Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish listening to an opera by Alexander Zemlinsky called Es War Einmal (Once Upon a Time), a fairy-tale opera that, thus far is quite beautiful musically with wonderful melodies. Prior to that, I’d listened to Smetana’s Dalibor, which I quite enjoyed – sung in German rather than Czech, but the libretto was written in German, so I didn’t have a problem with it. Again, wonderful melodies and I enjoyed it very much. And then it was Delibes’ Lakme, which is wonderful, especially the very famous women’s duet, which is stunning. Fun listening, for sure. And prior to that, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Intimate Strangers by a director I really like, Patrice Leconte – I have many of his films on DVD, but almost nothing of his is available on Blu-ray, which is really odd to me. You’d think successful films like Monsieur Hire and The Hairdresser’s Husband would be. Anyway, I last watched this film in 2007 and before that when it came out on DVD in 2005. Here’s what I wrote about it after that first viewing.
I really enjoyed Intimate Strangers. In fact, it’s a terrific film. There are no effects, no “big” scenes, no show-off moments – just an interesting tale well told. The two stars of the film are great (it’s essentially a two-character piece with a few others making occasional appearances), in fact, I’d say they are the two finest performances I’ve seen this year (NOTE: This was in January of 2005, so the year was young). No Oscar-bait here – these are subtle, quiet, understated performances filled with wonderful moments and complexity. The leading man, whom I’ve never heard of before, is Fabrice Luchini, and the leading lady is an actress I’ve enjoyed many times, Sandrine Bonnaire. Moody score by Pascal Esteve, lovely photography, and very interesting costume design. The plot is simple: A woman, going on her first visit to a therapist, accidentally goes in the wrong office, a tax accountant, and she just begins telling him everything. Before he can tell her that he’s not what she thinks he is, she’s gone. She returns, he still doesn’t tell her, but she soon finds out, he apologizes, and she continues to come back, and their relationship and bond is completely engrossing. The DVD looks and sounds great.
I thoroughly enjoyed it all over again, although I’m surprised I didn’t mention some of the shaky cam – nothing egregious, but an odd choice. I now want to re-watch other Leconte films, and I happily found one of my favorites, One Chance for Two, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon, on Amazon Prime for free and in the right film ratio. The DVD I first bought was in 1:85 but I later found out the film was scope. I bought an overseas DVD that was scope but sans subtitles. This is a beautiful transfer and has subtitles, so I’ll be watching that.
Yesterday was fine. I got ten hours of sleep, answered e-mails and then lunch, which I’d preordered, arrived at around two, a Caesar salad from The Cheesecake Factory. I’ve had them many times over the years and they’re so big that you can barely finish them. This was half the size they usually are – they probably gave me the appetizer size, but I paid for the big boy version. I had them leave out the croutons. It was not as good as usual and a big disappointment to me, especially after the great Caesar from Stanley’s.
After that, I procrastinated about writing the new set of liner notes. In fact, I’ve been procrastinating about it for weeks, because I had so little information about the music. But I finally Googled all kinds of different ways and cut and pasted anything I thought I could use as a reference into a document. And then, I just buckled down, Winsocki, and began them. It took a little over three hours to get them done, but I wouldn’t stop until I was finished. I proofed them and they read pretty well, actually, and because I was able to include two reviews of the two pieces on the CD, I think there’s plenty of information now.
Then I began listening, watching, listening, and relaxing and the rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up and I’ll try to start writing the final set of liner notes, which will be much easier, and I’ll start the arduous task of organizing the perks and who gets what. That will be a lot of work, oh, yes, that will be a lot of work. I’ll eat something (not Gelson’s – maybe a chicken Caesar from Stanley’s again), I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then at some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is all Indiegogo organizing and beginning to plan the late May Kritzerland show and going and doing and doing and going, and getting a galley of the new book, which I hope I can approve immediately.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, try to start writing the final set of liner notes, start organizing the Indiegogo stuff, eat, hopefully pick up packages, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite kinds of salad to eat? Favorite dressings? And what’s the best salad you’ve ever had? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have finished the difficult liner notes and happy to have had a peaceful yet busy Sunday.