Tag: Gimlet recipe

Classic Films · Foreign · Musicals

The Young Girls of Rochefort

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Image credit: The Young Girls of Rochefort, 1967

If you need a little cinema help to fight the grey skies of winter, then you’ll definitely want to check out this week’s pick, the 1967 French musical The Young Girls of Rochefort (Disc/Download). With a color palette straight out of my fantasies (so much pink!!!!!), fun choreography, and even the inclusion of classic Hollywood musical star Gene Kelly, this confection of a movie will have you longing for French fries, cocktails, and candy-colored days in France.

Starring real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac as singing twins Delphine and Solange, Jacques Demy’s follow-up to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is the perfect antidote to that bittersweet tragedy. These girls are fun, carefree, and want nothing more than to go to Paris, fall in love, and pursue their artistic ambitions. Delphine wants to be a dancer, Solange a composer, and unfortunately Rochefort is just too small of a pond. They can’t spend all their days in caftans, gazing out the windows of their pink apartment, lamenting their boredom.  They’ve got to put on matching hats and dresses and get out into the big, bright world! Luckily, Gene Kelly arrives, ready to make Solange’s dreams come true, while Delphine pines for a painter she’s never actually met. Truthfully, this film is full of near misses, right up to the very end. It keeps me yearning for that happy ending, almost as much as I yearn for their wardrobes. And boy, do I yearn.

One of the highlights of this movie, for me, is the twins’ mother’s French fry stand. It sits in the center of the town square, designed with gorgeous Mid-Century Modern details, and by all appearances seems to serve nothing but French fries, coffee, and cocktails. If someone gave me an unlimited amount of money and told me to go make whatever I wanted in the world, I would build an exact replica of this French fry stand. My city would cheer, and I’d be a hero. Unfortunately, I do not have an unlimited budget, so I’ll have to settle for frozen fries and this Gemini Gimlet in my “nice, but not Young Girls of Rochefort Girls nice” Mid-Century Modern home.

Gemini Gimlet

2 oz Pink Gin

1 oz Elderflower Liqueur

½ oz Lime Juice

½ oz Simple Syrup

Lemon Twist

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon.

You could certainly make this drink with your favorite clear gin, but I think Beefeater’s Pink Strawberry gin gives it a little more of a Demy flair. I could absolutely picture Delphine sipping one of these at an outdoor table while she fends off the advances of traveling carnies and speculates about the town serial killer. Besides, if you’re the kind of person who dreams, wouldn’t you rather do it in color? Cheers!

Classic Films · Holiday Films

Bachelor Mother

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: Bachelor Mother, 1939

Anyone who has read my book knows that I harbor deep fantasies of spending New Year’s Eve with David Niven. Always the life of the party, you know you’re in for a good time with this cheeky sophisticate. Lucky for us, if we time it just right, we’re able to ring in the New Year with Niv by watching him in the delightful classic holiday film Bachelor Mother (Disc/Download)!

This is one of those wonderful pictures like The Shop Around the Corner, or Christmas in Connecticut, that’s still able to resonate with modern audiences due to its sparkling script and screwball antics. Ginger Rogers is a terrific comedienne, playing a New York shopgirl who’s just been handed a pink slip for her temporary holiday gig in the toy section of a big department store. Devastated, she’s on her way home when she sees a baby left on the steps of an orphanage. She takes it inside out of the cold, and the employees mistake her for the baby’s mother. Despite her protests, they manage to find out where she works and convince her boss (David Niven) to keep her employed even after the holidays so she can support herself and the baby. Hijinx ensue as she tries again and again to give the baby back, but eventually she’s forced to accept this situation and make the best of it. Meanwhile, Niv (beginning the movie as a rich playboy) starts to develop a fondness for this woman, and their obvious chemistry at a swanky NYE party makes him realize he’s falling for her.

If you’re hoping for some iconic Ginger Rogers moves, then you’re in luck because she puts on quite the show in a dance contest at the Pink Slipper. An ironic name, given that she’s just been handed a pink slip and needs the prize money to make up for that lost paycheck! Since I happen to love pink cocktails and gimlets, let’s combine the two. While watching Bachelor Mother, I recommend drinking a Pink Slipper.

