Category: Film

Manhattan Moments

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MOSTLY HEARTWARMING

We missed seeing this film at the Sarasota Film Festival and so were pleased to catch it here in Manhattan. The Man Who Knew Infinity is based on events in the life of genius mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan. Ramanujan was a poor man from Madras with no formal education who saw the world in numbers, patterns of numbers and equations. No one in India understood his work, but a colleague referred him to one of the professors at Cambridge University. The film portrays the prejudice, academic jealousy, and indifference he faced while at Cambridge, initially even from his sponsor, Professor Hardy. Dev Patel of “Marigold Hotel” fame is engaging as Ramanujan and Jeremy Irons plays the condescending, socially clueless Hardy. Interwoven with Ramanujan’s amazing story is an appreciation for the beauty and elegance of complex math. Ramanujan’s work is still being used today.

Colorful plate at Santina
Colorful plate at Santina

EATS

We have some favorite restaurants in the West Village, but are attempting to broaden our scope and intersperse some new ones midst the familiars.  So far there are two new places which we’d definitely recommend.   Rosemary’s serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, and we were there for dinner. It’s a bare wood floor, bare wood tables room with lots of glass and a lively (somewhat noisy) vibe. The food is what I’d call rustic Italian and there were some different (read not ordinary) dishes on the menu. Especially lovely was the linguine with preserved lemon, Parmesan, and a bit of chili; the lemon really provided some zing.  Also good was the shrimp starter with jalapeno, mint and breadcrumbs. Our waiter was a very pleasant young man from Minnesota.

We also sampled the Brazilian cuisine at Berimbau, a tiny, very casual restaurant that makes up in friendliness what it lacks in space.  The Chief Penguin is a fan of caipirinhas, the de facto national drink of Brazil, and immediately ordered one which he pronounced most satisfactory!  We had the fried calamari (not exactly Brazilian) and the chicken stroganoff (apparently stroganoff with poultry is more popular than the traditional beef) and the tropical salmon served with rice with diced vegetables.  Both were very good.

We also went back to Omar’s, Santina, and Frankie’s, all restaurants we’d enjoyed previously. Omar’s was quiet and lovely, Santina a very happening loud, but delicious, venue in the Meatpacking District, and Frankie’s, also very popular, where I had some of the lightest and best gnocchi I’ve ever had anywhere!  Given the demographics of this neighborhood, we are becoming accustomed to being the oldest folks in the dining room.

G NOTES

One of the joys of this stage of life is spending time with grandchildren. We are now blessed with two girls, one almost 4 and the other a mere 6 weeks old. There is nothing quite so soothing as sitting with a small baby snug against your chest, her heart beating against yours as she snoozes, occasionally emitting little squeaks. F. spent two hours asleep like this as I sank deeper into the couch.

E. can be a motion machine, but lately she has been content to sit close to me or her grandfather, always in physical contact, for a story or conversation.  She is also drawn to Grandpa’s shirt pocket from which she can pluck a few Cheerios. This week I got to see her and about seven other girls and one little boy in action at their ballet class. The girls all in leotards or tutus, still one moment, twirling or jumping the next. There is a mirror so the parents can watch the proceedings without being seen.  Fun.

 

Photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

Tidy Times: Films & More

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ENJOYABLE CINEMA

We ended the Sarasota Film Festival on a high note with two very good films, one a feature and the other a documentary from Argentina.

The Congressman.  Starring Treat Williams with George Hamilton, this feature-length film was written by former Long Island representative, Robert Mzarek.  Set in Maine, it’s an old-fashioned film with a straightforward plot about an embattled congressman who returns to his district and simultaneously deals with embittered residents there and a contretemps brewing back in DC.  There’s an overly ambitious aide, an attractive woman, and beautiful Monhegan Island.  Mr. Mzarek was at the screening and called it a “message film” and in the style of Frank Capra.  I predict success at the box office when it goes into distribution.

