Auteur : Martine

Tonight, I can’t think of anything more exciting than when all the pieces of a story you’ve been working on fall into place, finally creating a coherent whole, undoing the knots you couldn’t quite take care of before. Starting a text can be painful but oh, once you get going and you reach that point where you have most of the elements ready, where you know it’s going to happen! You will finish the text and it will work. You just know it.

Of course, later on, there are the outsiders’ reviews, the ones that will take every single one of those pieces apart and suggest that maybe you should move this here, and maybe a little more there, and why not change this part in the middle?

But for now, there’s only the satisfaction of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel but not quite being there yet, and that’s okay, because it’s nice and cool and quiet in there and you’ll reach the end when the time comes.

Man, is it so hard to work on such a gorgeous weekend! I just saw my bikini clad neighbor slowly descend the stairs leading to the cool water of her pool. Damn. It’s a good thing we’re not close with the neighbors quite yet because I would be unable to resist an invitation to jump in their pool right now.

But hey, there’s a deadline to meet in 10 days so I have to keep on writing. I did have my first swim of the season yesterday at my sister’s place so I guess I can’t complain too much. Renaud, my nephew, just turned 9 and we did our annual outing together at the bookstore. I think I inherited my love of reading from my big brother who used to take me to a bookstore every year for my birthday. He would pick a book for me and I got to pick a book myself. I thought I would try the same tradition with my nephews, so yesterday Renaud and I did some shopping. He chose a couple of small, illustrated encyclopedias and I picked two bandes dessin�es (comic books) for him as well as a short novel.

In the evening, I spent some time with Zeke and Blork at the Beer festival, before going out to dinner. Mmmmm, ice ciders. Light headed, I splurged and bought three different bottles (including this amazing one), knowing that somebody’s birthday is coming up in a week.

Everybody seems to be outside today so to cheer myself up a bit, I had a look at the great photos of Montreal taken by a brand new blogger, Jon, Cassandra’s beau. He’s a very talented professional photographer and I was charmed to see that his writing is just as enjoyable. You should have a look.

Friday night is often movie night for me so last night I went through the Cinema Montreal listing, looking for something good. Damn summer movies. Nothing seemed inspiring that I hadn’t already seen.

Then I came across the description of this little gem, watched the trailer and I was hooked! I convinced two of my favorite people to come with me and after a quick dinner on a terrace, it was time to run inside the theater where things got mad hot.

This fantastic, entertaining and funny (really funny) documentary is being advertised as a « Spellbound meets Strictly Ballroom ». We follow the lives of pre-teens in New York City as they go through a mandatory program which teaches them how to ballroom dance. 11 is an awkward age and it’s touching to see how these kids struggle and learn about life through hours of practice in preparation for a competition. We were laughing our heads off at some of the comments and moves these kids made. They are gorgeous (and I mean, drop dead gorgeous), witty, with that touch of innocence that will disappear once they turn into real teenagers. I was moved to tears as I watched young couples find a natural grace on the dance floor, emboldened by a newly found confidence that will hopefully stay with them for the rest of their lives. There’s no need to enjoy dancing to be moved by this film.

Mad Hot Ballroom is a great tribute to the power of dance, the dedication of teachers but also to New York City and its diversity. Can you imagine living in such a city as a child, playing in those streets and being exposed to the gritty reality of urban life on that scale?

Documentaries generally don’t have very long theater runs so rush to see Mad Hot Ballroom! It’s a perfect summer movie (whatever that means) and you’ll leave the theater with your heart and your feet feeling lighter, ready for a few new steps. It already has its spot in my list of favorite movies for 2005.

Je viens de constater que le Voir a fait la critique de ce film dans son num�ro le plus r�cent.