Pink Slipper

2 oz Gin (I used Tanqueray Rangpur Lime)

1 oz Cranberry Juice

1 oz Lime Juice

1 oz Simple Syrup

Fresh cranberries (garnish)

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a glass. Garnish with fresh cranberries.

Clocking in at less than ninety-minutes, this is the perfect movie to watch when you need a little break over the holidays, but don’t have a ton of time. With its tinker toys and screwball comedy, this delightful rom-com will leave you feeling downright giddy. Cheers!

Comedies

The Player

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: The Player, 1992

With the historic 2023 Hollywood writer’s strike thankfully coming to an end, it seems fitting to watch a movie where a screenwriter comes to an “arrangement” with a Hollywood studio exec, and in effect gets the final word. Robert Altman’s The Player (Disc/Download) is a fun satire of the industry, where pitches get made on the fly, stars wander in and out of the frame, and power is fleeting. What did it take to get a movie greenlit in 1992? Apparently, Julia Roberts and a happy ending.

I always love movies and television shows where stars play a version of themselves, and The Player is chock full of cameos from people like Burt Reynolds, Cher, Jack Lemmon, and Buck Henry (just to name a few of the 60+ celebrities parading through, both major and minor). This speaks to the idea that Los Angeles is a “company town”, and even though the Classic Hollywood studio system may be long gone, there’s still a lingering hierarchy in place. Actors are close to the top of the food chain, while screenwriters are unfortunately down at the bottom. Producers and execs? They’re at the very top. Tim Robbins is fantastic as hotshot studio exec Griffin Mill, playing the role with a pitch-perfect note of smarmy insincerity. The plot transitions into a comedic noir when Griffin inadvertently murders a screenwriter he thinks has been sending him death threats (a twist straight out of the classic film posters lining his office walls), and he quickly has to pivot from a man who has everything, to a man who has everything to lose.

With so many Hollywood locations used in the filming of this, it shocked me that The Ivy wasn’t one of them. Growing up in the ’90s, I thought this restaurant behind the white picket fence was where all the big deals happened. At least, that’s what People magazine led me to believe! Altman may have skipped it, but that doesn’t mean we have to. While watching The Player, I recommend drinking The Ivy Gimlet.

The Ivy Gimlet

3 oz Vodka

1 oz Lime Juice

1 oz Simple Syrup

6-8 fresh mint leaves

Lime Wheel

Prepare glass by rubbing a lime wheel around the rim, then dip in sugar. Fill with crushed ice, then set aside. In a metal shaker, muddle mint with lime juice and simple syrup. Add vodka and a few ice cubes, and shake until chilled. Pour entire contents of shaker into prepared glass. Garnish with lime wheel and more fresh mint.

When Griffin says at one point, “I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process,” one wonders if today’s execs saw this film as a roadmap to where the industry might be headed next. As ludicrous as some of these pitches in The Player are, I’d give anything to see these types of original movies on offer at the local cineplex. Without existing IP, how does anything get greenlit now? The sad fact is, most of the time, it doesn’t. Movies: now, more than ever… a repackaging of something you’ve already seen before.

Children's · Musicals · Uncategorized

Beauty and the Beast

LizLocke3 Comments
Image credit: Beauty and the Beast, 2017

Ask any female bookworm who grew up in the ’90s what her favorite Disney movie was, and you’d probably get the same answer- Beauty and the Beast (Disc/Download). Smart, shy girl doesn’t fit in with the people in her small town, longs for the type of adventure she’s only read about in stories, but feels resigned to a quiet future with her dad and his gadgets. Then, a gruff hero comes into her life and woos her with a library and fancy soup. To say that I idolized this character in 1991 would be an understatement. I had Belle dolls, Belle posters, Belle Halloween costumes, and even a prized Belle Trapper Keeper gracing my desk. I also had a Beast doll you could pull the head off of to make him magically transform into a human (which, looking back on it, was a little creepy). In short, I was A FAN. I was skeptical that a live action version of this tale could ever work, but I should have known Disney would make all my adult Belle dreams come true too.

