Tag: Tom Hanks

Vellichor

Isn’t that a beautiful word? Want to know what it means? Do you think you know how to pronounce it?

Pronunciation is easy: velly – core. And it means this:

“The pensive nostalgia and temporality of used bookstores; the feeling evoked by the scent of old books or paper.”

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vellichor

This word and its definition triggered a thousand pleasant memories. Of the library at the University of New Brunswick – my first alma mater. Of wonderful old bookstores I would saunter through in Toronto or London, England. There were many smaller and obscure bookstores I would happen upon in my travels that evoked similar feelings.

The feelings evoked by the ambience and smell were always the same. Comfort. Coziness. Class and certainty. Books that were old enough to emit that odor had obviously been around a while. That spoke to their longevity and value.

Vellichor is as much an emotional response as much as anything else. It evokes the Zeitgeist of a slower and simpler time. I could spend a full afternoon wandering from one section to another in a bookstore or library in search of nothing in particular.

Bookstores and libraries are designed for browsing and browse I did. For hours on end. I fear its’ passing.

“Big box” bookstores have subsumed countless numbers of small “Mom and Pop” bookstores. Indeed, that very phenomenon was the plot line (along with the eventual romantic hookup between Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks) in the 90s hit movie, You’ve Got Mail.

Ryan owned a small children’s bookstore she inherited from her mother called The Shop Around the Corner. Hanks played the “villain” Joe Fox whose family owned business was mega bookstores. (Think Chapters, and Barnes & Noble, etc.) The two unbeknown to each other business rivals meet online and strike up a romance not knowing each other’s true identities.

And that is the plot wrinkle that the movie revolves around. Two business rivals with widely divergent business philosophies. Spoiler alert: Ryan finally decides to sell the shop as the new Fox Bookstore crushes her sales. Love wins out in the end. (Why else make the movie?)

But I bet Fox Books didn’t have the vellichor of The Shop Around the Corner. That quality cannot be bought or sold. Like fine wine or delicate soft cheeses, the aroma of fusty old books must gestate and develop slowly.

Another wonderful book turned movie along the same lines was 84, Charing Cross Road. That plot centers around a twenty year correspondence between US author Helene Hanff and UK resident Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks & Co antiquarian booksellers, located at the eponymous address in London, England.

The film featured Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins with a sweet and simple tale of a long friendship that unfolds in letters based on the writers’ mutual love and respect for books.

A reviewer notes how much The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a novel comprised of only letters between the characters, owes to 84, Charing Cross Road. Each book (which later became movies) ooze simplicity and charm for what I fear is becoming a bygone era.

I’m not sure anyone even has the time and patience for that type of correspondence anymore. In a world where children are no longer even taught cursive writing, it is hard to imagine that era will come again. It is a great cultural and experiential loss.

Musty libraries and bookstores account for some on my happiest memories. I didn’t have a word to describe what it was about them that I loved so much before. Now I do. Vellichor.

Wherever and whenever I find it still exists, I shall deliberately seek it out. Like a muzzled wild boar seeking out truffles. The comparison may not be particularly flattering at first glance but the urgency and intensity of the hunt is completely in synch.

Books are an addiction I have for which I have no intention of seeking a cure.

A Man Called Otto

Tom Hanks as a crabby old man? Whoddathunkit?

We frequently register ourselves as getting older by watching others. It is both a kindness and a shock to see people you grew up watching suddenly inhabiting roles that you imagined only your parents’ peers could fill.

I remember Tom Hanks in Big. His big film debut was back in 1988. He played a goofy kid with a sweet manner and exposed a big talent.

Hanks has proved his mettle over the years in many delightful and provocative roles. Hanks has chosen his projects well. He has mostly played the good guy in the movie roles he has starred in.

He didn’t shy away from challenging roles either. As Captain Phillips, Hanks skilfully played the role of managing a pirate takeover of his craft and everyone was safely delivered.

The enduring genius of Forrest Gump comes to mind, too. He played the role of an intellectually challenged young man to perfection. The Academy agreed with me. Forrest Gump won eight Oscars including as the Best Actor in a Leading Role for Hanks.

Tom Hanks movies seem ubiquitous. In Castaway, he carried a whole film with only a soccer ball as a co-star. In Catch Me if You Can, he played a tenacious FBI agent in hot pursuit of young conman Frank Abagnale, memorably played by Leonardo Dicaprio.

Other roles Hanks played have stuck in my memory. Saving Private Ryan. The Green Mile. His performance with Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies was pure onscreen alchemy.

Clint Eastwood is older now, too. Gone is the tough-talking police inspector of Dirty Harry fame. He now plays the crusty but caring curmudgeon to perfection in a slew of age-appropriate roles.

I watch them all aging. I realize that I am aging right along with them. Tom Hanks is the boyfriend/husband I never had. Clint Eastwood might have been a great-uncle had we lived in California and had anything at all to do with the film industry.

And then there is the recent “old Dad” phenomenon with icons Bob DeNiro and Al Pacino fathering children in their eighties. It seems they are as productive in their dotage as they were in their film careers. How did they get so old so fast?

There is one important throughline to see in watching these men from afar. They keep going. They have done and do good work. They have dignity and accomplishments. And, in a couple of cases, they have diaper duty.

Every role these giants take on is like seeing them anew and reflects the talent that landed them where they are in life. It is also a reminder that time is passing for them just like me and my peers.

A Man Called Otto tells the tale of a man determined to die by his own hand after his beloved wife dies. But new neighbors and the insistence of life keep hauling him back into the present and offer him new reasons for living.

The message in this bittersweet film seems to be that even though we may lose important things in our life – even our dearest loved ones – life still goes on and still calls to us. Love is always available out there in the world.

If we but look and listen…