The Man Who Knew Too Much

November 14, 2024November 14, 2024 LizLockeLeave a comment

I don’t know about you, but I’m in dire need of a good Day. Doris Day, that is. When anxiety, hopelessness, rage, and disappointment threaten to overtake me, it always helps to watch a star who faced tremendous struggles onscreen and off. One who came through these battles with her grace, dignity, and empathy intact. It seems fitting then, that Doris Day’s iconic song from The Man Who Knew Too Much (Disc/Download) would feel tailored to this most uncertain of times we’re living in: “Que sera, sera; whatever will be, will be. The future’s not ours to see; que sera, sera.”

The fact that Alfred Hitchcock made a perfectly great version of The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1934, then decided to do it again in 1956 is a pretty wild concept. Nevertheless, if he had to fulfill a studio obligation for one more picture, I’m glad he decided to dust this story off because 1950s Man has a lot more heart and emotional depth. Much of that comes from Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart, who have always felt like America’s parents. If you happened to be kidnapped by terrorists, you could feel confident they would be clever and determined enough to rescue you. Doris gets a lot more material to work with than Edna Best did in the original, and it’s to her credit the stakes feel so much higher. Seeing her devolve into hysterics when she realizes her son is missing, then watching her steely resolve take over when she faces an incompetent police force is a wonderful arc. In the end, it’s Doris who saves the day, because terrorism is no match for a woman with a strong, powerful voice.

When The Man Who Knew Too Much opens, Jimmy, Doris, and their little boy are on a bus to Marrakesh. There are some great scenes filmed in a Moroccan bazaar (in fact, Doris insisted on better care for the background animals, refusing to shoot until every camel, horse, stray dog, and cat had food and water), before the plot takes them all to London. Doris and Jimmy end up throwing an impromptu party in their hotel room, and one wonders just how many gin & tonics their friends put back while waiting on these two to foil an international assassination plot and find their son. This time of year, I love the flavor of cardamom in my drinks, so I’ll be infusing some Old Tom gin with a handful of cardamom pods. Leave it to soak overnight, then strain the pods out. While watching The Man Who Knew Too Much, I recommend drinking this Ambrose Chapel Gin & Tonic.

Ambrose Chapel Gin & Tonic

2 oz Cardamom-infused Old Tom Gin

5 oz Indian tonic water

Orange wheel (dried)

Star Anise

Build drink over ice, and garnish with a dried orange wheel and star anise.

It’s ironic that Doris hated the song “Que Sera, Sera” when she first heard it, thinking it too cutesy and saccharine, because even by her own account, she lived her life by its lyrics. She didn’t know what the future held, but she never lost faith in herself. Her world wasn’t rainbows day after day, and she couldn’t have known prior to each marriage how the men in her life would let her down. But after every disappointment, betrayal, and setback, she got up, dusted herself off, and put one foot in front of the other. Her voice was her gift, and for the rest of her life, she used it to help the people and causes that mattered to her. Just as I’ll try my best to do now, one Day at a time. Cheers!

Black Narcissus

November 6, 2023November 3, 2023 LizLockeLeave a comment

If you like your nuns with a side of murderous melodrama, then strap in for the Technicolor fantasy of Black Narcissus (Disc/Download). A movie brought to my attention by Jenny Hammerton of Silver Screen Suppers, this was my first introduction into the world of Powell & Pressburger. After sinking into their completely immersive setting of a 1940s Himalayan monastery, consider me hooked.

Starring Deborah Kerr as the leader of a group of nuns tasked with setting up a convent on a remote mountaintop, Black Narcissus feels at times like a science fiction film (sample tagline: Trapped in isolation, the inhabitants of a spaceship go a little mad…). Maybe there’s a mysterious illness slowly claiming the lives of the these inhabitants, or maybe it’s all in their heads. Swap in wimples for spacesuits, and you’ve got the general vibe of Black Narcissus. These women are lonely, and it doesn’t help that there’s a handsome caretaker (David Farrar) coming around in his short-shorts to flirt and rile them up. He makes the nuns remember what their lives were like before joining the order, and eventually it all becomes too much for Sister Ruth, played marvelously by Kathleen Byron. Ditching her dreary robes for a smart new dress and dark red lipstick, she is your worst nightmare—a woman pushed to the brink, with nothing to lose.