Our Last Tango.  Prepared to be seduced by dance.  This documentary about a very famous dance couple is both a celebration of the tango and a dissection of a partnership.  Argentinians Maria Nieves and Juan Copes were tango dance partners for more than 40 years.  He selected her and they were both professional partners and for a short time husband and wife (married in Las Vegas during their tour of the States).  In the film, she’s now 80 and he 83 and interviews with each of them separately are interspersed between clips of their tangoing.  She is alternately sparkling about her love of the dance and philosophical about being old and alone.  He, on the other hand, is taciturn and a man of fewer words, but still loving and living for the tango.

RELEVANT THEATER

Asolo Repertory Theatre continues to delight and entertain us.  We just saw “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”  The set with its view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the dining room window brought on a touch of nostalgia for our San Francisco years.  Although the play takes place in 1967, it still seemed relevant, and I credit the cast for achieving the right balance of humor and seriousness.  I saw the movie (starring Sidney Poitier as a surprising guest) when it first came out, but had forgotten how meaty some of the dialogue is—at least in this version.  Well worth seeing.

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COMPELLING NONFICTION

I’m currently about half way through Rebecca Traister’s new book, All the Single Ladies:  Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation.  It is informative and well-researched, as you would expect, but written in a very lively fashion with bits of humor along with Traister’s observations and anecdotes about her own life experiences.  As such, it’s a very pleasurable read and I recommend it!

I should add that while I don’t know Ms. Traister, I was predisposed to like this book since I’ve known both her parents.  Her father was a colleague in Penn’s libraries and her mother I knew at Lehigh University where she was an English professor.

 

 

 

 

Header photo:  Golden rain tree  (cJW Farrington)

Sarasota Scene: Film Fest

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FILMS!

We have been immersed in film this week taking advantage of some of the offerings of the Sarasota Film Festival.  One of the things we’ve noted is how difficult it is to make a film that has momentum with a clear dramatic arc that engages and holds the viewer’s attention.  A filmmaker can have a meaty topic or a good story line, but fail to turn this into a film that doesn’t drag or sag.  That said, our scorecard so far this week is one excellent film, one very good, one tedious, and one slightly weird.  Here are the films (in order of viewing):

Frame by Frame.  Challenging our (Americans’) view of Afghanistan, this documentary traces the careers of four Afghan photographers (one female) as they navigate a post-Taliban media world.  The firm bursts with unexpected color and  gorgeous scenery juxtaposed with shots of conflict.  It takes too long to make its focus clear, but I’d still give it B+/A-.

Five Nights in Maine.  This was one of the so-called Centerpiece films in the festival and I expected to really like this feature.  Alas, the story of widower Sherwin (played by David Oyelowo of Selma fame) who goes to Maine to visit his late wife’s mother is slow to the point of tedium.  The scenery is vintage rural Maine, but there were lots of missed opportunities to enrich the narrative—what was Uncle George’s role; how might nurse Anna have connected more with Sherwin; and what was his wife Fiona’s backstory with her mother.  My rating:  C minus.

Raising Bertie.  This documentary takes on an important issue:  How do you nurture and motivate poor black young men to become productive adult citizens.  Focusing on rural Bertie County in northeastern North Carolina, the film follows three young men over the course of six years as they repeat grades in high school, age out of the public school system, and struggle to find purpose for their lives.  It is a close look at the devastating impact of poverty and meager educational resources.  Like first novels, this film could have done with more editing (I’d cut about 15 minutes), but it is still worth seeing.  My grade:  B/B+

Embers.  A science fiction feature, Embers presents an “end of the world” scenario in which society has been destroyed, buildings are bombed out, and a few individuals roam around, mostly unaware of and unconnected to each other.  They have lost their memories and if they do meet and connect, as one couple does, the next day they start afresh with no recollection of the day before.  A father and his grown daughter have escaped this fate by living sealed in an underground bunker.  Intriguing premise, but never quite comes together in a suspenseful way.  Even the ending seems less than it could have been.  My rating:  Wacky; but one of the reasons one goes to film festivals is to experience what you might not otherwise have!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

