The Aspic Police

I've been in a bit of a cooking obsession lately, mostly fueled by Cookpad and facilitated by the free time that a full-time job offers (ironic, isn't it?). Even though I started out my 一人暮らし with the intention of eating my way through steamed vegetables and pasta (seriously, I ate pasta 90% of the time two summers ago and actually didn't mind it all that much), the luxury of having a small kitchen all to myself, a refrigerator too full of groceries that my mother left me, and a sense of needing to accomplish something led me to start investigating actual cooking more thoroughly. Anyway, the point here isn't to talk about the thought process behind my cooking, but rather about Julie & Julia.

I had, of course, known about this film when it was first released, but for whatever reason I was never all that interested in watching it. However, ever since I started following New Dress a Day, which was inspired by the film, seeing it has sort of persistently been at the back of my mind. And then, about a week ago, I read that Olga had recently just watched it and felt inspired to learn how to cook. And so I decided that it was my new must-see.

I don't really follow movies all that much. I usually know what's out there and what's a hit and what's a waste of time, but it tends to take a lot to actually make me sit down and watch something. So when I do watch something, it sort of really needs to be worth it. And this movie was, if only for the colors and most amazing sets. Obviously almost everyone knows the premise of Julie & Julia and it was never my intention to recap an entire film, so instead I'm just going to post some of the best moments, visually.

This is just so... Paris. I spent most of the two hours wishing I were in France or even Europe again, and being jealous of the people who "studied" abroad but really just country-hopped very inexpensively. I know that this is supposed to be post-WWII Paris, but really, these scenes (minus the vested boy on a bicycle and that car) could be from today.

Yellow and red is possibly one of the worst color combinations ever, but here? Using subtle shades of the two colors make it beautiful.

Okay, so this is not beautiful or artistic, but I have the same (stupid) kitchen timer at home and sort of got excited. It is stupid because there is no way to go up or down, so if you wanted 0:45 but accidentally held the button down too long and released at 0:46, well, you have to press Start, then Stop, then Clear, and then get to 0:45 all over again. Stupid.

Turquoise walls, creamy yellow and light brown furniture, pots and pans that aren't colorful on their own but together make for a great collage...

And of course, Paul loves Julia and Eric loves Julie, more than anything, and I really want to know what that is like. I won't think too much about this part, because then I'll start having dreams of you in a black jacket again.