remember the movie called impromptu with judy davis, julian sands & hugh grant? it was about georges sand, franz lizst & frederic chopin. i loved that movie...mainly because i had a thing for julian sands after seeing a room with a view. but it was also educational. you know, it was a place to start if you didn't know anything about any of them but wanted to because you're artistically inclined or hoped to be (me). or more to the point, if you're into vintage gossipy scandals (also me).

today i began anne rice's book called out of darkness and in it she mentions a lot of her favorite things as a child, things that sort of defined who she became as a woman and a writer. she says that her mother was a great influence on her because of the poems she read to anne & her sister, the radio programs they listened to and the movies they saw. she especially loved this movie, which was a precursor, in my wacky mind, to the judy/julian/hugh movie, called a song to remember. in her book she says, "i was so taken by this film, so taken by the emotions of the young chopin, when he clutched a handful of polish earth and swore to remember it, that i wanted nothing more than to have such meaning in my own life, something that precious to me, something to which i could give my whole soul." the movie came out in 1948. she was, as far as i can figure from google, seven years old.

the biggest thing i wanted when i was seven was a barbie dream house. xo