And the scenery around Roland's house (who, by the way, has a mother who was acted by Caroline Bingley which made me squeal) was AMAHZING too, with the seaside brushing and waving underneath the green cliffs. Also, the scenery of the lovely brown buildings at Oxford made me sigh.

And the interiors were impossibly gorgeous! I basically want Vera's bedroom - it's so pretty. And the library at Oxford!!! PLEASE. It's just impossible how gorgeous the library there was. *thud*

The costumes were BEAUTIFUL and 100% accurate. They reminded me a lot of the Downton Abbey costumes. In fact, I spotted that Vera wore two Edith's blouses in Series Two. Like, hello Vera, that's EDITH'S wardrobe, not yours! :-) Haha. Look, the one she's wearing in that picture above is the same as this one, and she also wore this one.

Also, all the other girls at Oxford were so deliciously late-Edwardian, with their blouses and low buns or long braids, and their shirt-waists and ties. They reminded me of pictures like this and this and this. There was a lot of costume-envy from my side, suffice to say. Especially when Vera's beautiful pink dress came on show. I'm talking about the pink dress in the first picture of this post. (Yes, do scroll up to have a better look. I'll wait.)

HIGHLY recommended. But don't say I didn't warn you about crying, okay?

*goes away with a knot in her neck*

Testament of Youth - that pre-gushing post

GUYS.

GUYS.

*insert about three million squeals and about three million tears both of sadness and heart-feelsies and joy* Have you heard about this new movie?!!! Have you?! Have you? It's called 'Testament of Youth' and it's seriously one the way to become like, my favourite movie ever (after P&P. Haha.) I want to watch it sooo badly. Just as bad as I want to see 'Cinderella' and 'A Royal Night out' and all those other movies I keep on gushing about before having seen the movie. Because that's how I do things, just in case you didn't notice. I gush about movies before actually watching them. I have quite a lot of pre-gushing posts on here. *giggle*

Seriously, this movie is going to be perfect. The sneak-peak scenes and the wow-factor trailer and all the gorgeous-swamped pictures and screencaps are already giving me serious issues. I'm having butterflies of the sheer beauty and sadness of this movie.

I JUST WANT TO WATCH IT. Okay?!!!

I believe I have like, really vaguely talked about this movie on another post of mine (or probably just some pre-pre-squealing in the comments) but it has only SERIOUSLY started - my want-to-see-ness, that is - these last few days. I've discovered it looks like exactly the kind of movie where I will cry my head off whilst watching it - the kind of movie I'm going to over-and-over-think about like crazy. The kind of heart-tearing with real-ness and beauty-movie.

I basically want to be Vera Brittain already.

As far as I know, the story is about a girl called Vera who wants to be a writer and goes to Oxford university. Then the First World War breaks out and, because she wants to be as close as possible to her brothers and love interest, she trains to become a nurse. SOUNDS GOOD, HUH?!! I mean, a writer. That means, I'm IN. And I love War stories - they somehow always manage charm and bewitch the life out of me. And then the romantic feels. And men in khaki uniforms! I love those war khaki uniforms.

Okay, I know this movie is going to be sad, because yeah, the War, but I'm willing to sacrifice myself for that. I just know I would love it. :)

As far as I know, there are no major sexual inappropiate-ness, but the movie is rated 13+ for bloody and gruesome war scenes - Vera being a nurse, rather a lot of wounds are being shown.

The cast is also, superb! Emily Watson (once again! She seems to be popping in every single movie recently, don't ya think?), Hayley Atwell (Cinderella, Mansfield Park), Nicholas Farrell (Amazing Grace, Chariots of Fire) and several others. The pictures of the young men look very sweet and gentlemanly, and the costumes are GORGEOUS. It's just as beautiful as Downton Abbey, you guys, historically accurate and EVERYTHING.

It's going to be gorgeous. :-) Just look at the hat! And, because of viewing the trailer and sneak-peak scenes, I know it has a beautiful darling romance, gorgeous lacy costumes, a teary good-bye scene at a railway station, a super darling brother-sister relationship,  beautiful English scenery, letters, and epic heart-moving lines and filming effects.

And quotes, too. I think it'll be very quotable.

Just look at it. I really love khaki uniforms. They make men look, like, 100 times more handsome, immediately. 

