Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to an Ennio Morricone score from a motion picture I just finished watching. But let’s go back to the day’s beinning, which began around nine-thirty or thereabouts. I got seven hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, then at eleven I moseyed on over to Gelson’s and got the food for the day – their cheese enchiladas, which I like, and then from the salad bar a salad for the evening snack. They have a good salad bar and that early in the day everything is super fresh. I didn’t get any protein, just lettuce, hard-boiled egg slices, red onions, a few garbanzo beans, and then some red wine vinegar to dress it, just like the old days. I came home, attended to a few things, and then had the enchiladas, which were very good and pretty filling. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched a couple of irritating YouTube videos and immediately dozed off for a couple of hours. All the dozing is actually really starting to irritate the likes of me. I really didn’t feel like doing any work at all, so I watched the first of two motion pictures, entitled Mille Millards de Dollars, a 1981 French motion picture from France starring Patrick Dewaere, with cameos by Jeanne Moreau, Annie Duperey, Chares Denner, and Edith Scob, directed by Henri Verneuil. I’ve actually seen quite a few of his films – I’ve enjoyed most of them, but none struck me as great, although I do really like The Sicilian Clan. His career seems to careen back and forth between frothy comedies, thrillers, and adventure films. This one’s a political thriller and despite its length – 131-minutes – I really liked it a lot and did find it pretty great. In certain ways it resembles All the President’s Men, but it’s really it’s own thing and while it’s dialogue heavy it definitely holds the attention, the acting is excellent, the transfer is tops, and it has a score by Philippe Sarde that’s somewhat odd for a thriller – solo piano – Dave Grusin would do that many years later for The Firm. Patrick Dewaere would commit suicide just weeks after the film came out – thirty-five years-old. Anyway, if you do the Kino free trial you can see it and a lot of other interesting films.
I took a break and ate my salad, then watched another French film from France, this one from 1978 and entitled I for Icarus – the only name actor in the film is its star, Yves Montand and he and the rest of the cast are really terrific. The director is, once again, Henri Verneuil, and this one’s also a political thriller that’s basically the Kennedy assassination but fictional – set in an unnamed fictional country. It’s even better than the other movie and it really does follow the outlines of the Kennedy assassination – about a Warren Commission-type report that one person who has to sign off on it, doesn’t believe it. From there, it’s rather like a long line of paranoid thrillers from the 1970s – I just really enjoyed every bit of it and was glued to the TV throughout (no mean feat). It sports an excellent Ennio Morricone score, the very one I’m listening to now, which is on the Tube of You. And that was pretty much it – a nice ME day all around.
Today, I’ll be up by ten or thereabouts, I’ll do whatever needs doing, and then I’ll buckle down, Winsocki and get the commentary done so I don’t have to think about that anymore, I’ll send out the eBlast about the holiday show, hopefully I’ll hear from a set designer or two and perhaps a lighting designer or two, I’ll check with the mail place, I’m thinking I’ll do another salad from Gelson’s, this time with a little protein of some sort, then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same, some meetings and meals, the Richard Sherman concert thing, and doing whatever needs doing, which will be a LOT.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten or thereabouts, do whatever needs doing, get the commentary done, send an eBlast, hopefully hear from set and lighting designers, check with the mail place, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Who are some of your favorite French actors and which films of theirs do you like best? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have seen two fine French films from France.