Dirt!

We watched this movie the other night, and I loved it.  You need to watch it.  And the next time you see a child pick up a big handful of dirt and sift it through their fingers, there will probably be a smile on your face.




And I will admit, that within 10 minutes of the documentary being over, we had started a compost bin.  It will make you do something, too.

Babies

This has been shared by others, but I have to put it here, too.  I am not ashamed to say that I cry when I watch the trailer.  I'm not sure why, but I do. It might be the Sufjan Stevens song.



I'm hoping this will be playing somewhere in Brussels...but it will at least be in the states in April.

The Wild Rumpus!

It's getting closer! And my husband just pointed me in the direction of the movie's website. Check out the featurette, in which Spike Jonze and Maurice Sendak praise each other's vision. Lovely!

The Red Balloon

It is summer in the Northern Hemishpere, so you should be outside. But perhaps later this evening, you want to open some windows and let the breeze flow in while you watch a good movie. Nothing too long...maybe something that you can watch and still have time to go get some fireflies in the yard later. I have just the thing.

The Red Balloon is an award winning film from 1956 written and directed by Albert Lamorisse, starring his son Pascal Lamorisse. I have loved this movie since I was young, and I was happy to share it with my class this past school year. They had wonderful things to say about it which are shared below.

Enjoy today, and come back tomorrow for some more (contemporary) sharing about the film.



Ma : I thought that the balloon ran out of air and the boy stamp it with his feet.
Am : I like the way that he took all of the balloons and flew away.
Pe : You know why all the balloons was flying away? Because the red balloon give all his magic to the other balloons.
Na : I like when it ended, when he flew into the air!
Ro : It was like Disneyland, it was magic, it was beautiful!
Jo : I liked the end
Al : How will he get down ?
Ca : I can answer that question. He will take one by one away until he gets down.
Ly : He can stay in the air for lots of days, and then he’ll come back down.

And a lovely interview with Pascal Lamorisse on the 2007 restoration of the film is here.

Where The Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak reinterpreted by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers, starring Catherine Keener, with music by Karen O. That is my kind of movie.

See the trailer here or here.

I am quite hopeful about this one -- I'll be first in line to see it in October. It is a risky move, though, taking a classic book with so little text and making it into a feature length film. At the conference I went to last weekend, the keynote speaker, Michael Rosen, mentioned Where The Wild Things Are as a book that even the youngest children can relate to. When Max wants to be where someone loves him most of all, a two-year-old can tell you that is with Mommy.

Unfortunately, I don't remember having this book as a child, but using it in my classroom has shown me the impact that it does have on young children. I had a fleeting idea of doing a monster project earlier this year because of the artwork and stories that were created on the topic. Perhaps it will come up again.

But for now, I can mark October 16th down on my calendar.