Quelques Choses, Peut-être Ils Doivent Au Séjour Caché (Some Things, Maybe They Ought To Stay Hidden)

Last night, Monkey and I had a tasty dinner of Indian food, then came home to watch a movie we had rented. We actually rented two movies, but knew that one would have to wait until this morning.

The movie we had selected to watch was a French film, Cache, or, as the translation on the DVD told us, Hidden. At the outset, this movie had several things working against it. The first being that it was French. With few exceptions, I just don't like French films. They generally have a languid quality that I do not like. In addition, I often feel like they don't make plot developments clear enough. That could be a cultural problem (or, possibly, an intelligence problem), but whatever it is, I don't like it. The second difficulty that this film had to overcome was the prescence of Juliet Binoche, the French Julia Roberts. The third thing was the belly full of curry that was literally trying to drag me into the Land of Nod.

Well, friends and neighbors, let me tell you that this movie was about the worst thing I have seen since Running with Scissors (and maybe even before that). The pace of this movie made all previous French films seem like The Fast and the Furious 2. It was evident from the opening shot (which lasted for ten minutes) of the dwelling of the protagonists, in which one bicyclist, one vehicle, and about four people passed in and out of the frame. Every scene was stuffed with silence and inactivity. For some this is art, verite, an integral element of the film's thematic arc. For me, it's just boring as baseball is for Jersey Girl.

The Indian food got the best of me on more than one occasion, but I couldn't tell if I missed anything or not. Needless to say, my high school-level knowledge of French does me no good when I am drifting off to sleep--I am subtitle dependent.

Oddly, Madame Binoche was pretty good in this film. She was about the most active character in the film, and she did a capital job. I kind of enjoyed her--go figure.

The bottom line here--avoid Cache, as a matter of fact, avoid French cinema, as a rule.

The other movie we watched this morning. Cowboy del Amor, a cute doc about a 60-year old former cowboy in New Mexico, who now makes his living setting up desperate gringos with Mexican women. It is as light-hearted an entertainment as documentary can be. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!

And today, by the way, the sun is shining, and it feels like it's about 40 degrees out there. Beautiful!