Dreaming of France -- Magic in the Moonlight

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
I knew that Woody Allen had a new movie coming out, but I had no idea that it was set in the south of France until my friend Greg texted and told me that I should see Magic in the Moonlight.
I'm not a big Woody Allen fan, but I loved Midnight in Paris. I figured that, like me, Allen might have fallen in love with France. Maybe the culture helped him to relax a little and make his movies less neurotic.
Magic in the Moonlight is a far cry from some of Allen's insular New York movies with hysterical characters that obsess about small details. So maybe living in France has mellowed Allen.

The movie stars Colin Firth and Emma Stone -- two actors whose work I really enjoy. Firth plays Stanley Crawford, a famous magician. He travels to the south of France with a magician friend who requests his help unmasking a spiritualist. I think this part of the movie must have been based on Harry Houdini, who was a magician and who fought with spiritualists; spiritualists are people who claim to be able to speak to the dead.
Emma Stone plays the spiritualist character, Sophie Baker, a young woman from Kalamazoo, Michigan, traveling Europe with her mother, reading people's vibrations and talking to the dead. She is staying with a wealthy family from Pittsburgh, and the heir has fallen in love with her. Stanley's job is to unmask Sophie and break the spell.
As you can imagine, Stanley is a man committed to logic who doesn't believe in a spiritual life at all, and he becomes intrigued with Sophie's ability.
This film moved a little slowly. It didn't sweep me away the way Midnight in Paris did. I never forgot that I saw in the cinema with greasy buttered popcorn on the tips of my fingers.

The scenes set along the Cote d'Azur were lovely; the water sparkled more than Sophie's engagement ring.  Stanley's aunt lived in Provence, so the movie ventured there a few times. Although not much of Provence was visible, the feeling of Provence permeated. The light in the film helps remind you why artists like Van Gogh travel there to paint.
I don't regret seeing the movie, although it dragged a bit. I love France enough that I'll take any little gulps of it I can get.
But if you can only see one movie set in France this fall, I'd go with The Hundred Foot Journey.

Dreaming of France -- The Hundred Foot Journey (The Movie)

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it
We went with some friends to see The Hundred Foot Journey on Saturday evening. This is opening weekend here in the U.S., so that was pretty early for me to venture out to the theater.
I'm going to admit that I never got through the book, but I was seduced by the trailers and by the fact that the movie showed beautiful French countryside and was filmed in the village where Sally, my blogging friend, lives.

My overall reaction -- I loved it. I'd go again  just to sit there and soak in the sights, imagine the smells, the sound of French rushing past my ears. The movie had no subtitles, but much of it was in English. English was a common language between the Indian family and the villagers.
Often, the words were spoken in French then someone repeated them in English or part of what they said was translated so it became obvious as to the meaning.
The movie rushes through the beginning part that is set in India, showing the love of the family for each other as they create food in their own restaurant, before the political difficulties that led to them being driven from their restaurant and their mother dying. Sad, they plan to search Europe for a place to start a new restaurant. Their brakes fail in Southwestern France, and that's where they set up, just across the street from a Michelin-star restaurant run by Helen Mirren's character. A rivalry ensues.
Some of my favorite scenes showed the rivalry increasing as the Indian cooks prepared for their restaurant opening, cutting vegetables and meat to Indian music, which quickly segued into the classic French chefs chopping vegetables to classical music.

Hassan, the Indian chef, is handsome and charming, entranced by French cuisine and a young French chef, Marguerite. I thought Marguerite, played by Charlotte Le Bon,  was winsome and sincere, trying to help the Indian family, yet jealous of Hassan's success.
The scenes set in St. Antonin felt truly French, even though I know they included false store fronts. The long shots of the village nestled in a valley were breathtaking. I'm not sure if the faraway shots were of Sally's village or not, but I'm sure she'll let us know when she sees the movie. In France, the movie doesn't come out until September.
My husband had read the book, and he told me there was a lot more sex. The movie barely whispered of sex, A scene of Marguerite and Hassan with rumpled clothing, although romance bloomed throughout.
Any criticisms of the movie? As much as I love Helen Mirren in this role, maybe they should have chosen a French actress. Even Charlotte Le Bon is Canadian rather than French. I wonder if her French accent sounds Canadian to the French. And I wonder how Mirren's French and her accent sound to the French too.
This movie is probably too American for the French, but what can we say: We Americans love a happy ending, a lesson learned, a conflict resolved.

