i have failed …. i’ve only seen 87

Reaching the pinnacle of lazy blogging with this one, I’ve grabbed one of AFI’s lists of The 100 Best Movies of All Time (since they seem to do a list, like, every 6 months) and bolded the ones I haven’t seen.

I kind of wish I hadn’t done this because now I feel bad about myself and it’s my God-given right to never feel bad about myself or so I hear. Oh, I’ve also italicized the ones that I haven’t seen that I have no intention of ever seeing, thus ensuring that I can never feel entirely good about myself. But nyaaah to you, Movies I have an Irrational Prejudice Against. I’m sure you’ll survive my rejection to be listed for posterity in a meaningless list yet again someday.

1.CITIZEN KANE (1941)
2.CASABLANCA (1942)
3.GODFATHER, THE (1972)
4.GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
5.LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)
6.WIZARD OF OZ, THE (1939)
7.GRADUATE, THE (1967)
8.ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
9.SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)
10.SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952)
11.IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)
12.SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)
13.BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, THE (1957)
14.SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
15.STAR WARS (1977)
16.ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)
17.AFRICAN QUEEN, THE (1951)
18.PSYCHO (1960)
19.CHINATOWN (1974)
20.ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975)
21.GRAPES OF WRATH, THE (1940)
22.2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
23.MALTESE FALCON, THE (1941)
24.RAGING BULL (1980)
25.E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)
26.DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
27.BONNIE & CLYDE (1967)
28.APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
29.MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
30.TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)
31.ANNIE HALL (1977)
32.GODFATHER PART II, THE (1974)
33.HIGH NOON (1952)
34.TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
35.IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
36.MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
37.BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, THE (1946)
38.DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
39.DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)
40.NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
41.WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
42.REAR WINDOW (1954)
43.KING KONG (1933)
44.BIRTH OF A NATION, THE (1915)
45.STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, A (1951)
46.CLOCKWORK ORANGE, A (1971) Shut up, Kubrick. I don’t even know what about, but just shut up.
47.TAXI DRIVER (1976)
48.JAWS (1975)
49.SNOW WHITE & THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)
50.BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
51.PHILADELPHIA STORY, THE (1940)
52.FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)
53.AMADEUS (1984)
54.ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930) Guess you’ve already shut up, then. Thank you.
55.SOUND OF MUSIC, THE (1965)
56.M*A*S*H(1970)
57.THIRD MAN, THE (1949) I can only handle so much of Orson Welles’ face, actually. Those wine commercials destroyed it for me.
58.FANTASIA (1940)
59.REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
60.RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
61.VERTIGO (1958)
62.TOOTSIE (1982)
63.STAGECOACH (1939)
64.CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)
65.SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, THE (1991)
66.NETWORK (1976)
67.MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, THE (1962)
68.AMERICAN IN PARIS, AN (1951)
69.SHANE (1953)
70.FRENCH CONNECTION, THE (1971)
71.FORREST GUMP (1994)
72.BEN-HUR (1959)
73.WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939)
74.GOLD RUSH, THE (1925)
75.DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990)
76.CITY LIGHTS (1931)
77.AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)
78.ROCKY (1976)
79.DEER HUNTER, THE (1978)
80.WILD BUNCH, THE (1969)
81.MODERN TIMES (1936)
82.GIANT (1956)
83.PLATOON (1986)
84.FARGO (1996)
85.DUCK SOUP (1933) I despise Groucho Marx.
86.MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)
87.FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
88.EASY RIDER (1969)
89.PATTON (1970)
90.JAZZ SINGER, THE (1927) Just can’t get on board. Mazeltov on being the first talking feature.
91.MY FAIR LADY (1964)
92.PLACE IN THE SUN, A(1951)
93.APARTMENT, THE (1960)
94.GOODFELLAS (1990)
95.PULP FICTION (1994)
96.SEARCHERS, THE (1956)
97.BRINGING UP BABY (1938)
98.UNFORGIVEN (1992)
99.GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER (1967) Eh. I love Katharine Hepburn, but Sidney Poitier seems so self-important that he bugs me. Sorry, Sid.
100. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942) I can’t explain my prejudice except the title makes me feel weird. I don’t like the song either. I think it’s the “Doodle Dandy” part that kills it for me. See? Completely irrational.

