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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 02/23/01 -- Vol. 19, No. 34
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@avaya.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@avaya.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@avaya.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1. Last week I was being prepared for a sleep study. I had brought
to the hospital my pillow, a Walkman, a book, and lots of other
good things in my overstuffed suitcase. A technician I will call
Sandy was about to start gluing electrical leads to my head. The
story picks up from there.
Sandy then started attaching the leads to my head using glue and
something called "collodion." In the morning all the glue would
wash out with warm water or nail polish remover. I wonder if we
have any nail polish remover? I had heard of collodion as
something that film makeup men use to attach monster makeup. As I
sat there and she administered electrode I could smell the
adhesives in fumes going up my nose. The process took about ten
minutes. Boris Karloff would literally go through a process like
this for eight hours before shooting could start for some of his
better makeup like THE MUMMY. After ten minutes I had had my fill
of it. That is what Boris got paid for.
I was taken back to my room with Sandy holding up my "pony tail" of
wires. I was installed in the bed and shown how to use the TV.
This happened about 10 PM and I was told that 11 PM it was "lights
out." Walkman, book, pillow? They all stayed in my suitcase. I
used their cushion rather than my pillow. The lights were actually
out already so I would not be able read, I would just turn off the
TV at 11 PM.
At home I watch almost no commercial TV so had no idea what was on.
I settled for a program called "Gideon's Crossing." Actually, I
was rather pleased with the choice. Years ago I read some of the
books by Berton Roueche, collections of articles he wrote for the
New Yorker. These were true stories of medical detection. The
sort of thing was that one day eleven different men checked into
the same hospital, all of them with faces turning blue. Whatever
was causing the problem, it had to be stopped before it claimed
more people. But how to you find out the who, what, why, where,
and when of something like this when you have only the victims as
your clues? "Gideon's Crossing" had the same sort of story. Nine
people in the hospital were struck with sepsis. The characters had
to figure out what was causing it and stop it. It was actually
quite interesting. The only thing: I was watching it in a
hospital. It was sort of like seeing THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY on an
airline flight.
At 11 PM it was TV off. Then the wait for sleep. I could not move
around much because of the wires connected to me. I waited and
waited. Maybe I dozed off a little, but not very much. I think I
looked at my watch about midnight. Maybe again about 12:30 AM. I
must have actually fallen asleep about 1 AM. At 2 AM there was a
knock at the door. Time for the CPAP. This would be no Emmett
Kelly nose. It was more like a World War II bomber pilot air mask.
It fit over most of my head with straps and had an inch-wide hose
to my nose. I was supposed to breathe though my nose and not my
mouth. This was hard because I generally breathe through my mouth.
It helped a little that my lips were now dry and a little sticky so
I could let them just seal. I became aware of every breath. The
CPAP amplifies the sound of each breath for the user. In addition,
the forced air burns the inside of the nose a little. Again it
took a while to get to sleep. But I must have since another knock
at the door came at about 4:30 AM. The study was over.
I asked what the results were and was told just that the CPAP cut
down on my snoring. Of course, it kept me awake and that by itself
would have cut down on my snoring. It took about another ten
minutes to take the wires off my face and to get the glue and
collodion out of my hair. The nail polish remover did not smell
very good and again the fumes went up my nose. And that was pretty
much it. I got dressed and Sandy told me how to get back outside.
I left the hospital about 5 AM. It was still very dark out in the
middle of winter, but the fog had disappeared during the night. I
drove home, surprised to see as many cars on the road as there
were. At home I left my suitcase in the den and went to bed,
though I would not sleep until that night. [-mrl]
===================================================================
2. CHOCOLAT (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: To a straight-laced French village
comes a woman with the message that life is to
be enjoyed and not simply endured. The woman
opens a chocolate shop and sows the seeds of a
belief in human potential laced with a little
self-indulgence. With five Academy Award
nominations, this American film set in France
is more a parable than a realistic story and it
is a theme that director Lasse Hallstrom has
visited before. But the film is itself, like
the chocolates it shows, a pleasure. Rating: 7
(0 to 10), low +2 (-4 to +4)
Lasse Hallstrom's new film is a parable about believing in oneself
and even more on getting a little joy from life. It is a contrived
story in which the good guys are a little too good and the bad guys
are obvious. But its message is disarming and sweetened with
tempting visions of chocolate that seduce the viewer. But it is
getting a following in a time when so many of the popular films are
pushing nihilism and showing violence.
In a little French village life is painted like the village itself
in tones of brown and gray. Everyone knows his place and knows
exactly what is expected of him. Those who forget their
responsibilities are quickly reminded. Pleasure is for the most
part to be deferred for the next life. Instead life is piety and
submission. But in 1959, as Lent is approaching, a mysterious
woman Vianne (Juliette Binoche) arrives in town with her daughter
and in the shadow of the church at the beginning of Lent sets up a
chocolate shop. Vianne is immediately countered by the forces of
convention and of self-denial. These forces are marshalled and
lead by the town's mayor the Comte de Reynard (fine comic actor
Alfred Molina). Slyly Reynard affirms his number-one position by
turning the townspeople against Vianne and the change she is
bringing. He and Vianne are poles apart and the little French town
is figuratively and nearly literally not big enough for the two of
them.
At the same time some who are lower in the town's pecking order are
giving in to the temptations of self-indulgence and even breaking
from their established places. The respectable people of the town
side with the mayor, but the marginal people, those who normally
get swept aside, become friends with Vianne and find they enjoy her
sweet chocolate and her easy friendship. For those in the middle,
between the mayor and Vianne, there is the constant temptation of
all that chocolate. One of the women who joins the circle of
friends is Josephine Muscat (Lina Olin) whose brutish husband Serge
(Peter Stormare, who played the quiet killer in FARGO) owns the
local saloon and beats Josephine when he is drunk. Another of
Vianne's circle is an old woman, Armande Voizin (Judi Dench),
nearly disowned by her family.
While CHOCOLAT is not ultimately negative on religion, the alliance
between the young priest and the mayor is looked on as one of the
negative forces in the town. Too often the local priest takes a
cold and unfriendly stance. The pleasures of chocolate are said to
be evil. A dog, we are told, has no soul. But the rules of Lent
still apply to the dog. The historic town hero is remembered for
having turned out the Huguenots. In the end the film is a little
pat, even for the parable that it is. The ending is a little
contrived and not quite believable.
There seem to be two major themes in the photography (at least).
One is the color in the town. It is drab grays and browns until
Vianne arrives in her bright red cloak and hood. Echoing ideas of
PLEASANTVILLE, though in a more subtle fashion, Vianne brings color
to the village. Her shop is bright with color, while the rest of
the town is muted in color. Vianne has the courage to break from
the dismal color scheme and bring some life to the village. The
other theme is tempting the audience with luscious photography of
chocolate. Like BABETTE'S FEAST and LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE, this
is a film that seduces the viewer with its photography of food.
CHOCOLAT is generating some controversy; it seems to be a film
people either love or hate. For my part I rate it a 7 on the 0 to
10 scale and a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@avaya.com
They call a movie 'art house' until they find out that people like it, in which case it's mainstream.
-- David Mamet