Meatball And A Movie

Spaghetti and meatballs. Invisible Adversaries, 1977, directed by Valie Export, starring Susanne Widl and Peter Weibel.

Lasagna. Certain Women, 2016, directed by Kelly Reichard, starring Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams, Lily Gladstone, James Le Gros, Jared Harris and René Auberjonois.

Pizza from Lucille, Madison Wisconsin. The Day the Earth Caught Fire, 1961, directed by Val Guest, starring Edward Judd, Leo McKern and Janet Munro.

Spaghetti and meatballs. Bad Day at Black Rock, 1955, directed by John Sturges, starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin.

Lasagna. Rear Window, 1954, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, and Raymond Burr.

Pasta from Osteria Papavero, Madison Wisconsin. Here's how it was described on their menu: House-made cotechino tortelli, rabbit, beef & pork bolognese ragout, grana cheese. Oppenheimer, 2023, directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Spaghetti and meatballs. Beautiful City, 2004, directed by Asghar Farhadi, starring Taraneh Alidoosti, Faramarz Gharibian, Babak Ansari and Hossein Farzi-Zad.

Spaghetti and meatballs. Dancing in the Dust, 2003, directed by Asghar Farhadi, starring Yousef Khodaparast, Faramarz Gharibian and Baran Kosari.

Spaghetti and meatballs. Land of Mine, 2015, directed by Martin Zandvliet, starring Roland Møller and Mikkel Følsgaard.  

Tortelli in a white Bolognese sauce. The Convincer, 2011, directed by Jill Sprecher, starring Alan Arkin, Greg Kinnear, Billy Crudup and Bob Balaban. "The Convincer" received a commercial release as "Thin Ice." The re-editing and re-titling of the film by distributor ATO Pictures and production company Werc Werk Works was controversial, to say the least. Jill Sprecher said she was "heartbroken and devastated." In a note to Roger Ebert, Jill Sprecher said she doesn't even claim “Thin Ice” as her own: "Nearly 20 minutes were cut; the structure rearranged; out-takes used; voiceover and characters dropped ...  Although our names contractually remain on the film, my sister and I do not consider 'Thin Ice' to be our work." The 2012 Blu-ray release of "Thin Ice" included Jill Sprecher's original cut of "The Convincer" in its entirety. I bought that Blu-ray on eBay and I finally had the opportunity to watch the film Ji...

Spaghetti and meatballs. Waiting for the Light to Change, 2023, directed by Linh Tran, starring Qun Chi, Joyce Ha, Jin Park, Sam Straley, and Erik Barrientos.

Pasta Bolognese. Clockwatchers, 1997, directed by Jill Sprecher, starring Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow, and Alanna Ubach.

Spaghetti and meatballs. 13 Conversations About One Thing, 2001, directed by Jill Sprecher, screenplay by Jill Sprecher and Karen Sprecher, starring Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro, Clea DuVall, Alan Arkin and Amy Irving.

Leftover pizza from Zaza's Pizza on North Clark Street, Chicago. Lots of great stories and jokes from Airplane! creator David Zucker at the Madison Public Library this evening. Zucker was promoting and signing his new book, 'Surely, You Can't Be Serious.'

Rigatoni Bolognese Near Dark, 1987, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, starring Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen and Jenette Goldstein.

 Cinghiale from Osteria Papavero, Madison Wisconsin. Gran Turismo, 2023, directed by Neill Blomkamp. This movie tells the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a young guy from Great Britain who was a highly skilled player of the auto racing simulation game, Gran Turismo. Nissan launched a marketing campaign among these sim players to bring one of them into the real world of auto racing. It sounds crazy, but that's what they did. Jann Mardenborough won Nissan's competition among sim players.  Mardenborough acted as a stunt driver in the film . Also, seven special effects companies were involved in production. I don't know where the practical effects ended and the special effects began. But it was effective. It's a good racing movie .

Cinghiale from Osteria Papavero, Madison Wisconsin; egg pappardelle pasta, braised wild boar ragout with red wine, tomato, carrot, and onion. The Old Dark House, 1932, directed by James Whale, starring Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Gloria Stuart, Charles Laughton, Lilian Bond, Ernest Thesiger, Raymond Massey and Eva Moore.