So go ahead, pippa. Tell me you’ve seen them all. I can take it.

this unforgivable night

(A PS at the beginning: My take on the Oscars validated here and here and elsewhere, I’m sure.)

At one point, during tonight’s yawn-o-rama/Oscar broadcast, Meryl Streep got up to introduce the awards given out at the Governor’s Dinner or the Emperor’s Potluck or the Despot’s Brunch or whatever. I was in the kitchen getting an alcoholic beverage to revive myself.

“……… so let’s review some highlights of this unforgettable night …” she intoned.

But I had my head in the fridge or the water running or something. It sounded like something else to me.

“Did she just say, ‘this unforgivable night’??”

“No! Unforgettable.

“Oh. Really? Given the current evening, mine seems more appropriate.”

This is why I didn’t live blog it, pippa. I was too bored and uninspired.

Btw, I was rooting for Brad. I’ve never been a huge Brad Pitt fan but I thought he was fantastic in Moneyball. Just fantastic. I have never liked him as much as I liked him in that movie.

And Meryl Streep, well, the moment of the night. The speech of the night. So beautiful, inclusive, and heartfelt. It changed my tears of boredom to tears of joy.

By my count, though, the broadcast was only 7 minutes over time. It just felt a lot longer.

sometimes you just need to offload

I’ve figured out why my thinking has been sluggish lately. It’s not my diet, which is fine, or lack of exercise, which I partake of daily on my trampoline, or the drinking or drugs, to which my body has now acclimated after many jittery decades of abuse.

No. It’s stupid random stuff that clogs my brain and ruins me utterly.

Take Jim Caviezel, for instance.

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He’s a nice-looking fellow, no? But that’s not the thing clogging my brain. Nope. It’s not. It could potentially be brain-clogging, I suppose, but that’s really not it right now.

Because I am, sad to say, much more bothered by this thought:

Is the prosthetic nose worn by Jim Caviezel in The Passion of the Christ …..

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the same prosthetic nose he wore in The Stoning of Soraya M?

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(Granted, these photos are not at the same angle, but that’s the best I could do.)

It’s a bit sad, don’t you think, that this is the stuff that consumes me? Frankly — and I think this a deeply disturbing admission — I find him better looking as Jesus than as his normal self but it’s not because of “Jesus,” although I can’t say that with certainty which is the disturbing part. Really, I think it’s because of the nose. I think. I hope. That crook nose nicely de-pretties his practically perfect face which just makes him much yummier in my opinion. I don’t like a pretty man. This is why I would gladly punch Brad Pitt repeatedly in his pretty-pretty face — for his own good, you see.

But back to the noses. They look nearly identical. Is this the same nose? The same nose artist? (Which I’m pretty sure is the correct technical term.) Did Jim Caviezel just put his Jesus nose in a drawer thinking, “Better hang on to this. Never know when I might need it”? And does he get better reviews with a Middle Eastern nose?

Okay.

I need help, pippa. I just wrote a post about Jim Caviezel’s prosthetic noses.

This is not normal behavior.

“if you like pianos ….”

I rewatched “The Piano” on Netflix last weekend. Out of curiosity, after I was done watching it, I perused the Netflix reviews. Somewhere along the line, one of the reviews basically said, “If you like pianos, you’ll love The Piano!”

And I just laughed out loud. If you like pianos, you’ll love The Piano? I mean, my parents like pianos, but they would definitely not like The Piano. Which reminds me to tell my dad he’s not allowed to put that in his queue. I’m pretty sure he’s never seen a woman naked so I see no reason to open that can of worms now.

