Nil by Mouth

From Les Francais Pour Les Etrangers Dept

I left my (only half done) french homework at home this morning. It put me in a tough spot for class. If i were to go home and pick it up first, i’d be at least a half hour late. If i went without it, i’d look like a louse. Not like she collects it or anything, but you know, i’d hafta like stare at my hands or something during the exercise. So i decided to cut class since i wanted to see a movie anyway. And well, just saying that i’m cutting class is fun. I figure i ought to sign up for more classes so i can live out my being bad fantasies by skipping ‘em. Wait a second, that sounds a touch pathetic, non?

Anyhow i cut class and saw The Royal Tenenbaums (La Familie Tenenbaum, en Francais). It was in Cinema 1 in the 18 theater Cine-Cite Les Halles theaters which is the “big” theater. I’d never seen a flick there before. With it’s massive curved screen it’s slightly reminiscent of the Cineramadome in Hollywood, but without the old school kitch. Pretty awesome. I have to figure out how to see all the films playing that theater. So i thought the movie was so funny. About a half hour into it, i’d say i was giggling for the whole rest of the film. I was thinking the other day that i must just like every movie i see because it transports me back to the US. But then i saw The Shipping News last week which totally blew, and was happy to discover that i still had standards. Regardless that they may have been reduced considerably. It was also fun because the french audience was laughing a lot too. As i’ve been seeing many American movies with French audiences, i get to note the curious differences between when i laugh, and when, say, the rest of the theater does. My theory says the differences are due to equal parts cultural difference and bad subtitle translation. There must’ve been a serious cultural overlap because the audience was laughing at everything (and the subtitles were still shitty – i was paying attention).

So it’s late and i shouldn’t be up with a glass of really nice wine by my side. I’ve got a big day ahead of me tomorrow. Apparently it irritates a few of the folks if you tease-blog and mention big things without specifying, but i’m gonna do it anyway, cause that’s just the kind of tease i am. And anyway, it’ll all be out soon enough. There’s just that point where people who belong just about at arm’s length are snuggling up to the blog, so everyone suffers. Dem’s de breaks. Can i say that often enough?

• Mar 19