Casablanca

Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in the words of one character, love and virtue. He must choose between his love for a woman and helping her and her Resistance leader husband escape from the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablancato continue his fight against the Nazis.

A great classic, of course. It seemed to me, however, like some of the supporting actors had more interesting characters than the main stars. Humphrey Bogart is fabulous at the swarthy, cool saloon owner, but some of the random workers or army guys with strange personalities and voices are pretty great. I kept trying to imagine what colors everything really was and found that it was quite hard! What color are the walls in the Cafe Americain? What color is Ingrid Bergman's silky dress? I couldn't imagine anything...it's just too classic in black and white!

Here's lookin' at you, kid

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a translation of the French memoir Le scaphandre et le papillon by journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby. It describes what his life is like after suffering a massive stroke that left him with a condition called locked-in syndrome. It also details what his life was like before the stroke.

On December 8, 1995, Bauby, the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, suffered a stroke and lapsed into a coma. He awoke 20 days later, mentally aware of his surroundings but physically paralyzed with the exception of some movement in his head and eyes (one of which had to be sewn up due to an irrigation problem). The entire book was written by Bauby blinking his left eyelid, which took ten months (four hours a day). A transcriber repeatedly recited a French language frequency-ordered alphabet (E, S, A, R, I, N, T, U, L, etc.), until Bauby blinked to choose the next letter. The book took about 200,000 blinks to write and an average word took approximately two minutes. The book also chronicles everyday events for a person with locked-in syndrome. These events include playing at the beach with his family, getting a bath, and meeting visitors.

Classic foreign film. It reminded me of this Spanish movie we watched in high school, The Sea Inside, but more extreme--meaning the main character (who is also the bad guy in Quantum of Solace) had more disabilities. It was pretty slow at some parts, especially the beginning, but once it got going it was engaging. A thinker, not really an entertainer. I wish there had been more description about his change of heart...how he went from wanting to die to refusing to pity himself. It did make me want to read the book he wrote. He seemed like a beautiful writer.

Overall, worth seeing if you are in the right mood.

Shine a Light

Best part: the Stones playing a Muddy Waters song with Buddy Guy. Mick Jagger singing about his woman, Keith Richards turns around with a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

I can't help but see how Keith Richards makes the perfect pirate king.

Fun show, but I would pay more to see Led Zeppelin.

Moliere

In 1658, playwright/actor Molière, having been given a theater in the capital by the King, is back in Paris after touring the kingdom of France with his company of players. One day, a young lady asks him to follow her to the deathbed of her mother... Thirteen years earlier, Molière already runs a troupe but goes broke and is thrown to prison. Fortunately (?) his debt is covered by Monsieur Jourdain, a rich man who wants him to help him rehearse a one-act play he has written with a view to seducing a beautiful bright young widow, Célimène. As Jourdain is married to Elmire, and is the "respectable" father of two daughters his design must remain secret so Molière is introduced into the house as Tartuffe, an austere priest...

This French film was recommended to me by my cousin, Melanie. She's a costume designer and that's a lot of what she looks for in movies. The costuming in this movie was really awesome--I wish I hadn't had to be reading subtitles the whole time. It's advertised as a comedy, and it definitely did have some funny lines, but the last ten minutes really confused me as to whether it really is a comedy or not. Besides the fact that the movie was a little long and drawn out (or maybe it was just late), it was quite enjoyable!

Best scene: Jourdain imitating a horse.

Confessions of a Superhero

Confessions of a Superhero is a 2007 documentary film directed by Matthew Ogens about costumed superheroes on theHollywood Walk of Fame. The film focuses in particular on Christopher Dennis, Jennifer Wenger, Joseph McQueen, andMaxwell Allen, who dress as Superman, Wonder Woman, The Hulk, and Batman, respectively.

My feelings at the end of this movie was basically a pit in my stomach. I couldn't help feel sorry for these people who are trying to become Hollywood names, but day after day just dress up and wander around Hollywood Boulevard.

Superman, who described himself as "the historian of Superman and keeper of artifacts" really loves what he does. Interestingly, his girlfriend is a psychologist, and even she can't figure out what's wrong with him. Their apartment is plastered with Superman posters, paraphernalia hanging from the ceilings, every book shelf stacked with Superman comics and movies--I was surprised to see that his shower curtain was a beach scene. He really is the star of the movie, next to George Clooney look alike, Batman, with anger problems and alleged murders to his name. The Hulk, who dresses in a full costume and mask, was homeless for 4 years, and now just feels like a glorified pan handler. WonderWoman is a cute, cowgirl from Tennessee who is trying her best to make a living as an actress.

Overall, good movie, really strange subject matter...left me feeling slightly depressed.

free trial

Netflix sent me a free trial offer for 14 days. Movies are one of my weakness. I don't really know why--I don't claim to be a movie buff or anything, but I love watching movies and impulsively buying them, too. So, as I am taking advantage of this free trial, 3 movies out at a time, and plan to watch them all the time (this may cause a problem for the homework load), I propose a free trial for you. Your free trial is also a 14 day offer of reading my movie critiques. Again, I don't claim to know much of anything about movies, but I know what I like when I see it.

Your promotion code: 80025567
Offer ends: 01/28/10

Enjoy!

be true to your school

first week...check! i have learned one valuable lesson and made one self discovery.

valuable lesson #1: a whole can of chipotles should never go in anything you actually want to consume happily.
self discovery #1: if there was one thing i could do without any consequences, it would be to drink whole milk.

on another note...

cd of the week: mayer hawthorne "a strange arrangment". i think the tally of times listened has grown to at least 25.