I’m having a magical rainy afternoon. I got up this morning at six as my Goblin had to leave for work by seven. He’s a very smart Goblin; there’s been some sort of problem in the Australian branch (he’d tell you he works for Gringotts) that he’s needed to help solve. I meant to eat my breakfast, but I ended up reading something and I forgot I was hungry…which is bad as that meant I forgot to take my pills. It was shortly after eleven when I sat down in front of the tv to eat. Flipping through the channels I suddenly heard French so I paused (assuming it was a commercial for shampoo or cars or something) and then an English translation popped onto the screen. A French film on tv when I’m in the mood to sit and watch a French film? Magic! It was called “The Green Ray”. I’d never heard of it. I had no idea what the green ray was (at the beginning I kept wondering if green aliens or green slime would attack the main character, a pretty French lady who didn’t seem to do more than wander around France crying, but no there were no aliens). By the time it finished I was utterly captivated. I will have to buy a copy! The movie was made in 1986 and much of the dialogue is improvised, but you wouldn’t know it. It all flows. It has a simple plot; the main character has recently ended a relationship. She’s on holiday for a month and she has no one to spend it with. She’s lonely, but she feels abnormal because she can’t bear to act out meaningless surface relationships anymore. She wants her ideal man (a man who can appreciate the inside of her as well as the outside), but she has no idea how or where to find him. It isn’t until she ends up in Biarritz (at the seaside) that you learn the meaning of the title. When the film finished, I had that lovely mental feeling as if someone had poured a jug of cold water into my hot brain and filled me up to the brim. And it’s still raining. Lovely! I highly recommend The Green Ray. If you like esoteric French movies, you’ll love it. The ending is really sweet. I give it five stars.
If one of my readers, you may be pleased to hear that I have been working on Dancing the Maypole. I’m still trying to end chapter 38. (And yes I think there are about four more chapters to go – always four more) I’m happy with where the story is and I think I know where it’s going…unless I don’t and I’m delusional. That could be the case, but in the mean time my brain feels full and that makes me happy. Now all I have to do is translate that happy feeling into words on the page.