Film night

About every month and a half, Ariadne and I attend “film night” at Bernice and Rebecca’s house in the country. Film night always begins with a dinner, often supplemented by food brought in by Ariadne and myself, however it’s become clear that Bernice and Rebecca (Bernice’s daughter) are the stars of this feast, since they seem to have both been blessed with some special gastronomic powers from above, or below — doesn’t matter to me which. Besides, they are willing to do a bit of research to make the food coincide harmoniously with the film(s).

Last night it was Zorba the Greek, the 1964 film directed by Mihalis Kakogiannis, screenplay by Kakogiannis and Nikos (Temptation of Christ) Kazantzakis, and starring Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Pappas and Lila Kedrova.

Despite the “meaty” film (and Kazantzakis’s novel was extremely meaty), our menu was vegetarian, and I didn’t miss the meat at all.

Menu:

Retsina — “Boutari” (Thessaloniki, Greece)
Greek salad with feta cheese
Vegetarian Spanikopita (spinach & feta cheese)
Tzatziki (cucumber-garlic-yogurt dip)
Steamed artichoke
Dolmas, with rice and raisins
Kalamata Olives
Pita bread w/Greek olive oil
Dessert: dried, halved Calimyrna Figs stuffed w/cheese and pine nuts

All of the ingredients were freshly made, and the dolma leaf wrappers were taken from Bernice & Rebecca’s grape vines, each packet wrapped in the leaf and twined with a bit of vine. The spanikopita was luscious, spinach and cheese sandwiched between crisp, flakey homemade filo.

Zorba received mixed reviews. Bernice and I were taken by the black and white Cartier-Bresson-like cinematography and the earthiness of the sharply drawn characters and their various dilemmas. I won’t argue that nostalgia didn’t play a role for us. Rebecca and Joan found the film depressing, and the villagers “evil.” Certainly, women did not fare well in this film (or in the book), to say the least!

I have to admit, though, that Kazantzakis influenced me early. I first read Zorba when I was about 15, and followed that quickly with the Greek Passion, and the Last Temptation of Christ (which I didn’t like much). I learned from Kazantzakis that some peopled lived with books, carried them around like traveling companions and read them over and over. The book was fillled with questions that I’d never before thought to ask myself. These were the first books that I struggled to understand as a teen, and the first books that convinced me that I could think differently about religion, that spirituality was more than just getting one’s First Communion and Confirmation; it had social, and political ramifications. When a friend of mine bought me a little book about Buddhism, as a novelty gift, the only reason it was not entirely unfamiliar to me was because I had read Kazantzakis.

Nevertheless, even now, skimming through my dog-eared 1952 edition of Zorba, I see the limits of Kazantzakis’s gendered philosophical & spiritual explorations – in his smugly sexist apologetics.

We also got to see an excellent film “short,” an excerpt from theanimated film, The Triplets of Belleville, namely the frog-catching/cooking/eating scene. There is a reason why Ariadne screened this for me, but I won’t go into it now. ; )

The second film was The Italian, a Russian film directed by Andrei Kravchuk, starring Kolya Spiridonov playing the 6 year old Russian orphan, on the verge of being adopted by an Italian couple. He decides to look for his mother instead, and embarks upon a journey. Very Dickensian, but somehow the damp, misty Russian landscape made it all the more touching. Terrific acting, especially by the young Spiridonov, whose expressive face can say so much with just a glance. We loved it.