La Vie En Rose

I finally had time to watch this movie, and wow. Wow, wow, wow. What do I really want to say? The music, oh the music. The songs are achingly beautiful, and are made even more stark and breathtaking by the dim, dramatic lighting of the smoky cabarets and underground bars where Piaf made her earliest appearances.

The story is presented in a nonlinear fashion; in fact, without knowing a bit about her life prior to watching, I'm sure I would have had trouble following the story. However, I believe it was the intent of the director to bring us through her journey, with her beginnings as a beggar on the streets of Pigalle to her rise to fame, and her eventual sorrowful demise, with memories of happier and more dismal times haunting her into death.

Marion Cotillard was brilliant, and completely deserving of her Oscar for this part. Gerard Depardieu was wonderful, fatherly, and utterly loveable, despite being a gruff gangster in the film. I will say this: at times, this movie was incredibly difficult to watch because of the heartbreaking content.

Oscar Magic

One of my favorite events each year is to get some good snacks, some wine or other yummy beverage, and sit down to watch the Oscars. I love the anticipation, the vapid speeches, and, of course, the beautiful clothes.

One of these days I'll have a proper Oscar party, but I always seem to busy to plan it adequately. This year, I made some snacks, and sat down and watched the many black and red dresses saschay past, with the paparazzi clamoring and the stars doing their best to not look disinterested and annoyed.

Air-popped popcorn, roasted red pepper hummus and cucumber, and butter cupcakes with creamy chocolate frosting were my snacks for the evening. I took the rest of the cupcakes to work this morning (I really don't want to eat 36 cupcakes myself!), and will probably finish off the cucumber and hummus this week.

I was very pleased that the Coen brothers won so many awards, although I haven't seen anything nominated (the first time ever!). I'll try to catch Juno in the theater, and I can watch La Vie En Rose tonight on Netflix. I'll probably rent Atonement soon. Everything else....eh. I'm not one for violent movies, and most of the movies nominated this year were heavily war-focused, it seems.