I did spelling bees when I was a kid. I washed out when I was ten, when that it became for me a psychological game rather than a cognitive one. I was familiar with the late-round words from previous competitions, and it was clear to me that these weren't words that were going to pop up in everyday life. Only an entomologist would have need of "xylophagous," a word from my preparation guide.

So it didn't surprise me that I had never encountered "pococurante," this year's winning word. And then today I came across this passage in Sodom and Gomorrah (pp. 371-372):

...Brichot said to me, anxious to show off his talents before a newcomer, "you will find that there is no place where one feels more the douceur de vivre, to quote one of the inventors of dilettantism, of pococurantism, of all sorts of 'isms' that are in fashion among our little snoblings—I refer to M. le Prince de Talleyrand."

posted: 10:48:34 PM  

Patrice Leconte squeezes another good movie from a French pop star. In 1999 he cast Vanessa Paradis opposite Daniel Auteuil in La fille sur le pont. Now, it's Johnny Hallyday who plays the grizzled gangster to Jean Rochefort's faded schoolteacher in L'homme du train (Man on the Train).

It's a what-if role-reversal story. Manesquier (Rochefort) is resigned to his gray, unlived existence ("I like Schumann. He appeals to my love of failure.") until a chance encounter with Milan (Hallyday) stirs dormant feelings in him. Soon enough, he's secretly trying on Milan's leather jacket and asking Milan to teach him how to shoot a pistol.

There is a truly touching moment between the two as they spend their final evening chatting on the terrace of Manesquier's home before meeting their respective fates.

I like Leconte's subtle use of sound to reveal what's going on inside a character's mind. In the final moments of the film, as Manesquier rides out of town on the train, we hear wild-west horses, very softly. Their sounds take him to a place that he and Milan have only visited in their fantasies.

posted: 10:27:12 PM  

The adjudicators were very positive and upbeat in their critique of our performance of Bile in the Afterlife. With an unpublished script, of course they can't resist giving notes on the writing. They liked the pike-over and "We're keeping the vacuum, right?" They liked less what they identified as an inconsistent acting style. They wanted the playing to be bigger, almost melodramatic, and I agree with them.

They had no notes for me, which is a big win. If I'm doing my job, nobody knows I'm there.

posted: 9:58:53 PM  

Red Hook ESB now comes in longnecks, and the label has been resigned a bit. Plus ça change, it's the same déja vu to me all over again.

posted: 9:51:37 PM