Is it just me?

At work, there is a cart that is a little squeaky, so naturally, I think of this:

On the big screen

One of my very favorite things to do in the DC area is to the AFI Silver in Silver Spring with is this great old theater (1920s) that shows tons of old movies.  I have raved about this place in the past, especially when talking about near 20 film noir movies I have seen at this theater.  But what I love more, is seeing movies that I love on the big screen. I've seen lots of Hitchcock movies, some musicals, and even a Halloween movies (yes, I am going to count The Ghostbreakers starring Bob Hope as a Halloween movie).  But my most memorable big screen moments have come within the last month.  In the middle of November, I saw one of my very favorite movies "To Kill A Mockingbird" on the big screen for its 50th Anniversary.  I adore the book and the movie to it was amazing to see the film again on a such a large scale.  I spent about 2 hours in a darkened room with my fellow film lovers, crying on and off for the entire movie (it must be noted that there was also a marathon the Twilight movies happening at the same time, which both bummed me out (since it was sold out) and then made me feel better about how many were in the theater with me!).  It was a great experience because I knew the plot so well, I could focus on other aspects of the film than were more obvious on the big screen like the cinematography and wardrobe (I am pretty sure that the white suit Atticus wears during the trial was either seersucker or corduroy, a detail that I would not have noticed before).  Also, it didn't hurt that TCM introduced the movie with about 5 anecdotes about the filming of the movie.   Over the last two weekends, I have spent one day in Silver Spring to see a movie in the AFI holiday classic film series.  The first weekend, it was Shop Around the Corner, which I one of the first old movies I remembering really loving and thinking to be undiscovered gem that only a few lucky people, although now I know it is pretty well-known (and it always reminds me of my mother, we have watched it together during Christmas for the past few years).  And then last week, I saw Remember the Night, which is actually a criminally underseen gem of a movie that I love.  It is a really tearjerker (another movie that I cried during once and then for the entire last 10 minutes).  This movie actually made me miss Indiana (I cried during a scene when someone sings "Back Home in Indiana").  And then when it was on TCM a few days later, I watched it again (and cried again).  And then later today, I will be seeing Christmas in Connecticutt.  When I leave the DC area, this will be one thing that I will miss a great deal.  Sitting in the dark with strangers, but together sharing the magical experience of a great movie.

Cultural Dog Whistles

I am currently reading Mindy Kaling's book "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns). And there is a great chapter in the book about things that will make her cry and they include Paul Simon's Graceland album and Mark Darcy (well, really Colin Firth). It is after reading this section that I think "I bet Mindy Kaling and I would totally be friends in real life." I thought the same thing after reading (and hearing) a couple interviews with Amy Poelher. Although for Amy Poelher, I made this this judgment after she talked about how much she enjoyed Law and Order (which means that most likely Amy and I would discuss the cast of L & O and our favorite episodes). And this made me think about what cultural things that I have such affection for that I would give someone the benefit of the doubt if we shared an interest in /affection for a piece of work (to be honest though, I try to think that I should like everyone that I meet). And so here are my cultural dog whistles:

Law and Order: Obviously, since this is what would make Amy Poelher and I friends. But there is something about this show that I love and could watch over and over again. More often that not, the storyline gets a satisfying conclusion and there is a perfect balance of reveling the back story of the main characters without overshadowing the plot of the episode (except for Rey Curtis' martial problems, I could not care less for that subplot, for reals) 

Paul Simon's musical career (which encompasses Simon and Garfunkel): I liked my current boss almost immediately after meeting her (we share a deep love for Moonstruck which we discovered on my second day of work). But after she mentioned about how much she liked the Graceland album, that I knew that we would have a great working relationship (which is true, without fail, every time I discuss a set-back with her, I feel better afterwards). There are a couple other musicians that I feel this way about (like David Gray and Travis, but Paul is the biggie). 

Anne of Green Gables miniseries - One of the first people that I meet at the Academy was Rachel who lived next door. I don't remember how we got on to the topic, but very early in our friendship, we had several marathon discussions about the Anne movies (starring Megan Fellowes) which really cemented us as friends for life (when I saw her 2 years ago for the first time since my freshman year at college, it felt like no time had passed and we watched one of the Anne movies together). 

Jane Austen: I'm not sure how much I have to say about this. I had a 20 minute discussion with Lindy's roommate about the best Jane Austen book (wherein I asked her is she was one of those people who claim Mansfield Park is their favorite). Extra points if they love the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and the Persuasion adaption starring Amanda Root and Cirian Hinds. 

