ARSENIC AND OLD LACE

Thomas hired Arsenic and Old Lace at the weekend. I had heard of it of course, but never seen it. Late Saturday afternoon everything was a bit manic - big kids squabbling, DIY hell, little kids sick, so he suggested we all stop for a coffee break and watch it as a breath of fresh air.
It was interesting at first to see quite how slow moving films were back in the 40s. It's been many years since I have watched an old movie. You could almost watch it while doing other things as it didn't take much concentration. In fact both Marcel and Charlotte did. Charlotte followed the whole thing while playing with Pudge, Marcel from behind a laptop exploring Amazon's new MP3 site.
As it went on though it became quite deranged. That stupid man constantly charging up the stairs making a noise with his bugle did my head in for starters. Cary Grant forgetting constantly about the new wife and the taxi, stressing about having the medical papers signed to commit his brother to some asylum was mildly annoying. The criminal brother turning up and all the mad running around began to make me twitch. The last manic half hour was on a par with an hour in the asylum that is my house and far from feeling relaxed after it I felt like I could use a second coffee break or even a gin to calm my nerves!
I think Thomas, Marcel and Lots enjoyed it though so 3 out of 4 isn't bad.

MAMMA MIA!

Two years ago I had wanted to go and see Mamma mia on Broadway when I was in New York, but somehow with only five days I ran out of time, and because I was alone there with Léon, it would have meant taking him or finding a professional sitter. Since then it's been on my to-do list next time I am in New York or London. Recently I heard the movie had come out. :-) While I was on holiday I got an email from my parents raving about it. Now, my mum and her friend Joyce often go to the cinema but I can't remember a single time in my childhood when dad went to the cinema, except when we were on holiday and rainy weather forced us into one. More surprisingly he was suggesting that if I wanted to go and see it when I came back, they'd come and see it again! That good? Wow. They suggested I left the kids home with Thomas and went to the cinema. I don't think so! Firstly, for anyone who knows us - this whole new chapter in my life started when Thomas asked me to dance to an ABBA song (Dancing Queen) nearly four years ago at a work's night out, so ABBA isn't something he was being left at home for! Secondly, I am not willing to have another relationship where we can't share in each other's interests. If he goes to ABBA, I promise to watch Star Trek when it's on! ;-) I went on to the cinema websites for last night because André was having the 3 big kids for dinner. It is infinitely easier and cheaper to go to the cinema just with the baby than with 4 kids. Glancing down the show times I noticed they were showing the 'Sing-along' version at 8 O'clock! I figured that was unmissable but was I pushing my luck? I suggested it to Thomas - Does he love me enough to be dragged along to an ABBA sing-along? He didn't look horrified, he didn't claim to be washing his hair that night - I truly have found the perfect husband - Barbra Streisand in London last year, an ABBA sing-along this year! I suggested it to my parents. Dad was scared and offered to babysit Anna instead. I decided he was coming anyway, tough! So we went for a quick curry and then turned up at the Quay cinema. It wasn't sold-out, phew! I was a bit apprehensive about someone else singing the beloved ABBA songs of my adolescence but I needn't have been. It was such a happy, feel good movie that didn't come into it. The setting was beautiful - sunny Greece. I haven't been to Greece since I was a thin long-haired 20 something like the girl in the movie - I suddenly felt 20 years younger! I love Meryl Streep so the fact that she was completely the wrong age for the character she was playing (If Sophie is 20 and Meryl is nearly 60, this crazy week of hippy passion that resulted in her being pregnant and being told not to return home to the US by her mother happened when she was 40ish, I don't think so!) just added to the happy cheese factor! And Pierce Brosnan's singing was so bad the cheese was further enhanced! Julie Walters was a scream as always especially as she tried to chat up Bill. It was lovely to catch glimpses of Abba's Benny and Björn both looking very pleased with themselves in cameo roles. I loved the way songs took on new meanings in different contexts. Songs that had always seemed to indicate the sad end of relationships such as When all is said and done, Winner takes it all, Our last summer changed in the movie. By changing the sex of the singer, songs became amusing too - Does your mother know? of course. And sitting in the cinema watching this was bizarre. The audience interacts as if it is a stage play with actors present - cheering at bits, clapping, shouting for encores - which actually come! And of course singing along with the words on the screen - wonderful. At the end of almost every movie the audience rushes out during the credits to avoid the carpark rush but of course this time everyone sat to the very last note of Thank you for the music. Suddenly I was transported back 31 years when I sat watching ABBA the Movie with my mum in the old cinema in the Gorbals - it too, like all ABBA things ends up with Thank you for the music. The perfect end to a perfect movie. I can't wait till the DVD comes out - this, like Grease, is something we'll all be watching for 20 years to come. A real feel good movie!

GOODBYE LENIN

A few months ago Thomas showed me this sweet movie. Isn't it so refreshing to come across something that isn't American!? I must show it to my kids some time once they are past the we can't be bothered with subtitles stage. Marcel would cope already but Lots would definitely find subtitles off-putting. It will be interesting to watch their reaction given the events of '89 feel like very irrelevant ancient history to them, when they feel like yesterday to me - especially given I was living in Germany in '89.

