Wednesday 22 June 2011

Self-Portrait 22


I wouldn’t mind being Humphrey Bogart.

Or being he in Casablanca anyway – running a cool café, wearing some great clothes, rekindling a passionate long lost-love, getting to kiss her like it’s the last time and then being so unselfish about how things should be at the end - in a rainy airport.

Rick: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you're getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.
Ilsa: But, Richard, no, I... I...
Rick: Now, you've got to listen to me! You have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we'd both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn't that true, Louie?
Captain Renault: I'm afraid Major Strasser would insist.
Ilsa: You're saying this only to make me go.
Rick: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Ilsa: But what about us?
Rick: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.
Rick: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that.
[Ilsa lowers her head and begins to cry]
Rick: Now, now...
[Rick gently places his hand under her chin and raises it so their eyes meet]
Rick: Here's looking at you kid.


I’ve got a feeling though that I’ll never be him – I’m much more likely to be Ilsa.

Still, I’ll get to wear some great dresses.

Which probably says more about me than I should admit to.

What I will admit to however, is also wanting to be Dr Who in “The Eleventh Hour” – the first episode of the season that introduced Matt Smith as the Doctor. (TD)

If you have missed this gem of British Broadcasting hurry now to see it.

AP: Why me?
TD: Why not?
AP: No, seriously. You are asking me to run away with you in the middle of the night, it's a fair question. Why me?
TD: Dunno! Fun! Do I have to have a reason?
AP: People always have a reason.
TD: Do I look like people?
AP: Yes!
TD: Been knocking around on my own for a while, my choice, but I've started talking to myself, all the time, it's giving me earache.
AP: You're lonely. That's it. Just that.
(They both wander around to face each other.)
TD: Just that. Promise.
(Right behind the Doctor's head, is a television screen. And on it, right now, is the crack. The same crack as was in Amy's wall, exactly the same shape. Very creepy.)
AP: Okay.
(The Doctor doesn't seem to have noticed it as he switches the television screen off, but there's always the possibility.)
TD: So you're okay then? Cause this place. Sometimes it can make people feel a bit... you know.
AP: I'm fine. Fine. It's just... there's a whole world in here, just like you said. It's all true. I thought, well, I'd, I'd started to think that maybe you were just like a... madman with a box.
TD: Amy Pond, there's something you better understand about me, cause it's important, and one day, your life may depend on it. I am definitely a madman with a box.
(He grins broadly at her until she does, then laughs, and she laughs too as he turns and starts to dart around the console.)
TD: Ha haa, yes! Goodbye, Leadworth! Hello... everything!


I’m not sure the same unselfish integrity carries into this dialogue, but i could easily be happy about myself as a madman with a box.

3 comments:

Anne Hodgson said...

I have missed it, I admit, and must go and get a DVD. Don't have a TV, see, and too dumb to do internet TV. So: Can you recommend one?

popps said...

can i recommend one what?
Episode?
TV?
Place to go in a time machine?

Anne Hodgson said...

Youtube is fine, but I was thinking DVDs or something downloadable, but I guess we're not there yet. OK, so how do you get them on the TV, then? I keep thinking German TVs still only play only state-owned media channels.
I'm feeling slightly stuck in a time machine myself.