Gunga Din

Tags

action movies, Cary Grant, Gunga Din, Jane Eyre, Joan Fontaine

I’m not generally a fan of old action/adventure flicks. Like the action films of today, they’re generally too contrived, too over-the-top, for me to really enjoy them. I guess I decided to rent Gunga Din (1939) mostly because Cary Grant is in it. Despite being one of the most famous men in Hollywood at the time, and a sex symbol, he had an unmistakable sense of humour about himself and his image. Like Elizabeth Taylor, he was able to laugh at himself despite his god-like image, and that’s a very attractive quality.

In fact, for this film, Grant was originally offered the more romantic part of Ballantine, but he insisted on playing the character with more personality – the smart-alec, adventure-loving, gold-obsessed Cutter. Not only is Cutter the more humorous character, he’s the one who bonds with Gunga Din, and who witnesses his sacrifice at the end of the film.

I was expecting a typical action flick about three buddies in the military getting up to all kinds of hijinks as they save the world from evil forces. What I got was something more, and with George Stevens at the helm (the director of A Place in the Sun, Woman of the Year and Giant) I should have known it would be a film with substance.

The title character is the water-bearer for British troops stationed in India. Din admires the British soldiers and longs to be one of them. He and Cutter strike up a friendship that gets them into all sorts of trouble, including breaking Cutter out of the stockade using an elephant. In their search for gold, the two of them end up stumbling into the headquarters for a murderous cult.

[SPOILER ALERT] The cult manages to imprison Cutter and his buddies and Din, as they wait for the rest of the British troops to walk into their trap to be slaughtered. It is Din, already injured, who climbs to the top of the temple spire to play the trumpet to warn the British of the trap. Din is shot down as his friend Cutter – also seriously wounded – watches. It’s a moving scene, but even more moving is Din’s funeral, where the last lines of Rudyard Kipling’s poem (upon which the film is based) are read aloud. [END SPOLER ALERT]

Joan Fontaine has a couple of brief appearances as Ballantine’s love interest, but her character is pretty vacant and serves only as the plot element that makes Ballantine decide to leave the service. His two buddies decide to do everything they can to make him change his mind, which leads to many of the comic scenes.

The movie has everything you could want in an action flick: gunfighting, fisticuffs, jumping off cliffs into the water, a snake pit, an evil and violent tribe that has to be stopped. I suspect a lot of the ideas for the original Indiana Jones film were taken directly from Gunga Din.

********

In other news, I recently watched the 1944 version of Jane Eyre, so I’m that much closer to writing my promised comparative post. I actually took notes as I watched it, so then I went back and watched the 2011 version again to takes notes. I was hoping to watch the 1996 version on Netflix, but when I hit play, the 2011 version came on. It enjoy the 2011 version, but when another version is advertised, that’s what I expect to see. It has been like this for several weeks now. Seriously Netflix, get your shit together.

[Note: It took me three weeks to write this post, so I apologize if it's disjointed and flows poorly. It's actually gotten to the point where I swore I wouldn't watch any more classic movies until I had finished writing about this one. That didn't last long.]

Off sick

Tags

George C. Scott, Jane Eyre, Suzannah York

I’ve been pretty tired and run-down the last few weeks. I was off sick from work for a few days, feeling like death warmed over. One of the few benefits of being home sick is the opportunity it grants to get caught up on various projects that can be undertaken from a bed or a couch. I watched a slew of movies while I was off, many of which I’ve seen before, and a few new ones.

My movie-mania prompted a new project: I want to watch every film version of Jane Eyre I can get my hands on and write a comparative post. While I was off sick I watched the 1970 version with Suzannah York and George C. Scott – an old favourite of mine that I love to watch over and over. And I rented the 2011 version with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, who is quickly becoming my new favourite actor. While very good, the newer version didn’t (I feel) have the same warmth and humour of the York-Scott pairing.

Then I started doing some research and learned there have been more than a dozen film versions of the famous Charlotte Brontë novel, if you include all the made-for-TV versions (of which the 1970 adaptation is one). I’m hoping to watch at least two or three more before writing my definitive Jane Eyre post. Keep an eye out for it this summer.

The Easter weekend was a good chance to rest and recover, and spend time with friends. Now that I’m mostly back to normal I’m hoping to not neglect this blog for so long again.

Ramblings from Quebec to Montreal

Tags

Canadian history, Champlain, dog sled racing, Fifth Business, Montreal, motion sickness, Quebec City, Robertson Davies, train, train travel

So here I am traveling for work again. This time I’m dividing my time between Quebec City and Montreal. Arriving in Quebec on Friday morning, I was amazed how much snow was still on the ground. (When I left Ottawa, there was practically none left.) But the snow was a good thing, because we were there to see the dog sled races in Wendake, and the Crashed Ice (what a stupid name) competition in Old Quebec. I enjoyed the dog sled races more.

