The Wasp Woman* Rides Again

There are two things on my mind this muggy Wednesday: the Cannes Film Festival and the Vespa Scooter.

Cannes, because today is the opening day, and I miss being in France right now, miss watching all the hoopla, miss the opening of all the films. Today the latest film from Pedro Almodovar is being screened; it also has its opening day in cinemas across France. There is a selection of Almodovar films at the heart of my DVD collection, and La Mala Educacion, his latest, is right up there on my list of Must See Films when it finally arrives on this side of the planet. Either in a theatre, or when I order the DVD.

As an aside, I'm also waiting for La Flor di Mi Secreto to be re-released on DVD -- I didn't snap it up when it first came out, stupid me, so now I'm waiting...and oddly, I couldn't find Almodovar films when I was in Spain last fall. Most of mine are either French or British releases.

Anyhoo.

And the Vespa, because I got mulling over scooters after the Smart thing seemed to fall through.

Oddly enough, I can connect these two dots, a kind of Kevin Bacon game variation, if I throw the Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti into the mix. Firstly, because of his film Caro Diario (Dear Diary/Journal Intime -- for which he won the Best Director award at Cannes 1994), in which he spends much of his time riding around Rome on his Vespa. The Vespa also makes an appearance in the film Aprile (April/Avril), sometimes considered a suite to Caro Diario, though it deals with different themes.

I love Nanni Moretti. I connect to his neurotic approach to life in a way that is almost frightening. He even chooses music for his films that is to be found in my CD collection. If I could make movies, I'd make movies like Nanni Moretti.

Vespa riding is thinking time for Moretti, so it makes sense that he spends much of the film Caro Diaro on his Vespa, and those moments when he needs to think about things on his Vespa in Aprile.

Vespa's stopped being brought into Canada in 1986 (emissions-control legislation issues), but they're back. Mind you, there are also Vintage Vespas.

On the other hand, a scooter requires a motorcycle licence, and there's not a snowball's chance in hell that I'm going to do *that*, so this Wasp Woman will probably just haul out the bike.

(You did know that Vespa is Italian for Wasp, right? Of course you did...)

The bike is also Italian, just not Really Cool. Nor will you find Nanni Moretti wandering around Rome on the back of a Bianchi.

But sometimes a Wasp Woman's gotta do what a Wasp Woman's gotta do...

*just in case you were wondering, The Wasp Woman is a B-Movie from 1960, in which the head of a cosmetics company insists on being the test subject for a new queen wasp royal jelly type rejuvenating product, with, depending on how you feel about B-Movies, either hilarous or horrifying results. The film's tagline? "A beautiful woman by day -- A lusting queen wasp by night."