The International Writers Magazine: Thesis on the nature of Paradise

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"Paradise is always ‘the other place’" Can human nature achieve complete happiness? Or are we by nature constantly wanting that which cannot be obtained? • Amanda Williams Paradise; a place, an object, a person? A desert island, a new car, a loved one? To each person, that which constitutes paradise will vary dramatically, the definition and feeling that each associates with the word however will not. To achieve paradise is to achieve a feeling of pure joy, bliss, and ecstasy.

Search for ‘paradise’ in any thesaurus and you will find an abundance of carefully crafted words selected to convey a feeling of pure pleasure, yet look for the same word in a dictionary and you will not find a unanimous definition of the particulars of paradise. This is because as simply as each person differs so to do his or her individual wants and desires. To use a familiar analogy, a miserable poor man may consider happiness a sizeable bank account; an equally unhappy rich man may consider the true love the poor man enjoys the real paradise. Can it then be surmised that we consider paradise that which we don’t have? Has anyone ever achieved complete and lasting happiness by obtaining what he or she yearned for? Or can the want for ‘more’ instrument unhappiness in itself? To quote the philosopher Socrates who said of desire,
‘My belief is to have no wants; it is divine.’ (Socrates-Greek philosopher c. 470 BC - 399 BC)

Perhaps it could then be said that true happiness or satisfaction comes with the abstinence from or absence of desire. Consider the 1989 newspaper story of the wealthy man, Willie Hurt, of Lansing, Michigan. Happy at home with a loving wife and family, secure at work and content in his employment, in prime health and with an active social life. Testing his already good fortune he was a regular player of the lottery. One day in 1989, he won $3.1 million. Moving forward three years and the once happy and healthy husband and father now battles a cocaine addiction and has lost both contact with his wife and custody of his children. Is this unhappy coincidence? Or can there really be too much of a good thing? Perhaps if a person is constantly presented with fortunate and pleasing events, the full effect of such events will no longer impress them. In the same sense that a limb becomes numb if repeatedly struck, the person will become immune to feelings of happiness and either become miserable or search for a headier high. Perhaps it is then a matter of discussing states of relative happiness. To truly experience happiness perhaps it is necessary to have known extreme sadness, taking the rough with the smooth as it were.

Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism all hold the importance of their belief system to be contentment and not a state of extreme enjoyment or pleasure. They believe that serenity within the mind is of far greater importance than experiencing and subsequently repressing desires. Taoist philosophers Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu believed that to merely desire fame or wealth was to often result in an individual’s moral corruption, and often - personal ruin.
"The greatest of woes comes from not knowing contentment; the greatest of faults comes from craving for gains." (Lao-Tse http://www.taoism-truth.com/)
Recommending the simple life as a means to a happy existence, Lao-tzu believed that to live extravagantly, that is to exceed that which is required to live upon, is to seek ‘pleasure’ a selfish human trait that has no place within the Taoist belief system. Simply they did not wish to draw great enjoyment in life, purely to live plainly without want or desire, believing that,
‘He who knows he has enough is rich.’ (Lao-Tse-- http://www.taoism-truth.com/)

As brilliant as this way of life may seem, to live without want, it is a fact of human nature that most individuals experience desire. Indeed, this is often the driving force behind an individual’s life decisions and is by no means in all cases a negative experience. To strive for a better life equates to ambition, a healthy and common human trait. Placing unrealistic and perfect ideals into an elusive fantasy world and to then strive for that however is not conducive to a content existence.

How can an individual envisage true happiness as a place they have never been? Can the way of true contentment not be indicated though memories? Looking back at a time when a moment of peace was obtained and happiness was felt, and attempting to recreate that instant, surely promises a more certain joy. However, it is not so. Human nature dictates a feeling of restlessness that can tinge even the most peaceful of moments. A memory does not take into consideration previous feelings of unhappiness or events of sorrow that lead to the subsequent happiness.

