Tag: Ginger Beer

Classic Films

Written on the Wind

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Image: Written on the Wind, 1956

In my house, it’s just not fall until I’ve watched at least one Douglas Sirk movie. No other director does changing leaves and soaring orchestral scores quite like the master of women’s pictures, and Written on the Wind (Disc) is a prime example of his iconic style. By the end of this movie, I’m ready to pop the collar on my flannel shirt and find the nearest picturesque pond.

Written on the Wind is a natural fit for Cinema Sips because somebody is holding a cocktail in nearly every scene. Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone play spoiled boozehound siblings, while Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall try to temper the siblings’ wild ways. Rock loves Lauren, Lauren loves Robert, Dorothy loves Rock, Robert loves liquor, and this quadrangle is one delicious Texas soap opera. Rock is maybe the hottest geologist to ever set foot on an oil rig, and it’s easy to see how Dorothy Malone’s character Marylee could self destruct over her unrequited love for him. She has all the best scenes in the movie, leaning over cars and divans with a glass in her hand like the world bores her to death. But it’s all a front: she’s just a lonely girl who wants her brother’s best friend to view her as more than a kid sister. And in Rock’s case, she’ll be waiting forever.

Robert Stack makes his last drunken stand on a pint of corn whiskey, and since I happen to have a jar that’s been waiting for just such a scene, it seems like a good time to use it. Maybe if I drink enough, I won’t shudder at the part where he swings the door wide open on a windy night, allowing ALL THE LEAVES TO BLOW INSIDE. The absolute horror! While watching Written on the Wind, I recommend drinking this Cinnamon Apple Mule.

Cinnamon Apple Mule

1 ½ oz Sugarland Shine Dynamite Cinnamon moonshine

1 oz spiced apple cider

1 oz lime juice

4 oz ginger beer

Dried lime wheel

Build drink over ice, stirring to combine. Garnish with a dried lime wheel.

It wouldn’t be a Douglas Sirk picture without stunning costumes and sets, and Written on the Wind‘s are certainly gorgeous. At one point, Robert Stack flies Lauren Bacall down to Miami on a whim and stocks her hotel room with every gown, evening bag, and cosmetic she could possibly need. I was rooting for her to marry him right then and there, morals be damned, but this classy dame made him wait another twenty-four hours. He may be an alcoholic mess, but the man has good taste. Cheers!

Dramas

The English Patient

LizLocke1 Comment
Image credit: The English Patient, 1996

It may have been a Seinfeld punchline, but after watching all traces of passion slowly fade from movies over the last twenty years, the BIG ROMANCE of The English Patient (Disc/Download) is no laughing matter to me. This is what I want from Hollywood. This is what I’m not getting from Hollywood. Bathtubs and candlelight, frescoes and caves. Enough drama to rival a soap opera.

Directed by Anthony Minghella, this lengthy WWII epic slots nicely into my favorite film genre: “Beautiful People in Beautiful Places”. Ralph Fiennes plays a brooding cartographer exploring the Saharan desert, who meets the great love of his life (Kristin Scott Thomas) while searching for an ancient cave. Unfortunately, she’s already married to Colin Firth, but it doesn’t stop them from starting a torrid affair. Things take a bad turn when war breaks out, and the desert suddenly becomes crowded with Nazis. Without spoiling too much, Fiennes ends up badly burned when his biplane is shot down over the desert, and he spends most of the movie bedridden, scarred, and recounting his tale to a kindhearted French-Canadian nurse (Juliette Binoche). The movie does a great job of balancing flashbacks and present-day, and while it’s too long for my liking at nearly three hours, the individual scenes never drag. These are actors are the top of their game, and Minghella showcases them in stunning light.

Although champagne is on the menu in many scenes, I prefer to mix up something that’s a little more refreshing for those sand-filled days and nights. I found a version of this cocktail in a delightful book gifted to me by Karie Bible of The Hollywood Kitchen (Hollywood Cocktails by Michael O’Mara Books), and it’s a fitting choice when you’re watching a wounded man get strapped to a camel. While watching The English Patient, I recommend drinking a Desert Healer.

Desert Healer

1 oz Dry Gin

1/2 oz Cherry Heering

2 oz Orange Juice

5 oz Ginger Beer

Orange wheel (garnish)

Combine first three ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a tumbler filled with fresh ice. Top with Ginger Beer, and garnish with an orange wheel.

Hollywood lost a tremendous talent when Anthony Minghella passed away in 2008, and I sometimes wonder what kinds of movies he’d be making today, had he lived longer. I assume they’d be wonderful character-driven stories about people in bygone eras, but maybe he’d have found a way to make our current world beautiful too. Like Ralph Fiennes’ character, I yearn for a time when someone’s ability to find passion in the world around them mattered more than their name. Or, how many tickets executives thought they could sell. Cheers!

