The Body of an American

For Easter weekend, F and I decided to go on yet another little getaway. Normally our first reflex is to go east, but at this time of the year, there isn't much to do there. We are starting to run out of places to go to in Quebec, and F hasn't done his passport yet. We settled on Ottawa, which is where we had one of our first getaways. We arrived at the Gatineau Sheraton on Saturday afternoon. After getting our room, we walked over to Ottawa and roamed aimlessly around for a little while. We ended up at Sparks Street Mall, a pedestrian mall that looked like it had declined in recent years. We walked through the mall and decided to go back up to the beginning of the mall, where we had seen an Irish pub. It turned out to be part of a chain, but the ambience of the place was good nonetheless. I had mini shepherd's pies, which were cute and good, but after a while the crust gets soggy. Here is what they looked like:

After that we sort of fell into a food and alcohol coma, and we spent the rest of our evening at the hotel bar watching the hockey game. The next morning, we went to the National Gallery of Canada, where they had a temporary exhibition on Escher. We also went through the permanent collections. There was a lot of everything: baroque art, Impressionists, American abstract Expressionists, and lots of interesting Canadian and Quebec art. We went through the whole museum pretty quickly, but at least we got to see a little bit of everything. After our visit, we went to the Byward Market for a little while, and then we took a walk on on Parliament Hill in an attempt to see if it was possible to visit the Parliament without a tour guide. We didn't have any luck with that, so we walked back to our hotel to get our car to try and find the Prime Minister's house, at 24 Sussex Drive. After a roundabout, we couldn't figure out where Sussex Drive continued, so we ended up in a fancy residential block which houses diplomats. We drove back to ByWard Market, where we got lunch in an Irish pub, which apparently is part of another chain of Irish pubs. In the Irish standards section of the menu, they had a mild curry, so that is what I got. It tasted just like my mother's curry.

Another food  and alcohol coma fell upon us. We then went to the hotel pool for a little bit, and then we headed to Gatineau's casino. We ate at one of the restaurants, which on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays serves a buffet. The buffet was good, with lots of kinds of salads, seafood and meat. However, it was a bit pricy, especially considering that F and I never eat that much at buffets. F then played roulette and blackjack for a little bit, and then we were off.

I now have a newfound appreciation for Ottawa. The last time I was there, it was an even quicker trip, so it left me with the impression that there is nothing much to do in Ottawa. Now, however, I have changed my mind about that. There are a lot of other museums in Ottawa that we could have gone too, and there are more Irish pubs than in Quebec City. It might seem weird that Irish pubs are the places we hung out at the most, but they are more fun than clubs, for example. Also, apparently the Irish ethnicity is the third answer that comes up in the list of ethnicities Ottawa citizens identify to, so it isn't that weird. In general, Ottawa is a nice city, just big enough.

Plus dur, meilleur, plus rapide, plus fort

F and I went to the movies to see the latest Astérix movie, Astérix: Le domaine des dieux. We were expecting a lot from it because one of the directors, Alexandre Astier, is the creator of "Kaamelott", a show F and I both love. However, it was a pretty standard kids movie. We watched it in 3D, but the 3D didn't bring any added value to the movie. The character played by Astier, though, was pretty funny. I hope that one day I will finally get to see the movie he is supposed to do to complete the "Kaamelott" saga.

Grace

I watched Anna Karenina, the one with Keira Knightley in it. Anna Karenina is a book I enjoyed a lot, and I hadn't necessarily expected to. The other Russian classic I had read before that was Crime and Punishment, and I found it to be a bit over the top. In Anna Karenina, however, I loved the scenes with Levin, and found them even more interesting than the main storyline with the character of Anna Karenina. I was a bit disappointed to see that in the movie, not much attention is given to Levin, but I don't think his story could have been transposed to the screen effectively, so perhaps it was for the best.

A lot has been said about the way Anna Karenina was filmed. I personally found that filming the scenes af if they were going on in a theater worked well for the movie.

I only recently saw The Talented Mr Ripley and it has increased my interest for Jude Law as an actor a lot. I enjoyed his performance in Anna Karenina.  It is weird to see him cast as the severe Karenin, but it works, in a way.

In general, the movie was okay, but it wasn't spectacular. At least it makes me want to read the book again.

Debout

I watched the final episode of "19-2" the day after it aired. The third season was particularly sad. The director of the series also did another series for TV, "Minuit, le soir", and it is also depressing. It is, however, one of my favorite series of all time. In the third season of "19-2", there were some fun cameos from actors who have starred with the two main actors of "19-2" in "Dans une galaxie près de chez vous". The main story was a bit hard to follow, especially since I saw the two other seasons over a year ago. The director relied a bit too much on showing scenes previously shown. Usually, I don't like it too much when a director makes his character speak over a scene where we don't actually see him talk, but it didn't annoy me as much in the case of "19-2".

Nightcall

A little while ago, A and I watched Drive. I had been wanting to watch that movie for a long time, and I was not disappointed. I had heard that it was extremely violent. It takes a while before the violence begins, to the point that I was asking myself what all the fuss was about. However, once the violence starts, the movie becomes really intense. Drive has major star power: Ryan Gosling, of course, but also Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston and Christina Hendricks, who has a pretty memorable performance. The music is great, too: what they play is exactly the kind of music you expect there to be in a movie about a guy driving around in a lonely city. The same atmosphere can be found in TRON: Legacy, even though it is a completely different movie. I heard that the director's other movies weren't as successful. That's a shame, but I'll still be on the lookout for future projets of his, because I sure wouldn't mind watching more movies like Drive.