Over the span of a few evenings I watched a beautiful movie - a PBS Masterpiece Classic miniseries actually -
as satisfying and moving as you only could hope for.
It follows the life of Logan Mountstuart, a man, born at the beginning of the 20th century and we follow him along through his life and career, filled with all the ups and downs of the human condition. The story mirrors the life changing historical events, the happy and tragic turns of his life, his gentle wisdom and his unerring talent to look forward.
Originally written by William Boyd, Any Human Heart it was conceived as a series of personal journals. It is an intimate and equally brilliant story, one which will stay with you for a long time. Now, that I found his books, I am already looking for the next one.
I watched the movie as an installment on Netflix, but it is also available online.
The movie is wonderful, find below the editorial review from Amazon:
Every life is ordinary and extraordinary. Logan Mountstuart s lived in every decade of the twentieth century is a rich tapestry of both. Matthew Macfadyen (Pride and Prejudice), Jim Broadbent (Harry Potter), and newcomer Sam Claflin all take a turn as Logan at different points in his life in this provocative glimpse at one man s quest for glory and bliss. An aspiring young writer in London and Paris, a spy during WWII, Logan s was a life touched by everything and everyone from the Spanish Civil War, Joan Miró, and Ian Fleming to Earnest Hemingway, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and the Baader-Meinhof Gang. But despite his many brushes with history, it is the women of his life who ultimately define Logan his ill-matched first wife, Lottie; the wives of his best friend, Peter; Freya, the love of his life; or anyone else on the long list of women who ve shared his days and nights. Featuring Hayley Attwell, Kim Catrall, Gillian Anderson, Tom Hollander, Natasha Little, Julian Rhind-Tutt, and Richard Schiff, Any Human Heart is the story of a full life, lived with passion expansive, rich, unsentimental, comic, and profoundly moving.
