We saw Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958); not bad. It was the first time I'd seen it, although I'd seen Vertigo Then and Now, so several scenes looked vaguely familiar.

And La Reine Margot (1994), which we liked much better than a lot of American critics, who got all bent out of shape over the French history aspect. Too many characters at the beginning confused them. That's the way I felt about Burnt by the Sun, but this was good. Plus I had a reminder of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and 16th century religious extremism, resulting in about 70,000 killed. (I wonder how many you have to kill to call it a massacre? Here's a list.) And I finally got the context for Henry IV's "Paris is well worth a Mass." (However, I didn't see "I want every peasant to have a chicken in his pot on Sundays." Incidentally, while a similar expression is attributed to Herbert Hoover, apparently Hoover never said it; the slogan appeared in an ad paid for by "Republican Business Men, Inc.") Another thing: at one time someone (Margot?) is dismissed from someone else's room when he says "I'm taking a bath today." The funny thing was that the subtitles left out that last word. I'll take Mike Lorefice's word for it that Isabelle Adjani was around 38 at the time the film was made. Daniel Auteuil was OK.

When we watched A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), I couldn't get it out of my head that all of the women should have been played by men in drag. Clearly Blanche and Stella and even Eunice were actually toy boys like the ones in Niezi. But then watching Niezi maybe I thought all the little boy toys should have been played by women.

Now this is embarrassing. We also saw Benny & Joon (1993), which I somehow thought was going to be about Henry Miller; no, that's Henry & June (1990). Anyway, it was pleasant if a little too intent on making sure everyone got a happy ending, and being intent on showing that crazies could be really impossible to live with. (Not the first movie trying to be sympathetic to the insane.) Maybe we'll have one about how the Columbine killers were just a couple of sweet misguided kids.