Saving Francesca

Our Top Two Favourite Quotes From Saving Francesca

‘For a moment I can’t help thinking how decent he is; that there’s some hope for him beyond the obnoxious image he displays. Maybe deep down he is a sensitive guy, who sees us as real people with real issues. I want to say something nice. Some kind of thanks.  I stand there, rehearsing it in my mind.

‘Oh my God,’ he says, ‘did you see that girl’s tits?’

Maybe not today.’ – Francesca and Thomas, pg 119

‘This year has been one of the best years I’ve ever had and I might win the uncoolest person of the year award by saying this, but if you weren’t my friends, I think I’d just go into some kind of coma.’ – Francesca, pg 229

Saving Francesca – The Playlist

I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor

Don’t Give Up – Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush

Dancing Queen – ABBA

These Boots Were Made For Walking – Nancy Sinatra

Teenage Dirtbag – Wheatus

Disco Inferno – The Trammps

Luka – Suzanne Vega

My Favourite Things – The Sound Of Music

Edelweiss – The Sound Of Music

On My Own – Les Miserables

The Sound Of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel

Macarena – Los Del Rio

You Sound Like Louis Burdett – The Whitlams

Heavy Heart – You Am I

A Slow Song – Joe Jackson

Venus – Shocking Blue

Saturday Night Fever – The Bee Gees

Endless Love – Lionel Richie & Diana Ross

Summer Nights – Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta

Ten Years – One Dollar Short

Nutbush City Limits – Ike & Tina Turner

It’s Now Or Never – Elvis Presley

Bad To The Bone – George Thorogood

My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion

Peace Train – Cat Stevens

Imagine – John Lennon

Let It Be – The Beatles

Don’t Worry Baby – The Beach Boys

Kind & Generous – Natalie Merchant

 

(Also posted on our playlists page).

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24. Hyde Park – SF

24. Hyde Park - SF

‘At midnight, we take turns running around Hyde Park sobering Siobhan up.’ – pg 136

So it doesn’t look like we’re running… but we’re running. We couldn’t go to Hyde Park and not run around, even if it was only for about 3 seconds, even if we weren’t drunk and even if you can’t tell in this photo… it happened OK?!

For me, Hyde Park marks my favourite part of the trip. We visited it at night (obviously) and the weather was perfect; mild but not cold. We had a lot of fun, took a lot of photos, (and had some random people offer to a take photo of Rachel in a compromising position – more on that later) explored the surroundings and got to see an art display that was on. I have always loved the scene in Saving Francesca where they take Siobhan to Hyde Park to try to sober her up after the party, and now I love it even more. The setting is perfect. It’s in the middle of the CBD, but it doesn’t feel like it. There is a really nice balance of it being sort of secluded and relaxing, but not creepy because there is a buzz of activity. I would recommend visiting Hyde Park if you are ever in Sydney, and you should definitely go at night, it will add something extra to the whole experience.
– Annette

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23. Petersham Train Station – SF

23. Petersham station - 'Francis Spinelli's mum is a lesbian slut' - SF

‘Justine, my friends from Stella’s are hanging out with a girl who once wrote “Francis Spinelli’s mum is a lesbian slut” on a wall at Petersham station.’  – pg 80

Petersham station was one of our easy locations to photograph because all we had to do was figure out which train line to jump on to get there and then… well… photograph it. Here’s Annette making friends with a Petersham station bench.  And yeah, I’ll admit it. I unsuccessfully tried to convince her to indulge in a bit of innocent literary vandalism with me and actually write it somewhere.

– Rachel

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22. Bar Italia – SF

22. Bar Italia - Spinelli family time - SF

‘My dad takes Luca and me to Bar Italia in Leichhardt.’ – pg 41

We did the trip to Sydney over two days, as we stopped over in Yass for a night (photos to come). We arrived at around lunch time on the Sunday and, giddy with excitement, we decided to head over to Leichhardt to visit a few locations straight away. As you can see from the photo, we visited Bar Italia. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Melina Marchetta, not only for her brilliant written work, but also for the recommendation. Bar Italia has ahhhhmazing gelato and, if you’re ever in the area, you should head over there. Although, it is a pretty popular place so we struggled getting a seat. In the end, we had to admire the ambiance from across the road.

– Annette

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21. Cafe Bones – SF

21. Cafe Bones - Spinelli family time - SF

‘…Pinocchio loves having his puppacinos at Cafe Bones over in Leichhardt every Saturday morning…’ – pg 36

Just for something new and different for us, Cafe Bones was a struggle to get to. Although, unlike other locations, this was less to do with the parking factor (there actually WAS adequate parking) and more to do with the fact that Cafe Bones is located along a walking track. TomTom did not like this. Nevertheless, we weren’t giving up that easy (let’s face it, if we did that with the locations that we found difficult to find, then we really wouldn’t have seen anything at all) so we roamed around for ages until we eventually found it. Luckily for us, it was a beautiful day, so we bought an ice chocolate to share and watched all the dogs playing and interacting with each other. They were uber cute and a cafe for dogs is such an awesome idea.
– Annette

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20. The Manly Ferry…. Again – SF

20. The Manly ferry…. again – Frankie’s Year Seven school excursion – SF

‘”Once in Year Seven on an excursion to Manly, we were on the ferry coming back and next minute she’s on the bow of the boat screaming out, “I’m the Queen of the World…”‘ – pg 28

Saving Francesca takes us back to the famous ‘Day of The Lost Ticket’ on the Manly ferry. This day proved to be one of the more hilarious days, so it shouldn’t be a shock that we have another amusing story to tell.

It is probably good to point out that, while neither of us are overly self conscious, we aren’t in the business of putting ourselves into embarrassing situations if we can avoid it. Clearly on this day, it was unavoidable. We couldn’t possibly ride the ferry without doing the ‘I’m the Queen of the world’ moment. So while everyone was disembarking, we made ourselves look like Titanic loving tourists so we could get these brilliantly composed photos. Unluckily for me, Rachel a) is the slowest phototographer in the world and b) apparently lost the ability to use her camera at this precise moment. Rachel made me pose 3 times to get this photo. Three times! She maintains that the camera wasn’t working. I am of the belief that it was part of an elaborate plan to make me embarrassed, thus becoming clumsy whilst disembarking the ferry, causing me to place my ticket in my bag, instead of in my wallet, resulting in the aforementioned lost ticket and having to purchase a new one. Well done Rachel, well done.

– Annette