"You're far away. Where are you?"

Captain Von Trapp: "In a world that's... disappearing, I'm afraid."

I've been doing a lot of holiday reading on Bonhoeffer [a theologian executed by the Nazis for his involvement in the assassination attempt of 1944] for a Christology essay, and all the talk of the Anschluss and his avoidance of military service - quite apart from stirring one's moral depths ["People like you have a foundation, you have ground under your feet, you have a place in the world. There are things you take for granted, that you stand up for, and for which yo are willing to put your head on the line, because you know your roots go so deep that they'll sprout new growth again"] - inspired me to once again immerse myself in one of my favourite movies of all time...

LET'S RUN AWAY to:

...We'll don a divine dress, and dance with the post-boy in a gazebo under the moon...

[OK, Rolf is an evil little Hitler Youth who looks like a gerbil... it's just much more pleasant to imagine someone like Mr Marsden waiting beneath the stars for you instead...]

"I am sixteen going on seventeen
I know that I'm naive
Fellows I meet may tell me I'm sweet
And willingly I believe
I am sixteen going on seventeen
Innocent as a rose
Bachelor dandies, drinkers of brandies
What do I know of those?"

"You have no idea how delicate and tender a young girl's life is during the time of her first love. It can only be told in music, but imagine it like a party, a party in a fairy castle where the air glitters like blushing silver..."
-Jens Peter Jacobsen



...We'll go to the hills when our hearts are lonely...

...We'll drive to Vienna in old automobiles, with the roof down and a scarf around our hair...

...We'll climb in the trees and go blue/strawberry-picking, like "local urchins..."

...We shall throw "a grand and glorious party" in the ballroom...

Brigitta: The women look so beautiful.
Kurt: I think they look ugly.
Louisa: You just say that because you're scared of them.
Kurt: Silly, only grown-up men are scared of women.
Gretl: I think the men look beautiful.



... and drink pink lemonade on the veranda...

Evil Baronness: Not too sweet, not too sour.
Max: Just too... pink!

...and, of course, embarking on a love story with the heroic Captain Von Trapp...
The Captain: "Fraulein Maria, you are obviously many things, not the least of which... is repetitious... Good night."

"Fraulein. I want you to stay. I- ask you to stay."

[Love, love, love the dresses - the styles, the soft colours, the sashes - everything!]

Mother Abbess: What is it you can't face?
Maria: I can't face him again.



The Captain: You left without saying goodbye ... even to the children.
Maria: Well, it was wrong of me. Forgive me.
Captain: ...Why did you?

You wander down the lane and far away
Leaving me a song that will not die
Love is now the stardust of yesterday
The music of the years gone by...
Beside a garden wall
When stars are bright
You are in my arms
The nightingale tells his fairy tale
A paradise where roses bloom
Though I dream in vain
In my heart it will remain
My stardust melody
The memory of love's refrain...
-'Stardust,' Nat King Cole


"There's something to be said for that kind of 'bam!' confidence [in a woman walking straight up to a man and telling him she wants him]. But there's also something very sweet about not having the guts to profess your love for somebody, then finding a way to each other."
-James Marsden


The Captain:"Well, you can't... marry someone, when you're - in love with someone else. Can you?"
Maria shakes her head...

The Captain: What else does the Reverend Mother say?
Maria: That you have to look for your life.
The Captain: Is that why you came back?
[Maria nods.]
And have you found it, Maria?
Maria: I think I have... I know I have.

*Proof* that there can be a happy ending for a girl who:
"Climbs a tree and scrapes her knee
Her dress has got a tear
She waltzes on her way to Mass
And whistles on the stair
And underneath her wimple
She has curlers in her hair!
I even heard her singing in the abbey!
She's always late for chapel
But her penitence is real
She's always late for everything
Except for every meal...
How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Maria?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!
...Unpredictable as weather
She's as flighty as a feather
She's a darling! She's a demon! She's a lamb!
She'd outpester any pest
Drive a hornet from its nest
She could throw a whirling dervish out of whirl
She is gentle! She is wild!
She's a riddle! She's a child!
She's a headache! She's an angel!
She's a girl!"

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

My grandparents in the 1940s - Nanny is wearing the dress she gave me for Christmas and drinking champagne.


Baroness: Champagne, darling? I feel like celebrating. Cheers...

[Sound Of Music screencaps from artless]