Shirley Valentine

"Dreams. They are never in the place you expect them to be."

"I've led such a little life. I have allowed myself to lead this little life, when inside me there was so much more. And it's all gone unused.  Why do we get all this life if we don't ever use it? Why do we get all these feelings and dreams and hopes if we don't ever use them? That's where Shirley Valentine disappeared to. She got lost in all this unused life."

 "I've fallen in love with the idea of living. Because we don't do what we want to do, do we? We do what we have to do and pretend that it's what we want to do.  And what I want is to stay here and be Shirley Valentine. " 

Recently I saw Pauline Collins, who I remember so well for her role as Shirley  Valentine in 1989, in Quartet with Maggie Smith.  It was a tad difficult to see her 23 years later as an opera singer with dementia.  Well, she's always a great actress, and inspired, I went to some trouble to locate a rare copy of the out of print film -  Shirley Valentine ,  one of my favorite movies of all time.

I watched it again last night, and as  always, came away from it feeling uplifted – time hasn’t dated the movie at all, perhaps because it’s about something that’s  timeless. On its surface, the movie (and the award-winning play from which the movie was adapted) is about Shirley Bradshaw, a middle-aged housewife living a stagnant, loveless life, and the choices and chances she makes and takes during a chance two-week vacation in Greece.  But at its core, it’s about remembering the place our joy comes from.  The place where we're each of us, woman or man, "Shirley Valentine".

I was amazed to discover that, with the great generosity of UTube,  the whole movie is available!  Who would have thought I could just see it again on my computer.........

https://youtu.be/G_7MJQnk4M8  (the Trailer)

https://youtu.be/5ak0n7_LN3k (the Whole Movie!)