Happy Mardi Gras!

Hey everyone, It's Fat Tuesday and I'm not in New Orleans. I've never been to Mardi Gras and it's not looking like I'll be going anytime soon. I guess I'm more of Jazz Fest girl. But I did get a strand of beads today that made me happy. And all I had to do was flash my credit card at Whole Foods (they were handing them out to us customers). You gotta take what you can get. Here's hoping that New Orleans will somehow return to the kind of place Ignatius J. Reilly would inhabit.

In other book news, I found out that Sue Townsend has released a new Adrian Mole book just in time for me to take on vacation - Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction. It was v well reviewed on Amazon - some even say it's the best one yet. I have to admit that the previous book The Cappucino Years was quite disappointing, but I'm glad to know Adrian's adventures continue. Should make for a laugh.

Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day (courtesy of Larissa): If you don't love geology, UPPER JURASSIC!!

-sunday

What ever happened to Whit Stillman?

Hey everyone, I ran across some website or magazine or other that was recommending new dvds and lo and behold it turns out a Criterion dvd of Metropolitan has recently been released. Metropolitan was the first of Whit Stillman's trilogy. The other two are Barcelona and Last Days of Disco. Stillman is virtually unknown, but his movies have been hugely influential to a slice of the movie-going public (those enamored with nostalgia). A book of essays, Doomed Bougeois in Love, was even written about his films (you can get it on Amazon). Metropolitan is set in New York "not so long ago" and tells the story of a group of debutantes and their escorts during one deb season. Most of the movie is set in apartments and features the group engaged in conversation, primarily concerning the lack of respect/importance given to those in their self-named class, the Urban Haute Bourgeouise or UHB. Stillman is a huge fan of Jane Austen and it shows both in the dialogue and his chosen genre, the comedy of manners. Metropolitan was also Chris Eigeman's first movie. He is the standout in the film, but if you watch it you'll recognize a few other faces. Eigeman is I believe the only actor to appear in all three Stillman films. One of his best lines comes from Barcelona. When a group of Spaniards comment on how many guns there are in the U.S., his character Fred replies, "We don't have more guns. We're just better shots." I have managed to work this line into conversation many times, eliciting much eye rolling from Thomas as I rarely credit the source. Anyway, thanks to Criterion you can now have easy access to Metropolitan which even the Academy Awards acknowledged (with just a nomination, not the Oscar - heaven forbid they get anything exactly right these days) for Best Original Screenplay. The dvd has a commentary track by Stillman which will likely be invaluable.

All of this excitement immediately led me to imdb to see what Stillman's been up to. Much to my dismay, nothing new was listed. A little web search led me to an unofficial Stillman site and an interview he gave recently. He has been living in Paris for the last few years and is at work on a couple of screenplays and says one is nearly finished. This has me the most excited I've been about movies since the night before I saw The Two Towers. Finally, something to look forward to.

-sunday

Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: Carpe Manana

Downfall Indeed

Hey everyone! Since the movie theaters deserted us this weekend, Thomas and I did something we haven't done in awhile: we rented a movie from The Video Station. None of our netfixes did the trick for us. This turned out to be a good thing as we got one we'd long forgotten about, Downfall. Downfall is a German movie that was released in 2004 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2005. It lost to the Spanish film, The Sea Inside, a movie I didn't see but I can tell you now Downfall got robbed. It's that good. It should be required viewing and it did win many awards from other countries.

Downfall tells the story of the last days of the Nazi regime, a story I thought I knew, but it was nothing like I pictured it in my head. I pictured Hitler's bunker to be this small dark kind of place that he and Eva Braun ran to right before Berlin was invaded and then killed themselves. The movie took my five second imagination and turned it into a 2.5 hour film that is incredibly gripping. That the Germans made this film is just unreal. There is absolutely no sentimentalizing, no glossing over, no excuses. Downfall made everything and everyone look so much more horrible than I could have ever imagined. Hitler, played brilliantly and disturbingly by Bruno Ganz, is absolutely delusional, insane, prone to fits and rages, you name it. But as Thomas said, he never actually kills anyone. They're all too busy offing themselves. Downfall focuses on a few of the dozens of people housed in the surprisingly large, bright bunker during the the last 10-20 days of Hitler's reign. Primary players are Hitler's 24 year old secretary Traudl (the screenplay is partially based on a book she wrote) who blindly almost worshipped Hitler and couldn't bare to leave him alone; Himmler, his wife and their five children all of whom also worship Hitler and want to go down with the ship; Eva Braun, a madcap kind of gal if ever there was one; a couple of doctors trying to display a little humanity; and a general who pretty much just wants to be shot because he can't deal with all of Hitler's bizarre tactical decisions and his belief that non-existant divisions will be arriving at any moment to crush the Russians, preferably in a pincer move. Occasionally shots of the bombing in the streets of Berlin are shown, with particular focus being paid to Peter, a young member of the Hitler youth - 10 to 15 year old boys and girls whose goal it is to take down Russian tanks. Towards the end of the movie though, there is nothing but carnage and insanity on those streets with civilians turning against each other and old men being hanged for not being on the front line. Again, the fact that this is a German film impresses the heck out of me. Downfall could not have been an easy movie to see as a German, much less make as a German. I can't recommend it more.

-sunday