Snow, Movies, and One Really Good Book

Park City, Utah

The magical setting for the Sundance Film Festival

This past weekend my dream of visiting a winter wonderland (read here) came true.  We spent a long weekend staying with friends in Deer Valley, Utah and were able to see five of the films that were shown at the Sundance Film Festival. Snow, movies, a magical setting, and one great book.  It was the perfect winter weekend.  

The Movies --

Ashton Kutcher in "Jobs," a biopic about Steve Jobs

The stars Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad and the director Joshua Michael Stern (center)

"Before Midnight" with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

The third movie in Richard Linklater's trilogy

All of the films we saw were enjoyable; these were my favorites:

"Jobs" -- Ashton Kutcher gives an excellent performance as Steve Jobs.  The film take us back to the beginning of Jobs' career when he was a student at Reed College.  The time period of the seventies and eighties is vividly brought to life through sets, costumes, and some really great music.  We watch Steve Jobs as he goes from a young man who dropped out of college and created Apple computers in his parents' garage to the moment in his career when he is about to release the IPhone.  It is a fascinating story and a terrific film. 

"Before Midnight" --  This is the third film in the trilogy directed by Richard Linklater.  It continues the love story between two characters, an American man Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and a French woman Celine (Julie Delpy).  The characters initially met on a train bound for Vienna in the 1995 film "Before Sunrise." They are reunited nine years later in the 2004 film "Before Sunset."  In "Before Midnight"  the characters are married, have children and are vacationing in Greece. They are in their forties, still in love, but dealing with the complications of their lives.  The witty and smart banter is one of the joys of the movie.  If you like great writing and dialogue, you will love this film.

We also saw and enjoyed "Don Jon's Addiction," "Afternoon Delight," and "The Way, Way Back."

The Setting -- 

 Beautiful Deer Valley
I loved having dinner one night at the Stein Erikson Lodge

The Snow --

There was plenty!
Here are skiers enjoying the snow as seen from our window in the morning

The snow continued to fall all weekend

The Book --

With all that snow, there were delays getting out of Salt Lake City.  Fortunately, I had a really good book to help me get through the long hours of waiting.  The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman fit the bill perfectly.  It follows the private lives of the reporters and editors who work for an English-language newspaper in Rome.  From the moment I began reading it, I was enchanted.  This novel is funny and poignant and includes a cast of characters that you will never forget.  Each chapter is about a particular journalist at the paper, from the editor in chief to the copy editor.  Although each chapter could stand on its own as a great short story, they are all connected and add up to a vivid portrait of this eccentric and nostalgic world, that of the newsroom.   This book is so good that it has me wondering, will someone turn it into a film?

I hope you have a chance to see these films -- they were all purchased and should be released in 2013  -- and to read this enchanting book by Tom Rachman.

Photo one via here, photo two via here, photo three via here, photo four via here, photo five via here 

November Afternoons

"Everything in the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary."

-- Aaron Rose, film director

I have always loved the lighting at this time of year.  Late November afternoons grow dark around 5:00 pm and the evenings come upon us very fast.  We are turning on lamps and lighting candles and the glow of evening suffuses our house.  There is something thrilling about this time of the day.  It often sends us searching the bookshelves for a new book to read or perusing our cookbooks for a new recipe to cook.  The fireplace is lit and the house feels like a haven. There is an excitement in the air for fall and winter activities.  Suddenly there are excellent movies to see, great ideas for themed dinner parties, engrossing books to read by the fire, and of course the anticipation of the holidays.

 Many writers have described this time of the day and rooms that are illuminated by soft lighting, candles and fireplaces --

"...a table gleaming with the light of candles, the whiteness of napery, the silver of the samovar and the tea service of transparent porcelain." --  Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

The glow of a candlelit dinner
photo via here

"She had forgotten the heavy smoothness with which armchairs ran over the parquet, the sudden muting of steps as one crossed a rug.  The mirrors were bright with reflections of grey-green gardens...Firelight fingered the cups on the tray between the armchairs; arched deep recesses were dark with books...the long pale-green curtains hung from their pelmets like pillars, placidly fluted."

--  Elizabeth Bowen, To the North

The atmosphere of a softly lit library
via here

"The afternoon had faded but the lamps had been brought in, the smell of flowers was in the air and the old house of Plash seemed to recognize the hour that suited it best.  The quiet old lady in the firelight, encompassed with the symbolic security of chintz and water-colour, gave her a sudden vision of how blessed it would be to jump all the middle dangers of life and have arrived at the end, safely, sensibly, with a cap and gloves and consideration and memories."

-- Henry James, A London Life

The warmth of a fire burning in the fireplace
Photo via here


"We will each write a ghost story."
--- Lord Byron

 The soft illumination of two lamps in an entryway, implying mystery around the corner
I can imagine Byron and his friends gathering here for their ghost stories
Photo via here

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Speaking of gorgeous lighting and atmosphere, the new film adaptation of Anna Karenina has both.  It opened this weekend. Have you seen it?  It is a beautiful film with great acting, magical lighting and exquisite costumes.  It takes you away to another time and place, imperial Russia of the 1870s, and puts you directly into the love affair between Anna Karenina and Count Vronsky and the drama and tragedy that follow.   I felt transported, as if I had fallen into Tolstoy's great novel.  It was a  perfect outing for a November afternoon.

Photo via here

Now that November afternoons are rapidly turning into dark evenings, how do you spend your time?  Movies, cooking, knitting, good books, holiday planning?  I'd love to hear what you are up to on these cozy nights during late November. 

Jane Eyre: The Movie

Last week I saw the new movie "Jane Eyre" and I was totally enraptured by this new version of one of the  most beautiful and famous books in the English language.  Is there any other book that most of us know practically by heart and as we are watching the movie can predict exactly what will happen next?  I never get tired of anticipating the moment that Jane meets Mr. Rochester for the first time, or the moment that she saves his life after his bed has been set on fire, or the dramatic wedding scene in the church. And the heartbreaking scenes from Jane's childhood, when she is sent to Lowood school and is forced to stand on the chair all day, or goes to sleep clutching the hand of her only friend Helen Burns.  These are iconic images that stay in our minds.

 Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre

Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester

Jamie Bell as St. John Rivers

Judi Dench as Mrs. Fairfax

The film is beautifully directed and the acting is fabulous, with Mia Wasikowska as Jane, Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester,  Jamie Bell as St. John Rivers and Judi Dench as Mrs. Fairfax.  The setting of the book and the film, the wild Yorkshire moors in England, is almost as important as any other aspect of this film.  The filmmakers got it right, and rendered it beautifully, enhancing the passion and the loneliness of the story and that of the hero and heroine.  There is a fierceness and a passion in "Jane Eyre."  The wildness of the Yorkshire moors lives on every page of this book.  This new film version of Charlotte Bronte's masterpiece beautifully captures that fierceness and passion, of both the land and the characters.