No One Can Choose Where We Will Love
“Masquerade! Paper faces on parade! Masquerade! Hide your face so the world will never find you . . . ”
I love that song. I’m listening to the first CD of “Phantom” right now. It is such an incredible play.
“And in the boat, there was a man . . .
Who was that shape in the shadows? Who’s is the face in the mask?”
I love the whole idea of Phantom of the Opera. I mean, he’s this horribly disfigured man, shunted aside by society, hidden away in the bowels of the earth underneath an operahouse. Yet, a spark of hope remains in his life, because of his obsession with a chorus girl who had a very promising voice. He fell in love with her because of that, helping her with training, and letting her think that he was the Angel of Music her father promised to send to her. I’ve seen the play once, and I read a very in-depth book by Susan Kay about it. I love one quote from that book. “No one can choose where we will love.”
In so many ways, the Phantom drove Christine insane in his attempts to get her to love him. Yet, in the end, she did love him, of her own free will. They kissed. She looked upon his face and form without fear, but with affection and love. Again, a concept that I love. Despite everything, she did love him in the end.
I know I’m going off subject, but it’s something I was thinking on last night. That movie that I mentioned a bit ago, Portrait of Jennie. When I watched it in it’s entirity for the first time, I thought it was such a sad movie. Basically, a struggling painter named Eben Adams, in walking through a park one day and he meets this young girl. They talk, and she makes an odd wish. “I wish you’d wait for me to grow up so we could always be together.”
Well, he thinks she’s a funny sort of kid, but her face is in his mind, and he sketches her from memory, and actually sells the picture. He sees her a couple of other times, and each time, she seems significantly older. Finally, they do fall in love, and Eben has her pose for a painting, appropriately titled his ‘Portrait of Jennie.’ Well, she says that before they can be together, she’s going on a vacation with her aunt, but she’d be back when the summer ends.
The summer ends, and she does not return. Well, Eben does some investigating, and finds out that the Jennie that he met died years ago, in a boating accident when she took a trip over the summer with her aunt.
Eben refuses to accept that. His Jennie told him that their lives were connected, and neither time nor the world could tear them apart. So, he goes to where she supposedly died, thinking, hoping, and praying that he could save her. He sees her one last time, and she says goodbye, but he doesn’t save her, though he nearly kills himself trying.
I say that in some ways it’s not a sad movie, though, because when she was alive, Jennie never found someone to love. She came back as this ghost to find the person she would love, and who would love her. And they did find one another. Maybe they couldn’t be together for the rest of their lives, but they weren’t alone anymore, not really. Jennie found her soulmate, and Eben knew that he’d found his.
It’s a really good movie. I recommend to anyone that this is a movie to see.
–Notes–
Hey, did you ever get the gift certificate from me? Just wondering so I can stop worrying. 😛 I know one of them has been received but I haven’t heard about yours and one other yet. [*~Advice~*]
—————————————————————————
I shall have to see that movie 🙂 My mom has seen that play a few times, she loves it, hehe 🙂 [Confusion sets in]