Yeah, I know it's weird of me to be SO gushing over a movie when I haven't even seen it yet, but hey, I HAVE seen the trailer and all the avaliable scenes and all the pictures on Pinterest, so I think I've tasted the general idea of the movie. It's going to be amazing, I feel it.

Have you seen this?

What are your pre-opinions?

7 Period Drama Characters I feel so sorry for

I love millions and billions and zillions of characters, but I don't feel sorry for all of them. Of course, there are more than just ten characters I feel desperately sorry for, but here are seven. Ten characters who I want to hug, ten characters my heart goes out to in deep compassion. The poor mites.

#1.

~*~ Edith Crawley ~*~ Downton Abbey ~*~

Poor girl. Sure, she made some very bad mistakes which I do not applaud at all, but seriously - the poor girl. 

Firstly, she was in love with Patrick, who was engaged to her older sister. Patrick died in the Titanic. Okay, sure, that happend. No-one really cared about Edith, she kind of gets shoved away. Then she finds love in the elderly kind bachelor, Anthony Strallam, who warms her heart and makes a nicer person of her. She gets jilted at the altar by him because he realises he is too old for her. Okay, yeah, that had to happen. Edith is, obviously, heartbroken.

Then, all that with her next lover, Michael Gregson. As I said, I don't approve what she did, but she seemed to deeply regret it afterwards, and I felt deeply sorry for the poor thing. Michael Gregson died. All those problems with her daughter Marigold. I mean... poor girl.

Edith is really the kind of character everyone desperately wants to see happy. I once watched an interview with the Downton Abbey creator, Julian Fellowes, who said that a random lady was once following him around in town. At one point, he (Julian) said, he turned around and asked the lady what the matter was. She just said one thing. She said, 'PLEASE MAKE EDITH HAPPY!'
Haha.

All that said, I hope Edith has a better time in the next season!

#2.

~*~ John Chivery ~*~ Little Dorrit ~*~

Ohhhhh. JOHN CHIVERY. *wails and cries bitter tears of compassion*

I feel so, so, so, so, so sorry for this fellow. My heart sheds tears whenever I think of the guy. My siblings are used to me sometimes (ahem - often) going, 'Oh! John Chivery! POOR him!' I did that especially often when I had just seen Little Dorrit. He is probably the character I feel the MOST sorry for in all Period Dramas.

John Chivery is an emotional, young, happy-with-simple-things, big-dream, sweet-smile, boyish young man, who has a huge, serious, and yet-almost-childish crush on Amy Dorrit. The word 'crush' is an understatement, actually. He really is deeply and utterly and dreamily in love with that childhood friend of his. He would throw himself down a cliff if she asked him to. He worships the very ground she treads on. He loves her so much that he already imagines what people will write on his gravestone about how much he loved his beloved wife, Amy.

(Are you crying yet, guys?)

Now, unlike some people (haha) I do not think of Amy and John as a couple. In more modern terms, I do not 'ship' them. Amy and Arthur BELONG to each-other. Amy doesn't love John Chivery, and hard as it is for her, can't marry him. I also feel very sorry for Amy, by the way, but we'll talk about that later. But back to darling John Chivery- John cries when Amy rejects him. He tells Arthur Amy loves him, with tears in his eyes, because he loves her and just wants her happy. And then when we see him in that blue jacket of his at Amy's wedding. 

OH JOHN LET ME HUG YOU. I just want John to be HAPPY. *cries*

#3.

~*~ Molly Gibson ~*~ Wives & Daughters ~*~

Goodness, this girl, the POOR MITE. I want to bash into the screen and give her a hug. Firstly, she gets a new mother. And not just any mother. A mother who behaves more like a peacock, who barges into her room and throws all her 'old' things away (I WOULD BE SO ANGRY if someone did that to me! Gosh!) and a mother who doesn't know the difference between an engagement and an elephant. Or whatever.

Then, the person she is in love with (this seems to be a bit of a theme in this post, right?) goes off and proposes to her rather flighty but none-the-less kind step-sister, Cynthia. And then she (Molly) goes and cries in front of the window, looking at Roger walking away in the rain. OH PLEASE.

I feel very sorry for Molly.

#4.

