Sinema7

CONTAINS SPOILERS.

There is something romantic and alluring about the past. Most of us can personally identify with some time in history other than our own. Gil  is nostalgic for Paris in the 1920′s. He is attracted to the Lost Generation, a community of post-World War I artists, thinkers, and especially writers who lived bohemian lives on the west bank in Paris.

Gil dreams of becoming the novelist that Paris has always beckoned him to become.  He’s begun his novel and is now back in Paris.  He’s come to Paris with his shallow, materialistic California fiancé, Inez, and her equally graceless parents. They can’t understand why he’d want to leave his lucrative job as a Hollywood screenwriter for an unrealistic dream. Continue reading

Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of those stories that bears retelling. I remember watching the 1951 version starring Alistair Sim on TV as a child and being terrified of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.  When the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge Marley’s deathbed scene I think I learned the meaning of mortality before I ever heard the word. It was my first sobering visit with one of Dickens’ ghosts.

I think the Muppets might tell it best, though Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse both do credible jobs. The most recent Disney offering starring Jim Carrey is pretty good as is the BBC version.  And I sort of liked Bill Murray’s modern version, Scrooged. With each viewing one of the ghosts has had something different to show me. Continue reading