![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
100 things #3: Liesl von Trapp
I'm Liesl. I'm sixteen years old, and I don't need a governess.
source
The Sound of Music is one of those movies that I've watched so many times, from such a young age, that I am completely incapable of judging whether it is a good movie or not. It may be sublime. It may be terrible. I don't know. All I know is, that for as long as I can remember, it's been there. My sister and I were raised on a steady diet of the movies that my mama had grown up watching, so that meant lots of black-and-white, lots of musicals. When people tell me that they don't like musicals, my brain just shuts down because it refuses to understand. Musicals are the best. And The Sound of Music is like the most musical of all musicals.
We watched that movie so many times on those double-VHSes (you had to change the video after the big party where the kids sang "So Long, Farewell" and the music swelled as Maria left the Von Trapps' to go back to the abbey) that, yes, I can quote the entire movie, word-for-word.
Obviously when you start watching at that young of an age (I literally don't remember a time before I had seen that movie), you don't really relate to Maria. I mean, I appreciate her now, but at the time, I liked the kids best. Brigitta was my favorite and the one I most related to because she walked around reading books and was also a smart-aleck (I got in trouble quite a bit for talking back to my parents, and I'm notorious in my family for wanting to have the last word), and I admit to having a bit of a crush on Friedrich when I got older (and by "older," I mean, like, twelve), but I wanted to be Liesl.
Mostly I think it was the pretty floaty dress and the dancing. I have always been a sucker for a pretty floaty dress. And since I grew up in a community where dancing has been frowned upon until my generation (I went to a wedding with dancing for the first time when I was 21, and I have been to a lot of weddings in my time. We also had a lot of jokes growing up about dancing--things like "Dancing leads to babies" and "We might as well--we can't dance" and my personal favorite--"[Denomination] doesn't like pre-marital sex because they're scared it might lead to dancing." It honestly wasn't as ridiculously conservative as I'm making it sound, it was just that it had been, and there was a kind of cultural holdover that meant that dancing just wasn't part of my cultural landscape except in movies), I was always really fascinated by it. I still can't dance, since I've never learned and I'm super self-conscious and also hella klutzy. But I've always loved it in theory. The entirety of my dancing experience growing up was dancing around the living room while musicals or figure skating were playing in the background (lil sis did this, too, often in footy pajamas, which once led to her falling on our wooden floor and busting her chin so that it swelled up so big that my parents made Jay Leno jokes). Now I dance around my living room with my iPod on, and I am just as hopelessly no-at-all-graceful as ever.
source
And if I've seen the movie itself hundreds of times, I've seen the "Sixten Going on Seventeen" sequence thousands. SO DELIGHTFUL--if you ignore the words of the song, which are ridiculous. Gah, Rolfe, you're such a jerk.
All of that to say: when I was a little girl, sixteen seemed impossibly old and mature. That was when things started happening to you, like falling in love and such. And wearing floaty dresses and dancing in gazebos. I didn't think very deeply about the movie or anything other than the joy it made me feel. But I think Liesl had a lesson to teach me that I probably didn't take the time to learn. If I had paid more attention, I probably would have realized that growing up isn't always all that awesome. I always wanted to be thought of as grown up and mature. And I couldn't wait to reach the age when things finally start happening to you (note to bitty!Lauren: I still haven't reached that age). But honestly, no matter how lovely it might seem to dance around in a storm in a glass gazebo in a beautiful dress, Liesl's little growing-up character arc is pretty bittersweet. Because the guy she dances around with turns out to be a Nazi and she gets her heartbroken and she has to leave her outrageously beautiful house and walk over the mountains, which, though they're gorgeous, cannot be fun to hike if you're doing it to save your life.
Her story is a lot more mature than I ever really noticed as a little girl, a lot more realistic, and there are so many more dark undercurrents to the entire film than I realized. Bitty!Lauren probably should have listened to Maria when she sang for Liesl to "wait a year or two" to be such a grownup and fall in love. I probably should have realized that being a grownup doesn't mean that life is going to be a glorious musical romance. I didn't. But that's okay. I got so much joy out of pretending to be Liesl and coveting her dress and dancing skills and wanting to be a grownup. And now I am one, and it's not at all glamorous, but I still covet Liesl's dress and dancing skills, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
no subject
no subject
I think I was much more hung up on the first half of the movie than the second. That sort of golden world the von Trapps lived in in that big beautiful house with that gorgeous Austrian scenery. And it's a movie made with such a light touch that it's kind of easy to skate right over the darkness (at least until they have to flee to the abbey and hide behind those pillars).
think what I loved most about the Sound of Music was the idea of this family, that you could just find and become part of, and the movie has always held a special place in my heart because of that
I absolutely know what you mean.
