Into the Wild

So, some movies debut here (like Woody Allen's film) and then others take 4 months to release in France. It doesn't really matter all that much since I don't have too much time to entertain myself that way. Although, it seems to be a favorite pastime of some of the 2nd year boys.

Last night I finished both the Statistics paper and the prostitution paper and today I turned in the hard copies. So, before I start off on the global law and last Stats papers I thought I'd take a short break. In fact, I ditched out early of the class on log linear somethings (because frankly the stats class needs some serious tweaking and I will never be running log linear regressions). I was really interested in seeing "No Country for Old Men" but it's not out for a week or so. I had heard from my colleague, Eduardo, that "Into the Wild" was a good movie. He's quite an enigma: a chill guy who comes from Chile and spent university years at U California Long Beach (so throw a surfer accent on him). He's kind of a class clown type, wants to run for office back in Chile, is deeply concerned with poverty alleviation, and is bascially an excellent mind wearing checkered Vans.

"You gotta see 'Into the Wild,' man."
"The one by Sean Penn, right?"
"Yeah, but the best thing is that the whole soundtrack is by Eddie Vedder."
"Oh? Cool. What - it's like, about a guy in Alaska, right? God I loved Alaska."
"Yeah, but it's heavy, man." (we were at a party and he had to go back to pseudo deejaying)

Eduardo saying "it's heavy man" is like a clown saying "it's raining." Oh boo hoo, but not really 'cuz it's Happy the Clown!

Coming out of the film though, I think it's more like ... listen when Happy says it's heavy, cuz he means it.

..... Maybe because I've been through a lot of personalities and adopted a bit of all the lifestyles I've led, I'm not afraid to say that I have PMS and it totally affects me. I feel no need to defend that, but I'll tell you that it's real, not made up, and sometimes I just want to kill people and other times I want to weep for hours. And there's nothing I can do about my composure or my tongue. And, frankly, women who are PMSd or menstruating make great soldiers/military personnel: they're pissed, uncomfortable, and irritable - yet still extremely precise in the aim of those emotions. .....

So, "Into the Wild" on PMS. Well, if I weren't trying so hard to have an enjoyable time during my free time, I would have balled buckets. It affected me on many levels. I won't spoiler alert anything so you still need to go see it, but firstly, Penn did a great job directing and filming. My god, the scenery. It made me miss the US. It made me miss Alaska and strange places in the strange country. It totally called out to the side of me that's filled with wanderlust and disregard for establishment and societal rules. It made me want to burn my money and start walking south with just the clothes on my back. I missed the countryside again. I was reminded how much I miss nature and how close I'd gotten to her over the years. It made me hate whiny Americans who think they have it bad (although at the same time I was reminded of myself - I'm stretching here - and how everything is relative..... don't say it, dad).

It was really filmed interestingly though. Different angles and splices, some camera interaction with the actors, naturalness. William Hurt has always played a great snobby dictator father and it is his 'personal moment' in the film that brought me the closest to sobbing. Marcia Gay Harden is still an amazing actor, as well, and should be in more films. I knew so many women in her portrayl. There were so many unknown actors, too. So many real people. I think Penn is really good at that - identifying the naturalness in people and enhancing that in key moments. Emile Hirsch was really, truly well-suited for this film. Although, I did find myself - through about 6/8th of the film - wondering how hard it was to play a kid who abandons the 'real world' for 'real life adventures' as a dirty tramp hippie. We don't see any of the truly negative aspects of living off the asphalt, but perhaps this kid was fortunate. We're shown only one (rather jarring) scene related to train hopping. From my experience with travellers, there are so many other things that are more frightening than this scene. But I still felt sucked in and empathetic. My god, that kid (and the actor) had balls and was super tough - trekking through thigh-high, icy rivers in Alaska with no hip waders. And Penn's close-up shots made me freak out every time the kid went out into the forest - is he going to be eaten by a bear? attacked by a mountain lion? killed by a pack of wolves? trip and break his ankle? And the front, back, in between shots that take us from the beginning to the end and afterwards and in the middle, well I never got confused and it added to the story instead of going chronologically.

(Can you tell I've been writing papers lately?)

But, in the end, it drained me. . . when I was supposed to be rejuvenated by a beautiful story about road trips and finding oneself. I immediately came home - without even stopping in the theatre to find the bathroom - and wanted to have a stiff drink. But I didn't. So I got to being busy again.

It's been full on gale-storming in Paris lately. Last night I was woken up thinking for sure the roof was going to collapse in on me or I was going to be blown away. I remember thinking as I fell asleep, "I'd love a gentle rain while I slept." Instead my wish was heard as a piercing begging scream and I got downpours at like 3am. Lord. So tonight, I will sleep super duper well, I feel.

PS. A billion new photos uploaded, including themes like:
-Sciences Po MPA department
-Back when it was fall
-additions to the Rue Douai folder
-First arrondissement (louvre)
-Professor as Pollack
-holiday shopping, featuring Hotel de Ville igloo, bus ride, Galleries Lafayette (in all its glory inside)
-Montmartre Cemetery
-a small amount of photos from NYE