Heading for the Abyss

I am getting over a problem with the pipes, and while I'm also playing an online game (I may or may not blog about that...  If I get desperate for ideas) I didn't want to go to far from home in case I got caught short.  I decided to watch "Wuthering Heights" ((A TV Version) and I highly recommend it).

It was scary, I could see Heathcliff and Cathy skidding towards the abyss, and I was so stressed.  I sat there, dismayed as their story played out,  I'd seen so many versions of this, I knew the ending BUT I Still screamed "NOOOOO!".  It's a bizarre thing. but I actually hoped for a happy end.  I was exhausted by the whole thing.

I've not been through anything like this since the great films of the 60's and 70's.  "The Haunting" pulled me in, and not using any CGI scared the crap out of me.  I watched it recently and it still scares me, and leaves me with dread.  "The Exorcist", while weakened by spoofs, still frightens me, and there's the fear of things unknown, the travel through the dark, to pray on the innocent.

This is turning into a supernatural thing, and I didn't particularly want to head in that direction.  There are so many films out there, that can drag you into the abyss.  I'm going to talk about one.  It's a film that doesn't telegraph the abyss, and when it finally comes, it comes like a runaway train.  It's a powerful film and I can honestly say, you want to see a masterclass in acting, it's so worth watching.  Saying that, you'd have to stop me from plucking out my eyes, to get me to watch it again.

The Film's "Jude"(1996) starring Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet. and it's a romance.  It's based on a Thomas Hardy Novel and I went to see it with a good friend.  So here's the tale.

It was a cool winter's day and myself and my friend, Linda, were doing what we'd do once a week.  There was two cinema's fairly close together and what we'd do, is pick a film in one and then go on to the second and watch a film there.  I don't know who chose "Jude" but we both enjoyed the classics (TV not Books).  We got our tickets and sat through the previews.  I was expecting a good film and wasn't disappointed as the lights went down and the film started.  (I'm not going to give any of the story away, as I may have flashbacks and I don't particularly want them.  Even though it's a POWERFUL love story, it has an ending, where you not only stare into the abyss (It's behind a curtain) you almost cheerfully leap into the bugger.  I was going to string it out, make a proper tale of it) It was beautifully filmed and it's one of those romances (Like "Romeo and Juliet") that goes against society's moral stance.  They take everything that society throws against them.  You cheer them on, you admire them and you rage against their society that abandons them.  Just as you feel
things may turn, the abyss turns up.  You find yourself being hit by a sledgehammer of grief and remorse as you, Jude Fawley and Sue Bridehead fall into that black darkness.

Well we left that cinema, and I turned to Linda and said "FUCK!" she replied with the heartfelt words, "FUCKITY FUCK FUCK" and I tell you now, if the wasn't railings outside that cinema we'd have been tempted to walk out under a bus.  (Tempted but I doubt if we'd have done it).  It was one of the most powerful films I'd ever seen.  We laugh about it now, but that film broke my heart.

Anyway What's "Tess of the Dubervilles" like?