I promised myself I wouldn't get more than a week behind but exhaustion happens.
This morning we went to la Cinématheque Française. The collections of Henri Longlois were incredible. It was interesting to hear the French take on the beginnings of cinema. It's fairly objective information - Edison was a huge asshole - but to hear the logistics of it from this side was interesting. I didn't know the exact history of how he banned Lumiere showings in the US, so that was cool to hear.
La Cinémathèque, which holds the largest collection of films, movie documents and film-related objects in the world.
There was an exhibit in honor of George Méliès, who was one of the earliest film directors. He was really big on trick films where he would chop off his own head and then superimpose it various times, so that there would be 3-5 floating heads in the room. And there's this weird one where this green devil (each frame is hand painted) throws all these women in a burning couldron. And, of course, A Trip to the Moon.
Other really cool things we saw:
The actual head of Mrs. Bates from Psycho, donated by Alfred Hitchcock
The dress worn by Anne Baxter at the end of All About Eve, one of my all-time favorite movies
An honorary Oscar for Longlois - the closest I've ever been to one of these guys!
All in all the collections we saw--just a fraction of what the Cinémathèque holds--was incredible. It is rumored that we will return for a screening; I really hope we do.
I'm trying to remember what else we did that day. We went to ACCENT only to hear that class had been canceled, so we had a picnic in the park.
Random observations I made that day: The French don't use ice in their drinks for some reason. The only time I've ever even seen ice here was when it was served with white wine. It's a little frustrating because I've had yet to have a truly cold Coke, and the water is usually pretty warm. Our room fridges don't have freezers, so it'll be awhile before I see my childhood love of icecubes once again. Also, no water fountains anywhere.
Walking total: 9.2 miles.
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