Tonight's movie screening at Riverbend's Cinema Paradiso is based on a novel by Somerset W. Maugham set in England, Hong Kong, and China of the 1920s, and is a beautifully written affirmation of the human capacity to grow, to change, and to forgive.
Its title refers to Percy Shelley’s sonnet "Lift not the painted veil . ." which reads,
Lift not the painted veil which those who live Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there, And it but mimic all we would believe With colours idly spread, --- behind, lurk Fear And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear. I knew one who had lifted it --- he sought, For his lost heart was tender, things to love, But found them not, alas ! nor was there aught The world contains, the which he could approve. Through the unheeding many he did move, A splendour among shadows, a bright blot Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove For truth, and like the Preacher found it not. |
Unfortunately, some of the most memorable lines in the book have been left out of the movie.
His lips moved. He did not look at her. His eyes stared unseeing at the white-washed wall. She leaned over him so that she might hear. But he spoke quite clearly.
'The dog it was that died.'
She stayed as still as though she were turned to stone. She could not understand and gazed at him in terrified perplexity. It was meaningless. Delirium.
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(Kitty asking Waddington) 'What did he mean by saying: the dog it was that died? What is it?'
'It's the last line in Goldsmith's Elegy.'
Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog
Good people all, of every sort,
And in that town a dog was found,
The wound it seemed both sore and sad Oliver Goldsmith
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