How could you dislike Maria? IT'S JULIE ANDREWS!!!
no subject
The film Maria no, however I went to school with someone who was a neighbor in VT of the actual family. And all the neighbors hated the family, especially Maria. She insisted on everyone calling her "Countess" which, since she became an American, is technically illegal (just ask Ted Morgan).
When people tell me that they don't like musicals, my brain just shuts down because it refuses to understand. Musicals are the best.
Absolutely! Except for me, I can't stand this one. Your mileage may always vary.
no subject
Interestingly, my experience with Liesl involves childhood baggage - my mom really spoke negatively about growing up and I had a lot of fear of Becoming A Woman, so I found Liesl's storyline kind of scary. She falls in love, yes! But kissing is kind of icky, and the dude turns out to be a Nazi! Etc. Still, that gazebo scene is familiar and strangely comfortable for me because it is delightful if you ignore the lyrics, it's true. :)
no subject
no subject
I think my favorite part of Liesl's story is when she climbs up the side of the house and nearly ruins her dress, and then realizes that Maria isn't going to out her. Unexpected bonding will get me, every time.
I actually have very mixed feelings about the movie. On one hand, Julie Andrews and gorgeous scenery! And I quite like about 2/3 of the songs, although this is not a great musical for having the songs integrated into the story; so many of them are strictly set pieces. (Puppets, anyone?)
However, I find Baron von Trapp a fairly useless individual. Also, I always watched a version that was taped off of TV, which was did a pretty good job of cutting the least important bits. It meant, though, that I never saw the wedding scene until a couple of years ago - where we answer the question of "How do we solve a problem like Maria" (which we are singing in the background over the scene) with "We marry her off!" Which. Well.
no subject
Besides the dancing, that is my very favorite, too!
where we answer the question of "How do we solve a problem like Maria" (which we are singing in the background over the scene) with "We marry her off!" Which. Well.
HAHAHA I never thought of it that way, though obviously you're right!
no subject
Five to when my sister was born at age ten we didn't have cable, so we'd rent musicals from the local video store and Daddy d sing along to them because he performed all the Rogers and Hammerstein musicals as a young man in community theater before he met my mom. The Sound of Music was the one we watched when my Daddy jerry-rigged a tv and VCR in the back seat to keep my brother and me content for long car rides, and I have a clear memory if watching it while stuck in LA traffic on the way to Disneyland.
And I always wanted to be Liesel. She had the best part, and when I got into musical theater, I always wanted to play Liesel. That was before I realized I can't sing if my life depended on it, of course.
no subject
was the one we watched when my Daddy jerry-rigged a tv and VCR in the back seat to keep my brother and me content for long car rides
Ha! We did the same thing on the 13 hour drive to DisneyWorld, except that we watched Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang the entire way there and back (my parents have still never seen that movie, but I'm pretty sure they know all the songs from hearing them from the backseat.
no subject
Awww, beautifully put.
This is such a great post, as usual. I'M GLAD YOU BE DOING THIS MEME.
no subject
no subject
I also remember asking, all perturbed, “Maaaa, why are they still calling Maria a problem? It’s her WEDDING!” Heheheh.
When I was little, I thought that Liesl was the prettiest girl I’d seen in a movie, ever ever ever. And yes, I coveted that pink floaty dress! Whenever my sisters and I rewatch, we’re like, ohhhhh that dress.
--if you ignore the words of the song, which are ridiculous. Gah, Rolfe, you're such a jerk
Yeah… I grew up loving the song. Of course when I knew more about the world, I thought, whoaaaa, misogynist much? Still, the whole sequence is so cute! And I like how Liesel acts sweet and flirtatious in the song, totally going against Rolfe’s ‘timid and shy and scared’ line.