le cinéma français

In my 'about me' I perceive myself as a Francophile. This is evidence lot number one.  

On the back end of Cannes it seems a wise idea to talk about an infatuation (obsession) I have with la cinéma français (parce que c'est le meilleur, non?) 

Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Should I say more? Where else could a love of French cinema evolve from.. vivid imagery, imagination gone wild and poetic story lines, mirroring that of a life well lived in the land of snails and frogs legs, amongst other things. Before long it was about Juliette Binoche, Philippe Claudel, Fabrice Luchini and being amazed at Kristin Scott Thomas' plethora of talent, no matter the language of the script and story she is acting out. 

It began as a need to be fluent in French, something that is still a constant, and hating the academic way of learning by doing repetitive exercises instead there was a want to feel absorbed and completely immersed in the language. By all means, it was not that alone that lead me to French cinema, it was a means to escape and getting out of doing things, being where I wanted to be for that 118 minutes or whatever.

It was in fact this film that made my heart leap out my chest for the artistry of the French way of film making. Il y a longtemps que je t'aime. A superbly written and acted film, a heart wrenching story unfolding of an unloved, restricted life due to decisions made and worked out. Before watching this I was unaware of the powerfulness of silence in film, the way it can draw emotion out of the audience, a tear drop splashes on to a quivering lip before realising how absorbed you are by one woman's actions. 

Never mind how blasé the French come across in some parts of life, they have a real understanding of story telling and presenting an audience with relatable unassuming people for you to spy on, because most of the time I find myself feeling like I am looking through a peephole into the lives of others. This of course may come across as a humongous generalisation and yes, it probably is because I cannot be certain whether or not there are actually vampires in Paris, comme Paris, je t'aime. 

The point I am trying to make is basically, watch French films. 

happy weekend

My mind is a whirl of thoughts at the moment, but none of that matters when the sun shines for three days straight (I didn't think that still happened in Derbyshire) and you can sit outside in the morning slurping on coffee.
The weekend has been spent mainly working with my head elsewhere, mainly in France I think, and pondering on what to write about on this blog. I have a few travelling, reading and film themed ideas jotted down to write over the coming week that I hope to share and hope that someone may read.
Enjoy the remains of the weekend..

mountains are for climbing

Literally and figuratively speaking. I decided to challenge myself to walking the Yorkshire three peaks this year, because that's the kind of thing you do when you're really unfit and would rather sit and eat mounds of cake whilst reading a good book than putting on a pair of walking boots.
The C word (no not that one, challenge) is my word for ever more, which is how this blog has come about. X attempts of creating blogs with little success to now only have the lightbulb moment to realise that it's a creative outlet that I need, success or no success, it's fun and the blogosphere is a strange little world for slightly odd people like myself.
 All I want to create is a a page that is Margaret Howell X Joanne Harris X Georgia O'Keefe because that kind of sums me up in a way, presenting my likes; dislikes; interests; passions; qualities; style to those I admire greatly without giving to much of myself away in the second paragraph of this blog.
 Back to the original point about climbing mountains, that's my life plan, to forever climb mountains because when you get to the top the view is usually spectacularly breathtaking rain or shine. Also, I'm full of cliches, just so you're aware.
 Whilst I think of an actual first blog post, this has maybe given you a taste of what to expect and if not, check out my tumblr, pinterest and instagram to get a better idea of how much of a daydreamer and waffler I am. Cheers.