| Alistair 2006-06-17, 7:55 am |
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James J. Gavan wrote:
> Depardieu is just the current tip of the iceberg preceded by many
> excellent actors, some of course now dead.
>
> I'm, thinking back to immediate post-war years when there was a vogue of
> revivalism in the French and Italian film industries. You are mostly too
> young to remember, but one great hit in UK was "Rififi" (1955) played
> with sub-titles.
Definitely before my time.
> The robbing of a bank and about 30 minutes showing how
> they were drilling through a bank vault ceiling, capturing the debris in
> an umbrella. Musical score was by Larry Adler on his harmonica.
Now that's music.
>
> Then there's the superb 'two-parter' both starring Yves Montand and
> Depardieu in the first one :-
>
> Jean de Florette (1986)
> Manon of the Spring (Manon des sources) (1988)
Stella Artois ran a promotion: buy three pints and get a DVD film in a
round can shaped like a film spool. Jean de Florette was one of the
give-aways. I got the bar staff to check for people returning their
copies (foreign language films are deemed to be for the intelligentsia
here) but no-one returned any. I can not believe that anybody in
Royston actually watched the film.
[color=darkred]
>
>
> Must admit get pissed off when Americans refer to crepes, as though the
> French invented those too. They are identical to our Shrove Tuesday
> pancakes. And what N. Americans call pancakes, (served up at Stampede
> breakfasts here every July), you would call Scottish griddle cakes.
Crepes we call pancakes. My mother used to cook what we called pancakes
but were Bannocks or drop-scones. Probably the same as the American
pancakes.
>
> Oh for some black pudding to have with eggs, bacon, mushrooms and
> tomatoes on the side. They're not big on the 'innards' on this side of
> the pond using the term 'Variety Meats'. About the only part of innards
> commonly accessible is liver.
Can't you get black pudding in the US/Canada? If you can get the pigs
blood then it should be relatively easy to make your own.
>
> Ahh. There's a problem for the French from a recent newspaper article.
> Seems about a decade or so back, because of Gallic superiority, they had
> a competition in France, tasting of les vins Francaise versus the
> upstart Californian wines. Sacre bleu ! They couldn't believe the
> results. The Yanks won hands down. They had a re-match recently - same
> results.
Wasn't there another competition recently where the Australians beat
the French?
>
> Doesn't matter much to me as my preference is German whites. White wine
> - and I don't give a damn if the meat is red or white !
Good wine to quaff on a hot day, assuming you pay good money and get
the trocken, halb-trocken and other posher German wines. Best wine I
drank was a rich Romanian red. Also the most expensive. You could
barely taste the anti-freeze (sorry that's a slur upon a delightful
wine).
>
> You are weird Alistair. Positively weird :-)
Yeah.
>
> The home of the perfume industry - I hardly think the above hairy image
> applies. And the delectable beauties, the nubile young Brigitte Bardot,
> (age hasn't been graceful to her), Danielle Darrieux, the drop-dead
> gorgeous Cathererine Deneuve, (probably over 60 now, but still looks
> great)
Well over 60 and probably a face worthy of launching a thousand ships
(when younger).
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