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Tuesday, September 02, 2003 |
La Nuit américaine
When I was in college in Bellingham, Washington,
we would often drive down to Seattle to see movies that had just opened
and might not make it up to Bellingham for a while. I remember one trip
in 1973 to see this Truffaut movie.
Until last night, I hadn't seen it again, though I had some strong
memories of it. I never saw it on VHS, but this weekend,
partially triggered by a great appreciation of the movie by Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle last week, I watched it last night.
It's every bit as good as I remembered it being, and as good as LaSalle
says. It's a warm, funny, movie, much more complex that it appears at
casual viewing. Truffaut comes across as a very warm, very involved
director. Two small scenes really caught my eye, and they are largely
unexplained. In one, Truffaut as director gently manipulates Jaqueline
Bisset's fingers to place them in precise angles; in another he does so
with ther face. It's fascinating, and you know that he has particular
reasons for doing so, but he doesn't dwell on these actions, or explain
them. Bisset does in a nice "extra feature" on the DVD, and gives a
nice hint to what Truffaut was after.
The movie is highly recommended. LaSalle talks about what a big loss
Truffaut was; he died at 52 in 1984 -- almost precisely the same age as
my mother when she died in the same year. This is a good start at a
look at his career.
8:37:30 PM Permalink
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Don't Vote for Spammers
Why Is Peter Ueberroth Spamming Voters?.
No link on this one, as it appears the press hasn't picked up on the
story yet, but this ridiculous California recall election has led to
political spamming. On Friday I received a spam from the campaign of
Peter Ueberroth. I was not amused - nor was I influenced to vote for
Mr. Ueberroth.
[Techdirt]
I got the spam too, and immediately
added it to my spam list so I don't see any more. Though I certainly
wouldn't have voted for the guy, he did strike me as a somewhat serious
candidate, which is a rarity in this "election." But the spam made me
think otherwise. Don't vote for spammers.
8:11:41 PM Permalink
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Orson Scott Card:
“Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be
indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught
violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message
that those who flagrantly violate society's regulation of sexual
behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens
within that society.”
[EdCone.com]
Card's rant started out against
"homosexual hypocrites." He says that you can't both be a practicing
homosexual and a good Mormon. Fair enough, I don't know the Book of the
Mormon and what it might say about homosexuality, and I'm not a Mormon
anyway.. I'm not convinced
with respect to Christianity that the Bible's admonitions are anything
that modern society needs to pay any attention to, and I'm not a
Christian either. But when he goes on
to say that society in general should follow the dictates of his
religion, we part company. It's hard to imagine that I'll be buying any
of Card's books; I'm not saying they shouldn't be published, or that
others are wrong for buying them, just that I'm not going to read them.
I was once a reader, and liked several of his books quite a bit.
5:49:06 PM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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