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My top ten films

27th February 2007 by Helena 2 Comments  

Some Like It HotEver since I wrote the blog about the woman with the nasty neck I have been thinking about what other films would be in my top ten. Then the Oscars came and went and now I’m off to LA so a film-themed blog seems appropriate.

One thing that strikes me is that you can tell a lot about a person through his or her favourite films. For example, someone who tells you their favourite film is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is not really going to make you feel comfortable, especially if there happens to be a chainsaw lying around.

Incidentally, why do people subject themselves to horror movies? Is it the same principle as a roller-coaster? Some kind of emotional high you are incapable of feeling for some reason through normal measures like a new pair of shoes or great sex? Recently there was a horror movie so horrible that people were throwing up in the aisles. Really impressive on a first date.

Anyway, in no particular order, here are my top ten films and also a brief analysis of what liking the film tells you about a person.

Some Like it Hot – incurable romantic with desire to change men who will never change

Sleepless in Seattle – incurable romantic with fondness for alliteration

Thelma & Louise – incurable romantic with extreme fondness for Brad Pitt

Now, Voyager – incurable romantic with penchant for makeovers

Brief Encounter – incurable romantic with a taste for the impossible

Gone with the Wind – incurable romantic with sense of history and love of dramatic dresses

The Killing Fields – incurable romantic (think of the end) with strong feelings for human rights

Dr Zhivago – incurable romantic with particular romanticism about all things Russian

Casablanca – incurable romantic with a sense of realism, however irritating it might be

Zeffirelli’s Romeo & Juliet – incurable optimist – I always hope somehow the ending will have changed

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Life, blog --> Tagged With: films

2 thoughts on My top ten films

  • Anna says:
    27th February 2007 at 12:55 pm

    Very good…

    And how about Le Hussard sur le Toit? Fanfan?

  • helena says:
    27th February 2007 at 1:09 pm

    Ooohh, good point. Madame a deja un escort….what a hero he was.

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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