Movie calendar (2007)
In 2007, we sponsored movies at the Belmont Public Library on the second
Tuesday of each month. We met at 6:30 pm for coffee, tea and munchies; the movie
started at 7:00 pm.
Dec 11, 2007: Documentary: Super Size Me, directed by Morgan Spurlock
What would happen if you ate nothing but fast food for an entire month? Filmmaker
Morgan Spurlock does just that and embarks on the most perilous journey of his life.
The rules? For 30 days he can't eat or drink anything that isn't on McDonald's menu;
he must wolf three squares a day; he must consume everything on the menu at least
once and super-size his meal if asked. Spurlock treks across the country interviewing
a host of experts on fast food and an equal number of regular folk while chowing
down at the Golden Arches. Spurlock's grueling drive-through diet spirals him into a
physical and emotional metamorphosis that will make you think twice about picking up
another Big Mac. 2004, 96 minutes, rated PG.
Nov 13: Feature Film: Big Night, directed by Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci
Primo and Secondo are two brothers who have emigrated from Italy to open an Italian
restaurant in America. Primo is the irascible and gifted chef, brilliant in his culinary
genius, but determined not to squander his talent on making the routine dishes that
customers expect. Secondo is the smooth front-man, trying to keep the restaurant
financially afloat, despite few patrons other than a starving artist who pays with his
paintings. The owner of the nearby Pascal's restaurant, enormously successful
(despite its mediocre fare), offers a solution - he will call his friend, a big-time jazz
musician, to play a special benefit at their restaurant. Primo begins to prepare his
masterpiece, a feast of a lifetime, for the brothers' big night.
Starring Tony Shaloub and Stanley Tucci. With Marc Anthony, Minnie Driver, Isabella
Rossellini, Campbell Scott. 1996, 109 minutes, rated R.
Oct 9: Documentary: Food for the Ancestors
A culinary/historic exploration of the Mexican celebration, the Days of the Dead (Dias
de los Muertos), Mexican traditions, and ancient ways of life that exist today, seen
through the lens of Mexican cuisine. The film takes place in the state of Puebla,
perhaps considered Mexico’s greatest culinary area, for it was here that mole
poblano, the greatest of all Mexican dishes, was born. It's also where some of the
most ancient pre-Hispanic foods are still eaten, such as the much-beloved
chapulines, or grasshoppers.
A PBS film. 2006, 60 minutes, unrated.
September 11: Four films from the 2006 juried Slow Food on Film Festival
Slow Food is a non-profit set up to counteract fast food and fast life; the
disappearance of local food traditions; and the dwindling interest in the food we eat.
August 14: Babette's Feast (1988) Directed by Gabriel Axel
In Babette's Feast, a woman flees the French civil war and lands in a small seacoast
village in Denmark, where she comes to work for two spinsters, devout daughters of a
puritan minister. After many years, Babette unexpectedly wins a lottery, and decides
to create a real French dinner, which leads the sisters to fear for their souls. Joining
them for the meal will be a Danish general who, as a young soldier, courted one of
the sisters, but she turned him away because of her religion. The village elders all
resolve not to enjoy the meal, but can their moral fiber resist the sensual pleasure of
Babette's cooking? Babette's Feast deservedly won the 1987 Academy Award for Best
Foreign Language Film. This lovely movie is impeccably simple, yet its slender
narrative contains a wealth of humor, melancholy, and hope. 103 mins
July 10: Dinner Rush (2002) Directed by Bob Giraldi
Dinner Rush is gourmet cinema, served with a generous helping of culinary panache.
After countless commercials, music videos (including Michael Jackson's "Beat It"), and
a few obscure features, director and restaurateur Bob Giraldi casts his own New York
eatery as a TriBeCa hot spot where the owner (Danny Aiello) presides over a busy
night of fine dining and mob entanglements. He's been a bookmaker for 25 years but
he's going legit; his son (Edoardo Ballerini) is a nuovo cuisine genius, eager to inherit
the business; the sous-chef (Kirk Acevedo) is deeply in debt to mafia thugs; an art-
dealer snob (Mark Margolis) is antagonizing his waitress (Summer Phoenix); a
charming stranger (John Corbett) harbors a climactic surprise; and a powerful food
critic (Sandra Bernhard) is ready to pounce on any wrong move. In perfect control of
this bustling environment, Giraldi directs like a great chef cooks: with Altmanesque
delicacy, confident that every ingredient is vital to the success of his creation. It's
utterly delicious. 99 mins
June 12: The Future of Food (2004) Directed by Deborah Koons Garcia
The documentary shows a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner
tables of America that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat. This
documentary explores the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically
engineered foods that have quietly filled grocery store shelves for the past decade. It
also examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what
we eat as huge multi-national corporations seek to control the world's food system.
"One of 2005's must-see documentaries" -San Francisco Chronicle. 88 Mins
Thank you to Belmont Public Library for their assistance and in particular Emily
Reardon. Without their help this would not have been possible.
Tuesday of each month. We met at 6:30 pm for coffee, tea and munchies; the movie
started at 7:00 pm.
Dec 11, 2007: Documentary: Super Size Me, directed by Morgan Spurlock
What would happen if you ate nothing but fast food for an entire month? Filmmaker
Morgan Spurlock does just that and embarks on the most perilous journey of his life.
