Stop Watching All of those French-inspired Films: Go Wash Your Dishes

Following up on my Saturday-morning post about Valentine's Day, I kept hitting the remote and discovered the TCM channel was running a marathon of old French-inspired movies. I kept thinking, "Okay, watch this and then go find something to do... " The line-up was Casablanca, Midnight in Paris, GiGi, and Charade. I love all four of these movies for different reasons. Like, who else wants to stand up and sing La Marseillaise and drown out the tune of the Germans in Casablanca? This movie is more than Rick and Ilsa. I think the moments when Rick gives the band a nod to change the music and the French stand up to sing are the greatest scenes in cinematic history. It's a fun journey as screenwriter Gil Pender meets Hemingway, Cole Porter, Gertrude Stein, and Scott and Zelda in 21st-century Paris in Midnight in Paris. Gil is sitting at the steps of the Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont when an old Peugeot limo picks him up and whisks him away. I also sat on those same steps. There are fond childhood memories of GiGi. My mother took me to see the matinee. As a little kid, I didn't understand the story of Gigi, but I do remember the wonderful music, with Maurice Chevalier singing. It brought me back just a few years ago when I was in Paris, sitting in a bistro listening to a Chevalier impersonator. Charade was a 1960s fun mystery with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn chasing the "bad guys" around Paris. Was Cary Grant the bad guy after all? According to the TCM schedule, following the movie Charade, the American in Paris, and also Moulin Rouge. I have tried to like Moulin Rouge, but I just cannot get into it. I saw it when it first came out, but walked away disappointed. Years later, I tried again - twice, and I can only get through about the first 10 minutes, and then I am done. Blech. Finally, I turned off the television when "American in Paris" began, deciding it was best to step away from the screen and try being a contributor to society and wash my breakfast dishes in the sink. "Let's go children of the fatherland, The day of glory has arrived! Against us tyranny's Bloody flag is raised!"