Saturday, January 17, 2009

Quick update

Hi all!
We don't have too much to report. I think I have more homework from one class this term than I've ever had from a all my classes in one term. It's quite ridiculous and my teacher doesn't teach anything. He just has us do all this dumb busy work and tests us over it. Luckily it's not difficult, but I usually spend a couple hours on each assignment and there are several due each week. Needless to say it is keeping me beyond busy. Is it March yet? :)
Last week in my theatre class we watched a few clips of Bette Davis movies, and all of "Now, Voyager". I don't think I'd ever seen an entire Bette Davis movie. I doubt my Mom would agree but she reminds me so much of my Grandma Grogan, in the pictures of when she was young. "Now, Voyager" was interesting-about a dowdy Aunt who's life is ruled by her elderly Mother. She finally goes away to take care of herself and ends up going on a cruise and falling in love with an unhappily married man. Now, I certainly don't know much about the 40's, but that seems awfully risque for that time. There were parts of the movie that was 40's cheesy, but I actually enjoyed it. Our point in watching it was that before Bette Davis, stars were made, they didn't make themselves. We discussed how she was typecast as being so strong willed and independent. If a film didn't do well that she was in, they gave her a very different role in the next movie to make sure people would keep coming to see her. I can't imagine some studio company trying to "make" a star now. We tend to like stars more on their acting ability and their own merits.
I also decided to go with Denzel Washington as the star to write my essay on. I watched "American Gangster", "Deja Vu" and "The Great Debaters" for this. I liked all 3, but Great Debaters was my favorite. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. It's a true story, as is American Gangster. I think Denzel is always in good movies. Deja vu was interesting and I liked it, it just wasn't as good as the other two. Next week we're watching clips from "The Graduate" and "The Princess Diaries", and watching all of "Brokeback Mountain". I have never seen Brokeback, so I am interested to finally see it, after all the hype a few years ago! The theme for next week is 'casting'.
Well that's really all I have to say for now. Work is still slow, but not as painfully slow as December. Rick's store is going crazy right now! They're trending to almost double their quota. This morning when he went in he found their front store window busted in. The cops came and boarded it up over night. You could tell it looked like someone threw someone else into the window. Those are thick windows, that would be really painful! Luckily it didn't smash the window all the way through, so no one could steal anything.
Well I'm gonna get back to my mountains of homework!
Hope all is well!
Lauren

2 comments:

Shellee said...

Great choice with Denzel, he's awesome! I saw Brokeback...by myself. Of course, there would be no way to get Adam to see it with me, and the friend I had planned on going with ended up getting too drunk at the bar next to the theater. Anyway, it was....visually beautiful. I couldn't quite comprehend the 'love' they felt for eachother, I'm sorry, I just don't understand it. But I did understand the bond. You know what I mean? I think I did cry, it's actually a pretty sad movie. I don't know how much you know about it, so I don't want to say too much. Anyway, it really is visually beautiful, and as always Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhal are amazing!

Shellee said...

Oh, Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams are pretty amazing too.