Thanks for playing along today with Dreaming of France. Please visit each other's blog so that you can have even more experiences in the country we love. 

Dreaming of France -- Molière

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
Maybe we can all satisfy our yearnings for France, until we get there again.
What did you do to celebrate Le Quatorze Juillet?
Yes, we're in the U.S., but don't want to pass up the opportunity to celebrate a French holiday. Our local library had a section of French movies available for the holiday weekend. We watched Molière.

Confession, I did doze off during part of this movie, but I think it had more to do with my early morning rather than the movie. Earl enjoyed it and laughed out loud during parts of it.

The story tells how Molière got the material for his famous play Tartuffe. It begins with him trying and failing to perform a tragedy. Everyone sees that Molière is meant for comedy, but he wants more than a farce. He remembers his own journey and tells it beginning with his arrest for debts. He is bailed out by a rich merchant who wants to catch the eye of a young, beautiful Marquise. He needs Molière's help with writing a play and acting to win the woman's approval. Molière, masquerading as a priest, moves into the merchant's home and is enchanted by the merchant's wife. Hilarity ensues.

I enjoyed the main character with his flowing brown hair and his thin mustache, portraying Molière who lived in the 1600s. His lack of confidence about his writing seemed reassuring as he then grew into a better, more confident writer, whispering words of love. The merchant is, of course, a fool for the Marquise but in the end redeems himself. 

The rest of our Bastille Day celebration included watching the Tour de France as the cyclists headed toward Mont Ventoux, having brie fondue at Bon Vie, a local restaurant, and watching House Hunter's International in Nice. I'd say we immersed ourselves in French culture. 

I'm linking to Paris in July again. I have plenty of French posts this month. Paris in July is hosted by  Thyme for Tea and Bookbath.

  

Dreaming of France -- 2 Days in Paris

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
Maybe we can all satisfy our yearnings for France, until we get there again.
As obsessed as I am with France, how is it possible that I sometimes miss movies set in France? I happened upon 2 Days in Paris with Julie Delpy and Adam Goldberg. The film came out in 2007. Most of it is in English but it includes subtitles for the portions in French.
When the film began with a couple on a night train from Venice, I stopped and wondered if this was another Julie Delpy/Ethan Hawke movie like Before Sunrise and Before Sunset where a French woman connects with an American man. But Adam Goldberg plays a very different character than Ethan Hawke. Delpy directed this one and really focused on some hilarious stereotypes of the French.
The couple, Marion and Jack, are at the end of a vacation in Venice and plan to spend two days at her apartment in Paris before they return to New York. Jack is a Woody Allen-type character, paranoid about dirt and whining about a lot.
Marion's apartment is upstairs from her parents' apartment. The parents have been cat-sitting for Marion's chunky cat Jean-Luc. Marion fights with her mother who has fed the cat foie gras while she watched him.
The Parisian family greets Jack with a luncheon where rabbit is served and the father makes a show of eating the head. Jack, of course, is appalled because he had a pet bunny as a kid. The parents and Marion speak French quite heatedly in front of Jack, talking about him with him not even realizing it. Subtitles let the viewer in on the joke. I think that made me laugh because I've been in that situation before.
Marion runs into old flames who want to win her back and flirt outrageously, saying blunt, sexual things that Americans would never say, again, in front of the boyfriend since he doesn't speak French.
Jack is appalled by an overtly sexual art exhibit at Marion's father's art gallery and feels out of place at a French party, while Marion is in her element.
Another funny moment is when Jack realizes that Marion's mother has ironed his jeans, leaving neat seams down the front. I always wonder about the French and ironing. Almost every French person I know has a woman who comes in to iron for the family. I figure that's because they don't dry clothes in the dryer so things feel rough unless they're ironed. (Please tell me if you think my theory is wrong.)
Paris itself didn't star as much in the film as it did in Midnight in Paris, but simply viewing streets, flower markets, and metro stops was enough to make me yearn for France again.
This is definitely a movie I enjoyed and I'd recommend it.
Thanks for playing along. I hope you'll come back on Wednesday and Thursday when I review Seduction by MJ Rose and interview her too. Plus, there's a giveaway.
Also, my book The Summer of France is being reviewed on several blogs and you can check the schedule on the top right of my blog under France Book Tours.

