This picture was taken by me five weeks ago as we had just returned from buying the Saturday paper. Today is Saturday again which means paper buying day! I love it when both Peter and I can walk together to the Newsagent’s shop which is close by at little shopping center.

Last Wednesday we saw a French film with English subtitles. The film is called AMOUR. We had seen this film once before a few months ago. It was shown in Berlin with no subtitles but in German. As I remember it the synchronisation from French into German had been done very well which was a relief. Usually I prefer to see a film in the original just with subtitles. So now we had the chance to listen to it in French. Both Peter and I agreed that it was great to see the film a second time.

This French film shows a couple in Paris in their eighties. Both are retired music teachers. They have a daughter who is also a musician and travels a lot with her English husband. She comes to see her parents in Paris only occasionally. The mother has a severe stroke, is hospitalised. Some time later she’s supposed to go into a hospice. She needs constant care. She begs her husband to take her home to care for her there. And this is what he does! He takes on to care for his wife who is very disabled. The film shows how the husband who is very elderly himself, takes on the task to look after his wife. It gets more difficult for him as her health deteriorates more and more. Despite some outside help this poor man is at breaking point in the end. Out of love for his wife he perseveres. The daughter urges him to give the ailing mother into a hospice. But the father doesn’t give up. He says he promised his wife to look after her at home. This is a very slow moving wonderfully acted film. Both Peter and I liked it a lot.

The husband is played by JEAN-LOUIS TRINTIGNANT, the wife by EMMANUELLE RIVA, the daughter by ISABELLE HUPPERT.

So this was our Wednesday adventure. While we were watching the movie, our car did get a big service. Luckily apart from the service nothing else needed to be done to get the car re-registered. On Thursday, while I was at my exercise class, Peter fixed up insurance and registration for the car. Last Monday he had to fork out a lot of money for the dentist in Sydney. It was a very expensive week for Peter but he’s glad everything is behind him now. From now on we can relax and enjoy Mothers’ Day and Peter’s birthday.

On Monday, when Peter had his dental appointment, I went with Peter to Sydney to keep him company. Unfortunately we weren’t able to see David for his birthday as we had promised. I wrote him a card saying we’d see him as soon as possible.

Yesterday, Friday, we had a good time in the afternoon. We played Scrabble and Rummy at my place. Next week we are going to play at Irene’s place again. Peter had afternoon coffee with us. Marion who had an operation recently, is doing fine. Erika is overseas for the time being. So only three of us played instead of four. The ladies were very impressed that Peter had baked some apple turnovers for afternoon coffee. Isn’t he a dear! For Mothers’ Day he wants to bake a cheese cake.

P.S. Peter just pointed out to me that in English it’s called ‘dubbing’, when a new soundtrack is added to a film. In German it is called ‘synchronisation’. This film with French actors was actually a French/German co-production.
And there is something else I can add here: From 4 June – 20 July 2013 the SYDNEYTHEATRE.COM.AU is going to show a play called “THE MAIDS”. The housemaids are played by Cate Blanchett and French screen star ISABELLE HUPPERT. It says the housemaids fantasise about killing their mistress! You may recognise that ISABELLE HUPPERT is the actress who plays the daughter in the movie AMOUR.
Our daughter sees theater productions on a regular basis. Maybe we should ask her whether she would be interested in seeing ‘The Maids’ with us. Oh, what a bombshell!