Wednesday (still in my first week of class), I went to my Alfred Hitchcock class at Paris VII. I like it... well, okay, I like Hitchcock and I like being the one with the best understanding of these films in the classroom. Of the various classes I'm taking, I think I understand this professor least... he moves kinda' quickly and I have a hard time following his train of thought. I'll be doing my best to pay attention and take notes, and I'll understand what he's saying, but I will have no idea what it has to do with the other things he's discussed or where the lecture is going.* At the end of class, we watched a clip of Psycho... boy, these French film professors love themselves some opening credits.
After class, I met up with a few Sidwell friends (ha! That was a pun!) who are in Paris on various programs this semester. We had dinner at La Volcan, a nice little bistro at the top of the hill on Rue Mouffetard. I had a delicious order of mussels and fries (that's 'frites' over here... rhymes with "fleets") and, after I tasted Lumay's dessert, I decided I couldn't pass it up. The Charlotte au Chocolat is a patty (right word?) of chocolate mousse framed (literally) with vanilla pound cake and bathed in a heart-achingly good creme anglaise.** This and the Pierre Herme Macaroons (The official delicacies of posthumous Oscar recipients, in case you'd forgotten) are about tied for best dessert I have had here so far.
(22) is Thursday, 28 January 2010
Thursday (still in my first week of class), I went to my Music in Cinema class at Paris VII. I like it... well, okay, I like Hitch-- ...oh. Ha.
My 'Music in Cinema' class is great; the professor is a musician who taught at... I wanna' say Penn?... for a year and taught us a little about Baroque through present instrumental music just by way of introduction, and we ended up listening to the opening of Casablanca among other things. We discussed how the visuals of the movie will determine a soundtrack more than anything else. The result, apparent when you listen to the soundtrack alone, is music that completely ignores music theory, classical style, and other academic words for "the sorta' stuff normal composers do." More of this fun*** sort of analysis to come, I hope. This is another class, I should add, that doesn't seem to believe in homework: no syllabus, no suggested books, no suggested music, and I asked the professor about midterms and finals. He has no idea. Rock on.
I'm told the goal on the no-homework thing is for students to be "independent"... something about being motivated enough to educate yourself? I'm still (even on day (28)) trying to get my head around this one.
After class, a few of us celebrated Liz's birthday by treating her to Indian food on Rue Moufetard. Good food, affordable... I'd recommend it, but it's just one of the many things that earns the entire street its recommendation. Another such thing was one of the many crepe stands that earned itself our money after dinner.
(23) is Friday, 29 January 2010
We didn't do much Friday (but watch me write at least two huge paragraphs about it anyway). We tried to go to the movies in the afternoon, but every movie theater (I think I'll refer to them as "cinemas" from here on out) seems to show all its movies at the same times. So, if you just missed the start of your movie, well désolé, but you're in a two-hour vacuum for basically all of them. I don't know why this is, but we disbanded. Liz and I did end up seeing something, however, and the posters and trailer for it had intrigued me since I saw them shortly after my arrival. I've been recommending this extremely obscure film to everyone since, so bear with me if I've already told you to watch the trailer at this web address:
I'll try not to dwell on it too long, but Mr. Nobody was incredible: beautifully filmed, well-written, and nothing short of a marvel in terms of editing. That's because this movie is one of those ones where you're going back and forth among a bunch of different stories/realities and half the fun is figuring out why you're seeing what you're seeing. In my opinion, the ending brought it all together splendidly, even if that 'all together' could have lost 20-30 minutes between the middle and the end.
Well, I tried not to dwell on it, anyway...
That evening, that same bunch of us (plus Kirill, our new friend through Aaron) went to a party hosted by fellow JYA students from other schools and programs. It was at this great loft apartment that a few of them share-- it has a two-story living room with a big staircase in the middle, all in concrete but it actually made concrete work, and a good (and largely attractive) 40-50 people there... this is one of those parties you think only happens on TV (and... other people's blogs?) until you get to go to one yourself.
Speaking of parties-- I'm rather baffled about this one, but I've heard "I've Got a Feelin'", "Bad Romance", and (which of these is not like the others?) "La Bamba" more times in my weeks here than in my years in the U.S. I have the metro to thank for that last one.
(24) is... not in this entry. But 24 is a TV show you may know that many Parisians are just now getting to know. And they like a lot, from what I hear. No, the blog sub-entry (24) will be back after these messages.
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Footnotes
* Fortunately, today's class would render this a non-issue. Stay tuned!
** It was probably "heart-attackingly" good, too...
*** That was not sarcastic. And the Florida polls are in: I'm a nerd.
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