Bingeing the Bard
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week, a trio of Shakespeare movies. You didn’t know they had movies back then, did you? A wine pairing will be given for each.
From 1996, we have Looking for Richard. Al Pacino took his first turn as a director for this documentary. He plays himself and Richard III, and does both non-ironically. Filmed portions of Richard III are featured, alongside interviews with others who have thundered Shakespeare’s words as they trod the boards. The Bard’s enduring effect on pop culture is examined here.
A homework assignment: try to work the phrase “hoist on his own petard” into everyday conversation. I know it’s from Hamlet, but it’s the best I can do in the winter of my discontent.
A wine pairing! A wine pairing! My kingdom for a wine pairing! From Othello, we learned that “Good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used.” Mark this: they say that Richard III drank liters of wine every day. They also say he was drowned in a barrel of Malmsey. True or not, here is the pairing. The Rare Wine Company makes a line of Madeira wines which are astoundingly good, if a little pricey. Their New York Malmsey is as good a pairing choice as any with Looking for Richard. $50. Try not to drown in it.
http://www.nowandzin.com/2016/02/from-island-of-madeira.html?m=1
The 1953 epic Julius Caesar gathered a handful of Oscar nominations, but only one win, for Best Art Direction. Marlon Brando was hailed for his role as Marc Antony, largely because he didn’t mumble his lines or stand in the street yelling, “Stellaaaa!” That was, however, a helluva soliloquy.
Those ancient Romans loved their wines, and they were kinda snooty about it. They derided beer as being fit only for those living north of the Alps. I once poked fun at a Westsider by asking how long since he had been east of the 405. “You mean Lincoln!” was his proud reply. Planeta makes a wine even today which pleased Julius Caesar, a Sicilian Nero d’Avola/Nocera blend called Mamertino. It will probably cost you about 30 pieces of silver.
https://planeta.it/en/wine/mamertino/
In the 1935 version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Warner Brothers decided to take on Shakespeare. They did so with a cast including James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, and Olivia de Havilland in her first film. Reviews were mixed and the film cratered at the box office, but as rain wears the marble, so does time soften the critics’ slings and arrows.
The story features fairies, spritely royalty, passion, deception, mistaken identity, a love potion, and a bad play. Were the events of the night real, or were they just a dream? As the Bard said, dreamers often lie, and dreams are not to be trusted. No more than those who create them.
You need not dream of California Dreams Chardonnay. It’s affordable, found on the lowest shelf of the realm. To dream of drinking wine, they say, is to dream of joy and friendship. To dream, perchance, of broken wine bottles foretells excessive passion. Take yours from a vessel unbroken, or a shattered container, as you like it.
Randy Fuller
NowAnd Zin Wine – www.nowandzin.com
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