Friday Movies

Last night I was watching the film Marie Antoinette, directed by Sofia Coppola. The film stars Kirsten Dunst as the teenage Austrian noblewoman who, in about 1770, is married off to the French dauphin (prince), in order to seal an alliance between the enemy countries of France and Austria. As she adjusts to her life in the French court, and a problematic marriage, the young couple soon find themselves as the king and queen of France. The film is not very historically accurate, and often deliberately anachronistic featuring a soundtrack of 1970s and 80s punk music, and in one scene a very obvious pair of modern sneakers among Marie Antoinette's vast shoe collection. Visually the film is absolutely beautiful however it is very slow-moving. The film portrays Marie Antoinette in a fairly sympathetic light as an ordinary teenage girl caught up in situations beyond her control and more or less completely cut off from the outside world.

It was another very slow, very dull day at work. At least it's the weekend anyway. I've still not got to the stage where I can really relax outdoors, especially after dark. Hopefully it will get better with time.

This evening I was watching a film called Bob le flambeur, a 1955 French film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. The title of the film translates as "Bob the Gambler". The film tells the story of Bob (Roger Duchesne) an ageing professional gambler and one-time thief, who is very well respected in the local area, both by the local criminals and the police. However, Bob is on a losing streak and has more or less lost all his money. He hits on the idea to rob 800 million francs from a large casino. He recruits a team to pull off the heist and works out a meticulous and seemingly fool-proof plan, but things don't quite go as expected. It's a very good film, with an interesting and complex script.