TV Bites: My Man Godfrey

THE SNACK:
William Powell's Vatrouskis (Vatrushki)


A version of this post appears at the Criterion Collection website

The first thing I want to mention is that this post marks the 2nd Anniversary of this adventure. I've been writing and teaching classes now two years as Chef du Cinema. Unbelievable. All I can say is that I've been really enjoying myself doing this and I hope you have enjoyed at least some of it and, hopefully, you've discovered some new movies, and have made some good food from the recipes you've found here. So thanks for dropping by. (Feel free to drop me a line and tell me about it.)

Let's get to it, then.... Why, you ask, have I paired this film and His Girl Friday back to back? Well, they are both screwball comedies and both have three words in the title.

Okay, that's weak.

Let's try this instead.... This film never grows old for me. I fall in love with it again every time I see it. It's everything I love about movies. And like His Girl Friday, I would definitely say the two of them are on my top 10 list of favorite movies and have been for decades. Unequivocally.

But, as always, there are other connections. Morrie Ryskind, who wrote the script for My Man Godfrey, was brought in to polish His Girl Friday. And there's more.... See, Howard Hawks really wanted to give the role of Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday to his second cousin but she turned him down. Yup. his second cousin (again, as mentioned in the previous post) - was Carole Lombard.

TV Bites: Blood Simple

THE SNACK:
Sugar Snap Pea and Cheese Curd Salad



If it wasn't so damn hot outside, I'd still be heating up as I've been in computer hell the last few weeks now, since returning from Montreal. My computer overheated in my bag because it didn't shut down all the way when I rushed to put it away before landing as the airplane steward was tapping his foot and standing over me. Say la vee, as they'd say up there in Quebec. Then I thought it had come with an extended warranty, which it didn't, so I sent it in anyways to Sony, but they wanted more to fix it than I could buy a refurbished model with a 3-year warranty, so I had them send it back. Ah, the disposable society we live in. Meanwhile, I bought a little Acer netbook that was on sale at Target, which worked for four days - just enough time to get it working right and loaded with software - for the hard drive to get burned. And of course, because of the sale, they're all out of replacement units, so I had to wait another day for a delivery to get that replaced. So, I've been working as much as I can on an old desktop but I'm taking it all in stride, mostly because it's too damn hot to go outside anyways, so dealing with all this has at least kept me physically cool, which helps to keep me mentally cool.

TV Bites: Paris, Texas

THE SNACK:
Chile avec Fromage (Chile con Queso)



A shorter version of this post was originally published on the Criterion Collection website.

In April, a new arthouse theater opened here in Austin, the Violet Crown Cinema. (Our city has several pet names and one of them is the “City of the Violet Crown.” Why it’s called that has been completely lost to history.) Local film director and cinephile Richard Linklater pick eight films from the Criterion Collection as a test run of their facility (and as a benefit for the Austin Film Society). Of the films he chose, the one I was most attracted to seeing was Paris, Texas. First, I couldn’t remember the last time I saw the film but always remembered how much I liked it; and second, I needed to pick something for my post here and was hoping to be inspired by something in the film. And I was.

TV Bites: Slacker

THE SNACK:
Les Amis Cafe Black Beans & Brown Rice



Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of its screening at the Sundance Film Festival this week is Slacker where it will be shown again in tribute. So it's time for it to be served up in TV Bites... and to rant about my current hometown a bit.

TV Bites: Get Shorty

THE SNACK:
Jalapeño Jack Cheese Omelette w/"Slightly-Browned" Shallots



Well I made it through the upper respiratory infection and watched a really great documentary on Robert & Richard Sherman that's streamable on Netflix. It's making me think about wanting to do Mary Poppins here.

Meanwhile, since I figured I already referenced Get Shorty in the recent post on Rio Bravo (and to tie it all together, Elmore Leonard wrote the script for High Noon II!), why not just do it as the next TV Bites. So here we are.

TV Bites: Rio Bravo

THE SNACK:
Green Chile Mac & Cheese



I've been aching to feature a Western and there are so many to choose from that I love, but I decided to start with this one first. It has been so influential for decades (see below) and is often considered to be amongst one of the most entertaining films ever made. Some may argue it's not even a true Western, but a Western-Comedy. If you've never seen it, go to it immediately.

TV Bites: Shoot the Piano Player (Tirez sur le pianiste)

THE SNACK:
Un Sandwich de Poulet, Pomme et Brie
(Roast Chicken, Apple & Brie Sandwich)



It's TV Bites time and this time around I'm doing two French movies back to back. But not just two movies directed by two great French directors. Both movies, 21 years apart, were adapted from pulp novels written by American authors. Both movies' locations are transposed to different locations. Both to different eras than when they were written. Both are done with a jazz score. Both are available in Criterion DVD editions. And both movies, I love dearly. Oh yeah, and both movies are rarely, if ever, broadcast on any American cable channel. Any guesses on the 2nd?