A land of one's own

Jacques 2022-04-23 07:04:48

I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't know anything about Beatrix Potter before watching "Miss Potter", so I went for Renée Zellweger. A very beautiful and romantic movie, there are a few impressive scenes:

on Christmas Eve, with the accompaniment of the monotonous music box, Norman shyly sings "I won't forget the night when you told me how to dance", Dancing with Beatrix's hands, although the dance steps are a bit stiff, it makes people feel heartbroken.

Beatrix's parents separated the lovers in the name of going to the Lake District to escape the summer. Norman hurried to the platform to say goodbye. In the usual rain in London, in the long sound of the whistle, in the steam of the train, the moment of separation, Beatrix was the first. Calling Norman directly instead of Mr. Warne, Norman kisses Beatrix for the first time. The love at that time was so subtle, and calling it by its first name already contained incomparable courage and affection. Unexpectedly, he remembered the Girl with a pearl earring, the first time Vermeer saw Griet untie his scarf and loose his curly blond hair, and immediately stood on the spot.

When I saw Norman's death from pernicious anemia, I remembered the title and thought she was unmarried for life; keep reading, and later married a lawyer named William Heelis. Why not call Mrs. Heelis and keep the title of Miss? I murmured to myself, Madame Curie is powerful enough, but she still takes her husband's surname. How many people know Madame Curie's name when she was unmarried? Later, I checked WIKIPEDIA and found that she only married William Heelis at the age of 47. At that time, Peter Rabbit was famous for 11 years. Probably Miss Potter has already been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so all films and biographies call her Miss Potter.

The curtain call of the film, the theme song played, and I was immersed in it. It turns out that Yiren is not only a fairy tale writer and painter famous for Peter Rabbit; he is also a scientific worker, both a botanist and a mycologist. If he wants to put it aside now, he is definitely a doctor or a professor; Award-winning; she is also a female landowner. With the help of her lawyer husband, she acquired a lot of land in the Lake District. After her death, she donated a total of 16KM2 of land under her name to the British National Trust.

These many achievements are not without reason. Beatrix Potter came from a very wealthy family and was educated at home, with little opportunity to contact his peers, and his younger brother stayed in boarding school all year round. The only company is a variety of animal pets: from frogs to salamanders and even bats. There was also a rabbit named Peter, who never left for a moment. In loneliness, I can only observe animals and give them portraits. Over time, my painting skills will grow. The same meticulous observation applies to the plants in the garden, where she depicts moss and fungi in detail. It's just that as a woman, her achievements in botany and mycology were not recognized by the academic community at the time. With no company but to devote himself to the embrace of nature, a biography published in 2006 titled Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature is apt.

Virginia Woolf once said that women need to have their own room for writing, and Miss Potter not only has her own room, but also her own house, and not only one set, but also a large piece of land. There is no denying that Beatrix Potter has economic autonomy. He published his first book at the age of 36 and became a success, and the rich royalties can be completely independent from the family. In marriage, compared with contemporaries, women are also quite autonomous. After rejecting a number of rich objects arranged by his parents, he later met the publisher Norman Warne, gave up the idea of ​​celibacy, and set himself up for life; he still insisted without the approval of his parents, the parents could not break up the lovers, and finally the death of disease forced them separation. Later marriage to lawyer William Heelis was still not approved by his mother. However, life is lived by oneself after all.

All in all, Miss Potter is a really good movie, although it doesn't cover her life, although Renée Zellweger's expression is a little forced. The sequelae aroused my infinite yearning for the Lake District.

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Extended Reading

Miss Potter quotes

  • Rupert Potter: Our daughter is famous, Helen. You're the only person who doesn't know it.

  • Beatrix Potter: [voiceover] There's something delicious about writing those first few words of a story. You can never quite tell where they will take you. Mine took me here, where I belong.