disneydream06 | (no subject)

Last night I went to see the new movie "Florence Foster Jenkins".
It stars Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant.
For lack of a better word to describe it, it was...
AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's the true story of a woman who was a child prodigy on the piano. She played for the President at the age of 8.
Sadly at the age of 18 she got married and contacted syphilis from her first husband. She developed nerve damage in her left hand and couldn't play the piano any more.
Her love of music continued though and after inheriting a LOT of money from her father, she moved to NYC and started joining/setting up music societies.
As she grew older she saw herself as a great singer. Nobody had the nerve to tell her she wasn't. They were all very protective of her. She remarried and her new husband(Hugh Grant) had a girlfriend on the side, would do every thing, with her money of course, to fulfill Florence's fantasies. He would pay off newspaper columnists to get good reviews of her little performances for their society groups.
After privately making a record things begin to snow ball. Florence sends one to a radio company and it gets played. It becomes a "hit" with GIs, not because it's good of course.
Then when the husband is away with his girlfriend for a weekend, Florence goes out and rents Carnegie Hall to put on a show and gives a thousand tickets to the GIs.
The GIs show up for the show rowdy and drunk. When Florence begins her show they begin to laugh at her, and Florence nearly falls apart on stage. Then a less then sophisticated lady who had been to another of her shows and reacted the same way as the GIs stands up and shames them into applauding her and she finishes her show.
Unfortunately, the reviewer from the Post was there and walked out as soon as people started to laugh. He writes a horrible review calling her the worst singer ever. Her husband tries to prevent Florence from seeing the review, but eventually she finds it. She collapses and a few weeks later, after surviving with syphilis for so many years succumbs and dies.
Cue the water works. :o I should have brought some Kleenex. :o
It was an emotional roller coaster. You start out laughing at her. Especially after they hire a pianist. He nearly steals the show with his reactions to her singing. But like him and the lady at the Carnegie Hall concert, you come to love Florence and want her to be happy. Then when her world starts to come apart you, or at least me, cry your eyes out.
If you get a chance I highly recommend this movie. :)

When I left the theater, the whole Western sky was a bank of big dark clouds except one little are that was open to the sky behind, and it was so cool. It looked just like those pictures you see of distant star clusters. Not so much the stars themselves, but the coloring they give those pictures. Dang, not a good description. I wish I had had my camera with me to try and get a picture of it.
Then when I was taking the on ramp down onto the highway heading home, I looked up and saw the bright glow of the nearly full moon peeking out from behind the edge of another cloud bank. Very cool. :)