1) On The Waterfront
2) Breakfast at Tiffany's
3) The Hustler
My three favorite films of all time.
Award season is finally over in Hollywood.
Some winners, lotsa losers.
Usually, I am not a list person and on the rare occasion when I do make a list, I leave it at home (talk about being a loser) where it cannot possibly be of any good to me.
But the real important lists, the ones that create the soundtrack of our lives remain in our heads forever, don't they?
A few years back, I read an article telling me to put down on paper my three favorite movies and then study them really hard..... because somewhere in THAT list my true calling would be revealed to me.
So.......
I should be an ex-boxer who works on the New Jersey docks when I am not shooting pool while dressed like Audrey Hepburn.
I couldn't squeeze Holly Golightly's profession in ($50 for the powder room) because I always (willingly) seem to forget that Holly and Paul Varjak are prostitutes....delicious looking hookers....but prostitutes.....none the less.
The Hustler (1961)
Bert Gordon: Eddie, you're a born loser.
Bert Gordon: Sure you got drunk. You have the best excuse in the world for losing; no trouble losing when you got a good excuse. Winning... that can be heavy on your back, too, like a monkey. You'll drop that load too when you got an excuse. All you gotta do is learn to feel sorry for yourself. One of the best indoor sports, feeling sorry for yourself. A sport enjoyed by all, especially the born losers.
Fast Eddie: Thanks for the drink.I haven’t seen “The Hustler” in years, however, February was TCM’s celebration of Oscar-winning movies and there was nothing else on television so I decided to watch it one more time.
Paul Newman plays “Fast Eddie” who is a pool hustler and all around loser.
Irony.
My definition of irony: it is the very guts of life.
It is when the very last thing you want in your life comes galloping once again over the horizon trumpeting out your name.
Am I being melodramatic?
Yes and No.
My mother didn’t call me “little Sarah Bernhardt” for nothing.
I swear to God, I showed up for the nineties.
I was there when Oprah and her posse preached to her congregation of upper middle-class white women about visualizing exactly what we wanted the most and “The Law Of Attraction ” would sweep into our lives making everything all hunky-dory.
I couldn’t possibly be “on a bathroom break” for an entire decade….or could I have been?
March 1st, 1995.
I left my husband twenty years ago.
I married to get out of my parents’ home. Sadly, this is not an uncommon occurrence amongst girls with low self-esteem.
March 1st, 2015.
Guess who’s coming to dinner?
And staying.
My father.
So much for my hunky-dory life.
Had I known twenty years ago what I know now, I would have reached for the hemlock.
Ron Armstrong: Robyn, you’re a born loser.
Ah, the soundtrack of my youth.
That’s what my father would call me. In all fairness, he always started with just “Robyn, you’re a loser” but by the end of his speech…I was a full out born loser. Just like “Fast Eddie” in “The Hustler”.
Irony.
My father is sitting next to me while I watched “The Hustler” last week on TCM.
And my brother makes three.
One big, happy family!
The short version: I leave home to escape (Abuser#1) my father so I can marry my husband (Abuser#2) I get divorced to rid myself of (Abuser#2) so I can go back to the starting line of abuse…..my father.
Let’s face it, you can’t make stuff like this up.
And if you’re wondering how I feel about what I call “the very guts of life”?
Do I feel sorry for myself?
BERT GORDON: ALL YOU GOTTA DO IS LEARN TO FEEL SORRY FOR YOURSELF. ONE OF THE BEST INDOOR SPORTS, FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF. A SPORT ENJOYED BY ALL, ESPECIALLY THE BORN LOSERS.
You bet my sweet born loser ass, I do.
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