I Capture the Castle

 I Capture the Castle is a wonderful film adaptation of a novel by Dodie Smith (that I have not read, but I intend to listen to the audio book on my road trip to Philadelphia next). Amazingly enough, Dodie Smith is also the writer of 101 Dalmations! It takes place in 1930s England and is told from the perspective of a teenage girl named Cassadra (played by Romola Garai). Now Miss Romola really gets all the best roles in all of my favourite period pieces, except for Kiera Knightley (whose acting I dislike and whose clothes I love).

 Anyway, in I Capture the Castle Cassadra and her family live in a run down Castle and rely on the support of their father, who is an author that hasn't been published in twelve years. They are utterly dirt poor, but everything around them is just beautiful. The Castle is so magical, it reminds me of when I was a girl and my mother took me to all of her friends houses who were starving artists. In particular, my mothers friend Jennifer had this apartment that felt unlike anything I've seen since, with white walls, white table clothes, white blankets, and brightly coloured painted canvases everywhere. In my own house my mother was always able to make things beautiful, even though we were living modestly. The idea of being able to make something drab into art is a very nice one isn't it. I forget sometimes that pretty things don't always have to be expensive (although sometimes they just do!).

I loved this movie not only because it was stunning and I would wear every one of Cassandra's outfits (I actually bought a vintage pattern in hopes of making myself one),  but also because I found it a very funny. Cassandra is so confused about her own feelings towards boys and she does things that she doesn't understand, and she makes mistakes, and hurts peoples feelings, and it's just like how I felt when I was a teenager. It's such a funny and confusing time in everyone's life, and Cassandra encapsulates that confused, hormonal wreck of a teenager perfectly. She is also just a very witty and candid narrator, you will fall in love with her.

 This movie just seems to have captured what my own imagined life is, right down to the beautiful blue bells that are scattered all around Toronto at the moment.