Best Scenes, Take One: Where is Your Heart?

May 19, 2015

I'm making a list of favorite scenes in literature/cinema. Why? ummm…probably for the same reason I catalogued every videotape I’d used throughout the 90s and why I watch the same movies too many times:  because I can and I may have a teensie bit of a problem.  Oh, and remembering things that matter to me ranks right up there with breathing, so that counts. And hobbies are good.

As cliched as it may be, I am a true fan of Jane Austen. Her female protagonists are always uniquely strong with a well-hidden crack somewhere inside the corset.  In the Oscar Award Winning adaptation of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Elinor (always the kind and sensible one) finds herself discreetly in love with Edward Farris. The love between them has not been spoken, but it is understood.  Trust me, the characters know it, the audience knows it, and Jane Austen definitely MEANT it. The two are clearly intended to (politely) grab on and hold on to each other for dear life.  To steal from another of Austen’s masterpieces, Persuasion, “There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison.”

 Elinor’s sister, Marianne, is as concerned with romance and the heart as is Elinor with the logistics and propriety of life.  Through a series of twisted events that would make sense to all the Georgian English, may they rest in peace, Elinor discovers that the love of her life (Edward) is engaged to a nice but ill-suited gal named Lucy (who doesn’t deserve him, if you ask me…and the engagement was a blip in their youth that is another sketchy component of the era).  Lucy has confided in Elinor, and Elinor has long harbored this secret that has broken her heart.

In this scene, Marianne discovers that Elinor knows her love is seemingly obligated to another.  Their exchange whips up my tears every time.

http://youtu.be/C5yp1RTbWkw