This is just a quick update because it's late and I should be getting to bed soon.
Although I'm not really much of one to go out and spend $10 on a movie in the theaters often -- that's what boyfriends are/were for, right?! haha kidding -- it has been quite a while since I've seen any new American movies.
French movies... I don't think I really need to say anything at all here other than they're, um, different.
Anyways, after weeks of seeing the same thing over and over again on BBC and CNN, today was the day my dad decided to go out and purchase a 29 euro DVD player and get a membership to a local movie rental place here in France. And the best part is that they still rent out tons of VIDEO CASSETTES in the back of the store, excellent.
Long story short, I remember hearing about the movie "Hollywoodland" last year in the U.S. and I thought about putting it on our Netflix queue (and no, we can't get American DVDs over here because Europe DVDs and players are on Zone 2, while the U.S. is all Zone 1, or vise versa, I can never remember). We actually rented and watched it tonight. I guess this means that my next step in the whole "film abroad" saga is to actually see a movie in the theaters -- obviously it'd be an American film, because nine out of 10 films here come from the motherland. Dubbed or subtitled, that is the question?
So, we christened my dad's DVD player with Hollywoodland -- a movie loosely based on the investigation of George Reeves' "suicide" in 1959. And oh yeah, he was the first actor who played Superman on television.
Today's entry then, is nothing more than me thinking about this movie out loud. Ok, technically this isn't "out loud" but I'm just working all the weird thoughts out in my head. I'm not writing this because he sometimes reads my blog, but it's funny to me because that movie seemed like the perfect intersection of the two classes I took with Professor Newfield at UCSB: Global California and Detective Fiction. (See, my English degree is getting me somewhere..... right??)
What's more California than Hollywood in all its glitz and glamor during its Golden Age? Maybe the actors themselves, attending what must have been a dizzying amount of cocktail party after cocktail party? But what about taking it a step further and peeking into their real lives, when their luck is so hard-pressed that they're driven to allegedly commit suicide, you know like one of those "Behind the Glory" segments? And then throw in the investigation of a down on his luck, tragically noir "Private Eye" who always seems to stumble across the wrong people at the wrong time....
Honestly though, I'll have to see the movie again. It seems that the director took a lot of creative liberties in working out the details of Reeves' life, love affairs and acting credits just before his death. And while there are many many holes and conspiracy theories surrounding his suicide, the movie itself ends in the very same untimely way that Reeves did: Incomplete and leaving the viewer with loose ends. But like I said, I think I'll have to see it again now that I know that time is not treated in a linear manner and after doing a little bit of research on the actual (known) details of Reeves' life and death. Funny how Reeves happened to be the name of two men who starred as the Man of Steel, is it not?
Either way, it's a very interesting movie that deserves watching. If nothing else, it helped feed my curiosity and fascination with 1950s culture, especially in Southern California.
I really do think I should have been a part of that decade. I just finished reading Eva Rice's The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, a British novel about growing up wealthy and as a part of the newly-developing concept of the teenager during the start of the Rock'n'Roll period. Total swoon. I loved it.
And another random side note, my kitchen will be pink some day. Today at Carrefour, I purchased a bubble gum butter dish to go with my pink polka dot glasses, tea cups, saucers and the pink KitchenAid mixer/blender I will one day own. Good luck finding a husband, right?
Although I'm not really much of one to go out and spend $10 on a movie in the theaters often -- that's what boyfriends are/were for, right?! haha kidding -- it has been quite a while since I've seen any new American movies.
French movies... I don't think I really need to say anything at all here other than they're, um, different.
Anyways, after weeks of seeing the same thing over and over again on BBC and CNN, today was the day my dad decided to go out and purchase a 29 euro DVD player and get a membership to a local movie rental place here in France. And the best part is that they still rent out tons of VIDEO CASSETTES in the back of the store, excellent.
Long story short, I remember hearing about the movie "Hollywoodland" last year in the U.S. and I thought about putting it on our Netflix queue (and no, we can't get American DVDs over here because Europe DVDs and players are on Zone 2, while the U.S. is all Zone 1, or vise versa, I can never remember). We actually rented and watched it tonight. I guess this means that my next step in the whole "film abroad" saga is to actually see a movie in the theaters -- obviously it'd be an American film, because nine out of 10 films here come from the motherland. Dubbed or subtitled, that is the question?
So, we christened my dad's DVD player with Hollywoodland -- a movie loosely based on the investigation of George Reeves' "suicide" in 1959. And oh yeah, he was the first actor who played Superman on television.
Today's entry then, is nothing more than me thinking about this movie out loud. Ok, technically this isn't "out loud" but I'm just working all the weird thoughts out in my head. I'm not writing this because he sometimes reads my blog, but it's funny to me because that movie seemed like the perfect intersection of the two classes I took with Professor Newfield at UCSB: Global California and Detective Fiction. (See, my English degree is getting me somewhere..... right??)
What's more California than Hollywood in all its glitz and glamor during its Golden Age? Maybe the actors themselves, attending what must have been a dizzying amount of cocktail party after cocktail party? But what about taking it a step further and peeking into their real lives, when their luck is so hard-pressed that they're driven to allegedly commit suicide, you know like one of those "Behind the Glory" segments? And then throw in the investigation of a down on his luck, tragically noir "Private Eye" who always seems to stumble across the wrong people at the wrong time....
Honestly though, I'll have to see the movie again. It seems that the director took a lot of creative liberties in working out the details of Reeves' life, love affairs and acting credits just before his death. And while there are many many holes and conspiracy theories surrounding his suicide, the movie itself ends in the very same untimely way that Reeves did: Incomplete and leaving the viewer with loose ends. But like I said, I think I'll have to see it again now that I know that time is not treated in a linear manner and after doing a little bit of research on the actual (known) details of Reeves' life and death. Funny how Reeves happened to be the name of two men who starred as the Man of Steel, is it not?
Either way, it's a very interesting movie that deserves watching. If nothing else, it helped feed my curiosity and fascination with 1950s culture, especially in Southern California.
I really do think I should have been a part of that decade. I just finished reading Eva Rice's The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, a British novel about growing up wealthy and as a part of the newly-developing concept of the teenager during the start of the Rock'n'Roll period. Total swoon. I loved it.
And another random side note, my kitchen will be pink some day. Today at Carrefour, I purchased a bubble gum butter dish to go with my pink polka dot glasses, tea cups, saucers and the pink KitchenAid mixer/blender I will one day own. Good luck finding a husband, right?
1 comment:
The mixer is always going to give you sweet things...a husband well that's like a 50/50 chance kinda thing. lol
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