Kanlaon

First, “Promised Land.”  Though this was not one of the movies on self’s “Five Movies She Most Wants to See” list, she ended up seeing it after reading what Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle, wrote about Matt Damon in a review.  Self is glad she saw it, for it was indeed a very good movie.  She found out that Damon and John Krasinski wrote the screenplay and that they also co-produced.  The script was really smart and made some very intelligent sense.  Kudos also to John Krasinski for SPOILER ALERT! coming off as the nicest corporate bad guy ever.  She can see why the character played by Rosemary DeWitt was charmed.  As for this actress, self has to say:  She never believed her in the role of a small-town schoolteacher, not for one moment.  Something to do with the way she spoke, the brittleness of her language, and the knowing way she gestured with her hands.

This evening, self saw “Django.”  My, one thing you can say for Quentin Tarantino, his revenge fantasies are so satisfying and emotionally cathartic, and he’s funny, too.  She loved the intensity here.  She thought “Django” was better than “Inglorious Basterds.”  Funny, Tarantino seems to be the only American movie director who knows how to make full use of Christoph Waltz’s extraordinary gift for the ironic throw-away.  Kerry Washington is perfect as the iconic Brunhilda von Staft (Yes indeed, that is the full name of the character Ms. Washington played), and she performs terror very very well.  Jamie Foxx is hotter than ever, and possibly hotter even than Channing Tatum.  She loved the scene where he rides his horse at full gallop, back to a plantation named Candieland, to rescue his love.  Self is amazed the people at the plantation didn’t kill off Brunhilda, the moment they knew of her connection to Django.  No, in fact, there is not a mark on her –  not a bruise, nothing.  They put her in a room.  With a bed.  Then leave her alone.  Go figure.  (These men who had the lovely Brunhilda in their power were not gentlemen.  In fact, they were sadists.  Self fully expected the worst to happen.  Though she is not complaining that Brunhilda was preserved.  Just –  puzzled.  In the same way she was puzzled by Freida Pinto’s fresh-as-a-daisy countenance, even after 10 years of being a brute’s mistress, in the movie “Slumdog Millionaires.”  There you go again with the digressions, self!)

And now self would like to list the books she is interested in reading after perusing the Book Review section of the Weekend Wall Street Journal.  Since it is getting quite late, and self has been sleeping only fitfully lately, she will simply list the favored books, with a minimum of commentary:

• Two short story collections by George Saunders:  Pastoralia and Tenth of December (She loved, absolutely loved CivilWarLand in Bad Decline)
• Constantine the Emperor, by David Potter:  How self adores biographies of figures from remote antiquity!
• Three of five books recommended by novelist Stefan Kiesbye:  Winesberg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson;  The Murder Farm, by Andrea Maria Schenkel;  and Melanctha by Gertrude Stein (one of three novellas in Stein’s first work, Three Lives)

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.