Spinal Tap

Crank up the volume up to 11!
Now that was a funny movie. Spinal Tap, the father of all rock mokumentary, a kick in the face of all good manners and taste, a smelly outrageous bang in the pompous world of hard rock and its metal hairy dudes with tight shiny pants.
It’s loud, it’s ridiculous, it’s funny as hell and it was my movie of choice yesterday night.
It tells the story of a fake British band, called Spinal Tap, in the form of a documentary that recounts their US tour as they’re facing a decrease of popularity among their fan base. Of course, everything goes wrong, from cancelled shows to ridiculously bad designed stage accessories and from tension among the band members to lack of support from their record company.
It has been on my watch list for ages but for inexplicable reasons there were always other movies that where coming out of priority before this one.
Anyway, I finally watched it and I had the best laugh in a long time.
Damn, that was funny!
I mean, I’m a huge music lover (ok, probably not a heavy metal music lover…) and I just love to see musicians talk about their songs, their instruments or the cover art for their next album. But I must admit that sometimes, it could become a bit silly and disconnected from the reality.
What Spinal Tap does perfectly, is to take those silly moments and build up the all career of the band on those moments. And it just works wonderfully. Of course, they look stupid and all, but at the same time they might as well be a real band as far as I know because all the surrounding (concert, instrument, producer, fans…) makes it look pretty real.
And the songs (all written for the film) rock pretty well. As for the lyrics…well, here’s a piece of their beautiful and tasty songwriting. It’s called…hum…”Big Bottom”

The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'
That's what I said
The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand
Or so I have read

My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo
I'd like to sink her with my pink torpedo

Big bottom, big bottom
Talk about bum cakes, my girl's got 'em
Big bottom drive me out of my mind
How could I leave this behind?

So now you want to watch this, right?
The movie was directed by Rob Reiner who later became famous for directing “When Harry met Sally” or “Misery” among other things.
And that was his first feature film…not a bad thing to start with.
So pick up the DVD or Blu Ray, crank up the volume up to 11 and enjoy the show!

Movie Magic

Believe it or not, yesterday night I’ve experienced for the first time of my life the magical world of Oz.

As a Frenchman, this movie has never been a movie staple for me. I mean, I knew it existed, I knew about the scarecrow, the tin man and the lion…gosh, I even knew about the famous song. They would probably show it on TV around Christmas but I just didn’t take the chance to actually watch it. And after all, we’ve got our own children’s classic movies and they were the one we would watch with fervor and passion under the comforting shadow of the big Christmas tree year after year. Jean Marais, Gerard Philippe, Belmondo, they were my heroes, the one that I was hoping to join on their exhilarating adventures, riding horses, climbing donjons and inviolable castles.

But back to Oz…

In a sense, what a better way to discover the wonders and colors of this movie than watch it in the marvelous blu-ray edition that was released a few days ago. It will never rival with the “in-theater” experience, but it’s definitely a close contestant that could bring magic and wonder in your home sweet home. And what a wonder it was to see Dorothy open the door of her house and discover the world of Oz for the very first time!

How many movies could pride themselves on bringing such a dazzling feeling after 60 years of existence?

And that’s why movies are such an important part of my life. That’s why I keep feeding my appetite with movies from all around the world, old, new, funny, scary, good, not so good, short, long...That’s why, deep inside of me, I’m still the little boy whose first vivid memory in a movie theater was the day I watched “E.T” on the big screen with my dad. Watching him cry (as the rest of the people that night) when the light went on made me understand the power of movies, the way they could dive into your subconscious, building a receptacle for years and years of flickering images to come.

I love movies.

I love writing. The stories are all around, they’re floating above us, they’re the magical click that could turn our life upside down.

From the Kid who’s crying inside the arms of a beggar to the Kid who doesn’t want to let his alien friend to go home, movies spell the word M.A.G.I.C in a universal language.

That’s what it was meant to be, and that’s what it has to remain after all.

Et ça commence ici...

Bonjour,

Well, here I am...
I've been thinking about it for a long time already.
I'm French, now living in the far east, I've been around for a few decades (a very few actually...), and I'm writing, writing, writing.
Reading all those great blogs (links on the side) by scriptwriters, readers and lovers of the art, I thought that I could give it a try by sharing my own thoughts on the scripts I read (and learn from) and my own little work as an apprentice scriptwriter.
I will also probably review a movie or two sometimes and even talk about how wonderful the city I'm living in is...but that's all for now.
Let's start the hard work and keep writing.
Hope you're all like it.