It is not just the examples of already fortunate individuals who strive for more that are of interest when considering the notion of the ‘otherness’ of paradise, and indeed when considering the subsequently posed questions; ‘Can human nature achieve complete happiness? Or are we by nature constantly wanting for that which cannot be obtained?’ It is in some ways more interesting to take example from the unfortunate cases, those who strive for a better life who, once in this supposed and relative ‘paradise’, find themselves in a state of disappointment and regret and often more unfortunate than when they began.

Many of the films that I take example from inevitably address notions of the search for love, the ultimate ‘happiness’, and fall under the genre of ‘romance’. As with most or all mainstream films and music it has become the fashion to promote the romantic nature of certain pieces of work and too tempting to forget other themes that lay present within the same piece. It is often easy to forget that many directors and writers use the narrative frame of a romance, or love story to propagate an array of more consuming themes of human nature.

It can also be beneficial when presenting certain themes to present them within the frame of a ‘love story’. Within my own final screenplay, ‘A Happy Home’, I decided to follow the true story of two mismatched individuals who enjoy a short-lived and ill-fated romance. I watched the real life ‘romance’ unfold before me, and was fortunately detached enough to be able to observe certain events with an objective eye. A Welsh university student visits a friend for a summer holiday in Hong Kong. Spending a hedonistic summer mostly under the influence of mood altering drugs, he begins a relationship with a Thai prostitute, working the bars of the tourist area in Wanchai under the guise of a PR girl. The relationship holds import for both of them, yet in very different ways. To the character of ‘Gareth’- the student, this petite and pretty girl embodies a fantasy which he can’t resist. ‘Paa’ becomes everything that the girls from his home country cannot. Her small frame and pretty appearance, teamed with the coquettish seduction technique that has become a well-rehearsed trademark for the ‘PR girls’, (a toss of the hair and a shy smile over the shoulder) is innocent and attractive in a way that is juxtaposed to her profession, which is essentially that of a prostitute. She combines the attractive innocence of a child with the sexual dexterity of a much older woman, an irresistible marriage of qualities. For ‘Paa’ the importance of the relationship with ‘Gareth’ is much greater. He comes to represent an escape from a life that offers little happiness. The naivety with which they approach a relationship is seen more clearly in the move from Hong Kong to England. This relationship could never work and the intention of the piece was not to make the audience believe it could (save for the brief moments of post coital drug- induced happiness which see Gareth finally expressing emotion) but to feel recognition in the actions of the characters of traits of their own. The intention was for the audience to see and understand why the characters willingly suspended disbelief, and tried in spite of everything. The romance between ‘Gareth’ and ‘Paa’ is an allegory for human disappointment. To be presented with a dream, a hope, to follow it, and to find nothing at the end. I wanted the audience to be left with a varying sense of each of the characters disappointments. The end scenes where life returns to ‘normal’ for each of the main protagonists displays just what exactly the relationship meant for each of them. For Gareth, life returns to that of a ‘lad’, a jocular existence as one of ‘the lads’. The supposed idol that he held ‘Paa’ up to be was a fallacy and he now feels foolish for entertaining the notion of love from a woman who exchanges her body for money. For ‘Paa’, the story is somewhat sadder. Using the only tool at her disposal she had tried to secure a better life for herself, her body was her passport to relative paradise. Paa’s end scenes see her raped in the bathroom of a ‘Thai’ restaurant, all hope gone ‘Paa’ resigns herself to her fate with only dead memories for comfort.

The screen and stage-play ‘Shirley Valentine’ (1989 Paramount Pictures), address a story concerning a middle-aged woman who appears to have lost control over her once lively and now mundane life. Although not in an exact equivalent situation to my female protagonist of ‘Paa’, the film addresses many themes which I was interested in from the conceptual stages of my screenplay. Although the role of mother and wife may have been an ideal that ‘Paa’ left Hong Kong in search of, ‘Shirley Valentine’ portrays an alternative view of this supposed marital bliss.