~*~ Amy Dorrit ~*~ Little Dorrit ~*~

In most movies, when we have a rejected proposal, one roots for one side of the match, normally. Lizzy Bennet and Mr Collins - it is Lizzy we understand. Etc. But in Little Dorrit I felt disastrously sorry for both sides. I've talked about my heart-ache for poor John, but we have to think about Amy too! Amy is a lovely humble girl with a servants heart - but she knows what she wants and she does want to be happy. It must have been very hard for her to tell John that no, she didn't love him. Amy hates, hates, hates to make people unhappy. It's her worst nightmare. So, POOR AMY, everyone.

But that isn't the only time I feel sorry for Amy. I basically feel sorry for the almost-too-kind, always-trying-to-please-everyone, always-doing-the-chores Amy all the time. That about sums it up. I always feel sorry for her (especially on that trip in Italy when she has to act like a posh lady. Poor girl.)

Amy just deserves so much. Arthur knew it, everyone with a good mind knows it. I was so bursting-with-joy happy when I saw her so happy and relaxed and flowery and in love on her gentleman's arm in the end.

May you live happily every after, Amy. You deserve it so much I can't even tell you.

By the way, people, did you KNOW? I have been to the Marshalsea! That 'prison' Amy lives in! It was filmed in Hampton Court Palace, which is where my Grandparents go to Church every Sunday and which is where I have been so often in my life! When I realised it was filmed in Hampton Court I literally squealed in delight. I WAS THERE.  :-) It was really cool being able to recognise Hampton Court when we went on watching it afterwards. (My Grandma says she remembers it getting filmed. Had I known I would have gone then! (Okay, I was only nine when they filmed it, but still.))

#5. 

~*~ Tom Pinch ~*~ Martin Chuzzlewit ~*~

Tom Pinch! We're in the John Chivery situation again, guys. I guess Charles Dickens is good at makes us weep in compassion for dear characters such as Tom Pinch (who, by the way, is not the guy taking the ham in the picture, it's the one with the weird hair-style.)

The only thing I don't like about Tom Pinch is his awful hairstyle. The only thing. For the rest, he's an angel come down from heaven. He's a saint. Super nice, always good. A bit shy, rather quiet and keeps his thoughts generously to himself. Therefore no-one (or hardly anyone) knows, ever, that he is in love with Mary (who always tells him how much she loves Martin) - which makes it so much more... sorry for him-like.

Loads of people like him. At one point, the whole town is singing 'For he's a Jolly Good Fellow' to him (which he so deserves) - and Mary, the sweet little thing he is in love with, likes him too, and shares her heart-ache for Martin with him. It must be so hard for him, but he never ever lets Mary know his feelings for him.

In the end we see him alone on a bench, a bit further away from Martin and Mary in an embrace. Poor soul. Then he goes on whistfully saying that not all stories end well. OH NO. JUST NO.

#6.

~*~ Dr Harrison ~*~ Cranford ~*~

Why, yes, I feel sorry for him! Why would you be surprised? (No, I'm not automatically assuming that everyone of you is surprised, don't worry.)

Sure, Dr Frank Harrison (is Frank his name? I think so.) is not the first person that comes into mind when one thinks of 'pitiful' people in the period drama world, but remember that episode. REMEMBER? When he sits there, bewildered and sad. When he somehow, without realising it, got engaged to three people at the same time. When he lost darling buttercup-like Sophie Hutton and when he wasn't allowed to help her when she was deathly ill.

I felt SO sorry for Dr Harrison in the last episode. It's just not fair. It's so annoying when things like that happen in movies, isn't it? That kind of no-one-understands, YOU WANT TO EXPLAIN, and you-feel-dashed-sorry-for-everyone-story. Oh, especially Dr Harrison who everyone kinda shoved away. *clenches fists* Not fair.

And I love it when he just forgave Jack after that anyway. Dr Harrison is super kind.

I remember when we finished that episode that ends like it does in the screen-cap above. I seriously almost jumped out of my skin because I felt so sorry for that young fella. (Okay, not really that serious. I have never even 'almost' jumped out of my skin. I can't.) It was a torture to wait for the next episode, but I so desperately want to see that plot turned well. And Dr Harrison happy.

#7.

~*~ Anna Bates ~*~ Downton Abbey ~*~

NOOOOO. POOR ANNA POOR ANNA POOR ANNA.

*sniffles for about three hours and refuses to admit to the blogging world that I am exaggerating*

What Anna has gone through is just amazing. No person would be able to go through it like she did in real life. This proves, together with the fact that people within one house don't ever die so quickly, that Downton Abbey is, sadly, fictional. Anna is amazing. She tried to solve her Mr Bates' murder plot, she endlessly visited him in prison, she - poor thing - bore that everlasting prison-business better than us viewers did. Oh, this good girl has to be happy. I have to see her 100% happy, I HAVE TO.

