Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Tuneful Tuesday Travel - begin in 1994 NYC, recede to 1948 Casablanca, fast forward to this summer


As promised, here's another Natalie Portman movie clip; this one is set to music by a brilliant youtuber named VictoriaVenom. It's Leon the Professional with Sting's Shape of My Heart. Portman was 13 when she made this film.





She gave a funny little interview with Letterman while promoting it. There are several clips from that here and here and here and here. It's in 4 parts. She is delightful. It's fun to contrast that appearance with this more recent one, ten years later in 2004, for Garden State.

Okay, so now you have probably gotten your fill of Natalie Portman for the day. If not, you're going to have to go elsewhere on the interweb for a fix.

I really like Jean Reno. I'd assumed he was French after seeing him in The Pink Panther. In Léon, he plays an Italian immigrant. But it turns out that IMDB reports he is Spanish:

Born in Casablanca, Morocco, to Spanish parents (from Andalusia) who moved to North Africa to escape the fascist regime of Francisco Franco ("El Caudillo"), Jean Reno settled in France at 17.

In case you're wondering, Casablanca, the beloved classic with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, was filmed just six years before Reno was born. Casablanca was filmed entirely on the Warners lot except for one scene in which L.A. Municipal Airport stood in for Casablanca airport. Oh well. That's the magic of Hollywood for you.

What's funny is that Wikipedia calls him a French actor despite noting his Spanish parentage. His birth name was Don Juan Moreno y Herrera Jiménez. Other fun Wikipedia factoids:

On July 29, 2006, the actor married model and actress Zofia Borucka, 35, at the city hall of Baux-de-Provence in southern France. The French President (at the time, only a Presidential candidate) Nicolas Sarkozy was his best man. (Reno endorsed Sarkozy for the 2007 French Presidential Elections.

I'll bet you were wondering if I'd write a politics-free post two days in a row.

Obviously not. But if you watched all the Portman clips, you already knew that.

This summer, Professor X and I are taking the Amazing Children to New York City. We are looking forward to a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Statue of Liberty, Zabar's Deli, the Natural History Museum, the UN, and Ellis Island. We're hoping to score some discounted play tickets the day of performance. Beyond those activities, I am wide open to all your suggestions. I figure we'll look for an apartment rental service similar to the one we used in Paris. But I'm a little freaked about all the notes on Tripadvisor warning of apartment rental scams... Ack! If you have a recommendation, let me know.

6 comments:

Mrs. Chili said...

I ADORE Jean Reno and Leon is one of my all-time favorite movies. I'm also in love with Sting, but that's neither here nor there.

If you want great NYC advice, go see Kizz at 117hudson.blogspot.com. She's been my friend for going on 26 years and has lived in (and loved) NYC for more than half her life. Really; I can't think of a better resource. Tell her I sent you.

Fantastic Forrest said...

Thanks, Mrs. Chili! How could I forget to mention Sting?! I will have to do something on him this week to make up for that.

I'm off to see Kizz.
Merci beaucoup de la recommandation! It's good to have friends.

Dugdale said...

If you are a little freaked out by rental scams you can try my rental scam detection tool:
http://www.pickrent.com/stuff/scamquiz.cfm

Dave

Kathryn Magendie said...

Oh Sting...panting a little.

Now, back to read the rest, since I was distracted by STING! (laughing)

lisahgolden said...

Rapt. I've never seen this movie, but I want to now.

dianne said...

I havent seen the movie but Jean Reno is a great actor, I have always assumed he was French.

Sting is very cute...he has even aged well. ♡