French Film Weekend

This weekend, my friend Sarah and I went to Sydney for the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival. It's a rare occasion that one would spend a whole day in a cinema let alone watching 4 movies in a foreign language. We actually saw one movie Friday night, then 3 in a row on Saturday. We enjoyed the company of other francophone's, champagne and nibbles in comfy lounge chairs of the Palace Norton Cinema, and the challenge of trying not to read the subtitles...We watched

1. Angele & Tony - Angele is a young woman falling apart. after returning to the seaside town after two years away, she's fiercely determined to reconnect with her young son, yet also scared she's unfit to care for him. She meets Tony through a personal ad, and through a testy period of clashing personalities, the two come together in the end, making it possible for Angele to reconnect with her son.
2. Bus Palladium - reported as an 'irresistibly charming tale of a rowdy group of would-be rockers trying to make it big in the music business'. While I found it engaging, I did find it a little 'noir', with the lead singer attempting and finally taking his own life. Still the music was good.
3. L'age de Raison - a 'feel great romantic comedy' which captured my attention as 40 yr old Margaret, a high powered executive, is invited by her own 7 yr old self, through letters she wrote at the 'age of reason', to explore who she has turned out to be. Finally Margaret is reunited with her long lost best friend, Phillibert, and her younger brother Matthieu, her dream to feed starving children in Africa, and ultimately her french name 'Margaruite'.
4. Crime D'Armour - with Kristen Scott Thomas, this movie claimed to be cross between Working Girl and Dangerous Liaisons. It was, and with some interesting twists and turns, it concluded with the publicly defamed younger executive designing and completing the murder of her senior who stole her successes for her own progress. The success of the murder, was that she had also successfully orchestrated her own freedom and another's imprisonment for the crime.
   

While wondering through the streets in a spare time, we were sucked into several good book shops ending up with a small bundle to carry home. My collection included

1. The Ethics of Trade and Aid - development, charity or waste? by Christiper D Wraight.
2. Humanitarian Assistance? Haiti and Beyond by Neil Middleton
3. Half the Sky: How to change the world by Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl Wudunn.
4. Jacob's Hands: A Fable by Aldous Huxley and Christpher Isherwood.
   

I know I haven't been online much recently, but I have been discovering new things to blog about. I'll be doing a garden update soon, because this afternoon I'm peeling some 'Loofas' for the first time, and I should also be cooking up an oversupply of beans. I'm hope to see you soon.