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An Evening with Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Monday night I went to the Egyptian Theatre for an Evening with Jeunet, which included a double-feature of Delicatessen with Amelie, as well as a Q&A session with the director himself.

It was a full house, and Jeunet had just completed a new print of Delicatessen, which we had the privilege to watch. Seeing it on the big screen really did make a difference for me. Delicatessen was one of my early foreign film experiences, and even today, it's one of my favorites. I like all of the creative touches Jeunet's movies have, from shots that go through pipes to the great synchronized squeaking bed scene to the creative ways in which Aurore tries to kill herself. This movie (and the rest I've seen as well do to) has a lot of heart, a lot of fantasy, and a lot of uniqueness. I was glad to see it again.

In between movies, Jeunet took the stage for Q&A.
- He has a new movie coming out, if you haven't heard, called A Very Long Engagement, starring Audrey Tatou (Amelie).
- What is his next project? He doesn't know -- the audience was very distressed to find out that he had rejected an offer to do the fifth installment of the Harry Potter movies, which would have started next month, which was too soon for him. He's just hoping he won't regret the decision later.
- Rumors are not true that he was not pleased with how Alien: Resurrection came out. He was proud of the movie. Why did he choose to do it? Because it was an "Alien" movie, and he couldn't have faced himself in the mirror if he had passed up the opportunity. He enjoyed the experience - said it was a lot harder just based on the nature of the movie, and people were always telling him that he needed to speed things up. The use of the color green wasn't symbolic - it was just a gross color that went well with aliens.
- Someone asked how many shots he sets up and gets done in a day. For something like Delicatessen, it was about 8-10. Now, being able to use digital effects more often, it can be more like 10-12.
- Delicatessen was shot in a hangar and they pretty much built the whole set. The flooded room scene was done with a huge tank of water and they only had one take to get it right. Special effects were extremely limited (done in just 3 days) back then - no digital effects, really, except some use of a blue screen. Nowadays they use a lot, especially to insert colors, which really help set the mood of the film or make particular things stand out.
- He does tend to keep the same crew for all of his movies.
- Someone thought his movies were theatrical, and he protested saying that he likes film because it ISN'T theatrical - because you can move and let the camera do a lot of storytelling.
- Someone asked for advice for people trying to get into the movie-making business. Jeunet's basic sentiment was to "just do it." If you love making movies, you don't have a choice. Just make movies. It may take a while to get picked up, but do what you love. Don't think about it like getting into the movie making business. Just make movies if you want to. He said it took him about 10 years, but it all seemed easy for him. He said they had already written City of Lost Children by the time they were able to shoot Delicatessen. It just takes time.
- He said one fan has seen Amelie about 50 times and his wife is about to leave him. heheh.
- Someone asked about how he was inspired to create "his style" and he basically said it's about the predecessors. No one creates a style anymore, but is influenced by movie makers, artists, etc., and develops something from their inspiration.
- There were a few name-dropping moments about French photographers, movie makers, etc., but his French accent was a bit thick to follow sometimes.

Overall, he seemed like a really humble, funny man. Inspired. I'm glad I saw him!

The evening ended with a showing of Amelie. I forgot how much I really liked that movie. And man! She DOES look like my sister in several profile shots!

Posted by wendytime at 08:28 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Sideways

Sideways is a movie about two men who go out on "one last week of freedom" in the wine country of California before one of them gets married the next Saturday. Miles is played by Paul Giamatti in his wonderfully neurotic and irritable fashion, which is both enjoyable and repulsive at the same time. Somehow this movie manages to make him just loveable enough to make the audience want happiness with him despite the fact that he stops by his mom's house on the way up north on the pretense of celebrating her birthday just so he can steal several hundred dollar bills from her underwear drawer.

Miles is an English teacher who is also a writer - a divorced and unpublished writer. His friend Jack, played by Thomas Haden Church of TV show "Wings", is a womanizing actor who never quite struck it big after a stint on a soap opera several years back. His mission is to have sex with someone before he gets married in a week. The completely oddball combo of these two men is interesting - Miles knows a lot about wine and wants to have a relaxing time with his friend for a week while his friend wants Miles to stop being depressed about his unpublished status and have a good time.

Their adventures for the week start simple and, of course, escalate. The story is essentially about Miles, but Miles would never get anywhere in this movie without the odd things that happen to him when he's with Jack.

What I enjoyed about this movie was its sense of humor, which runs from jokes about not drinking Merlot to some funny physical comedy. Giamatti and Church are great together, and the women they meet play the part perfectly. It was clever, touching at times, and enjoyable experience.

The only thing I didn't really care for was the music. I mean, I know they're in wine country, but do I have to spend the whole two hours listening to bland piano jazz and the like? I don't know. I guess it's just personal preference, but you know what kind of music I'm talking about, right? Bleh.

