August 23, 2010
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Ugliness
I’m guessing most of you have never seen a movie called Rigoletto. It’s by a little known company called Feature Films For Families. When I was younger, my mother bought a bunch of movies from them. These movies quickly became favorites of myself and my sisters. Each movie had their own life lesson, I guess you could say.
Rigoletto takes place during the depression, I believe, in a small town, because the characters talk about a banker coming in and taking their homes. This man buys a mansion in town that had been vacant for a number of years, and no one sees him. He buys the house of the main character, a young school girl about 13. Her mother meets with this man, and he stays in the shadows so she can’t see him. He requests that her daughter work for him, cleaning his house, so the woman can keep her house. The daughter agrees.
She is told to never enter a room, in which the man spends all of his time. One day, the girl hears a most beautiful singing coming from the room, a woman’s voice. Curious, she opens the door a tiny bit to hear better. She’s then dragged into the room by the man, and this is the first time we see him. His face is severely disfigured. After the woman leaves, the man tells the girl that he had taught the woman to sing like that. The girl asks the man to teach her how to sing. He scoffs at her, but agrees to hear the girl sing. She sings for him, but he interrupts her, saying that she sounds like a goat. She tells him that his face isn’t what makes him ugly, it’s his heart. So he sings this song for her.
The girl tells the man in awe that anyone who can sing like that has a beautiful heart. He agrees to teach her how to sing. She sings in a competition later in the movie, and the man writes it for her. People in the town had been calling the man a monster. They later found out that the man had been helping people in the town, without them knowing.
(I know the vid quality sucks :/)This will always be one of my favorite movies, because the lesson in it is so beautiful. Just because someone isn’t attractive, doesn’t mean that they are a monster. They could have the most beautiful heart of all.
Random scene from the movie:
Comments (20)
i saw that in school but i cannot remember why…
I dont recall ever seeing this
Now I want to watch this! It’s a good lesson, I’d say :].
@xo_alisonn - It’s really good! You can probably only find on VHS though, lol. When I moved out, my mom kept it, and I found it at a Goodwill for $1
“Alan and Naomi”, “The Story Lady”, and “The Buttercup Gang.” Ever seen those? My mom would order oodles of FOF films. I am very familiar with Rigaletto. It’s one of my favorites too.
@bloodbreath - Hmm, I don’t recall those. I remember No More Baths, Over the Rainbow (I think that’s what it was… not sure), and Picture Perfect. There might have been one or two more that we had, but I don’t remember, lol!
@crazy2love - Oh, we had Picture Perfect, too.
I remember that one….
We had alllll those movies when I was a kid – this one was one of my favorites, especially the song at the end. I haven’t thought about it in years, but now that I am thinking, a lot of those lessons stayed with me.
i THINK i have seen this movie. not sure. the girl looks so familair. but i am gonna check it out because you are right!! looks does not make you beautiful. it is the personality. [[ charactors, douno what the difference is really]]
I was so in love with that movie as a child.
I’ve never heard of that movie, but it sounds like a very good movie.
I love Rigoletto! That wasn’t my favorite Feature Film for Families movie, but it was close.
My favorite was Split Infinity.
I love the message of Rigoletto, though. There’s a similar non-LDS movie called Penelope – it kind of has a similar message.
That’s one my family’s owned since I was a young’un. Always did like it.
“The Elephant Man”, in the 1980′s, wrenched my heart for years afterward. Inner beauty does not fade, even in the face of full blown hate.
I have a copy of Rigoletto on VHS. I LOVE that movie. *sigh* ♥
I think it’s a wonderful film to watch and the songs are lovely. I will add this in my must watch list. Thanks.
Never saw this…. sounds good though.
for my kindergartners’ graduation performance, they sang “the melody within.” it had been years since i’d seen the movie or even heard the song. i love it!
I’ve loved the movie myself since we bought it for my family. After our divorce I didn’t have a copy for years until I stumbled on it on Amazon.com, on DVD. It was slow getting it, but worth the wait.