Laurabelle's Blog

Tonight was a fun evening. I was planning to go to a bluegrass show at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard with my buddy Pete, so he called me a couple of hours before, and we decided he'd come over and eat dinner with me. That was fun (we had tuna casserole, and I melted mozzarella inside and on top, which didn't turn out at all bad), but in the end we chatted too long and would have been late for the show, and I was tired. So we ended up renting a movie (Cyrano de Bergerac) and watching it at his house, since I don't have either a TV or a VCR. We had to massage the TV into actually changing to channel 3, but once we got it there, it was cool.

I've seen this movie before, but this is the first time I've really watched it I think, probably because the other times were in class. (I rarely ever watch movies very attentively when they're for class. I just wait for them to be over.) I paid attention to the words and such, and I found myself really enjoying the characters. Yeah, they're all crazy, and Cyrano takes at least fifteen minutes to die (he even finishes it off with a rhyming couplet), but I even liked the besotted Roxane, who was actually pretty clever when she wasn't busy being a lovesick fool, and Christian, who was stupid but honest enough to know Roxane didn't really love him even though she thought she did, and especially Cyrano, who let Roxane grow into loving him, even though that was mostly out of fear that she would laugh at him. It's a silly story, and they're all silly characters, and it's all quite unbelievable, but I love them all, except de Guiche.

Oh, everyone go watch French movies, especially good ones of 16th-century comedies. Molière is especially smashing. Pete and I have resolved to make this a regular thing. There are so many good French (and German!) and other films to watch. I am taking recommendations...