Nautilus? I thought you said noodle house

[sovay]

Tampopo (1985) is a delightful movie and I thank all the gods and especially Inari that we made a full plate of sushi and a stockpot of ramen before we started watching, because otherwise we would have been very unhappy. People should recommend me food movies, because I was talking about them with rushthatspeaks afterward; I have seen Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) and Babette's Feast (1987), but that covers a very small spectrum of cuisines. Also, Tsutomu Yamazaki is awesome.

(And thus, apparently, I celebrated the fall equinox. Happy autumn!)

I have started to remember my dreams again. Last night was a sort of science fiction throwback: I didn't leave on a deep-space research project with my lover who was a doctor, because he had lied to me about being an alien; when their ships broke up in space, they rolled apart in sullen, almost maroon billows of fire, because of the atmospheric difference. I remember pushing my way off the ship, knowing there was too much bureaucracy in the passenger lists for him to find me in time. Seriously, I have no idea. The last thing I finished before bed was a completely realist novel set from 1935 to the present day.

I am not planning to watch Incubus (1965) when it screens tonight on TCM, but since it stars a pre-Trek William Shatner and it is entirely in Esperanto, I feel like people should know it's out there. I will instead be attending an oratorio about how the power of music makes you burn down Persepolis.

Comments

[mrbelm.livejournal.com]

Other food movies: Big Night, God of Cookery, The Wedding Banquet, Ratatouille. I should have you over for dinner so we can watch God of Cookery.

[sovay]

Other food movies: Big Night, God of Cookery, The Wedding Banquet, Ratatouille.

I keep forgetting Ratatouille: the only film that has ever made me want to eat eggplant, computer-generated or otherwise. Thank you.

I have never heard of Big Night or God of Cookery, but the latter sounds very promising.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

There is such a thing as a pre-Trek Shatner?! And he spoke Esperanto?

The world is being created by a generator of bizarre randomness.

[sovay]

The world is being created by a generator of bizarre randomness.

I almost expected that film to have come into existence since yesterday, but rushthatspeaks turned out to have heard of it for years. I have no explanation at all.

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

Second on Big Night. Other good food movies include Bonjour Monsieur Shalomi, Chocolat (2000), Mostly Martha (US version is No Reservations, but it's not as good), Soul Kitchen (out in theaters now - limited release).

[sovay]

Second on Big Night.

It's on the list.

Other good food movies include Bonjour Monsieur Shalomi, Chocolat (2000), Mostly Martha (US version is No Reservations, but it's not as good), Soul Kitchen (out in theaters now - limited release).

I have seen Chocolat (I liked it far less than the book, but that may be a matter of taste); I've seen reviews for Soul Kitchen; I've never heard of the other two. Thank you!

[oddmonster.livejournal.com]

Does Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me count as a food movie?
It's all that coffee and pie that does me in, but for me, there's nothing like it for fall movie-watching.

[sovay]

It's all that coffee and pie that does me in, but for me, there's nothing like it for fall movie-watching.

Heh. So noted.

[zdenka]

Yay Alexander's Feast! I thought about going to that but decided I was too tired.

[sovay]

Yay Alexander's Feast!

It was very good.

[zdenka]

Glad to hear it.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Happy Autumn to you as well!

Glad you enjoyed the film.

I have seen Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) and Babette's Feast (1987), but that covers a very small spectrum of cuisines.

There ought to be a movie about black pudding, but I've never heard of one, alas. In the unlikely event of my becoming ridiculously wealthy, I'll have to finance one. I wonder if there's a film about haggis? It seems as if somebody should have made one, so I'll have to go a'googling.

Interesting dream. Had he lied to you by pretending to be a human when in fact he was an alien, or had he claimed to be an alien whilst being, in fact, an ordinary specimen of Terran-derived H. Sapiens Sap.?

Enjoy the oratorio! But do try to not burn down Persepolis, please?

The Shatner film in Esperanto sounds... remarkably odd, like something one might drop into an alternate history story as a passing bit of local colour. I suppose I'll have to try and watch it, sometime.

[sovay]

I wonder if there's a film about haggis?

I don't know, but there really should be.

Had he lied to you by pretending to be a human when in fact he was an alien, or had he claimed to be an alien whilst being, in fact, an ordinary specimen of Terran-derived H. Sapiens Sap.?

He had led me to believe he was human; I couldn't have survived on one of their ships.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but there really should be.

Yes. Unfortunately, googling lead me only to websites concerning the work of screenwriter and director Paul Haggis, so perhaps there isn't one.

