Ripples #59

Compiled and Written by Lenny Giteck

‘Life of Pi’ Paris Premiere
Held at Iconic Indoor Pool In what may be the most unusual premiere in the history of cinema, the movie “Life of Pi” by Taiwanese-born director Ang Lee opened in Paris at a venerable indoor pool, with attendees floating in rowboats as they watched the film projected onto a screen.

“Life of Pi” is the story of an Indian boy stranded on a lifeboat with a ferocious Bengal tiger after the Japanese freighter he and his family were on sank in a storm. Thus, the waterborne premiere helped give the moviegoers a real feel of the film’s ambience.

The movie is based on the 2001 novel of the same title by Canadian author Yann Martel; the main character’s name, Pi, is short for Piscine, “swimming pool” in French. It was fitting, therefore, that the Paris premiere took place at the Piscine Molitor, a renowned installation built in 1929.

According to Wikipedia, the pool had fallen into disrepair and was closed in 1989, a year before France declared it a monument historique. (Two of the pool’s noteworthy claims to fame: It was inaugurated by Olympic champion and “Tarzan” star Johnny Weissmuller, and it was where the bikini was introduced in 1946.)

In recent years, the pool has been undergoing a total renovation that preserves its original Art Deco style. Once the entire project is completed in 2014, the complex reportedly will include two swimming pools and a hotel.

Videos: To see a video about the movie’s Paris premiere, click here and scroll down. To watch the trailer for “Life of Pi,” click here.

Ripples Classic: February 2011

Mystery: Did a UFO Drain an
Argentine Swimming Pool?

According to a report on the Web site UFOdigest.com, the 16,000-gallon swimming pool at the Hotel Maykel in Justiniano Posse, Argentina, was inexplicably drained completely dry in less than a day.

After being notified of the strange occurrence by the pool maintenance man, hotel owner Lilo Garcia was astonished to find that not only was there no water in the pool itself, there wasn’t any on the surrounding deck, either. Said Garcia: “I don’t understand, because when we drain the pool to clean it, such an amount of water takes a day and a half to drain. We flood the patio and the water runs down the street all the way to the canal. But this time there was nothing! Not a single drop of water anywhere around.”

The possibility of theft by earthlings is being discounted because it would have taken five water trucks to drain the pool, and no such vehicles were observed. Nor did it appear to be a case of cracked plaster, since the maintenance man conducted a thorough examination and found the shell to be completely intact. Indeed, the pool was subsequently refilled and held water perfectly.

“So,” asks UFOdigest.com, “who stole the water?” Or as Ripples would put it, was this a genuine Close Encounter of the Wet Kind? And if the extraterrestrials were so thirsty, why wouldn’t they drain a Coke or 7UP factory instead? Or a Starbucks? Or a liquor store? Could it be that on their planet, chlorine is considered a tasty treat? Ripples awaits further evidence that may offer answers to these and other questions.

Photo: To see an artist’s rendering of what the possible extraterrestrial H2O abduction may have looked like, click here.

And with that, Ripples once again says…
Until next time, happy watershaping to you!