As I write, I’m sitting on the train in Quebec, waiting to leave for Montreal and taking advantage of the free wifi. Is there any mode of transportation more civilized than the train? I can’t think of one (and no, VIA isn’t paying me to say that). The train is the only mode of transportation for which I have never had to take Gravol. (I suffer from what I’d call above-average motion sickness.)

I’m looking forward to spending some time in Montreal. I haven’t been in years – which is ridiculous when you consider I live about 200 km away. Also, we were staying in a hotel on the northern outskirts of Quebec, which made it very time consuming and expensive to get downtown. It was getting a little boring out there in the sticks. The big city will do me some good.

It will be difficult to keep this post within the theme of the blog, since I brought no knitting with me on this trip, have seen no films, and have had no meals worth noting. I didn’t bring the book I’m reading – Champlain’s Dream by David Hackett Fischer – because it’s enormous. It’s a great book, though, particularly if you’re interested in the early settlement of Canada. The book is great in that it also talks about what was going on in France as Champlain was growing up, which helps contextualize his own efforts to establish a New France.

The book I did bring is one of my favourite books off all time: Fifth Business by Robertson Davies. I think this will be my third reading. The other two books  in the Deptford trilogy are less interesting (especially the second, which I didn’t enjoy much at all) but this first book stands very well on its own. I don’t know much about Robertson Davies, but I know he was born and raised in Thamesville, Ontario, just up the road from where I grew up. I recognize his descriptions of small town life in southern Ontario, and I love the colourful characters he lovingly creates.

So that’s my spiel for today: Crashed Ice is a silly sport with a silly name, I love the train, and you should read Champlain’s Dream if you love history, and Fifth Business if you love reading. Cheers!

The prime of our lives

Tags

Maggie Smith, movies, Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

My Friday night movie last week was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. It’s one of those movies that I had seen parts of in my 20s, but had never seen it from beginning to end. Maggie Smith, who won the 1969 Academy Award for Best Actress for this role, is perfect as the unconventional Scottish private school teacher.

At first, Miss Brodie comes across as a vain, romantic, and silly woman who teaches her students about famous love affairs (as well as her own) instead of the facts of history. She brags to her students that she is in her prime, and as such has wisdom and insight they cannot begin to comprehend.

As the story progresses, we learn that Miss Brodie is not so harmless. She has a strong influence on her students, and they come to worship her (that is, all but one). Miss Brodie, in turn, takes it upon herself to decide the fate of each girl, assigning her a role in life based on her judgment of their characters. Her mistake is in grossly underestimating one of her smartest, but most “dependable,” students.

Miss Brodie leaves her married lover and takes another, while trying to manipulate the former into taking one of her older students to bed with him instead. She teaches her girls about Mussolini and Franco, leaders she greatly admires, and even encourages her students to emulate them. One foolish student is so affected by Miss Brodie’s words she tries to join Franco’s army in the Spanish Civil War, with tragic results.

It is the movie’s other strong female character – 17-year-old Sandy – who is the instrument of Miss Brodie’s undoing, at the prime of her life. Sandy is played brilliantly by Pamela Franklin who, sadly, appeared in few movies after this, other than some horror films. She also made numerous appearances in police dramas in the 1970s.

I don’t want to give away too much more about the film. The Scottish accents are delicious, the acting is first-rate, and there are a few unexpected raunchy bits, which is always fun. What’s more, the film makes me want to read the book.

Struggling for balance

Tags

finding time, work, work life balance

Beyond struggling with finding time to blog, I’ve been struggling with my work-life balance lately. Just ask my husband.

The thing is, I really like my job. For the first time in many years, I feel like an important part of a team; my opinions are sought and even respected. I really get along with about 90% of my colleagues, and I wouldn’t hesitate to hang out with them outside of the office. We work well together, and it’s fun. Sometimes stressful, but fun.

This respect and collegiality make me feel like I should do a little extra when deadlines are tight and the team needs to pull together. But that “little extra” then turns into hours and hours of overtime, and my family life suffers. I end up seeing my husband only when the alarm goes off in the morning, and our poor dog loses her mind at the sight of me.

Work is not going to let up – we’ve got a very busy two months ahead of us. On top of that, I’ve applied for a program where I donate my holidays to work overseas in a developing country. I’ll find out in a couple weeks if I get accepted or not; if I do, I’ll be gone for three to four weeks in the summer. Because, you know, I won’t be completely burned out after the next two months of work, and I won’t need time to spend with my husband.

I’m making an effort to leave work at the office and contribute more to our home life, but it’s hard. Sometimes I think I should consider a three-day workweek. We can’t really afford it financially, but the alternative – estrangement, resentment – is much uglier.