MONSTER MOVIE UPDATE

Apparently Chicken Run is also a movie for the under 5s, so Marcel and Charlotte tell me ;-) I think I'll show them The Great Escape next week and see how they class that...
Hmm, time to read them Animal Farm as a bedtime story?

MONSTERS INC

Mike - Monster Inc.
Originally uploaded by ClausM

I was watching Monsters Inc the other day with Léon. Léon loves it because there are good monsters and bad monsters and it is sweet and colourful. There is no way in a million years he can grasp the finer points of the plot because the whole idea of monsters stepping from their world into ours through cupboard doors that they call up in a factory is just too complex for little kids. I remember that even the last time Marcel and Charlotte saw the movie - when they were maybe 7 and 5, they also didn't get the whole door thing. I asked them one night after watching it, what it was about and they told me the basic goodies and badies, but didn't get the doors, the energy crisis or the human kids. So while watching it with Léon, I wondered in fact how old a kid needs to be to understand the plot. When they came in from school I asked if they'd watch it with me, just to test my theory, that even now at 10 and 8, they might not get what is actually happening. Amusingly, they both looked down their noses at me and refused point blank to watch 'that baby movie'. Funny - I guess I'll need to wait till they are adults for them to believe me that it is actually quite cleverly an adult movie and not really a kiddie movie. It'll be fun to watch them grow up enough to have that dawn on them.

L'AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE

Thomas and I watched a sweet movie a couple of months ago called l'Auberge espagnole. I think the reason we both enjoyed it so much was it took us back to our student days dropping us into the type of flat and lifestyle we had both known so well during our numerous stays abroad. I would recommend it to anyone in a nostalgic-for-your-uni-days mood - though it is probably most relevant to language students in this country as few others spend months at foreign unis. Last night we saw the sequel - Les Poupées russes - another sweet movie.

THE GRADUATE

Tonight I was flicking through the channels when to my delight I found The Graduate. This has to be one of my favourite films. I haven't seen it in twenty years and yet I remember whole chunks verbatim. I have just cringed and giggled my way through the scene where Ben announces to his parents that he is going to marry Elaine.
Strangely though, the last time I watched this film I was 20 so equated myself with the character Ben, and thought of Mrs Robinson as being like my parents' friends. I just checked wikipedia and found out Anne Bancroft was 36 when she made this movie - 4 years younger than me, and yet I still think of myself more as Ben's age group than Mrs Robinson's - weird. When I look at Anne Bancroft I see someone a whole generation older than myself. Is that because she was my age a generation ago, or am I still in denial, or something?

SHIRLEY VALENTINE

I've just re-re-re-watched Shirley Valentine. I guess I first saw it when it came out in 1989, and then thought of it as relating more to my parents' generation than my own. I re-watched it about 18 months ago, and was surprised to hear her say she was only 42. That made it so close to being me, I could almost touch it. It really is one of those deeply thought-provoking pieces. It always strikes me as amazing that it could have been written by a man, especially 20 years ago. I can think of so many friends I'd love to sit in front of it and make them watch. Isn't life funny?

MARCEL'S BIRTHDAY

Ten years already - God childhood sure passes a lot quicker from the parents' perspective than the kids' :-(
I got to take them all for lasagne in a proper Italian restaurant for lunch, where all 3 behaved like angels (miracles do happen) followed by an afternoon of little yellow people on the big screen. As the Simpsons is usually on at 6pm, I am often faffing in the kitchen or around the dining table then, rather than watching so I am not overly familiar with many beyond the main five. (Does anyone know why they are yellow? I am afraid to ask the kids in case they laugh!)
Marcel and Charlotte thoroughly enjoyed this 90 minute episode of their favourite family and in particular the few minutes where Bart is dared to skateboard naked through town. We even got to see some real naked little boy bits - how very unAmerican! ;-)

GEY HAIRY-ARSED TEENAGERS!

I was having a mid-life crisis the other week so decided to go on a trip down memory lane by watching one of my favourite movies: Grease! It brought back wonderful memories of singing, dancing and drinking all night with my uni friends as a 20 year old! I must dig out the Rocky Horror Picture Show too some time!
I remember when I first saw Grease in 1978 (when I was 10) thinking how old the actors looked for supposedly being schoolkids - but when you are 10, an 18 year old does seem like an adult. At 20 I still thought they looked pretty old compared to myself but I did look young for my age and google wasn't around in those days to check. I even remember my old Gramps shuffling through the livingroom one day as I watched the video, muttering in his own inimitable fashion: 'they're gey hairy-arsed teenagers, thaem!' However, I was surprised last week when I watched it again to still find the actors looked ages with me, given I am now pushing 40! It wasn't so much John Travolta who was narrow and therefore youngish but the women, come on! So onto google I went. Olivia was 30, playing a teenager and Stockard Channing was an astounding 34 playing an 18 year old! Who the hell cast this movie? (John was 24 btw, if you are interested). Maybe if they are doing a remake in the near future, I could audition for Olivia's role - I mean I do know all the words of the songs and at 38, I am definitely in the right age-bracket for playing an 18 year old ;-)