Day Five: Have romantic comedies always been this bad?

 I won't lie, I have watched enough chick flicks to write a very large novel. A depth of knowledge about a topic that surely won't win me cool points at my next party.
I've watched so many of them and I don't know why. They're all the same.
A quirky/successful/pretty woman in her late twenties that is too self conscious to land the man of her dreams. She's a "career" woman. She's a doormat. She just cares too much about making others happy. Aw, poor lass, stand your ground.
She's matched with a dynamic best bud. Usually they've been through years together, graduating an impressive university holding hands and going through a family related trauma by each others side.
The leading lady either has a high maintenance best bud who is ultimately too demanding to even be considered realistic (always another woman). That, or a calm, grounding friend that makes our girl feel like she's worth something through wit and kindness (usually a guy).
In Something Borrowed there's both. The stereotype continues ladies and gentlemen.
And yes, I watched Something Borrowed...
No doubt, it was poorly done, so lame and obviously boring. To generalize, it's lazy film making.
Lines like, "Sometimes good people do bad things." Who's writing this shit?
Jennie Snyder. Oooops, no wonder it was bad. She writes Lipstick Jungle and Hope and Faith scripts. Booo!
Come on, it's about rich thirty year olds first off. They go to the Hamptons and whine about expensive houses. They're all lawyers. They take lengthy vacations and long lunches. It's hard to feel sorry for these folks.
The premise is so unoriginal. Two best friends, one of them falls in love with the others fiance. BUT wait! There's a history between the two secret lovers, they were ex-law students that loved each other but never said anything. Barf.
There's the over the top kisses in the taxi cab, overly emotional/unrealistic monologues that make you wince and the feel good 90s music soundtrack.
Have romantic comedies always been like this? Specifically, have they all been this terrible?
I watched an old romantic comedy and it seems as though they haven't.
One with my favourite classy lady, Miss Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday.

Roman Holiday is exceptionally cute, but not plastic like the romantic comedies of today. It's about a princess (Audrey Hepburn) who has been overly managed her entire life. She has every moment of her days planned and has no free will. She is pushed to the limit when she has a day before her filled with official demands on a big European tour. The final one in in the city of Rome.
A sedative is given to her after she throw a tantrum. The poor princess has absolutely no say in her life.

That is, until she sneaks out of her heavily guarded room to the busy streets of Rome. She wanders aimlessly until the sedative kicks in and she falls asleep on a park bench in the middle of the city. Joe Bradely, played by the beautiful Gregory Peck, finds her. He's not the nicest chap in the first section of the movie. He seems like a desperate newspaper writer, wanting more than anything to return to his hometown in New York to write for a "real" paper. He ends up having to take the Princess home, although at that time, he has no idea who she is.
The film continues as the Princess enjoys playing hooky with Joe in the city. She's unaware that he works for the paper. Once he finds out who she is, he uses her like everyone else. He secretly schemes to make his encounter with her a front story page for a hot ticket price of $15 grand.
Although, Joe starts off with only dollar signs in his eyes, he quickly changes. The two fall in love. Sigh.

The film is really cute and feel good. The movie is absolutely Americana 1950s, charming and lovable. Also, the ending is stereotypical. Joe is loyal and doesn't sell Princess Ann out. They share an adventurous day in the city, escaping the royal guards, dancing with hilarious Italian locals and eating delicious food.
So, before you write off romantic comedies, check out some oldies, they'll be sure to make you feel just that much better about love.
Recommended. 4/5

Class, big cities and modern art

There's something incredibly peaceful about going to an art gallery. Especially when the gallery is filled with amazing modern art. I'm not sure exactly what it is. Maybe it's that these beautiful works of art are huge, engulfing you into a world without clear definitions. You make up your own meaning to each piece. Maybe art galleries are peaceful because you see people completely in love with what they're seeing, silent in amazement. I've always really loved the imagery of a shadowy figure, back towards you, unmoving in front of a piece.
It's worth the money, definitely go! It's very excellent.
Here are some of my favourites.


Come on, obviously my man Jackson Pollock. I have been obsessed with him since I was a wee tot and seeing an entire room of his paintings honestly, put me to near tears. I was in there for a good 45 minutes.  Starring at Number 1A was like being in a trance. Every little stroke could be a person, an animal, an emotion. It's outstanding. This guy is a genius. You imagine your own body dancing with the painting. In fact, as I sat there, with my mouth open it was as if the layers slowly moved and swayed with me. Maybe I moved with it.








Before I went to the exhibit, I knew I loved Jackson Pollock. I didn't know I loved his wife. Lee Krasner, mon dieu. Gaea 1966 was beautiful beyond words.

Rothko.
Going into the Rothko room was amazing. The lights were dim, protecting the fragile paintings from fading out. My security guard friend, who I discussed everything from American politics to his daughter's University experience, told me that Rothko's paintings were delicate. Pieces were known to fade, the beautiful whites in bold strips often turned to a cream or yellow, destroying the original vision. It was strange to think of a painting so delicate. The thin strokes in which blocks of purple mixed with brown contrasted drastically with the previous room of Pollocks thick, dripping technique. I can't really say much about art, I just like to look at it, but the whole room was like how fragile emotions are. Raw emotions definitely came out of these. A quotation by Rothko is that he was interested in expressing "the big emotions-tragedy, ecstasy, doom". They all definitely came out.

