Research - Films and Books

When looking at Olio, a lot of my ideas have initially come from books and films I have read and seen.

In a sense, I feel books themselves count under the category of letters - they are a message from one person to another through written words which often affect the readers just as much as personal letters.


Below are a couple of examples of romance books, films and plays I looked at that contain letters ...


Me Before You - Jojo Moyes

The letter in this book is written from one friend to another and doesn't appear until the very end, but the use of it is incredibly poignant. It's highly emotional and thought provoking, the point of the whole book. The emotion is again the whole point of the written letter.

P.S I Love you (2007)
based on the book, by Cecelia Ahern

The whole plot for this story revolves around letters. It's highly emotional, like with Me Before You, and the theme's revolving around the letters are romantic and about letting go.

Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet has been retold several times in all sorts of film adaptations revolving around the original play. In the story, letters that are meant to be passed on to Romeo to explain the plan to fake Juliet's death never reach their destination and as such result in the plays tragic ending.

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

based on the book by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice (2005) is one of my favourite films, which also contains letters. Darcy leaves Elizabeth a letter when they fall out and he wants to explain to her his reasoning for his actions. The letter leaves more of an impression on her than his spoken words probably would have. 

Our Girl (BBC TV Series, 2014)

This drama from the BBC focused in an army medic, Molly, away in Afghanistan. Whilst it touched briefly on letters home in the programme, the writers of the show wrote fictional letters between the main characters and relatives back home that were posted on the facebook page for the show as promotion.