Movie- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly or Le scaphandre et le papillon (2007)

This movie is based off the memoir (of the same title) of Jean Dominique Bauby, who was the editor for Elle magazine. At the age of 43, in 1995, Bauby suffered a massive stroke, which left him almost completely paralyzed. He couldn't speak, and he could only move any eye, and some slight head movements after a while. But his mind is working just fine, so the doctors diagnose him with Locked In Syndrome. After accepting his condition, Bauby begins writing his memoir of his illness, by dictating the novel. As he cannot speak, this is done by someone saying the alphabet (arranged by the frequency of use of letters in French) and him blinking once the correct letter is reached. The book was published just a few days before his death in 1997.

I have not read the book, but I was familiar with the movie by name, as it was nominated for several awards in 2008, including a few Oscars. It was a very interesting film. I would say, almost half of the film is told in Bauby's point of view. Not just him narrating, but seeing through his eye(s) as if you were him. You hear his thoughts, realizing they can't hear you. See his malfunctioning eye being sewn shut. We don't get a very good look of Mathieu Amalric, the actor playing Bauby, until well into the movie.

The dialogue was too quick, and my French too rusty for me to follow in French, so I was reliant on the subtitles. It got a bit disorienting when the communication with the alphabet started, since she'd say the French letters, and subtitles would be showing the equivalent positioned letter for the translated English word. Amalric did a fine job as Bauby, especially having to maintain the post stroke appearance.

I'm not usually drawn to biography's, but having seen this film, I think I may have to pick it up and give it a read

Movie- Triplets of Belleville

Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003)
I first became aware of this film in 2004 when it was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. Between the clip shown and the song performed, I had to check out this movie.

This is about a grandmother who is raising her orphaned grandson. He is depressed, and not much cheers him up, not even his puppy. But the grandmother discovers his love of bicycling, via a collection of newspaper clippings, so she buys him his first bike. Time lapse forward, and the little boy is all grown up and training for the Tour de France, with his grandmother serving as his loyal trainer. Next we see him, he's riding in the Tour de France, with his grandmother and dog following in the tail car. A couple large, dark men disable the tail car so they can take its place in a copied car. We later learn these are members of the French mafia, and they are kidnapping trailing riders to force them into an illicit stationary bike race gambling venture. The grandmother and dog set off across land and sea to rescue the grandson, who has been taken to Belleville. Broke, the grandmother and dog encounter the aged Triplets of Belleville, who befriend them and help rescue the grandson.

This is not your ordinary cartoon movie. Its not a movie for the kids, although if you skip the opening sequence, of the Triplets in the 1930s performing "Belleville Rendez-vous", you'll skip the bare breasts, and its mostly just gun fights afterwards. And it is an old fashioned animation, not computer animation. Hand drawn, and it has a grittier look, with a muted color palettes.

If you don't speak French, or haven't used what you learned in years, don't worry. There is no dialogue in this movie. Only the song lyrics, and a small political speech on the tv are in French. Anything else that is "spoken" are universal sounds, like laughing and 'no'. While you don't need to worry about subtitles, it is a visual movie, like the silent films of the Triplet's heyday.

Its a quirky type of humor it has. The sister who is in charge of cooking, her preferred method of "shopping" for ingredients is a WWII era grenade, fishing net and umbrella. The ending especially is fairly slap stick in style.

Its not a movie for everyone, but if you really enjoy good animation, and have a quirky sense of humor, I highly recommend this film.

Time travel trip to Paris on $15

Paris: Then and Now
by Peter & Oriel Caine
Thunder Bay Press
Published 2003






If you've been in Costco around Christmas-time or peruse the Barnes and Noble bargin shelves, you've probably seen a book from this series at some time. They have these books for several major cities. I coerced my parents into getting it for me one Christmas, but I've not really sat and read all the captioning until now. So I spent Bastille Day reading through this book.

