Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 113

Every movie we see # 117: The Drop is dark and exhilarating.

This is a great week for the movies, and we haven’t even seen Nightcrawler or Esprit de Corps at the Cinema One festival (or Esoterika Manila, which we wrote but is totally an Elwood Perez movie). The Drop is terrific. Tough, unsentimental, uncomplicated, brilliantly-acted, excellent use of the pooch. It’s directed by Belgian filmmaker Michael […]

Movies and music at the bigger, better CinemaJam, Nov 29 in Greenfield, Mandaluyong

Following the success of the first-ever movie and music festival in the country, Crizal Transitions promises an even more spectacular CinemaJam this year. A full line-up of outdoor movie screenings, fun activities (zipline, bungee, wall-climbing), art installations, and performances by today’s most exciting bands await festival-goers on November 29, Saturday, at the Greenfield District Central […]

Every movie we see # 116: Interpellating Interstellar

108. The Other Woman. We saw it on the plane while drifting in and out of unconsciousness, which is the best way to see it. 109. Pulp Fiction. On the plane, for the 10,000th time. 110. Magic In The Moonlight. We love it. Critics only saw the ick factor: the age difference between Colin Firth […]

Returning Mont-Saint-Michel to the sea

We spent the weekend in the country with friends who look like Kristin Scott-Thomas and Julie Delpy. Every time we looked at them a Coldplay song played in our vestigial heart. Sunday morning in miserable weather we went to Mont-Saint-Michel, a 40-minute drive on the autoroute. We were directed there by the GPS, which had […]

Paris, City of Queues

You don’t need the Paris museum pass. Go to Mariage Freres at the Place de la Madeleine, buy three tins of tea instead. Serves us right for trying to be practical while on vacation (from which we will need a vacation). We bought a Paris Museum Pass, which promises that we can make unlimited visits […]

How to understand the French Revolution

Visit Versailles, the former royal palace, 30 minutes from Paris on the train. Noel, it makes you look like a minimalist. Seeing how the absolute monarchs of France lived while their people starved is more effective and visceral than any history book. Sheesh, we’d cut off their heads ourselves. The ridiculously wealthy (and those who […]

Into the woods in Altwartenburg

The plan was to take the train to Salzburg (You say “ZAHLZborg” in your best Terminator impression) early so we could visit Mozart’s house (and ignore the places where they shot The Sound of Music), but we got lazy. We took a walk instead, in the very Grimm Brothers forest by the house. Our host […]

Things to do in Normandy

1. Overdose on fresh air. We’re in Villedieu-les-Poeles, founded by the Knights Hospitaller during the Crusades. The name means “City of God of Pots and Pans”, though if you mispronounce it sounds like “City of God of the Naked.” 2. Go fishing. Our friend’s place is called The Mill in the Forest. Because there’s an […]

Later

Going to Berchtesgaden. Full report later. This is of interest only to those who know what Berchtesgaden is. * * * * * Aaargh it was misty and the drive up to the mountains would’ve been difficult. The place itself is closed for the fall/winter. So we went to Ebensee instead. And a nice subdivision […]

Our new happy place: Galignani, the oldest English bookstore on the continent

Galignani, 224 rue Rivoli. From their website. We were mourning the death of the Village Voice, the English bookstore on the Left Bank, when we stepped into Galignani for the first time and our tear ducts dried up instantly. (Shakespeare and Co is fine but we hope they have vacuumed.) Galignani near the Tuileries is […]