Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont: A Retrospective

I spent this weekend with my friends, most especially my good friend S, who joined me and Matty and a few certain others to watch Little Darlings at The Castro Theater. I'd seen the movie when I was a girl, but I'd forgotten how good it was! You may know that the conflict rests on who will lose her keys first; Tatum O'Neill or Kristy McNichol. Since I don't want to give away the ending, I'll just say that if you are me, you will never really figure out who lost her keys, because these French love ambiguous endings.

Afterwards, Matty slipped S a video and made her promise to force me to watch it. It was Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, a film that I know Matty has seen six times. The trailer made me want to bite a chunk out of the seat in front of me, but Matty loves it so very much. So though I'd been resisting for so long, I thought I would try very very hard to love it. Per haps you know that I am practiced at the art of trying to love, and I thought I could apply the lessons I learned from Gary Coleman to Mrs. Palfrey, as performed by the facial twitchings of Joan Plowright:



It's the story of an elderly woman who checks herself in to the Claremont hotel for a lot of old people with wacky names. Each and every one is ignored by family members and has very little to make their lives enjoyable, which is pretty depressing, to tell you the truth. At the Claremont, the guests have little to do besides listen in on each others' conversations and rebel against the corrupt establishment; the kitchen, for intance, serves them only the food they have ordered, and this is a big disgrace, I agree. Of all the elderlies there, Mrs. Palfrey is the most restrained, perhaps because she's not Irish or slutty. She's suffered a great deal of disappointment at the hands of her grandson, Desmond, who doesn't answer his phone or visit his grandmother until weeks after she's arrived.

Luckily for Mrs. P, while she's running to avoid a rainstorm she falls and scrapes her legs. She's taken in by this hottie in a white blouse who sucks her wounds until she's young again! I found this behavior a little slutty myself, but I didn't blame Mrs. Palfrey for doing what she had to do in order to stay young forever.

The hottie pretends to be Mrs. Palfrey's grandson, but actually he is her lover, which creates a lot of confusion back at the old hotel. In his white blouse, the hot guy fights for the love of Mrs. Palfrey with a drunken Irishmen, and all kinds of hijinks ensue.

I really can't tell you any more about this film, but my friend S and I were inspired to make a collage which gives away the entire plot. Look!!!



It all just goes to show, doesn't it?

Well, I'm getting bored and tired, so I'm going to hit the hay.

'Night!

For Gina, Who Talks Me Through Things

Last night while I was standing outside listening to my ginafriend over the phone, I saw something in the sky. It was dark, and slow-moving, and unnaturally big. I guess I was hoping for something to make me shiver, something filled with aliens. But no.



I guess what I mean is, I'd like to be scared by something that isn't real, an object or creature completely external to myself and what exists in this world. Maybe the experience would shock me out of my awkwardness way down in here, where I live. It's rough, sometimes, to be a human.

Another video posting,

because once again I had a long, full weekend and did not get anything done that wasn't pure fun. Not that I don't find composing fun; in future, I will carve out more time for writing, and a little more time to read short stories by Russian writers, because they did it best.

My friend Sarah told me about Fishing With John, a program that didn't run for very many episodes, starring John Lurie of The Lounge Lizards.



I know, I know, this show will not appeal to a good number of you, though I think my friend Josh Williams will enjoy it, as will my friend Matty, who has plans to go fishing with B. I always thought fishing had more to do with storytelling, currents of thought, and a bit of quiet than it had to do with sport. I have been fishing many times myself, and only once did I catch a fish. It was a rainbow trout. Beginners luck. I was four.

John Lurie and the guests he hosts (Tom Waits, Jim Jarmusch, Dennis Hopper, Matt Dillon, etc) know nothing about fishing, by the way. I find this program weirdly beautiful, and wow, isn't John Lurie HOT?! (He's the tall one on the left.)



John Lurie believes in catch and release. I really loved his final story about the ant and the cow, but Tom Waits is right; it is NOT a fishing story. It's just lovely, and that's all.

I couldn't resist purchasing the 6-episode set online. Happy fishing, with John!