LKL’s Blog

I just finished watching the short-lived French series Cinq sœurs (Five Sisters), and I’m very disappointed. It was on 5 nights a week and was supposed to last for a year (260 episodes), but was cancelled after just 108. It wasn’t brilliant by any means, but it was interesting and it was also great for French listening practice, as there were a variety of formal and informal situations (though the verbs tutoyer and vouvoyer were used more than I’ve ever heard them in real life). Plus, it ended on a cliffhanger, with numerous characters in mortal danger. Very uncool!

Do you ever use any of those great Seinfeld expressions like “regift” and “low talker”? You won’t find them in the American Heritage Dictionary, but there are some websites that aim to fill this gap in our cultural lexicon.

The Jerry Seinfeld Dictionary of Terms and Phrases
(Thanks to Mike Durrett at About Humor for this one)

The Seinfeld Dictionary (searchable)

Seinfeld Dictionary (short listing but allows additions)

So it took me a while, but I finally watched all four seasons of the show Lost. I loved it, I really did, but I have to say that I’m a little disappointed that it’s going to run for another two seasons. I felt like the fourth season was wrapping things up, and even with the unanswered questions remaining at the end, I just don’t think there can be that much more story left to tell. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

This movie has broken all French box office records, and with good reason - it’s hilarious, fun, and heart-warming. If you get a chance to see it, don’t miss. I can’t imagine having to watch it with subtitles though, as an important part of the story and dialogue has to do with the French dialect spoken in the north of France.

I read that Will Smith (among others) wants to do a remake. The French article said it would be Bienvenue chez les Blacks, so I’m guessing the English title would be something like Welcome to Harlem. Of course, these are very early days, but it sounds great - I can’t wait to see it!

Just watched Happy Feet - adorable. I was glad that I happened to watch March of the Penguins a few weeks earlier, as I understood the mating/feeding rituals. I was also surprised but pleased by the strong ecological and humanitarian messages of the movie. Best line: Robert Williams’ Spanish-accented “Let me tell something to you!”

This is a real gem of a movie. I’d never heard of it, though it won three prizes at Sundance, but it was in my Netflix recommendations so I thought I’d give it a try. We both loved it - it’s feel-good, it’s funny, it’s clever, it’s sweet. Don’t miss it!

“I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen.”

I saw Stomp the Yard this weekend. The dancing was great, but they did something funky with the lighting and camers during some of the more intense scenes, which made everything kind of hard to make out. I’m not sure whether it was just me, or the theater, or what, but it really detracted from the movie. I often notice a similar problem with great sweeping scenes, like at the beginning of movies when they pan over a whole city or something. I can’t believe that filmmakers wouldn’t notice such flaws, so I wonder what the problem is… does the screen have to be a particular size in order for those effects to work or something?

Just finished watching the last episode of Alias. I never mentioned this show before because we started watching it several months ago and I didn’t want to risk hearing any spoilers. The first couple of seasons were brilliant, but it went a bit downhill after that. The naïveté shown by some of the supposedly intelligent characters got really annoying, though I suppose that’s partly due to having watched all 5 seasons over the course of months - those sorts of themes are hard to take when they are so concentrated. But all in all, it was a brilliant program. I’m not sure yet whether I want to buy the complete collection - it looks very cool (especially the Rambaldi artifact box), but will I ever want to watch the whole thing again?

Saw it last night - wow. If you have even the slightest interest in the environment, economics, politics, cars, and/or corruption, you’ve got to watch Who Killed the Electric Car? - it is mind-blowing. Though I actually saw the images of General Motors destroying scores of perfectly good cars that people offered to buy, I still can’t believe it. Chalk up another victory for oil companies and car manufacturers.