Thanks to CC’s collection of Blockbuster discount coupons and, so helpfully, the Blockbuster just up the street from us, this holiday has been DVD rentals galore. Sometimes I think, Jeez, seeing as how I’m in Sydney and all, I really should be out and about being in Sydney. But the truth is, it’s some kind of luxury to be able to just sit around and watch television and not feel guilty about homework left undone.

There was the night we lay on the sofabed, faces just inches away from the glowing screen, to watch the unexpected doublebill of “Bring it on Again” and “21 Grams.” There was the brilliant “Les enfants du Paradis,” which took two nights to finish. I would have watched it all in one go, but some of us won’t stand for a three-hour black-and-white 1940s French film with swooning women, swarthy caricatures, and a hero who is a mime. There was “The Pirates of the Caribbean,” where the girl grows up to be Keira Knightley and we moaned, “Luckyyyy!” There was “Japanese Story,” and the tension and the gorgeousness and the grief. There was David Bowie in “The Man who Fell to Earth,” which was super weird and good, and confirms again why David Bowie is my husband. There was “Crackerjack” and “Raising Arizona” and half of “Barry McKenzie.” There was “Délicatessen” and “Hebrew Hammer” and the grand stinker “Ned Kelly.” Even with Orlando Bloom reaching out to my peoples and speaking Chinese, “Ned Kelly” was a stinker. There was “Amélie,” which is always good every time I see it, and there was “Annie,” twice, and with singalongs.