Films to Love: The Prescription for Now
The briefest of cursory glances will show you that right now the world is in a dark and dire time. Some may be wondering if we’ll ever make it to the other side of this pandemic. Others are certain that even if we do, we’ll be forever changed into frightened and hopeless creatures.
In times such as these, hope is as essential as breathing. We cannot abandon it. We must be intentional in the cultivation of it. Even if that means turning off the constant doom and gloom of the 24/7 media. I highly recommend doing so. Certainly, take the five to ten minutes you need to keep yourself abreast of the changes and guidelines for where you live, but after that, turn it off.
And, once you’ve turned it off, I recommend you stir up the hope that lives within you.
One of the surest ways to diminish our hope is to remain staid and unmoved in our disappointment, discouragement, or fear. That is why we have to be intentional when we embrace hope. This is not a Pollyanna vs Eeyore view of the world. Doctors will tell you that how we allow ourselves to think will actually have an impact on the structure and physical function of our brain. If we think hopeful thoughts, our brain is healthier and produces good signals throughout our body which in turn keeps us healthier in body as well as soul. However, if we choose to dwell on gloomy, hopeless things, our brain structure will change for the worse and impact our bodies and souls negatively. Case in point: STRESS. We have to learn to deal with it to make sure we stay healthy. Our thoughts are truly powerful.
“There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm.”
I saw this truth brought to light perfectly in the 1995 film adaptation of Stella Gibbons’ novel Cold Comfort Farm. With a cast including Eileen Atkins, Rufus Sewell, and Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry, and Joanna Lumley as well as introducing Kate Beckinsale, this movie is just the hope infused confection to set you on the right path.
Set in the rural English countryside of the 1920s, Cold Comfort Farm is exactly what its name would suggest- cold and comfortless. For generations, the Starkadder family has lived there and farmed the land. While farming is a difficult profession, the lot the Starkadders have been dealt at Cold Comfort solidifies their belief that the farm is cursed.
Enter Flora Poste. Newly orphaned, Flora writes to her relatives throughout Great Britain to see upon whose mercy she may throw herself. She wishes to be a writer, but has no intention of publishing her novel until she’s 53.
“When I am 53, I hope to write a novel as good as ‘Persuasion,’ but in a modern setting.”
As she’s a young woman of about twenty or so odd years, she has a bit of time to kill. And, she doesn’t wish to find menial work. Rather, she wants to learn about life so she can put it in books. So, she turns to the kindness of her relatives to take her in.
After casting her net, she waits until said relatives from far and wide write back to her. Several invite her to come stay, but it is a letter from Cousin Judith at Cold Comfort that captures her imagination.
“If you come to this doomed house, what is there to save you? ”
Intrigued by a ‘wrong done her father’ and ‘what is due her,’ Flora packs her bags and heads for the wilds of Sussex. When she arrives, she sees all too clearly that every horrid imagining she had is true, down to the names she assumed her cousins had.
“Worst fears confirmed. Seth and Reuben too. Everything needs changing. Send magazines!”
Flora has an indefatigable spirit. Where the Starkadders can only see fallow land that won’t grow naught by thistles, Flora sees vast arrays of untapped potential.
“I try to bring people around to the high common sense.”
And what’s the higher common sense? Hope, of course.
Slowly, person by person, Flora learns the hopes and dreams that Starkadders have allowed to remain unrealized. In fact, they are almost reluctant to share those dreams. In some cases, it’s simply Flora’s keen perception that allows her to see it. Their beliefs have held them captive for so long, trying to see life any other way than how it has always been is hard at first. Using her connections, her gift for persuasion, and her never say die attitude, Flora transforms Cold Comfort Farm.
It’s not an easy transformation. It’s met with obstinacy and resistance on many levels. However, brick by brick, she makes her case until Cold Comfort Farm becomes something quite different.
That’s what hope does. It comes into discouragement and encourages. It comes into disappointment and affects satisfaction. It comes into fear and transform it into confidence. Hope is the essential. It’s the instrument of change. For Flora Poste at Cold Comfort Farm. And for you and me in this world today.
Cold Comfort Farm is not a heavy drama. It’s a lighter film. It’s a comedy. Even when we see the doom filled utterances of the Starkadder family, we find ourselves laughing. And I think there’s a wisdom in presenting such dire circumstances thusly. As Mae West said, if you have a problem take it out in the open and laugh at it. We see the absurdity of those who’ve remained intrenched and immovable at Cold Comfort Farm through the eyes of Flora, and because we see it from her perspective, we see if for what it is. Laughable.
But how often do you allow our circumstances to weigh us down? How many times do we plant ourselves in the valley of the shadow of death when we were designed to pass through it?
Take heart. Embrace hope. It’s the only way to live.
If you’re finding that entreaty too hard to even consider right now, I suggest you watch Cold Comfort Farm. Take yourself out of your situation, out of your concerns and fears at the uncertainty, and give yourself a shot of hope. It’s the prescription we need right now.
What films do you put on to help build your hope, dear readers? Please share your favorites in the comments below. It’s always good to have a catalogue of hope filled films to reach for when we are need of one.