Children's · Classic Films

The Jungle Book

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Image credit: The Jungle Book, 1967

As I conclude my brief journey through 1967, I want to feature a movie from the 2022 Turner Classic Movies Festival (which I was very pleased to attend for the first time this year!!!), Walt Disney’s animated The Jungle Book (Disc/Download). As often happens in the world of film criticism, we tend to forget about children’s fare, but artistically, this movie takes animation in an exciting new direction. Revolution by dancing animals (and not the live ones that peed all over the Doctor Dolittle sets).

Based on the stories by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book is one of the more visually exciting classic Disney films, similar to The Sword and the Stone with its sketchy style. Although not one of my favorite movies plot-wise, this is still a joy to watch at any age because it’s akin to seeing a painting come to life. And while we now recognize some of the harmful racial coding in several scenes, it still feels like an important transitional film for Disney in many ways. In reality, it would be the final animated film of Walt Disney’s life, the great innovator having died during production. With The Jungle Book, the Disney studio would leave tales of western royals and little-girl fantasies behind, in favor of stories that depicted a wide world of adventure. The romantic in me is glad they returned to their happily-ever-after’s with the movies of the early-1990s, but the curious animal lover in me is pretty excited to see a bear scratch his back with a palm tree. And boy, that Louis Prima track on the soundtrack still slaps.

Although tempted to defer to one of my top-five favorite cocktails (the Jungle Bird) for this movie, I decided to switch it up the flavor with Pimm’s No. 1. Plus, the addition of Ginger Beer gives it a fiery kick, perfect for swingin’ jungle VIPs. While watching The Jungle Book, I recommend drinking this Feathered Friend.

Feathered Friend

1 oz Pimm’s No. 1

1 oz Campari

½ oz Dark Rum

½ oz Lime Juice

½ oz Simple Syrup

1 oz Pineapple Juice

1 fresh strawberry

2 oz Ginger Beer

Muddle strawberry at the bottom of a shaker with lime juice and simple syrup. Add ice, Pimm’s, Campari, Rum, and Pineapple juice, and shake until chilled. Double strain into a glass with fresh ice, and top with Ginger Beer.

Thinking about the year 1967, the main word that comes to mind is change. Yes, the films were all over the place that year, and the studio system was disappearing before our eyes. But in looking at what came after, part of me thinks that this needed to happen, like a slash-and-burn of crops. The stuff that grew before was undeniably beautiful and impressive; however, we didn’t experience the truly wild, interesting flavors until new things emerged from the ashes. Cheers!

Dramas

Dead Poets Society

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: Dead Poets Society, 1989

If nothing else, the horror-show that is 2020 has proven once and for all that teachers are goddamn heroes. Often putting their lives and personal sanity at risk, they’ve had to work three times as hard this year to ensure that kids are not only educated, but comforted during these unprecedented, uncertain times. Even when faced with a laptop screen full of tiny faces, it’s up to them to make every child feel safe, and above all, seen. No movie has communicated the truth of this better than Dead Poet’s Society (Disc/Download).

A perfect pick for Fall viewing, Peter Weir’s film opens on a bucolic New England boarding school just as the leaves are starting to change. The boys who inhabit these drafty buildings want so badly to be men, and it isn’t until they meet their new English professor Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) that they start to learn what that truly means. You see, Mr. Keating doesn’t just teach them poetry. He teaches them to be brave, to inhabit the world with honor, and that feelings and emotions matter. To me, this shows what an important role a great teacher can play in one’s life. At the end of it all, you might not remember what a quadratic equation is, or who wrote the words, “O Captain! My Captain!” but you’re damn sure going to remember the person who encouraged you to be curious about the world, and fearless in the face of adversity.

Because this movie gives me all the cozy New England vibes, I’ll be drinking a nice, warming apple brandy cocktail, perfect for poetry readings in caves. While watching Dead Poet’s Society, I recommend drinking this Captain’s Mule.

Captain’s Mule

1 ½ oz Calvados Apple Brandy

½ oz Lime Juice

3 dashes Angostura Bitters

6 oz Ginger Beer

Dried Apple for garnish

Place first three ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a copper mug filled with fresh ice. Top with ginger beer, and garnish with dried apple.

There have been a lot of great teachers in cinema, but out of all of them, John Keating is the one I most wish I’d had the pleasure of knowing. Someone to tell me that words are important, and to not be so afraid that my thoughts are worthless or embarrassing. If Cinema Sips is my barbaric YAWP!, then let it be heard. Cheers!