Category: Film

Tidy Tidbits: Film Fare

JWF Leave a comment

ON THE BIG SCREEN

There are a lot of adjectives that don’t apply to Spotlight, the new film about the Boston Globe’s uncovering of the Catholic Church’s role in hiding sexual abuse by priests.   It is not sensational, nor is it graphic in its depiction, nor is it fast-paced.  Rather it is a compelling and absorbing story of the journalistic process and of a new editor, Marty Baron, who cared less about whom he and his reporters might offend.  The dogged persistent work of the four members of the Spotlight team turned up a mind-boggling number of involved priests, several lawyers who aided in the cover-up, and direct involvement by the cardinal.  You know the ending, but well worth seeing!

Brooklyn is a beautiful film.  It has a simple plot–a young woman leaves her village in Ireland to go live and work in Brooklyn and slowly makes a life for herself, all the while feeling the tug of home.  Eventually, she has to choose between the new world and the familiar one.  No violence, no explosions, no car chases, just good storytelling.  The movie is based on Com Toibin’s lovely novel of the same name and is faithful to it.

ON THE SMALL SCREEN

I thought the first season of Broadchurch, a British detective series was excellent, but so is the second!  We noticed it on Amazon Fire and so paid the $19.99 to watch and watch we did. We got hooked and completed all 8 episodes in a weekend.  (Two days later it was available on streaming Netflix.)  This season wraps up the case of Joe Miller with his trial and re-opens the failed Sandbrook case which was what brought DI Inspector Hardy to this small Dorset town in the first place.

What, for me, makes this series so fascinating is the attention paid to the feelings and reactions of all the players, including the townspeople and the lawyers.  Here, there are two competing lawyers in court, one the former mentor of the other, one dealing with a son in prison, the other facing the end of her professional life alone.  Charlotte Rampling plays the more experienced barrister and she is amazing to watch.   This is television at its finest!

Tidy Tidbits: Portraits of Women

JWF 1 Comment

On the Screen

While the reviews were a bit mixed and the Chief Penguin was reluctant, I did get us to see Suffragette.  He found the beginning a bit slow while I liked and appreciated the way it set up the harsh and hostile working conditions Maud (Carey Mulligan) experienced in the laundry.  It stretches credulity some that Maud would so easily be drawn into the movement after one encounter with women throwing rocks at store windows, but her difficult work situation combined with a husband who, typical of the time and his class, doesn’t understand that his wife might want more for herself, provide context for the battles to come.  Although she doesn’t early on identify herself as a suffragette, Maud is bold and daring, and she too is arrested and imprisoned.

Meryl Streep appears in a brief scene as the determined, upper class, movement leader, Emmeline Pankhurst.  Based on real events, this film drives home the violence, perseverance and sacrifice British women endured to win the vote after decades of cajoling and reasoning failed.  Overall I thought it was a good movie.  Before the credits, there is a list of countries and the years the women received the vote with a few surprises:  Italy 1945, Switzerland 1971.

On the Page

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis:  The Untold Story by Barbara Leaming.

There have been many other books about Jackie Kennedy, but this one focuses on her response to her husband’s assassination in Dallas and how that impacted her behavior and her choices in the years to come including her later marriage to Aristotle Onassis.  Leaming posits that Jackie suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) long before it was officially identified as an aftereffect of war or of experiencing other horrific events.  For many years after, Mrs. Kennedy tried to find a place where she felt safe.

This book is an interesting approach to a life that seems to me not to have been that happy, and the reader may feel, like I did, that the details of that tragic ride are recounted too many times.  As a wealthy young woman, Jacqueline Bouvier was a product of her time who wanted marriage and children, but didn’t want to be ordinary.  In the end, enigmatic and elusive, she was anything but ordinary.

Being Thankful

Thanksgiving prompted some reflection on life’s blessings.  My list is short, but packed with substance.

  1. Good health. Without it, everything else pales.
  2. Happy marriage. We just celebrated our 45th anniversary!  Onward to 50.  Shall I say I was a child bride of 16?  Not.
  3. Family. We don’t live close to anyone, but I cherish the visits and phone calls with our son and family and with my siblings and their offspring.
  4. Friends.  I have dear friends here and others scattered from North Carolina to Maine and across the country in San Francisco.  You all provide rich context to this stage of life for which I’m most grateful.

 

Header image:  Emmeline Pankhurst (www.theguardian.com)

Winding Up New York: Mostly Food & Film

JWF 1 Comment

For our last week in Manhattan, we sampled a few new restaurants and took in one more film.  We also had the pleasure of taking our granddaughter to pre-school one morning, more afternoon time at the playground plus a Friday night family dinner at Mario Batali’s super kid-friendly restaurant, Otto.  They have pizza and pasta dishes to please every palate.  Lastly, a visit to the new Whitney Museum.  More about that in a future blog.

Eating (A few more West Village spots)

I Sodi.  An early entrant on the West Village restaurant scene, this tight small space, bar on one wall and tables on the other, is wildly popular and deservedly so.  Their sage and ricotta ravioli were divine and the splayed Cornish hen grilled under a brick straightforwardly good.  The orange tart with chocolate gelato was the perfect finish.