Any entry of the Masterpiece family: I'll take Mystery, Classic, or even Contemporary. Bonus points if they watch other PBS shows. If we can talk about both the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes and Steven Moffat's Sherlock, we could be friends. 

Movies made before 1985: Another co-worker and I have had long discussions about old movies (and how much I love them). I love the style that is associated with movies from each era (you can totally tell the difference between a movie made in the 50s and one made in the 60s) and what you can learn about the cultural environment during the making of the film. And to me, an interest in older movies, indicates a interest in the recent past beyond the dates of historical events. 

I am a little on the fence about including Doctor Who. I love it and think is a great topic for figuring out someone's personalities but it is also fraught with dangers. Like if someone thinks Rose was the best companion (when clearly, Donna was the best), it makes me less likely to want to keep talking to a person and sort of eliminates the whole advantage of the cultural touchstone.

Belated Birthday

I wanted to do a little write up of my fun 4-day birthday weekend because my mom came out to DC so spend it with me! I kidded my mom for several months (actually closer to a year+) that she would never come out to DC to visit me though I thought she would really like the city. So she decided to come out to see me for my 29th birthday (my birthday was on a Thursday). She flew into the Baltimore-Washington airport on Wednesday night (after a slight delay which resulted in me driving 15 miles to the airport and then circling the airport for 15 miles) and we went to the hotel in Bowie and order delicious pizza from a local chain (she even got anchovies on half!). On my actual birthday, we went to my favorite museum: The Smithsonian American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery. I got to show her all my favorite paintings (and sculpture) as well as a cool exhibit of color photographs from the 1940s. And then we had a yummy birthday dinner at DuClaw (in which mom got ribs, of course).  The next day it was back down to the Mall to go to the National Gallery which is chock-full of beautiful paintings, but a little overwhelming!  We were happy to stumble into a special exhibit that featured the still life painting of the Dutch painter Willem van Aelst (which were really gorgeous and featured a lot of atypical items for a still life).  After a long day of looking at paintings, we went out to dinner at the Silver Diner (which means that I have taken all my visitors to the Silver Dinner).  Saturday was more low-key (I don't think mom anticipated the huge amount of walking that we did the first two days), as we went to Silver Spring and walked through the farmer's market before going to the AFI Silver (my favorite place!) to see Some Like It Hot.  We followed the movie with a tasty lunch as Nado Peri Peri before heading back to the hotel for a swim.  And finally on Sunday, we had lunch at a great Indian place before stopping by my new apartment and then heading down to the Kennedy Center to see Shear Madness (which was really good!).  I took mom back to the airport on Monday morning.  I was sad to see her go but I was very happy that she came out!  And here are some pictures from her visit:
>

Reassurance, again

I know I had a blog post about a month ago stating that I wasn't abandoning my blog, and here is another one. It isn't due to a lack of ideas (I have at least 3 posts in my head to write up), but due to the fact that I have become a quilting machine. There are many people in my immediate or extended family that decided to have a baby this year (or early next year), so I have been churning out the baby quilts as quickly as possible. I have 3 done with 3 more to go (though one will be a big sibling quilt because I wasn't quilting the first time around). But this weekend, I am planning on writing a couple posts. So you can look forward to a write-up of my mom's visit for my birthday, my Labor Day trip to Boston, a discussion of Billy Wilder (it will make sense I promise!), and a review of the play Bengal Tiger at the Bahgdad Zoo (after I see it on Saturday, thanks to tickets from Bridget!).

Proving I am both a nerd and a worrier

In preparing for my bus trip to Boston (which I will write about later), I took a trip down to Union Station to figure out where to get on the bus (because I am a worrier). But, across the street from Union Station, is the (much less popular) National Postal Museum. It was actually pretty interesting, like learning about the evolution of Postal vehicles (like most of the Postal vehicles after WW I were retired Army Jeeps, painted with the excess Army green). But my very favorite thing was the collection of postal stamps all over the world. I spent about 2 hours looking through all of the collection (and there were lots). It was kind of interesting to look at the history of the world through the stamps. Like seeing Hilter show up on the Germany stamps (as well as the occupation stamps from both Germany during the war and US/British/Russian occupation of Berlin post-war). And it was kind of weird to see stamps from former colonies (like British Honduras or Portuguese India). I took pictures of my favorite stamps, which you can see below:

Like This for Example

Here are few songs that I am loving right now:

