Out Of Africa, redux

 The Tuesday afternoon series of free film at the college has begun. They are usually foreign films but yesterday's was the wonderful 1985  Out of Africa with the oh-so-young and soulful Robert Redford and the incredibly pretty and strong Meryl Streep.  I had forgotten, or perhaps didn't realize before, how really fine looking they were at that age. Of course I see the photos today and see how they have aged. 

The movie is full of wonderful scenes of Kenya which have become almost cliches now, especially the aerial shots -- herds of wildebeasts running across the savannah!

I had forgotten the particulars of the story, the matching independence of the two stars in their own way and the wonderful love affair.  The great loss Karen Blixen (aka Isak Dineson) endured and survived, both the farm and Finch-Hadden 

By the end of the film was was reminded strongly of age -- for they are almost my contemporaries and because they are celebrities they are photographed often.  Redford is not in many movies; he's pursuing his other interests. Streep is in ever stronger roles. Her "Iron Lady" looks nothing like this soft young woman albeit there's the determined set of her mouth, the steady gaze even there.

And I am reminded of romantic losses. Between age and memories, I left the movie in a far more profoundly thoughtful state than I had been the first time I saw it -- then the lions, the Kikuyu, the marriage of convenience and the colonial way of life struck me.  It's a very moving thing to revisit something as strong as this movie in the light of both political and personal history.