Because color is such an important element to the production design of this movie, it seems fitting to drink one of the most colorful gins on the market, Empress 1908. The nuns make a big show of dropping a purple powder into some water in an effort to wow the locals at the new infirmary (I’m still not sure what the powder was—quinine?), but you can do the same at home with either your Empress Gin, or a pinch of Butterfly Pea Powder. This is definitely a floral-inspired cocktail because on this depressing mountaintop, we need flowers more than food. While watching Black Narcissus, I recommend drinking a Floral Gin & Tonic.

Floral Gin & Tonic

2 oz Empress 1908 Gin (OR 2 oz London Dry Gin w/ ¼ Teaspoon Butterfly Pea Powder)

4 oz Elderflower Tonic

Dried lime and flower garnish

Build drink over ice, stirring slowly to combine (if using the powder, stir a little more to fully mix). Garnish with a dried lime + flowers.

I’m thrilled to be collaborating this week with Jenny Hammerton over at Silver Screen Suppers because she actually puts together a full meal for her pairings! If you want to craft your own dinner party for Black Narcissus, be sure to subscribe to the Dinner and a Movie Substack and come prepared with an appetite, plus your moodiest purple gin. Cheers!

Dramas

American Beauty

July 11, 2022July 9, 2022 LizLocke1 Comment

I’m not going to lie—this week was a challenge. Do I revisit a movie that was dubbed the Best Picture of 1999, a movie I really liked at the time, but have since abandoned after its star’s misdeeds made watching it an incredibly uncomfortable experience? American Beauty is a difficult film to write about in the year 2022 because it’s hard to reconcile my original opinion with an ever-evolving consciousness of cinema’s impact and responsibility. Nevertheless, if I’m going to look at the year 1999, I feel like I have to look at it warts-and-all. And by warts, I mean the casual acceptance (perhaps even, glamorization) of statutory rape. Dear lord, what were we thinking?

Here’s the thing—I still believe there are some great performances in this movie. I still adore the cinematography and score. I still enjoy the critique of the suburban middle class, and the way the ending unfolds like an episode of Dateline. It leaves us guessing about what comes next, which I find exciting. If I could only watch the brilliant Annette Bening in the role of a frustrated wife, mother, and realtor, I’d be watching this on repeat without hesitation. I want her to sell that house today, and the ensuing breakdown when she fails still reflects the tiny voice inside me that screams every time the thing I desperately wanted to achieve just doesn’t work out—you weak, stupid, baby. But American Beauty isn’t a one-woman show. It also features Kevin Spacey, in a role where we, the audience, are supposed to be rooting for him to turn his boring life around by seducing his daughter’s teenage friend. It isn’t cool now, it shouldn’t have been cool then, and shame on all of us who looked through his perverted lens and couldn’t see the trauma for the rose petals. I’m amazed that it took the star’s real-life crimes to wake us up to the problems with this character, but I can only assume we were distracted by Lester Burnham’s “Great Resignation” before it was a trend.

Maybe, like me, you’re curious and want to go down this rabbit hole one more time. If so, you will need a drink. Let’s celebrate Carolyn Burnham’s prize rose collection with this simple cocktail, tailor-made for easy refills. While watching American Beauty, I recommend drinking a Rosewater Gin & Tonic.

Rosewater Gin & Tonic

2 oz London Dry Gin

6 oz Fever Tree Tonic

3-4 drops Rosewater

Lime Slice

Rose Petal (for garnish)

Juniper berries (for garnish)

Combine ingredients in a highball glass over ice, stirring gently to combine. Garnish with a lime slice and rose petal.

I suppose this whole ordeal opens me up to thinking about my own tolerance for movies that have not stood the test of time. There are some I find easier to watch than others, and I can’t even explain why. But I think that complexity is true for a lot of us—we’re not perfect, and our understanding and reaction to painful histories is an ever-evolving process. However, I think having the space to examine things through a more critical lens, without judgment, is key to creating better content. We can’t move forward in a productive way without examining mistakes of the past. And in 1999, I’ll be the first to admit—I was wrong about American Beauty. Let’s not do this again.

