Wednesday Window: Le Poète

A detail of this plaque I found in Ile Saint-Louis in Paris

It commemorates Félix Arvers, a French poet I had never heard of until I looked him up in Wikipedia.

Two Days in Paris

I don’t think I had ever seen Julie Delpy in another movie, nor did I think she was a movie director. Why did I think she was a singer? No idea. I must have mixed her up with someone else!

Anyway, Two Days in Paris started showing in Paris cinemas back in July and like many other movies was only shown in small movie theatres and not many of them. Someone told me about it and I finally went a couple of weeks ago. In a movie theatre where I had never been before, one afternoon, and I was the only viewer in the room. Sometimes I wonder how cinemas manage to make money or even survive in Paris.
I remember that when I was a kid, you could go to the cinema and sit through several shows. That was called ‘cinéma permanent’.
Not any more.

A fun movie about surviving as a couple. How do people manage not to get a divorce or kick their partner out in this day and age; how difficult it can get to live with someone who does not share the same cultural references as yourself. How do you survive when you’re a foreigner and have to put up with not understanding the language, and coping with strange customs. This is part of what 2 Days in Paris is all about.

It seems that Julie Delpy’s whole family appeared in the movie. Her parents in the movie are her real life parents, her ex-boyfriend plays the role of her American companion and even her cat plays in the movie.
Two Days in Paris reminded me of some of Woody Allen’s movies and was a lot of fun. I always enjoy a movie that discusses culture gaps and laughed a lot.

Saturday Photo Hunt : Pink

Pink for October

 

like this pink flower

 

like a hand begging for help

 

like this yummy pastry

 

like my daughter’s scarf

 

It’s this time of year again

Here I was in the dentist’s chair. Everything in the surgery had changed, it was dark and gloomy, and my dentist, a nice young man, was not there. Instead, there was this woman who started looking at my gaping mouth, looked at me and said:

I have to check something out.

Whatever it was that she checked out, a couple of minutes later she said:

There is nothing I can do. You have cancer.

M

y heart sank and I started thinking that I had been there once and if I’d been able to take it once, I could take it a second time. My mind was full of questions, but whatever I asked she kept repeating as a leit-motiv that this was cancer. I asked her what my options were, but she said there were no options, it was cancer. I woke up sweating, with a knot in my stomach. It was 4 o’clock in the morning, and five hours later I had an appointment for a mammography. Turning and tossing in my bed after that nightmare, I kept thinking that it was the first time I had felt that worried about the results of the mammogram. I usually worry more about the uncomfort and pain associated with it than with the results.

S

o I started having a sense of foreboding. You see, I never remember dreams. I probably dream like everyone else, but usually, I sleep like a baby and don’t recall anything. So for the memory of a dream to stick like that, there had to be something true about it.
I turned on the light, got up and drank a glass of water and started thinking that for my next mammography, I would take some tranquillizer before going to bed. And then, it occured to me that it wasn’t too late to do that and took a quarter of a pill before going back to bed.
A few hours later, after the mammography itself had been done, here I was sitting in this closet, waiting for the doctor, who really a charming lady, to perform an echography on both my breasts and give me the results of the mammography. Everything turned out OK. But I will definitely remember, next year when it’s this time of the year to take a tranquillizer before going to bed. No need to spend another night like this.

Wednesday Window: over their shoulder

I feel someone hovering over my shoulder…

I took this photo a week ago or so around the Forum des Halles area. I had spotted that couple with the skater statue, pointed and right when I clicked, this guy walked into my frame. I was… furious. When I tried to take a second shot, my subjects had moved!
At home, I tried a little photoshopping on this person’s head. But perseverance not being my strong point, I gave up.
I do have helpful friends though. Leo Reynolds, a patient and resourceful photoshop user fixed it for me.
Thanks, Leo!