Multitude of Movies

Due to a little miscommunication, Evelin and I ended up seeing two movies yesterday. For a few weeks, Evelin has been wanting to see Les Triplettes de Belleville, so when I got the e-mail that it was opening at Landmark Theatre's new E Street Cinema, which just opened back in early January, I started planning for us to go see it. At the same time, Evelin was making plans with J--- to see In America at the P&G Old Greenbelt. So we ended up going to two movies yesterday.

Les Triplettes de Belleville was fun, definitely quirky and surreal, but a lot of fun. Even neater was the Dalí and Disney collaborative short, "Destino," that preceded the main film. The really odd thing is that the animation made Dalí's imagery a bit less surreal: You would see how the shadow of a belfry could transform into a dress, for example, and it all, somehow, made sense.

While reading the credits for Les Triplettes de Belleville, it was interesting to note how transnational of a production it was with animators in Montréal, Rīga, Paris, Angoulême, Brussels, and elsewhere. Evgeni Tomov, art director for the movies, talked about this some in an interview with AnimWatch.

In America was quite the tearjerker, but well done. The two little girls – Sarah and Emma Bolger – were quite engaging. Given how stiff the Oscar race is this year, I don't know if it'll win anything (perhaps Djimon Hounsou will nab Best Supporting Actor), but it was worth seeing.

Afterwards, we stopped by College Perk, a relatively new coffee shop that opened up in an old house that previously was an exotic bird shop.