Pondering the world

I need to re-read "Jane Eyre"

I managed to get some free passes to a "sneak preview" of the new movie Jane Eyre. It was a lovely film, and I thought it captured the era and the plot very well, as well as magnificent period costumes.

Part of the way through the film, I realized that I hadn't read Jane Eyre in at least 40 years, since high school. The movie used several flashbacks and a moment of fantasy, and I admit it took a minute to recapture the plot, so I missed a few details and had to get back on track. And since it's been so long since I read the novel, I can't say how true to the original story the movie was.

This is a movie I'll look forward to owning in my personal collection and watching, alternating with Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and You've Got Mail.

Madame Butterfly--all the performers were insects

It's a good thing there was free food.

It was opera--full of passion, betrayal, and a death at the end. And all of the performers were dressed as insects.  

Granted, I really don't like opera at all, and if I hadn't won the free tickets by being the third caller and answering a trivia question, I wouldn't have attended. But I won the tickets and there was free food involved, so I said, "hey, I've never seen 'Madame Butterfly,' so why not?"

It was actually a film of a live performance. At first, it seemed kind of cool and metaphorical. Madame Butterfly was literally a butterfly, Pinkerton was some sort of nondescript insect, the son was a ladybug, other actors were apparently roaches, moths, beetles and various unidentifiable insects, and the famous "humming chorus" was dressed as a caterpillar of about 40 people--think of big blobby segments chained together and moving in a snake line.  

Once the whole characters-as-insects motif became apparent, I tried to figure out the set. What is it, a big pile of sand with discarded picnic items as the "house?" Some of the staging was incomprehensible, and we never did figure out what the spider had to do with it. He came in the night and spread his web over the ladybug/child but didn't eat him. That would have added a little excitement.

The photo above of the DVD cover doesn't do justice to the bizarre costuming--they look almost normal here. According to the other reviews on Amazon.com, this seems to be the most reviled production of "Madame Butterfly" ever. The gist is that there were some very fine singers and performers--and Placido Domingo as conductor--in this production who deserved better. I hope they all moved on to successful new productions.

The free food was very good.

Jarrod Quon--I knew him "when!"

Today we had the pleasure of watching Jarrod Quon in an episode of NBC's "Trauma."  Jarrod was a good friend of our daughter in high school, and, between marching band, concert band and high school musicals, his family and ours spent way more time at the high school than anywhere else.

It was the Halloween episode of the series, so I'm sure everyone had a great time filming it.  Jarrod's part was brief, so I'm going to have to watch it again.  It's the first time I've ever seen "Trauma," and I enjoyed it.  It had all the hallmarks of a good show for me--drama, humor, and interesting and sensitive treatment of the episode's subject.

Pretty exciting to see someone on network TV whom I've known since he was in eighth grade, huh?

Julie & Julia

Last week we needed a break from both work and the heat, so we went to a movie on Tuesday afternoon.  Every now and then we can manage to do that.

Our choice was Julie & Julia, and we absolutely loved it!  What's not to like in a movie about Julia Child, especially if you're involved in the food business?  Julia Child was portrayed by Meryl Streep, who totally nailed the character.  After a short time, we began to believe she  was Julia Child.  The film is written and directed by Nora Ephron, one of my favorites (You've Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, etc.). 

We laughed all the way through the movie.  Remember how Julia Child would drop something on the kitchen floor, wipe it off and then say, "you're in the kitchen by yourself--no one will ever know."  There was an allusion to that as her cooking class instructor dropped a carrot, wiped it off on his apron and put it back in.  So that's where that came from!

They even included the Saturday Night Live sequence where Dan Akroyd did a Julia Child skit and cut off his finger.  As soon as that came on, the entire audience started to roar since we all remembered that episode.

It was delightful blend of two stories that come together at the end.  If you're in the food business, love Julia Child, or just need to watch a funny and touching movie, Julie & Julia is the one.

"Up" made us laugh out loud!

The temperature has been hitting the high 90's and around the 100 mark for the past few days.  At the end of the day, Steve said, "you know what I'd really like to do?  Go to a movie!"

So we headed off to to the Rio 21 to see Disney/Pixar's latest 3-D animated film, Up.  It's been such a long time since we've been to a movie and seen one that kept us laughing and giggling all the way through.

To me, the characters were obvious--Charles Muntz looks like Errol Flynn in his best adventure films, and Carl Fredricksen looks like Spencer Tracy in his later years.  And Russell is just... cute!

I especially liked the dogs, and the writers have dog behavior pegged.  If you're a dog lover, think "squirrel!" "treat" and "ride!" 

Here's another movie that we'll buy for our collection when it comes out on DVD and enjoy watching it often, even without the 3-D glasses.  

I also printed out the bookmarks and a little 3-D house with balloons for my collection.  Sometimes you just have to do fun stuff.

Did Norman Bates do his own housekeeping?

The other day while doing mindless cleaning, I was watching Psycho on Turner Classic Movies.  It's been a while since I've seen it, and now that I've been an innkeeper for five years, I have questions.

Did Norman Bates do his own housekeeping?  His mother was an "invalid" (dead, actually).   He has a great big mansion and the Bates Motel with 12 cabins.  There's no mention of any staff, although he admits that hardly anyone ever stays there. 