Dramas

Out of Africa

June 27, 2022June 27, 2022 LizLocke1 Comment

Concluding my journey through 1985, I couldn’t resist a peek at the year’s Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa (Disc/Download). Some might say this is not the best movie to watch when you’re already sweltering under a summer heat wave; however, I like to think of this as a how-to guide for surviving climate change—wear a lot of white linen, stock up on quinine, and make alfresco nighttime vinyl cocktail parties a thing.

Starring Meryl Streep as Karen von Blixen (the writer who would later go on to be published under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen) this is an epic tale of one woman’s struggle to live her best life, despite the incompetent men she’s forced to deal with on a daily basis. Sounds familiar, amiright ladies? Wealthy Karen signs herself up for a marriage-of-convenience that involves a ticket to Nairobi and a coffee farm she never really wanted. But still, she makes the best of it, forging a friendship with handsome safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford)- a friendship that later turns into a passionate romance. Confronted with war, fickle crops, male chauvinism, as well as a fun little bout of syphilis thanks to her deadbeat husband, Karen never loses her classy attitude. She’s all about crystal decanters, Victrola record players, Limoges, and fussy feminine decor, even while on safari. In other words, she basically invented glamping, and we should all bow down.

Because this movie is definitely not climate controlled, I think we need an icy cold beverage to get us through. There’s no greater summertime pleasure than a gin & tonic, so let’s combine the flavors of a G&T with Karen’s beleaguered coffee crop in this Spiked Coffee Tonic cocktail.

Spiked Coffee Tonic

1 oz Gin

1 ½ oz Espresso Cold Brew (canned)

2 oz Tonic

½ oz Brown Sugar Syrup (Combine 1:1 ratio brown sugar with water, blending until sugar is dissolved)

Dried Lemon Wheel (garnish)

Combine gin, cold brew, tonic, and syrup in a highball glass filled with large ice cubes. Stir until combined, then garnish with a dried lemon wheel.

It’s a little surprising to me that this won the Academy Award for Best Picture, given how lackluster the script is. But nevertheless, it’s worthwhile viewing, if only to watch Meryl master the Danish accent as well as those safari-chic fashions. Cheers!

Dramas

A Single Man

June 28, 2021June 26, 2021 LizLockeLeave a comment

I don’t know what type of movie Tom Ford might have up his tailored sleeve in the future, but consider this my official RSVP. It’s rare to find a filmmaker who can so expertly merge style with substance, but with this fashion designer-turned-director at the helm, I find myself connecting with the the visuals just as much as the drama. He may have shocked and terrified me (in a good way) with Nocturnal Animals, but he truly made me feel with A Single Man (Disc/Download).

Set in my favorite era (the 1960s), this adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s fantastic novel follows Stanford English professor George Falconer (Colin Firth) over the course of a single day as he grieves his deceased lover Jim (Matthew Goode) and contemplates his own suicide. Through flashbacks, we witness George and Jim’s love story, from meeting in a crowded bar, to buying a beautiful mid-century modern home together, to adopting dogs, and all the way to that horrible call with the news that Jim has been in an automobile accident. Deprived of even the smallest dignity of attending the funeral, George’s life has suddenly lost all meaning, and even a sarcastic, gin-swilling Julianne Moore can’t pull him out of his despair. It takes a brazen student (played by Nicholas Hoult in a fuzzy mohair sweater), a midnight skinny dip in the ocean, and several important revelations to make him realize there may be more in store for him than a lifetime of sadness.

Something I particularly love about this film is its use of color. George’s life looks normal at first, until the first time he feels a strong emotion. Suddenly, it’s as if the celluloid gets dunked in a warm Instagram filter, and the hues burst from the screen. As soon as the memory, or sexual desire, or happiness fades, we go back to the original muted tones, and George’s grief is all the more obvious. I thought about joining Julianne Moore in a few Tanqueray & Tonic’s, but that just doesn’t seem bright enough. Let’s bring this drink into full color with the addition of Blood Orange. While watching A Single Man, I recommend drinking a Sunset Tonic.