Anyway, it was a little bit less than I expected, although I'm not quite sure I can put the finger on why I feel that way. It was amusing and a little bit charming mixed with a little bit of crassness. Fun while it lasted.

Posted by wendytime at 08:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Congratulations to my boss and friend, Ruth!

She won the Hoffman, which is a biiiiig award to win at the university. I had to keep my mouth shut for way too long about this, and am glad the whole award ceremony is finally over. Sister grace came with an air horn, noisemakers, flowers, and family. Congratulations, Ruth! You really deserve it!

Posted by wendytime at 04:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The New Ride..

Well they called Ric and asked for the car back. Boo! But wait, they're replacing it with a more expensive car! Wohoo! I don't like the look of it as much as the Toyota, but it's supposed to handle better, which is good for Ric. I just hope there's a navigation system in there. The other one had an option for this British woman's voice, and Ric always liked having her keep him company while on the road. Anyhoo, we should have the replacement car in a couple of days. Have I ever mentioned how nice it is not to have a car payment, insurance fees, or gas fees for a car?

Posted by wendytime at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

phil are you reading??!

Just got the news from the Save the Fox people:

"WE DID IT!!!!

"Thanks to a very generous gift of $1,000,000, we have reached our total fundraising goal of $3.5 million and can open escrow on the Fox this Friday!

"The donor, who prefers to remain anonymous for the present, presented us with a $700,000 cashiers check late yesterday, and has pledged the remaining $300,000 as a challenge grant for our restoration fundraising needs.

"This generous donation is allowing us to 'trigger' our pledge fulfillments, so all checks that have turned in and stored in our bank vault will now be cashed into our special checking account to open escrow.

"Please come by the Fox or our offices through Friday to say hi and help celebrate!

"We still need donations so we can get our restoration underway and match our new $300,000 challenge grant. Now is also the time to turn in any outstanding pledges!"

I'm so excited. Can't wait for the restoration process to be done with so it can open and I can GO THERE!

Posted by wendytime at 03:58 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

anniverthday

I forgot to really mention that we had a good time on our first anniversary in Las Vegas (see date above). I had never been, so we spent a good deal of time just checking out the various hotels. We also visited the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay and the IMAX at the Luxor, where we stayed. Vegas was fun, but certainly outlived itself in a short amount of time. No wonder no one ever goes for more than a few days.

Yesterday was Ric's birthday, so I took him out to The Summit House. Holy crap! Why haven't I ever gone there?! That was probably one of the best nights out to dinner I've ever had. The English Inn atmosphere, the view from atop the hill, the wonderful pianist and singer, the respectful servers, the great food, the FANTASTIC wine... What a great experience. All this time I thought I didn't really care for wine, when it was really that I had never had good wine!

I loved the English theme in food and decor (who would have thought I would enjoy cabbage leak and potato soup?), and really felt like that was what our culture should gravitate towards - an atmosphere that stimulates you to intellectual conversation and an appreciation of the finer parts of a culture.

Ric really enjoyed his birthday. We topped off the night by visiting with the fam (whom we had dinner with yesterday), and now Ric is having fun with his gifts: Sledgehammer Season 1, Simpsons Season 4, and Sealab Season 1.

Posted by wendytime at 03:39 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Birth

I went to see Birth because of Jonathan's review. I'm glad I did, and I was surprised to read later that critics are giving it pretty mixed reviews.

First of all, to watch this movie is to suspend a little bit of disbelief and let the story unfold. While I was trying to do this my best (and failing slightly with the "why would a 10-year-old suddenly be conscious of his former self and no longer wish to be his present self?" questions), ladies in the aisle behind me were discussing in loud whispers whether or not they believe reincarnation is possible.

Forget what you believe - just imagine how you would respond in a situation where a young kid arrives at your doorstep and says 'Hey there, I'm your dead spouse.' That's what this movie is about, and it's actually very interesting to see how it all plays out.

The motion of the movie comes through its use of music. Loved the music! The mood of so many scenes and the movie as a whole were definitely enhanced by it, and it was refreshingly ... different.

The acting is wonderful as well. I know my husband HATES Nicole Kidman, but there was something special about her growing vulnerability and sadness that was so goooood.

I basically loved all the same things Jonathan did - the lingering cinematography, the moments where only one person's face was focused on... This movie was not at all like I would have expected it to be, and it surprised me to realize this was made by the Sexy Beast director. It was very effective and its classic almost timeless look (in decor, dress, etc.) made it even more so.

Surprised thumbs up!

Posted by wendytime at 02:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

pray for colin!

Colin is going to Fallujah; he will be on the front lines with 1st Battalion, 3/1 or 3/5. His fiancee says Colin sounds very calm and ready to go. The military expects to have Fallujah taken in a week.

