Isn’t life hard at the moment? I don’t think I can articulate the reasons for this more eloquently than Jameela Jamil’s recent post, so I decided instead to write something akin to stepping into a warm bath. If you need a hug today, then hereby consider yourself gently coddled. This is a list of gorgeously realised film worlds that make me feel happy and inspired- places that I want to step into and bask in. Did I discover in the writing of this list that I very much love posh people picnicking and playing the piano? Why, yes, yes I did.
This is a fantasy-free zone. You will find no orcs, wizards or yellow brick roads here, because quite frankly those films fill me with fear and unease. What you will get is a glorious dose of families, gardens, pianos, larks, life lessons and poignant joy, all served with a huge dollop of nostalgia. The bittersweetness of impermanence is catnip to me. I wrote about my predilection for the Japanese concept of Mono No Aware (a gentle sadness or wistfulness at the transient nature of life and the beauty of fleeting moments) in an earlier substack.
All of these films have glorious, uplifting, epic and often very moving soundtracks, so my wine pairing this week is a playlist with tracks from all of the scores. Hope you enjoy. If you haven’t seen the following films, then I can guarantee that they will hold your hand through any upcoming apocalyptic bleakness. So grab your blanket, snuggle up with that mug of cocoa and let us begin.
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
I’m opening with the Mothership of Delight here. If you look up this film on Google the first Reddit comment that comes up is: “Much Ado About Nothing is one of the happiest films ever made. It’s impossible not to feel joy while watching it.” If you think about the first comment on any single topic since Reddit began it will unfailingly and deliberately drag you straight to hell. Yes, this film is so ruddy positive that it broke the trolls. Much Ado bursts with life, the light and scenery are stunning and everyone is just so goddamned beautiful - Keanu, Kate Beckinsale, Emma Thompson, Kenneth B, Denzel, Richard Briers, Michael Keaton and the sheer glory that is Brian Blessed. The whole thing will make you wish you’d been there when they filmed it and if you don’t believe me then listen to Kate B talk about those heady days of “pure, undiluted joy.”
Most likely to make you: sell up and buy a farmhouse in Tuscany
About Time (2013)
Richard Curtis is the master of creating generous, witty worlds filled with wonderful friends and beautiful houses. About Time is also packed with profound wisdom on how to live well, and one of my favourite moments is Bill Nighy’s wedding speech:
“I’d only give one piece of advice to anyone marrying. We’re all quite similar in the end. We all get old and tell the same tales too many times. But try and marry someone kind. And this is a kind man with a good heart. I’m not particularly proud of many things in my life, but I am very proud to be the father of my son.”
The still below reminds me of my wonderful late step-dad Tony, always reading a good spy novel, elegant, wise and kind. The house, the film nights, the laughter, the ping-pong matches, the date nights - I want all of it. Threaded throughout is the glorious melancholy of knowing that we are mortal. As Tim says: “we’re all traveling through time together, every day of our lives. All we can do is do our best to relish this remarkable ride.”
Most likely to make you: take up ping pong
Howard’s End (1992)
I will watch my Queen, Vanessa Redgrave, do absolutely anything. Her grace and intelligence, and oh, that voice- she’s unmatched. Her mixture of quiet grace, fragility and strength undoes me every time. I love films that are on the cusp of another epoch, and Redgrave’s portrayal of Ruth Wilcox is the high watermark for me. She is a woman who is already disappearing into the past, so ethereal she’s almost ghostly. (See also her poignant, romantic turn in Mrs Dalloway).
And oh, her beloved house. And that garden. I was obsessed with The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady as a child- yes I was weird- and I am an Edwardian lass in my very soul.
Most likely to make you: plant wisteria and roses round the front door
Little Women (1994)
Here comes the first sing-song! I loved this book with all my heart when I was small and I simply can’t do this film justice in words. I refuse to even try. What I can tell you is that the opening bars of Thomas Newman’s score have such an instant effect on me that I have to stuff a sock in my mouth to staunch the sobbing. If this film doesn’t warm your cockles then check your pulse because you are DEAD. Little Women is magical, empowering, funny, wise, nostalgic, kind, devastating and quite simply, absolutely wonderful. Basically, just watch it because it will make your life better. Then watch it again. Then watch it again.
