Books/movies

May 26, 2003

Emperor's New Clothes, Knockaround Boys, Winged Migration, Catch Me If You Can
posted by Heather at 01:01 PM |

For over a year, I’ve been thinking of keeping a log regarding the books I’ve read. I thought I’d try keeping it here, along with some movie reviews. So, here’s the first set - all movies!

“Emperor’s New Clothes”: Saw this a few weeks ago. Napolean is exiled to St Helena (I think? it’s the second time, anyway). He and his advisers execute a plan in which a double takes Napoleon’s place and Napolean escapes to reclaim France. The double is proclaim himself a fake and Napolean can ascend to the throne.

The twist of the plot (which is on the movie box, so I’m not giving anything away) is that the double decides this is a good life and refuses to proclaim himself a fake.

This is a great, gentle movie with a moralistic ending. Also, the cinematography is great. Sarah watched it with us and actually got a lot of it, knowing nothing about Napoleon.

“Knockaround Boys”: Kids of mafiosi try to recover the glory of their fathers and end up in Montana. One of Vin Diesel’s earliest. Don’t see it.

“Catch Me If You Can”: Much better known, but I only just saw it. Really enjoyed it (Sarah saw a lot of this one, too, and got most of it). What we missed after we returned the DVD is that there is an interview with the real Frank Abegnale on the 2nd disk that Roger Ebert says is fascinating.

“Winged Migration”: Ah, one of the beauties of living in a movie town - we get all the art films! This is a pretty amazing film about bird migration in which they use ultralights, hot-air balloons and other things to get close to the birds as they migrate. The cinematography is stunning - they get so close to the birds that you can marvel at the biomechanics. And yes, I made it through the whole 90 minutes even though it was birds. Sarah saw and enjoyed it, but it was a bit long for her.

Let me know what you’ve seen lately - I’ll add some books later today or tomorrow, so I’ll be anxious to see those, too!

post a comment | 0 comment(s)