oNCE

This is the week of the Torino Film Festival and I was h-o-p-i-n-g so much to attend at least one film premier. Torino's Festival is dedicated to young directors and emerging artists and this is its 25th year!

I thought I had no chance to go, hearing of the crowds and facing the fact that if Manuel and I went together we wouldn't know where to leave the kids. But then Adele called!

She had received some special invitations to attend and our husbands were kind enough to be our sitters for the night and out we went. We met a little before 10:00 pm in front of her house and walked to the theater.

We saw Once, filmed in Ireland and very sweet. It was practically a musical, yet not, and the music was perfect - sort of Damien Rice-esque. The singers, musicians and songwriters were the actors, playing the parts of the two young musicians that fall in love and make beautiful music together - but only once. Very uplifting with a dash of melancholy and a lot of artistry. The audience clapped at the end and stayed to watch the credits to see if the actors had *really* written the songs themselves. Everyone was even happier to see it was really them.

We also ran into Keiza at the theater, who is the Japanese filmmaker living at Adele's father-in-law's agriturismo in Tuscany and making a documentary and other films there. I'd hoped to meet him but thought I hadn't a chance since we didn't go down to Tuscany this trip. Lucky me!