Montlaur Movie Festival!

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

The rain from yesterday failed to make its appearance. In fact the clouds got scooted away by a gusty breeze coming from the north, whirlwinds were everywhere, and my face became ruddy with windburn. But Sunday dawned calmer, clearer and beautiful. The entire trip has been graced with sunny days, with only a few cool nights. It has been amazing, magical even. What kind of life do we want to lead , what do we want to do with and for ourselves, when you come to this kind of place, sit ye doon for a while, you begin to find some answers.

Today is antique market day. Really it’s a flea market with precious little in the way of antiques and a lot in the way of junk. I went last Sunday but the lure is strong for me, I’m like a moth to the flame. Probably something about getting a good deal appeals to whatever dregs of Scottishness still find a home in me. More likely, it’s the desire to stretch a buck in these hard times. Whatever it is I had a list of things that the farmhouse needed and I dutifully went off in search of these items.

I needed carpets, and something for the stone niche on the wall, a petanque set (like a French version of bacci), and who knows what else I might find. I thought I would spend a few of my precious remaining hours and that I could still get the accursed shutters done before I left.

I wandered up and down every aisle, marking what I was interested in, getting a feel for the prices. It hadn’t been a good day at the market. Nothing was really selling, except, frites, merguez and espressos. So then I went into action, wheeling and dealing like what some of those jobless New York brokers used to do. I bought three nice hand made Moroccan rugs, a pair of armoire doors (I had the rest of a similar piece door-less at the farm), a couple of dust cover linens, some small knick knacks selling for 1 Euro per kilogram and a small wooden rolling table that will serve as a scullery table near the stove until the new kitchen goes in some time down the road.

I packed it all in and went home…four hours later. Now I was feeling the pressure of completing those damned shutters. I had set completing them as one of my main objectives of the trip and there I was heading into Sunday afternoon, less than two full days to go and I hadn’t finished building them yet. Well, that was about to change. I went to the well. That well of capability we all have inside of us and I dipped out a huge helping of stick-to-it-ness and a good measure of determination to boot.

I started to work. I put movies on my computer and worked through three movies until finally I had everything built. Then I thought, hmmmm, if I get them all painted I can get them up tomorrow and be done with it. I put in another movie…Conan the Destroyer. “I think I can paint one side every 20 minutes.” Twelve sides total, two hundred forty minutes, two movies.

Now Conan, looked pretty impressive. He was after a Queen and a kingdom of his own. Strange that he found both in America. The effects were pretty cheesy compared to today’s stuff. The monsters faces couldn‘t articulate so they ended up having these grimaces pasted on for the duration of their appearances. Weird! Four shutters painted.

Then I watched Professor Holland’s Opus. If you haven’t seen it before it’s the kind of thing that can make you cry. I had seen it when it first came out in about 1995, the theme about teaching hitting close to home as my mom was a teacher of some longevity (45 years). What amazed me most was how truly talented Richard Dreyfuss is and also whoever did his aging through the film was also incredible. I got teary eyed at the end when he gets to conduct his Opus, the very same day he’s turfed after teaching for 30 years. What lesson is there in that? Every day you should do one more thing for yourself and one less thing for the man. Eventually your life will be your own. Nine shutters painted.

Then I watched the series kick off of Alias with Jennifer Garner. It was really cool, lots of martial arts, cool driving stunts and she gets her back teeth pulled out in an interrogation by some Chinese guys. But she overcomes all her travails, including her fiancé getting whacked by her employer, and finding out her father, cold bastard that he is, is actually working for the same people and is a double agent himself. What a story! We need more action heroes and its great that some of them are women now. I’ve always said that women are the tougher half of the species. Whoo! All the shutters are done, I’m covered with paint, its three o’clock in the morning….I’m going to bed!