Cooking ‘tea’ each evening for her chauvinist husband and talking to the kitchen wall for comfort, Shirley considers a life outside of her Liverpuddlian home. She pictures herself by the sea, on the shore at a table with a glass of wine in her hand. With the waves lapping by her feet, gazing across the waves at a setting sun, Shirley Valentine believes that this would be where she is truly at peace. It is this fleeting mental image and a general feeling of wanting to better her situation that has her agreeing to depart on a prize holiday, won and offered by a friend. It is in Greece on the trophy holiday that this moment of suspended tranquillity arrives, and passes. Having met and had an affair with a local bar-owner who at first appears to be sensitive and charming she discovers he holds many similarities with the chauvinist husband she has left at home. At one point in the film the viewer could be forgiven for thinking that Shirley Valentine may dance off into the sunset in the arms of her Greek lover, happily ever after. Shirley comes to the realisation that it is not possible to exist in paradise and so attempts to ‘live’ in paradise as a compromise. She secures a job and refuses to return home. Instead of spending her days preparing fried egg for her unappreciative husband, she would now it seems rather prepare fried eggs for complete strangers. And so the story has come full circle. We see Shirley in exactly the same situation as she was always in, just in a warmer climate and with less familiar faces around her. Shirley Valentine finishes with the arrival of an inappropriately suited Joe, awkwardly carrying a suitcase, and clearly nervous about seeing her. It is through this ending that the theme of appreciation can be seen. By the absence of Shirley in his home, Joe was forced to take action and find her, and in turn through the absence of a better existence or ‘paradise’, Shirley realises that this is life, paradisiacal or not.

The sense of deflation that comes with having prized an image and assigning it a supposed emotion to then discover that in actuality it leaves you in the words of Shirley Valentine, feeling a little ‘daft’ is a dilute version of what I wished to concern my own screenplay with. I am interested in observing the plight of the unfortunate individual who tries to better the life they have and find themselves in an even more dreadful situation. Taking the example of Shirley Bradshaw, nee Valentine, we are given a lighthearted insight into the disappointment that life often holds. Using marriage as a representational frame of expectation and then disappointment Russell has successfully shown the human nature’s tendency towards discontent. Even the name which he assigns to the piece’s main protagonist making the transition from the romanticised ‘Valentine’ to the commonplace ‘Bradshaw’ is an indication of just how this film is to evolve. Shirley Bradshaw introduces us to her life; dull, repetitive and unappreciated. Assuring the audience or viewer of a time where she was a livelier, brighter and more attractive individual, she then begins a journey of self-rediscovery. Within the film version however even the relative halcyon days are tinged by a sense of sadness and a feeling that the young cocky Shirley is not quite as confidant as she would have others believe.

Finding films to take example from proves fairly difficult. Hollywood’s tendency to incline towards happy endings doesn’t seem to allow for this sort of story to break the box office trend. Foreign and festival films and television ‘one-off’s’ offer a more lucrative base from which to take example.

In the Mexican film ‘Y tu Mama Tambien’ (2001 Anhelo Producciones ) similar themes of an intangible paradise are addressed by director Alfonso Cuaron. Two young Mexican teenagers from very different social standings and economical situations embark on a road trip with the estranged, young and beautiful wife of one of their uncles. They promise the woman a trip to ‘Heaven’s mouth’, which they claim the most beautiful of beaches. Incidentally this place that they promise to show her does not exist. They begin an apparently fruitless search with the young woman in a ploy to spend time with, and impress, her. Along the trip we see Luisa play seductress to both the seventeen-year-old boys and embark on all manner of unusual behaviour. Although we are aware of the boy’s doubt that the beach exists, the trio unwittingly stumble across a beautiful and secluded cove that seems to fit the description perfectly. However, shortly after this supposed paradise has been reached, its beauty is quickly marred by, quite inexplicably, a stampede of peasant’s pigs. Luisa seems happiest when on the peasant fisherman’s boat with his family and one of his children in her arms. We later realise that Luisa’s somewhat promiscuous and explicit behaviour is less a result of her husband’s extra marital betrayal, but more as a result of the knowledge that she is dying. We are taken through this film on many different levels of interpretation. On the one hand we see this to be an amusing and occasionally comical ‘coming of age’ film popular within teenage culture, why else the urban taboo of sex with an older woman, in particular one that is distantly related? On the other we are presented with a film that carefully explores the personal dreams of all of the three friends, but in particular the plight of Luisa who is perhaps intent on living and finding a little happiness before she dies. Admittedly the main paradise, or aim for the two boys appears to be quite bluntly to sleep with Luisa oblivious of the life affirming importance that the imagined ‘Heaven’s mouth’, holds for her. (The boys’ interpretation of getting to ‘Heavens mouth’ seems to be more about ‘Luisa’s’ sexual identity, than a road trip to the beach.) There is a sense that in meeting, travelling and individual sexual relations with each of the boys, she is abandoning all constraints that previously bound her as the wife of a politician. It is interesting that once Luisa appears to find happiness, she dies. Having found a relative place of peace and happiness she rests. The scene in which all three are united in a scene of lovemaking sees all three, unsurprisingly, in a state of relative happiness to the previous scenes of competitive jealousy. This moment doesn’t last long as the teenagers are surprised and ashamed of their intimate relations with each other, and so results a sense of having lost the one true happy moment within the film.

