Where: Valence, France
When: March 2013
At last an excuse to
get writing again, it has been so very long.
During the regular "spring" trip to France there were some fun
things to write about. Well, one good
exhibition, some beautiful scenery (though sadly I only get to talk about the
stuff on film) and well... lunch at the
Pirate Tavern... But really, more than
anything else it was time for me to explore my inner child and how much fun it
can be. It all started on the drive back
from the airport, at least for me it did, "Oh look, a Pirate Tavern! How exciting." Or words to that effect, who knows whether
this innocent comment planted a seed, gave someone an excuse or whether it was
just a passing comment on the inevitability of things to come. Anyway, I dislike the idea of eating at a
themed restaurant as much as anyone but somehow the idea of going to eat at one
brings out my inner child. The pain of it all. Anyway, later that week we ended up at the
Pirate Tavern for a birthday lunch.
When you see the name Pirate Tavern you expect excitement,
parrots, pirates, tankards, and the smell of the sea; generally something
pretty rowdy. However the Pirate Tavern
in Valence did not have this idea in mind, in fact it was all rather polite,
complete with smiling pirates and relaxing sea shanties playing for background
noise. The only hint of chaos was the
crossed knives and forks. The menu was
destination themed and we each chose a set menu from a different country where
pirates may or may not have ventured, Thailand, Morocco, Italy and France -
perhaps French pirates sailed different oceans to the British...
The food was nicely presented and pretty tasty. Not being a fan of things from the ocean I
went with the Moroccan option. I
actually quite enjoyed my meal it was full of flavour and my lamb was very
tender and soft. It certainly was not
what I was expecting and didn't feel very piratey but it was a good lunch
nevertheless.
Now if the pirates
didn't bring out my inner child then potatoes certainly would. There was an Agnes Varda exhibition on and
this was something I was really looking forward to. There were two pieces in this small exhibit
that really engaged my inner child. The
first was a film about a photo, Ulysse.
The photo was a black and white shot of a pebbly beach with what looked
like a father and son together in the mid area and a dead sheep in the
foreground hidden amongst the stones.
With a childlike curiosity Varda tracks down those in the photo many
years after it was taken and explores all the angles. The young boy is now a man, married with
children, the young man is now an old man.
The beech is still there and sheep are still plentiful. Varda questions those involved about the time
of the photo and how their lives have moved on creating a narrative and
explanation of the photo above any conventional understanding. She also shoots the film in such a way
recreating elements from the photo in the different scenes. It was immensely enjoyable. The second memorable moment was watching the
installation of potatoes going through various transformations with age,
inspired by the heart shaped potato in the The Gleaners & I (Varda, 2000)
With pirates and potatoes my inner child was enjoying itself
but it then decided to grow up and go and watch a film. I have always been a big Terrence Malick fan,
well as big as one could be with just a handful of releases over the majority
of his directorial career. Of late he
has picked up the pace. How would To the
Wonder compare with the acclaimed (and at times up its arse) The Tree of Life
(Malick, 2011) and his prior works? To
the Wonder is really a companion piece to The Tree of Life. Whereas The Tree of Life seems to focus on
masculinity, To the Wonder sees the same story from a more feminine angle. For me the film was all about the failure to
obtain the perfect life these characters wanted. For the woman, Marina (Olga Kurylenko) a
loving perfect family, for the man, Neil (Ben Affleck) a natural life of his
own, with his own child. For the priest,
Father Qunitana (Javier Bardem) to find God again, but amongst beautiful shots
of Paris, Mont Saint-Michel and the farm lands of Oklahoma in the American
mid-west I just stopped caring about these characters.
Visually this was perhaps the most beautiful and mesmerising
of Malick's films, the dusky magic hour sunlight, midnight in rain soaked
Paris. Maybe it was all too subtle but I
found there was nothing to get my teeth in to, nothing to get all that
emotional about. They say films are made
in the editing suite but if we put To the Wonder back into plot order it would
be nothing to write home about, just another make up/break up film... Hopefully the next one will be better.
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