rebecca_in_blue | Entries tagged with movies in theater

Sunday afternoon was sunny and almost hot, and Heather and I walked to the theater and saw Nim's Island. All the beautiful white-sand beach scenes made it pretty to look at, but the plot was rather thin. (Heather insisted there was no plot.) I'd like to see it again after I get back to the United States; the theater here showed it dubbed in French, obviously, so I'm sure I missed out on a lot. For some reason in this movie I thought that Abigail Breslin looked a lot like Rachel Hurd-Wood at that age, even though I'd never noticed a resemblance between them before.

The nice weather continued yesterday, and I walked to the cemetery in Villers-Cotterêts (a different one where I'd never been before). It never rained, but it got very windy and cloudy in a cool sort of way. I stayed there for a few hours, longer than I had intended. Alexandre Dumas's parents were buried there, and Dumas used to be buried there too, but his body was moved to the Pantheon in 2002.

One thing I like about Villers-Cotterêts is that is so much easier to see the seasons change here. When I arrived here back in September, the apple orchard across the street was full of apples; during winter the tree branches were bare and empty; now they're full of tiny pale green leaves and white blossoms. There are several trees near the school that are blooming bright pink flowers, and on the way back from the cemetery I saw the wind blowing the petals off one of them. It was so beautiful that I just stood and stared; it looked like a rainfall of pink light, and when it hit the ground, it made a solid pink carpet on the pale green grass. Just as I got back to the lycée, the clouds rolled in again and it started raining (perfect timing). Sarah and I watched it fall against the windows in the computer room.

Today it rained hard, but I went out anyway and tried to get some albuterol from the pharmacy (the inhaler I'm using now is almost empty). They looked at me like I was nuts when I showed them my inhaler, but in the end they gave me one like it for only 5€ -- except I'm not sure if it's what I need or not. I'm going to try to get a prescription from a French doctor before I leave, but since I've left this to the last minute, I'm not sure if I'll be able to.

Today Sarah and Mariana both said the same thing (in different languages) when I told them when I was leaving. "Monday? This Monday?" It was depressing, to say the least. Tomorrow I'm going to start packing and taking my room apart in earnest, something I've been dreading doing for over a month.

Nathalie, to me, just now: "Rebecca, have you seen Nakeisha? I mean, not Nakeisha, Marlene. I mean, not Marlene, Mariana. Have you seen Mariana?"

Current Mood: sigh...
Current Music: My Favorite Things, Julie Andrews

What’s the only thing better than a nice cheesy episode of Walker, Texas Ranger? That same episode in French! I was eating in the kitchen earlier with Sarah, who was flipping around channels, when suddenly: "Sarah! Go back! I thought I just saw… Oh my God, it is! It’s Walker, Texas Ranger in French!" I only saw the last few minutes, but it was just as horrible as I could have hoped. Walker found the bad guys (of course) and beat them up in a slow-motion karate fight, then rescued two kids from a burning building with the help of a Lassie-like yellow Labrador who was easily the best actor in the whole damn thing. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to think up a good Chuck Norris saying related to France, something like, "When Chuck Norris comes to France, French people lower their flags."

Last week I went by the médiathèque and checked out Ben-Hur, which I hadn’t seen since the sixth grade, when my history teacher at SJ Welsh (aka Hell on Earth and the worst school I’ve ever been to) decided to show it to our class. Looking back now, I don’t know why the hell she thought she could show such a religious movie in a public school, and I wish I had tried to get her fired over it. Anyway, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did when I was 11 (I remember being blown away by it), and the whole thing was almost ruined by Haya Harareet’s truly horrible performance. I was reminded of a poem I love, "My Life Before I Knew It," by Lawrence Raab:

I hated to dance, I hated baseball,
and collected airplane cards instead.
I learned to laugh at jokes I didn’t get.
The death of Christ moved me,
but only at the end of Ben-Hur.

In the last few days I’ve bought two galettes des rois, but don’t worry, I didn’t eat them by myself, the other assistants helped. They’re French King Cakes, but the differences are 1) they’re eaten to celebrate the Epiphany, not Mardi Gras, 2) hidden inside is a beautiful little man carved out of porcelain and painted, not a pink plastic baby, and 3) they’re infinitely better than the King Cakes we eat in Louisiana, which I’ve always thought were dry and tasteless. These are big flaky pastries with this sweet filling made from sugar, eggs, and almonds. They probably won’t be selling them much longer, since the Epiphany was two weeks, but my goal is to eat as many as I can while they’re still in stores.

The English students and I got a nice treat on Friday when the English teachers decided to cancel classes and take all the students to see Enchanted at the local cinema, which had worked out some deal with the lycée to let us all watch it for free. I enjoyed it; it was a cute movie with some really catchy songs, and I was impressed with Disney’s ability to make fun of itself after all the wrongs it’s committed (don’t even get me started on what they did to Peter Pan).

Current Mood: je déteste le dimanche

I saw X-Men 3 in theaters today with Adam and Sarah, who love the first two X-Men movies as much as (if not more than) I do. I had worried that the balance of action, drama, and comedy that marked X-Men and X2 was too perfect and delicate to continue into a third film, and all my fears were confirmed. I suppose I should have seen it coming. This is a letter I e-mailed to Adam last summer:

June 20, 2005.
Hey, Adam, Sarah's latest issue of Entertainment Weekly has an article on X3. Read this!

