Despite the wintry forecast, it is indeed the first day of spring. This week on “Picture Perfect,” we mark the occasion with music from movies on themes of renewal and starting over.
You can’t get much more spring-like than “The Secret Garden,” after the novel of Frances Hodgson Burnett. A spoiled orphan raised in India returns to England and her aloof uncle’s gloomy mansion on the Yorkshire moors. Gradually, she is drawn outside of herself by a cantankerous gardener, a saucy robin, and a fey lad named Dickon, who has a particular affinity with wild creatures. Her transformation, signified by the titular garden, the maintenance of which teaches her to nurture, improves the lives of all around her.
The story has been adapted numerous times, including a classic version with Margaret O’Brien, in 1949. In 1993, Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope backed a lovely adaptation directed by Agnieszka Holland. The music was by Zbigniew Preisner.
“The Best Years of Our Lives,” from 1946, is one of the most beautiful films to treat the subject of American soldiers readjusting to civilian life, following World War II. A trio of veterans returns from overseas to find their lives irrevocably changed. It isn’t easy, but they rise to meet all challenges with the help of family and friends. The film is all the more moving and inspirational for its characters’ integrity and tenacity.
The cast includes Frederic March, Dana Andrews and real-life veteran Harold Russell. Russell was awarded a special Academy Award for “bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance.” Russell had lost both his hands in an explosion. Honored also with an award for Best Supporting Actor, he is the only figure ever to win two Oscars for the same performance.
The film won nine Oscars in all, among them Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler), Best Actor (March), Best Screenplay (Robert E. Sherwood), and Best Music (Hugo Friedhofer).
Based on a novel of Anne Tyler, “The Accidental Tourist,” from 1988, stars William Hurt as a travel writer, the loss of whose son leads to emotional sterility and estrangement from his wife, played by Kathleen Turner. He is eventually brought around by a quirky dog-trainer (Geena Davis, in an Academy Award-winning performance). It’s a movie about letting go, and having the courage to move forward. The understated score is by John Williams.
Finally, sports movies have always been a popular genre through which to tell stories of resurrection and redemption. “The Natural,” Barry Levinson’s 1984 adaptation of the novel of Bernard Malamud, tells the tale of a baseball player (played by Robert Redford), who is struck down in his prime, only to be reborn in mythic triumph. The inspiring music is by Randy Newman.
I hope you’ll join me for music from films about new beginnings and second chances, for the coming of spring. Unfortunately, because of the station’s Bach celebration, the show will be preempted today, so don’t come looking for it this evening at 6 ET. Like Omar Khayyam’s “Moon of Heav’n,” you will search through this garden for me in vain.
However, you can catch the “rebroadcast” Saturday morning at 6, or enjoy it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.