Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Charade
I went to work out early this afternoon - weight training today. About halfway through my workout I started feeling a little queasy, and it quickly got bad enough that I had to stop. I was trying to get through my routine a little faster today, so maybe I overexerted myself. On the other hand, I'd had lunch about an hour and a half earlier, and I suspect it's just that working out before fully digesting a meal is just a bad idea. I've done it before and felt uncomfortable with it. I find working out in the morning just feels much better. Still, it was a bummer to actually not get through my exercises for once.
First up was Breakfast at Tiffany's, based on a Truman Capote novel, and starring Audrey Hepburn as the nutty Holly Golightly, and George Peppard as writer/romantic interest Paul Varjak. This is the first film I've seen with either of them (though I saw Peppard on the TV show The A-Team in the 80s).
This is a terrific film, albeit one that starts of slow. It's a series of vignettes about neighbors Holly and Paul. Paul is seeing a married woman (he seems to be a gigolo, albeit a one-woman one), and Holly is a would-be actress who doesn't know what she wants in life, and hasn't unpacked her apartment after a year. They meet, Holly throws a wild party, and they stop in Tiffany's jewelry store, where Holly goes to center herself.
The dialogue is marvelous, the situations often border on the surreal (and grounded by the down-to-earth Peppard). The movie ends a bit abruptly and probably could have used one more vignette, plus there are a few plot threads which are left dangling, or not fully developed. Still, a fine film.
Next was Charade, starring Hepburn and Cary Grant. Now this is an outstanding film. It feels like a cross between North by Northwest and early James Bond films. The basic plot is that Regina Lambert (Hepburn) is widowed, her husband apparently having stolen $250,000 from the US government. His former associates (including one played by James Coburn) think she has the money, and Peter Joshua (Grant) is working with them - maybe. Plus there's a CIA Agent (Walter Matthau, sporting a wacky moustache) interested in recovering the money.
It's full of double and triple identities, lies within lies, and a truly elegant mystery. And the dialogue is outstanding, with slapstick comedy, clever plans, and complex wordplay about the situations the characters are involved in. And Hepburn shifts easily between being a damsel in distress, to a clever, mature woman, to flashing that look of astonished and/or seductive delight that melts the heart of every male in the movie theater (or at least this one! What I wouldn't give for an attractive woman to look me in the eye and say, "You know what's wrong with you? Nothing"!).
Charade is probably the best movie I've seen this year.
Mark bailed on us, but Subrata and I went off in my car to Know Knew Books and Bookbuyers, a couple of good used bookstores in the area. Subrata found several things that he wanted, and I found a number of collections of Charlie Brown (a.k.a. - officially, but less accurately - Peanuts) comic strips at KKB, dating from the 50s and 60s. These old collections are the best way to read the best Charlie Brown stuff, since they're nearly complete, contiguous, and generally pretty cheap. But they're not always easy to find. I have a number that I inherited from my Mom, but which went through the usual wear-and-tear by me when I was a teenager. However, most of the ones I bought today I hadn't seen before. I'm delighted! The first 20 years or so of Charlie Brown are well worth reading. Some seminal comics stuff.
Subrata and I had mongolian barbecue for dinner, and ice cream for dessert. We had a fine time chatting about stuff, and I recommended a couple of books for him to buy (Stephen Leigh's Dark Water's Embrace and Kim Stanley Robinson's Icehenge). Subrata still wants to come raid my comic collection sometime, and I suspect I'm wearing him down enough that he's actually contemplating getting back into the hobby.
So, it's been a full and great day. Must do it again sometime!
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