Tilting at Windmills in my Mind

The Impossible Dream
performed by Peter O'Toole's body
and Simon Gilbert's voice
2 mins. 10
(The clip continues, but the song is done by then.)

Until Sunday night, I had no idea that one of my favourite actors had appeared in a film version of a musical based on one of my favourite books, but it's true. In 1972 Peter O'Toole made Man of La Mancha, the musical story of Miguel Cervantes imprisoned by the Catholic Church and forced in prison to act out his story of Don Quixote.

(And it was cool to see him again with John Castle, the neglected middle son from The Lion in Winter, probably my all-time favourite movie.)

Sure, O'Toole doesn't do his own singing, but that's fine by me. I mostly ignore the songs anyway.
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As long as I'm mentioning movies, last night I saw Art School Confidential for the first time, starring Max Minghella. Why have I never heard of this guy before?

The film was cool, much smarter that most of the superficial welcome-to-college movies. It lampoons as the worst excesses of art school - the pretentiousness and pomposity of all those poseurs who are secretly terrified that they have no talent - but on top of the satire there is a murder mystery and a weird kind of first-love story.

All in all very cool, with a remarkable cast in sometimes small but meaningful parts: Steve Buscemi, Anjelica Huston, Jim Broadbent, and John Malkovich.

Sophia Myles and the ever-lovely Matt Keeslar form the other points on the lead character's love triangle, but I think it's Max himself who impressed me most. He's young, but his portrayal carried this movie from start to finish.

And he's certainly not hard to look at (though someone should be slapped for that hairstyle. Aw, man! I thought I was gonna get through this without saying something bitchy!).

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