Sunset Tonic

2 oz Malfy Con Arancia Gin

1 bottle Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic

Slice of blood orange

Build drink over ice, stirring gently to combine. Garnish with a slice of blood orange.

A Single Man is the kind of movie that stays with you for days after you watch it. Not only does it make you think about the ones you’ve lost, but it makes you contemplate what kind of future you’ll have now that they’re gone. Is it to be one of sadness and longing, or one of moonlight swims and dancing? What would they have wanted for you? It’s a question a lot of us will ask ourselves one day, and maybe Tom Ford just got me a little closer toward the answer. Cheers!

Classic Films · Dramas

Jules and Jim

March 30, 2020March 25, 2020 LizLockeLeave a comment

Leave it to the French to shock me. Here I was, thinking of polyamory as a concept not fully embraced until the swingin’ ‘70s, but as Jules and Jim (Disc/Download) would suggest, throuples have been around long before Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice; long before that “groundbreaking” episode of House Hunters. Apparently, Paris was a hotbed of free love, even before the Great War.

Directed by Francois Truffaut, Jules and Jim is really about Jules and Jim and Catherine—the free-spirited girl at the center of this complicated love triangle. When we meet them, Jules and Jim are carefree writers who share good times and the occasional woman. But Catherine is something different. Jules stakes a claim early on, even though we can see there’s a strong attraction from Jim as well. She flirts, Jim pines, then Jules marries her and everyone goes off to war. Jules fights on the Austrian side, Jim for the French, and both are afraid of inadvertently killing their best friend on the battlefield. Coming home, Jules settles into an unhappy marriage with Catherine, though both realize something is missing. Eventually, Jim steps in to help right the balance. Despite turbulent times ahead, for a short while in the Black Forest, this throuple is undeniably, unexpectedly happy.

Watching this gorgeous movie at home makes me wish I were instead watching it on the big screen at one of my favorite cinemas, the Austin Film Society* . They have a special gin & tonic on their lobby menu that pairs perfectly with this angsty French love story. While watching Jules and Jim, I recommend drinking the AFS Gin & Tonic.

AFS Gin & Tonic

2 oz Dry Gin

¼ oz Lillet Rose

½ oz Lime Juice

4 oz Elderflower Tonic (I use Fever Tree)

Lime Wheel/Juniper berries for garnish

Combine Gin, Lillet, and lime juice in a shaker filled with ice. Stir to combine and chill, then strain into a glass filled with ice. Top with Elderflower tonic, garnish with lime wheel and juniper berries.

Lillet Gin & Tonic

As with most French New Wave films, lead actress Jeanne Moreau is sexy, cool, funny, and real. Jules and Jim are somewhat forgettable, but Catherine is a woman ahead of her time. This film was made in the 1960s, takes place in 1914-1920s, but feels completely relevant to the 2020s. Let’s touch toes and toast to this unconventional, enduring masterpiece. Cheers!

*If you’re a supporter of indie film, please consider donating to the Austin Film Society so we can all enjoy films and cocktails after the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us.

Dramas

Stealing Beauty

June 10, 2019June 3, 2019 LizLocke1 Comment

The votes are in, and it’s official: Stealing Beauty (Disc/Download) is the sexiest movie ever made. Nobody is more shocked than I, that Bernardo “Pass the Butter” Bertolucci managed to make a film that speaks to the angst of being a woman rather than just a base exploitation of the female body. As a director, he carries us on a journey of personal and sexual awakening, and believe me—it’s a trip you want to take.

Stealing Beauty features Liv Tyler as Lucy, a nineteen-year-old American vacationing at a Tuscan villa owned by family friends. She’s come to Italy to find her birth father and lose her virginity, though not necessarily in that order. A testament to the folly of youth, Lucy thinks she wants her first time to be with predatory playboy Niccoló Donati, never realizing that his shy friend Osvaldo is the real catch. Everyone staying at the villa seems to have an opinion on her love life, making Lucy alternately blush and/or run off into the scrub brush with no shoes. Repeatedly. When the loss of her virginity finally happens, we’re so keyed up as viewers that it honestly does feel like a release. The movie is alive with desire and wanting, placing us right there with her in the rolling, sun-warmed hills of Tuscany.

