Prada, and other thoughts
1. I thought The Devil Wears Prada was pretty good, with a few minor quibbles. It would have been more powerful if it had ended with the scene in Paris, after Meryl Streep tells Anne Hathaway they're not so different, then gets out of the car - instead of all the happy ending crap. The shot of Andrea watching - with a look of lingering horrow - as Miranda walks through the paparazzi into the building, should have been the last shot. How many people really escape, in reality? Also, I thought the movie tried to have it both ways - it does buy into the Runway values for part of the movie (for example, it's clearly celebrating when Andrea gains a sense of fashion), then tries to condemn it at the end.
But the most powerful part to me was the way it spoke so truthfully to my experience as a professional woman, though obviously in a completely different environment. I clearly saw shades of myself, my manager, the head of our divison, and my family and friends in there. And I totally identified with that sense of ongoing, hopeless, grinding, impossible demands with never a moment of appreciation or sense of satisfaction for a job well done, only to go home to a disapproving, resentful partner; the sense of working non-stop and yet never being able to make anyone happy - nothing being enough at work, and constant tension and resentment at home; the feeling of going from one battleground to another with no respite, no matter how hard you work. It actually made me angry, just watching the movie.
Then the moment where Miranda tells Andrea that her husband is divorcing her suddenly made it more universal for me - as though that moment could be a hallmark of the contemporary professional woman's existence; maybe every woman who tries maintain a demanding career is going to face the same thing, and there's just no way out.
It reminded me of what was another watershed moment in film for me - the scene in Love Actually where Emma Thompson's character breaks down after she realizes the expensive jewellery her husband bought was not for her. In a similar way, that one spoke really intensely to me, and also seems to reflect the inner pyschic reality of contemporary female experience better than any other movie I can thing of off-hand.
ETA Loved the Sidekick/Hiptop though!
2. Does anyone happen to use FoxPro at all? My partner needs to do a test on it for a job interview and we'd love a few tips. We've both used databases before and I have MS Access here to practise on, but neither of us have used FoxPro before. I don't think it'll be a very complicated test, just something to show he can pick it up and use the database there, so we don't need a whole course but a simple tutorial would be great. We've looked online and can't seem to find anything.
3. The wildflower garden in our front yard is just starting to take off!
(click for full effect)
But the most powerful part to me was the way it spoke so truthfully to my experience as a professional woman, though obviously in a completely different environment. I clearly saw shades of myself, my manager, the head of our divison, and my family and friends in there. And I totally identified with that sense of ongoing, hopeless, grinding, impossible demands with never a moment of appreciation or sense of satisfaction for a job well done, only to go home to a disapproving, resentful partner; the sense of working non-stop and yet never being able to make anyone happy - nothing being enough at work, and constant tension and resentment at home; the feeling of going from one battleground to another with no respite, no matter how hard you work. It actually made me angry, just watching the movie.
Then the moment where Miranda tells Andrea that her husband is divorcing her suddenly made it more universal for me - as though that moment could be a hallmark of the contemporary professional woman's existence; maybe every woman who tries maintain a demanding career is going to face the same thing, and there's just no way out.
It reminded me of what was another watershed moment in film for me - the scene in Love Actually where Emma Thompson's character breaks down after she realizes the expensive jewellery her husband bought was not for her. In a similar way, that one spoke really intensely to me, and also seems to reflect the inner pyschic reality of contemporary female experience better than any other movie I can thing of off-hand.
ETA Loved the Sidekick/Hiptop though!
2. Does anyone happen to use FoxPro at all? My partner needs to do a test on it for a job interview and we'd love a few tips. We've both used databases before and I have MS Access here to practise on, but neither of us have used FoxPro before. I don't think it'll be a very complicated test, just something to show he can pick it up and use the database there, so we don't need a whole course but a simple tutorial would be great. We've looked online and can't seem to find anything.
3. The wildflower garden in our front yard is just starting to take off!
(click for full effect)