Where is your travel wanderlust taking you? From Rome to Paris, no matter where your spirit yearns to be, there’s a movie that will help nurture that fire.
What does it mean to have the wanderlust spirit? Wanderlust is often used to describe the overwhelming urge some people get to travel. It’s a feeling of restlessness, an unquenchable thirst for adventure – it’s the motivator of travelers all over the world. It’s the inquisitive search for knowledge that led the ancient Greek Herodotus to traverse all over Greece and Asia Minor. It’s the spirit of adventure that brought Hemingway to Paris and the rest of Europe. Nowadays, with the pandemic raging on and tighter border controls all over the world, it can be difficult to feed and nurture the wanderlust spirit. However, there is one sure way to keep the fire alive – movies that not only stoke the wanderlust spirit but deliver our favorite destinations in all their glory so we can live vicariously through the movie characters. Here are a few of the best to take in.
Eat Pray Love
In the 2010 feature based on the novel of the same name, Julia Roberts plays Elizabeth Gilbert, a woman who has everything in life. She has a house, a husband, and a successful career, but yet she feels lost and confused. After divorcing her husband, she takes a journey around the world on a quest to self-discovery and learning valuable life lessons. Rome, India, and Bali are featured prominently in the film and have a direct influence on Elizabeth’s journey. Who among us hasn’t had a valuable insight during our travels? It is a story we can all relate to and look forward to experiencing for ourselves again, hopefully in the near future.
Under the Tuscan Sun
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to own your own rustic villa in Tuscany? Fans and dreamers of traveling in Italy should definitely check out this feature from 2003, starring Diane Lane as a newly divorced American who, in a serendipitous turn of events, ends up purchasing a Tuscan villa during a holiday visit. The film then follows the goings-on at the villa during restoration efforts as well as a brief love affair Lane’s character has with a local. The warm greenery and rustic cobblestone of the small Tuscan town of Cortona is the star of the show here.
Midnight in Paris
Starring Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard, this 2011 film asks the question, “what if you could go back to your ideal time in history?” For Wilson’s character Gil Pender, a screenwriter visiting Paris with his wife, his ideal vision of Paris is that of the Belle Epoque, when writers such as Hemingway and Stein and artists like Picasso and Dali ruled the cultural scene. One night at midnight, an old car stops at an intersection he’s standing at and he gets in, being magically teleported to the 1920s Paris that he idolizes. While the film is a subtle commentary on nostalgia, the Paris that comes through onscreen is beautiful and wonderfully presented. Highly recommended for all Francophiles!
Explore the World with AESU!
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