I remember when they rode you in Before Sunrise.
Dear Vienna,
I met you once Before Sunrise. I don’t think you remember me then. I was just a casual observer. I saw you, and I wanted to see you again. So I had to come to see you in person. We had fun at the ferris wheel in the Prater, playing out a scene from a movie. I stood by the statue where Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy watched the sunrise after frolicking overnight through your streets. We had a great time together.
But you aren’t my first.
You are not my first lust from afar, my first love affair come to life from the silver screen. I was in love with a Rockefeller once. Kevin McAllister introduced us when he was home alone in New York. I remember my visit well, watching ice skaters in chilly New York, all stocking caps and ski coats. A gilded Prometheus watched over us. The towers lit above provided the perfect moment I shared with someone that was not you.
NY, I saw you on TV
Vienna, I cannot pretend there have not been others. I looked out at the Statue of Liberty from Battery Park, after being introduced by The Equalizer. We were both so much
younger then. Steve Martin once told me an L.A. Story, and later I enjoyed a hot
dog with angels at Tail o’ the Pup. In the days before I met you, Rocky led me up a set of towering steps for a brief affair with a City of Brotherly Love. And I read a code of Da Vinci which enticed me to tryst with a glass pyramid. Perhaps I am a tramp, but sometimes I see a picture of someone else and need to see what they look like in the flesh. Sometimes I am introduced and stop by in person to find out if their magic is real. And then I leave them, but they are not left loverless. No, we have never had an exclusive relationship anyway. There are always others, landing, tumbling into their arms, falling in love.
Venice? Casanova was there before me. Johnny Depp was The Tourist there long before me.
Paris had many fall in love with her before me. And there have been many more since.
Paris? Oh, Paris didn’t miss me for a moment. They have drawn so many of us in. So it is not right for me to stay anyway. They forget me before I forget them, for I am but one in a series of lovers.
How many? I dare not ask London. The truth would be far too many.
I cannot promise you all my love, Vienna. There are still Suntory times to be had in
Tokyo and a Roman Holiday. I hope to visit you again to rekindle what was started long before we actually met. It may be a while, so I will take solace in the moving pictures I have. But, just as you will not wait for me, I cannot wait for you. I will lust after others, some who I know, and some who I have yet to meet. And you will continue your
charming ways, hopefully buoyed by the Third Man or Living Daylights. Ethan & Julie did not forget you, and I won’t either.
Metaphorical ode to films which are inspired by their location:
Before Sunrise, L.A. Story, Lost in Translation, The Da Vinci Code, Home
Alone 2: Lost in New York, Rocky, Roman Holiday, and the TV show The Equalizer.