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I'm watching Shirley valentine

53 replies

Theblackdogagain · 29/10/2023 18:06

For the first time, I really enjoying it despite it not aging as well as it could.
However she is 42! She calls herself old and middle aged
I'm 42, I still feel young!

OP posts:
Needhelp101 · 29/10/2023 19:05

"For me, sex is like going to the supermarket. A lot of pushing and shoving, and you come out with very little at the end"

Great film!

NmeChngeFail · 29/10/2023 19:11

Chip and egg!

ChevyCamaro · 29/10/2023 20:00

Well..42 IS middle aged! Not that there's anything wrong with that. I guess if most people were married by 20, by 42 you'd have had 22 years of it..enough to make anyone feel weary!

ChevyCamaro · 29/10/2023 20:00

Yeh what was up the the chips and egg thing? It's egg and chips!

tothelefttotheleft · 29/10/2023 20:04

Hate to be a downer but she's not very nice to some people in the film.

CreationNat1on · 29/10/2023 20:05

A movie I ve enjoyed

MeMySonAnd1 · 29/10/2023 20:07

I watched it when I was about 42 (and a few years past splitting from exH). I thought that she looked old for 42 but then everyone looked older in 80s fashion.

Then I realised that she looked older because she was unhappy (her friend the same age didn’t) and it reminded me that… in the last years of my marriage I looked very old as well, by the time I had been on my own for six months I looked 10 years lounger.

henrysugar12 · 29/10/2023 20:25

It's a great film. One of my favourites and Educating Rita too.

Midlifecryses · 29/10/2023 20:29

@tothelefttotheleft who is she horrible to?

twobluechickens · 29/10/2023 20:32

I was in a DIY shop recently and they were playing the piece of classical music that soundtracks Shirley and Tom Conti having a shag on the boat. It made me smile as I couldn't have been further from the Greek islands at that point.

Great film.

ArcaneWireless · 29/10/2023 20:38

This always gets to me. Always.

“I’ve led such a little life
And even that’ll be over pretty soon
I have allowed myself to lead this little life when inside me there was so much more

And it’s all gone unused. And now it never will be. Why do we get all this life if we don’t ever use it? Why do we get all these feelings and dreams and hopes of we don’t ever use them? That’s where Shirley Valentine disappeared to. She got lost in all this unused life.”

It has always been chips and egg since in this house.

OhNoForever · 29/10/2023 22:59

Maybe a dvd on ebay would be cheaper than amazon. It seems such a lot to watch something once!

Cheshiresun · 29/10/2023 23:13

Saw this probably last year now. I remember it as a child but watching it again more recently I thought no way is she in her 40's! I thought she was 50's. How looks/fashions have changed.

whatwouldAnnaDelveydo · 29/10/2023 23:23

The full film was available on YouTube when I checked a few months ago, so it may be worth a try.

I watched the film on TV when I was a teenager, ages ago, and never forgot it. I bought the script of play and reread it more times than I can count.

FatCatatPaddingtonStation · 29/10/2023 23:23

I love the film, seen it so many times!

Joanna Lumley was fab, and of course Alison Steadmen and Julia McKenzie as Gillian. Tracie Bennett, who placed Malandra, is a West End stage powerhouse. I last saw her at the National in Follies. Such a fabulous, female line up.

Best line - I always thought it was called Clitooris, and then they go on to discuss how it would make a pretty name. 😂😂

I wish I was watching it for the first time again! I saw it on stage earlier this year, one woman show with Sheridan Smith.

And to echo another poster, I also love Educating Rita and highly recommend.

Coyoacan · 30/10/2023 00:21

Cheshiresun · 29/10/2023 23:13

Saw this probably last year now. I remember it as a child but watching it again more recently I thought no way is she in her 40's! I thought she was 50's. How looks/fashions have changed.

There were women who dressed like old ladies. I remember meeting 28-year-old mothers in the eighties who dressed like their own mothers

Velvetcupcakes · 30/10/2023 00:38

In fairness, the actress who played Shirley Valentine was 49 when the film was made.

lobeydosser · 30/10/2023 01:21

@ArcaneWireless totally agree..it's such a beautiful little soliloquy and so resonant of lost potential. Should have earned Willy Russell an entry in the Dictionary of Quotations

mikado1 · 30/10/2023 03:27

Love it.

Ohmylovejune · 30/10/2023 03:34

Love that film and Jeanette and the Octopus.

LunaNorth · 30/10/2023 03:35

I’m married to a Scouser - he says ‘chips and egg’.

Also, ‘lolly ice’.

Confused
Catsmere · 30/10/2023 05:35

Love that film! So funny seeing Alison Steadman playing Jane, only a few years before she was Mrs Bennett. I remember rewatching it once, and she was pulling a strange face, a sort of smirk, in one scene, and I was thinking "Who IS that actress? What have I seen her in?" and eventually it came to me - Mrs Bennett pulls exactly the same face in a late scene in the series. 😆

Catsmere · 30/10/2023 05:37

@FatCatatPaddingtonStation

Best line - I always thought it was called Clitooris, and then they go on to discuss how it would make a pretty name. 😂😂

They weren't the only ones who thought that! 😄

StrawberryPavlova · 30/10/2023 05:55

It's Jeanette and Dougiiie!

Breakingpoint1961 · 30/10/2023 05:57

One of my all time greats..the quotes are endless, but this one does come to mind fairly occasionally..

Every time I'm out (alone) somewhere, and go for a coffee, I think someone might say "c'mon love, it's not right, we've arranged for a chair at our table" shudder🤦🏼‍♀️