Having to overcome thresholds

I haven't completely abandoned this blog, it just seems like it.  I haven't posted anything in about two months due to a number of things.  Work got extremely busy at the end of June and during this time I had to both find a new place to live and move in to it.  I had found the place the live with relative ease and planned on moving in after going home over the 4th of July holiday.  It was during that week home, that the hard drive on my computer failed and a new hard-drive got installed but I had several (and endless) issues with getting Windows installed (which is actually still not solved, which is what I get for not letting Orrin figure it out, which he might have to do next time I see him).  And now August is halfway over.  I am going to try to do a little catch-up blogging, not that anyone really reads this blog, but I like giving myself little writing assignments.  Plus is keeps my wit sharp.  And sometimes when I get upset and feel like I am going to cry out of frustration, sadness, loneliness, or just general melancholy, writing a post about what I am reading, thinking about, or something that makes me happy can snap me out of my mood. 

Anti-Duke

I was talking to my mother a few days ago lamenting that I feel like I am creating gaps in movie education by my dislike of westerns and war movies. My mom suggested a few westerns that I might like including Big Country (with my beloved Gregory Peck), Shane (with Alan Ladd who I also like), and Stagecoach with John Wayne. I have an intense dislike of John Wayne. I don't think that he was that great of actor and it seems like most of his success was due to his friendship with John Houston. With that I mind the first western I decided to watch was High Noon with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. And I decided to read a little about it on Wikipedia and apparently John Wayne (and Howard Hawks) hated it and thought it was Unamerican (in fact Howard Hawks claimed that he made Rio Bravo in response to High Noon) because Will spends time asking for help defending the town (and it sounds like Hawks didn't like that the only one to help Will was his Quaker wife, so maybe Hawks hated Quakers?). And ironically, the Soviet Union didn't like High Noon either because the focus was too much on the individual.  The screenwriter (Carl Foreman who also wrote one of the few war movies I enjoy : The Guns of Navarone) was blacklisted and left the country. John Wayne was involved in getting Carl Foreman blacklisted and claimed he had no regrets about it (Foreman refused to name names at a House Unamerican Activities Committee hearing). So now I feel like I have an additional reason to not like John Wayne.

Don't Tell Rachel

When I was driving to the Olney Theater on less traveled and winding country road, I got a little nostalgic for Vermont.  There was just something about the historic little towns that dotted the road that reminded me of Vermont.  And then I realized I kind of miss living in Vermont with Rachel, Trey, Ellis, and Maddox. 

Theater Talk

I am super behind on my blog posts and I don't have great excuses other than I didn't write them (and I'm sure anyone who reads this blog is super disappointed that I took sooo long).  Any way, a few weeks ago I went to the Olney Theater to see "The 39 Steps" which was an adaptation of the Hitchcock movie/Buchan book.  It wasn't on the main stage but in the lab theater so the theater and stage were smaller which meant the stage design was nontraditional.  There were slats in the floor of the stage so set pieces (like a window or ladders) could be pushed on and off the stage.  The cast was just 4 people with the main character (a wronged man on the run), a woman (who played the 3 women characters), and 2 "clowns" who played the remaining characters (including a Scottish innkeeper couple, shady spies, and vaudeville performers).  The clowns added quite a bit of levity to play, which was probably helped (well, it helped me personally) that one looked like the love child of Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald from Kids in the Hall.  I liked it, but not as much as Hitchcock's version.  And then the following Friday, I took off a few hours from work to go see 1776 (in the last few days of its run) at Ford's Theater.  And it was pretty much incredible.  The theater alone is beautiful with the flags draping the box where Lincoln was assassinated.  There is a museum about Lincoln in the basement (with a focus on his second-term) and one of the most moving displays was all the living former presidents reading the Gettysburg address (so while I may not agree with their specific political beliefs, I can appreciate their oratory skills, even George W. Bush).   And the show was fantastic.  Due to watching the film version every year on the Fourth for many years, I know the words to almost all the songs, which the exception of my two least favorites: Mama Look Sharp and Molasses to Rum. Actually, since we usually watch it on DVD/VHS, it has probably been quite a while since I have listened to those two songs.  But in the stage version, I actually liked Mama Look Sharp (it made me cry) because the staging of this scene created such an atmosphere of intimacy. However, I am unmoved about Molasses to Rum (still creepy!).  The only draw-back to the show was there were eighth grades in the five rows in front of me.  They weren't too talkative but they did stand up for no apparent reason a couple of times.  And at least one did not read his program because he thought intermission was the end (which made no sense plot-wise, Jefferson hadn't even written the Declaration yet).  Having the eighth graders (and their chaperones who were older than me) there, once again reiterated that I am living in the wrong decade or at least the wrong country.  I made sure to dress up to go to the theater but the kids had on short and t-shirts and kept their hats on (and I saw a chaperone wearing what looked like work-out clothes).  I understand that they were probably walking around during the day, but I remember for my eighth grade trip to DC, our group went back to the hotel and changed before we went to see a show (and it was not at Ford's Theater).  Of course, I still enjoyed the whole experience, I only wish that my mother and my sisters could have gone with me.  There are a couple plays over the summer that I am hoping to see including Double Indemnity, Little Shop of Horrors, and something at the Kennedy Center (possibly The Addams Family) and War Horse at the Kennedy Center when it starts in the fall!

