The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) was excellent... which is to say, it had a well written script and great acting, was beautifully filmed, and, rather importantly, did not have any annoying characters in it. Apparently it won the 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. One of the main characters was played by Sebastian Koch, a German actor whose face reminded me of Orion, but who, I am certain, is actually much more handsome than Orion... though, with an always flawed memory, I can't seem to convince myself of that enough. And... after wandering a while with the thought of Orion/Sebastian Koch knocking about inside my head... I was alarmed by my inability to remember what went wrong... it had something to do with organized criminals, history of the near east, and something about the importance of adhering to grammatical and orthographical conventions... but in my review, I could almost believe that things could have gone differently. Of course, things could have gone differently... but eventually, one day, I'd mention something about the Palestinian plight and things would all fall apart anyway. My susceptibility to this sort of re-examination that I fear too closely approaches regret leads to an urgent questioning of my judgement, which is obviously ridiculously easy to impair with a pretty face... or an abundance of improbably tousled curly hair.

"We all have our weaknesses," quoth he. Yes. But let's move on already.

Next film... Angel-A. Black and white... filmed in Paris... pretty to look at. Dumb story. Annoying characters. But... pretty to look at. Any movie that has (as an important development in the story) its main character looking into a mirror and saying "I love you" is not the sort of movie I'd like to see. So dude hates himself. Well, guess what buddy, there's no reason he shouldn't. And any movie that has dude saying "I love you" to himself in the mirror and then shedding a tear is definitely not the sort of movie I'd like to see. But... it was pretty to look at. Very pretty to look at. Pretty enough to make it worth watching... and Rie Rasmussen was very pretty to look at.

Next film... Priceless (Hors de prix). Ridiculously annoying main character. Loser as main character. In fact, the main character was such a loser that it makes it somewhat painful to watch... there were certain points in the movie where I was considering turning it off. Had it been in English, I'm sure I would have stopped watching... but seeing as it was in French, and I could really use all the French I can get, I kept going... which was a good choice... because after a turn in the plot, it actually became quite tolerable... it turned into watchable and entertaining fluff... and it, too, was very pretty to watch... the Côte d'Azur is very pretty.

And now... time for a few updates.

The bungee jumping videos are too big to put on here. I can't figure out how to make it smaller. I can't figure out how to upload it onto Youtube. Don't tell me I ought to be able to. I have technologically regressed. I was at the top of my game when I dialed up on my 33.6. The last time I had any idea what was going on with my computer, it was probably a 486SX33. I can't figure it out.

Sylvia turned 30. She came out on the weekend and we flew up to the hot spring. It was awesome. After 15 minutes, the two boats and their passengers left, and we had the whole place to ourselves. We got some pictures and videos of our private hot spring... Sylvia is probably waiting for me to send them to her. From now on, if we're going to the hot springs, we're flying. Flying is awesome.

Suzie came out for a visit... and it was raining the entire time. She too, is probably waiting for me to send her some pictures. It was a fun visit... sort of a flashback to a life I have abandoned.

If anyone else is waiting for me to send pictures... I'm on it. You know. One day. Eventually.