Les arts spectacle! La danse! Le film! Il faut qu'étudier! These were the words and phrases that were thematic during this latest period in my Parisian existence.
I've seen much more arts this past week. Friday of last week, our french class went to see a film called "Les Petits Mouchoirs" or "the little tissues" in english. It was about a group of friends that live in paris. One of them gets in a horrible motor accident: he was riding his moped back home after a night of partying and then gets PLOWED by a truck. He manages to survive. His friends are all distraught, but they have a tradition of going to the beach each year for a week or two, and they decide to go ahead and go. The film after that is a series of little scenes and dramas that happen over that vacation. All of these people are upper class and a bit ego centric and it's sort of a critique of their selfish behavior, but in the end they all learn something about themselves. I won't spoil the ending or anything like that but it was the first movie I had seen in a while(like an idiot, I forgot ALL of my DVDs when I came here)and it was a really good experience for me.
The next Wednesday( this past Wednesday, if i'm not mistaken) SLC organized another meeting with french students. We met in this very nice café in the 5th arrondisement and had drinks. These were girls from a school that I think bridges between high school and college, but all of the girls there were 18 or 19. I think there was supposed to be a sort of official discussion, but you know how those "planned" things go. After that we all left to go find some dinner, which was falafel plates at a nearby Lebanese restaurant ...
wells goes off on a tangent for two seconds
it's interesting to see the places that are popular here, that aren't anywhere near as popular back home, or even just in NYC and also how different cuisines are treated here. First of all, you cannot go one two or three blocks without finding a Greek sandwich/kebab place. There are often times two on three in any given block. Second thing is Chinese food here is generally not good. there is a large refrigerated display case with all of the food in it, and then behind the people working there there is a bank of about 4 microwaves. You're basically eating leftovers all of the time. It's not like they're trying to hide it either, it just doesn't occur to them to prepare it any other way, nor to the French people to have it changed either.
back to my story...
and we sat down and enjoyed our falafel and talked about things. they asked me questions abotu american politics and they told me about the new Justin Beiber movie that's coming out and then they had to stop me from killing myself because the idea that Justin Beiber is making a movie about himself sickens me to my soul....sorry, where was I? It was a very nice evening and I got to meet a very nice group of native French speakers
After a couple of days of studying and reading like a madman, Saturday came! I woke up and practiced and then went and had MORE FALAFEL, but this time it was in the Marais again so it was 10x better than that falafel from Wednesday. I met the girl i'm dating, Anna, at Hôtel de Ville, and then we walked over to get the falafel. It was just as good as I remembered when I got it with Alex :) Anna and I walked around the marais in the rain eating our falafel and it was very nice. But then I had to go. I had tickets to see a Merce Cunningham dance show!
For those of you who don't know Merce Cunningham (I include myself in this category, by the way) He was an incredibly influential modern dance choreographer during, I think, the 70s and 80s. He worked with John Cage a great deal and the piece we saw that day, Roaratorio (1983), was scored by John Cage. Well, I say scored loosely. It was more of an electronic music piece using various types of sound clips. really interesting and unnerving sometimes. Movement was very, very intriguing. Cunningham,s use of the space was fantastic. he used a lot of angular athletic movements and it was all very controlled. It wasn't like a lot of dance pieces where it looks like they're moving like water, it was very tense. The control that the dancers were using over their bodies and the way they kept track of the form of the piece was incredible. There was no "music" in the regular sense of the word, meaning no beat, no count (that I know of) meaning that they had to have it all internalized and they had to now what parts were coming when. It was really interesting and I left the theatre with my mind full of questions which, I believe, the sign of good art(unless the question is "who the hell thought this was a good idea haha)
Sunday night, Anna and I went to go see another French movie called "Potiche" Which directly translates to "Decorative Vase" in English. I'm sure the title people back aux États-Unis will think of something a little more catchy. This movie was another comedy, about a woman in the 70s who is a typical housewife. She is the daughter of a rich umbrella manufacturer, but her husband runs the company now, because you know, he's the man. Her husband is basically a scumbag. He berates his wife all day and then has affairs with his secretary. One day, however, there is a grève or strike at the factory and her husband goes apoplectic with rage and gets a heart attack. He does not die, but he is put out of commission for awhile. So, the company is legally transferred over to the heroine's name and she starts making some changes. she hires both of her children and they make changes through out the company and it's a huge success. Even the secretary, with whom the husband had cheated with, was now in awe of this woman and became a devout follower. Again, not to give away too much, this movie is about how this woman becomes herself and does not allow herself to become a Potiche.(haha that's why the title makes sense :-P)
As always I have a lot of work to do and I'm doing the best I can, although I feel a little overwhelmed. Luckily we all have individual meetings with our program director this week so I'll talk to her about it then. perhaps she'll have some ideas about being able to do everything while still having time to go out and experience this great city i'm in. Ah well, C'est la vie des étudiants.
Have a good week everyone!
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