Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The Secret Garden


Oh my, it's Heather circa 1995. Haha.
The Secret Garden was one of my larger obsessions as a child. I was infatuated with the idea of having a little garden of my own, a little place to be by myself. On field trips, I named all of the flowers I collected "the secret garden." There was a house about several blocks from ours that my Dad and I would walk up to that literally had the garden. It was beautiful! I desperately wished that I had an ivory elephant of my own, like Mary did in the movie. I still have many days where I know I would be forever content to live in an ivy-entrenched room in a ramshackle manor off in the moors. Just as long as there are stacks of books with me...


Finding pictures, clear ones, from this movie is enormously difficult. In this scene, Mary lived in India with her parents who were more in love with themselves and attending societal parties than spending time with their daughter. She lost them in an earthquake, a huge difference from the book where it is presumed that they die from cholera.


Mary Lennox had the most fantastic bedroom I've seen in movies in quite awhile. The furniture and draping were heavy and wooden but with elegant designs. It's an intimidating bedroom for a 10 year old to live in; there was nothing gentle or child-friendly there. Mary wound up sleeping under her bed most of the time in the movie, with her jump rope and ivory elephant.
And let us not forget that there was a secret panel to escape this room and travel to other rooms in the manor! Oh, I would have died for that as a child.


"There you are Miss Mary! I wondered where you'd gone!"
Martha is such a marvelous servant (and later friend) to Mary.


"A bit of earth...to plant seeds, to make things grow."


Mary and her cousin Colin Craven. When I was younger (and probably still today, it's not something you easily forget), I used to recite the dialogue of this movie to my Mom, to my Dad, and to myself. When it was rainy outside, my Mom and I would watch the movie together and just laugh at Colin when he threw his temper tantrum when Mary and Dickon are about to ride off together after opening the window and Colin is terrified at the spores that will come in the wind and kill him.


"I know you...you're the little cripple."
Hehe, Ben had a wonderful line with that one!


Recreating the pose that Mary's mother and aunt had a photo of on the swing.
"They say that's how she died...by falling off it."


I loved her outfit in this scene and wish there were more, better photos around of it. The ribbon, the white stockings, the lace dress, all of it was very romantic and perfect for Mary, who by the end, is no longer as spoiled and angry as she was in the beginning.

Love to you all,
Heather

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