Love Actually

I found this book after I watched Music and Lyrics last weekend. I don't know what kind of coincidence that is, but it's a rather nice one. Love Actually (Book#4) contains the full screenplay, loads of photos, and behind the scenes information from Richard Curtis himself, who is also the man behind Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral. I usually maintain that I'm not a romantic comedy fan, but I suppose I changed my mind after I saw Notting Hill. Actually, I read the script to Notting Hill first before I watched it.

In his notes to Love Actually, Curtis says that a lot of his favorite movies--at the time of writing, around 2001--happened to be multi-character stories. He cites Amores Perros as one of the best ones. And then he thought, wouldn't it be cool if he did the same? So he did, and he directed it too.

Of the ten couples in Love Actually, the one I liked the most was the one with Colin Firth and the Portuguese girl. They couldn't understand each other. At the end of the day, Colin Firth drives home the girl and Colin says that the drive home is his favorite part of the day. In the subtitles, the girl says, "Leaving you is the hardest part of my day." Or something like that.

Anyway, in Love Actually, Hugh Grant plays the Prime Minister and there's this bit where he dances around 10 Downing Street. In the book, Richard Curtis says that Hugh Grant watched the footage of himself dancing and declared that it was so horrible that it would be the first and last time he will ever dance in a picture again.

Guess what Hugh does a lot in Music and Lyrics.