Then, obviously, in the next seasons, even more cruel treatments lie await for Anna. She gets abused by a villain-y-type and ends up in prison. JUST NO GUYS. I just feel so sorry for Anna Bates, I can't even say it.

I need to see the next Christmas Special urgently, so urgently, because I'm in great need of a look at a happy Anna, I really am. She needs to be happy. So badly.

Now, THAT's better. :-)

~*~

What characters to you greatly pity?

Have I included them?

I think, that if I were to watch les Mis, I would have millions of more characters on this list, right?

Gripping story opening!

Here I am once again (this time slightly more on time than I was in May) for Heidi's monthly Inkling Explorations. For June, us bookish folks are required to paste a 'gripping story opening' from Literature. Heidi also added that by 'gripping' she just meant something that kept me reading.

I still had to think rather hardly about this one. But then I remembered it, as a flash. ZOOM. Candle in the Darkness, one of my favourite books ever (by Lynn Austin) has an amazing - rather sad - but very gripping start:

The first scream jolted me awake. The second one chilled my soul. 

I sat up in bed, searching for Tessie in the darkened room, but the pallet where my Negro mammy usually slept was empty. 

"Tessie?" My voice trembled with fear. "Tessie, where are you?" 

Rain drummed against the windowpane, keeping time with my heart. Beyond the shuttered windows, the day had dawned dark and dismal. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Then the heartrending cries broke the silence once again. 

"No... please!' 

The tumult came from outside, just below my room. 

"Please don't take him, please don't take my boy from me, please!' 

The voice, barely recognizable in its anguish, was Tessie's.

I KNOW right? How can you not want to buy this book now?!! It's an amazing, amazing book - I highly, hugely and everlastingly recommend it. :-D

Do join in with Heidi's fun here!

And you're welcome about the tea gif.

Roman Holiday 1953 // Review

Because this is a black and white movie, I have to admit I didn't think I would get very much sucked into the story. I thought it would lack vividness, perhaps, and - well - colour. 

But blimey, I was wrong. Although this movie is black-and-white, it was very colourful and charming and sparkly with real-ness. I can easily imagine all the colours - the yellow sandiness of Rome, the brown-grey bricks of the building, the greeny shades of Joe's bedroom, the soft-pinkines of Ann's dress and hat in the last scene, and the soft green of the motorbike in Rome. It's probably the colourful-est black-and-white movie made, ever. It's sunny, it's nostalgic, you form good friends with it immediately.

I LOVED IT.

It bought me into a queer, candy-like, world-of-golden-summers nostalgia. It left me super angry, and super in love. I mean, it's a one-day romance in the yellow sunlight of Rome - how adorable and quirky is that?!! It also made me - I, who hate travelling! - want to go to Rome. Oh, let's just start the review. :-)

My sister pointed out, after I had written my review of Belle, that I often forget to summarize the story of the movie I am reviewing. I pass on to the gushing and the characters immediately. So this time I'll tell you what the story is about:

Princess Ann, beautiful heiress to the throne, is on a trip in Rome, with a very big and packed schedule before her. She has a stress-panic-evening in her bed on evening, tired of all the work and pretending-to-be-happy, and acting-super-glamorous's, and the doctor gives her a dose of 'very harmless' drugs. Going out into Rome that evening, she falls into a hazy waze of sleepy dose on a bench, where she meets Joe Bradley.

Joe Bradley feels he has to look after this young girl sleeping on the bench, and takes her to his apartment. When he realises she is, in fact, the much-talked-over princess, he takes his chance to win a lot of money, and takes the Princess on a trip where she does all the kind of things she always wanted to do. They fall in love and he eventually does not publish any pictures or stories of the Princess. SPOILER - They end up separated (more about the sniffle-worthy ending later, I'm afraid.) - END OF SPOILER.

Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann (spelt without an E, oh dear!) was, as the natural observer, a delight to watch. Goodness, how beautiful is this actress!!!! - I simply cannot take it in. Those perfect eyebrows! That charming light-up-the-room kind of smile! This was Audrey's first leading role - the movie that made her famous, and she is, simply put, iconic as Ann. 

