translations

Today I tried to translate one of my entries, 'days of new england.' In doing this, I realized that if I gave it to a professor here, I would probably seem like an asshole.

Well, I stand by the sentiments I expressed in that entry! but I decided to translate a more innocuous one. After all, I don't want to alienate anyone...

Another dissapointment…part 2

Have you ever confronted the banal quality of your life? You can’t escape it. If you try, you’re just playing a game with little risk, and you’re probably annoying other people while you’re at it.

click to empower

The non-profit my cousin works for is up for a $100,000 grant if it can win this internet poll. If it's not too much trouble, please vote for Safe Horizon with each of your email addresses. You can do it once a day, and you won't receive any mailings from them. http://www.clicktoempower.org/

guaranteeing boredom

"He claims that electronic texture is the only one that can deal with sentiment, memory, and imagination." - Sandor Krasna

The other day I experienced an unpleasant sensation at dinner. I arrived too early, and I found that my usual crew of friends was not there. I noticed two people that I regularly dine with; next to them was a group of people that looked familiar, so I decided to eat with them. I was mistaken: they were not familiar, they were strangers. Two of my friends were there, this is true, but I could not talk to them because there were unknowns at the table, blocking a line of conversation. I search for words. I am not prepared to embark on such an endeavor, I adore complacency. There is a line in the narration of Chris Marker’s film Sans Soleil that sticks with me. Pardonnez-moi ces pensées désordonnées. Je vous laisse une image mélancolique, mais au fond de moi
je suis heureux. J’ai parlé franchement. Excusez-moi.

trouble every day

It is true that I wrote about Antichrist a month or so ago, and about how all the hype around it at Cannes had made me want to see it. People were leaving midway through, people denounced it, etc.

Despite being allured by this kind of reaction to a film, I’m going to say that I regret seeing Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day, a film that was similarly received at Cannes. I feel traumatized. Do not see Trouble Every Day. It depicts things, in a sensitive, unhurried, stylized, thorough way that should never be depicted. I’ve seen Pink Flimingos. I’ve seen Realm of the Senses and Audition. (Though I admit I haven’t seen Salo). Anyway, don’t see it. Maybe my days of watching tough art films are over. My new favorite film is Marley and Me. Also, I’m not sure if I ever want to have sex again.

echoes of Florence#2 + fragments of an inane conversation

Today in my Maghrebian cinema class we watched an Algerien film called Viva Laldérie. It’s a melodrama of sorts inspired by ‘80s Almovodar about a women living in Algers with her mother in a hotel room. Anyway, about an hour until the film, this woman goes to some sort of fortune teller. The fortune teller was played by none other than Florence, my old host mother. Of course I knew that she had played in several films, but this came as quite a surprise.

Later the same day, I was walking to dinner. I overheard the following conversation between two Middlebury students who are here just to work on campus over the summer, thus they’re allowed to speak in English.

Girl 1: It’ll be like a foreign film.

Girl 2: But foreign films are French, with subtitles, and well thought out.

Girl 1: It’s Japanese, so it’s foreign.

Girl 2: Yeah, but they’re not the same, they’re not as well thought out, etc.

Girl: You’re right. Actually, though, there are some French movies that aren’t very good.

awkward moment (among many)

I’m at Middlebury now where I can only speak French. This leads to many awkward moments. I often feel uncomfortable. Today at the gym while I was passing by the back entrance I noticed three girls outside about 15 yards away. I knew that when they got there, they would find that this entrance is locked. Since I’m a nice guy, I decided to stand there and wait so I could let them in, knowing that it would appear overly polite and awkward. When they came in one of them said, ‘merci,’ either because they just wanted to say thanks, or because they recognized that I was also in the French school. I saw this as an opportunity to explain that one has to enter by the front of the gym. I asked them if they were indeed in the French school, and one of them said yes. Then as I tried to explain the entrance situation to them, they just walked away…