Taking Proust to Montreal

I'm trekking to Montreal to see the Cuban art exhibit, something that is hard to find in the states. I mentioned this to a friend who had actually been in Cuba, and she said she didn't remember seeing any art, which is odd, as she is a painter.

So we'll see what we see.

http://www.mmfa.qc.ca/en/expositions/a_affiche.sn

Would Proust like it? Who knows?

A small mention of Proust in this article:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/cannes/article3978284.ece

And more yet still:

http://emmarytz.livejournal.com/287556.html

And of course Web CowGirl always has something interesting to say about Proust. I just have a few more pages of a thriller to read before I return to the kinder, gentler world of Marcel. Come to think of it, it's not kinder at all, but the violence is psychological, not physical.
http://webcowgirl.livejournal.com/

Odette

Time Regained, the Movie

Significant Other and I saw this movie a few years ago at Harvard Square. It was shown in the funky cinema in a basement with folding chairs--they frequently have revivals of movies you can't see anywhere else. 50 cents says your local video rental place does not have Time Regained. Probably Netflix does. We are so time-starved (and so picky) about movies that we can't barely get through the On Demand offerings.

Click here for a review: http://www.weekinrewind.com/2007/11/time-regained-movie-review-dvd-review.html

Catherine DeNeuve is beautiful as an aging Odette, whom I had always imagined as a brunette. I always liked Odette better after seeing the movie. Ruiz was perfect at Marcel, the narrator, and the rest of the cast was stellar. It's definitely worth finding or renting if you dig Proust.

I continue to make headway into Madame Proust, sympathizing with her "female troubles" and intrigued by her dinner parties for Proust's friends. The Dreyfus affair is always riveting, a small precursor of what would happened in Europe during the 30's and 40's. The book explains some of Proust's anti-semitism in the novel. The descriptions of the seaside hotels where she stayed are interesting. We were at one of those old dowagers once on the Ligurian Riviera. It had seen finer days, but one had one's own table, en famille, with the water and wine carried over from meal to meal. The same waiter, alas sometimes the same napkin, and the waiter would become familiar with one's likes and dislikes. Are there still such places?
But I digress.

Today is cat blog day, and this morning there was the de riguer game of chasey-face with somewhat desultory running about the living room. Annie finally settled down on the sideboard, and Thisbe on the dining room table, where they ignored each other until the game was forgotten. Last night I went to bed really early and forgot to check the contents of the cat bowl. Significant Other was awakened in the middle of the night by a cat licking his face, a gentle reminder that the dish was empty. They never come upstairs into our bedroom and bawl for food. It's always just a very gentle reminder. Wake up and feed me.

Off to do battle with HTML. Read some Proust this weekend.

Odette