Tortelli stuffed with lamb, served in a Bolognese ragout. The Thing, 1982, directed by John Carpenter, starring Kurt Russell and Wilford Brimley. The film discussion group I belong to rotates picks among members. Maybe this was a spite pick (like Larry David's spite coffee shop).

Potato gnocchi with Tuscan pork rib sauce from Osteria Papavero, Madison Wisconsin. The Godfather, 1972, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, and Diane Keaton. It's a simple story; loyaltys, betrayals, family. Coppola's direction is beautiful. The cinematography is art. I can't think of anything like it back in 1972, when I first saw it at the River Oaks Dimension 150 Theatre, a 70mm equipped movie theater in Chicago's south suburbs.

Norcina from Osteria Papavero, Madison Wisconsin; garlic and rosemary pork sausage served over potato gnocchi with a truffle pecorino sauce. Experiment Perilous, 1944, directed by Jacques Tourneur, starring Hedy Lamarr, George Brent and Paul Lukas.

Braised wild boar served over egg pappardelle pasta from Osteria Papavero, Madison Wisconsin. Asteroid City, 2023, written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson. Starring Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan and Jeff Goldblum. I always enjoy a visit to Wes Anderson's world.

Egg garganelli pasta with venison bolognese ragout from Osteria Papavero, Madison Wisconsin. Silence, 2016, directed by Martin Scorsese, from a screenplay by Jay Cocks and Scorsese, based on the 1966 novel by Shūsaku Endō. The film stars Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Tadanobu Asano, Ciarán Hinds and Liam Neeson.

Pasta with wild mushrooms and ricotta from Osteria Papavero, Madison Wisconsin. Desperately Seeking Susan, 1985, directed by Susan Seidelman, starring Rosanna Arquette, Aidan Quinn and Madonna.

Spaghetti and meatballs. Tove, 2020, directed by Zaida Bergroth from a script by Eeva Putro, starring Alma Pöysti. Green salad with French baguette. Romantics Anonymous, 2010, directed by Jean-Pierre Améris, starring Benoît Poelvoorde and Isabelle Carré.

Pasta with wild mushrooms and ricotta from Osteria Papavero, Madison Wisconsin. Oh, so good. I don't get over to this place nearly enough. The Spanish Prisoner, 1997, written and directed by David Mamet, starring Campbell Scott, Steve Martin, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ben Gazzara, Felicity Huffman and Ricky Jay.

Peak harvest edition. Tomato sandwiches. I had some Italian food lined up, but there was a tomato just begging to be eaten. So I obliged. Laws of Gravity, 1992, written and directed by Nick Gomez, starring Peter Greene.  

Pasta with pesto, chicken and roasted red pepper. The hot, humid, smokey weather finally cleared so I decided to get some pasta at the University of Wisconsin Memorial and eat on the terrace. Beautiful day. The Lost Weekend, 1945, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman.

Pasta with basil pesto. The Day After Trinity, 1980, a documentary film directed and produced by Jon H. Else. It is a compelling, film that shows the origins and progressions of the Manhattan Project, told through interviews with the many great minds that moved to Los Alamos to work on building the first atomic bomb. The interviews are tied together with narration, archival footage and photos - some from family scrapbooks. The timeline takes us through the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the cold war that followed. I believe the documentary successfully told its story. I watched it on Criterion, where a commentary track version is also available. I finished the commentary track version this evening. The director's commentary is included. He discusses some of the nuts and bolts of the filmmaking and the structure of the documentary. Also, anecdotes about the moments of pure luck that took place during production. For instance, he talks about an interview with the man who func...

Chicken and spaghetti. A Sun, 2019, directed by Chung Mong-hong, starring Chen Yi-wen, Samantha Ko, Wu Chien-ho, Greg Hsu, and Liu Kuan-ting. This is the movie that will be discussed at the CineMadison Film Discussion Club meeting, Tuesday evening on the terrace of the UW Memorial Union.

Ravioli. I was going to have a brownie with some coffee during intermission, but I was too full from the ravioli. Maybe next time. Smithereens, 1982, directed by Susan Seidelman, starring Susan Berman, Brad Rijn and Richard Hell. This was Seidelman's first feature film and it was the film she made just before Desperately Seeking Susan.  Listening to an interview with Seidelman offers an exercise in naïveté. She leaves her suburban Philadelphia home to make movies in New York. What do you do after you make your first feature? Oh, there's the Cannes Palme d'Or competition, let's try that... All the things you wouldn't do if you knew better.