Posted by wendytime at 10:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

So.........

A jury found Scott Peterson guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Laci, and of second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son today. Funny how it's murder when it's wanted.

Love that court system!

Posted by wendytime at 01:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

fly follow-up

Sorry it has taken a while to finish this story -

When we returned from our vacation, the wreckage was terrible. Flies all over the floors, counters, sticking to walls, and stuck on fly paper. It was actually kind of cool since they were all dead. As you can see, in just this one small area, we have 8 places where flies died (not counting INSIDE the sink). Yes, the small purple-ish smears are fly guts.

My favorite conquest, however, was this fly, who stuck to the door after I killed him. I left him there for a while. Heheh:

Posted by wendytime at 08:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

david foster wallace

I went out with Grace and David to see David Foster Wallace do a reading at the Hamer Museum. Apparently the museum is the new home of the UCLA English department's Favorite Author Series. They made a big deal of letting us know that it was their favorite author series, which I had already assumed was inferred at the start of the event, but I guess that's beside the point.

I personally had never even heard of Wallace before the event. I just don't tend to read contemporary writers, although I really am trying to break myself out of the shell little by little. My creative writing class was helpful with that. Dr. B is good at inspiring his students to branch out a bit. Back to the story - Wallace was introduced by a bumbling English UCLA department chair who used a lot of "Aaaaawh" kind of breaks between each and every sentence. As the chair of the department, I was surprised when he said he had "a anouncement" to make. Yeah.

Wallace took the stage eventually and read a brand new excerpt (although anything would have been new to me - hey it's just like NBC reruns.. if you haven't read it, it's new to you!) about a tax audit guy whose boss has a baby that can only rightly be described as "FIERCE." Hahaha. Makes me smile just thinking about it. The next story was already published, and was a short story about an accident that happens to the baby of a family. Very intense.

After the readings came a Q&A, which only made the professors look pretentious and hippy-ish (thank God I never had to sit through a class with them!) and made most questioners from the audience look a bit presumptuous. I was expecting sly remarks that would condescend to the audience from Wallace, and that's what I got - yet I was surprised when he would catch himself in the middle of it and then try to provide an honest answer. I admired that in him.

Wallace is probably someone I wouldn't buy on my own, but I did enjoy the reading and wouldn't mind trying out one of his books some day. He does have a distinct, descriptive style. Hearing his tone of voice reading the stories really was cool.

But the coolest thing of the whole night was the look that was on David's face from the moment we left the parking structure to the end of the reading:

It was worth going just for that.

Posted by wendytime at 08:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Hanging with the Fam...

I've really been enjoying having our nephew closer to our area. Too bad it will only last till December! Nevertheless, pictures of Harrison:

Oh and this is brother Jon with their dog, Candy. :)

Posted by wendytime at 12:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

heaven thy name is accuradio

One of the joys of my new job is being able to listen to non-Christian/non-KOST radio again. Ahhhhh. So I searched for a while and discovered the Brit Rock channel on accuradio.com, and it's simply wonderful.

I'm singing and humming at work, and the days go by faster as a result. This is everything I listened to in high school and stuff I still listen to now! It's such a breath of fresh air for me, and yet another reason why I'm glad I left the old job.

The one scary thing about it is that I think I'm starting to like Belle and Sebastian. I always hated them!

Posted by wendytime at 10:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Vera Drake

This review contains spoilers only if you haven't seen the trailers.

I went into Vera Drake expecting two things: 1) a Mike Leigh film that I would enjoy because if its story/direction/characters/acting 2) An emotional persuasive piece arguing for a pro-abortion cause. What I was right about was number 1. Number 2 is actually debatable.

The movie acts mostly as a record, or a snapshot, of a time in the Drake family's life. It opens by introducing us to each character, the close relationship of the family, and the happiness that the family is realizing in new additions to their small group. Vera and her husband love each other greatly and are very thankful for each other.

It moves on to show what Vera does for a living. She's a maid. Through her job we are introduced to a young and wealthy girl's story of rape and the easy way in which she can get an abortion. Then we see the contrast by watching what Vera does in her efforts to "help" more unfortunate girls. She does home-made "inducing of miscarriages."

Throughout the movie, I never felt like it was pushy. I mean, obviously, by watching the contrast between the rich and poor girls, there was a sense that Vera was only trying to help; and when she was arrested, there was a sense of sympathy I felt for her. But I mostly felt sorry for her because of her family - not because I thought what she did was right.

I liked how not everyone in the family agreed with what she did. And most of the emotion I felt and sadness I experienced was for her husband. It was heart wrenching to watch him discover what his wife had been doing; he still loved her and wanted to support her, but obviously did not approve of what she did.

