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Saturday, September 13, 2008

All In The Family ~ by Fiona Lowe


My eldest son worked out a couple of years ago he could make people laugh so he decided to do a stand up comedy routine at the end of term lunctime concert, but he wasn't quite sure where to start. We talked about what people laugh about, what people cry about and why, and we came up with "it's things in their everyday life, events they can relate to." For him that was middle school life....the food in the dining hall, the teacher who is always losing her glasses, and the ficticious missing student who is on the roll but never turns up and students give more and more outlandish reasons as to her absence.

This got me thinking about the films and books I relate to and why. I don't come from a huge family but when we sit down at Christmas there can be up to 17 of us and the men sit with bemused and perplexed expressions on their faces as the conversation rips around the table,
topics tangling all over themselves, and half finished snippets which come back to be completed up to five minutes later. And the women manage to keep up! So when I watched the dinner scene in "While You Were Sleeping" I nearly fell off the couch. This was MY family! In fact I sat them all down to watch the scene :-)
I had the same reaction when I watched "Must Love Dogs" and her siblings came over to organise her. I howled with laughter when I listened to the talented Canadian comedian, Anita Renfroe sing 'A Day in the Life of a Mother' to the tune of the William Tell Overture. Pure comedy because every mother of a teenager has been there.
I also sobbed my heart out in "Billy Elliot" when the piano was cut up for firewood on Christmas Day. The piano represented so much that the Elliot family had lost, and I could relate to what it because of what the piano in our house means to everyone.
I've read too many wonderful family sagas to list them all and many of these books have been best sellers and I am sure it is because in every story there is something we can relate to because we have experienced a part of it in our own family.



When I started writing The Playboy Doctor's Marriage Proposal I didn't really have it in my mind that Emily's family would play such a big role but suddenly I found I just HAD to plunge Linton into a large family dinner scene and see if he would sink or swim. Trying to write ten voices and a dog, and have it make sense, was one of the most challenging things I have done yet. But it was so much fun and by the end I wanted to be sitting around that table multi-generational table too.


So what favourite films or books have you seen snippets of your family in?

Fiona Lowe is a wife, daughter, a sister, an auntie and a mother as well as an Australian Romance Author. Her latest Outback book is, The Playboy Doctor's Marriage Proposal , out now in the UK and Australia as well as being available on line . For more information about her and her books visit her website and blog

7 comments:

Annie West said...

Hi Fiona, what an interesting idea - to look for snippets of your own life in movies. I hadn't thought of that before, though it must have happened because I can remember thinking 'I can relate to that' - particularly when things go wrong!

Now I want to go off and what the movies you mentioned again and see what life is like in your household!

Annie

Anna Campbell said...

Hey, Fiona, nice post! Can't wait for the next Warragurra book!

Fiona Lowe said...

LOL, Annie. My household is as chaotic as the next one :-) Anna, I got my Australian paperbacks the other day so you can buy it online now or on shelf Oct 15. I adore the cover!

cc said...

It's Sunday morning and my brain is still asleep. I can't think of any movies that are like my life. I did however fancy myself as Meryl Streep In The River Wild (although I'd have been much balsier than her when dispensing with the baddies) Of course, then the story would have ended a lot sooner!
Maybe my life is weird, but there's nothing out there like it in movieland that I know of.
Now I'm worried...

asdfjkl; said...

Have you seen the show Wizards of Waverly Place on Disney Channel? This family is a lot like mine. No, my family isn't wizards or part latin american, but my family is always laughing and joking and sitting together in front of the tv. Good times :)

PS We own While you were sleeping. Hilarious movie, especially when they keep falling on the ice.

TheBookworm
www.inthecurrent.blogspot.com

cheryl c said...

I love reading books and watching movies that feature families. I especially like the ones that show the warmth and humor of families. I also enjoy comic strips. There is one called Zits that features a mom, dad, and their teenage son. I have 2 sons, and I have found so much in the strip to relate to that I have posted several on my fridge.

Shooting Stars Mag said...

Wonderful idea... I tend to try and find things i relate too as well. As for books for movies I've seen my family in...I'm not really sure. I guess in the film Dan In Real Life, his family reminded me a lot of mine...cracking jokes, making fun of one another, but ultimately being close.

-Lauren