Andy’s always up for a good movie, and my Dutch friend Marianne recommended a French movie – “Le Semeur” – that fit the bill.
At least it was till a love scene, which upset Andy.. .. I mean, blah-blah-blah (this is a G-rated blog, so that was the, um, you-know-what part!), which Andy didn’t understand because…
…the man ended “it” by reading poetry to his lover. Andy tried blocking it out part way by closing one eye. Some of this scene caught his interest, silly cat!
“Come on, Andy, would you rather they recline under the thick smog of a Gauloises cigarette, which weren’t marketed till 60 years after the film took place?” I asked, but he’d skeddadled. I guess cats don’t like poetry.
It’s a beautifully filmed movie based on a true event in 1851. I recommend it if you like period pieces and French film. What does Andy know? He just stops by to block the subtitles!
With his one eye closed, he was censoring your selection, Mr. Doug. Tee hee hee.
(Seriously, he was watching the people do the Big Naughty…reading poetry!)
I loved one eye open image of Lovely Andy! So lovely, Thank you, Love, nia
Yeah! I didn’t realize he’d closed the one eye until after I sent it to my laptop. It inspired the text!
Andy, I have to agree with. I fear I would find the poetry reading too silly to watch. I confess however that lately I’ve been watching a lot of horror and comedy, partly because the summer calls for lighter fare, partly perhaps because my tastes have fallen so low. The last time I sat through a “sophisticated adult film,” I fell asleep. I woke up just in time to see the hero madly pedaling away on a bicycle, alone. Where did everyone else go? I muttered. But I didn’t reverse the movie to find out. It was too much trouble.
Ijust finished watching a classic – “The Bad Seed”, with that very satisying bolt of lightning cleaning up things at the end. Whew! I admit I have some fairly pedestrian tastes in movies, though I also enjoy a seriously thoughtful one,too, something the French seem best at. Saw “Scarecrow” this evening, too. for the first time. Hackman and Pacino are brilliant in it. There is a period where I saw very few new American movies (pretty much the early 1970s), so discovering them now, when I have time to explore the movie archives, is a lot of fun! Another period I missed (because I wasn’t born yet or was a baby or young child) are the film noir movies, which are addictive!
‘The Bad Seed’ is a great movie! I first saw it when I was a little girl, and I was terrified by the title character. I also wondered if all bad little girls got hit by lightning and was glad that in the area where I grew up, there are very few thunderstorms or lightning strikes. 😀
When I was in college there was an old movie theater in town that showed classic films from the 1940s and 50s. It was also just 99 cents a ticket, so I used to go quite often to watch films like ‘Casablanca’ (still one of my favorites), ‘Some Like It Hot’ and ‘Auntie Mame.’ It was not only a good way to escape the pressures of a very competitive school; I learned to appreciate the art of film, the way a scene was framed, the angles it was shot at, the way the lighting brought out shadows or made a set look almost flat. Not to mention the stories! I almost wanted to switch my major to film studies, but that would have been an even less practical degree than the one I got in history. Still, I sometimes enjoy movies a lot more than I like reading novels.
All of those are favorites of mine, too! My enthusiasm for old and foreign movies developed during my iuniversity years when I subscribed to a foreign film series. It featured a lot of French films that became favorites – “Jules and Jim”, “Umbrellas of Cherbourg”, and “Hiroshima Mon Amour”. There was another film society I joined that featured Hindi films I added to my favorites list: “Shakespeare Walla” and “The Music Room”. Of course, I also enjoyed commercial releases like “The Graduate” and “Easy Rider” during that period. Of course “The Bicycle Thief” introduced me to Italian cinema, which continues to catch my attention.
“Shakespeare Walla” is another great film. There’s also Satyajit Ray’s work, which came out after I moved to the Midwest, so I wasn’t able to watch those until they came out on cable. Having a child who married into an Indian family has introduced me to Bollywood film, though they’re more interested in Hollywood movies than Indian musicals. My son in law loves the Star Wars and Marvel Comics movies; when they decide to go to one of those, I tell them I’ll babysit the grandkids instead.
I could probably discuss movies all day here! But I won’t take up anymore space on your blog. It’s a delight to run into another film buff, however!
That’s OK! Another film I (to my amazement) enjoyed a lot was “Lagaan”. And Indian engineer friend at work shared his copy with me. Here’s what it’s about: “The year is 1893 and India is under British occupation. In a small village, the tyrannical Captain Russell (Paul Blackthorne) has imposed an unprecedented land tax on its citizens. Outraged, Bhuvan (Aamir Khan), a rebellious farmer, rallies the villagers to publicly oppose the tax. Russell offers a novel way to settle the dispute: he challenges Bhuvan and his men to a game of cricket, a sport completely foreign to India. If Bhuvan and his men can defeat Russell’s team, the tax will be repealed.” It is a “little guys win over the big, mean and/or corrupt big guys” theme that is Capraesque, so it is fun even though there is a huge cricket segment that is entirely meaningless to me. LOL!
I’ve seen Lagaan too! I showed it when I had to lead a seminar on postcolonial theory. (Won’t bore you about it now, but my minds still spins when I think about it.) The professor, who was from Ireland, got excited during one scene when the man with a disability pitched the ball. “He threw a GOOGLY!” Which is apparently a kind of curve ball. Good movie! I still don’t understand cricket, but I understand the enthusiasm Indians have for the sport.
I think it is a bigger sport in the former English colonies than even football/soccer! (I don’t understand the point of the game, the fine points either)
Thanks for the tip on the film, Doug.
I guess Andy gave his own kitty review 🙂
He is very critical! Reading poetry, indeed! And it was intensely intellectual stuff, too, which seemed a bit out of place for the characters. Or Andy thought so! I tried to tell him this was perfectly French, the kind of thing that swould seem normal to them, though I wonder about French peasants in the mid-1800’s being voracious literature and poetry consumers.