The King's Speech....

Woke up at three a.m. just sort of weirded out, and whaddaya know.... the film was available on the channel I subscribed to.

It's seemingly a favourite for the Oscars next month. It's about King George VI, father of Queen Elisabeth, who stammered terribly, and an Australian commoner who helped him.

Now, I know.... period film, Brits at their best, some people would say 'bo-ring'.

But it wasn't at all. To see Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush being brilliant to the point of inspiring awe for how good, was suspenseful. It helped that it is a true story...

I would recommend seeing this film. All the values are so perfect, it's amazing just for that alone. But the pivitol thing is the focussing of the script to two very diverse men, and the forming of a friendship. Colin F'irth was sometimes nearly painful to watch, the figure so tormented by his handicap. Geoffrey Rush hasn't been praised enough, for his portrayal of the man who helped him. It's very subtle, and he should have gotten a nomination for a very solid performance.

Again, I would recommend it. It's history. Beautifully done.

But I could relate, actually. When I worked as assistant in the cinema, we had ushers. Yeah, those were the good old days.... and girls on the candy stand.... and later usherettes... It was always the guys. Always. Some shy to the point of going beet red, really struggling to get one word out. And stammering.

I'm just glad I did the right thing. No self-praise here, but I sort of figured it out. I took the rest of the staff to a quiet moment, and laid down a law. 'I don't want to hear ANYONE making fun of ---whomever--- I do not want to hear ANYONE finishing his sentences, pretend everything is just normal. And be kind.'

Oddly, it always seemed to work. Within about three weeks, they suddenly started chattering up a storm, and some of them were usually the funniest people on the staff. There was no pressure.

The worst was HJ. The guy from Berlin who stuttered when he met new people. He spent six months, and worked in the drive-in and hung around the theater, and had this 'clicking' thing... it wasn't good. I did the same thing, and the result was the same. He had never relaxed among people before.

There are hints that it all goes back to childhood, and the film made that very clear.

What I never understood was a visit to Berlin, and hearing that man berate HIS son for stammering. I was shocked. As in 'this is beyond belief, how can he DO that?' And I got his wife out to the kitchen and asked her what the fuck hell was he DOING to his son, and didn't she know he had the same problem decades before?

My friend looked at me as if I'd delivered the biggest bitch slap she'd ever gotten. 'He never stammered.'

'You are so mistaken, when I met him he could hardly get a word out, and now he's doing this to your SON?'

The rest of that conversation is hereby censored, but you can imagine....

And of course, I had my own problems in communicating. I got bad grades in high school. I could be a motor-mouth in private, with people I trusted. But to have to speak in front of a hostile classroom, I just tried that twice. And I couldn't get a word out, and wanted to sink into the floor-boards.

I didn't even think I would survive the first two weeks I worked in the cinema. Because I would have to do 'the rounds', traverse the aisles, and ask people not to put their feet on the chairs in front of them.

Around week two, something happened, and I learned to be confident.

So yeah, the film resonated, and I wasn't thinking about all that directly while watching, but I so recognised and empathised with the people I was seeing. I should have made some popcorn, but at three in the morning... too much trouble.




I see the channel has put up 'The Social Network', so might go there the next time I have insomnia.... Facebook sort of makes me wary, so don't know.