Monday, November 01, 2004

eternal sunshine?

The miserable weather continues here, with no sign in sight of a respite; chloe and I both have colds/flus, which is all the more disappointing because we had plans to climb at Ombléze today (and saturday). Its even more depressing because today is a national holiday. Instead of sightseeing or climbing, we've been sitting around, watching frontline, reading about Republican vote suppression and other sad things. Happily, i've found that the precise "clack" of the 19th century iron latch on our armoire has a pacifying effect on me. Outside, a weak drizzle frosts you when you try to walk anywhere, but we made a dash for the movie theatre. "Le Club" was showing "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" in VO (version(e?) originale). It's a cute love story, but I came away vaguely dissatisfied but I'm still not sure why. The weirdest part of the moviegoing experience were the ads (les pubs) at the beginning of the film. There were the usual bizarre french ads with lots of CGI and no apparent connection between the content and what was being sold (is there a law against too explicit a link between an ad and what its selling? I'm being serious here!), but there was one exceptionally strange one. Paris: a young couple are ordering dinner in an intimate small restaurant, while an older woman (next to her disinterested husband) watches. The young man begins speaking, but he's speaking in English with a very strong French accent. He tells her what hes going to order for her, and then says "And then? The eiffel tower. And then? the fly-boat". Meanwhile, there are french subtitles rolling. And, as if it wasn't strange enough that the young French couple were speaking english to eachother in strong french accents in a french restaurant with french subtitles, the old woman elbows her husband and says "No Eiffel tower or Flyboat for me, eh?". But she says it in French, with ... French subtitles.

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