Saturday, December 02, 2006

bullets of everybody loves Saturday night

Fake bullets, since Blogger beta has removed the "compose" option:

-- Number of movies watched today: 2 1/2 (Marie Antoinette, Best in Show, and the second half of The Great Muppet Caper).

-- I thought Marie Antoinette was pretty good. What I considered partly a strength and partly an inherent limitation was the movie's narrow focus on the life of one extremely secluded woman. Partly, its whole point was that seclusion, and the types of pastimes and relationships Marie is able to have within the confines of Versailles. But at times it made me wish for a glimpse outside the walls.

-- Also, why do none of the reviews emphasize that the bulk of the movie focuses on the lack of an heir, and the pressure put on Marie by the court and her mother to get pregnant and have a son? I'd heard that was one element, but it seemed much more central to the movie's purpose than I'd seen mentioned.

-- Tried to grade papers this afternoon. Brain not functioning, partly because I was up until 5 last night and partly because I got sick over the course of the day (cold, not party-related).

-- I'm appreciating my housemates more and more. Several of them hung out at the party until the wee hours, talking about beer brewing, library science (not my field), singing, whatever; and one of them even hooked up with someone from my department, which led to the funny moment this afternoon when he asked me her last name. (Hey, at least it wasn't her first name...) And I can just say, "I feel like cookies. Let's bake them." And at least one person will help make them, and many other people will eat them/clean up afterwards.

2 comments:

Reel Fanatic said...

Marie Antoinette was just a big disappointment to me, much for the reasons that you mentioned .. it did have a lot of style, which I expect from Ms. Coppola, but the at least 45 minutes or so that could be called Birthing Rituals of the Young and Noble was just dreadfully pointless and boring

kermitthefrog said...

Part of me actually enjoyed waiting and waiting through the many repetitions of the bedroom scene in which Louis would clumsily roll over and say "Good night." They had something of the awkward flavor of Lost in Translation, which I loved. But given that I was half asleep yesterday, I can see that a normally conscious person might have found it boring.

And thanks for commenting!