Movie: The Girl From Paris

French films often have the distinction of being long and drawn out.  The only reason I watch French films is because I'm learning to speak French and am working under the delusion that watching long, boring French movies will help the cause.  It doesn't, but I still queue them up on Netflix.

The Girl From Paris was okay, and presented a slice of life French countryside style.  Basically a girl from Paris decided to take up farming, particularly goat herding, and the movie makes it all seem rather idyllic except for the parts where they actually slaughter a pig and later in the movie a cow.  Blah.  Watching real animals die is not my cup of tea, so I closed my eyes until the deaths were completed.  But that's farming, right?  The girl strikes up a relationship with a crotchety old farmer and they become friends in the end.  Overall, the movie was predictable and okay, and if you're learning French this is a good one to choose, except for the two slaughter parts that I mentioned.

I think this film should be done American-style.  It could be really cute and funny.  American films (done correctly) allow for character development and would kindly omit the gory animal deaths -- even though since most of us eat meat maybe we should witness the kind of suffering we cause animals because of our flesh eating appetites.

The Triumph of Will

Only watch this film if for some crazy reason you are exactly like me and have a sick fascination about the holocaust.  My particular interest is the psychology of Hitler and how a civilized nation could fall prey to this man.  In some ways Hitler is a study of success and ultimately failure.  But his rise to power and how he abused that power is captivating.

I can't get enough, so now I'm watching every single movie made concerning that time period:  fact or fiction, American or foreign.

The Triumph of Will was actually a Nazi propaganda film from that era.  The producers (or editors or whoever) kindly added English subtitles, although there was a lot more marching, flag waving and tedious black and white visuals like "flying about the clouds," than Nazi leaders speechifying.  Speaking of speeches, I think something was lost in translation, because I could not figure out what Hitler said that rallied so many people around him.  Perhaps it is simply my inability to truly understand the culture and the context of the times; but neither am I a nationalist or a flag worshipper, nor do I tend to set people up on pedestals... especially when it's so much more fun to try and knock them down.

Movie: Duplicity

Duplicity could have been a good if it had been edited correctly.  It took a good 30 minutes into the film to figure out what was going on.  Even then it didn't make a lot of sense.  What's more Julia Roberts looked terrible.  It was hard to believe that guy would be interested in her because she was kind of a bitch and she looked kind of dumpy.  To put it kindly, Ms. Roberts is not aging well...but then, who -- besides Betty White -- is?

As usual, if my partner doesn't like a movie, he goes into the other room and plays on the computer.  But I have this anal obligation to see the whole thing through and watch it to the end, that is if I stay awake.  This movie required so much brain work to follow what was going on, I did indeed stay awake.  But, like bad sex, went to bed disappointed, which happens a lot, unfortunately.