The film takes the familiar allegory of the beach as a place of imagined paradise, and as with many other films presents it as a place somewhat akin to heaven.
Take for example Alex Garland’s novel ‘The Beach’ and screenplay (2000, Figment Films) of the same name. The place of promised paradise is a closely kept and guarded secret. The story begins when a map of a mythical perfect island is passed on from a mad Scotsman, (who later commits suicide) to a young American travelling in Asia and intent on adventure. The beach centres on themes of a utopian paradise and attempts to convey that whilst we all search for paradise to actually find it results in madness. The disillusionment comes with the discovery that the world doesn’t get any more perfect than what we already have, there is no place that is unspoilt by human kind and no such ideal as a perfect world. We see the newcomers walking through lush and beautiful ‘natural’ gardens and at first suppose that this paradise existed before the community was formed. The camera then pans across to show a woman working amongst the foliage, beautifying the wildlife, as the character of Sal asserts ‘…even Paradise takes a little shaping’. The characters that enjoy an existence in paradise still pursue pleasurable pastimes. They still play cricket for entertainment, just as they still attempt to imprint their identity on an already beautiful landscape by cultivating the scenery. Surely when in paradise the pursuit of pleasure through pastimes is obsolete, there being no greater state of pleasure than the state which one already enjoys?

Both of the films ‘Y tu mama Tambien’ and ‘The Beach’ juxtapose the symbology of the women with the beach, quite literally in ‘Y tu mama Tambien’ with the sexually effeminate reference to ‘Heaven’s mouth’, with the relationship between the male and female protagonists in both.
I found these ideas more effectively displayed in Alex Garland’s novel, as the tendency toward attempted ‘innovative’ cinematography detracted from much of the films central themes, and at times felt as if the themes were being ‘spoon-fed’ in patronising manner.

It is interesting that for a lot of people paradise becomes an imagined place, proposing the idea that it can both be reached, as it is a tangible ‘place’, yet also presenting difficulty in the very sense that it is always ‘imagined’. When considering where paradise is, it is almost certain that one will never come to the conclusion, ‘I’m in it’. Of all of the reality television programmes that show individuals, couples and families on a journey across the world to start a new paradisiacal life, how many of them experience true and lasting happiness? Do they simply and silently pack up their belongings and loved ones and travel to their destination in quiet abstinence from complaint and grievance? In short, no they don’t. A wife or husband will still have the same annoying intonations on certain words that infuriate their spouse, as will the child maintain their irritating habit of placing an empty carton back in the refrigerator. By merely moving possession and people to sunnier climes, it is not possible to create a flawless and carefree existence. The same problems exist, just in better weather, an element that will in time go unnoticed and unappreciated as it has become standard practice and quite expected. Human nature dictates that we appreciate one day of sunshine so much the more if it follows three weeks of rain. As with times of extreme sadness, one moment of happiness and joy will be held to be much more valued.

