Movies celebrating Movies

Recently, I saw two movies that, although completely different, have a a lot in common: Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese and The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius. The first one is a 3-D movie, whereas the latter is a black and white silent movie. Nonetheless, both of them take place in the first half of the 20th century (one in Paris and the other in Hollywood) and both are tributes to the cinema as an Art. This is particularly interesting in a time when the film industry seems to be in decadence and there is some uncertainty about its future. The industry can re-create itself, modernize itself, but the essence is always the same. That is, movies are there to tell stories in various ways, independently on how the technology (which is a support) evolves. 

And this is so true in The Artist, in which the main character is trying to fight against the modernisation of the films in the early 20's, when they start to introduce sound to the pictures. He thinks silent movies will prevail and that talking movies will be a fiasco. He was obviously wrong. The public also evolves and likes novelty. The interesting thing is that we are currently living a similar situation, with the introduction of 3-D pictures. A few years ago some people would say that nobody would ever like to watch a movie with those not very comfortable glasses. However, what we are seeing nowadays is that more and more films are beings released in 3-D and even 3-D televisions are already available in the market. 

The technology of film-making can evolve, nonetheless, what really remains is the importance of the story. This is what movies are all about. Movies tell stories. They can either be fantastic or realistic. But, they certainly make people dream, travel, imagine, laugh, cry, be frighten... This is and always has been what differentiate a good movie from a bad one. You can be using the latest technology available, however if the story is not good, there's no 3-D feature or special effect that will support your film. 

Hugo is a magical film. The story is obviously a fantasy. But it is actually based on some real facts. Independently on the story (that I really liked), what moved me the most is how Martin Scorsese tells the story of the cinema. We see in the movie one of the very first film that had been shown in theaters, which was a very short scene of a train arriving to the station - Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, by the Lumiere Brothers. At the time, people would scream and hide their faces when they saw the train arriving, because they actually thought the train would come out of the screen. In Hugo, we see that same scene, but with the 3-D effect the train actually comes out of the screen. This is just brilliant!

In The Artist, Hazanavicius brings back a whole different way of watching a movie. I think it must have been quite a challenge and it's very audacious to make a silent movie nowadays. The public is now so used to fast scenes, full of action and sound all the time. All the characters have to be clever, fast thinkers, full of witty lines. So, in my opinion, through his film, Hazanavicius also challenges his audience. He's testing our concentration and our senses. As spectators, we end up reacting to the silence of the actors in front of us in a different way than when we are just passively listening to a dialogue. I had already seen some of the old silent movies, but never on a big screen and never with such a good image quality. Overall, I think it was really refreshing.

And just a little parenthesis on education here: watching a silent movie nowadays is actually a good way to teach the audience to remain in silence during the entire session and restraining people from making noises with their food and drinks. Movies still deserve some respect.

As I was browsing the web to find a nice image to illustrate my post, I found this critic of "The Artist" from The New Yorker that I thought was very interesting.  

The weekender and the bubble wrap idea



Need to stress out? Click on the image

My impressions from the weekend.

The egg at WD-50. Even the egg shell was edible

WD-50 - interesting, creative but not fulfilling;
All good things - creepy, especially after googling the guy and finding out that he's back in New York;
Peking Duck House - great peking duck
La Promenade des anglais - so refreshing! French restaurant flavored with herbs from Provence in every dish. Simple and tasty.

And here's a great tip to entertain your kids when they are running around the apartment, not knowing what to do with their extra energy. Don't through away that bubble wrap you've just received with your last delivery. Ask your kids to close their eyes and count to ten or sing their favorite song. In the meantime, lay down the bubble paper on the floor. Ask them to open their eyes, put some very energetic music and tell them to jump on the bubbles as crazy as they can. You can also play the freeze dance while they are jumping. So when you turn off the music, they have to jump out of the bubble warp. Anyway, this was one of the activities at the birthday party we went on Saturday. And when all the parents saw that we all agreed it was one of those silly yet so genius idea.

Have a great great week!

The Circus, the movies and the not so memorable restaurant experience

This was an intense weekend.

We started on Friday night with Hugo. This is a movie for cinema lovers. The story is magical, the images and the music are beautiful and the 3D effects are so well done that you can't imagine seeing the movie in another way. What I thought was fantastic about the movie is that is about the story of the cinema, the really first movies that were made, but seen in 3D with the latest technology. It's just beautifully well done and told.

Saturday was non stop. In the afternoon we went to the Big Apple Circus. It was a fun experience, mainly because of the kids. For their young eyes everything was new and astonishing. For our older and much more blasés eyes nothing was new or impressive. F is absolutely convinced that a doll became a human being in front of his eyes. P, who is only 2, remained concentrated, with his mouth wide opened, for two hours (I couldn't believe it). Seeing their reaction, their enthusiasm and their amazement was priceless.

After the kids were tuckled in bed, we ran to the movies again. This time to see A Dangerous Method. But I didn't like it. I thought it was boring and not a very good description of the characters. I have recently seen a play about Freud, that I found much more interesting (Freud's Last Session). After that disappointing film we went to the recently opened Boulud Sud and that was another disappointment.

We were six at the table, so as appetizers we shared some "small plates" that were good, but not great. Then as a main course I had the Daurade, which was extremely dry (it was suppose to have a "Romesco sauce", but I couldn't find any trace of it). My husband shared with someone else the "Rib Eye" and that was delicious. It says in the menu that is for 2 people but is actually for 4, so at least, I could leave my fish and have some of the meat. Desserts were good. Overall, in my opinion, the restaurant was nothing to write home about (I have however just dedicated a full paragraph to it).

We ended the weekend with a very lazy but fun Sunday, hiding in the most unexpected spots.

P.S: When I wrote the title of this post it made me think of the film The Trip, that I watched a few months ago. Have you seen it? I think it might be the best movie I saw this year. I'm pretty sure is the most hilarious I saw this year. I laughed in the theatre like I hadn't in years.