Tag: Prosecco

Dramas

Don’t Look Now

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Image credit: Don’t Look Now, 1973

I thought I was through with being scared by Nicolas Roeg after watching Anjelica Huston peel her face off in The Witches, but it turns out, there was one more bit of nightmare fodder waiting for me. Don’t Look Now (Disc/Download) is a gorgeous, moody thriller based on the story by Daphne du Maurier, and perfect for those times when you want a dash of sexy sophistication with your horror.

Although I love the Venice of David Lean’s Summertime, Roeg’s Venice in Don’t Look Now feels much more authentic to the Venice I’ve personally encountered. This is a decaying city, full of narrow dark alleys, crumbling mosaics, and murky water. It’s also the perfect place to stage a horror film because one never knows what’s hiding in the shadows, or what you’ll find around the next corner. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are fantastic together, playing a married couple still grieving the death of their young daughter, living in Venice while Sutherland works to restore a church. During a lunch break, they encounter a blind clairvoyant who informs them their dead daughter’s spirit is still with them. Also… danger is imminent. Roeg plays with time in a really interesting way, flashing backwards and forwards to knock the viewer off balance. You aren’t really sure where you are until the thrilling climax makes everything clear. In one second, this ghost story becomes something much more sinister.

Don’t Look Now is filled with flashes of red, usually in the form of a little girl’s raincoat. Let’s make an appropriately macabre Italian cocktail with a splash of Campari and a few grapefruit bitters. While watching Don’t Look Now, I recommend drinking this Death in Venice cocktail.

Death in Venice

½ oz Campari

3-4 dashes Grapefruit Bitters

5 oz Prosecco

Pour Campari and grapefruit bitters into a chilled flute and top with Prosecco.

This film caused a lot of controversy at the time of its release because of its very “aerobic” sex scene, a scene I actually thought was well-constructed. Roeg cuts back and forth from wild passion to the mundane task of getting dressed for a night on the town, from biting and clawing to putting on socks. This scene represents a lot of what I like about this movie—it mixes the terror of death with the everyday business of living. Maybe that makes it even scarier, for that flash of red can appear on even the most ordinary of days. Cheers!

Dramas

A Room With a View

LizLocke3 Comments
Image credit: A Room With a View, 1985

Spring has sprung, my orchid is blooming, and you know what that means—it’s time to watch a gorgeous movie about travel. I get the itch to watch beautiful people gallivant through Europe around the same time every year, and while this normally takes the form of yet another Talented Mr. Ripley viewing, this week I decided to abandon Mongibello to venture up the coast and inland to Firenze. A Room With a View (Disc/Download) is a Merchant Ivory masterpiece that will have you longing for sun-soaked days staring at the Duomo and passionate kisses among the flowers.

Like Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch, I was nineteen the summer I lived in Florence, Italy. I still remember laying on my lumpy twin bed in a tiny, rented flat, reading E.M. Forster’s classic novel, swatting mosquitos and waiting for my George to appear. My view was not of the Arno, but of terracotta rooftops and other peoples’ laundry. Still, at the time it felt romantic.  The thing I loved about the book then, and still love about the movie now, is how it portrays the emotions of frustration, desire, and indecision. Lucy wants to rebel against the life prescribed for her, but she doesn’t have the faintest idea how to do that, or what she wants as an alternative. Then somebody comes along to shake things up, providing the catalyst for the fire inside her. I love angsty stories about women in their late-teens/early-twenties because it’s such a fraught but important time. This is when the big decisions get made, when the forks in the road appear. I love the direction this story eventually takes because although Lucy does choose one of her suitors, she chooses herself first. Isn’t that how every great love story should begin?

If you’re looking for a cinema vacation, this film provides a perfect one. From crowded Florentine squares, to the rolling hills of Fiesole, to the bucolic villages of England, this whole movie is a sun-dappled work of art. However, my favorite scenes are the ones set in Florence, which is why I’m pouring a refreshing spritz cocktail, perfect for sipping on a balcony of the Pensione Bertolini. While watching A Room With a View, I recommend drinking this Elderflower Spritz.

Elderflower Spritz

½ oz St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur

Fresh Mint

4 oz Prosecco

2 oz Club Soda

Muddle mint with St. Germain in the bottom of a glass. Let it sit for a few minutes, then add ice. Top with Prosecco and club soda, stirring gently to combine.

Speaking of elder, Maggie Smith does a terrific job in this as Lucy’s spinster-cousin and chaperone Charlotte, and I adore Judi Dench as the saucy romance novelist they meet in Italy. A Room With a View is a movie world to get lost in, and that feels pretty good right now. Summer, and all its adventures, will be here before we know it. Cheers!

Classic Films

Roman Holiday

LizLocke2 Comments

Image credit Paramount Pictures, 1953, Roman Holiday
Image credit Paramount Pictures, 1953, Roman Holiday

For those lucky enough to be on spring break this week, I have one thing to say- I’m jealous! Although I do not have the week off, I am choosing to live vicariously through Audrey Hepburn by watching the movie Roman Holiday (DVD/Download). For anybody that wishes they had just one day off to do whatever they want, this is your movie.

Roman Holiday stars Gregory Peck as reporter Joe Bradley, who stumbles upon Princess Ann (played by Audrey Hepburn) after her escape from a rigid palace life. Upon meeting her, he thinks she’s just a drunk on the streets of Rome, but chivalrous, upstanding man that he is (this is Gregory Peck after all), he takes her back to his apartment and lets her sleep on his couch. The next day, he discovers her true identity, but in order to get a juicy newspaper scoop, he pretends he doesn’t know the truth. He and his photographer friend (played wonderfully by Eddie Albert) spend the day taking the Princess around Rome. They ride a Vespa, drink champagne and espresso, eat gelato on the Spanish Steps, and stick their hands in the Mouth of Truth. Watching the princess and Joe fall in love with each other and with Rome is pure fun, and Audrey Hepburn is absolutely radiant in her Oscar-winning role.

After Princess Ann is given some sleeping medication, she sneaks out of the palace by hopping in a Cinzano truck. Of course I have to use this brand of vermouth in my drink, along with Princess Ann’s favorite beverage- champagne (or Prosecco in this case). I plan to sip this drink and pretend I’m sitting at a sidewalk café in Rome, smoking a cigarette and genuinely enjoying life (I don’t really smoke, but she makes even this look adorable). While watching Roman Holiday, I recommend drinking a Sant’Angelo Sunset.

Sant’Angelo Sunset

½ cup blackberries

3 oz Cinzano sweet red vermouth

1 tablespoons sugar

6 oz Prosecco

Stir together blackberries, vermouth, and sugar. Let stand 1 hour until juices are released and sugar dissolves.

Spoon 2 tbsp. blackberry juice and 2-3 blackberries into a champagne flute or coupe. Top with Prosecco.

sant angelo sunset

This drink gets its name from the wonderful scene in the film where Audrey Hepburn visits a barge party along the banks of the Castel Sant’Angelo. I was lucky enough to walk these same banks on my honeymoon to Rome, and stumbled on an old film poster for Roman Holiday from a street vendor. Of course I had to buy it. This movie brings back memories of sweet gelato, soaking in the sun on the Spanish Steps, quietly traversing the Colesseum, and listening to the lovely sounds of the Italian language. Like Princess Ann, I will cherish my visit in memory as long as I live. Cheers!