So what kind of review is that? The irrelevant useless kind, I say. But while the review itself was useless as a review, I’m grateful because it sparked a whole new game for MB and I to play in the car:

Irrelevant Movie Reviews.

By way of explanation, I’ll just give you some of our Irrelevant Movie Reviews and you’ll see the game. Please feel free to add your own.

“If you like sleds, you’ll love Citizen Kane!

“If you like red coats, you’ll love Schindler’s List!”

“If you like whistles, you’ll love The Sound of Music!”

“If you like orange wedges, you’ll love The Godfather Part II!”

“If you like stupid little birds you hide in your pocket, you’ll love The Shawshank Redemption!”

And ’round and ’round we went with this. Granted, the piano in The Piano is much more integral to the story than the items named in our reviews — I actually consider it a character in the movie — but that’s why it just got funnier and funnier to us — because it just got more and more stupid.

I really hope to start a nationwide trend. There aren’t enough Irrelevant Movie Reviews, if you ask me.

my scary movie project

I’ve given myself a scary movie project. Not that the movies themselves are scary — at least not on purpose. They’re scary because they’re so horrible, but they’re not scaaary scary.

All I’m saying for now is that I’ll soon be reviewing a ridiculous, somewhat infamous trilogy of movies from the late 70s and early 80s.

Here’s a screenshot from part 1 of this trilogy. (Sorry for the play arrow. I screwed it up.)

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That tooth. What is the deal with that tooth? Seriously, it’s like some horrible stubborn weed sprouted up amid the enamel hedge of his teeth. It’s like the teeth around it are having their honeymoon ruined by the overbearing mother-in-law tooth. It’s like having a permanent booger hanging out of your nose only it’s in your mouth.

Why did his momma hate him so much to leave him this way?

Also, please know that this fellow with the tagalong tooth is a person of some authority and knowledge in part 1 of our ridiculous trilogy.

See what I mean by scary?

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, pippa. Or, uhm, tooth.

oscars 2011

Okay. Fine. I’ll do it. (But I’m NOT correcting typos which I’m sure will be abundant.)

Opening sequence a la Inception.

Anne Hathaway and James Franco, the (kinda weird choice for) hosts are inside the dreams of past host Alec Baldwin to learn some tips for hosting. In the process, they end up in scenes from each of the nominated movies. I like Anne in a brown-and-red tutu barging into Black Swan and performing “the dance of the brown duck” while she starts to molt.

~ Anne Hathaway’s mom stands up from the crowd and tells her to stand up straight. Haha.

~ James Franco’s granny stands up from the crowd and says, “I just saw Marky Mark.” Haha.

~ There’s a sudden Gone With The Wind montage. What?? Is this some kind of onstage disaster contingency plan? “Quick! Cut to the random Gone With The Wind montage!”?? So we’re less than 10 minutes in and I’m already confused? I’m usually not disoriented until much later, after all the drinkin’ and a deliberately long bathroom break where I marcel my hair.

~ Oh, okay. The montage somehow ties into the first award, presented by the perpetually sagging Tom Hanks.

~ Now there’s a sudden montage of “Titanic” behind him, if you can see past his jowls.

~ Okay. This is Art Direction, which somehow relates to the two montages. Whatever, Jowls Magee.

~ Winner: Alice in Wonderland. Which, btw, I didn’t see. But did you know this is the second nomination for winner Karen O’Hara? Oh, and that also ties in with Gone With The Wind! Phhew. And here I thought they’d leave us hanging with random meaningless montages. Oh, me of little faith.

~ Tom Hanks is giving another award because his jowls give him gravitas. Cinematography.

~ Winner: Inception. Ugh. Boooooooooooo. The winner’s name is Wally and he speaks of his “master” Christopher Nolan. Hey, I don’t wanna hear about what goes on in your bedroom, okay?

~ Here’s Kirk Douglas. He’s flirting with Anne Hathaway. I think. God bless him, but he’s very hard to understand. Best Supporting Actress here. Cross your fingers for ….. whomever you want. Oh, there’s Helena Bonham Carter, who has Medusa hair tonight. I think those are actual snakes. So fresh, so feminine.

