Love connection

In a totally unrelated conversation today, I was talking about the movie "The Little Princess," which was directed by Alfonso Cuaron, who I think is a wonderful cinamatographer. He also directed my favorite Harry Potter movie to date, "Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban." The fact that Gary Oldman is in that movie only enhances it for me. Vampire, drug addict, werewolf -- damn, that man can act.

Cuaron also collaborated on the beautifully tragic, but wickedly compelling, "Pan's Labyrinth." But he's probably most well-known for his coming-of-age story, "Y Tu Mama Tambien," which I also highly recommend.

So in the course of discussing Alfonso and his previous works, I stumbled on the fact that he's in pre-production on a movie version of The History of Love.

This is a beautiful and fabulous book. If you've never read it, I recommend it. It's authored by a young woman, but it's the story of old men. I've always thought that was so amazing, how a young person can write about being old. The imagination that must take. To be a fiction writer, you must have a sense of your characters. If you've never been in love, how can you write about the gut-wrenching loss of heartbreak? How can you describe the twisted anguish of desire that rips your mind in two? It takes a talent that many wish for, but only few enjoy.

What must a life be like when it's nearing the finish, worrying about who and when someone will find your old, used up self, dead in your old, used up apartment.

"When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day. It will say, LEO GURSKEY IS SURVIVED BY AN APARTMENT FULL OF SHIT. I'm surprised I haven't been buried alive. The place isn't big. I have to struggle to keep a path clear between bed and toilet, toilet and kitchen table, kitchen table and front door. If I want to get from the toilet to the front door, impossible, I have to go by way of the kitchent table. I like to imagine the bed as home plate, the toilet as first, the kitchen table as second, the front door as third: should the doorbell ring while I am lying in bed, I have to round the toilet and the kitchen table in order to arrive at the door."

I just hope it's as beautifully directed.