On a Most Diffucult Decision; Amy Dorritt or Owen Meany?; THE PRISONER; More JULIE AND JULIA

I read THE LEOPARD by Giuseppe di Lampedusa, enjoyed it greatly, contemplations on mortality when turning 50 was considered old. Written in the 20th c., love the pre-20th c.-style chapter section titles. I thought it should have ended sooner, with the last passage on Father Perrone's trip an unnecessary one of several postscripts.

I went to Netflix to look for the Visconti movie with Burt Lancaster and had a most difficult decision: to rent the Italian or English version. The Netflix reviewers favored the Italian version and I went with that. But did I make the right decision?

The conventional wisdom is that you want to hear the original language of the actors and read the subtitles. However in the Italian version, Burt Lancaster delivered his lines in English and his lines in the Italian were dubbed in Italian (with one exception--at the end of a line I heard the classic staccato Lancaster laugh). In the English language version, you get Burt in English, but all the Italian actors are dubbed. The English version is also cut a great deal.

When I recently saw PERSEPOLIS, I switched to the English for a bit and it was flat compared to the original French reading, including Catherine Deneuve as the grandmother. I'm sure I made the right choice to stick with the original French, but I'm not so sure with THE LEOPARD.


AMY DORRIT OR OWEN MEANY?

A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY sat on my bookshelf for twenty years before I read it. Apologies to my sister. Great read. Now I'm reading LITTLE DORRITT by Charles Dickens, on my old Rocket eBook. I understand that Irving has been compared favorably to Dickens. Just asking: who is taller, Amy Dorritt or Owen Meany?


THE PRISONER: Episode 10: Hammer Into Anvil

This ep is featured on AMC On Demand this month as part of the promotion of the AMC series update with Jim Cavaziel and Ian McKellen premiering in November 2009. It's one thing for Number 6 to have a suspicious tearful woman directly appeal to to him for help. "I'm waterproof," was his response in another ep. But when Number 2's interrogation of another woman prompts her suicide, Number 6 pledges revenge. Number 2 is played by Patrick Cargill. Number 6 exploits a personality flaw of Number 2--he's afraid of his masters--and breaks Number 2 in the end.

Cargill was the star of the Brit sit com FATHER DEAR FATHER and recognizable to me when I saw this PRISONER ep again after its original run in the '60s. There was a period in the '70s when independent channels in New York would run more creative programming than Judge Judy, such as Brit and Canadian sit coms. FATHER DEAR FATHER ran on channel 9, featuring Cargill as the father of two sexy daughters. The American version was another syndie, starring Ted Knight and retitled TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT.

One hilarious scene involved Cargill visiting his brother in hospital, sneaking him in a forbidden bottle of Scotch. If you know British humor or are a fan of the Austin Powers series you can see where this is going. They can't find a glass so the brother breaks out two specimen cups. As they toast each other, a nurse walks in, horrified. From the hospital bed comes a response to her stupefied look: That's ok mum, it's my brother's!


MORE JULIE AND JULIA
I heard Julie, the author of the book/blog on which the movie was based, interviewed on the Audible Books show on SiriusXM radio. They played a clip from the audiobook with a blog entry talking about trying to get pregnant, something the movie left out. There's a brief but very powerful scene in the Julia part of the movie (Julia hears her sister is pregnant) and I wonder if the writer or director thought that adding a pregnancy element to the Julie section would have taken away from this strong Julia scene? Julie is a nice girl but too young and whiny for us to feel much empathy for her. Two hours on Julia Child would have been a better movie.

She told her interviewer from the publisher that her blog responders are "my collaborators." I'm sure her lawyer loved hearing that. Shouldn't they get a royalty?

Something Terribly Wrong

This weekend I watched other men work as they put down a new kitchen floor. When an old rug was pulled up, a bit of old floor in the living room was exposed. I called up my sister to bring over her sander and a can of polyurethane.

Man cred established after inhaling a lot of dust and poly, I rewarded myself by going to see JULIE AND JULIA. The ticket price seemed cheap, $8.50, and I thought I had somehow made the Sunday matinee at Sheepshead Bay. I later confirmed that there is no Sunday matinee. As I walked to the Theater 6 I saw the work "Senior" on the ducat.

This morning I ran a 9:30 mile, which I've been able to do consistently this summer on a 1.45 mile course in Marine Park. I played street sports as a kid but never blew out my legs playing competitive schoolboy sports, so I'm lucky to run now with nothing but occasional heel pain (a bone spur relieved by stretching).

I don't feel like 52. I took a picture of myself tonight just to give you an idea of what I look like. I could use a shave and it comes in a little gray. My son Matt said I looked good except for losing hair. Matt was the one who, when I was sitting on the floor 15 years ago playing with him and the other kids, pointed out my bald spot. He keeps it real.

I know guys with white hair but you'd never mistake them for seniors. I wonder if the girl who sold me the ticket just hit the wrong button?

CULTURAL NOTES

Theater
I saw REASONS TO BE PRETTY and rooted for it hard on Tony night, with no success. The opening scene is like the worst fight Margie and I ever had and amazingly, author Neil LaBute and a bravura cast sustain and extend the drama and humor throughout.

Video
Great vid: PERSEPOLIS. After seeing this well-drawn and -acted animated flick, a true story based on a graphic novel about growing up female under fanatical Islam in Iran, and reading READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN some time ago, I felt like John Lennon (subject of a great interactive exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex, the longest time Margie and I ever spent in a museum) who said, woman is the N-word of the world.

Books (thanks to the annual buy 2 get 3rd free at Posman's (Grand Central Station)
NETHERLAND by Joseph O'Neill. I had avoided 9/11 novels but this one is falsely promoted as such. Very good read, about a man with a shaky marriage and a questionable friend; a great meditation on getting through life and the meaning of friendship. I lose empathy when the protagonist inherits a million bucks (I'm buying Megabucks tix trying to pay for the new kitchen floor) but once you put that kind of money (after all it takes place during the boom when all NYers were raking it in) out of your mind, you can enjoy the car ride down to Floyd Bennett Field where the player/friend is building a cricket field. Not many novels take place in my area.

Next time: THE LEOPARD by Giuseppe di Lampedusa; LITTLE DORRITT by Charles Dickens