The Bookshop

Full disclosure: I was pretty drunk...so you might want to question my judgment on that account...but I'd also leaven that with the fact that usually when I'm drunk I have a very, very short attention span...and when I try to watch something I usually fall asleep after ten minutes. But as I was flipping through the channels, so to speak, I saw a movie called The Bookshop on Amazon Prime Video, and since I like bookstores, I decided to have a look. Well. One hour and fifty-three minutes later I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked up Isabel Coixet, who had directed and written the screenplay for this movie, and then looked up Penelope Fitzgerald, who had written the novel the movie was based on. I am looking forward to spending a lot more time with these women.

As for Isabel...I thought she did a brilliant job here, and I want to see more of her work. For your shopping convenience, here's a guide to her work:

As Director:
Light on Broken Glass
It Snows in Benidorm
Foodie Love 
Gelato di Neve
Elisa & Marcela 
Amodio 
The Bookshop 
Proyecto tiempo 
El espíritu de la pintura 
No es tan fría Siberia 
Spain in a Day 
'Normal' 
Un corazón roto no es como un jarrón roto o un florero 
Parler de Rose, prisonnière de Hissène Habré
Endless Night 
Learning to Drive 
Another Me 
Venice 70: Future Reloaded
Yesterday Never Ends 
Marea Blanca 
Escuchando al juez Garzón
Aral. El mar perdido
50 años de 
 La mujer, cosa de hombres 
Map of the Sounds of Tokyo 
I Elegy 
Invisibles: "Cartas a Nora"
Paris, je t'aime: "Bastille"
The Secret Life of Words 
Marlango 
¡Hay motivo!: "La insoportable levedad del carrito de la compra" 
Viaje al corazón de la tortura 
My Life Without Me 
A los que aman 
XII premios Goya 
Things I Never Told You 
Demasiado viejo para morir joven 

Mira y verás  

That's a whole lot of love...and I'm guessing that most of it won't be easily accessed...but I'm going to see what I can see, because I thought Ms. Coixet's work on The Bookshop was just brilliant. The way she would move from a highly emotional scene to a shot of birds flying or grass being moved by the wind, for instance...which gave the viewer a moment to reflect before going back to the story...it was just perfect, really.

And as for Penelope Fitzgerald...I am going to the library today to pick up an Everyman omnibus of three of her novels. Here's what she did:

Biographies
Edward Burne-Jones 
The Knox Brothers 
Charlotte Mew and Her Friends: With a Selection of Her Poems 

Novels
The Golden Child
The Bookshop
Offshore 
Human Voices 
At Freddie's 
Innocence
The Beginning of Spring 
The Gate of Angels 
The Blue Flower

Short story collections
The Means of Escape

Essays and reviews
A House of Air

Letters

So I Have Thought of You

A good amount of work, but if it strikes you as not so prodigious, here's an interesting bit of context: Penelope didn't start writing until she was 58 years old, and she died at age 83. The LFPL has quite a few of her books, so if I get hooked I'll be able to put a pretty good dent in this list.

But as for this movie, this so-called The Bookshop? Well.  There is not a single kiss in this movie, but it is most assuredly about love. There is not a single punch thrown, but it is most assuredly about hatred and violence. It is written and acted with humor, dignity, and realism. I completely forgot that I was watching a movie for most of this movie. And--the big tell for me--not once did I pause the movie in order to see how much time was left.

And there were some superb lines, such as: "Understanding makes the mind lazy." (This brilliant line was uttered by the character Edmund Brundish, played to perfection by Bill Nighy.)


I'd have to say that IMHO, this was a perfect movie. I am looking forward to watching it again in the near near. Sober this time, as I don't want to miss ANYthing.