Dreaming of France -- Chocolat

Here's a new weekly France meme. Please join in. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it

Maybe we can all satisfy our yearnings for France, until we get there again.
Last week my 20-year-old daughter was home from college for the week. I realized that she was missing some vital information from her education. She had never seen the movie Chocolat.

 It has been a long time since I'd seen the movie and even longer since I've read the book. What I remembered about the movie was a woman and her daughter move to a French village and start a chocolate shop. I also remember Johnny Depp was especially luscious. This was still true, but I noticed so much more.
The movie opened on an empty-looking French village with gray stone buildings and cobblestone streets. People poured into a cold stone church while a woman and her little girl in red capes and hoods arrived in town along with a brisk wind. They brought change with them.

What caught my attention this time was the chocolate as it was poured from a pitcher into a cup, or as it was stirred in a big pot, or as the actors bit into each piece of chocolate. The chocolate seemed like the star of the movie -- decadent and sensual.  Juliette Binoche plays the main character Vianne. Throughout the movie, in the direst of situations, her skin looks like porcelain and she wears scooop-necked blouses that show her ivory décolletage. Her face glows with pink on the apples of her cheeks. Vianne seemed so much more alive than anyone else in the movie.
And maybe because I'm older, or mabye because Johnny Depp has received so much more exposure, he didn't wow me this time in Chocolat.
I'm reading one of the sequels to Chocolat right now, Peaches for Father Francis, and  I'm curious about the differences between the book Chocolat and the movie. I may need to read it again.
If you haven't seen the movie or read the book, give them a try.

Family Day

For the first time this summer, we reprised our family activities, roping in everyone to see the latest Harry Potter movie.
Grace and Spencer had already been to see it, but Earl, Tucker and I hadn't seen it yet. So we trooped out Tuesday morning to beat the crowds and cool down in the theater.

My family loves, loves, loves the Harry Potter stories and movies. We have been going to the release night for books and movies as long as I can remember. Every family car trip is soothed with the sounds of Jim Dale, the narrator on the Harry Potter CDs. Even now, we're in the middle of listening to the last one again.
My kids loved growing up with Harry Potter.
One of my friends said she didn't want to see the movie characters all grown up because she felt like she was seeing her own kids grown and moving on.
I don't feel that way. I was okay with seeing Harry and Ginny with their own kids.
(I would say spoiler alert, but if you don't know how the book ends then you shouldn't go see the movie anyway, IMHO.)
I did get a little teary in the movie when Harry's parents appear, along with his godfather. They tell him how proud they are and I felt my eyes well up. And again when he was a baby and his Mom was about to die and she turned to the crib and just kept saying, "Mummy loves you, Harry. Daddy loves you." Those are the words you would want your child to hear before you die.
Anyway, in spite of what some people might say, and in spite of the fact that the producers didn't follow the book exactly, the movie was spectacular.
My own family left blinking in the sunlight and when we turned on the car to drive home, there was Harry again, still on his adventure.
It's like we teach students when writing about literature. You write in the present tense, because literature is always happening in the present, it will never be past.
And Harry's adventure will come to life again every time we open the books or slide in the disks.
Plus, someday, I'll have grandchildren who won't know the story of the boy wizard, the boy who lived.