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Topkapi

Spaghetti and meatballs. Topkapi, 1964, directed by Jules Dassin, starring Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Maximilian Schell, Robert Morley and Akim Tamiroff. Yet another mid twentieth century caper movie. 

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Lasagna. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, 2014, written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, starring Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Mozhan Marnò, Marshall Manesh, and Dominic Rains. 

The Lavender Hill Mob

Spaghetti and meatballs. The Lavender Hill Mob, 1951, written by T. E. B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sid James and Alfie Bass. Another mid twentieth century caper movie. 

How to Steal a Million

Spaghetti and meatballs. How to Steal a Million, 1966, directed by William Wyler, starring Audrey Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith, and Charles Boyer. 

Close-Up

Pasta al Ragù Bolognese Close-Up, 1990, written, directed and edited by Abbas Kiarostami. 

Repo Man

Lasagna. Repo Man, 1984, written and directed by Alex Cox, starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez.

Where the Robots Grow

Lasagna. Where the Robots Grow, 2024, a feature length AI generated animation, directed by Tom Paton, produced by AiMation Studios, voiced by Nicole Bartlett, Taylor Clarke-Hill and Lee Preston.

Starship Troopers and Lynch/Oz

Spaghetti and Italian sausage. Starship Troopers, 1997, directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring, Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Muldoon and Michael Ironside. and Lynch/Oz, 2022, a documentary film directed and written by Alexandre O. Philippe.

Crossfire and Last Scene

Lasagna. Crossfire, 1947, directed by Edward Dmytryk, starring Robert Young, Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan. And a short feature: Last Scene, 2025, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, starring Taiga Nakano, Momoko Fukuchi, Lily Franky, and Daisuke Kurodo.

The Falling Star

Lasagna. The Falling Star, 2023, directed by Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon, starring Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Kaori Ito, Philippe Martz and Bruno Romy.

Monster

Spaghetti with Italian sausage. Monster, 2023, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, starring Sakura Andō, Eita Nagayama, Sōya Kurokawa, Hinata Hiiragi and Yūko Tanaka.

Take Out

Lasagna. Take Out, 2004, written and directed by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou, starring Charles Jang, Jeng-Hua Yu, Wang-Thye Lee and Justin Wan.

The Great McGinty and The Palm Beach Story

Non-wild boar in marinara, served over fusilli pasta. Preston Sturges double feature. The Great McGinty, 1940, written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff, William Demarest and Muriel Angelus. The Palm Beach Story, 1942, written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée.

Saint Omer

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Pasta with olive oil and garlic. Italian sausage. Bread. I put garlic in olive oil and heated the oil till the garlic was slightly browned. I spooned that over the pasta, grated Parmesan Reggiano on top and sprinkled with Chile Caribe. Sausage and bread. The sweet Italian sausage was from Willow Creek Farms in Prairie Du Sac, Wisconsin. The Chile Caribe was from Clarabelle and Salomon in Tieras, New Mexico. The bread was from Batch Bakehouse in Madison Wisconsin.   Saint Omer, 2022, written and directed by Alice Diop, and starring Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanda.

Juror #2

Spaghetti and meatballs. Juror #2, 2024, directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J. K. Simmons and Kiefer Sutherland.

Wanda

Lasagna. Wanda, 1970, written and directed by Barbara Loden, starring Barbara Loden and Michael Higgins. Also viewed: I am Wanda, 1980, a documentary directed by Katja Raganelli.

The Green Ray

Lasagna. The Green Ray, 1986, written and directed by Éric Rohmer, starring Marie Rivière, Vincent Gauthier, Rosette, Carita, Béatrice Romand and Lisa Hérédia.

Dinner in America

Lasagna. Dinner in America, 2020, written, directed, and edited by Adam Carter Rehmeier, starring Kyle Gallner, Emily Skeggs, Griffin Gluck, Pat Healy, Mary Lynn Rajskub, David Yow, Hannah Marks, Nick Chinlund, and Lea Thompson. 

The Trial

Lasagna. The Trial, 1962, written and directed by Orson Welles, starring Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Elsa Martinelli and Orson Welles.

The Store

Lasagna. The Store, 1983, a documentary film about the main Neiman-Marcus store and corporate headquarters in Dallas, directed by Frederick Wiseman.

The Pigeon Tunnel

Spaghetti with Italian sausage. The Pigeon Tunnel, a 2023 documentary film about the life and career of John le Carré, directed by Errol Morris.

The General

Lasagna. The General, 1926, directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, starring Buster Keaton.

The 50 Year Argument

Spaghetti and Italian sausage. The 50 Year Argument, 2014, a documentary film by Martin Scorsese and co-directed by David Tedeschi about the history and influence of the New York Review of Books. After a long search I finally found a copy of this film. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

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Spaghetti and meatballs. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000, directed by Ang Lee, starring Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen. This is the first time I've watched it since Donna and I saw it at Pipers Alley Theatre on March 23, 2001. Powerful fight scenes, particularly the ones with Michelle Yeoh. And the fight in the canopy of the bamboo forest quite fanciful.

It's a Gift

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."

Brick

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

Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold

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

High Hopes

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

Anora

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.

Double Feature: Hell's Heroes and 3 Godfathers

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.