Later in the film he says "it's linen day today.  I change the sheets at least once a week whether anyone has stayed in the room or not.  It's just a funny thing I do...  If I don't change the sheets every week, they smell, well, creepy..."  That's an understatement. 

I give him credit for cleaning up the bathroom after stabbing Janet Leigh in the shower.  However, then he proceeds to swab out the tub with a string mop.  Oh, come on.  I know that Softscrub and Scotchbrite pads hadn't been invented yet, but still...

As big as the mansion is, there's no sign of dust or cobwebs.  That's a pretty good feat in an old house that large.  I have to give him credit for that.

Of course, at the end we learn that "he's never completely just Norman.  When he's Norman, there's still a part of Mother there.  But when he's Mother, it's all Mother."

Maybe Mother was doing all the cleaning.

NCIS: one more addiction for me

I confessed the other day that I'm becoming addicted to the new orange cream shakes at Carl's Jr.  Then I realized I have lately acquired another addiction--the TV show NCIS.

Our schedule is so erratic that it's difficult for us to watch any TV show on a regular basis.  Sometimes we have events or meetings to attend in the evenings.  Sometimes we have guests checking in later.  Mostly, it's a matter of even remembering what day of the week it is.  If a show is always televised on a Monday, it's generally Wednesday before I realize that I completely forgot about watching it on Monday.

A few months ago we were visiting Steve's father, and I sat down to watch TV while they fixed Dad's computer.  It happened to be on NCIS.  The next thing I knew, I was engaged in the episode.  Steve sat down to watch, and he liked it.  We went home and watched some more.

The tough part is they show three episodes every day, back-to-back.  I turn on the TV while I'm cleaning rooms, and the next thing I know, I don't want to turn it off or leave the room until that episode is over.  Wait, another one is coming on ...

Gary Cooper-isms

While I was cleaning a couple of rooms, a Gary Cooper western was on TCM.  Generally I only get to see pieces of movies, rarely the entire film, and I may not even catch the title.  Here are a couple of gems:

"Are you sure you know just which man you're going to be the death of?"

"My father told me something when I was a boy, and it's always worked for me:  'Whenever you get involved with a woman, always put a dollar in your boot.  When it's over, you'll be a dollar to the good.  And always keep your boots on.'"

Gary Cooper was a fairly serious and sober guy.  I've hardly ever seen him have a big smile in any of his movies, and his humor seems very dead-pan.  So while he had the reputation as being a well-mannered gentleman, some of these lines are real zingers!

Sweet Land (2005)

A while back, 2 Things @ Once posted a review on Sweet Land on her blog.  Yes, there are sweet, touching, lovely movies out there that you can watch with your grandmother and your kids.  No violence, drugs, bad language or sex, although there is some wistful longing until they resolve their situation.

The story is about a mail-order bride who is supposed to be from Norway, who shows up in a farming community in Minnesota to meet her husband-to-be.  I was never clear how it happened, but she was actually German, a horrible situation in a post-World War I Lutheran community.  She arrived at the train station and it soon became clear that she spoke German rather than Norwegian, and she spoke practically no English.  Olaf Torvik drove her directly to the church to be married, but the pastor was upset when he realized she knew no English; he wanted her to understand that she was getting married and knew what she was doing.  She erupted into a stream of German, and the faces of the pastor and the congregation reflected their dismay.

"No German!  No German!  Only English!"

Watch this great movie to see what happens next, but here's where I'm going with this:

When we attended a Lutheran church in Portland, Oregon, I attended the Tuesday morning quilting group for a while.  I was the youngest person by far; the rest of the ladies were well into their sixties and beyond.  What I hadn't realized was how many of them were born in the Midwest, mostly Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas.  I spent one fascinating morning listening to them tell stories about their childhoods as they grew up on farms during the Great Depression.

Most of the kids had to walk a few miles to the schoolhouse, but my father drove us in the wagon with the horses.  In the winter we had a sleigh!

My family spoke German at home.  I didn't even hear English for the first time until I went into first grade.

Oh, ja, me neither!

I remember when the war started.  Papa came home and said, 'No more German!  Now we speak only English!'

Ja!  My papa was afraid people wouldn't trust us if we spoke German.

My family spoke Norwegian.  My grandmother never did learn English.

This delightful movie had much more meaning for me because of this, having heard these real-life stories about several generations growing up in this country immersed in another language and another culture. 

no reservations about this movie

I guess I expected this to be about prima donna duels in the kitchen between two egotistic chefs.  Heaven knows I've seen enough of that on those amateur chef reality shows.  And I don't even watch them--that's just what I've seen while channel-surfing and on the commercials.  So I was not especially interested in seeing more of it. 

But we ran across it at the library last week.  What the heck, it was free through the library.  What a pleasant surprise!  It actually was a nice movie, more about relationships than the tantrums thrown by a temperamental chef.  No sex, no bad language, no violence.  The most violent part was the chef's reaction to a customer saying his steak wasn't rare enough. 

No reservations is a rare movie in these times--you can watch it with anyone from a 5-year-old to Grandma and not be uncomfortable.  In a word, it was a "sweet" movie.

Rating:   3.5 out of 5 baguettes