I remember the first time I saw this adaptation in the theater a few years ago. Emma Watson opened her mouth to sing “Little town, it’s a quiet village….” and reader, I got goosebumps. These songs were so ingrained in my memory that I could recall every word and note with perfect precision. It was like a trip back to childhood, where movies seemed completely wondrous, and characters lived in your head in a way they simply don’t when you’re an adult. I loved A Star Is Born, but let’s just say I don’t have Jackson or Ally dolls in my bedroom.

Taking place in a small French village, and featuring a magic rose that slowly drops its petals, this movie deserves the kind of cocktail you could enjoy sipping for hours in a gigantic library by the light of a talking candelabra. While watching Beauty and the Beast, I recommend drinking a Rosewater Gimlet.

Rosewater Gimlet

2 oz Gin

1 oz Lime Juice

¾ oz Simple Syrup

½ oz St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur

3 drops Rosewater

Rose Petal garnish

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass containing an ice ball. Garnish with a rose petal.

Although there are some new tunes added to this version, the standout song is still “Tale as Old as Time”, sung here by Emma Thompson instead of Angela Lansbury. Really, this is the perfect anthem, for what’s more classic than an enemies-to-lovers story featuring a plucky girl and a gruff hero with a heart of gold? Thirty years later and it’s still bringing me as much joy as it did when I was eight. Cheers!

Dramas

L.A. Confidential

LizLocke2 Comments

la-confidential-1997-russell-crowe-kim-basinger-pic-1
Image Credit Warner Bros. 1997, L.A. Confidential

Gangsters and high-class prostitutes. 1950’s movie stars. Glamorous fashions. Russell Crowe when he was young and thin. That’s right, I’m talking about L.A. Confidential (DVD/Download). This 1997 film based on a James Ellroy novel and directed by Curtis Hanson is one of my all-time favorites, and an absolutely perfect movie to pair with a cocktail. L.A. Confidential deserves and needs your undivided attention, so put down the phones and laptops, and make your drink before you press Play because the plot has more twists and turns than a street in the Hollywood Hills.

L.A. Confidential centers on three LAPD cops iwho find their cases intersecting in one riveting vice/homicide mash-up. Guy Pearce plays bookish detective Edmund Exley, Russell Crowe plays the heavy-handed goon/good guy Bud White, and Kevin Spacey is the fun-loving Jack Vincennes who stumbles onto a vice case that was more than he bargained for. I love the way the script weaves back and forth between their cases, until eventually they are knotted together. Kim Basinger turns in a great performance as Lynn Bracken, the sex worker dolled up to look like Veronica Lake. I love movies that reference classic cinema, and it’s a lot of fun to see actresses/models cut to look like Lake, Ginger Rogers, and Rita Hayworth. Of course one of the best scenes comes at the hands of Vincennes and Exley interrogating Lana Turner and Johnny Stompanato. I laugh every time because it’s one of the rare comedic moments in this pulpy noir film (outside of any scene with Danny DeVito of course).

For my cocktail this week, I’m serving up a drink that would have been fashionable around the time this movie takes place. It was popularized by Raymond Chandler, another Noir writer, though I’m making it a little differently than he would have. In The Long Goodbye, he called for simply “half gin and half Rose’s lime juice,” but I like to add a little simple syrup to my gimlet. After all, Bud White is a sweetie at heart!

White Gimlet

2 oz gin

½ oz Lime Juice

½ oz Simple Syrup

Lime wedge for garnish

Mix gin, lime juice, and simple syrup together in a cocktail shaker over ice. Strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with lime.

White Gimlet

This film makes me so nostalgic for the glamour of Tinseltown, because even when they’re crawling around looking for dead bodies or roughing up a gangster at an abandoned motel, these cops still call each other by their full names and wear hats. Things were so civilized back then! Enjoy L.A.Confidential as you sip your gimlet, and try not to get so drunk that you end up whispering “Rollo Tomasi” in your husband’s ear for the millionth time while he tries not to become annoyed with you (not that I’m speaking from experience). Cheers!