I’ve been on a bit of a movie kick lately. We had another movie night with my folks last Saturday. We watched the Dutch film “Antonia’s Line.” It wasn’t a comedy, but we all liked it. I found the narration just a tiny bit annoying. It seems weak when a movie resorts to voiceover narration.

This past Monday, we went to see “The Jane Austen Book Club” at the Woodstock Town Hall Theater. It was a total chick flick, but Dave was good-humored about being one of only 3 men in the audience. I liked the movie better than the book, which I read last year.

I recently discovered that my Netflix subscription includes 5 hours of instant movie viewing on the internet per month. So far I’ve watched “Two for the Road” with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney and “The Hours,” a triptych riff on themes from Virginia Woolf’s novel “Mrs. Dalloway.”

I had never seen “Two for the Road” before and loved it (even if Audrey Hepburn is impossibly thin in it). I’m considering renting the DVD to watch with Mom and Dad because the scenery is so lovely as they drive around Europe. My only hesitation is that there’s a lot of flashing forward and backward and then forward and partway back again, which will be hard for my dad.

I did see “The Hours” when it first came out, but I saw so much more in it this time. I hadn’t read “Mrs. Dalloway” before seeing it the first time so I wonder if that made the difference. Or maybe I just go through periods when I can concentrate better on what I’m watching than at other times.

There have been times I’ve tried to watch a movie and it might as well have been in Swahili without subtitles for all I was able to comprehend. It’s nice to know I haven’t completely lost my mind, even if I have no idea what I’ve done with my set of keys right now.

When I was a kid, we often used to watch “Friday Night at the Movies” on TV as a family. I’m sure this depended upon the suitability of the movie for whatever age I and my siblings were, but I remember the excitement as the show opening music and graphic came up. Sometimes we made popcorn.

Last night we brought dinner and a movie to my parents’ apartment and I think it’s going to become a regular habit. The movie was the poignant Italian comedy “Bread and Tulips.” (I liked the original title “Pane e Tulipani” so much I repeated it over and over in the car all the way home, complete with hand gestures. It’s a wonder Dave didn’t leave me on the curb in West Leb.)

This was actually our second Friday night movie this month. Two weeks ago we brought over the French comedy “The Valet,” which was very amusing, but not as heartwarming as “Pane e Tulipani” (there I go again).

The European comedies seem to work well for us. We all need a little lightheartedness, and I think my Dad enjoys the scenery. The cast of “Pane e Tulipani” included the Swiss actor, Bruno Ganz, in one of the supporting roles. I love his face.

I’m hoping to get a couple of Swiss films eventually. In particular, I would like to see “Late Bloomers” (aka “Die Herbstzeitlosen”), which is about four older women in the Emmental region of Switzerland who turn the local corner shop into a chic lingerie store, throwing the whole community into disarray. The Emmental (apart from being the place of origin of what we commonly call “Swiss Cheese”) is a very traditional farming community in the heart of Switzerland.

Unfortunately, “Late Bloomers” does not appear to be slated for video release anytime soon, but last year’s Swiss film “Vitus,” also featuring Bruno Ganz, is coming out next month.

“Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark! … All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”
– Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in “Sunset Boulevard”

I’d never seen the film “Sunset Boulevard.” I’d heard enough about it through the years to get the gist of it, and to understand the quote above. Last month in LA, as we sat in the shade of a nearby tree, Jason pointed to the famous Paramount Studios gate and explained how it was the same gate Norma Desmond drove through.

Then I noticed the name of the film on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 Greatest Movies and I decided to watch it. It was great. William Holden is so cool; Gloria Swanson acted up a storm. Definitely worthwhile.

So, I figure I can knock off the rest of the AFI’s list pretty easily. I actually own 19 of the other films so I guess I can give myself a bye on any that I’ve watched in the last year or so. As for the rest, I just joined Netflix so this will keep my queue filled for a while.

But first I have to watch “Blue,” the first film of Polish director, Krzysztof Kieslowski, trilogy “Trois Couleurs”.