Today I have a guest post from Katie Dale author of Little White Lies
Eek! It’s Friday 13th! The day when everything’s
supposed to go wrong and bad luck abounds. If you’re superstitious, that
is. I guess it comes down to whether you
believe in luck, fate, and all the rest of it. In LITTLE WHITE LIES Christian
tell Lou that he does:
‘It’s like fate keeps
pushing us together.’ Christian grins.
‘Well,
you can’t resist fate,’ I smile.
But is it really fate that brought them together?
Which got me thinking about how many other fictional characters
met each other purely by chance or (if you believe in it) Fate.
Here are my top five:
1) Casablanca
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into
mine.”
Poor Rick. Having lost the love of his life, Ilsa,
years ago, he has resigned himself to running a bar in Casablanca, when who
should walk in? Ilsa…with her husband. As their lives again explosively collide
and intertwine under the looming threat of the Nazis, it seems Casablanca isn’t
big enough for the three of them – but who will Ilsa choose…?
2) Titanic
“I won my ticket on Titanic here at a lucky hand at poker...a very lucky
hand”
Hm, that’s probably debatable, but it’s true that
Jack Dawson was never supposed to be on the Titanic – there’s no way the
penniless artist could have afforded a ticket, yet thanks to the luck of the
draw (or fate), he won a ticket on the greatest ship ever built, and met and
won the love of his life. If only it weren’t for a pesky iceberg…or was that
fate again?
3) Strangers
on a train
Of
course, not all chance encounters are of the romantic kind. While on a train,
Guy Haines has the misfortune to encounter a stranger, Bruno Anthony, who tells
Guy about his idea for the perfect "criss-cross" murder: he will kill
Guy’s wife, Miriam, allowing Guy to be with Ruth, the woman he loves, and in
exchange Guy will kill Bruno's father. This is perfect, Bruno claims, as since
they are unconnected strangers, there is no identifiable motive for the crimes,
and therefore there can be no suspicion from the police. Guy hurriedly leaves,
but Bruno followshim to his hometown, where he strangles Miriam in an amusement
park. Now Guy must kill Bruno's father in return…or Bruno will frame Guy for
Miriam’s murder.
4) Private Lives
Imagine
the scene: You’ve just arrived on the first evening of your honeymoon at an
idyllic seaside hotel, complete with pretty wrought-iron balcony. But as your
new spouse goes inside to change, who should appear at the adjoining balcony?
Your ex.
Also on
honeymoon.
What are
the odds? One in a million, at least, so it must be fate, right? But is it bad
luck or good luck for Elyot and Amanda…?
Noel
Coward’s hilarious play is as resonant and witty as it ever was as the couple
who can’t live with or without each other are given a second chance…for better
or for worse.
5) Serendipity
And of course, no list of chance encounters would be complete without
Serendipity, a film which is all about Fate or “happy accidents”. After a
(admittedly slightly tenuous) chance encounter over a pair of gloves each wants
to buy their lover (really? How many pairs of gloves would be the right size
for both sexes?) Sara and Jonathon feel a
mutual attraction, and end up eating ice cream together. They say goodbye, but later both realize that they have left something at
the cafe, and return only to find each other again.
Considering this to be a stroke of fate,
Jonathan and Sara decide to go out on the town together, but, insisting that if
fate wants them to be together, fate must bring them back together, Sara asks
Jonathan to write his phone number on a $5 bill, while she writes her number on
the inside cover of a copy of Love in the Time of Cholera.If they are meant to be together, he
will find the book and she will find the $5 bill, and they will find their way
back to each other… What will fate decide…?
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