"Fox's Marvel-ous band of mutant freedom fighters have done their fair share of evolving lately. After original helmer Byran Singer opted to direct Superman, Matthew Vaughan stepped in ... and then stepped out. An X-insider says Vaughan wanted to stay in Britain. X3 starts shooting in Vancouver in August. With Fox determined to meet a Memorial Day 2006 release, Rush Hour's Brett Ratner was quickly hired to shoot a script on which he had no input. "Other directors might have been wary," says producer Avi Arad. Adds Ratner: "It wasn't like there were any mistakes to clean up. It was all fantastic." The entire X-cast is returning, including Hugh Jackman (now also co-producer of the film) and Halle Berry in an expanded role. Joining them: Kelsey Grammar as a furry blue genius named Beast."

OK, my hopes for this movie has been pretty much dashed. Hiring a director on the spot who wasn't even involved with writing the script or developing the characters? Rushing production to make a summer 2006 release? Bringing back Halle Berry? Put them all together, and they spell death. I thought Berry wasn't doing X3 because she didn't like Storm's small role, but I Miss Oscar isn't sitting so pretty now that she's realized she has a crappy eye for material -- Gothika? Catwoman? -- and so now she's sticking with a good thing, and the producers are bringing her back because she's a big name. What does this prove? That Fox doesn't care about satisfying fans, just making money. Prepare to be disappointed.

Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Sunny Came Home, Shawn Colvin

Sara, Adam, and I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (the fourth movie in the series) in the theater today, Sara for the first time, me for the second, and Adam for the third. Here are a few of the many sarcastic comments we made to each other:

"A human boy!" Said by me when Professor McGonagall said, "But Potter is a boy," quoted from Wart in The Sword in the Stone.

"Up in his wishing tree," Sung by me when Draco jumped down from a tree to insult Harry, quoted from an episode of South Park that parodied Michael Jackson.

"Has Draco Malfoy been climbing trees today?" Said by Sara during the same scene, quoted from Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. I laughed so hard at this one.

"Brush your teeth!" Said by all of us during different close-ups of Karkaroff.

"I wish I knew how to quit you!" Said by Sara when Harry and Ron made up after their feud, quoted from an argument between Ennis and Jack in Brokeback Mountain.

"If you can't fix it, you gotta stand it," Said by me when Harry and Ron made up, quoted from the same.

"I'm a girl-watcher, watchin' girls go by," Said by Adam when Ron said, "You know how I like it when they walk," quoted from the song "Girl Watcher," by The Okasyions.

"Now I've ... had the time of my life... " Sung by me when Ron was dancing with Professor McGonagall, quoted from Johnny and Baby's dance finale in Dirty Dancing.

"Yes, Mother," said by Adam when Hermione told Harry and Ron to go to bed.

"Son of a bitch must pay!" Said by me when Harry emerged from behind a gravestone and confronted Vodemort, quoted from Jack in Big Trouble in Little China.

Current Mood: giggly
Current Music: Young Turks, Rod Stewart

I was worried today would drag by , but fortunately it has passed rather quickly. The student newspaper, The Daily Revielle, carried a full half-page ad for the midnight party at the campus bookstore, and when I told Toi, who was working the register in front of mine, about my plans to attend, she said, "You're so excited you're makin' me excited, and I ain't never read those books."

After work, Sara and I went to the movies to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which just opened today. The movie is almost too perfect. Johnny Depp delivers one of his most bizarre roles ever: Even when his Willy Wonka is just looking at the camera, he is somehow both creepy and funny. One of the best and most unexpected things about the movie was Jordan Fry as Mike Teavee. His Mike was centered less around TV and more around the materialistic cynicism of his generation of "screenagers." He wins a ticket to the chocolate factory simply because he cracks the code that Wonka used to distrube the five golden tickets, and he cracks the code simply because he can, not because he wants to visit the factory (he doesn't even like chocolate). Once at the factory, he belittles every wonder he sees and asks Wonka, "Why is everything here completely pointless?" When he realizes that the Wonka-Vision TV is essentially a teleporter, he rages, "It's a teleporter! It's the most important invention ever! And all you care about is the chocolate!"

The point is futher emphasized by Charlie's initial reluctance to accept his golden ticket; he'd rather sell it for several hundred dollars, which his poor family desperately needs. But his grandfather finally persuades him to exchange one of only five golden tickets in the entire world for money that is printed everyday. Charlie begins to understand that having what you want can be as important as having what you need, and once at the factory, he responds to Mike's pointless question with, "Candy doesn't have to have a point. That's why it's candy." Wonka learns a lesson during the movie, too. When he offers Charlie his entire factory and the boy declines it to stay with his family, Wonka realizes that monetary success cannot compensate for not having a family, and he reunites with his long-estranged father, a dentist. By the end of the film, Wonka and Charlie both have all they want and all they need.

Candies and chocolates aren't essential to life. No one needs the, but life isn't about having only what you need. Everybody needs to have a little of what they want, too. So you have to care about the candy, you have to care about the chocolate, and you have to care about this movie.

Current Mood: eager
Current Music: Call Me Al, Paul Simon

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Les jours comme ça vont manquer Rebecca...
Chuck Norris, Ben-Hur, Disney -- make a movie out of that!
Rebecca blames Ratner!
This is why nobody else gets the jokes we make.
Rebecca's heading to the midnight party after she types this!

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on your journey, i will bless you...

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Entries tagged with movies in theater

Les jours comme ça vont manquer Rebecca...

Chuck Norris, Ben-Hur, Disney -- make a movie out of that!

Rebecca blames Ratner!

This is why nobody else gets the jokes we make.

Rebecca's heading to the midnight party after she types this!