Back From China, Will Blog Later. In the Meantime, Here are Some Pictures…

(Tiananmen Square.)

(The Great Wall of China.)

On a Fast Plane to China…

…so I won’t be blogging in the next couple of days. Bye!

Paris, Je T’aime; Paris, Je T’adore

I don’t know when it was that I began to dream of Paris. I think Sabrina (the remake with Julia Ormond, not the original with Audrey Hepburn) is to blame. After watching that movie, I wanted to lose myself in Paris. I wanted to cut my stupid hair in Paris. And write in my stupid journal along the Seine in Paris. I wanted to eventually find myself in Paris.

Of course, years later, when I finally stepped foot in Paris, nothing would go the way I wanted it to. I had only two days to explore Paris but ended up spending a third of that time in bed. On the first day, I was exhaused. Trust me, a 14-day trip through Europe is exhausting. (next time, will have to take a slower tour.) On the second day, I was sick and dehydrated. I felt woozy riding the Metro so we decided to walk back to our hotel. Great idea, except we didn’t expect the scale on the map to be so misleading. I was literally on the verge of fainting when we finally got back to our hotel. It’s sad really, because I missed seeing Paris illuminated (I fell asleep while the sun was still shining. It was around 10pm. Grrr.) But then again, who else can say that they’ve walked half of Paris, from right bank to left bank?

Anyway, here are some short thoughts and memories from my visit to Paris:

1. They put too much cheese on their food. I swear, half of my plate was filled with cheese. I like cheese. But there’s a limit, you know.
2. The Louvre is too large. It took me forever to find the one sculpture (Cupid and Psyche) I was looking for.
3. The Mona Lisa is too small. As in tiny. As in when I saw it, I went, “That’s it?”
4. The people I asked for help were very kind, actually. Unlike those stories of snobbish frenchmen. I don’t know. Maybe because I actually started the conversation with “Bonjour, excusez-moi. Parlez-vous Anglais?”
5. The Eiffel Tower is really ugly up-close. And when you finally get inside, there’s too many people. But the view from the top (well, the 2nd etage, at least because the top floor was closed) is amazing.
6. I tried to practice my French in a small cafe in Montmartre, but the waiter kept replying in English. Bwahaha. Was my french that bad?
7. In spite of all its faults, I still love Paris and want to go back. soon. hopefully.

(Click on image to see bigger picture: 1 the Eiffel Tower as seen while in a boat along the Seine, 2 a view of Paris from Montmartre. would you believe I took this picture at around 9pm?, 3 the real Moulin Rouge.)

***

Paris Je T’aime makes me want to fall in love in Paris. I had been waiting for this forever and was so glad when I saw it in the Cinemanila line-up, and so irritated because there’s only one screening. (Is it just me, or is the Cinemanila schedule this year just crazy?)

Favorite segments (in no particular order):

• Pigalle, dir. Richard Lagravenese, with Fanny Ardant and Bob Hoskins (whom I mistook for Ian Holm. Sorry, my bad.) About an old couple trying to revive their relationship. Fanny Ardant is still so radiant at her age. No wonder Truffaut loved her so.
• 14th Arrondisement, dir. Alexander Payne and Nadine Eïd, with Margo Martindale. About an American Tourist who falls in love with Paris. Charming and the ending just touches your heart.
• Tuileries, dirs. Coen Brothers, with Steve Buscemi. About an American Tourist who accidentally causes a lovers’ tiff. Steve is so funny, the first time his face is shown on frame I was already sure I’d love it.
• Bastille, dir. Isabel Coixet, with Miranda Richardson and Sergio Castellitto. About a man who falls in love–again–with his wife. Just wonderful.
• Faubourg Saint-Denis, dir. Tom Tykwer, with Natalie Portman and Melchior Beslon. About a relationship between a blind guy and an actress. If you’re particularly smart, you get what the twist is. But the last line spoken is just…perfect.
• Pere-Lachaise, dir. Wes Craven, with Rufus Sewell and Emily Mortimer. About an engaged couple who are having problems because of the man’s lack of humor. So happy that Rufus Sewell is not a villain in this one and actually gets the girl.
• Quais de Seine, dir Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges, with Leïla Bekhti and Cyril Descours. About a young man who’s attracted to a Muslim girl. Ahh, sweet young love. There’s nothing like it.

 Ones that were Comme si, Comme ca:

