Rattastic

I said I was going to wait until I'd seen The Departed to name which movie I think is going to win best picture of the year at the Academy Awards. Well I'm glade I waited because otherwise I would have named Little Miss Sunshine as the persumed winner, but now that I've seen The Departed I feel that it deserves the award. It's quite the movie, sitting in the theater watching it I consitantly felt overjoyed that they still make movies this good. Not only is The Departed the best of the pictures nominated, its also the best picture of '06 all around. I'm thinking I'll put out a top ten list of my favorite movies of 2006 sometime in late Febuary or early March, I feel I've seen enough movies in the theater this last year to actully take a stabe at a best list.

As I didn't really care about the SuperBowl, I decided to counter-program. First I went to the monthley CES firside, which featured Elder David A. Bednar speaking about scripture study. Some may take this as a bad sign, but what I remember most from the broadcast, is the fact that the brightly colord outfits of the female choir members make them look, at a distance, not unlike a bowl of Post Fruity Pebbles cerial. After the broadcast I watched an equaly frutie Cecil B. DeMile picture, The Sign of the Cross. This movie is about the persicutions of 1st century Roman Christians under Nero. I had read a positive piece about the movie in Films of the Golden Age some time back, but was ultimatly disapointed in the film, the first half of which was boring and the second half overwrought. This movie is famous among film buffs for it infamous 'milk bath scene' featuring Claudette Colbert's clevage. The best lines in the film are spoken by Fredrick March to Elissa Landi, after the formers last minute conversion to Christianity, before joining his lover in the lion infested stadium: "I feel a strange hope, much happier now." But just image those words spoken with very little feeling.

This morning I viewed the Powell/Pressburger production A Canterbury Tale. Inspired by the works of Chaucer this movie tells the story of several pilgrams to the titular town during the waining days of World War Two. Together these 'Scoobies' solve the mystery of 'The Glue Man', and each recives a special blessing for there trouble. Kind of slow, with a mystery of only minor consequence, the film was a box office dud on its orignial releasse in England, so much so that it was re-edited for American audiances, including the inseration of actress Kim Hunter into a new narrative frame for the film.