Most likely to make you: cut off and sell your hair for charity
Something’s Gotta Give (2003)
Another actor that forever has my heart is Diane Keaton. That laugh she does when she screws up her eyes and wrinkles her nose just undoes me. Peak hotness is strong across the cast in this film and I’m coming to realise that I have a massive thing for people in crisp white shirts. (See also Ralph Fiennes in The English Patient.)
Laughter round a table while American people exchange witty zingers always makes me so happy. Wouldn’t you kill to be there with Keanu, Frances and Diane? This scene also produces this beautifully delivered speech by Frances McDormand:
“The over-50 dating scene is geared towards men leaving older women out. And as a result, the women become more and more productive and therefore, more and more interesting. Which, in turn, makes them even less desirable because as we all know, men- especially older men- are threatened and afraid of productive, interesting women. It is just so clear! Single older women as a demographic are about as fucked a group as can ever exist.”
Divorce, menopause, vulnerability, sagging buttocks, illness and mortality are all dealt with such wonderful humour in this film- and there is great tenderness amongst the wise (and bum) cracks.
Most likely to make you: Google ‘Nancy Meyers coastal cottage style’
Before Midnight (2013)
We had already been on such a journey with Jessy and Céline by the time the third instalment of the Before trilogy came around. This film is arguably harder to watch, because it accurately portrays the ways we can start to undo one another in long term relationships, but I think it’s my favourite of the three. Before Midnight features another table that I would kill to be invited to join. Smart, beautiful women of different ages discussing what it means to be human while they chop ripe tomatoes in the Southern Peloponnese. Sign me up.
The disease that I suffer from makes it extremely painful to sit for more than 10 minutes or so, so I always gaze wistfully at scenes where people sit round wine and food-strewn tables for hours, while they put the world to rights.
Another film that gives great table is A Bigger Splash, featuring Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson. Monsieur, you are spoiling us with such erudite beauties. (See also A Good Year- a dose of sunshine with Russell Crowe in his most lovable role.)
Most likely to make you: want to sit in the dappled Mediterranean sun round a large table, rather than eating your tea on a lap tray in front of The Traitors
Peter’s Friends
Branagh triumphs again! And, yes that is another singalong you see before you- so sue me. Real mates making films together and having a right laugh in the process is such a win for me. Peter’s Friends is kind of a British version of The Big Chill (another great movie and what a soundtrack), chronicling a group of old university pals who reunite after a long time apart. Quite simply, warm, witty and sweet and also the first time that I’d ever heard the total banger that is Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears.
Most likely to make you: phone a long-lost friend
Frida
I deeply adore this film - its energy, its radicalism, its heart, its politics. Beautifully shot and lit and wonderfully rousing, the film was a labour of love for Salma Hayek and the team, and it shows. It also has perhaps the most beautiful end titles of any film ever created- I want this one at my funeral.
Kahlo has been a huge inspiration to me throughout my career, to the extent that I thanked her in my BAFTA acceptance speech (much to the bafflement of all the male game execs who slow clapped me off the stage). As someone who has been in pain her entire adult life, this film is more than a piece of art- it’s a manifesto. As Frida said on her deathbed. “I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to return.”
Most likely to make you: start a revolution
Amadeus
I am about to die on a very steep hill because I am making the huge claim that this is the best film ever made. Is that a large assertion? Yes. Justified? Abso-fucking-lutely. This is another just-watch-it job but it’s also lovely to read actor Tom Hulce and editor Michael Chandler experiences of filming this tour de force. Michael says:
“It was the greatest film experience I ever had. I got to work with Miloš, a genius. I’ve never seen anybody approach every single aspect of motion picture production with such mastery.”
This is a perfect film. A. Perfect. Film. I do also bloody love a movie that makes music-making look like such epic fun.
Most likely to make you: put off writing a Requiem Mass
Parenthood (1989)
Composer Randy Newman has a lot to answer for. He has made millions of us ugly cry over the decades and perhaps his biggest tear-inducing theme of all is his simple yet devastating piano lullaby for Parenthood. The film is so funny and wise about families and all the messy love, chaos and challenges of being human are beautifully rendered here. It features yet another stellar cast - Steve Martin, the ever-loveable Dianne Wiest, Joaquin Phoenix, Martha Plimpton, Keanu again, Rick Moranis, Mary Steenburgen and Tom Hulce (my beautiful Amadeus). The scenes between Hulce and late great Jason Robards get me every single time. Ron Howard’s most personal film, this story will break your heart, put it together, break it again- finally ending with a scene so tender that it will leave you in a sobbing yet hopeful heap.
