My strongest impressions of French cinema come from Amélie and Techine's Wild Reeds. And, I guess, With a Friend like Harry, which made me sympathize with my mom's utter loathing for the fantastic. Considering my all-time favorite TV shows include Buffy, Wonderfalls, Farscape, and Due South, exceeding my surrealism tolerance in 90 minutes is quite an accomplishment.

I really liked the first Kill Bill.

Did you not like the second? I thought while the first was (mostly) a wild ride, the second was the whole heart of the thing.

With a Friend like Harry, which made me sympathize with my mom's utter loathing for the fantastic.

Huh? I saw that with a friend who's big comment (and not pejoratively) was "that was very French", and I can't say I found it particularly "fantastic", at least no more than when compared to the Hitchcock films it was apeing, and not at all surreal.

Do any of you remember Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources ?

Two of the only three movies that made me cry. Twenty years later and I can only remember the barest outline, but I still remember thinking, "Wow. So sad, but wow."

Did you not like the second? I thought while the first was (mostly) a wild ride, the second was the whole heart of the thing.

I definitely liked the second part, and you are right that it carries the emotional weight of the story. But I never want to rewatch that part. Ultimately I don't think there is that much emotional weight in this story, and all of the parts that stuck with me were from the flashy trashy first part.

To me, the most emotionally intense part isn't her face-off with Bill at the end, but the ragged edges at the end of the first one when Sophie has been delivered, one-armed to deliver her message.

flashy trashy

And that's really what Quentin excels at.

And that's really what Quentin excels at.

And I don't dismiss it. The guy is a genuine scholar of exploitation film. He knows it deeply. I respect that. He wants to make movies that hit you hard emotionally. He's already shown with Jackie Brown that he's capable of more range when he sets his mind to it. It'll be interesting to see what happens with his war movie.

How did Kill Bill do at the box office, incidentally? Did it make Harvey money?

I loved Jackie Brown. Lots.

How did Kill Bill do at the box office, incidentally?

Well, IMDb probably isn't the most definitive source, but it lists the estimated budget at 50 mil for vol. 1, with an estimated worldwide gross of 178 mil as of August '04. Vol. 2 is estimated 30 mil budget, 149 mil gross.

So yeah, it made money.

Per Box Office Mojo, both parts combined cost $60 million and made $136 million (just in the US).

I thought the very end of Kill Bill was terribly sad. When she's crying in the bathroom? But I'm kind of a sucker for repression, so my tear-jerker scenes are usually that kind of thing.

And I think that sticks out in my memory because I could overhear someone nearby asking, "What's she so upset about?" and I kinda wanted to beat them. It's like when I saw Remains of the Day and one of the guys I was with was all, "Hey, on the second viewing I just noticed, there's kind of a romantic subplot!" But he had Issues.

Jeez, I'm rambling. And so to bed.

My favorite foreign movie has to be M, though--Peter Lorre is mesmerizing as the serial child killer.

Okay, I just watched M, and I have to say I don't feel the love. Can people who like the movie explain why it's a classic? Other than being a first talkie.

I did enjoy Lorre's confession scene, but mostly because I saw a straight-line connection from it to Serkis' Gollum/Smeagol scene.

One fun thing about M though was the old regional German. In some ways it was easier to understand than modern German, but definitely weird.