une femme est une femme

I did nothing today except sleep in (glorious), make Swedish pancakes (using whole wheat flour because we ran out of the normal stuff...not so fantastic), and finish watching the Jean-Luc Godard film, Une Femme Est Une Femme (1961) starring the adorable Anna Karina, who I think is my new style muse of the day. I dyed my hair auburn recently and after seeing this movie.....

I am suddenly in the mood to get bangs....

....have blue eyeshadow on at every moment....

...and wear lots of colored tights and berets and bows and adorable matching bras and slips.

Something about the coming on of spring seems to put me in a nostalgic French mood. Maybe it's because the two times I was in France were in Summer. Anyway, I am not a film student, but I do watch a Lot of the things. This one is the second or third Godard I've seen, and I have to say I like them. They're so theatrical and playful. So much of American cinema is about convincing us that what we're seeing is REAL, even when it's ridiculous. I like all of that...

winking at the camera

and "THIS IS A MOVIE" stuff that goes on in old, artsy films, and even in old Woody Allen movies.

I think it's refreshing and fun and we don't see a lot of it in American movies. The use of music in Une Femme Est Une Femme reminded me a little of the use of music in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind(2004) directed by another Frenchman, Michel Gondry. Both films use dramatic music underneath the dialogue, but tend to take it away during the pauses in between. Also, the music seems much larger than life, as though a bank is being robbed and a man has been shot, when all that is happening is a simple domestic argument. Both films revolve around couples struggling to work together, and now that I think of it, it's funny because the big conflict in Une Femme is that the woman, Angela wants a baby, but her boyfriend, Emile doesn't. This conflict even comes up in one scene from Eternal Sunshine.

I love their strange bedtime ritual of dragging the lamp around the room to see which books they want.

Here's a nice little video about the movie, too.

Je reviens

I have returned from Paris. I spent one lovely week there with one of my favorite people in the whole world and his grandmere. Mon ami and I had a very nice time reconnecting, and came up with a lot of inside jokes. I forget what it's like to have inside joke-friends. I guess I don't have very many at the moment, or at least not many I see regularly. Not that non-inside joke-friends are disposable and worthless, au contraire: all friends are good friends. That's why we call them "friends." I will cease this meaningless dribble...maintenant.

I did some naughty things in terms of spending which I shall reveal a little later. I'm a little ashamed of myself, to be honest...but I NEEDED to buy some nice things in Paris. If I came home with a Paris t-shirt and a pen and no more, I would have felt so sad. You see, when I visited France at fifteen, I had no idea about my own personal style. I thought I did, but you see, I thought terribly wrong. This was my opportunity to shop in Paris, and do it RIGHT.

My last day was highly entertaining. Drew and Grandma Patti went off to London and I was left alone at Drew's lovely friend, Claire's apartment (she was off to London for the weekend as well). I absolutely could Not just sit around all day, so I left, with FAR greater courage than I should have had. 'I am a city-dweller! I can handle this!' I thought innocently. I walked outside and saw the Eiffel Tower so I was on my merry way. Clearly, I got lost and a lot of highly comical things happened to me. Maybe I am conceited sometimes, but I really do believe that my life is sometimes comedy gold. Or maybe I'm just not used to such a wide variety of Parisian/foreign men and their ways.

I feel like I have many more posts in me than have actually been posted of late but at the moment, am too lazy to craft anything together. Here are some photos. FIN.

Why I like France.

A lot of people have preconceived notions about France and its people.  In the states, we hear rumors of the French being snobby and rude and so on and so on.  Whatever.  I believe there are cultural differences everywhere, even within the same state and the same country.  I've only been to France once, and I had not one single bad experience (unless you count being a little annoyed by one or two of the girls on the trip with my French class now and then...).  I tried to speak French at all times when dealing with a French person and absolutely no one was the least bit impolite.

The food was fabulous.  I've come to realize that a nation's food has a great impact on me.  One of the things I miss the most about Australia is the food.  And in France, the sandwiches at the GAS STATION were unbelievably delicious.  How often have you Ever wanted to eat anything from a gas station in the US??

Obesity is increasing everywhere, they say, but I'm sure the problem can't be so bad in places like Europe where they aren't Quite as obsessed with buying people's souls with the use of advertising, sugar, pseudo-sugar, high fructose corn syrup, monoglycerides, partially hydrogenated oils, preservatives, etc, etc, etc... (as you can see, this is a pet peeve of mine).  

People tend to (at least from what I can see) have a bit more style.  Dressing is fun over there. People seem to relish it more.  Here (pardon me if I begin to sound the snob, myself, maybe I am one, please forgive me) wearing clothes seems to be a trial and a chore.  There seems to be less personality in it, less general enjoyment.

The language is beautiful, and there seems to be (perhaps this is a very silly, naïve opinion...but I am good at those) an attitude of "what the hell, you only live once."  I feel like there is still an echo or Puritanism around every corner here, and though I am Not a Puritan (haha) it affects how I see myself.  

Movies.  Jeunet's Amélie and A Very Long Engagement.  Faurez's La Vie en Rose and Ozon's 8 Women.

I've seen other French films but I think those are the Current favorites.  I recently re-watched 8 Women and it is just as crazy as I remembered.  The colors are Gorgeous, and the sets and costumes mingle so perfectly. Mmmm.  It's a delight to the eyes.  Here is Fanny Ardant being fabulous.  I want her costume.  And to look that amazing at fifty.