the jewel on the screen

I've been (re)watching The Jewel in the Crown (1984). It is one of the screen depictions of India that has put the country so high on my list of places I'd like to visit. Other movies include City of Joy (1992) and Gandhi (1982). The acting in all three of these films is extraordinary. Peggy Ashcroft and Art Malik were probably the two that I remembered best from my watching of The Jewel when it was first shown on PBS. At least, by name.

Now, it is Geraldine James that I am finding most thrilling. Just her presence on screen, as Sarah Layton, fills me with emotion. It is partly because I had watched Benediction (2021) not long before I started watching The Jewel on Netflix discs. She is not someone that I particularly knew before this recent infatuation but there are other recent roles that I enjoyed without attaching her name (and career). She played Queen Mary in the first Downton Abbey movie. She is in 45 Years which has been on my Netflix queue for some time (I've just moved it up the queue). In that, she plays the friend of Charlotte Rampling who was nominated for an Oscar for her role.

When I was internet traversing for this post, I drifted across pictures of Geraldine James with Ben Kingsley as Gandhi. I was surprised to see that she had done another film set in India and then even more surprised to see that it predated, but only just, The Jewel. I guess I'll have to go watch Gandhi again now. One thing is leading to another ... like always.

(The picture is from the Apple TV page for The Jewel in the Crown. The actor in the driver's seat is Charles Dance, here playing Guy Perron, and also playing Lord Mountbatten in The Crown.)

world of joy and suffering

Last night, I watched the film City of Joy. It's not hard to watch Pauline Collins, Patrick Swayze, and Art Malik in a film but the story is tough. The City of Joy is a clinic run by Sister Joan (Collins) in the slums of Calcutta. Patrick Swayze plays Doctor Max who is troubled by his doctoring career and childhood memories. The clinic is targeted by the gang led by the godfather and his son (Malik). The film circles around the fate of a rickshaw runner and his family. The film has a bit of a Hollywood feel but is a heartbreaker and tearjerker with an optimistic ending. Sometimes I wish that I had chosen a life path which was more directly related to helping the needy. At the same time, I recognize that my talent for cataloging and indexing is perhaps more helpful as an income source so that I can donate to American Friends Service Committee or Doctors Without Borders.

City of Joy includes an episode in which a young woman who lives and helps at the clinic is attacked by the gang and her mouth and cheeks are razored. She is patched up by Doctor Max. In today's New York Times, there is an article about a real life case of a young Afghan woman who was axed by her brother because he believed she had run away with a man to whom she was not married. As the title of the article says, the "scars are [the] sole testimony to 'honor' victim's ordeal." What a testimony.

All of these thoughts swirl through my brain and heart and soul as I live in the relative luxury of middle-class America. Sometimes I wonder how we can get from one day to the next.

The picture is from the IMDb page for City of Joy.

P.S. It could be that I was set up by a fine rendition of "We shall overcome" at church on Sabbath morning. Thoughts of Martin Luther King and his legacy.