Meatball And A Movie

Lasagna. It's a Gift, 1934, directed by Norman McLeod, starring W.C. Fields. "Capital 'L' small 'a' ..." The feature film was preceded by a short subject: Three Little Twirps, 1943, directed by Harry Edwards, starring The Three Stooges. "Beat it grandpa, we got no time for kibitzers."

Spaghetti and Italian sausage. Brick, 2005, directed by Rian Johnson, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Spaghetti and meatballs. Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, 2017, directed by Griffin Dunne.

Lasagna. High Hopes, 1988, directed by Mike Leigh, starring Philip Davis, Ruth Sheen and Edna Dore.  

Spaghetti and meatballs. Anora, 2024, written, directed, and edited by Sean Baker, starring Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, and Aleksei Serebryakov.

Spaghetti and meatballs. Hell's Heroes, 1929, directed by William Wyler, starring Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, and Fred Kohler. 3 Godfathers, 1948, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz and Harry Carey Jr. Both films are based on the 1913 novelette The Three Godfathers by Peter B. Kyne.

Spaghetti and Italian sausage (leftovers from last Sunday, still very good). Play It as It Lays, 1972, directed by Frank Perry from a screenplay by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, based on the 1970 novel of the same name by Didion. The film stars Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins.

Spaghetti with Italian sausage. Two-Lane Blacktop, 1971, directed by Monte Hellman, starring James Taylor, Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird. I first saw Two-Lane Blacktop during its initial theatrical run in 1971. I was wandering around the Georgetown neighborhood in Washington D.C. when I walked by an arthouse cinema - though I didn't know what 'arthouse cinema' was. I was 16 years old and had been brought up on Hollywood movies. The title, 'Two-Lane Blacktop," seemed to point toward a car chase movie, just the thing for me. This movie had that feature, but was completely different than the Hollywood-car-chase genre - in a good way. Two-Lane Blacktop introduced me to independent films. And it has remained one of my favorites for over a half century.

Pasta with pesto and chicken. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 2010, directed by Edgar Wright, starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. A rock-and-roll-chop-socky-video-game romantic action comedy. With some great lines, it started out better than it finished.

Lasagna. Double Feature She's Gotta Have It, 1986, directed by Spike Lee, starring Tracy Camilla Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell and Spike Lee. Same Time, Next Year, 1978, directed by Robert Mulligan, screenplay by Bernard Slade, starring Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn.

Lasagna. Encounters of the Spooky Kind, 1980, written and directed by Sammo Hung, starring Sammo Hung, Paul Chung Fat, Wu Ma and Yuen Biao. Criterion notes, "The film that launched the hopping-vampire craze that would proliferate throughout the 1980s."

Lasagna. Perfect Days, 2023, directed by Wim Wenders from a script written by Wenders and Takuma Takasaki, starring Kōji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto, Arisa Nakano, Aoi Yamada, Yumi Asō, Sayuri Ishikawa, Tomokazu Miura and Min Tanaka.

Lasagna. Woman of the Hour, 2023, directed by Anna Kendrick, starring Anna Kendrick, Sheryl Bradshaw, Daniel Zovatto, Nicolette Robinson and Tony Hale. meatballandamovie.blogspot.com

Ravioli. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, 1986, directed and co-written by John McNaughton, starring Michael Rooker, Tom Towles, and Tracy Arnold.

The Best Man, 1964, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, screenplay by Gore Vidal based on his 1960 play of the same title. Starring Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Lee Tracy, Edie Adams, Margaret Leighton, Ann Sothern, Shelley Berman, Gene Raymond and Kevin McCarthy.  A great story by Gore Vidal is brought to life by the cast's excellent performances. So many favorite actors from that era, including Shelley Berman who performed a spot-on character role.

Lasagna. Birds of Passage, 2018, directed by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, starring Carmiña Martínez, José Acosta, Natalia Reyes, Jhon Narváez, Greider Meza. Jose Vicente Cotes and Juan Bautista. Also, a short subject: Punch Drunks, 1934, directed by Lou Breslow, starring The Three Stooges. In 2002 Punch Drunks became the first and only Stooge film to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". And it's a lot of fun to watch.

Cavatappi pasta with Alfredo sauce, braised beef and mushrooms. Who comes up with these pasta specials? The Last Rites of Joe May, 2011, written and directed by Joe Maggio, starring Dennis Farina, Jamie Anne Allman, Ian Barford, Meredith Droeger, Chelcie Ross and Gary Cole. I wanted to watch a Dennis Farina movie. This came up in my search. I had never heard of it. Not completely successful, but it was great to watch Dennis Farina performing his role on location in Chicago, his hometown.

Lasagna. Klute, 1971, directed by Alan J. Pakula, starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, Nathan George, Dorothy Tristan, Roy Scheider, and Rita Gam.

Spaghetti and braised beef. The Science of Sleep, 2006, written and directed by Michel Gondry, starring Gael García Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Miou-Miou and Alain Chabat.

Macaroni and cheese with sliced tomatoes. Peach pie and coffee. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 2004, written by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, directed by Wes Anderson, starring Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Michael Gambon, Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston, and Bud Cort.  

Spaghetti and meatballs. Some Like It Hot, 1959, directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

Chicken Parmesan. Babette's Feast, 1987, directed by Gabriel Axel, starring Stéphane Audran, Birgitte Federspiel, and Bodil Kjer.

Spaghetti and meatballs. Sullivan's Travels, 1941, written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake.

Spaghetti and meatballs. Double feature: Night Moves, 1975, directed by Arthur Penn, starring Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Susan Clark, Melanie Griffith and James Woods.   The Last Seduction, 1994, directed by John Dahl, starring Linda Fiorentino, Peter Berg, and Bill Pullman.   Triple feature: His Kind of Woman, directed by John Farrow - or maybe Richard Fleischer, possibly Howard Hughes, starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Vincent Price, Jim Backus and Raymond Burr. Price played one entire scene holding a raw duck. Raymond Burr played an Italian mobster. Howard Hughes insisted on rewrites which led to reshoots and extended production time past one year. Price threw a party on the one year anniversary. Mitchum was said to be so fed up that, during the penultimate fight scene, he really punched the stuntmen. They don't make pictures like that anymore.

Lasagna. The Vast of Night, 2019, directed by Andrew Patterson, starring Sierra McCormick and Jake Horowitz.

Chicken and spaghetti. The Girl on the Bridge, 1999, directed by Patrice Leconte, starring Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paradis.

Spaghetti and meatballs. Blade Runner, 1982, directed by Ridley Scott, screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos.

Spaghetti and Meatballs from Strada. The China Syndrome, 1979, directed by James Bridges, starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas. And Wilford Brimley.

Spaghetti and meatballs. The Maltese Falcon, 1941, directed by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet and Elisha Cook Jr. Special aftershow performance by the Mad City Ski Team.  

Lasagna. Whiplash, 2014, directed by Damien Chazelle, starring Miles Teller, J. K. Simmons, Paul Reiser, and Melissa Benoist.