10.13.2010

ondine

I've been looking forward to watching the movie Ondine and finally got the chance to do so this past weekend. Not surprisingly, I fell in love. It's the story of an Irish fisherman who catches an amnesiac woman in his net one day. She's beautiful and strange and, along with his daughter, he suspects her to be a mermaid.

Not only is this a visually stunning film with a palette of greys and greens, but it contains so much that I love: the land of Ireland, myths and legends, water nymphs and mermaids, cliffs and the open sea, grey skies and lush greens, lighthouses and ships, Wellie boots and windswept hair. If you like such things as well, I don't think you'd be disappointed!

By the way, the grey and black drawing above isn't affiliated with the film version of Ondine, but is in fact a cover for the play version written in 1938. Apparently Ondine is also a ballet and, after doing a quick Google search of images, I'm convinced I must see it someday as well: it looks beautiful!

And of course, one of my favorite artists of all time, John William Waterhouse, has his own depiction of Undine. I keep finding more and more about the myth of Ondine and water nymphs and selkies and mermaids and I'm really loving it... (Another favorite film of mine involving the legend of selkies is The Secret of Roan Inish - another high recommendation.) 

4 comments:

geeta said...

Oh gosh- what a beautiful post!

k said...

i want to see this now...adding to my list. it looks beautiful. has it been in theatres? it sounds familiar...

Molly Page said...

I've never heard of this!! You always find the most BEAUTIFUL films to suggest. I'm crossing my fingers this one is on Netflix. Can't wait!

Jane Flanagan said...

I'm dying to see this movie!