(no subject)

[malsperanza]

Me: So, Round II. But this one is shorter, right?

Mum: Yes, just a week. The oncology unit was full, so I'm on the VIP floor.

Me. The hospital has a VIP floor??!!

Mum: The beds have wooden headboards. The view is stunning.

Me: Good grief.

Mum: ...Wall-to-wall carpeting. The mayor was on this floor when he had surgery.

Me: Our tax dollars at work.

Mum (mournfully): But no mint on the pillow. My i.v. stand is taller and skinnier than the last one, so instead of Astaire, I've named it Tommy Tune.

Me: Does it have fancy moves?

Mum: We glide gracefully, and with a certain modest but charming insouciance.

Me: I'm sure you make a lovely couple.

Mum: He is boring in bed however.

Me: Mom! Sheesh.

Mum: So how was the lecture on the obscure postwar architect?

Me: Soriano. A bit odd, but interesting. So then I came home and watched movies.

Mum: That Antonioni movie?

Me: No, um, a French director.

Mum: Ah, the Nouvelle Vague! Renais? Godard? Truffaut?

Me: Uh, Besson.

Mum: I don't know him.

Me: Not surprised.

Mum: Cocteau! I love Cocteau! Is he like Cocteau?

Me: In a way...

Mum: Surreal?

Me: No more than this conversation.



Why I love The Professional

My favorite Besson movie. Mostly because it is so stylish and funny and weird (psycho hitman with heart of gold adopts little girl and teaches her how to be psycho hitgirl, very heartwarming, very big on family values). But partly also because of the NY locations: lots of scenes in the stairwell of the Chelsea Hotel and about half the movie is set in one of my all-time favorite restaurants, the secret and mysterious Supreme Macaroni Company. And they even got one of the cats into one shot, the fat gray one, which must be at least 15 years old now. And an old man sitting in the corner. who may have been an actor or may have been one of the regulars who could not be got to move out of the shot. In the days when I used to work near there, when it was still a divey neighborhood, there was always a grandmother in the front, with a hairnet and a black dress like a bad Italian joke. And about 6 immensely fat cats; Board of Health bedamned.