Watching Sabrina
I have had an infatuation with movies since the beginning of the pandemic. Do you know how many times I watched Pride and Prejudice during quarantine? And of course as the annoying person I am I joined Letterboxd, which I still update, and I think that’s when you know you’re getting in pretty deep. I love classic romance movies, they’re just so … chic? They’re not cringey or overly explicit. They have the perfect combination of charm, pretty dresses, and fateful endings, that make you tilt your head and imagine what it would be like to live in that world.
More recently though, I haven’t had time to have an hour or two by myself, settle down with some snacks and put on something to watch, but the moment presented itself to me on my 13 hour flight back home from my trip. I uncomfortably reached for the touch screen in front of me, and scrolled through all the movies, A-Z, and decided that I would watch the movie Sabrina. What drew me in was, obviously, Audrey Hepburn. How could you not? I started the movie and watched as the chauffeur’s daughter, Sabrina, long for the affluent and picturesque life that the Larrabee’s live. The Larrabee’s run what seems like a multi-million dollar company, with the eldest brother Linus being the head.
Sabrina has had a crush on David Larrabee ever since they were little, and it would always consume her. In an effort to force her mind somewhere else, her father sends her off to Paris where she attends a culinary school and meets a Baron who gives her a Parisian makeover. She returns home to New York with a super-chic haircut and the latest of Parisian fashion, just in time for the big party the Larrabee’s are hosting. Looking like a princess in white, she’s dancing with David, and it seems like her dreams are finally coming true, but a problem arises. He’s engaged to another woman in a –somewhat– arranged marriage by his father and Linus in hopes of a business deal with her family.
Linus is then set on a mission to get Sabrina away from David, so that everything can go as planned, but of course, it doesn’t. Linus takes Sabrina on numerous romantic adventures, like slow dancing in an empty tennis court and sailing while listening to silly songs, and and they end up falling in love. He tells Sabrina that he planned a trip to Paris for the two of them, but plans to send her off alone, so that his focus can be back on the family company. She finds out and confronts him about it, proceeding to get on the boat to Paris heartbroken. That is until Linus ditches his big business meeting and gets on the boat just before it leaves. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT. I couldn’t. There’s just such a warm feeling in your heart when you watch it happen.
While Sabrina is a collection of extravagant romantic gestures, it tells the very real story of a girl’s first real crush and what happens as time passes. If you’re anything like me, you remember your first ever crush and it’s something you never let go of, but as we grow up we get over it and find another person, just like Sabrina did. It makes me wonder, how many people are going to be passing fads in my life, until I find a Linus with my fateful ending? I know it’s dramatic but let me be a romantic.