Gone fishing . . . for science

Tags

AAAS, midnight in paris, water for elephants

Well. When I started this blog back in December, I was looking forward to having a place where I could extol the virtues of my favourite classic films and share some interesting GFV and vegetarian recipes. But the last few weeks it’s been challenging to find time to watch these movies and make these recipes, let alone find time to write about them afterwards.

My current prolonged silence is due to a work trip to Vancouver (where the sun has finally come out today for the first time since I got here Thursday). I’m attending the AAAS meeting: a big science conference, which is funny because I’m just about the furthest thing possible from a scientist. It’s been a productive trip; it’s just that I’m experiencing some pangs of guilt for neglecting the blog.

I watched two movies on the flight out here: Midnight in Paris, which was delightful, and Water for Elephants, which was disappointing. I also started watching The Shipping News, which I’ve been wanting to see for years. I hope to watch the second half on the way back to Ottawa.

Not much else to report here, other than it’s been raining steadily and I forgot my umbrella. Nice thing is, they have a great selection of umbrellas in Vancouver. I also got to take a couple hours off and catch up with an old friend and meet her four-month-old son: a definite highlight of the trip.

Next week will be equally busy so I expect there will be little new content here at FYF until March, but don’t give up on me, dear readers. I’ll be back with bells on.

The Neverending Sweater

I knit my husband a wool sweater a couple of years ago. I used a basic sweater pattern and invented my own striping, with my husband’s input. We were both very pleased with the final result, except for one thing: the yarn we picked turned out to be scratchier than we thought. He couldn’t keep the sweater on for more than five minutes, even with a T-shirt on underneath. It made him itch like crazy. So the sweater sits in the closet, folded up on a top shelf, unworn and unloved. Unless you’re a knitter, you probably can’t imagine how much this bothers me.

My husband, being the supportive man that he is, really wants to have a hand-knit sweater that he can wear. So back in the summer (July? August?) we found a pattern he liked, carefully chose a yarn with more acrylic than wool, and that had a nice, soft feel to it, and I got to work. We are now nearly mid-February, and I’m still knitting this damn thing. (For the record, the scratchy sweater took about a month.)

Part of the problem is the pattern is dull as dirt. It feels like miles and miles of stockinette stitch with no shaping, no stitch pattern, no colour changes. Secondly, the yarn is a DK weight with a gauge of like 50 sts per inch. (I might be exaggerating just a tad.) I don’t normally undertake sweaters with this small a gauge, so progress feels painfully slow.

Then I made the mistake of trying to alter the pattern a bit to make my life simpler and ended up making it harder. My own fault, really. The sweater is standard construction of four pieces — front, back, and two sleeves — all sewn together in the end. Well I dislike sewing, so I thought I would at least knit the sleeves in the round and save myself a considerable amount of sewing. Only problem is, when I got to the assembly instructions, I learned there are sleeve gussets to knit and sew in separately, and in order to sew them in, the sleeves have to be flat, at least for the two or three inches closest to the body. So I had to pull back both sleeves by three inches and re-knit them flat instead of in the round. See? My own fault – I should have read the instructions to the end before starting. But that’s like reading a whole recipe to the end before you start cooking. Who has time for that?

So with the gussets done and the top few inches of the sleeves re-knit, I figured I was in the home stretch. Wrong. I’m not sure if I made the sleeves to big around, but there’s no room to sew them onto the body and still have room for the gussets. (I also sewed one of the gussets totally wrong and had to pull it out.) This project is turning into a neverending nightmare and I’ll be glad to be rid of it. As soon as I figure out how to sew the pieces together. Hopefully soon my husband will be able to proudly wear his new, soft and snuggly, hand-knit sweater. He should have at least a few days to wear it before spring comes . . .

Things that make me smile

Tags

cat on a hot tin roof, dogs, Ella Fitzgerald, fiona apple

Ella Fitzgerald. Any day, any time, any song. (Check out her amazing impersonation of Louis Armstrong here, about halfway through.)

Fiona Apple. Any day, any time, any song. I haven’t even seen The Nightmare Before Christmas, but this is one of my favourite Fiona songs. So haunting. Amy Lee’s version can’t hold a candle to this one.

Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She lost the Academy Award to Susan Hayward, who won for I Want to Live!. Hayward had been unsuccessfully nominated four times before, so the Academy probably figured it was time she got her due. Taylor is nevertheless brilliant in this role. (The filming here is a little unsteady, but the scene is unforgettable.)

Marnie, my beautiful baby girl.