Po.  A small Italian place, not as cramped as I Sodi, but equally good on the food.  Service here is polished and friendly and everything a notch up from some other small restaurants. Duck ragu over long pasta and the linguine con vongole were both superb as was the beautifully presented goat cheese tartuffo over slivered endive and radicchio.  Reservations here are accepted 30 days in advance; we got in the same day only because of a phone cancellation moments before!  Beginners luck, you might say!

Piadina. Another West Village cozy Italian dining spot with a slight tilt toward seafood.  The sole accompanied by broccoli rabe and slivered endive with cherry tomatoes was lovely. Short menu and friendly staff.  Cash only.

Malatesta. This became our neighborhood hangout where we ate three times!  Crowded, noisy, and very popular, with indoor and sidewalk seating.  We liked their homemade pastas and the salads. Go early for a seat inside and remember they too only take cash!  Strange to me in this age of cards for everything, but there’s an ATM 2 doors away.

Watching

The Martian.  Space movies are not my usual cup of tea, but I was persuaded to see this one and was glad I did.  From the opening scenes, I was captivated.  We paid the extra for the 3D glasses which put you right in the red Mars scape, but the film would still be good without them.

It is an intelligent film that portrays astronauts who are well trained and who think creatively.  Matt Damon, as Mark Watney, dominates the screen with his amazing ingenuity coupled with a nice guyness, a sense of humor and a let’s get on with it can-do attitude. Combined they make his dire situation bearable and engaging for the audience.  The crew who unknowingly leave him behind alive are a dedicated and perhaps unbelievably harmonious team.  Note that the mission commander is a woman, Capt. Lewis, played by Jessica Chastain.  The technology that Watney, the crew, and the ground staff have at their disposal is impressive, but it is still nail biting time as the days pass by and a rescue has not yet happened.  As a viewer, I knew what the ending had to be, but it’s a long tense time getting there.  See it!

Reading

Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming.  I have enjoyed watching Cumming as the manipulative Eli Gold on “The Good Wife,” am bemused at his dramatic way of introducing “Masterpiece Mystery,” and had known a bit about his other acting roles and that he performed at Feinstein’s in New York.

I found this, his memoir of his childhood and what he learned about his absent maternal grandfather and his father, a searing read.  He is honest and brave and unstinting in his portrayal of his more vulnerable, injured self.  Severely abused both physically and emotionally by his father, it’s a testament to his own spirit and to his mother’s love that he was able to emerge in middle age relatively whole and intact.  I got so caught up that I read it through in less than a day.  And, by the way, Cumming is a very good writer—graceful and nuanced, even when describing awful events.

Header photo:  www.kimberlybelle.com

October Potpourri: Films & Fun

JWF Leave a comment

Walking

We have been blessed with continued good weather. This translates to lots of walking and plenty of time outside. Recently, we walked from the West Village to the World Trade Center and back—a serious walk. It was pleasantly breezy and we joined the throng strolling along the grand boulevard along the Hudson River looking toward Hoboken. We hadn’t planned ahead to tour the 9/11 Museum, but did gaze up at the gleaming new tower and spend some moments taking in the memorial park. On another gorgeous afternoon, we romped at Adrienne’s Garden and then the Washington Square playground. I say romped, but actually our granddaughter romped, and I got my exercise following her around and occasionally going up, under or around the play equipment.

 

IMG_7661

IMG_7640IMG_7636Somewhat to my surprise, pumpkins are widely in evidence in the city. Stoops are lined with pumpkins, doorways are festooned with cobwebs, and witches lurk while scarecrows watch. Halloween can’t be far off.

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_7651IMG_7650Even dogs get in the act!  Sunday was the annual Halloween Dog Parade—dogs in costume in Tompkins Park. Dogs in sweats, dogs in hats, dogs with frills and dogs masquerading as dinosaurs. This being the city, mostly little dogs. What fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music

Besides all this outdoor time, we did see two films and attended a superb performance by Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini, one of the greats, at Carnegie Hall. He played three Beethoven sonatas including my longtime favorite, “Appassionata.” We were part of a most enthusiastic and appreciative audience, and he gave us three encores!

Film

A Ballerina’s Tale details Misty Copeland’s career from starting ballet at 13 to being named a principal at American Ballet Theatre this past summer. Interwoven with her story of determination midst setbacks is a brief history of ballet and some of the reasons behind its extreme whiteness. Interviews with Misty’s advocates and mentors add perspective along with comments from some pioneer black dancers. And, of course, there are wonderful sequences of Misty performing as well as rehearsing. Even my husband, somewhat doubtful about this film, was thoroughly engaged. A nice pairing with Astonish Me, a novel I blogged about several weeks ago.

Steve Jobs. Jobs looms larger than life in most people’s minds and certainly was a creative genius who dreamed big and ultimately achieved in a big way. Adopted as a child, he didn’t expect to be liked. As a parent, he was alternately estranged from and dismissive of his daughter Lisa. He was not a nice man and this film shows him bossing, bullying and often being downright nasty to friends and colleagues. Whether or not it is an accurate portrayal (and several critics have said it is not), it is a very entertaining film which focuses on the activity leading up to the launches of the Macintosh, NeXT, and iMac.   Michael Fassbender is compelling as Jobs, and Kate Winslet is tough, supportive, and strong as his right hand woman. She portrays Joanne Hoffman, the smart director of marketing who stands up to his temper and rigorously manages him.

 

(All photos by the author. Some rights reserved.)