Meatball And A Movie

Pasta with basil pesto. Quadrophenia, 1979, directed by Franc Roddam, starring Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting and Ray Winstone.  

Pasta with basil pesto served with slices of August tomato (finally). The Holy Mountain, 1973, directed, written, produced, co-scored, co-edited by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky. 8-13-2025 I usually don't comment on these films, it's just meant to be a list of my Sunday matinees, a tradition of sorts. I'm making an exception in this case. The Holy Mountain was the subject of a recent film discussion. The person who selected the film did so because it was believed there would be a lot to talk about. And there was. There were people who loved it, others not so much. But one participant made a comment at about eighty minutes into the conversation that gave the conversation so much perspective; The Holy Mountain was juxtaposed with Tati's PlayTime. That's why I'm writing this commentary. In discussing The Holy Mountain, conversational participants heralded its artistry, its philosophical, religious and mystical references. Other participants had less to say abou...

Lasagna. The Glass Key, 1942, directed by Stuart Heisler, starring Brian Donlevy, Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd. 

Spaghetti and meatballs. Shadow of the Thin Man, 1941, directed by W. S. Van Dyke, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. This was the fourth installment in the Thin Man series and the creative talents had walked away; Dashiell Hammett wasn't involved. Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, the husband and wife team who wrote the first three Thin Man scripts, refused to write another one. And it shows, not much meat on the bone in this story (that's an Asta pun). Hammett was a good writer. His Continental Op stories are favorites. I would think someone in the film or television industry would pick those up and put them on a screen, big or small. One Continental Op story was the basis for an episode in the Fallen Angels anthology series, Fly Paper in Season Two, Episode Seven. So it can be done. It should be done.

Lasagna. 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. The Phoenician Scheme, 2025, written and directed by Wes Anderson, starring Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton and Michael Cera.  

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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. 

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

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

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

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

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.

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.