• Le Marais, dir Gus Van Sant, with Gaspard Ulliel and Elias McConnell. About a guy who falls in love at first sight. Again, if you’re particularly smart, you’ll get the twist. But the ending is cute.
• Montmartre, dir. Bruno Podalydès, with Bruno Podalydès and Florence Muller. Although I love the couple when they were shown again in the ending, I felt bitin on this one.
• Quartier Latin, dir. Gérard Depardieu and Frédéric Auburtin, with Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara. About a couple divorcing. Would have liked it better if I understood more what they were saying.
• Parc Monceau, dir. Alfonso Cuaron, with Nick Nolte and Sara Martins. About a rendezvous between two people which I won’t spoil for you. Again, would have like it better if I understood more what they were saying.
• Loin du 16ème, dir. Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas, with Catalina Sandino Moreno. About a mother who has to leave her son to go to work. This is more good than bad, but I just can’t say it’s a favorite.
• Place des Fêtes, dir. Oliver Schmitz, with Seydou Boro and Aïssa Maïga. About a dying man and a paramedic. I like the concept but I didn’t like the treatment much. I don’t know. But I did want a piece of the guy’s 2-meter long baguette. And yes, I’m really talking about bread.
• Quartier des Enfants Rouges, dir. Olivier Assayas, with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Lionel Dray. About an actress and the guy who sells her drugs. I liked it at first but the feeling didn’t last. Which is a shame because I love Maggie Gyllenhaal.
• Quartier de la Madeleine, dir Vincenzo Natali, with Elijah Wood and Olga Kurylenko. About a tourist who accidentally stumbles upon a vampire. Cute, in its parody-ish way. But can’t get Elijah Wood and Frodo separated in my head.

 Not-so-Favorite Ones:

• Place des Victoires, dir. Nobuhiro Suwa, with Juliette Binoche and Willem Dafoe. About a mother grieving her dead son. Something was just missing. Though it wasn’t Juliette Binoche’s acting.
• Tour Eiffel, dir. Sylvain Chomet, with Paul Putner and Yolande Moreau. About a lonely mime desperate for attention. In support of this one, I just find people with full-face, clownish make-up disturbing. It’s actually very charming. But I just can’t watch it.
• Porte de Choisy, dir. Christopher Doyle, with Barbet Schroeder and Li Xin. About an old hair product salesman and an owner of a salon. I just didn’t understand this.

A Year Ago in Italy…

7-8 July 2006 -Venice

Ahh…Venezia…beautiful Venezia which would have been so romantic if I were actually involved in something romantic. But Venice is still Venice and there’s no place like Venice. And all those rumors that the water smells bad are false. It does look like the older buildings are about to fall into the sea, but hopefully some historical preservation society or other will fix that.

Space is hard to come by in Venice, so our hotel room was about half the size of my bedroom. It didn’t matter really.

They say if you ride in a gondola under the bridge of sighs, you’ll be together with the one you’re with forever. For that, Tish, i see a future of sibling spinsterdom. haha. just kidding.

(Click thumbnail to see bigger picture. 1 me in st. mark’s square, 2 a view of the grand canal, 3 a full moon, which again, would have been so romantic if we had actually been involved in something romantic)

9-10 July 2006 – Rome

Rome is the kind of place that one can never tire of walking (of course you get tired, but there’s so much to see that you’ll wish you have the endurance of an Olympic athlete.) Every corner of Rome has some sort of historical significance or other, and even if you didn’t pay any attention to world history, you can only gape in awe at the wonderful architecture (or laugh at the funny faces in their sculptures.)

(Click thumbnail to see bigger picture. 1 the…umm…place where…umm. okay, forgot what it’s called and too lazy to google it, 2 inside the colliseum, 3 a sculpture with a funny face)

11 July 2006 – Florence

Really, how often do you stumble across one of your favorite composers giving a free live concert in a square in Florence? There I was, walking (actually running) after a tourmate (who was desperately looking for any leftover Italia shirts for sale) when this person hands us flyers announcing that Philip Glass is playing in the square tonight. Philip Glass! But I’m getting ahead of myself.

When we arrived, they brought us to a square overlooking Florence with a bronze copy of Michelangelo’s David. We stayed for picture-taking and cheap shopping at the many tourist kiosks and then we climbed the bus and they took us to another square where they took us to a shop for some expensive shopping (pretty leather…pretty coats…pretty bags…which we all tried to ignore because of the prices) then we had lunch and I found myself a 2007 calendar with Italian Film Posters. And then we went to another square with another copy of David and other beautiful sculptures like the Rape of Someone and Some Lion of Importance (haha, I’m sorry, I forgot their names.) And then we walked a long, long way to the Academy where we saw the real David amidst throngs of people. You’d think that when you see it you’d be like oh, okay, I’ve seen it, I can go now (which is what I felt for a famous artwork somewhere else…but that’s another story) but this was really…wow. Up close, he almost seemed like a real man. A really, really cute man. haha.

Then we were brought to the hotel and as soon as we opened the window, we saw…a wall! Ah, the irony: a room with no view in the city where they filmed A Room With a View. But the room itself was pretty, if a little small. And it had a fantastic little writing desk where I wrote a postcard to Nina. And then we went down to enjoy a delicious dinner (what I love about Italy is everytime we eat there’s pasta and oh how I love pasta) And after dinner is when Mike, our tourmate, dragged us along to look for said Italia shirt and we ended up in a then-empty square with flyers saying that Philip Glass was performing. Philip Glass! I love his music (especially the score of The Hours.) So we went walking a little more and then headed back to the square where suddenly there were people everywhere and when the concert actually started, all I could see was the top of Philip Glass’s head. But the music matters more and gosh, was it beautiful.

 

(Click thumbnail to see bigger picture. 1 a copy of david, 2 tish in the room with no view)