Tod Solondz explores the human obsession with the pursuit of happiness and presents it as an extinct notion; in his film ‘Happiness’ (1998, Good Machine, Killer Films) The film centres on a selection of tenuously linked and socially inept individuals who in their respective ways are searching for pleasure. Solondz’s ironic titling of the film ‘Happiness’ is undoubtedly recognition of the hedonistic principal that pleasure is not necessarily born of happiness. Take for example the ‘paedophile/father/doctor’ character who seeks pleasure within the rape of his young son’s friend entrusted to his care whilst his parents are away. Solondz portrays the distasteful character so expertly that not only does the audience feel a guilty sympathy for the doctor but also tries to understand that this act would not result in his happiness, merely a temporary foray into his sexual perversity.
Irony, inarguably an omnipresent aspect of Solondz portrayal of happiness, has perhaps led to the inclusion of the character and paradoxical naming of ‘Joy’ in the film. ‘Joy’ is symbolic of the human peculiarity of only being at ease when truly miserable. Dumping her boyfriend because he is too good to her she is probably the cause of his suicide.

This film also addresses the theme of the intangible paradise through the story of ‘Allen’ a repressed computer geek that spends his spare time masturbating whilst making anonymous and obscene phone calls. When presented with his ultimate fantasy in the form of the character of beautiful ‘Helen’, a spoiled and disillusioned novelist who is actually aroused by her ‘stalker’, she proposes a meeting. The sudden transition from fantasy to reality serves as a ‘cold shower’ to the phone deviant, affirming the ubiquitous theme of the fabled notion of happiness. Solondz presents ‘Allen’ as a more intelligent version of human nature, albeit a sexually perverse one. ‘Allen’ recognises that to be in possession of a ‘fantasy’ turned ‘sudden reality’ is a dangerous thing. If everything that ever represented ‘happiness’ or ‘joy’ suddenly becomes available then how is life to move forward? How would life progress if there were nothing left to draw from it? To quote George Bernard Shaw,
‘There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it.’ Man and Superman (act IV)
This is perhaps why ‘Allen’ then suddenly turns to a relationship with a neighbour, perhaps able to now continue a normal life and experience the pursuit of more natural pleasures. Solondz again represents this supposed normal ‘happiness’ as a fallacy as we see his attempted relationship in turn spoiled by his partner’s own personal problem with sex and her dislike of it.

It is fitting that this film is pitched to us as a ‘dark comedy’, a term which reflects its themes of happiness in light of extreme sadness. The comedy exists alongside some dark and disturbing imagery and allusions and just as joy after sadness seems so much the sweeter, so too does the comedy become a welcome relief from what is, if nothing else, a fairly difficult film to watch.
Although these characters are presented to us as collection of ‘misanthropes’ Solondz necessitates empathy with these characters to instigate a deepened realization of human nature. If we are able to understand the complex reasons behind the behaviour of these social outcasts we are then able to make a more simple understanding of our own inability to achieve a complete state of happiness.
Cedric Kahn’s lengthy and dark comedy ‘L’ennui’(1998,Gemini Films, Madragoa Filmes) translating to mean literally ‘boredom’, addresses one mans obsession and attempted possession of a young woman. More widely however, it addresses the human notion of desire, to want that which we are denied, within the frame of a love story. It uses elements that I was interested in exploring in my own screenplay, in particular the nature of the relationship between the two main protagonists. The main and quite dislikeable protagonist is Martin, an introspective, self obsessed philosopher, who begins a sexual relationship with a seventeen-year-old ‘Lolita-esque’ girl named Cecilia. Having met in the studio of a deceased elderly artist with whom Cecila enjoyed an affair of lovemaking (which is believed to have killed him) Martin becomes quickly infatuated with the young woman. As she gradually becomes less available and more elusive, his obsession grows. Her uncomplicated attitude towards sex and simple reasoning both attracts and infuriates the probing philosopher whose own brooding post coital questioning he believes to settle his mind. Her attraction lies in her very simplicity. Although she is just seventeen, she has a body of a much older and more experienced woman as one critic stated a body that was, ‘made for love’. Following a non-appearance at one of their daily sexual encounters; Cecilia proposes to lessen their meeting to twice a week.
Becoming suspicious Martin then begins a consuming obsession, which sees him compulsively following Cecilia’s every movement. The film makes direct references to the theme of pleasure seeking within the scene of a Philosophy lecture. Martin’s colleague discusses the finer points of pleasure seeking.
‘…Pleasure doesn’t cause pleasurable acts which can happen without pleasure; pleasure completes the act, as an extra without which the act would not be perfect’
(‘L’Ennui, 1998,Gemini Films, Madragoa Filmes)