More Avenger-y stuff

Prior to seeing the Avengers, I saw the movie Thor.  I was kind of ambivalent about it (I didn't see it in the theater unlike Captain America, which I loved) so I had pretty low expectations for it.  Going in, I thought it had two things going for it: Anthony Hopkins and that Kenneth Braunagh was directing.  But I have to say, I really liked it.  There were another couple actors that I liked in it like Stellan Skarsgard, Kat Dennings, and Idris Elba.  The costume design was pretty solid, there were so many helmets (including at one point, a golden eye patch for Anthony Hopkins).  But the biggest surprise was how good Tom Hiddleston was as Loki.  I've seen him before in Return to Cranford, but he was kind of a milquetoast so I did not expect him to be able to pull off such a complicated character (and he is just as good in The Avengers movie).  And he is hampered by a super ridiculous helmet.

This does not bode well

I went to go see The Avengers today (in 3D due to that being the earliest showing that was not sold-out).  Usually, I think that the previews before a movie can give you some insight into what the expect from the movie.  My favorite (and tailored to me) example, is the single preview before being Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was for The Artist and the single preview before The Artist being for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  So I was a little apprehensive when the first 3 previews were for The Expendables 2, Battleship, and End of the Watch.  Also known as 3 movies that are not for me (and not even targeted for me).  I can't believe how terrible Battleship looks.  I think that there was a title card that read something also the line of " from the unholy Hasbro Toy and movie studio alliance that brought you Transformers" (and really Liam Nesson, what are you doing?  Do you have some sort of huge gambling debt you need to pay off?).  But the next 4 were much more reassuring since the trailers were for Abnorman (from the director of Coraline),  Frankenweenie (from Tim Burton), Brave (the summer Pixar movie), and the new Spiderman movie.  In the end, I really enjoyed The Avengers movie.  The writers did a really great jobs with giving little side stories to all the main characters without it feeling bogged down or overly long.  The movie is about 2 hours long, but it definately didn't feel that long something that I chalk up to a very tight script and a good editor (and a director willing to cut things that don't work).  It was a really fun film with just enough humor in it to show it wasn't taking itself too seriously (which is refreshing compared to Christopher Nolan super serious Batman movies) and it was obvious that Joss Whedon et al wanted to make an entertaining and stylish film.  With just the right amount of the Incredible Hulk.

One Season Wonder

One of my favorite series on my PBS station back at the farm was One Season Wonders.  It was series from the UK (usually comedy) that only ran one season, around 6 or 7 episodes.  And my very favorite show was Meet the Savages starring Marcus Brigstock (who I still adore and have subsequently discovered some radio shows that he wrote).  I recently finished the show Monday, Monday (also from the BBC) which was another show that only lasted one season.   I have such a strange attitude towards shows that last only one season.  Often, I get bummed after finishing the episodes because if the show has done it's job, I care about the characters and I want to know what happens.  But, if that is the case more often that not, I get imagine what ever I want happening to the character.  And sometimes (more often with British shows I find), the last episode of the series wraps up most of the story lines, not completely, but enough that the end is satisfying.  So then you get this perfect little bite of a totally enjoyable show that hit it's peak without showing any wear that you see in later seasons.  There are many shows that I like that seemed like the writers didn't really know what to do with the characters anymore ( Veronica Mars, Alias, King of the Hill (which I liked in later seasons but the writing was not a tight as it was earlier on) and The Office which is really showing it's age during this post-Steve Carrell season).  And occasionally, I will think of one really amazing season of a long running show as a one season wonder.  This is certainly true with the second season of the show Justified (which I watched in the span out about 18 hours (and this includes about 7 hours of sleep).  That second season can almost stand completely separately from season 1 (except that the beginning of the first episode begins right were the previous episode leaves off).   They did such a great job expanding the characters that you aren't too handicapped if you hadn't seen the first season at all. 

