Sunday, September 19, 2021

Don't Make a Scene: Four Weddings and a Funeral

The Story: Hopefully, this will be the last word about grief for awhile. And a eulogy is always a good place for last words.

And one of the best eulogies I've seen in movies is the one from Four Weddings and a Funeral. The movie has been going along so chummily, that when this occurs, it's like a punch in the gut. And, for me, at least, it produced quite a few tears. It's so simple and such an expression of sorrow, that one is tempted to just leave it alone. It can't be embroidered.  

No other words are necessary, really. So, Ill just leave it alone.

The Set-Up: Gareth (Simon Callow) has been the life of every reception at the weddings among the small cluster of his friends...that is, until he died at the last one. Now, at his funeral, his lover Matthew (John Hannah) delivers the eulogy.

All rise....


PASTOR: Good morning, and a warm welcome to you all on this cold day. 
PASTOR: Our service will begin in a few minutes. But first we have asked...  
PASTOR: ...Matthew, Gareth's closest friend, 
PASTOR: ...to say a few words. 
MATTHEW: Gareth used to prefer funerals to weddings. He said it was easier to get enthusiastic about a ceremony one had an outside chance of eventually being involved in. 
MATTHEW:
 In order to prepare this speech, 
MATTHEW:
 I rang a few people to get a general picture of how Gareth was regarded by those who met him. 
MATTHEW:
 'Fat' seems to have been a word people most connected with him.
MATTHEW:'Terribly rude' also rang a lot of bells. So 'very fat' and 'very rude' seems to have been the stranger's viewpoint. 
MATTHEW:
 On the other hand, some of you have rung me and let me know that you loved him.
MATTHEW:
 ...which I know he would have been thrilled to hear. 
MATTHEW:
 You remember his fabulous hospitality, his strange experimental cooking. The recipe for...
MATTHEW:
 ...duck á la banana fortunately goes with him to his grave. 
MATTHEW:
 Most of all, you tell me of his enormous capacity for joy. 
MATTHEW:
 And, when joyful, for highly... 
MATTHEW:
 ...vocal drunkenness.
MATTHEW:
 I hope joyful is how you will remember him. Not stuck in a box in a church. Pick your favourite of his waistcoats and remember him that way. 
MATTHEW:
 The most splendid, 
MATTHEW:
 replete, 
MATTHEW:
 big-hearted - 
MATTHEW:
 - weak-hearted, as it turned out - and jolly bugger 
MATTHEW:
 most of us ever met. 
MATTHEW:
 As for me, you may ask how I will remember him. What I thought of him. Unfortunately, there I run out of words. 
MATTHEW:
 Forgive me if I turn from my own feelings to the words of another splendid bugger, WH Auden. 
MATTHEW:
 This is actually what I want to say: 
MATTHEW:
 Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, 
MATTHEW:
 Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. 
MATTHEW:
 Let the aeroplanes circle moaning overhead 
MATTHEW:
 Scribbling on the sky the message 
MATTHEW:
 He ls Dead. Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, 
MATTHEW:
 Let traffic policemen wear 
MATTHEW:
 black cotton gloves. 
MATTHEW:
 He was my North, my South, my East and West. My working week and my Sunday rest, 
MATTHEW:
 My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last for ever: 
MATTHEW:
 I was wrong. 
MATTHEW: 
The stars are not wanted now: 
MATTHEW:
 Put out every one; Pack up the moon and  
MATTHEW:
 dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; 
MATTHEW:
 For nothing now can ever come to any good.



Four Weddings and a Funeral is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from M-G-M Home Video.


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