I’ve read selected chapters of Andrew Solomon’s tome, Far from the Tree, and plan to take it up again, so was prompted by this brief acquaintance to read his essay about why he travels.  I love traveling to new places and the trip I made that was the most different and probably the most enlightening was three weeks in Madagascar in 2009.  The quote below from Solomon’s article, “Dispatches from Everywhere” in the April issue of Conde Nast Traveler resonated with me.  I think it also relates to how a film about photography in Afghanistan (see above) can change one’s perspective—not the same as going there, but still being exposed through a different lens.

 “Some of my traveling has been glamorous, some of it terrifying, but it has had a cumulative humbling effect.  I started traveling out of curiosity, but I have come to believe in travel’s political importance, that encouraging a nation’s citizenry to travel may be as important as encouraging school attendance, environmental conservation, or national thrift.  You cannot understand the otherness of places you have not encountered.  If all young adults were required to spend two weeks in a foreign country, two-thirds of the world’s diplomatic problems could be solved.  Travel is a set of corrective lenses that helps focus the planet’s blurred reality.”

Sarasota Scene: Music & Movies

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HIGHBROW TO LOW BROW?

In the final year of their Verdi cycle (performing all of Verdi’s music over a period of more than 25 years), the Sarasota Opera presented a beautifully staged Aida.  No live elephants, but gorgeous music, colorful Egyptian sets, good singing, and some lovely dancers.  It was a most enjoyable evening and the time flew by, even with the lengthy intermissions.  We went with friends and beforehand had a convivial dinner at Roast, just down the street.  I like the intimacy of the Sarasota Opera House.  The stage is small, the theater not large, and I am more caught up in the unfolding drama than in larger venues.

Last evening we went very early (I won’t admit to how early or my friends will think I’ve become one of “those” senior citizens) to Cortez Kitchen, our favorite “biker bar.”  It does have a bar, but is really a semi-outdoor eatery that serves local grouper fresh from the boat, shrimp, the occasional burger, and even a few sushi rolls.  The spicy shrimp roll is one of our favorites.  It being the weekend, there was live music; hence a large crowd of diners who arrived early and hung on to their tables until Doug Deming and the Jewel Tones took to the stage.  The band was surprisingly good and obviously has a fan base.  We stuck to our table too!

OSCARS

The Chief Penguin and I have already seen most of the Academy Award nominated films with a few exceptions.  Having read the reviews and seen the trailer, I have no desire to see The Revenant.  I’m afraid that it will win the Best Picture award, but I’m rooting for Spotlight, an excellent film about an important topic, and would be satisfied if any of the other nominees besides The Revenant won.

In the interest of being comprehensive, we watched about 20 minutes of Room last evening on our small screen.  I thought the novel was excellent and Donoghue’s depiction of 5-year old Jack convincing.  But, the film was more painful and so we abandoned it in favor of Trumbo, which we viewed in its entirety.  I hadn’t realized that the blacklisting of screenwriters and movie stars went on for so many years, nor had I known anything about the role Dalton Trumbo played by continuing to write and to submit scripts under others’ names.  Only in the late 1970’s did he get recognition for some of his excellent earlier work.  This is a good film and Bryan Cranston (Trumbo) has been nominated for Best Actor.  You will also enjoy seeing Helen Mirren in elegant suits and large hats as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.

ORCHIDS

To round out our week, we took our Philadelphia friends to Selby Botanical Gardens and were wowed by the impressive orchid display in the conservatory.  Hanging orchids, orchid walls, and orchid vines—a kaleidoscope of colors.  These waxy blooms plus a yummy pink bromeliad made my day!

(All photos by JWFarrington)

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