Day 116: Understanding the Beast Within + The Smurfs 2011

Understanding the Beast Within –

I looked at several sequences of The Human Beast (1938) again and realized that Renoir – in 1938 – had moved beyond his subject, beyond his material, and started telling the non-dialogue aspects of the story, more-with-vision than with dialogue. The dialogue parts were often still trite and some of the scenes were embarrassingly melodramatic. But there was a new – overall – visual approach to La Bête humaine which was significantly more mature and more ground-breaking than Grande (1937). The next level Renoir had achieved – beyond every previous film – was quite obvious, I could see how La Régle turned out the way it did, eclipsing all of his other work.

Today was a day of just writing and reading. I haven’t read, anywhere, a claim the Human Beast is one of the greatest of all time, or that it is even one of Renoir’s greatest films but it was interesting to come across the fact that it has another English name: Judas Was a Woman. It gives a further indication of the type of duplicitous, manipulative person, Sèverine is.

The Smurfs 2011

Today is another of those days where a person has to set the plan aside and go along with the way that things unfold.

Yesterday, Becky was very sick, and I was taken aback with how ill she looked when I picked her up from Family Day-care.

Today, as I did last week with Charlie, I needed to look after one of my kids – The Beckster – in the afternoon.

Empathy and sympathy pour out of you when one of your kids is sick. Well, for most people. Instead, I yelled at Becky after she vomited everywhere, to pick up the bowl next time and vomit in the bowl, not on the floor. I felt bad immediately.

Why do children hold a bucket in one hand and still stand there heaving – bucketless – down the front of their clothes and onto the carpet?

I can’t say I loved The Smurfs film. In fact, I thought it was terrible. The lead human actor was awful. I didn’t recognize him. An animated-style characterization, played by a human, but worse than most I can recall.