Two favorite movies

In the last few days, I’ve returned to two movies from long ago that gave me great pleasure then and have just brought me fresh joy. From 1953 (when I was in high school, in Pennsylvania), Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck (which came up on a free classic movie channel on my cable service). And from 1963 (when I was in grad school, in Massachusetts), Tom Jones, starring Albert Finney and a cast of wonderful character actors (which I had just gotten the DVD of in the mail). Two notably different times in my life. In 1953 I was just a year into puberty, early onset having struck me the year before, and I was somewhat dazedly coping with having become a fully sexual being almost overnight and being enmeshed in powerful mixed feelings. Audrey Hepburn was elegantly adorable, I’d love to be hanging out with her, but I was alarmingly moved by the idea of zooming around Rome on a Vespa in Gregory Peck’s lap. Plus, he turns out to be a very model of manly moral values…