(28) is Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Real quick for this one: I went to my Paris VII Hitchcock class today and got the paper topic that will determine my course grade: "color in Hitchcock." Professor said I could write about pretty much whatever I wanted, so if you happen to know a good Hitchcock movie that would help me along here, please share.
After class, I went home and had dinner with the kids because my host parents went out for the evening. Apparently the whole 'make your own food at the table' phenomenon is, in fact, a phenomenon. A slightly different hotplate with six circular recesses on the surface was employed to make miniature crepes. With bacon and cheese. And, for dessert, crepes with honey, sugar, and/or the maple syrup I brought them as a gift when I arrived. The boys and I talked about school and their sports and just had a nice time. It was a great meal.
(29) is Thursday, 4 February 2010
I went to Music in Cinema (a lot about classical music... hmm.) and then my friend Aaron and I went to a play (a comedy called Hors Piste*) for which he had finagled free tickets. That was really a stroke of luck; we got free theater!
Also, we both agreed that putting down money for that show would have been a travesty.
The audience seemed to be laughing hysterically, which, you know, mazel tov... for them. but Aaron and I were left understanding maybe every fifth word of this farce about five people taking a weekend at a ski lodge. Characters were pretty two-dimensional and the play didn't seem to be about anything. There was also no intermission in this play lasting 2+ hours, which I as a theater person found strange, but maybe that's a French thing: two of my friends went to a different show recently and reported the same marathon approach.
After two hours, Aaron and I left early to meet some friends from last weekend's loft party at an Irish pub just off the Champs-Elysees. It was student night, so the place was pretty hopping.** Only trouble was that I missed the last metro, so I had to navigate the Noctillien bus system. Paris has this bus network that runs when the trains don't*** and covers all the same stops. Trouble is, they don't tell you exactly where on the Champs to find the 'Champs-Elysees' bus stop, and that's a long street to wander... in the rain... Anyway, I finally figured it out. Suffice it to say, there's a reason I've always loved trains.
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Footnotes
* This is an English term, too, apparently: "off-piste" is a kind of skiing that's slightly off of marked slopes or courses.
** Though not as much as tonight (Sunday, 7 Feb.) when they start airing the Super Bowl at midnight.
*** The trains, best I can tell, run until 2 or maybe 2:30 AM on Friday and Saturday nights and until midnight or a little later other nights. Trains reopen at 5:30 or 6 each morning.
You've probably already chosen your Hitchcock movie by now, but "Vertigo" does some fabulous things with color.
ReplyDeleteI'd also recommend "Strangers on a Train," but, well, it's in black and white. But in my opinion it's one of Hitchcock's best in terms of camera angle and shot composition. Check it out.