Flizzledy Flazzeldy Do

So we were at the grocery store picking up a couple little items to prepare me for the weekend of Katie's absence. I mean, I know I can pick up said items myself, but still, we wanted to get stuff for dinner too. Regardless, Katie is looking at some shitty on one side of the aisle and I am just sort of glancing around. My eyes land on this can of soup which looks like a tasty gourmet soup sort of thing. I pick it up and fucking shit ass balls-its BAXTER brand soup. They even have, get this, Baxter Lobster Bisque. The line also includes Baxter Scotch Split Pea, Baxter Garden Vegetable, and Baxter Wild Game soup, which from the illustration on the can appeared to be Venison soup. That was my interesting coincedence for the day. I doubt the successive coincedences will be as interesting or as Lobster-iffic.

So last weekend Katie, her mother, and I went out for a night. We obviously wanted to do something altogether of course, but I think that Carole also needed to get away from the ninos for at least a minute or two. As such we decided on a movie and dinner. Conveniently enough, the good parts about living in downtown Chicago came in handy. There is, just down the street from the pricey, but nice, little place I referred to before. The Music Box theater was its name, it was alot like a more glam version of either the Uptown or Grandview theaters. It had two theaters and while we were in the main one, I would imagine from the general size of the building that the one upstairs was no bigger than the one at the Grandview. The main place though was pretty large and ridiculously ornate, this theater has been around for a while and Chicago is just a much older place than the TC. Further, the Music Box adopted the electro-strong trend of using real butter on their popcorn.

The movie was the latest in a long line of features by Sr. Claude Chabrol. I would provide a link to his listing on IMDB.com but I don't know how to do that fancy linky thing that is so hip with the kids these days. HTML or BTSX or something like that. I won't give away too much, though I doubt everyone is going to run out to see it all at once, but the thing that really interested me, more and more as I discussed it with Katie later on, was the series of potential similarities to Hitchcock's Rope. That film I won't give away because if you haven't seen it you definitively need to, like immediately. It is on DVD now, you can get it from Netflix or likely your local Blockbuster. If you are reading this from St. Paul you can without question get it at that place on Selby, like Best Video, or whatever its called. The place is maybe two blocks west of Dale, its good for hard to find flicks, but low on the DVD quotient.

The cool part of Hitchcock's Rope, which you will immediately recognize, so I am giving nothing away, is that there are no cuts (in the true sense of the word) in the film. Its about an hour long and while we could actually do that now (a one hour film with no cuts) they couldn't in the 60s. Instead the cuts which are in the film are masked, ie: they occur while the camera is passing behind someone wearing a black jacket, so that it is invisible to the viewer. This produces a number of effects, the film feels very claustrophobic and the camera movement plays a gigantic role. Indeed the movement of the camera places the viewer inside the film. There is an interesting relation developed in both films between the primary couple, both of which are intimated to have some deviant sexual relation, and an older role-modelly figure who has some difficult sense of responsibility for the murder which takes place.

I am not sure what else I wish to say without giving away the movie itself. In a brief review however, the acting is solid, the story is intriguing and well developed, and overall I recommend it. Its not such a wierdo foreign film that you won't feel comfortable if you aren't an avid film buff (I mean, okay, alright, there are some weird familial questions about murder and incest and shit, but its not like Cathreine Breillat or anything (I would do the IMDB link again, but I already said, I don't know BTSX) but it has enough brainfat for Uptown types to enjoy as well.

Another item down. The OC was phat tonight by the way. The canceling of Skin has really saved my ass from the deadliness of Wednesdays at 9:00.

Peace,

MB-K