Tidy Times: Films & More

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.

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)