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2001-11-22 / 12:52 p.m. ~"Amelie", Thanksgiving, Kabul's Zoo, and Playboy~ Gladys is dying for me to be her lap right now. So I pull her tail and meow at her, pat her head, and she comes on my other side, begging, meowing, "I wanna sit there!", and I say no, I'm writing, sit on your computer chair, I'm on mine, I'm busy. We slept about 12 hours, the girls and me, well, excluding the time Gladys was running all around, but still, we slept a lot, and I'm kinda groggy, but I wouldn't change a thing. Not even the dream where I was racing people in innertubes on some lake. I think it was my own dream version of "The Amazing Race", but it was me with a bunch of young people instead. And I felt much older. So, right, Gladys had to get out from under the covers, under which she'd just crawled, pawing incessantly, me finally giving in, because it had been too long, too much sleep, time to get up, and now she'd like to continue things, on a lap instead....ah...but I hear her running down the hall now, so all must be well. Good. I won't write a review here, but let me just say a word or two, or three or four, about "Amelie".....I LOVED IT!!! You know a movie is good if while you're watching it you are thinking, I can't wait to see this again! Okay, I'm a mix of things, I'm really visual, but I love the written and spoken word too, so in a movie, the look, the cinematography is really important to me, and I studied photography, have a keen interest in film, so I know a little bit about what's good and what's not. I'm no expert, but I know what I like. We all do. And a good story is what really makes a movie, a good script, of course. Good dialogue is equally important, but a film with few words can be just as good as one written by Woody Allen, or that famous screenwriter, David Mamet. "Amelie" sucked me in from the very beginning with its visual styling, its cleverness, the narration, the comical tone, the overall eccentricity of its characters, and the film itself. It was a CELEBRATION of eccentricity, and this I loved. It doesn't hurt that the actress playing Amelie (Audrey Tatou - looking a bit like Audrey Hepburn, in "Roman Holiday" perhaps) is so fucking beautiful, but non-threatening, sort of spritely, and the word used so often in reviews to describe her character, "gamine". I had to look it up myself...simple definition is a girl with elfin appeal, but the longer definition says: "A neglected girl who is left to run about the streets. A diminutive or very slender girl, esp. one who is pert, impudent, or playfully mischievous." Yes, Amelie is gamine. No doubt. She has a very odd childhood, strange parents, and she is neglected. When she leaves home she leads a solitary life, one without a lot of feeling, until she realizes she can bring so much feeling, so much emotion, to others, and thus I think she feels her own emotions rising to the surface. It's fanciful, from the start, the film stock is washed or filtered, everything is a different color, slightly, more yellow, more red, and there is great attention paid to detail, from cats mewling off camera in so many scenes, to other scenes played behind the current scenes, it's playful, mischievous, like Amelie herself. And it's a romance too, and there is one erotic scene that is so sweet, just playful kisses, but the way it's played, the sudden loss of soundtrack music (which is wonderful music throughout, I must add) is startling, making us focus entirely on these kisses. The audience in the theatre, the packed audience where I saw it, grew very silent, but the man by himself at the end of my aisle stirred, his legs shifting, and I imagined him with a growing hard on! Yet there was no nudity, not in that scene, just these little kisses, this perfect lighting, these two beautiful actors. Wow. I also have to say that the subtitles got in my way, as the narrator was not as easy to understand as I wanted him to be, and I had to read a lot, and therefore I missed a lot of the visuals, but as I watched, when I didn't have to read, I thought over and over again how incredibly sensual it all was, I could almost smell this movie. It was earthy and human, and in parts shiny and manmade, it was beautiful and funny, and heartbreaking and warm, and put a smile inside of me, not just on the outside, made me feel happy just to watch it. I left the theatre, after sitting through all the French credits, thinking, That was the best movie I've ever seen! But I know not everyone will feel that way. I found the review in Entertainment Weekly when I got home, and Lisa Schwarzbaum gave it an "A-", and I'm not sure why she threw in the minus...but I saw where Roger Ebert and others only gave it a "B" or a "B+". One reviewer, Joanna Connors, from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, gave it an "A+", and I said, Yeah, yeah, that's about right. "Amelie" reminds me of every quirky and different movie I've seen, not that it's derivative, because it's not, by any means, but movies like "After Hours", "3 O'Clock High", or "Run Lola Run", movies that push the moviemaking envelope with their creativity, their camera angles, their film stock, their wardrobe or set design (Amelie has this wonderful red kitchen!!! And very strange pictures over her bed......