The book begins with a short introduction, which briefly describes how Emperor Napoleon III began to clean up, rebuild and enlarge Paris by annexing outlying villages. This is around the same time as photography had gained popularity.

For the rest of the book, there is a historic photograph, with a blurb about the area, and what is happening in the photograph. On the facing page is the current (as of publishing) photograph of the same area, with a discription of how it currently is, and how it had changed since the historic photograph. While it includes pictures of the popular tourist sites, like L'Arc de Triomphe, and Sacre Coeur, but various stations, markets and streets as well. There were also little tidbits of history in it, that made me realize that I didn't know much about French history.

Found on the Guardian's coverage of the 100th anniversary of the 1910 flood

This is one of those in the book, of the Rue de Lyons, during the floods of 1910. The Metro also flooded at that time, and the caption says the "Water level had risen to twenty-seven feet" in the center of the city.

Its a nice coffee table book, and if you want a short pictoral getaway



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I just got a Google+ account, so you can find me here. I've also made it so the buttons show on posts.

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is being hosted by A Sea of Books during July, and was started by The Printed Page.

Purchase:
My Harry Potter series in French came in. Didn't notice on the other french books I got, but all the information on the spine is printed upside down to the way they are on the English books

Library:
Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati -- I sent this one back and put a new hold on it, because I had three unread holds due within 3 weeks already when Caleb's Crossing came in

For Review:
If You Go Into the Woods by David Gaughran
Reign of the Nightmare Prince by Mike Phillips
Concerto by Sandra Miller

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I've almost passed my reading total for last year. What a difference a reader and easier access to library books are.

C'est Juillet

Its July, so that means its time for Paris in July, hosted by BookBath and Thyme for Tea.

As far as books will go for the month, I'm going to start with this one:

Eiffel's Tower: And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count by Jill Jonnes

I was in the local Borders and found it on the clearance rack. Seems a fitting start. I love the Tower and have a bunch of them around my room, including my lamp. And my print of a series of photographs taken while it was being built. Anyhoo....

Later after I've dealt with the attack of the library holds, I will aim to tackle Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar, and I am Madame X by Gioia Diliberto. Though I may just do a post about the actual painting, and the Paris Salon. Also I may brave my first attempt at reading in French since reading Le Petit Prince in class over ten years ago. But I'm waiting for my Harry Potter to arrive before decide which to start with, as the Lord of the Rings is also a version edited for the teen-young adult reader.

A bientôt!

Paris in July - The Planning

I've been thinking about what all I'd might want to blog about for this. I was thinking I'd aim for blogging on the topic 2-3 times a week. And keep with normal book related blogging (I've got a bunch of e-book to review still). The list of possible topics:

Movies
French

• Le pacte des Loups/Brotherhood of the Wolf
• Amelie
• Triplets of Belleville
• La Femme Nikita
• Coco Before Chanel
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• Cyrano de Bergerac
  

Set in France

• French Kiss
• The Scarlet Pimpernel
• Three Musketeers
  

Books

• To Be Queen: A Novel of the Early Life of Eleanor of Aquitaine
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• The Scarlet Pimpernel series
• Camille
• Father Goriot
• Madame Bovary
• Candide
• I am Madame X
  

Music
La Marseillaise
Les Miserables
Saint-Saens

And perhaps something on architecture, painting, historical fashions... I need to site down and go through things before July rolls around

Paris in July

Heard about this along the blogging grapevine. Bookbath and Thyme for Tea are hosting the Paris in July blogging...thing. Not exactly a blog-a-thon, but you get the idea. Get to spend a month blogging about the shared love of french things.

I've loved Paris and french things for a long time, longer than my love of British television. Took four years of french in middle-high school, even though Spanish would have been much more useful in Southern California. Got loads of little Eiffel Towers around my bedroom, and a trip to France is on my bucket list. So seems like my kind of blogging event.

So if you want to know more about it, go check out one of the host blogs for more information. I'll probably have some planning posts in the next few days