I watched “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” finally on Sunday and it was … ok. It wasn’t bad because the scenery and the filming was great. Nicolas Cage’s fake Italian accent was at first getting on my nerves, but I got used to it after awhile.
There was a speech in the middle of the film that caught my attention though, where the father is talking to the daughter about whether or not she loves the local Greek boy she is engaged to or if she loves Capt. Corelli. I just had to write it down, and here it is:
When you fall in love, it is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake, and then it subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots become so entwined together that it becomes inconceivable that you should ever part. Because, this is what love is.
Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the desire to mate every second of the day. It is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every part of your body. No. Don’t blush. I’m telling you some truths. That is just being in love, which any of us can convince ourselves that we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away. It doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? But it is.