*), these can be my favorite movies, because they leave me wanting to see more, to see the movie again, and each time I may notice something else, as Amelie herself does when she goes to movies, noticing the bug in the window behind the two lovers as they kiss... Excellent. If anyone is reading this, anyone at all, go see it, if you love movies, go see it! Rent it when it's out on tape, buy it, own it, love it. I know I can't wait to buy it! And I may see it again this weekend. In other news....thanks to the two loyal fans, people who actually like what I write, whether it's good or bad, personal or babble. I read yours too, both of you, you know that. It's others I'm speaking of, others I wrote of, people who don't read much, who skim diaries as a diversion while at work. But that's okay. For them. For me. Still, thanks to those who say they like what I write. That's great to hear, er, read. So, this is long, I know, but I woke up and felt like writing all I'd been thinking of..... I used to watch Howard Stern every night on E!. Yes, he's sexist, he's a pig, but there's more to him than all that, and I got a kick out of his brazenness, his show in general, so I tuned in couple nights ago, for the hell of it. He was taking Polaroids of a woman who aspires to be in Playboy. And as he often does he analyzed her naked body, took some good shots, and said he wasn't sure Playboy would take her, but he liked her body, liked all of her but her bangs. When asked, she gave her measurements, and they were 34 (C), 23, 35, and I thought about that......23 is a small waist. I remembered taking my own measurements as an adolescent, almost obsessively, but I remember being a 27 inch waist. Then when I lifted weights for a while I took measurements of my arms, my legs, in addition. So, it's been a while, I decided to take my own measurements, see how I compare to the wannabe Playboy model, so I did, yesterday morning, before coffee and food....33, 25, 35. The 33 is probably A or B, not sure, I seldom wear a bra, and when I do it doesn't have cups, it's just a piece of fabric that stretches. But still, not bad, eh? I don't know, I mean it doesn't matter, not in the long run, but one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up, seriously, I'm not making this up, this was way back when I was a little kid, was a Playboy model. When I was 10 years old I would go with my best friend to babysit, and one family, one husband, one father, had a HUGE collection of Playboys in his walk-in closet. We would pour through them, from the '50s, '60s, and current. I mean, old stuff, probably Marilyn Monroe old, in fact that issue was probably in there. And I remember watching Hugh Hefner's show on TV, briefly, when I was a kid, maybe in repeats, I don't know, but I grew up wanting to be beautiful like those women, perfectly formed, having access to all the finest things in life, the life Hugh Hefner had, the life he created. In fact, I don't know if I wanted to be one of those women, or just Hef himself! Anyway, no longer, this body is not perfect, but those are my measurements. One more thing, I think, I saw on the news last night that Kabul has a zoo, and the animals, of course, are suffering. Parts of the zoo have been shelled, the zookeepers are grossly underpaid, the zoo in general is understaffed, it's sad indeed. And I thought, Jesus, Kabul has a fucking zoo????!!!!! I was glad they showed it on the news, our local news, hopefully someone, someone who can do something, will see that, and do something, help that old lion, that wolf, that goat, whatever else is there. And I remembered seeing a report on CNN of a zoo in Sarajevo, and this man who had traveled there, during their own war, to save those animals. They showed animals who'd been shot, for sport, still in their cages, not dead, just suffering, and how horrible the conditions were, and here was this hero, this man with whom I instantly fell in love, who was there because of sheer compassion, wanting to help those who could not hope to help themselves, animals abandoned in this zoo, still in their cages. It was heartwarming. Who'd have thought the same would be going on in Kabul? I picture it as a rinky dink little town, and every time they say they're still bombing it I think, "Huh? What is possibly left to bomb? How big is this city?", but I guess it's big enough to have a zoo, and how is it that a city like that, with rulership, with crazy, fundamentalist fascists enforcing their own version of law, can have a zoo anyway? Ugh, it made me ill. Emotionally ill. And news of Afghanistan was way farther into the local news broadcast than usual last night. It came maybe 15 or 20 minutes in. Insert a long sigh.....here. Okay, I'm through, I think, for now. I've got some things to do before I go meet the stranger for the hockey game later. No doubt that will be worth writing about tomorrow! I'm not doing anything for Thanksgiving, nothing at all traditional, but hopefully one day I will again. I do enjoy this holiday, it's possibly my favorite. So, I hope those out there who are doing things, spending time with their families and their friends, etc., are enjoying themselves, and I hope it's all worthwhile. I am thankful for my overall health, and that of my cats, that I live in a country relatively free (until Ashcroft, et. al. re-write the Constitution anyway), and that I have food, shelter, clothing, and my cats, oh, and fun entertaining stuff like books, tv, movies, and my computer. Thank you. And everyone should see "Amelie" as soon as they can! (my downstairs neighbor is cooking, and the smell is wonderful....it smells of Thanksgiving....it's onions, foul, vegetables, broth, gravy, it's heaven, and I just may go stand in the bathroom where it's coming up through the poor insulation....just stand and smell) Cost of the War in Iraq
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