He had led me to believe he was human; I couldn't have survived on one of their ships.

Goodness. Was it a case of incompatible environmental factors in their ships (wrong atmosphere, excessive acceleration, or...?) or was it something more sinister? Or did you simply know in some unspecified yet definite fashion?

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

There is a delicious scene in Dealers, the one with Paul McGann. It's not primarily a food movie, though.

[sovay]

There is a delicious scene in Dealers, the one with Paul McGann.

I like Paul McGann; would you recommend it generally?

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, very much, but don't watch it with anyone under the age of at least sixteen; there's a very NSFW scene. Rebecca de Mornay is the female lead, and if you're into CSI, Paul Guilfoyle has a small role.

[grimmwire.livejournal.com]

Tampopo is definitely the best film Juzo Itami ever made, but his next film, A Taxing Woman, is very good as well. Yamazaki is in it, too, though he's not doing his dead-on John Wayne impersonation this time.

Hmm, food movies? Eating Raoul and Delicatessen? Er, maybe not.

[sovay]

Tampopo is definitely the best film Juzo Itami ever made, but his next film, A Taxing Woman, is very good as well.

I will look it up. I saw he had a number of films I'd never heard of, but I wasn't sure where to go next.

Yamazaki is in it, too, though he's not doing his dead-on John Wayne impersonation this time.

I did love that.

He's the reason I finally watched this film, actually; I discovered him in Departures (2008) a few weeks ago and realized, on looking up his filmography, that now I really had no excuse not to have seen Tampopo. All hail the power of character actors.

Eating Raoul and Delicatessen? Er, maybe not.

I am very fond of Delicatessen.

[erzebet.livejournal.com]

Dis made me watch La grand bouffe one night without warning. :O

I'm not sure I can recommend it, but it was certainly something.

[sovay]

I'm not sure I can recommend it, but it was certainly something.

Eric keeps wanting to show me that . . .

[erzebet.livejournal.com]

Heh. It's... well I've never seen such a monstrous cake in my life. The film does have some hilarious moments. And some moments that I couldn't watch.

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

About cuisine, besides the classic scenes in Tom Jones and Chocolat: A Touch of Spice

About Alexander: Iskander, Khan Tengri

[sovay]

About cuisine, besides the classic scenes in Tom Jones and Chocolat: A Touch of Spice.

Another I've never heard of: thank you!

About Alexander: Iskander, Khan Tengri.

I like your essay about Alexander (and Alexander) far more than I liked Oliver Stone's film, which I saw back in 2006 as a double feature with Kingdom of Heaven and a group of classicist-medievalist friends. It kind of scarred me.

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

To someone who knows the (hi)story of Alexander, the Stone film is like watching a commentary of a drunken sports fan to a fabled World Cup game. Our minds fill the blanks and block out the anachronisms and painful inaccuracies.

At the same time, clunky dialog and coyness about his bisexuality aside, it helps to recall that the influence of Olympias and Philippos on their son and was very much as shown in the film. Also, most of the smaller episodes were taken blow-by-blow from Alexandrian accounts or later Roman translations of them. Finally, Stone's depiction of both Macedonians and Persians is far better than the dull, dumb garbage of 300. A bit more of this here:

Being Part of Everyone’s Furniture; Or: Appropriate Away!

[sovay]

Finally, Stone's depiction of both Macedonians and Persians is far better than the dull, dumb garbage of 300.

Oh, God, I avoided 300 like a particularly exoticizing plague. Also, Troy.

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

Reinterpretations are ok, even anachronistic ones (as with many imaginative stagings of Shakespeare, Wagner and the Greek plays; both Sellars and Boulez specialized in those). The unforgivable sin of 300, Troy and The Clash of the Titans remake is that they took truly riproaring stories with complex characters/interactions and turned them into blocks of wet cement. Clunk! Thud! Talk of turning gold into lead...

[sovay]

(as with many imaginative stagings of Shakespeare, Wagner and the Greek plays; both Sellars and Boulez specialized in those).

I have very fond memories of Peter Sellars' The Children of Herakles with a Kazakh epic singer at the ART.

The unforgivable sin of 300, Troy and The Clash of the Titans remake is that they took truly riproaring stories with complex characters/interactions and turned them into blocks of wet cement.

And stupid. The stupid is a serious impediment.

I hope someone, somewhere titled a review "Clunk of the Titans" . . .

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

Hehe! Exactly. I called it a total chariot wreck in my Furniture article.

I saw just about everything Sellars staged at the ART. The brat oozed talent!