it was 20 years ago …

. . . that I first saw this film.

A very charming ‘coming of age’ film about three teenaged girls (played by Julia Roberts, Annabeth Gish & Lili Taylor) in the small town of Mystic, Connecticut. And I had vague memories of really loving this film a lot.

Got to watch it again yesterday as it was being shown on tv on Sunday afternoon . . . and I loved it all over again.

But something really niggled. which I know is one of my pet niggles . . . and that is about how women portrayed in films twenty years ago actually got away with having real women’s bodies. I mean, okay, Mystic Pizza was a small indie low-budget film and not a big-time Hollywood film, otherwise this may not have been the case. But man, there was ole Julia (I think it was her first film role) showing a lot of big sexy butt and voluptuous curves, and Annabeth and Lily also looked like … well, like normal women do when wearing trousers. Like, no three inch gap between their thighs. And all scenes showing any of them in a sleeveless top or dress also showed quite attractive and normal looking upper arms, not pencil-thin sticks protruding out of bony shoulders… it was really refreshing to see this for a change.

Well, refreshing and also sad to think of how things are now. Ah well…

An excellent film - does anyone else remember it?

oscar quiz

Are You Red Carpet Ready?

You answered 31% of the questions correctly.
Well, you made it to Hollywood.Unfortunately, your map to the Kodak Theater just blew out the window.

Oh dear!
I think I’m going to have to borrow Archie’s quiz dunce hat.

How about you?

things I miss…

I came across this old post from last year on Letters Home the other day. Oh how I wish everyone had a ‘recent comments’ widget for people just passing through or for when I’m just having a quick look around a few blogs without using my feedreader. In fact, I probably would have just read the comment to this post on my feedreader without clicking on the post itself. But seeing it on ian’s sidebar I clicked on the comment and saw the original post. Anyhoodle … it was all about things ian misses from the places he used to live after having moved on to somewhere else.

Like ian, I’ve lived in a few different places since leaving my birthplace Winnipeg, Canada (aka Winterpeg) at age 25. Since then I’ve lived in Toronto, Bristol in England, and Salamanca & Seville in Spain. Here is my list of things I miss …

good books, bad films

20 Good Books Made Into Not-So-Good Movies

Do you agree with the AV Club’s list? Are there any more titles you’d like to add?

1. Slapstick (Of Another Kind) (1982)
2. The Bonfire Of The Vanities (1990)
3. Bicentennial Man (1999)
4. The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
5. The Scarlet Letter (1995)
6. All The King’s Men (2006)
7. The Human Stain (2003)
8. The Hours (2002)
9. Stardust (2007)
10. Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
11. Portnoy’s Complaint (1972)
12. Tropic Of Cancer (1970)
13. Bee Season (2005)
14. Stuart Little (1999)
15. Even Cowgirls Get The Blues (1993)
16. The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (2005)
17. The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (2007)
18. The Black Cauldron (1985)
19. Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961)
20. Stephen King’s The Shining (1997)

And here is another possibly scary list … this one of Books Into Movies that have release dates in November and December.

women in film

Two videos in one day!

Something rather poignant (and also somewhat creepy) about this one . . .

what’s your movie genre?

The Movie Of Your Life Is An Indie Flick

You do things your own way - and it’s made for colourful times. Your life hasn’t turned out how anyone expected, thank goodness! Your best movie matches: Clerks, Garden State, Napoleon Dynamite

If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

~ found at raincoaster’s ~

easy rider

. . . will be on the movie channel at 6.30!

Nog doesn’t remember if he’s seen it - I’ve seen it but can barely remember it. Though we’re both curious to see if something so ‘hip and groovy man’ has managed to age well.

Now if only we had some

summer holidays

It’s August 1st and I am officially ‘on holiday’.

No classes until September. Yay! Well okay, no income either, but I’ve been looking forward to this stretch of time ahead of me not having to be anywhere or do anything unless I feel like it. It will especially be nice not to be woken up by alarm clocks (well, other than the pointy-eared variety).

When I asked earlier about what summer stuff everyone was planning to do I still hadn’t made any major plans, and then I realised that what I wanted most was a month totally without plans. So there.

Well, there are a few things I want to do like go to the gym in the mornings and do some stuff around the apartment. But mostly I reckon I’ll be reading and hanging out online (hence that particular thumbnail), taking evening walks with Nog, going out for our *emergency cold beer and air-conditioning sessions* and the occasional tapa, and also watching films and playing with floppy cats who - I am very happy to report - appear to be friends again. They’ve even started playing fighting again, with no pee in sight, which to me is even more of a sign of them being pals again than falling asleep together.

For awhile it looked like a recent bad back incident (comment 19) had put the kibosh on my gym idea, but after a couple days of anti-inflammatories, gentle stretching and lots of walking I think I’ll be able to start back mañana.

Meanwhile, Sevilla has pretty much turned into a ghost town already, which is always a pleasant change of pace.

So all in all, August should be a nice month for carping the diem.

How’s your summer been so far?

how many have you seen?

1000 Films To See Before You Die

The Guardian’s ‘essential list’ of films as well as a few quizzes can be found on that page. I only got 3/5 on quiz-part one (haven’t taken the others yet) and I’ve seen 382 of the thousand films listed.

How about you?

romeo & juliet

A serious blast from my past . . .

It was well over 40º yesterday evening and so Nog & I went out for our usual summer *emergency cold beer & air-conditioning session*, stopping off at Fnac on our way to Bodeguita Romero just to see if there was anything we particularly needed…

And dog my cats, I spotted a DVD of Zeffirelli’s 1968 classic Romeo & Juliet, which I don’t think I’ve seen in at least 20 years. And Nog had never seen it. And it was just 6 euros! So what the heck.

Anyhow, just finished watching it, with me in a flood of tears. And curiously, although Nog knew the basic storyline he was fuzzy on the details, so that twist at the end came as a bit of a surprise for him. And luckily he didn’t mind me practically reciting the whole film while we watched it.

But talk about bringing back memories. I remember going to see it at the cinema in Winnipeg when I was 11 or 12 and I stayed on to watch it three times in a row. Boy did I catch hell when I finally got home. Also saw it many times after that and bought the LP (gorgeous music by Nino Rota). And more than anything in the world (at that time) I wanted to be Olivia Hussey. And part of me still does, I think. Wow, we think we actually grow up but we can get so suddenly jolted back to long ago feelings.

What does this for you?