~ Kirk Douglas is just chatting. “Hugh Jackman is laughing at me. I don’t know why the Australians all think I’m funny. Colin Firth isn’t laughing. Look. He’s British.” He’s saying this all with extremely slurred speech because of his stroke. “Now here’s the moment we’re all waiting for.” He opens the envelope, shakily. He tosses it to the floor. He stands there with the results in his hands and ignores them, saying something like, “You know …… I was nominated 3 times and never won ….” He’s holding those results and the screen is showing all five nominees waiting, waiting for him to read the card ….. and he’s just chatting. Hahahahahahaha. Brilliant.

~ Winner: Melissa Leo for “The Fighter.” Her speech goes on and on. What happened to the shushing music? She gets bleeped out at some point for an F bomb.

~ So Toy Story 3 wins Best Animated Feature. I guess this means it won’t win Best Picture. Did you know I didn’t see that?

~ Back from commercials, “it’s now 1929 and it’s the first Academy Awards,” according to (the kinda weird choice for) host Anne Hathaway. Why? I don’t get it. Why is it suddenly 1929? Just so the set can change and Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem can stroll onstage look uncomfy in white tuxes? I need booze STAT to help this all make sense somehow.

~ Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network. (I don’t like him. I have no real basis for this other than not liking him.)

~ It’s still 1929 for no apparent reason — which I assume means bread lines are forming outside the theater — and Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem are still presenting, uncomfy in their white tuxes. It’s Original Screenplay.

~ Winner: The King’s Speech. “My father always said I’d be a late bloomer.” The winner is a 60-something-ish fellow. Good line, good speech.

~ Anne Hathaway sings a solo which was “supposed” to be a duet with Hugh Jackman. It’s “On My Own” From Les Miserables. “On my own ‘cuz someone’s a Hugh Jackass …..” blah blah. Sorta funny.

~ (The kinda weird choice for ) host James Franco appears dressed as Marilyn Monroe. Again, the confusion. Booze ain’t helping.

~ Russell Brand and Helen Mirren for Foreign Language film. Again, I cannot stress enough that I haven’t seen any of these movies, but I predict the winner will be a foreign language film.

~ Winner: I was right! And listening to her speech is like listening to a foreign language film. Still, good for you, toots. Also, wow. Hello, tits.

~ And now I make a new category: Best Foreign Language Tits. She wins, whoever she was.

~ Here’s Reese. She looks fabulous. Best Supporting Actor. Can I root for Christian Bale — whose movie I did not see, btw — just because? Ooh, lots of great actors in this category says the blank slate of my soul.

~ Winner: Well, for a blank slate, I do have a sense of things sometimes. Christian Bale. Who has a weird red dwarf beard. Is that fake? How could his beard be so red? I don’t know what he’s saying, I’m so distracted by his orangutan facial hair. He thanked his wife. Okay. Well, good job on that, Gimli. I still love you and forgive you for being an orangutan.

~ The president of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences speaks. He is shot by bored sniper.

~ Here’s Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. They should be a couple. His wife is too old and her husband is too short.

~ An orchestra appears as if from nowhere playing bits of movie themes. Oh, all right. It’s Best Original Score. The Social Network was nominated? Really? Nerd music? And that cut-off-my-arm movie. Well, if you have to lop off your own arm, at least let there be some good lopping music to cover the screams. And Inception is nominated too.

~ Winner: The Nerd Movie. Srsly?

~ Matthew Mc Conageahageygeehee and Scarlett Johannson. Best Sound.

~ Winner: Inception.

~ There’s a nominee named Gwendolen Yates Widdle. I want her to win just because of that name. (Best Sound Editing). She didn’t. DAMN that Inception.

~ Okay. So there’s Sound and Sound Editing, right? How do you know who should get Best Sound then? I mean, aren’t we all hearing JUST the edited version of sound? Do the voters of the Academy get CDs of the movies nominated for Best Sound that just include the unedited sound?