Martin’s own apparent ‘ennui’ with this lecture highlights the human disillusionment with the reality and reasoning behind behavioural motives. This section cleverly displays that although philosopher Martin is perfectly aware of what drives his behaviour he is no better equipped than anyone else to stop it.
Much of Martin’s obsessive behaviour is due to jealousy. He is not only confused by Cecilia’s trouble-free existence but he is envious of her unquestioning acceptance. Concurrent with the theme that we are always attempting to escape our own existence regardless of what that may be, the character of Martin is so selfish and self-obsessed that he has the audacity to be jealous of a girl whose father is dying. Just as the perfectly healthy Martin, whose mundane life has led him to agonise over possible ailments and led to a career in the most fruitless of fields – philosophy, is trying to escape his situation, so too is ‘Cecilia’. The difference lies only in their respective sensory expression. ‘Martin’ talks at great length about anything and everything holding no subject of greater importance than the next, elaborating on even the most routine minutiae. Cecilia however expresses her release and escape through touch and feeling. Through sex she escapes her own, probably quite painful life, by obliterating emotion through physical sensation. The audience is given the impression that if ‘Cecilia’ succumbed to his proposal of marriage his infatuation would melt.

In ‘Being John Malkovich’ (1999, Gramercy Pictures, Propaganda Films, Single Cell Films) as both the obscure title and even more obscure plot suggest this film addresses the obsession of wishing we were someone else. Among a plethora of symbolic references, of which this film is rife, this film shows how to crave for a different situation and envy that of another’s is tantamount to disappointment. The discovery of a secret portal into the psyche of John Malkovich allows people to live their dream and become their hero for one day (if their hero happens to be John Malkovich.) When offered, the unhappy people are so desperate for escapism that they compromise and settle for being John Malkovich.

Even when in the relatively carefree existence that comes with ‘being’ John Malkovich, troubles inevitably arise. This portal only allows the entrant an allotted time for them to stay inside and see the world through his eyes. Predictably the entrant all want to stay for longer within this secure existence, ‘existence’ without responsibility. As with the travellers who form a community in ‘The Beach’ who feel a need to cultivate this Paradise, so too do the inhabitants of John Malkovich’s psyche. This need to be inside John Malkovich becomes greater when the entrants find a way of holding on for longer and influencing Malkovich’s actions and sometimes thoughts. This becomes an interesting concept. The trespasser began by merely entering and observing Malkovich’s life, to now exercise control over his actions suggests that having experienced his existence they wish to revert back to their own but just under the guise of John Malkovich exempting them from any responsibility for their actions. Is this not what we all would want, to live our lives exactly as we wish and suffer no recrimination for our deeds?
The notion of achieving ‘paradise’ and continued and complete happiness is obsolete. Each of the above films addresses this and each of the directors and writers make powerful recognition of this.

There is a perversity within each of us that shows human nature at its happiest at times of others sadness. The television series ‘Desperate Housewives’ (2004, Touchstone Pictures, Cherry Productions) highlights perfectly this concept. Centring on the lives of five women in American middle class suburbia, its attraction stems from the fact that whilst these women seem to have it all, there lives are less than perfect. This is the very thing that keeps 25 million people in America tuning in every episode to see.