It's hard for me to honestly say how the movie portrayed its views, because I obviously wasn't sympathetic to abortion, so my view of the film may be slighted - I most likely responded to it differently than a pro-abortion audience member would. But I really did leave feeling like Vera Drake showed the story of a woman who meant to do good but made some grievous mistakes, and her mistakes affected her family as a result. It didn't feel like an argument for abortion, but rather a story about a family and this moment in their lives.

I loved the directing and acting of the movie, and liked getting to know the characters. I would recommend it for the patient viewer - one who can deal with the abortion aspect of the film, and more importantly, one who can deal with a VERY quiet and slowly paced movie (several people left the theatre I was at).

Posted by wendytime at 08:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

test

just testing.

Posted by wendytime at 11:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Incredibles

I guess the highest compliment I can give about this movie is that I really don't have any complaints about it. The shots and sets are creative and varied yet nostalgic (harking back to 007-esque sights). The characters are all likeable in their own ways. The humor is actually funny. There isn't any obscenity. Good values are there but not pushed on the audience. For almost 2 hours, it moves quickly.

I think I like this movie best out of all the Pixar movies because it feels geared toward an older audience. Kids will love it, but adults can enjoy it just as much or more. Finding Nemo just wasn't really my thing, although it was visually very appealing. So this new production was a pleasant surprise. I can easily recommend it to pretty much anyone.

Lots of fun. Loved it.

(And I wasn't even interested from watching the commercials! - the critics talked me into it!)

Posted by wendytime at 10:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Dead Door Cat

So Ric is in South Central, goes somewhere, comes back to his car, and finds a plastic bag tied to his door handle. He gets on his gloves and opens it up, and finds a dead cat inside: dead as a doornail - deader than a doornail - and evidently a cat that had been run over, which caused certain bones to split out of the skin. Ewwwww. (not the pictured cat above; i just get my kicks from looking up images in google and seeing what shows up)

I told him maybe it's South Central's version of the Godfather's horse head.

Busy weekend ahead. If I ever get some pictures uploaded from our digital camera, I have loads of stuff to show you, like the aftermath of the flies (by the way - after the flies we had ants, and now we have those slower flies that like to nest in your dry foods) and pictures of the nephew, who is living with his family at Ric's parents house for the next month as they prepare to move to AZ. We're spending a lot of time with them before they move. Family photos tomorrow, dinner, some Biola music thing Todd is in, and loads more to do this weekend...

Posted by wendytime at 02:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

in the mail..

So yesterday I received my voter polling place info in the mail. Nice timing.

I had a chance to commit voter fraud on Tuesday. Apparently I was listed at two polling places, one under my maiden name and one under my married name. Morons.

It was also quite amusing to hear the little ladies behind me explaining to one of their own that the new system used "TINTA" instead of punch cards. She was so old she could barely follow.

Posted by wendytime at 02:18 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

hmm.

so i guess we should organize a farewell party for phil.

SUCKERS! ahahaahahah!

Sorry, I'm just glad Kerry's not in charge.

Posted by wendytime at 12:33 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Save the Fox Tonight!

Well I had a nice picture for you but MT won't let me upload it right now.

Anyhoo, today is the meeting for the Fullerton Historical Foundation to present their fundraising results and hear the verdict from the city about saving the Fox Theatre. They have raised a lot of money but not enough - what they hope for is permission to take out a loan for the remainder of the money and raise the rest of the money in order to purchase the building. This project is something I've been following closely ever since Phil and I started talking about buying that theatre for our own selfish purposes: an indie/art house.

Let's cross our fingers - they're meeting RIGHT NOW in City Hall.

www.savethefox.org

Posted by wendytime at 04:24 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

halloween pics from david

Click for Photos!

.more to come later.

Posted by wendytime at 03:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

pictures to come sometime

Halloween was fun!

We had a great time having all the friends over. Loved the costumes, and grace's suicide bomber took the cake for sure! We carved pumpkins, watched movies, played a failed game of Trivial Pursuit (half because the questions were ridiculous and half because certain people -ahem JON- were loud and drunk), hung out, and ate and drank a ton of bad for us stuff. Dominic's dragon-slaying jack-o-lantern was my favorite. I'm still figuring out how to remove some dripped wax from my carpet, but otherwise everything went off without a hitch.

On Halloween night we went to Hollywood to see The Nightmare Before Christmas at the El Capitan which was really fun, as always. There were tons of crazy costumes out on Hollywood Boulevard, so that was pretty entertaining too.

No trick-or-treaters though. We've got waaaaaaaaaay too much candy left. I'm just glad I got everyone to take pizza and beer back home.

Fun times, and pictures will come when I get them, so hold your horses. I don't do digital very often.

Posted by wendytime at 01:04 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)