The rules? For 30 days he can't eat or drink anything that isn't on McDonald's menu;
he must wolf three squares a day; he must consume everything on the menu at least
once and super-size his meal if asked. Spurlock treks across the country interviewing
a host of experts on fast food and an equal number of regular folk while chowing
down at the Golden Arches. Spurlock's grueling drive-through diet spirals him into a
physical and emotional metamorphosis that will make you think twice about picking up
another Big Mac. 2004, 96 minutes, rated PG.
Nov 13: Feature Film: Big Night, directed by Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci
Primo and Secondo are two brothers who have emigrated from Italy to open an Italian
restaurant in America. Primo is the irascible and gifted chef, brilliant in his culinary
genius, but determined not to squander his talent on making the routine dishes that
customers expect. Secondo is the smooth front-man, trying to keep the restaurant
financially afloat, despite few patrons other than a starving artist who pays with his
paintings. The owner of the nearby Pascal's restaurant, enormously successful
(despite its mediocre fare), offers a solution - he will call his friend, a big-time jazz
musician, to play a special benefit at their restaurant. Primo begins to prepare his
masterpiece, a feast of a lifetime, for the brothers' big night.
Starring Tony Shaloub and Stanley Tucci. With Marc Anthony, Minnie Driver, Isabella
Rossellini, Campbell Scott. 1996, 109 minutes, rated R.
Oct 9: Documentary: Food for the Ancestors
A culinary/historic exploration of the Mexican celebration, the Days of the Dead (Dias
de los Muertos), Mexican traditions, and ancient ways of life that exist today, seen
through the lens of Mexican cuisine. The film takes place in the state of Puebla,
perhaps considered Mexico’s greatest culinary area, for it was here that mole
poblano, the greatest of all Mexican dishes, was born. It's also where some of the
most ancient pre-Hispanic foods are still eaten, such as the much-beloved
chapulines, or grasshoppers.
A PBS film. 2006, 60 minutes, unrated.
September 11: Four films from the 2006 juried Slow Food on Film Festival
- We Are What We Lost (Mi Smo Ono ëTo Izgubimo) by Srdjan Mitrovic (Serbia):
a moving reconstruction of a specific personal experience to remind us of the
constant interconnection between life, food, and death. - Good Morning (Chayo) by Shinya Okada (Japan): an elegant and mature
interpretation of food as a vehicle of communication for a family-to-be. - Cherry on the Top by Ayesha Sood and Nitya Mehra (India): a robbery in a
cake shop. - The Surprise (Die Überrraschung) by Lancelot von Naso (Germany): romance
goes haywire.
Slow Food is a non-profit set up to counteract fast food and fast life; the
disappearance of local food traditions; and the dwindling interest in the food we eat.
August 14: Babette's Feast (1988) Directed by Gabriel Axel
In Babette's Feast, a woman flees the French civil war and lands in a small seacoast
village in Denmark, where she comes to work for two spinsters, devout daughters of a
puritan minister. After many years, Babette unexpectedly wins a lottery, and decides
to create a real French dinner, which leads the sisters to fear for their souls. Joining
them for the meal will be a Danish general who, as a young soldier, courted one of
the sisters, but she turned him away because of her religion. The village elders all
resolve not to enjoy the meal, but can their moral fiber resist the sensual pleasure of
Babette's cooking? Babette's Feast deservedly won the 1987 Academy Award for Best
Foreign Language Film. This lovely movie is impeccably simple, yet its slender
narrative contains a wealth of humor, melancholy, and hope. 103 mins
July 10: Dinner Rush (2002) Directed by Bob Giraldi
Dinner Rush is gourmet cinema, served with a generous helping of culinary panache.
After countless commercials, music videos (including Michael Jackson's "Beat It"), and
a few obscure features, director and restaurateur Bob Giraldi casts his own New York
eatery as a TriBeCa hot spot where the owner (Danny Aiello) presides over a busy
night of fine dining and mob entanglements. He's been a bookmaker for 25 years but
he's going legit; his son (Edoardo Ballerini) is a nuovo cuisine genius, eager to inherit
the business; the sous-chef (Kirk Acevedo) is deeply in debt to mafia thugs; an art-
dealer snob (Mark Margolis) is antagonizing his waitress (Summer Phoenix); a
charming stranger (John Corbett) harbors a climactic surprise; and a powerful food
critic (Sandra Bernhard) is ready to pounce on any wrong move. In perfect control of
this bustling environment, Giraldi directs like a great chef cooks: with Altmanesque
delicacy, confident that every ingredient is vital to the success of his creation. It's
utterly delicious. 99 mins
June 12: The Future of Food (2004) Directed by Deborah Koons Garcia
The documentary shows a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner
tables of America that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat. This
documentary explores the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically
engineered foods that have quietly filled grocery store shelves for the past decade. It
also examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what
we eat as huge multi-national corporations seek to control the world's food system.
"One of 2005's must-see documentaries" -San Francisco Chronicle. 88 Mins
Thank you to Belmont Public Library for their assistance and in particular Emily
Reardon. Without their help this would not have been possible.
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