I was supposed to be in London this week, but instead I’m alone in my bedroom with Covid. Alex and I are trying to stay as far apart as possible, and so far he’s remained healthy. A few times a day, he drops off plastic quart containers of water, hot meals, and tea brewed to my annoying specifications. (If it’s the sencha, I want a 10-minute steep at either 170 or 185 degrees, depending on how cold my hands are.) I dodged Covid up until this point, and while it’s strange to be in quarantine on the anniversary of lockdown, mostly I’m just grateful that when I return to the world in a few days, it will be so much more vibrant than it was five years ago.
I did watch and read some good things this week, though. And you don’t even need to be sick to enjoy them! Here they are.
La Danse (2009): At 95, Frederick Wiseman is what they call “the G.O.A.T.” He’s been making acclaimed documentaries for more than 60 years, and although I arrived at the party late, I’m happy to be here. There’s no real narrative in his 2009 film about the Paris Opera Ballet — just rehearsals, corporate meetings, cafeteria lunches, and costume prep. This is exactly what I want from a ballet documentary, which is one of my favorite subgenres (I also recommend Ballet 422). Give me pit-stained T-shirts and bandaged feet. When you know how hard someone worked to achieve a particular result — especially when that result looks totally effortless — it makes the finished product that much more astonishing.
Flow (2024): In a funny turn of events, I began my Day of Pain (my period) the day I entered quarantine. I thought Flow might make for a good combination sick day / Period Film, and, no, I wasn’t thinking about the title. I was thinking: An Oscar-winning animated movie that everyone has been raving about! This will cheer me up! NOPE. Flow is about animals navigating a massive flood; I was sobbing after 10 minutes. I will revisit once my hormones have stabilized.
Because Flow wasn’t happening, I pivoted to…
Sex and the City: Started in the middle of season one. Charlotte gets addicted to her vibrator, Miranda is upset that her friends won’t have a hypothetical threesome with her, Samantha gives a makeover to that guy with the bad breath, and Carrie meets Big’s very cool children’s book editor ex-wife. Let me tell you, the jazzy theme song alone cured my Flow sadness.
Metropolitan (1990): Not a whole lot happens in Whit Stillman’s film about Upper East Side kids at home for the holidays, but it’s a decent hang. Mostly it reminded me of the people I knew in college who went to fancy prep schools in Manhattan. At the time, they all seemed terribly sophisticated and chronically unimpressed. Stillman really captures that vibe — and he also captures how pretentious and myopic 19-year-olds can be, no matter how deftly they think they’re arguing about philosophy.
(If we went to college together and you think I’m talking about you, I’m not. I’m talking about the other guys. Promise.)
More SATC: My preferred character is always whoever is lying to herself the least. Currently that’s Charlotte, who really can’t help but be herself. Carrie, as usual, is full of shit regarding Big.
Goodrich (2024): Hallie Meyers-Shyer, daughter of the directors Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer, made a movie about an art dealer (Michael Keaton) who wasn’t a very good dad to his adult daughter (Mila Kunis) and isn’t a very good dad to his young children from his second marriage (two cute child actors, one of whom has an eerily grown-up affect). But, with his marriage and career in shambles, he is finally trying.
I wasn’t sure about Goodrich initially, but it’s heartfelt and funny. Made me cry, of course, which was a good clean-out for the sinuses. If this is Meyers-Shyer’s movie about her dad — who, sadly, passed away a few months after its release — I really can’t wait to see her mom film.
Columbus (2017): Kogonada’s Columbus had been on my watch list for a long time. A guy whose estranged dad has fallen into a coma meets a young woman who’s too much of a caretaker for her mother, and they spend a bunch of time together looking at modernist architecture in Columbus, Indiana. I was told it would be slow, with lots of beautiful shots of buildings, which is Eliza catnip. But it had some emotional complications that wound up ruffling my own feelings more than I expected! It was nice to be surprised in that way.
SATC: In S2E3, Carrie wears a red slip paired with knee-high rainbow toe socks. I love these insane women.
Piranesi: Not to brag, but I also finished a book. When Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi came out in September 2020, I had no interest in it whatsoever. To the best of my understanding, it was a novel about a person who lives in a vast house, almost entirely alone, and this was an allegory for… something. A heady tale of solitude during Covid lockdown?? Absolutely not.
Fast forward several years. After a lot of encouragement from Alex, I finished Clarke’s opus, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, a few weeks ago. It was great. (Alex, it was great!) And so I decided to read Piranesi as a chaser.
I loved this book so much. It’s better if you go in cold, but I’ll just say that Clarke wrote a pure-hearted narrator whose outlook on life has altered how I see the world. Clarke is one of the best doing it, and I sincerely hope we see more books from her.
Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (2023): Frederick Wiseman again! This is a movie for the real sickos: 4 hours of footage behind the scenes at a Michelin-starred restaurant in the Loire region of France. Early on, the family that owns the restaurant is discussing the fish that they’ll be serving that week. You think, okay, interesting, this scene will last two minutes, just to show us what menu planning looks like. Then it keeps going. And going. And you realize: Oh, these guys live and breathe this stuff. And now, so do you.
In appreciation of the small things, like the light on this bowl of pasta,
Eliza
