Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea. —Henry Fielding

15 November 2005

3 Hommes / Ultimo Tango / Goblet o' Fire

Do I complain a lot in this space? I probably do. OK, movie reviews first and then complaining:

Last night I caught 3 Hommes et un Couffin, that is, Three Men and a Cradle, that is, the original film on which the Leonard Nimoy-directed American farce Three Men and a Baby is based. Coline Serreau's original 1985 film (she wrote the screenplay in addition to directing) is just as funny if not funnier than the 1987 film (quick remake: those folks at Touchstone were on top of things in the late Eighties), and the plot is nearly identical. I understand the reasons for remaking a very charming French farce into a slightly-more-saccharine-but-still-charming American farce with big American stars, but it seems a shame to me. The original film is artistically a superior work and hasn't a false note in it. I didn't recognize the three guys in the movie, but all are fun and funny and the movie doesn't have a big American Romantic Comedy finish the way Nimoy's version does, a flourish I didn't miss one bit. Anyway: 3 Hommes et un Couffin is highly recommended.

I said The Killers was awesome, right? It is. Rent it. I also finally (after many months) watched Bertolucci's much touted Last Tango in Paris. I half liked it and half didn't like it.
It wasn't boring so much as there just isn't anyone to root for. Brando is this asshole for the entire film, never changing. And you want to love him and you understand why Maria Schneider does, but he's just a creep and he proves to us (and Maria) again and again what a creep he is and just how wrong he is for her. It's shot nicely, and I suppose it's interesting in its way, but I felt frustrated. Plus Maria already has this very nice boyfriend who, while a little slow, and perhaps a tad selfish, really loves Maria, is smitten by her (whereas Brando is so clearly using, abusing and dependent on her.) For me this is the main problem with the movie, I guess, because it's not like Maria Schneider is cheating on her creeped out boyfriend who also has a mistress. She's cheating on a sweet, adorable young man: the same young man who plays Antoine Doinel, for chrissakes. It's Jean-Pierre Léaud and she's screwing him over for creepy (old) Brando. Maybe I'm too young to get it. I think that happens sometimes.

*
So I have a (long) list of schools to which I will apply in the next month and a half. I hate doing this, though, and so I am rebelling against it. I just hate all of the applications and I hate the questions and I re-read my Statement of Purpose from last year and I hate that too. I feel like I'm not good enough and I hate having to click "Caucasian" (I'm not even from the Caucasus.) Plus I'm going to have to ask people for letters of recommendation again and it's just such an imposition for them that I just hate to ask.
I don't know. Doing this depresses me and I don't really have anyone to push me but myself and we all know just how well I do with self-motivation because I do yoga so often nowadays.

Thank goodness. Ashley just called and I just bought a ticket to the 12:20a showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on Thursday night/Friday morning. Cheers. Now if only I could get this grad school shit together...

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