(For another slice of big, beautiful family American see also the brilliant, very underrated Dan in Real Life.)
Most likely to make you: fall in love (again) with Dianne Wiest
Belly of an Architect
This is the film that’s embedded most deeply and permanently into my heart. Greenaway’s masterpiece on mortality is the most melancholy film that I’ve included on the list, but this love letter to Rome and architecture is worth every single moment. I am in swooningly in love with Brian Dennehy, and his barn-storming, heartbreaking performance is quite the thing to behold. Featuring one of the best soundtracks of all time from Wim Mertens and Glenn Brancra, this erotic, thought-provoking, profound artwork will stay with you forever. (Have I included another still of beautiful posh people in white shirts picnicking below- maybe. But I’m not sorry- look at the lighting and the composition in that shot.)
Side note: I forced my family do a four day tour of Rome in 40 degree heat in the summer of 2018 that included visiting every single location (27 of them) in the film.
Most likely to make you: make your family do a four day tour of Rome in a heatwave
Out of Africa
“I had a farm in Africaaa.” Meryl delivering perhaps the most iconic opening of any film ever. We’ve just lost the impossible to replace Robert Redford, so there’s never been a better time to revisit this epic classic. The score by John Barry is unparalleled in its ability to evoke breathtaking vistas and that divine love affair for the ages. Unashamedly romantic, it’s another film that shows us a swiftly disappearing world. This is a movie to watch on a rainy Sunday- let its grand heart sweep you away.
Most likely to make you: fantasise about Robert Redford washing your hair
Close My Eyes
On one of my first dates with my now husband I took him to the local video shop in Brighton. I picked up a copy of Close My Eyes and the guy behind the counter said ‘Come on…you know the rules, Jess.’ Dan looked at me quizzically and he said “She’s been banned from renting Clive Owen videos because she licks the box.” Reader, he still married me.
A film featuring incest is a controversial choice but writer/director Stephen Poliakoff makes it seem, well, very hot indeed. (Did I really just write that?) Set over a sizzling summer in London with a dreamy score by Michael Gibbs, the film tracks the developing relationship between two siblings who just can’t resist each other. Beautiful, subtle performances by the leads Saskia Reeves and my boi Clive Owen and Alan Rickman is on predictably fine form here, as the suspicious, heartbroken husband, Sinclair. More great tablescapes feature too.
Most likely to make you: nervous around your brother
Maestro
Another film that explores the joy, passion and obsession involved in creating and making music. Bradley Cooper’s exuberance and energy in portraying Leonard Bernstein is extraordinary to behold. The cinematography is stunning and Leonard also throws down some serious wisdom:
“A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.”
I liked this film so much more the second time I watched it- there’s so much going on that it’s almost distracting, but on a re-watch it really got to me and I found myself completely submitting to its exultant ostentatiousness. This is also the house and garden that I would most like to own - they use the real family house when shooting and you can get a gorgeous glimpse into it in this Architectural Digest feature. It’s a love letter to music and that’s a great place to end.
Most likely to make you: buy a baton and move to Connecticut
Well, that’s it folks. I hope these wonderful films sustain and nourish you over the coming months. I wanted to finish with the quote above because we all have to remember to keep laughing. We’re going to go down otherwise. Keep helping, keep being kind and let’s all just keep going.
If you’re enjoying my writing then I would be so grateful if you would like, share and re-stack. Your support means the world to me. Please do tell me which films you’d like to live in. (No orcs allowed).
Ah, this is lovely - thank you, Jessica. I've always wanted to live in the Honeychurch's house from 'A Room with a View': there's a particular part of the Surrey Hills, just south of Peaslake, where I'm convinced it should rightfully be. Completely agree on 'Much Ado...' and 'About Time'
Another wonderful article with plenty of great recommendations to seek out beyond those already viewed, thank you! Me? I would gladly move into and spend hours on end in Deckard's gloomy yet beautiful apartment in Blade Runner.. also his rather more spacious place from Blade Runner 2049 (holographic Elvis.. who's in?! Alternatively, joining the summer shift making hay in Malick's sublime Days of Heaven (perhaps departing before those pesky locusts turn up..). Finally for now, were De Niro's character to pop his bathed-in-blue ocean house from Heat on airbandb I'd certainly book it for a weekend without hesitation, regardless of asking price. An ideal place to zone out before heading to L.A. for some cops & robbers escapism!