Trailer time

This was 1 of the 2 trailers I saw before  the movie Salmon Fishing in the Yemen today:


And now, I really want to see the movie Pina. Fortunately, it is playing at my favorite theater! So for fun, here are a few more clips from the movie:

Expectations Met

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I went to the AFI Silver to see John Ford's The Quiet Man starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.  I have never been a fan of John Wayne, mostly because the two genres of most of his films, westerns and war movies, are probably two of my least favorite genres.  So I was hoping that somehow seeing this movie, I would suddenly enjoy John Wayne's oeuvre.  But that didn't happen.  I did like the movie, but there were certain parts of the movie that I didn't like (and seemed a little dated), specific the implied spousal abuse (towards the end of the movie, John Wayne walks/drags Maureen O'Hara for 5 miles). But, there were other aspects of the movie that I did like.  The supporting cast was really good and the cinematography was gorgeous.  So I would say watching the Quiet Man did make me want to see more John Ford movies (although, I know he did make quite a few westerns and war movies).  There were a quite a few times watching the movie, I thought, "Oh, if only the casting was different I would enjoy this movie more".  Which then led to think about what actors I would have preferred in the roles.   I thought about one of my old standby favorite Joseph Cotten but he didn't have the right build to play an ex-boxer.  I also thought maybe Dana Andrews, but again he was a little on the short side.  Robert Mitchum has the right build, but I also find him kind of terrifying due to seeing Cape Fear and Night of the Hunter.  On the female side, I thought maybe Bette Davis or Ida Lupino (though she was a very tiny woman).  I ended up thinking that Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck would have been great together (they were in a few movies together, including Banjo on My Knee which I watched this week). Any other suggestions?

Lessons

What I learned from watching It's Always Fair Weather:

1. Dan Dailey was a very tall man, that or both Michael Kidd and Gene Kelly were wee men.  (I checked Imdb, Dan Dailey was 6' 3")
2. I am pretty sure that I saw the signature Pontipee dance move in this movie (done by Michael Kidd obviously).
3. Dan Dailey made a really poor facial hair decision with the mustache he sports in the later half of the movie.  
4. Gene Kelly was a great choreographer, but really only for himself.  Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd dance with Gene Kelly but really only Gene Kelly looks natural doing the moves.  Dan Dailey was about 6 inches taller than Kelly and Michael Kidd is a couple inches shorter than Kelly and both Dailey and Kidd have a different build than Kelly (both are thinner). And they look weird dancing next to Gene Kelly because they look kind of awkward. 
5. I remain indifferent in regards to Cyd Charisse. 
6. I kind of wanted to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers after seeing Michael Kidd.  
7. I was kind of hoping that Tommy Rall would show up somehow.
8. I want to watch some more movies with Dan Dailey (and Betty Grable!). 

More Gene Kelly

Gene Kelly dancing with the Nicholas Brothers in The Pirate:

One thing I noticed while watching this was the complete difference in the build of Gene Kelly versus the Nicholas Brothers.  Well that, and the fact that there are many dance moves in this number that they did much better than Gene Kelly (which makes it sad that the Nicholas Brothers were not more famous).  

And this is just fun:

 

Gene Kelly, Dream Dancer

I went to AFI Silver today to see the Gene Kelly/Judy Garland musical The Pirate (directed by Vincent Minnelli and music by Cole Porter).  And about 2/3 of the way through, there is this crazy dance scene of Gene Kelly as a pirate in shorts (which I think is mostly to show off his giant dancer thighs):

This naturally made me think of other weird dance scenes from other Gene Kelly movies.  Like Singin In the Rain:

 

On the Town:

But the crazy weird dance sequence is not limited to only Gene Kelly movies.  There is also one in Kiss Me Kate: (the weird part is when Bob Fosse and his partner start dancing, after the weird scream).

White Christmas:

And let's not forget Oklahoma! :

The main purpose of these dance sequences is to show off different styles of dance (mostly modern dance) but the way the scene are added to the movie always seemed kind of awkward to me.  In a lot of the movies, one or more of the main characters is replaced by another (more talented) dancer.  This happened specifically in Gene Kelly movies since most often his leading ladies were mainly singers (all though Vera Ivy in On the Town was a dancer so I can't explain that one).  Out of all the clips from above, the one from White Christmas is the least awkwardly introduced because it a dance number for the show.  So be on the lookout for awkward dance sequences, they are in tons of musicals. 