A banner Bette day

Tags

1939, Bette Davis, classic movies, Dark Victory, elizabeth and essex, Errol Flynn, Gone with the Wind, Humphrey Bogart, Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, vivien leigh

Oh, it was indeed a banner day over here at Food, Yarn and Film on Sunday, my friends. Not only did I get to spend a little time in the morning experimenting with coleslaw dressing; I spent the afternoon watching movies and knitting. It doesn’t get any better than this.

I had watched Now, Voyager (1942) on Saturday – one of my all-time favourite movies, period – so I decided I would follow the trend and make Sunday a Bette day. First up was Dark Victory (1939) followed by The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (also 1939). In fact, Davis was in no fewer than four movies in 1939. In retrospect, the year is now called the Hollywood’s Golden Year by many film lovers, since it also saw the release of Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach and Wuthering Heights. If I could go back in time and relive any period in history, 1939 would be pretty close to the top of my list. But I digress.

By the time she filmed Dark Victory, Bette Davis had already won two Academy Awards. She was nominated again for this role, but lost to – who else? – Vivien Leigh for Gone with the Wind. Probably an unfair decision, but the hype surrounding GWTW was like a juggernaut: there as no escaping it. The fact remains Davis gives a great performance alongside one of her favourite co-stars, the likable but somewhat dull George Brent. Other co-stars include Humphrey Bogart, playing a small role as an Irish horse trainer (he doesn’t quite pull off the brogue), Ronald Regan as a more-often-than-not inebriated playboy, and Geraldine Fitzgerald, who does a wonderful job playing Davis’ concerned best friend and secretary.

Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart in Dark Victory

This movie is pure melodrama, but I always say one generation’s melodrama is another generation’s high drama. Davis plays a young wealthy socialite who discovers she has a brain tumour. She refuses treatment at first, then falls in love with the doctor who operates on her. The ending kills me every time, and Bette plays it just right – going from a manic and unstable life, to peace and happiness, despite what she knows is coming. You really believe in the character’s transformation, and are heartbroken by the dignity with which she faces her fate in the end.

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, on the other hand, is a bit disappointing. The film is about the tumultuous relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and the considerably younger Earl of Essex. (How true to history the story is, I couldn’t tell you.) Davis plays an older Elizabeth, but her hands and voice shake so much through the film you’d think she was trying to portray a woman of 90 rather than 63 – the age Elizabeth would have been at this time. Her movements throughout are stiff and shaky and distract from the scenes. The script has some good material but is inconsistent.

Errol Flynn, who plays Essex, is pretty good, as he tends to be with these swashbuckling, adventurous characters. Davis apparently wanted Laurence Olivier to play the role, and Davis and Flynn never really got along. (Not surprising really, if you know anything about the personas attributed to these two actors: Flynn a wild, womanizing – possibly bisexual – party animal, and Davis: demanding, outspoken and devoted to her craft.) It is rumoured that in the scene where Elizabeth slaps Essex in front of the court, Davis really did give Flynn a good smack in the face, and that his look of surprise and anger is real. I like to think it’s true.

Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth

Others in the film include Olivia de Havilland (Melanie from GWTW) and Vincent Price in his breakout role as Sir Walter Raleigh. Overall, it’s an interesting film if you’re a fan of any of these actors. It’s admirable the lengths Davis will go to to establish authenticity: she is said to have shaved two inches off her hairline on her forehead to suit the period, and shaved off her eyebrows. The makeup in this film is not flattering for Davis, but she was interested in her characters, not her own looks.

Dinner with friends

Tags

baking, brownies, coleslaw, dairy-free, GFV, gluten-free

Some friends had us over for dinner last night. Given mine and my husband’s food restrictions, this is an unusual occurrence. We know how hard it can be to come up with gluten- and dairy-free options, and then something vegetarian on top of it. (Last night’s dinner was homemade chili with corn chips – the meat cooked on the side for those who wanted to add it. Brilliant and delicious!)

What’s even harder than coming up with the main course, however, is making GFV dessert. So it’s our custom now with these particular friends that they’ll arrange the main meal if we (read: me) make dessert. Last night’s selection was GFV brownies from Susan O’Brien’s Gluten-Free Vegan (see My Cookbooks). This is my go-to recipe book for GFV desserts (I haven’t hit a bad one yet) and the brownies were a hit. We were lucky to smuggle these last bits out of the house.

Super moist GFV brownies

This morning I decided to make some coleslaw that my husband had been asking for. Normally I would make coleslaw with mayo, but since he can’t have it, I improvised a vinegar-based dressing. The ingredients, in order from the largest quantity: white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, canola oil, Chartreuse dijon mustard, horseradish dijon mustard, sugar, pepper, salt. I think it’s delicious, and I suspect it will taste even better after it’s sat for a couple hours in the fridge.

Nothing like a little experimentation in the kitchen on a Sunday morning.