Stranger than Fiction

Another one of my favourite films. It's about Will Ferrell's character, Harold Crick, who is a very by-the-book IRS auditor who suddenly starts hearing the narration of his life as he goes about his day. Then he falls in love with one of his free-spirited auditees, Ana Pascal (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal). Then he hears the voice narrate that he is to die imminently and so he is set on a mission to prevent this and that's pretty much it.

Of course, there is a food aspect to the film - Maggie Gyllenhaal's character runs a little indie bakery and makes some yummy sounding sweets.

I love Will Ferrell's awkward acting in this film and some excellent lines from Emma Thompson. Go watch!

Stephen Fry

Oh so much. I want him to be my uncle. Do you think he'd adopt me? I think he is so funny and clever and I love his sense of humour. He's so dry and witty and I just love him to bits. He's definitely on my dream dinner table guest list.

I love watching QI, one of the few shows on TV these days that makes me really laugh - that snort tea through your nose kind of laugh - and it's always nice to know that there is something there in case I need that.

And then he went and did his America series which was almost what me and Nick did in 2007 so I feel a connection there.

Some favourite quotes:

"I think animal testing is cruel. They get nervous and get all the answers wrong."

"We’ve all met people who are supposedly incredibly intelligent but don’t know which way to sit on a lavatory."

"An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them."

Stephen Fry: "It's in the Bible..."
Alan Davies: "I haven't read it!"
Stephen Fry: "You should—it's hilarious."

"Well, bless him, when he arrived—I'm not wishing to sound patronising, but I've just said "bless him," so there's no way out—"

Keep 'em coming Uncle Stephen!

Frasier

I think it's probably my favourite TV programme. There's nothing better than sitting with a cup of tea and watching a Frasier marathon on Comedy Central. It is really witty and it really makes me laugh out loud, even if it's the 5th time I've seen that episode and heard that joke.

I love how pompous and stuck up the Crane brothers are and how they always seem to land themselves in ridiculous situations. Some are a bit unrealistically tragic but still, they make for a good laugh!

Some favourite quotes:

Niles: I do love Maris. Why, the other week I kissed her for absolutely no reason at all!

Daphne: Do you see where I'm going?
Frasier: Insane?

Frasier: Don't stare at me, Eddie. I'm a humane man, but right now I could kick a kitten through an electric fan.

Jerome: Your wife sounds like a carefree lady.
Frasier: Oh, yes, she's ounces of fun.

Frasier: I am so tired of your exaggeration! You always make things 50,000 times worse than they are!

Pushing Daisies

Did you ever catch it on ITV 2 (I think)? It was such a fun and quirky show and I loved that it was so bright and cartoonified (technical term I do believe). For those that don't know, the very, very summarised facts are these: Ned, our leading man, can touch dead things and bring them to life and he and a private detective, Emerson, used this gift to solve murders and crimes around town. But when he touches them again they die forever. If he doesn't do this, something else dies in its place.

The love interest is our very own Anna Friel who is the once dead, but not any more, childhood sweetheart of Ned, which of course means that they have something of an odd and complicated relationship seeing as they can't touch again. She got to wear some of the loveliest dresses. Though sometimes she does wear the odd thing that makes you go "eh?".

Then there are the yummy pies, which as you may have gathered from my previous Waitress post, I heart very much.

Sadly, the show was not picked up for a third season so the show is no more. Madness in my opinion considering the other pap that's on TV these days.

Marie Antoinette

A good friend of mine lent me this film recently and, as they say, OMG!!! It is quite a sad story of the misunderstood Queen of France and the pressures and responsibilities that fell on the young royal.

But oh me oh my! - Such beauty and decadence. The film won an Oscar for Best Costume Design and you can see why. The whole film is just one big feast for the eyes - the cakes (yum!), the clothes, the interiors, the shoes...it goes on.

I particularly loved the colours in the film, there was a lot of creams and duck egg blue and powder pink which look great together and has a very soft and romantic feel to it. I love these colours and if you look at some of my jewellery in mymiyel, you can definitely see this. Like my Noemie earrings:

Anyway, enough talk. Here are some piccies for your enjoyment:




Definitely worth a watch if you've not seen it yet.

Waitress

It's one of my favouritest movies ever. I remember the first time I saw it was while me and Nick were on our road trip and we stumbled upon a teeny little cinema in Key West that was showing it. It was a lovely evening and we were wandering the streets after the Sunset Celebration when we decided to go in and watch it.

Maybe it's all the food (I heart food) or Nathan Fillion or just the whole being on an amazing holiday in an amazing place like the Florida Keys but the film always makes me so happy and warm inside and brings back very fond memories.

The film is all about a waitress (funnily enough) who invents and makes pies and uses them as an escape from the unhappy life she is trapped in. Some pies that feature in the movie:

"I don't want Earl's baby pie" - Quiche of egg and brie cheese with a smoked ham centre.

"I hate my husband pie" - You make it with bittersweet chocolate and don’t sweeten it. You make it into a pudding and drown it in caramel.

"Baby screaming its head off in the middle of the night and ruining my life pie" - New York-style cheesecake, brandy brushed and topped with pecans and nutmeg.

"Pregnant miserable self-pitying loser pie" - Lumpy oatmeal with fruitcake mashed in. Flambéed of course.

The director, Adrienne Shelly, who also played Dawn in the film, was tragically murdered 3 months before the film's debut at Sundance but what a beautiful legacy she has left. After her death, the Adrienne Shelly Foundation was set up to help women fulfil their own dreams in filmmaking. Go have a look.