What I Watched and Read Today

The Human Element (story) by W. Somerset Maugham. (kindle and Audible audiobook).

I noted two sections in the story:

1. I like a story to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. I have a weakness for a point. I think atmosphere is all very well, but atmosphere without anything else is like a frame without a picture; it has not much significance.
2. You know, that's the great pull a writer has over other people. When something has made him terribly unhappy, and he's tortured and miserable, he can put it all into a story and it's astonishing what a comfort and relief it is.

Le Havre. Directed by Aki Kaurismaki

In the first twenty minutes of Aki Kaurismaki's picture Le Havre we meet a bohemian shoe shine man who makes just enough to lead a peasant existence, learn that his wife is dying of cancer, and learn about an African refugee desperate to avoid being deported. From that point on, the story becomes a humorous story of most of the town's residents working together to protect the boy and reunite him with his family. Film buffs will be pleased to see two legends of French cinema -- Pierre Etaix and Jean-Pierre Leaud -- in small roles; there are also characters named Arletty and Jacques Becker. I also chuckled when I saw the dog was named Laika -- the name of the dog the Soviet Union sent into space. Le Havre is an inspiring and strangely funny story. 

Michael Sicinski's essay about the picture on the Criterion website is worth your time.