Last night we went through the painful process of selecting which films we didn’t want to see at the Cinema in Les Halles. This is very often the case as our tastes (which have always been slightly different) seem to be almost the complete opposite of each other. My other half reviewed ‘500 Days In Summer’ yet again and I quietly grimaced at the prospect of a ‘Chick-flick’ with the added pain of Zooey Deschamel (and yes, that is the correct spelling). Of course, Zooey is one of the worst up and coming talent(lessness)s of her generation – playing the same card-board ‘secretly wise’ early twenty-something lower middle-class know-it-all as she played in ‘Tin Man’ (Wizard of Oz for the new Millennium (utter crap)). And again, he reviewed ‘Les Demineurs’ (The Hurt Locker), scrolling through 8 fantastic reviews until he came to the ninth, where the last line apparently said ‘it was a bit too long.’ Voila! Damn good reason for not seeing my choice – despite the fact that I was kinda a ‘Demineur Marine’ in a past life...
So, to the choice of DVDs... First of all ,’The Kite Runner’ which I have seen and was superb, but not really Sunday Night viewing for someone who likes ‘Chick-flicks.’ Next one, ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ with the ear-splittingly painful little 7 year old ‘princess’(bitch) who I have managed to avoid since it got ‘charming’ reviews and Oscar nominations on the year of its release (one day no-doubt I will watch this at low volume and enjoy it – as fields of Nephilim infest the Earth and wipe out life). Next one, ‘Alpha Dog.’ Again, I have seen this probably twice. It has an exceptional young cast, bad language, seens of violence and ‘some scenes of nudity and sex.’ Perfect... So we instead watched a French classic about a group of successful Parisian men who weekly invite specially chosen ‘idiots’ (or bores) to dinner so they can secretly piss themselves laughing, and do you know what – it has joined other classic French movies such as ,‘Coquiilages et Crustaceans’ ‘ Les Bronzes font du Ski’ ‘Presque Rien’ and ‘Bienvenue de Ch’ti’ on my list of great, great movies. I laughed out loud, repeatedly (no mean feat for me). A great cast of highly talented famous French actors and actresses (no not Depardieu and yes, they still have ‘actresses’ in France unlike Hollywood where they are all ‘actors’ for some reason) – a tremendous script taken from a stage play, and some wonderful, perfect comic timing... (pause for dramatic effect). So, all in all, what was spiralling into a possibly painful sulky evening turned out rather well. It didn’t create much in the way of passionate embraces – but then that is another problem entirely.
This morning I caught a glimpse of a British ‘News’ paper with a short headline saying, ’Families to pay nuclear tax on energy.’ I wonder if this is another ‘stealth tax’? What’s certain is that the excessive cost of energy we are paying has nought to do with the price of Oil or Gas anymore. Instead, it is to do with the rich and the greedy having creamed off so much profit from us for the last 20 years that the companies have invested nothing into replacing old gas-pipes, electric cabling, sub-stations, replacement power-plants or alternative energy sources – hence we are all crippled with stupendous bills while Mr & Mrs EDF Share-holder go to the country club in the Bentley’s and Maybach’s. And what does the British consumer do about this? Like the French, do they refuse to pay for their energy en masse and take to the streets to protest, or do they shrug their shoulders and say,’it’s terrible isn’t it... crack open little Jooeys piggy-bank for 50p for the meter will you? I need to get the TV on for Big-Brother.’
I think there may be a few-million candidates in Britain, for 'Diner dans cons' in Paris...
