Yup. I did sit through Blood Simple. And, not surprisingly, it was lovely. But at times so painful to watch.

For ME, that is. But I have a pretty low tolerance for cruelty/pain/torture/gore/horror in movies.

Before I saw “Lion in Winter,” (an AMAZING movie with Peter O’Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, and Timothy Dalton, among others) I witnessed two slightly drunk men, a history professor and an english professor, laughing uncontrollably as they tossed quotes from the movie of each other. I saw it as soon after as I was able, and still remember the mirth in their voices and tried to capture if here.

Part two of “Lawrence of Arabia” mayyyy be more interesting politically and about character, but part one is the one which gets the adrenaline going. It totally made me want to storm some castles. And to try to express that in a strip.

My friend Natasha Hunter translated the English I wrote into French for me. What i gave her was:

“Mary, I love you more than the apples and the trees. But my love suffers so very much. If only you were not dead.”

and,

“Ah, yes. That is tragic.”

I think I wrote this about the movie Benny and Joon. by coincidence, a year or two later I would negotiate an option contract for “Bruno” with the director of Benny & Joon, Jeremiah Chechik (which never got put in production).