Saving it up

I picked up an exciting surprise package from UPS today.  A couple of weeks ago, I filled out a feedback survey for a new RNA isolation kit at work.  My boss had signed our lab up to be beta testers for the company for future kits, so I mostly wanted to get familar with feedback system.  The company was running a promotion that you could win an iPad if you fill out the feedback survey.  I have to assume that very few people filled out the survey, because I won an iPad (and I never win anything).  I picked it up today and just started playing around on it.  So if anyone has any suggestions for fun apps, let me know!

That's not your place

A few weeks ago, I headed off to the AFI Silver to see the movie The Artist.  The movie is about the transition from silent movies to talkies with a silent film star (named George Valentin) resisting the move.  Therefore, the majority of the movie is silent with interstitial cards used occasionally throughout the movie.  As a result, the score is a very important part in conveying emotions since there is no audible dialogue.  And the score is really amazing and includes a little bit  the score from Vertigo written by Bernard Hermann.  The score (rightly so in my opinion) is getting strong Oscar buzz (as long as the score is 80% original material, it can be nominated).  So I was surprised to read last week that Kim Novak (who starred in Vertigo), took out a full page add stating that she felt like a rape had been committed against her by the use of Bernard Hermann's score.  Ignoring the extremely poor choice of words ( which seems to belittle the violence of an actually sexual assault),  I don't think that it is really Kim Novak's place to make this argument.  The composer got permission from Bernard Hermann's estate to use some of the score and furthermore Kim Novak didn't write the score.  Also, she claims that she is the only one left to defend Vertigo because Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart are dead.  Vertigo is arguably one of Hitchcock's most famous movies (though not one of my favorites) and I'm not sure that the credit is due to Kim Novak.  I think most of the credit goes to Hitchcock and the crew that worked on the film. So to me, this arguemnt came off as a slap in the face of anyone else who worked on that film.  She totally overreacted to the situation and I think that she comes out in a poorer light than the composer or the director of The Artist (the director released a statement along the lines of Bernard Hermann was a great composer and we were lucky that were we able to pay our respect to him by using some of his work in this film).  But besides this Kim Novak rant, I highly recommend The Artist, especially for people who enjoy old movies.  The costumers, set directors, and make-up artists really capture the era beautifully and there is a great scene that feature some amazing sound design and sound editing.  And I have to hand it to the actors, they did a great job adapting to a medium that I'm sure was foreign to all of the them.  The cast is really great too, with nice supporting roles from James Cromwell, Missi Pyle, and John Goodman (who I usually forget that I like).

The Apprentice has become the master

I have proof that I have seen too many film noir movies.  I was watching The Killing today which is a film noir movie by Stanley Kubrick.  And during the entire buildup to the heist, I was trying to identify which characters was going to get killed (there were about 2 characters I was sure were going to bite it, but they lived) and how the heist was going to go awry (I was pretty close on this one).  I will still watch more film noir films, some for the titles alone( there is one called Hell's Half Acre!) and because during a certain period in the late 40s/early 50s, there were are lot of actors and actress that I really like in film noir pictures (not to mention one of my favorite old studios, RKO Pictures, is known at The House Noir Built). 

Rich man, Poor man, Beggar, Thief

Last Saturday, I went to my beloved AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring to see the new movie adaptation of John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  This adaptation was chock full of British actors that I know and like including Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Gary Oldman, Cirian Hinds, Toby Jones, John Hurt, Tom Hardy, and Benedict Cumberbatch (which means Sirius Black starred in a spy thriller with Sherlock Holmes, Mr. Knightley, Captain Wentworth, and Mr. Darcy).  So I really liked the movie. Beyond the great casting, the director did a great job with establishing the fear and paranoia of the Cold War.  And the set design and costuming was really good.  But I have to say this is a movie that will benefit from repeat viewing.  Once you know the basic plot, you will probably notice/understand more of the subtle plot points and will make the movie more enjoyable (this is how I feel about the movie Gosford Park, by the 3rdv viewing I figured out what the familial relationship and who the couples were).  All in all, it was a good way to spend an afternoon.  However, there was one guy at the movie who both did not turn off his phone (and then didn't seem to understand that his ring tone was ruining the movie, seriously someone had to tell him to turn off his phone) and then fell asleep during the movie (I could hear his snoring, he was only a few rows in front of me).