One Desperate Housewife

Humankind love nothing more than to see the tainted paradise of others especially in a country that is fed the ideal of the ‘American dream’ as a kind of ‘everyman’s paradise’. To take the metaphor of the American dream as an example of how the boundaries of paradise are constantly changing, one needs only to look at the history of the term itself. Originally the American dream was a kind of manifest destiny for immigrants from atrocities such as the Irish potato famine, the Highland clearances, and those left homeless in Europe from the aftermath of Napoleonic wars. This terminology has been diluted to summon images of white picket fences in a suburban safe haven. The very terminology and its altering significance show that there is no such ideal as a lasting happiness. As philosophers, wise men from the ranks of the Taoist belief system and writers and directors worldwide recognise humankind enjoys perpetual misery, it is this feeling of trying to improve our lot that gets us out of bed in the morning. And although we are fed images from childhood by Walt Disney (1901-1966) films of an impossible notion of living our days ‘Happily ever after’, as the child in each of us matures we realise that this cannot be. The man who gave us such inspirational classics such as ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Cinderella’ whilst quoted to have said ‘If you can dream it, you can do it’, lest we forget, also said, ‘I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I have ever known’. It is far more realistic to not berate our existence as meaningless because we don’t spend our lives in a suspended euphoric state, but to recognise that there are times of happiness, as there are times of sadness. The true ‘paradise’ arrives at these moments of interspersed joy after sorrow, and whilst it may only be a fleeting and infrequent visitor, arriving after seemingly ages of nothingness, it is one held the more welcome because of it.

© Amanda Williams May 2005
Amanda is a 2005 graduate from the Creative Arts Degree at Portsmouth University and planning to do a post-graduate programme in Advertising. Her 90 minute screenplay is available to read to professional producers with credits - enquires to:
amandarosewilliams at hotmail.com

Bibliography.
Book Film and Television References
Being John Malkovich 1999. Film. Written by Charlie Kaufman. Directed by Spike Jonze. Gramercy Pictures, Propaganda Films, Single cell Pictures.
Desperate Housewives 2004, Television Series, created by Marc Cherry. Touchstone Pictures, Cherry Productions.
Shirley Valentine 1989, Stage play/ Screenplay. Written by Willy Russell. Directed by Lewis Gilbert. Paramount Pictures.
Y tu Mama Tambien, 2001. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron. Written by Alfonso Cuaron and Carlos Cuaron. Anhelo Producciones
L’Ennui 1998 Directed by Cedric Kahn, Written by Laurence Ferreira Barbosa, Cedric Kahn. Gemini Films, Madragoa Filmes
Shaw, George Bernard. 1989 Man and Superman: A comedy and a Philosophy London, Penguin (non classics)
Nabokov, Vladimir, 1955 Lolita New York, Random House.
Lolita 1962. Directed by Stanley Kubric. Written by Vladimir Nabokov. aa productions ltd, Anya, Harris-Kubric Productions, Seven Arts Productions, Transwood.
Lolita 1997. Directed by Adrian Lyne. Written by Vladimir Nabokov, Stephen Schiff. Guild, Pathe.
Cinderella 1950, animated film. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson. Written by Ken Anderson, Homer Brightman. Walt Disney Films
Sleeping Beauty 1959. Animated film. Directed by Clyde Geronimi. Written by Charles Perrault, Erdman Penner. Walt Disney Films
Smith, Peter. Cavan, Helen. Blades, Mark. Understanding Children Development Blackwell Publishing.
Mischel, Walter. 1971 Introduction to personality 6th Edition Orlando Harcourt College Publishers
Matthews, Gerald. Ziedna, Moshe. Robers, Richard D. Emotional intelligence – Science and Myth Massachusetts institute of Technology.
Internet References:
Cinematic Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119558/companycredits
Taoism References: (Lao-Tse http://www.taoism-truth.com/)
Walt Disney: http://home.att.net/~quotesexchange/waltdisney.html
Film Critics: http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com/
Film Critics: http://www.chicagofilmcritics.org/
Film Critics: http://www.nyfcc.com/
Film Critics: http://www.fipresci.org/
Film Critics: http://www.bfca.org/new_home.asp

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