I left my spleen in San Francisco

California never held much allure for me but mid century San Francisco looks like a place I would have loved.

Two fisted movie reviews

 This documentary tells the story of the Eames design studio and the married partners who made it work.  I was vaguely familiar with Charles and Ray Eames before I saw this but after seeing it I am astounded at how much of their work is around today and how much of their work set the stage for our modern world, especially the internet. They were pioneers in design, promotion, and art.

I highly recommend this film.

Jacques Mesrine was a notorious French criminal who killed with out compunction and stole what he wanted to live of off.  He robbed banks, casinos, killed cops, other criminals, he was in fact, the gangster that many rappers aspire to be.  And he was all this in the swingin' '60's and '70's.  These two films Killer Instinct and Public Enemy Number 1 tell the story of his criminal career.  His savagery starts in the France's war to keep Algeria under colonial control and it ends with him being assassinated by the French police in 1979.

These are very gripping violent sexy mesmerizing movies.  Cassel's performance is a thing of beauty and despite the fact that the second film sags a bit at times, it's well worth your time.  Both films clock in over two hours each but the first one flies by, the second one no so much.  But the second film is redeemed by Cassel's acting and by the luminous Ludivine Sagnier.  My only complaint other than the slower second film is that it's obvious that Mesrine is a psychopathic criminal who would kill you as soon as look at you if you crossed him or if you got in the way of one of his robberies, yet these films try to deify him a bit too much.  They try to explain why he's like he is, instead of just showing us who he was. When they inject politics into Mesrine, the film falters a bit.  However, don't let that stop you from seeing these two fine French films.

Found photo bonanza

These photos are from two contact sheets I bought today at a local antique store for two bucks each. I estimate that the pictures were shot in the mid to late 1950's. I'm also pretty sure that both these sheets, as well as the others that I didn't buy but hope to one day, are all from the same family/estate. These two that I bought today are full of photos of this family's home, their maid, their pets, and a trip to the race track. I love these so much it hurts.

I'll post the rest of these on my scan blog.