Who has time to blog?

I've seen an unusually number of very good movies lately. A week or two ago I mentioned All about my mother after watching it for the second time; it features lesbians, pregnant nuns, she-males, snippets of Tennessee Williams, a young Penelope Cruz, and an absolutely astonishing performance by Cecilia Roth as a grieving parent.

Since then, I've netflixed:

• The politician's wife, a 3-part BBC mini-series (the weakest of the shows I'm listing, but still very good);
• Monsieur Hire, a story that seems outrageously far-fetched at the beginning but becomes more and more believable as it progresses through various twists and turns to its surprising end. I defy anyone who watches it to listen to Brahms's piano quartet in g minor without thinking of the beautiful young Sandrine Bonnaire;
• Queen to play, the wholesome (and largely predictable) story of a middle-aged hotel maid who takes up chess. I defy anyone who watches it to think of that game again without thinking of the luminous and no-longer-young Sandrine Bonnaire.
• The secret in their eyes, which I guess might be called a police procedural, with some ghastly images of violent crime, interwoven with a sweet story of missed opportunity and second chances.
• Bread and tulips, An unhappy housewife (Licia Maglietta) who's taken for granted by her philandering, self-centered husband takes an unplanned vacation in Venice.
• The last detective, another BBC series, this one the charming story of a mild-mannered, disrespected London detective and his quirky friends. (The 4 episodes of season 1 are excellent; season 2's initial installment is a disappointment.)

The BBC shows are the only ones in English; the others are, in order, French, French, Spanish, and Italian. When I think of all those years when I refused to consider foreign language films – “I don't like to read my movies” – I could kick myself. By one estimate, only about 20 percent of the movies produced each year are made in the United Sates. There's a whole bunch of films I've never even considered over a whole bunch of years.