I love how we go behind the curtain and see such a different, younger, real Ann. Her character, when in public, doing her duties, is graceful, swan-like and poised (even when loosing a shoe, ha), and then we see her girlish, care-free, normal side when she escapes and does the things she's always wanted to do. She was beautiful, adorable, warm.

By the way, did you know that Audrey Hepburn was born in Belgium? I'm really proud now.

OH MY GOODNESS. Joe Bradley. He's probably my new favourite movie hero!

I loved him so much that, believe it or not, he's been put right next to Mr Knightley and Matthew Crawley and all those much-talked over gentlemen on my blog, he really has! I love him! Seriously, he gave me so many of those little creamy feelsy feels inside. His way of arching one eyebrow, his twisted little grin, his twinkly eyes, messy apartment, funny dry lines and, oh such a gentleman! And the fact that Gregory Peck is achingly handsome doesn't really help. =)

He really is a Gentleman. With a capital G, by all means.

I hope no-one ever makes a re-make of this movie. If 'they' will, I won't watch it, because 'they' are sure to make something very unsuitable of the whole share-an-apartment-thing. But it was very appropriate in here - Jo Bradley is such a gentleman - he was a bit disturbed with the whole business, but he did it very well and distinguished-like. 

As I told my dad, 'If they would make this movie now, they would make something very inappropriate of the story.' But it's an old movie, and it's super good and trustworthy. It totally behaves, and I love it. :-)

JOE AND ANN WERE ADORABLE TOGETHER.

As I said, they gave me so many feels. The smiles they exchange. The funny lines. Their strong, one-day, we-understand-each-other relationship was just so perfect. I'm sinking in their adorableness right now, looking at that gif. I love how they make each other smile. Joe finds Ann absolutely charming and just a plain-adorable-doll he wants to look after. Ann finds Joe so easy and funny. They were made for each other, don't ya think?

I also loved the scene where they pretended they were a married couple. 

Let me talk about this scene. It didn't scare me, because I had seen the scene (or scene the seen?) beforehand (when it did kind of scare me for a moment), so I just sank in the adorable-couple-ness of it. I love how he teases her. I love it when people tease people in the kind of nice, adorable way. I know an elderly man at Church and we always really dryly tease each other and I just really like it.  Oh, I just LOVE Joe Bradley. It's so HIM, to do that. With his hand. 

And then she falls in his arms of giggling relief, a little embarrassed, he grinning. Then he teases some more and I just want to be Princess Ann. Oh for a holiday in Rome with Joe Bradley! :-D

The costumes in this movie were drool-y elegant. There aren't that many, and the main dress we see on Ann is her charming, simple two piece costume featured in a lot of the pictures in this post. I love the little striped bow around her neck - it's so holiday-ish and beach-ice-cream-like.

The other costumes we see Ann wearing are very royal and elegant. They remind me a lot of the dresses Queen Elizabeth wore in the fifties. Strings of pearls, gloves, flare-y, mid-calf dresses. And her sparkly earrings. AND HER HATS. As I said, although this movie doesn't have colour, I just know all the colours of the dresses. The one she wears in the above picture is dark burgandy red. Right?

No wonder this movie received a reward for costume design!

This movie was also really quite funny. Joe Bradley has a way of performing his lines that just makes my face crack into a crazy smile immediately. 'Honey, I haven't worn a nightgown in years' made me smile. And oh, the way he pushed his friend on the ground and went, 'Oh, dear, you slipped again!'

The chauffeur of the taxi when Joe met Ann first made me laugh too, when he tried to explain what he meant by 'bambino.' HAHA. Some very quirky side-characters in here.

Ready for this, dear fellow-Roman-Holiday-viewers? This is the part where I talk about the ending of Roman Holiday.

WHY. IT MADE ME SO ANGRY. I was screaming inside my brain, inside my everythings, I was screaming, 'Oh no! Oh no! They ARE a couple! They can't end like that!!!! NO!' I had a private panic attack, and you're lucky that I didn't fall dead of anguish and grief in my soul. Don't laugh, this is really serious, okay? I couldn't stand to see these two beautiful people so upset. Their eye contact - so quietly happy and hugely sad - almost gave me goosebumps - it was so achingly adorable.

The last scene was really hard to watch. That's all I can say. 

Let's end this post quietly. I have been quietened in sadness and scratchings inside me. *Sniffles*

Have you seen Roman Holiday?

Let's rewrite an ending together.