And we made it! Our countdown to the opening of Julie & Julia is complete. What a great week of all Julia Child all the time!
My husband and I just returned from the 7:10 p.m. showing of the film. As his Facebook status confirms, he was one of the only men in the theater under the age of 60. What a trooper!
The movie alternates between telling the story of Julia Child as she undertakes the writing of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and the blogger, Julie Powell, who spends a year trying to conquer it.
Meryl Streep’s interpretation of the jubilant, larger-than-life Julia Child was phenomenal. Streep captures Child’s quirky and sometimes awkward mannerisms and her all-too-famous squawky voice with perfect precision.
The stylists did an impressive job of transforming Streep into the tall, curly-haired brunette. And the costumes! Ah, the costumes! The period-wear in the Child sequences was gorgeous. I found myself drooling over the party-wear in one particular scene when Julia Child’s sister comes to visit. Amy Adams’ wardrobe of flirty vintage finds was also convincing.
As I watched Paul and Julia Child enjoying their years living in Europe it made me remember my own year-long European stint and my subsequent travels around the continent. As Julia walked through the food stalls and markets of Paris, I fondly recalled the faces of my favorite open-air market vendors in Madrid — the kind woman who sold pechuga de pollo and huevos who seemed to take pity on me and my broken Spanish; the older couple who sold vegetables who were always nicer than their rival purveyors one stall over; and the butcher who patiently explained how best to cook whatever cut of beef I had requested that day. Food in Europe — and the experience of buying and cooking it — is incomparable to anything else. Maybe that’s why Julia’s book was so groundbreaking: a cookbook daring to teach Americans to eat, cook, and savor food like the French.
My one disappointment in the film was the Julie Powell storyline. It fell flat for me and at times was little slow. Was I supposed to identify with her? Feel sorry for her? Cheer her on? It was unclear.
Overall, I found the film very enjoyable and a great capstone to this Julia Child Tribute Week! But, thankfully, the tribute doesn’t need to end. There are Child’s cookbooks we can always turn to, as well as her television segments, courtesy of PBS.
Next week we’re back to our regular focus on all things entertaining — weddings, parties, and gracious hosting. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
I am a planner by nature. To plan my schedule daily, weekly, monthly — oh, let’s face it — to plan anything is just in my blood. So today’s post is all about sharing that neurosis and helping readers plan in advance for this weekend’s opening of Julie and Julia!
Here are a few simple steps for planning the perfect movie night:
1) Choose your companions.
Decide who you should take with you to the movie. Julie & Julia is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a chic flick. That said, I think its culinary theme may give it broader appeal to foodies male and female alike. And dare I say, it could be a nice date movie.
Meryl Streep is said to masterfully capture Julia Child’s quirky demeanor; Amy Adams, a bright rising star, is also getting good reviews.
So, you can make it a girls-night-out, a date night, or even a group outing. Just be sure to watch it with someone who has a modicum of interest in food lest you miss out on the pleasures of debriefing about deboning ducks and the proper way to poach eggs.
2) Find a theater.
The location of the theater should be convenient for you and your guests. Check out Fandango for theater times and showings.
3) Figure out where to eat.
Going to a movie about cooking without arranging to partake in some good eats is simply unacceptable! Consider…
having guests over for a Julia Child potluck before the movie, asking each person to bring a course for the meal made from a recipe in one of Child’s cookbooks.
making a full Julia Child menu yourself, should time and resources permit.
letting someone else do the cooking! One fabulous option is the special pre-fixe menu in celebration of Julia Child that Inox in Tysons Corner is offering now through August 31. If you are a city-dweller, yes, it would mean a trip to the suburbs, but trust me, based on my recent dining experiences at Inox, it will be worth it.
4) Celebrate!
After the movie, treat your guests to a special dessert to celebrate Julia Child. You might consider surprising them as you leave the theater with cupcakes or other individual-size treats or, if you want to go all out, go home to enjoy a cake or pastries from Baking with Julia.
For more on how to celebrate Julia Child and the upcoming release of Julie and Julia, check out the first post in the series and stay tuned for more posts throughout the week!
I’ve only read a few biographies in my life. If there was ever an argument to start reading more of them it would have to be An Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child. I read it years ago and it remains one of the most inspiring books in my library. With each page I turned, it was as if Julia was standing in front of me, her tall frame planted firmly and her fists in the air like a boxer after winning a fight, urging me to live life. To drink it up. To make the most of every minute. And above all, to eat and cook well.
An Appetite for Life, available at Amazon.com
Julia Child was a remarkable woman (even if an easy target for shows like Saturday Night Live). Independent. Sharp. Bold. I remember being floored to learn that she once worked for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA.
Perhaps it was Child’s dynamism that led Julie Powell to choose one of her cookbooks for her yearlong cooking-challenge-turned-into-life-lesson adventure, the Julie Julie/Julia Project.
Powell, a young, married, government worker decided one day to cook through Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cookingin one year. As Powell notes in her very first blog entry where she lays down the gauntlet, “365 days. 536 recipes. One girl and a crappy outer borough kitchen.”
Powell later turned the blog into a book. After sharing with him that I might want to read it, my husband included a copy of Julie and Julia in an Amazon order he placed earlier this summer. From the time it came in the mail, I could not put it down. Powell’s writing is good, but the concept behind it all is even better. What would happen if you set out to accomplish a culinary goal of working your way through an entire cookbook? What would you learn along the way (besides how to poach an egg or make aspic)?
The book became a movie which is due out this weekend (August 7). In honor of the movie and Julia Child, whose birthday, August 15, is just around the corner (more on that in future posts….), I am starting a countdown to the movie starting…. now.
There’s a lot we can learn from Julia Child — and a lot, I think, that we can learn from Powell through her culinary adventure. Stay tuned! It’s going to be a great week!
