Luke
Hodges
Right now I’m obsessed with the French actress Adèle Exarchopoulos. She is the youngest person ever--and only the third
woman in history--to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Her film “La Vie d’Adèle, Chapitres 1 & 2” (called
“Blue is the Warmest Color” in the US) is one of the most remarkable collaborations I’ve ever seen--Adèle and director
Abdellatif Kechiche abandoned the original screenplay and rewrote the film as they were shooting, improvising scenes and
turning the camera on actors between takes, when they were sleeping or eating, all in an effort to bring a sense of naturalism to the film. Kechiche decided to change the protagonist’s name to Adèle (it was originally supposed to be Clementine).
The miracle of “La Vie d’Adèle” is that, although the film runs three hours long, it never loses its audience’s interest. That
is due in large part to Exarchopoulos, whose performance is so nuanced and empathetic that you can’t help but fall more
and more in love with her character as the film progresses.
To put it simply, this movie’s turn’t up.
Megan
Dunbar
My frying pan. I can throw anything in it with some
olive oil and it works out. Also the TV show Bad
Education, in which a frustrated teacher hits on his
long-suffering colleague, convinces students to lie
for him and helps his class learn about tank battles by
staging wheelchair wars. It’s pretty much the most
accurate Don’ts of Teaching list for future educators.