emmagrant01 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
emmagrant01) wrote2011-12-21 09:51 pm
emmagrant01) wrote2011-12-21 09:51 pm
My "Love Actually" story
Before our son was born (and we had more disposable income), DH and I used to go to London every year over Thanksgiving weekend. We usually made almost a week of it, and we'd go to lots of theatre, do some Christmas shopping, and generally have a wonderful time.
On our 2003 trip, we had an evening free one night and decided after dinner to go to one of the cinemas on Leicester Square. We picked a movie that was conveniently about to begin, one I had only heard of because Liam Neeson was in it (and I was in the Star Wars Prequels fandom at the time). That movie, of course, was Love Actually.
To say that we enjoyed it is a huge understatement. The experience of seeing that movie and having no idea what it was about, in London in the midst of the Christmas season, and right after a fantastically romantic dinner at a great restaurant -- it was just perfect. And every time I see it, I remember the night that we saw it for the first time. That was one of the top ten movie-going experiences of my life!
What's your story? What makes that movie so special to you?
On our 2003 trip, we had an evening free one night and decided after dinner to go to one of the cinemas on Leicester Square. We picked a movie that was conveniently about to begin, one I had only heard of because Liam Neeson was in it (and I was in the Star Wars Prequels fandom at the time). That movie, of course, was Love Actually.
To say that we enjoyed it is a huge understatement. The experience of seeing that movie and having no idea what it was about, in London in the midst of the Christmas season, and right after a fantastically romantic dinner at a great restaurant -- it was just perfect. And every time I see it, I remember the night that we saw it for the first time. That was one of the top ten movie-going experiences of my life!
What's your story? What makes that movie so special to you?
no subject
I first watched Love Actually my sophomore year in college with a bunch of friends and it became a tradition while we were all together. Now I watch it every year when I wrap presents and remember the good times!
Love Actually
no subject
Over the years, it's morphed into the movie my dad and I watch together every Christmas! Which is a bit awkward during the more sexual scenes, but it's always kind of funny and he loves it as much as I do. :D
no subject
I don't remember my first time watching Love Actually, but to me this has become part of my Holiday tradition. I watch it every year and enjoy it just as much as I did the first time around.
no subject
http://thehairpin.com/2011/12/hate-actually/
I love it so much. SO much. I don't remember the time I saw it the first time but now it's an essential part of my holiday traditions. I wrap my gifts with mulled wine and Love Actually :)
no subject
It is a must watch at Christmas time.....and of course Mr. Darcy is there!
no subject
Lovely film.
no subject
I was just realizing the other week when there was a meme question going around, "What's your favorite Christmas movie?" and I thought I didn't have many Christmas movies I cared about; I'm fanatic about a number of Christmas specials, like Charlie Brown and the Grinch and nearly every Rankin-Bass show of that era, and there's the made-for-tv George C. Scott Christmas Carol and the Barishnikov/Kirkland Nutcracker. All of those are part of my Christmas tradition (and my Christmas in July tradition, too; I rewatch all of those every summer for fun!), but I don't really have an affinity for Christmas movies. And then I thought, "Wait, Love Actually's a Christmas movie, isn't it?" And I remembered that, yeah, I had really enjoyed that film, hadn't I, and I remembered that I really loved the Bill Nighy plotline best of all, and I got warm fuzzies.
no subject
no subject
It's not so much a memorable first experience, as it's become a holiday tradition to watch it. I'm a big anglophile and I love being able to recognize the landmarks and know that I've been there! (I do the same for movies filmed in Toronto!)
liam love
no subject
no subject
Carl.
Actually I don't remember the first time I saw it ... I've watched it so many times. One of my all time favorites, even if Sarah and Carl's story is heartbreaking. (I like to imagine a mini sequel where a few years later they get to have a different ending ...)
And now I'm asking myself if I should watch it tonight. Should I?
Thank you. That will be nice. Yes is being my answer. Easy question
no subject
no subject
It was kind of a strange experience all around; we were a party of five (my son and I, hiS host mother and her two younger daughters). The girls went to see a Disney film (the younger was only 10 or so at the time), Beth and I decided on "Love, Actually" even though we didn't even really know what it was about, and I lied to get my son into "The Matrix 2 (3?)", because at the time he was still 3 months short of his 18th birthday. IIRC, I told the ticket lady that we were tourists and just happened not to carry our passports -- but that I was vouching for my son. Luckily, he resembles me enough not to question that, and he's always been big and tall, so it must've been plausible enough -- he must've been the only underage kid in there who didn't get carded. :)
Afterwards, we also got to explain to the preteen why we didn't want to take her to Hooters. Not a problem to me, as such, but to her somewhat conservative American mother, who regularly sent her daughters to Bible Camp? Yeeaaaahh ... *grins*
no subject
no subject
When I was 17 my grandmother sent me to stay with her cousin's in London for a month. it was my first solo overseas trip and the longest I had ever been away from home. It was beyond a doubt one of the best experiences of my life. If my grandmother had made me a bit of an anglophile growing up this trip cemented it (as I suspect was her goal). When my plane took off to bring me back to the States I cried like I was leaving home not returning to it! But before that I sat with my great "uncle" in a terminal at Heathrow chatting and people watching, it's a memory I carry more than 10 years later and fueled the flames of a long standing love of airports. Soooo, when L.A. opened with the airport scene I was pretty much done for right from the start, my the end of the movie I was crying (I still do sometimes)
It's funny that you ask about the first time we saw the movie since I don't think I remember seeing any movie quite so clearly as this (except maybe the 2nd HP movie but that's an even longer story). I was on campus my junior year of college. Ironically I was supposed to be studding abroad in London that semester but when my grandfather feel seriously ill and was hospitalized on the day I was supposed to leave I returned to my home university instead. I remember standing in line at the campus center *by myself* waiting to get into the theater and being on the phone to my best friend at a different university depressed that my school friends were all enjoying their abroad experiences while I was going to end up spending my 21st birthday alone. Against all odds I left HAPPY and bought myself a copy of the DVD asap. (incidentally I ended up not spending my birthday alone and having a really great semester overall- not thanks to the movie, I wouldn't say it's life changing ;) but thinking about that whole time bring back so many memories!!)
no subject