Finally, from the Modern Expressionist exhibit Gorky. Loved three of his pieces, that were displayed as we first entered the exhibition. Garden in Sochi is pretty excellent.

Outside of the Abstract Expressionist exhibit I really liked the Modern Inuit room. Jessie Oonark is now one of my favourites. 

In love with these! Unfortunately I don't know the names of them :( Too bad.
Beautiful beautiful colours. Want them all over my house.

Anyways, get to the AGO! Bring your student card and go in the late afternoon because somedays its
FREE!
Whoo

Le Bon Vivant

I think this blog is about saying all the good things that I find in life. It started out just as films, but why not extend that to everything else.
Le Bon Vivant, the good life.
What's good? Lots of stuff. Today has been exceptionally good.
Musique?
The Young Giants. Check em out. They're from California, they played with Minus the Bear and they're acoustic songs will melt your soul. They have good summer tunes to listen late at night when you're coming back home from a disappointing social gathering. They're irritably catchy. They're guitar makes you want to live in a cabin for the rest of your life. It's alternative rock and jazzy with vocals that make you think you're driving to the beach in June with the windows down.

They remind me of Telekinesis (but way better/not as whinny), Beach Fossils, Local Natives or Freelance Whales. So if you dig those guys, hit up The Young Giants.


 An excellent song/video by them.
Apartment by Young the Giant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPUcP3k3CMY

                                                                                                      

Also. Food. Food is also delicious. Brio, Italian coke basically with caramel aftertaste. Sushi? Thank you sweet Japanese ladies. I wish I knew your names, but it was absolutely delicious.





Finally, clothes! Everyone digs clothes. Today I found some excellent vintage stuff.

 Bags 4 bucks each at Bibles for Missions. The 80s tops are from Bibles for Missions for 8 bucks and the pants are Espirit from my Mumma's closet that I quickly stole. Excellent stuff. Who knew I'd like 80s stuff, hopefully I'm not reviewing 80s films in the future...John Hughes? Ewwww

Day Four: Hiroshima Mon Amour

Let's get this going again. I've been slacking. Blame it on Canada Day.

Hiroshima Mon Amour, an Alain Resnais film from 1959. Prepare yourself. This movie is daunting and emotionally overwhelming. It has depth, style and raw emotion, so it's highly recommended by me. A simple plot description is that, there's an impossible love story between an American actress and a Japanese man who are haunted by old memories and past emotions. The movie is all about reality, memories and forgetting. Forgetting being the strongest theme, as the film revolves around the fleeting power of a moment, a lover or a place.

The film starts out with, "No, you saw nothing at Hiroshima." As although both of them know what happened after the bomb and can retell it, neither were there. Neither experienced the tragedy themselves. The American woman, played by the beautiful Emmanuelle Riva, as not there. She was in Paris. An her Japanese lover, played by Eiki Okada wasn't either. This introduces us to the theme was being aware, experiencing something and slowly beginning to forget it. A theme that returns time and time again throughout the film.

To simply state what the movie is about is difficult. To me, it was about experiencing something and it slipping away. It's memory haunting you, but the details of it fading with time. The audience learns about a German lover in Nevers who died in the war. A Japanese wife that fades into the background, never to be elaborated or discussed. It's about how past memories that haunt the future, impact how the two characters chose to live their lives. How a missed opportunity, a lost lover or the memories of a distant village shape the realities of the present. It's how the past influences the characters inability to chose their own fate. It ends by another love story being a lost opportunity. One that will eventually fade into a distant memory. One called "Hiroshima."
The film's style compliments the beauty of Resnais story development. The film comes to life with lengthy monologues, simple soundtrack and rapidly changing camera angles. It's almost as though Resnais puts the audience in a dance. The music gracefully interwoven, the dialogue poetic and the camera angles flow rhythmically. This film is really a piece of art.

There is so much to talk about with this film. The style is undoubtably modern. The music by Giovanni Fusco, is absolutely amazing. It works seamlessly with the film, changing to best suit the underlying themes, moods and pace of the scene. The soundtrack may be the best I've ever heard. There are moments when the fast paced, light, eccentric composition fits perfectly with the modern architecture of the city. Then there's the slow, rhythmic, dark compositions for two lovers, from different worlds trying to find a common thread.
The film takes on a musical quality, one where the audiences dances through the plotline. One in which, not only the style, but the entire content is like a cyclical flow, flowing from the beginning and returning back in the end. I think the film stands out as rhythmic and completely inspiring is that it combines poetry and film. Lines like, "While my body is still ablaze with the memory of you, I'd like to see Neveres again. The Loire. The lovely popular trees of Nevers. I give you up to oblivion, A dime store romance. I consign you to oblivion."
A dime store romance? Ah, beautiful. Resnais' script is like absolutely fantastic. This movie really shows how visionary cinema is. Film is the ultimate unifier. It brings together writing, visual art, acting and music. Each of these artistic aspects is articulated in the most profound manner. Even the plot line is poetic. A "silly young girl" who is lost in the memories of a German lover who she met on the banks of the Loire. A Japanese man who earns to be awake. A city nursing the wounds of a horrific bomb.
This film is hauntingly beautiful. A story where two lovers are lost and haunted by their past, unable to see the beauty of potential happiness, lost in a foreign city, unaware of the potential of the present.
4/5. Highly recommended