~ Am I being retarded? Or am I being brilliant? Because I don’t know the answer to my questions above and I think they’re legit. Sound and Sound Editing. What’s the diff? Why do I care?

~ Thank God, Marisa Tomei is here to set my priorities straight again.

~ On an unrelated note: MB says that “James Franco (as host) sucks ass.”

~ I say: “I am going to cut his arm off.”

~ Cate Blanchett. What the hell is she wearing? The sleeves on her dress poke out at right angles from her body. Did she forget to take it off the hanger? It’s so weird. Like someone folded some poster board in half, cut a head hole in it, and jammed it on Cate Blanchett’s head.

~ Oh, this is Best Makeup. That Rick Baker dude wins. Surprise.

~ Colleen Atwood wins for Best Costume Design for the millionth time. She’s reading from a paper and wearing hideous sheer black gloves. Here’s the shut-up music. Because, damn, them gloves be ugly. I think the producers want to get her offstage before she loses all credibility.

~ So where is the Best Edited Costume Design? Best Edited Makeup?

~ Here’s the ever-oily Kevin Spacey sliding up to the mic. I swear that dude is made of margarine. Best Original Song.

~ Oh, goodie! It’s Randy Newman singing the latest clever ditty he wrote. He is shot by a bored sniper, but I’m sure he’ll be back next year to bore again.

~ Here’s Jake Glilksdjflaskdjflaskweroiwuerhall and Amy Adams. Short Subject Documentary. Okay. The woman who won is clearly a man. Those ropey biceps make me shiver.

~ Oprah Winfrey?? MB says: “What’s SHE doing here??” Ditto.

~ Her black shiny dress is so tight across the boobs, it looks like she swallowed a bolster pillow.

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~ Here’s Billy Crystal. Thank GOD. Can he take over from here? Leave this job to the professionals? The grown-ups? Good God, I’m a gammie now. A drunken slattern gammie full of prunes and gas and baseless opinions.

~ Curse you, Billy Crystal! You’re just here to introduce another damn montage. Sure, it’s Bob Hope and who doesn’t love Bob Hope, but gammie’s tired.

~ Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, whose hairline, I might add, is becoming a peninsula of genetic misfortune.

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~ The Nerd Movie just won again. Something. I don’t know what. Best Edited Nerd.

~ Jennifer Hudson in a spectacular red-orange va-voomy gown. Good Lord, she looks like a goddess. She’s here to introduce more Original Song singing, including Gwyneth Paltrow singing some mawkish country crap from that Country Strong movie which, btw, I did not see, but neither did anyone else from what I can tell. She is shot by a bored sniper.

~ Oh, that douche Randy Newman wins.

~ Ugh. Could it get WORSE? Here’s Celine Dion singing “Smile” to the montage of the dearly departed. I always like this part, but damn, do I hate the tone of her vibrato. It’s like a marble stuck in her throat. Go see a doctor, Celine.

~ So Lena Horne passed away this year, which is sad, but so did many other Hollywood greats, which is also sad. Still, Halle Berry appears now to give a special tribute to Lena Horne and Lena Horne alone. I get why it’s being done; I just don’t like why it’s being done.

~ Hillary Swank. Didn’t she play Secretariat in Secretariat? (I get increasingly cranky as the show goes on, don’t I?) Thank God, it’s Best Directing now. Getting close to daylight.

~ Winner: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech. The guy looks like the love child of Jeff Foxworthy and James Cameron. Maybe he is.

~ Also: James Franco looks like Eddie Munster. I’m just throwing that out there for you to ponder.

~ Jeff Bridges to present Best Actress. Hallelujah! Almost done! I love the way he addresses each nominee personally. He makes what are surely scripted comments sound unscripted, because he’s just that good, that natural.

Winner: Natalie Portman. She’s thanking the camera operators and the AD on the film. Very nice touch. She’s very composed. Almost too composed. Like, “I knew I was going to win, so I rehearsed this 5347 times” composed.

