Archive for February, 2008

Where do you spend your Oscar night? Me, I make an annual hotel date with a friend (another reviewer on the site) and escape from “real life” to the red carpet for just one night! Prior to the hotel stay, we try and catch up on the Oscar-nominated films as much as possible–dashing off to the movies or stacking up the rentals at the video store. The day of, we usually can squeeze one last film in (”In the Valley of Elah” this year) before the Barbara Walters interviews and Red Carpet. Then it’s time for room service and a wonderful meal in our jammies while the awards begin. I recommend it!

The most striking award for me was “Best Actress” Marion Cotillard for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in “La Vie En Rose.” Watching the clip of the young, beautiful actress being transformed into the singer aged by ill health and hard living was incredible. I hadn’t seen this one but will track it down.

The biggest disappointment for me was Daniel Day Lewis as Best Actor. His performances always strike me as over the top just enough so that you are always aware the character is Daniel Day Lewis being brilliant (plus I found ”There Will Be Blood” deadly long and boring). I’d rather watch Tommy Lee Jones being ever so subtle but ever so real as whichever character he is portraying.

 Any sensual moments here? As I said earlier, this was not the year of sensual films, not at all. Killers, corrupt lawyers, pregnant teenagers? Moments of sensuality perhaps (Michael Clayton and the horses in the mist–love it!) but not a sensual film in the bunch. This is one year I hadn’t seen any of the films up for Best Foreign Film so perhaps there is a sensual film lurking there. Here’s hoping!

The other evening, I attended my first Sensual Film Club night! Five women gathered to share a Swedish meal and watch “Under the Sun” (or “Under Solen” in Swedish). The sensual hostess served a first course of a sampler of cold soups—sour cherry, Danish lemon and blueberry—matched with a white wine. Glass of wine in hand, we five then moved to a cozy livingroom heated by a woodstove and lit with candles to watch our film. After sharing the movie, we moved back to the table to discuss the sensuality of the film and other sensual film favorites over a Swedish meal of meatballs and gravy, lindonberries, potatoes, beet salad and crackle bread. After a luxurious feast, we returned to the livingroom for desert and a warm glass of glogg and more conversation.    

What a warm, intriguing evening! The whole experience reminded me of what a wonderful alternative the Sensual Film Night is to bookclubs. Sensual films stimulate discussion and give women the “club” opportunity to get together and talk, eat and drink. Choosing a book for a club can be an arduous task but simply selecting a film from the Barefoot Aphrodite library of sensual films takes the onus off the selector and everyone can enjoy without the pressure of pleasing the rest of the group. Linking the film to a feast is not necessary but certainly contributes to the sensual experience. A sensual film, women friends, wine and conversation–what a wonderfully sensual combination! Try it and share your experience with us!

I haven’t seen a lot of the films nominated for the Oscars this year but as I look over the list, it doesn’t seem like many would make it into Barefoot Aphrodite’s library of sensual films. Look at the list for Best Picture–oil barons, psychotic killers, pregnant teenagers, lawyers…but then there is “Atonement,” one of the films I have seen. The first half is certainly sensual with elegant surroundings perfectly crafted in every detail and sexual tension stirring passions in the hot, humid air of an English summer. But, as the romance and family ties disintegrate, the film becomes stark and harsh. Even individual sensual characters within a film are hard to find. The only one I can think of is one you will not see on the Oscars list–the African nursing home attendent, Jimmy (played by Gbenga Akinnagbe), in “The Savages” who portions out extra tater tots to the elderly, makes cats purr, charms a lonely stranger into kissing him impulsively and then gently refuses her because he loves his girlfriend. He is wonderful and perfectly believable but characters like him are few and far between this year in film. 

On another note, I dug up a sensual oldie but goodie–”Mostly Martha” (2001), a German film about a fasitdiuos chef who finds the real joy in food and life after unexpectedly inheriting her sister’s child and the introduction of an Italian chef (played by Sergio Castellitto) into her restaurant kitchen. Ah, if only this film had been called “Mostly Mario!” What a charmer who embodies the pleasure that life is when you are truly sensual and find joy in the simplest moments. There are not as many as I would like but the moments of seduction in this film are picture perfect in my book–the beautiful blindfolded taste-testing of soup with Mario is sensational!