Parnassus.

I went to the cinema in the centre of Nantes yesterday, to see a film called 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'. It was in English, but with French subtitles. Ssh, i'm allowed an occasional English indulgence.



It's an very odd film, based loosely around the idea that the Doctor has a travelling sideshow that can channel peoples dreams. Anyway, there's a lot of strange dream-sequences, interspersed with extremely 'normal' situations. In one scene, for example, the sideshow pulls up into the carpark of Homebase before one of the dream-trips, which is a pretty strange juxtapostion of everyday life and crazy-fantasy.

I'm no film critic, but I liked it. Some of the jokes seem to be lost on the French, however, as the subtitles couldn't translate the humour. It's always interesting reading the sous-titres when you know what's actually being said in both languages. One example was when the phrase "sure as eggs is eggs" was used. The French equivelant was "sure as 2 + 2 = 4".

After the film I went and had a Thai meal - chicken with ginger. It was delicious, until I realised it tasted the same as a gingerbread man, which then put me off slightly. I then went home and watched the Ireland v. France football match on TV. And supported Ireland.

All in all, not a very 'French' day.