This is the film that put Ang Lee on my radar. It never gets tired or uninteresting. I still laugh at the impeccably timed banter among the Dashwood girls, and I still cry (every time!) as Marianne battles heartbreak and illness in the climatic scene. (My sniffling was heard throughout the cinema on Sunday.)

The Dashwood Girls L to R: Margaret, Marianne, Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor

The gentlemen! The dancing! The country fashions! Emma Thompson’s screenplay and Ang Lee’s directing are an unbeatable combination. And what an incredible departure from Lee’s three previous films – all written by Lee – exploring the character of the patriarch coming over from China to connect with his children settled in the US.

Happy ending: Edward and Elinor Ferrars

What a lucky girl am I, then, that the Walker is hosting a retrospective of Ang Lee’s work as part of a Regis Dialogue – and Ang Lee will be here with longtime collaborator James Schamus on December 13. This amounts to some pee-your-pants excitment, folks.

I wish I could regale you with a minutely detailed recounting of the ANDY WARHOL/SUPERNOVA: Stars, Deaths, and Disasters, 1962-1964, exhibition preview party on November 12, but I can’t.

Because aside from a quick jaunt from one end of the building to the other to say hello to the folks I knew, I spent the evening camped out in Gallery 8 with Edie Sedgwick. No, not THAT Edie Sedgwick, but a very, very close rendition.

The faux Edie put on quite a show with compositions and songs ranging in theme from Martin Sheen to the Olsen Twins. She also performed a few select haikus. I danced, and I sang, and I leaned over to Giselle from PR/Marketing and said, “It’s like a whole year of Star magazine all on one night!”

I scored a ticket to see Mabou Mines’ DollHouse on Saturday, November 12. What a totally consuming and fascinating take on Ibsen’s proto-feminist classic.

I read Ibsen’s play in high school, but I find it much more striking now after having had the opportunity to study feminist art in college. It’s clearer to me now why Victorian Era audiences got their knickers in such a knot over the portrayal of marriage. What drew me to this production was the initial novelty of using a cast where all the actress were over 6 ft. tall and all the actors were under 4 ft. As a 6 ft. tall woman myself, I wanted to see how the dynamics on the stage played out as marriage and gender roles were explored.

Mark Povinelli as Torvald, and Maude Mitchell as Nora.

I loved the way the piano was built into the stage and the accompanist was incorporated into the script. I loved the way Nora (in a performance that has etched the name of actress “Maude Mitchell” on my brain forever) used her voice so effectively to illustrate her transition from a coy, caged songbird wife to a woman stripped of her marriage illusions and horrified at the years she has spent with a “stranger.” I loved the literal doll house set and the way the furniture and props were built to the scale of the actors, leaving the women to crawl around and crouch, always to accomodate the stature of the men and be looked down upon. I loved the way the raw sexuality in the original Ibsen was brought out between the characters.

I won’t give away all its secrets, though. The show is on tour now. Catch it if you can.

November Free First Saturday was another stunner as the crowds packed in for Random Ruckus, a theme taking inspiration from the current exhibition House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective. Family activities were informed by the use of chance and animals, like the work of Huang Yong Ping.

I wasn’t a mere spectator this time around. I was put to work in the Lecture Room presenting a storytime reading of The Legend of the Chinese Zodiac, adapted by Monica Chang. It’s an incredibly beautiful book. It was a popular event – in addition to the three scheduled readings, I ended up presenting FOUR encore readings! I just couldn’t say, No.

I absolutely loved the animal short films. Free First Saturday screened Schweinchen Fliegt (Little Pig is Flying) and The Ride of the Mergansers. So adorable! But the Mergansers had me laughing so hard! The director made a short documentary about newborn Hooded Merganser ducks as they struggle to leave the nest 24 HOURS AFTER THEY ARE BORN! No time like the present, it seems. But what was really funny was hearing the whole thing set to Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries as we see little ducklings bouncing around like popcorn, and then scrambling through the hole in the duck box just to fling themselves 25 feet to the water below.

The director told us that they aren’t always lucky enough to be born right above the water, but he assured us that they could jump 80 feet and still bounce.

Senior NY Times writer and well-traveled/well-cultured can-speak-six-languages-fluently man, Howard French, was at the Walker last night to present his talk, On China and the West, presented in conjunction with the exhibition, House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective.

I’m fairly drooling just reflecting back on this talk. Howard delivered a prepared speech and it’s really no wonder that he has received the NY Times’ top publishing award SIX times. He presented a snapshot of China as the world’s fastest growing economy, and brought to light many of the implications that means for the Chinese people on social, political and environmental levels. It’s totally astonishing. Even more so for me, because I walked into the talk knowing almost nothing about China.

He drew an interesting parallel between the current situation in China and the similar path that Japan took in the late 19th/early 20th century to modernize, colonize, and compete with the West. He spoke at length on the connections between Japan and China, and made a fascinating comparison on the situation of women in both countries, stating that Chinese women are very different from Japanese women, jumping in with both feet and actively pursuing their ambitions and voicing their opinions. (He alluded to an upcoming book about women in Japan – I can hardly wait!) But Howard also later spoke briefly on the continued practice of detecting and aborting female fetuses, and in some regions male children outnumber female children four to one. That’s a pretty sobering statistic.

Howard presented such a comprehesive and compelling account of China, I was inspired to move to Shanghai and start the Howard French fan club. Geeking out after the talk, I couldn’t get close to Howard to offer my compliments for the presentation. He was surrounded by Director Kathy Halbreich’s entourage, and I couldn’t imagine busting in on that. Maybe it was better for all that I didn’t do anything to embarrass him AND my co-workers.

Check out Howard’s site, featuring a blog, writing excerpts, and some of his stunning photography.