Because most of the villa’s inhabitants are English, and we all know how the Brits love their gin & tonics, I’ll be enjoying something that combines the flavors of Italy and England. While watching Stealing Beauty, I recommend drinking this Tuscan G&T.

Tuscan G&T

2 ½ oz London dry gin

3 oz Italian dry red wine

½ oz simple syrup

Tonic Water

Orange and lime wheels for garnish

Combine gin, wine, and simple syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a glass filled with ice. Top with tonic water, and garnish with orange and lime.

tuscan g&t

Despite its visual and thematic sensuality, Stealing Beauty isn’t just about sex; it’s about poetry and art and death and above all, life. It’s about being shaken up, to see if you really know yourself inside and out. And of course, it’s about finding joy, whether it’s tits out in a sculpture garden, or diving for sunken treasure in the pool. Cheers!

Classic Films

A Summer Place

July 14, 2014December 8, 2018 LizLocke1 Comment

True confession: I’m a sucker for any movie with Sandra Dee in an A-line dress. I’m also a sucker for melodramatic movies of the 1950’s, the type that would have been playing at a drive-in movie theater. This week’s Cinema Sips pick, A Summer Place (DVD) fulfills both criteria. I must have caught this movie on AMC back in high school (when they actually showed classic films) and from the moment I laid eyes on Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue as two star-crossed teenage lovers, I was hooked. Throw in cardigan sweaters and preppy boat shoes, and well, we may as well just call this a perfect movie.

A Summer Place is about two teens who find themselves together on an exclusive New England resort called Pine Island for the summer. Troy Donahue plays the son of the innkeeper, and Sandra Dee is the daughter of a family that comes to stay. As it turns out, Sandra Dee’s father (played by Richard Egan) used to be involved with Troy Donahue’s mother (played by Dorothy McGuire) when he was the lifeguard there as a teenager, and even though each married other people, they never forgot each other. As you can guess, romance rekindles between the parents as it blossoms among their children. The writers of this film’s script make the ensuing adultery pretty convenient, since she’s married to an alcoholic and he’s married to a racist. OF COURSE they’d have affairs. Admittedly, it’s a soap opera, complete with wonderfully melodramatic music, kooky supporting characters, and hysterical overacting. But the scenes of ocean waves crashing against craggily rocks, afternoon sailing, and a cocktail hour where everyone dresses up make me swoon. It’s what summer should be.

This film was an easy choice for Cinema Sips because it features some great drunk scene-stealing by actor Arthur Kennedy. He tells it like it is, even when “it” happens to be that his wife is sleeping with her former lover again. He’s an alcoholic for sure, but a dignified alcoholic. None of those bar fights or crying meltdowns that movie alcoholics are traditionally known for. So in his honor, I’m mixing up a great standby WASPy summer drink- a Pine Island Gin & Tonic.

Pine Island Gin & Tonic

1.5 oz Bombay Sapphire Gin

3 oz Fever Tree tonic water

Lime wedge

Sprig of Rosemary for garnish

Build ingredients in a tumbler full of ice. Squeeze a bit of the lime juice into the glass, stir, and garnish with rosemary and lime wedge.

I’m adding a sprig of rosemary to this because it mirrors the pine trees surrounding the inn. And it fancies up a drink that, admittedly, is pretty simple. But in summertime, when it’s hot out, this is the drink that I make more often than anything else. It’s easy, delicious, and really hits the spot. Be sure to use the best ingredients though, because when you’ve got a simple drink, it’s abundantly clear when you’ve skimped on quality. I like to fix one of these and imagine I’m sitting at Richard Egan’s Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home bar, as I listen to the ocean waves crashing and watch Troy Donahue stroll down the beach in his short shorts and cardigan sweater. Très jolie, as the French would say. Très, très jolie. Cheers!

	We’re No Angel… on Donovan’s Reef
	Concluding thoughts… on Ocean’s 11 (1960)
	The Blue Gardenia… on The Goonies