As for that genius named Erik Stoltz, who encaptured the Mr. Demitri character like no one else could imagine doing so. INCREDIBLE
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Re: Looking at eachother's lips...
In the car during the "we aren't friends" scene (@ 6-10 time). and in his house when they were fighting "take the cheese!" scene.. and the scene where she asks to see "where he sleeps" OH another great line, "you are doing this ALARMINGLY well!" Go Grace!
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I'm not a big TV watcher. But lately, I've happened upon Once and Again and have become a huge fan (alsmost overnight). Tonight, I just watched my third or fourth episode and once again (no pun intended!) was just blown away. Tonights show was excellent and made the eyes well up a bit. The cool thing here was that you could see how Graces mother could see her daughters side, while at the same time also trying to do the "right" thing and steer her away. As tonights show demonstrated, it is possible that a close, even romantic, student/teacher relationship are not always the result of an aggressive and pedophillic instuctor. In tonights case, the relationship was awkward because of the (societally looked down upon) age difference. But as the message in tonights episode showed, the love will prevail (no matter what the age difference).
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Well, after watching parts of the episode again, I come to conclusion that our Dimitri was not only kissing dear Grace back but also he was asking more/one more but Grace put halts by using her hands! think about it:))
btw, my partner thinks he needs to dye his hair in carrot -red to get my attention--but honestly, Grace has been most compelling character for me in the whole show, Dimitri just bring more light into her.
My last thought: through out the 7 episodes around G/D the producers bring us Chekhov's story , in modern American version of it.
Thank you to all of you for these wonderful thoughts and replies
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No roses or decorative love :
Chekhov's short story entitled: About Love contributed a richly textured backdrop to a drama already ripe with pathos and mystery.
To their credit, Russian authors are often beautifully bitter sweet and unadorning in their handling of love and romance. The short story, essentially a reminescence by Chekov's character named Alehin deals (in great part) with love and passion felt, shared but unspoken and therefore unrealized. It is a beautiful,sad story that said to me: Carpe Diem ! Alehin hesitated to seize the day with respect to his love for Anna Alexyevna and his musings (as read by Grace) were wrought with his anguish and personal regret yet tempered with poetic advice to those of us who may find ourselves in similar positions .
Should Mr.Dimitri have voiced and acted upon his feelings for Grace and should Grace have been even more frank than she was? I honestly don't have the answers but I do know that every decision we make has it's price and I suppose it's incumbent upon each of us to decide how much luxury we can afford at any given point in our lives.
I was warmed by the entire handling of the subject,(taboos are so difficult to breach anyway) and by the character of thoughts and feelings throughout the episode as manifested in the decisions that August and Grace ultimately made.
I was most impressed with Grace's decision to walk away after having kissed Mr Dimitri. Indeed I was completely surprised! I fully thought that she had intended to give full reign to her passion as I suspect most teens would have in a similar situation. She did not. Instead she chose to savor the moment, to render it the crescendo of all that had gone before, and to leave it at that.
Seeing Mr. D and Grace reminded me of myself with my Dad who was a poet/playwright. He instilled in me a great passion for poetry and we used to sit around and read poetry to one another often in tears because I guess thats what happens to folks who really feel the muse…I can not think of a TV program that has so inspired or touched me so deeply. What a remarkable series.