5 down, 3 to go. last night’s movie was…different, without a doubt.

• François Ozon’s movie 8 femmes is, as Piers Handling says, “a giant chocolate cake of a movie.” a mystery, a comedy, an absurdist crime thriller, even a musical. catherine deneuve showed up for a standing ovation and then watched the audience swing from laughter to mild confusion. i think the movie lost a few people who like their movies a little more formulaic, but most seemed impressed. as for me, i liked it, even though i usually detest musicals. the movie never took itself seriously enough for the music to seem overbearing; instead, it was quirky like your weirder friends. not for everyone, but most peope seemed to enjoy it. i believe i’ll put it in third place. the rankings, in case anyone’s interested, are as follows:
  1. laurel canyon
  2. the emperor’s club
  3. 8 femmes
  4. talk to her
  5. adolphe (in this case, the gap between #4 and #5 is like the distance between “good” and “pig-nasty”)

now that’s more like it.

• the emperor’s club, starring kevin kline, was a far sight better than the carnage we’d witnessed the night before. in the same vein as dead poets society, but shown from the teacher’s point of view, it was a showcase for kline – who was in the audience – and the man rarely goes wrong, so the crowd loved it. i’m ranking it #2, right behind laurel canyon and ahead of talk to her. i refuse to even include adolphe in my rankings. ptoo!

yecch. you know, i’m not one of those guys who dismisses french films out of hand. i like a good character-driven period drama as much as anyone, but after last night, two of my four most hated films in memory have been french.

• adolphe was shite, in my opinion. i felt absolutely nothing for the characters, not even annoyance or loathing – they were simply not interesting or well-drawn. and in a character-driven movie, that’s death. had this been a regular movie theatre, i’d have left. too bad, really. i was hoping it would surprise me.

it’s on! seen two movies thus far:

• talk to her, the new film from pedro almodovar. i hadn’t really watched much more than pieces of almodovar’s earlier films, but i was impressed with this one. bizarre at times (where did he find that prop?), uncomfortable at others, funny throughout. really, really good.
• laurel canyon, lisa cholodenko’s newest. i’d seen high art, and liked it more each itme i watched it, but this one was – to my mind – so much better. a lot of the same elements throughout…two vastly different groups of people interact awkwardly, one member of the meek party is drawn into the bohemian party, etc. what made this even better than high art were the performances of frances mcdormand and alessandro nivola (both of whom were there last night). kate beckinsdale surprised me too, i’d sort of written her off as a loss after pearl harbor. i continue to love natascha mcelhone. i continue to hate christian bale.

now that was a weekend. ~55 hours in chicago, illinois.

• the shedd aquarium was great, if for no other reason that it contains otters, funnest animal alive
• the art institute blew me away with how much impressionist art it had
• i’d forgotten how much i love ribs
• don’t believe the hype. giordano’s pizza is the worst i’ve ever had, hands down
• i could do the architecture boat tour a dozen times and not get tired of it
• one day, when i have money, me and my credit cards are gonna take a little trip down the magnificent mile
• the restaurant at the fairmont hotel serves the best $15 waffle i ever et

i mean, i knew what to expect, but i wasn’t expecting that! cirque du soleil, tout le monde. if you ever have a chance to go see it, go see it. i saw this year’s installment, varekai, and by all reports it’s not even as good as some of their previous work, but it was enough to make me say, “holy shit!” more than a few times.

forget the “traditional” circus with all the animal torture. sign me up for people shooting across the room into giant white fabric slides, sparks flying from blades in a high-speed spinning swordfight, guys doing 30 consecutive sitting backflips and acrobats falling 30 feet as they unravel themselves from a giant net any day.

103 hours of fun!

• one of the guys from great big sea was on my flight to halifax
• met marney for lunch at your father’s moustache. the lemon pepper chicken rocks and beer is only $4!!
• after a stroll around the waterfront to see buskerfest and dinner at the (original) granite brewery, i eventually make it to the prince george in time to see the fireworks. they were originally intended for the previous monday but weather had delayed the show. i could see them perfectly from my south view of the harbour. and the hotel room was free!
• saw an episode of trailer park boys being filmed at spring garden and queen
• checked out the dalhousie campus to see what had changed. they’ve been messing with howe hall, my old residence. hung out in the quad.
• spent hours in the public garden (had to fend off mormons at the entrance)
• saw 8 ducklings waddling along in a line
• saw 2 turtles in the water. the ducks kept running them down.
• saw a hawk or osprey snatch a fish out of the water (!)
• saw a family get swarmed by ducks and divebombed by pigeons
• drove back to the farm with tim and al (who can only be described as delightful)
• ate so much barbequeued meat, belated-birthday-cake and pie that i still feel full
• caught some local theatre, ate some fresh blueberries, played with niece & nephew & cat & dogs, enjoyed the fresh air
• my dad likes songs i sent him by the white stripes, jeff buckley, spiritualized and moby, making him much cooler than most people i know 40 years his junior
• flew home last night, had dinner with Nellie & Amy before ames leaves town for good
• came home and slept the sleep of the dead
• woke up this morning resentful of being back, and yet craving thai

two movies which i’d never seen until this past week, for some bizarre reason or another:

• ferris bueller’s day off: despite being a john highes product (the main reason i’d stayed away before), i thought it was good. funny and informative (i’m going to chicago later this month, so it was nice to get a tour). battabattabattabattasaaa-wiiiingbatta
• swingers: this movie was so very, very money. as with made, i hated vince vaughn for the first half hour, but grew to like him a bit. the whole scene with jon favreau leaving messages on nikki’s answering machine had me halfway between hysterical laughter and sympathy pains. i was yelling, “no, don’t call her again!” at the tv. thank god no one was here.

dang, if i’d known there were no decent extras (at least, nothing you couldn’t find on the net) on this 2-disc DVD set i’d have just waited for the 4-disc set coming in november. i’ll probably buy it anyway.

congratulations, new line & alliance atlantis. i am your consumer. your marketing scheme has worked perfectly. well done.

see, i disconnected my cable for the summer, and i discovered this great new video store, and my video list was getting out of control…all this explains why you keep seeing so many movies discussed here. as if anyone’s actually reading this anyway…

• lawrence of arabia: i can see why my brother called this his favourite movie. god, the locations were just incredible…all the desert shots, the sunrises as beautiful as they are sure to mean death. it annoyed me that movie producers ever felt they had to cast white men in arab roles (alec guinness as prince feisal? anthony quinn as auda abu tayi? right.
• bottle rocket: probably would’ve liked it more if i could stand owen wilson. but i can’t. luke, yes. owen, no. only time i laughed was when kumar (kumar pallana, who appears in all of wes anderson’s movies) said, “who was that man?”. and i laughed a lot.
• eight men out: i’d seen it years ago, but i didn’t appreciate it back then. i couldn’t really follow the plot, and i didn’t appreciate how good the actual ball was compared to other shite baseball movies. john sayles is a pretty talented guy; he directed and played ring lardner.
• do the right thing: typical spike lee. not bad, not great. some characters compelling, some annoying (yes, yes, just like real life, i unnerstand), all overdone. rosie perez was and is a medical marvel, able to be extremely sexy and phenomenally annoying at the same time.

also saw signs this weekend. man, it’s fun to watch a scary movie in a huge theatre where people freak out. blair witch was even better for that (the four girls in front of me who covered their eyes, stomped their feet and mumbled “ohmygodohmygodohmygod…” for the last 10 minutes were priceless), but signs was funny too. weird to see people so scared and then laughing out loud 5 seconds after. go see it.