In times of crisis, we turn to our heroes.
Author Archives: Alex Goodman
The Good pick: "The Triplets of Belleville" will be shown at the Billy Wilder Theater
Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classic
For lovers of your traditional animated film, Disney released last week its latest princess tale, “Tangled,” the story of Rapunzel with songs. For something entirely different, there is always “The Triplets of Belleville,” the 2003 animated movie written and directed by the French filmmaker Sylvain Chomet. Instead of a young girl escaping her evil stepmother, the story follows an elderly woman named Madame Souza who goes on quite the adventure when her cyclist grandson Champion is kidnapped by two French gangsters and made to race on a stationary bike for their gambling pleasure. The look is surreal and heavily stylistic, with very little dialogue. There is music, but of a distinctly European kind; when Madame Souza encounters the titular singing sisters, they improvise a jazzy number using a refrigerator, newspaper, vacuum and bicycle wheel as instruments. “The Triplets of Belleville” earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, despite a less-than-favorable representation of the United States ““ Belleville, where the gangsters run their empire, is clearly meant to be New York City. It might have won, too, for all its creativity and depth, had it not been up against “Finding Nemo.” “The Triplets of Bellevue” plays this Friday, Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m. at the Billy Wilder Theater.
Pop Psychology: The f-word in music: from proudly profane to just plain perverse
Everyone knows profanity is cool.
Pop Psychology: _Never mind iTunes, open Pandora’s box_
Last week, Apple toyed with my emotions.
On Monday, four clocks appeared on its home page, displaying the time in California, New York, London and Tokyo.
The Good pick: 'Some Like It Hot' offers a heaping helpful of charming comedy
Courtesy of United Artists
Thanksgiving is this Thursday, so many of us will need to take the weekend to recover, either from waistline explosion or familial overload. Presumably with that in mind, the New Beverly Cinema is offering three showings of “Some Like It Hot,” once on Friday, Nov. 26 (at 9:30 p.m.), and twice on Saturday (at 5:10 and 9:30 p.m.).
Pop Psychology: Take a break from your daily drama and watch crime TV
As a college student, you may have noticed that your life is very busy, your nights and weekends always filled with studying and essay writing.
The Good pick: Plunge into an astonishing account of paralysis in 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'
If anyone thought Daniel Day-Lewis had it too easy in “My Left Foot” ““ he played a man with cerebral palsy who could control only that one extremity ““ there is “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” the almost unbelievably difficult story of Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric). The former editor of “Elle” magazine was left paralyzed by a massive stroke in 1995, affecting his entire body except his left eyelid.
The 2007 film, directed by Julian Schnabel, starts from Bauby’s first-person perspective as doctors struggle to understand his condition. We eventually escape Bauby’s head, but this is still in every frame and every way his astonishing tale, and it leaves you emotionally drained and with renewed passion for life. There are few processes more arduous to watch than Bauby learning to communicate via targeted blinking with his speech therapist, and few more ultimately rewarding. Bauby eventually dictates an entire book to a woman sent by a publishing company, the memoir that became the source material for the film.
Amalric would go on to play the devious Dominic Greene in “Quantum of Solace,” but not before “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” raked in awards around the world, including four Oscar nominations.
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” plays Thursday, Nov. 18, at 3 p.m. in the Santa Monica Public Library.
Photo courtesy of Miramax Films