Ce n'est pas ma façon de penser.

Last night the kids got Flight of the Phoenix and I rented Almost Peaceful, Un Monde Presque Paisible, a recent French film set in Paris in the days immediately after WWII. Flight of the Phoenix was a bad "B" movie in the original and the current remake is a faithful copy in every stylistic respect.

I rented Almost Peaceful not so much because of any particular interest in French movies but simply because the jacket description looked interesting. It proved out so well on the first viewing last night that I'll do it again tonight.

The last good American movie I've seen was The Hours. It's refreshing to see a different cinemagraphic and directorial style after so much Hollywood material with the kids in the theater and on the DVD.

Some adults at home were put off by the occasional nudity and what they termed a cavalier attitude toward marital infidelity and prostitution that they thought was totally incredible for any surviving Parisian Jew immediately after the War. I thought it all rang very true.

I particularly liked the exposition and resolution of a theme that dealt with the fear of feelings that might lead to marital infidelity. A writer, posing as a tailor to make ends meet, has an interesting scene with an anti-Semite police inspector that might take you by surprise.

The color was magnificent. Bright, warm and primary but not overpowering.

What really caught my eye was the use of still frames as leads into and departures from scenes. Not stills that dissolve into motion or motion that dissolves into a still. Just still frames and then motion that is connected visually and thematically, but not merged. Fun! Crisp! New, maybe, you tell me.

Clotilde Cornau caught my eye. What a cutie she is with red hair.

Unlike Spanish or Russian movies where I can catch the occasional complete phrase, sometimes even an entire group of sentences, here I get just a word every now and then. You'll have to tell me how it is to your ear, if you take any time with it.