The Girl In The Cafe – on tour

The answer is no. Too much Bill is a contradictio in terminus.

I was going to write a one line post today:

“The only successful marriage I had was me and my work.”

Because I really don’t have much of a life at the moment. I am juggling between finishing our short film (we spend the whole weekend on it again – except for the 3 hour Pirate break – but we are getting there), rewriting my script and then there is my full time job. We are clinging on to the fact that the deadline for the short is the 11th of February, we will probably fall into hibernation for a week or two after that – but after that we will slowly get our life back.

As a result the energy to write lively blog posts is fairly low at the moment, I apologize.

Good I remembered that I have 2 reviews of The Girl In The Cafe that were due to be posted. So go and read them, one is from Laura in London, the other one from Marcello in Dubai.

A big Thank you to both of them for placing another marker on the map.

Would you like to join ?

Read more about TGITC on tour here, and sign up.

Everyone is welcome.

Love can’t change
what’s wrong in the world.
But it’s a start.

The Girl In The Cafe by Laura

“The Girl in the Cafe” is a refreshing step away from the typical formulaic romantic comedy. No surprise, then, that it comes from Richard Curtis, the man who has written the screenplays for some of the most well-known examples of this genre, including “Bridget Jones Diary”.

Curtis has previously dealt with close relationships that fall outside the usual romcom male/female love story, and with situations where the couple in question doesn’t quite live happily ever after. An example is the Sarah/Karl relationship in “Love Actually”, where Sarah’s love for her needy brother overrides her desire for Karl.

In a similar vein, although “The Girl in the Cafe” begins as a traditional romantic comedy, it deviates into something much more interesting and original. It is a story of being true to one’s own convictions rather than putting them aside to fit in or to be accepted.

The film begins with a chance meeting between Lawrence (Bill Nighy), a lonely public servant, and the young and mysterious Gina (Kelly McDonald). Their relationship develops along a fairly predictable route, but in the latter half of the movie, the romantic tension becomes secondary to the issue of the Millennium Development Goals.

I was surprised that I’d never heard of this film before, particularly seeing as I love Richard Curtis. It is a very worthwhile way to spend a couple of hours and definitely deserves more widespread recognition.

The Girl In The Cafe by Marcello

Life can be quite unbearable. Not for the obvious reasons, but often for very individual and subjective ones.

One might chose to create for themselves a world in which they believe they can go on, keep on living. A world that doesn’t hurt more than they need to be hurt. A world that sometimes can be very lonely. Not for lack of human contact, but for lack of close contact, of strong feelings, of expectations.

For some, that world is covered by a very intricate facade of normal life, where they see what they want to see, where they pretend it is fine not to care for things if they pretend they are doing their part, and, of course, if they don’t disrupt other people’s facade by confronting them or by putting them in a situation where all that make-believe world they have built crumbles right before their eyes.

For others, their world is based on altruism, and salvation comes from using their existence to make other people’s worlds more bearable, to give what they can give. No rewards. Except that of giving them a reason to be.

For another group, it might be easier to lock themselves out and just sit there, waiting, watching. Maybe someone will notice them. Maybe not.

However, worlds often collide. What happens when they do? What does one do with their life when they realise there are other possibilities? Is it worth to open up? To let others in? To let your true self out?

Roles interchange. The quiet speaks out their mind. The speaker silences. The passive acts.

What brought them to that moment is unimportant, after all, everybody has a history. What they will do after it is what matters. The outcome. Some things are changeable, some are not. But most importantly everyone must be willing to change. Some things will never be the same, and hopefully even improve. Others will go back to what they were.

Everyone must accept responsibility and go on with what they can bear.