Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Sara Lövestam's "Wonderful Feels Like This"

Sara Lövestam, a writer as well as a huge jazz music fan, lives in Sweden.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her novel, Wonderful Feels Like This, newly released in English:
Anytime anyone asks me: Which one of your books would you like to see as a movie? I answer Wonderful Feels Like This (Hjärta av jazz in Swedish). It already has an awesome soundtrack, as so much of the story is based on jazz tunes from the 40s, and I would just love to see the scenes where Alvar as a young man bikes through Stockholm and gets into the legendary swing jazz clubs.

This story is about Steffi and Alvar. Steffi is a 15 year old girl who loves music and hates school. She gets bullied every day, partly because her father is Cuban, so she looks different than the other people in this small village, Björke. When I think of her in a movie setting, the first actress who comes to mind is a young America Ferrera. I do see Steffi a little bit like (an even younger) Ugly Betty, except more introverted and less clumsy.

Alvar is a 89-year-old man, who throughout the book remembers his youth and tells his stories to Steffi. In 1942, he traveled from Björke to the big city of Stockholm as a 17-year-old boy, trying to make it as a jazz musician. As the old Alvar, I picture someone like a very old James Rebhorn. (Unfortunately, James Rebhorn passed away in 2014, may he rest in peace - but then again, America Ferrera is now in her 30s so my cast wouldn't work anyway.) It's something about his facial features that resonate with the way I picture Alvar. As the young Alvar, maybe someone like Eddie Redmayne?
Visit Sara Lövestam's website.

--Marshal Zeringue