To the Movies

If you had not been to see a movie at the theater in the last 70 years, what movie would you see? What movie best exemplifies the difference between a movie made in 2009 and one made in 1939? My mother-in-law Anna is visiting from the Netherlands for the Christmas holidays and we gave her the choice of going out to see a new movie called Avatar from 20th Century Fox or staying home and watching a kids Christmas video. She said that either was fine with her, so we went to the movie. On the way there she told us this was the first time she had been to a movie theater in 70 years. We asked her "are you sure?" and she told us the last movie she saw in a theater was "The Seventh Son."

Before we realized that Anna had missed two generations of revolution in the movie-going experience we had thought Avatar might be a little much for Anna. Our concerns were due to the scantily clad blue aliens, and the animated fighting action. While this movie has those things it turns out to be a really amazing movie -- it has an engrossing plot, amazingly realistic animation combined with film footage and real actors, and it is in 3D, very beautiful and surreal. All during the movie I kept sneaking a glance at Anna to see what her reaction was. Was she sleeping, was she horrified? No, she was staring at the screen intently for the full 2 and a half hours. She came out of the theater looking dazed and she kept repeating "unbelievable" and "I loved it" when we asked her what she thought.

I think that there are not many 86-year-olds who share Anna's interest and appreciation for things that are new and novel. Since she enjoyed the action/alien 3-D movie so much maybe a Monster Truck event is in store for her next.

We have done some more staid activities while Anna has been here. Below are three photos of Anna at Tessa's class holiday party. In one, Anna is standing below Tessa's doll that Tessa (or actually Mom) dressed up in a Hollander costume. Anna is watching Tessa decorate a cookie in the second photo. Anna, Mrs. Britt (Tessa's teacher) and Tessa are shown in the third photo. The bottom photo is of Tessa and Anna at Stats, a seasonal store in Pasadena that carries some outrageous and corny Christmas decorations