Flore's Thoughts

directed by Steven Shainberg

Since the book I am reading now has more than 700 pages and my reading time is limited and I felt like writing something here, I thought I’d try to write about one of my favorite movies.

Secretary is a story about an unconventional love between Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and her boss, E. Edward Grey (James Spader). After being released from a mental institution, Lee gets back to her dysfunctional family and starts trying to have a normal life. After a difficult beginning caused by her alcoholic father, she manages to get a job as a secretary at Mr Grey’s law firm. At first, her lack of experience and social awkwardness seems to bother Mr Grey, but after a while we realize that he is attracted by her submissive behavior.

We witness the start of a relationship between the two characters. Many would describe it as weird or way out there, but who are we to decide what’s weird and what’s not. People act the best way they can at any given moment. I think I wrote about “normal” before, but even if I didn’t, I don’t really feel like blabbering about some things most people wouldn’t care about. So, back to our story. I really like a phrase used to describe the synopsis on the movie’s official site :

The tender beauty of two people coming slowly together in a mutually quirky and unconventional harmony is captured perfectly.

I’m not going to try to put that in any different way.

After a while, Lee gets fired because of Edward’s shame in what he was feeling and doing. Pressured by her family and boyfriend she accepts the latter’s marriage proposal. But, just before the wedding, she runs away to Mr Grey’s office and declares her love to him by sitting on his desk chair for three days without moving. That’s quite a love declaration, right?

He finally comes after her and they live happily ever after. The End

Mark Twain:

- Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
- A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
- Let us be thankful for fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.
- The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.
- One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.
- The older we grow the greater becomes our wonder at how much ignorance one can contain without bursting one’s clothes.
- Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.

Albert Einstein:

- Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
- Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
- The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
- The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
- Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
- All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man’s life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Robin Williams:

- We had gay burglars the other night. They broke in and rearranged the furniture.
- Do you think God gets stoned? I think so… look at the platypus.
- Ah! So many pedestrians… so little time.
- Reality is just a crutch for people who can’t cope with drugs.

Source: http://quotations.about.com/

“What a terrible mistake to let go of something wonderful for something real.”

– Miranda July (“Making Love in 2003″, No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories)

“Some people need a red carpet rolled out in front of them in order to walk forward into friendship. They can’t see the tiny outstretched hands all around them, everywhere, like leaves on trees.”

– Miranda July (“Ten True Things”, No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories)