Pynchon

I was always going to be coming back. It was only a matter of time. Thursday evening was just a bit of a freak out moment. You know the kind of thing. Who am I? What am I doing here? Do I want people to know everything about me? What would happen if I were to just stop? Would anybody really give a toss?

I suppose we all have those evenings. I'm back because I think I have something to say. (Ah... Ego. The saviour of many a writer, good and bad. And here I am, calling myself a writer. Oh dear. Sigh.)

Anyway...

On the face of it, the impression I have of this weekend was of endless activity, but I'm hard pressed to put my finger on what took up all of the time. I did intend to post a little more than a couple of lines on Saturday night, but it didn't happen. It wasn't deliberate.

Friday evening.

We watched a couple of episodes of "Alias" season 4 on DVD. (No spoilers from me, but Joel Grey has just made his first appearance. Eh? What the fuck?)

Lorraine went to bed after that (she decided to go to work on Saturday morning, no surprise there) and I watched "Peep Show". Classic. As far from politically correct as it is possible to get. Kind of stomach churning. "What have you got in the bag?" "It's turkey. We had a barbecue." Outrageous. Brilliant. Apparently an American version is in the development. Why bother? Just show the original for heavens sake.

Saturday morning.

I went to see "Mon Meilleur Ami" or "My Best Friend".



(Is it just me or has Daniel Auteuil been in every French film ever made?)

There might be spoilers.

Daniel Auteuil plays François Coste, a successful antiques dealer. He is an unlikeable man, so wrapped up in his work that he has barely any time for personal or romantic relationships. After some strained comments at his birthday dinner, François' business partner Catherine (Julie Gayet) points out that François does not have any friends, a charge he denies vehemently. Catherine then bets François that he could not introduce her to a single person who would call themselves one of his "best friends" within 10 days. With the help of a friendly, trivia obsessed taxi driver Bruno (Dany Boon), François sets out to do just that.

"Mon Meilleur Ami" is a slight film, and I liked it well enough, but the trailer lies. The trailer presents "Mon Meilleur Ami" as a farcical French comedy, but it is hardly that at all. "Mon Meilleur Ami" is really a little bittersweet drama/comedy. In fact, more bittersweet drama than comedy. Low key and thoughtful. It is about what happens when a man, who is absolutely sure of himself and his place in the world, finds that world disintegrating when he starts to study it very closely.

As I said, it is a slight film, but Daniel Auteuil is good and so is Dany Boon. If the ending is corny (and inaccurate - does "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" go out live in France, because it certainly doesn't in the UK?) and obviously formulated to be uplifting, well that's OK. You will be rooting for the right person at the end.

... I was going to write about Saturday evening and the horror of Eurovision, but I have been waylaid. Lorraine asked me to proofread a disciplinary letter she has written to the personnel department, and I have ended up rewriting the whole thing for her. It took time.

Back tomorrow.

Labels: Movies, Television