catching up on movies

Finally, I sat down and watched all three original star wars films. They were great. The ewoks are adorable. I dont know what it is about short, round, furry creatures that makes them so cute (although the Exploratorium in SF pointed out in one exhibit that you can make anything shorter, fatter, and with rounder edges and it immediately becomes cute), but obviously no one can resist stuffed animals defeating robots and droids armed with laser guns to save the universe.

Last night we also watched "The Band's Visit" which is this fantastic movie about an Egyptian classical music police orchestra that gets lost in Israel and ends up in a little town for a night. It starts off slow (something not really appreciated until later in the movie) but ends up being a very tightly-written story of people from very different cultures--one of the character's covering up the photo of the big israeli tank with his hat being a classic moment--having very common, human problems and dreams. The acting is beautiful, in particular Tawfiq (taw-FEEK), the excessively-formal orchestra conductor, and the scene at the roller-disco with Khaled (the young womanizer) and Papi is priceless. If it's not obvious already, I can't say enough about this film. It's not the greatest film of all time, but it is well-written, explores a lot of interesting themes, particularly about humanity across cultures, but what makes it so great is that this is done with really very few words--in fact, the words that are not said because the characters cannot translate emotions into english carries significance on its own.

Not that Star Wars wasn't stirring in its own right.