~ Here’s Sandra Bullock with Best Actor. She’s addressing the nominees too, teasing Jeff Bridges for being nominated again this year. “You know, space it out. Give someone else a chance. I mean, how much is enough?” Hahaha. She’s so adorable.

~ Winner: Colin Firth. I’m typing that before it’s announced. Let’s see if I have to change it. Nope. Firth wins. Be still my heart. First thing out of his mouth, “I’m afraid my career’s just peaked.” Love him.

~ Steven Spielberg with — FINALLY! — Best Picture. And in case I didn’t say this last year, I hate that there are now 10 nominees. I have no reason other than it seems lame and cumbersome. Look, I promised you baseless opinions.

Winner: The King’s Speech. Dudes give speeches.

And that’s ……..

~ What?? I thought it was over. Nope. An unruly group of moppets, clearly awake past their bedtime, swarm the stage singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in front of — I’m not kidding here — a projected image of The Emerald City of Oz. Buh-zarre. What does that have to do with anything??

~ I’m now spinning my top to see if this was all real.

~ See how I worked in a reference to one of the two movies I actually saw last year?

But it’s over! (Three hours plus.) But we survived!

That’s all, folks!!

wondering aloud if i’ll live-blog the oscars 2011

I haven’t actually decided if I’ll live blog this year’s Oscars. It’s kind of a tradition on this blog, but this year, I just don’t know.

Every year, I make a point of seeing all the movies nominated and as many of the nominated performances as possible. Actually, this just happens organically throughout the year leading up to the show, but once the nominees are announced, if there’s still something I haven’t seen, I’ll make a point of seeing it. This year, though, I’m completely disconnected from the show.

Here’s why: I saw precisely 2 movies last year. I’m serious. Two movies. And I’m a movie lover, movie goer, but not last year. It just got away from me. I saw Inception, hated it, and I saw Faster, with Dwayne Johnson “The Rock” which I actually really enjoyed. That movie had no fat. None. There’s my review.

But I have no horse in this race. I root for no one. I can’t, legitimately, having seen essentially nothing. Well, okay, I can illegitimately root for Colin Firth because I’ve always loved him, and it feels like it’s just his “time.” Still, I feel like a phony even saying that because I haven’t even seen The King’s Speech. I’m not exaggerating when I say I saw two movies last year. That includes rentals or Netflix. I just wasn’t in that head space.

So if I blog it, I’m blogging from a complete blank. I come to the show with nothing. I have no idea who deserves or doesn’t deserve what. Cue Whitney Houston singing “I Have Nothing” and that’s what’s going on here, pippa.

Bupkis.

Well, actually, not nothing. I still gots me opinions. Never a shortage of those.

If I blog, it will be an evening of willy-nilly, slapdash, baseless opinions.

Which is pretty much standard operation procedure around here, isn’t it?

And now I don’t know why I wrote this post.

Proceed apace, pippa.

“diva” — aria from “la wally”

This aria from La Wally, “Ebben, ne andro lontana,” is one of my all-time favorites. I’ve listened to so many different divas sing it — Monserrat Caballe, Kiri Te Kanawa, Renee Fleming, Maria Callas — and I actually think this one is my favorite of them all, sung by Wilhelmina Wiggins Fernandez, the diva of the movie “Diva.” I was obsessed with that movie when it came out.

Everything about her in this scene just glows. The dress, her face, her voice. The simple gestures with her hands are pretty. There is just a sheen of perfection around her. She’s liquid to me. I don’t know how else to describe it. Everything about her is liquid, flowing, full, effortless. So so gorgeous.

I find her version of this aria to be the sweetest and the most effortless. It’s decidedly not effortless, but she makes it appear so.

She starts singing at about 1:14. From that point to about 1:47 brings tears to my eyes. There’s such a sweetness to it; it’s almost unbearable. The whole thing is perfect, but that opening is too much for me.