With Thanksgiving looming on the horizon, my head has been filled with visions of food...and film.
Last weekend, M.F.K. Fisher’s “strengthening prescription” from her book, Alphabet for Gourmets, found its way into my thoughts. Fisher, considered the doyenne of American culinary writers during her lifetime, was also a screenwriter for Paramount Pictures in 1942, and this seemed to me to add to the rightness of pairing her simple menu (from the chapter "M is for Monastic") with a movie.
Her "Monastic Supper" was designed with the person alone in mind. I began to think of films one might watch alone and, even better, movies about loners. Of course, film noir fills that bill. Something like Jules Dassin’s Night and the City (1950), with Richard Widmark scheming his way from small-time to big-time hood…or Robert Siodmak’s The Killers (1946), with Burt Lancaster as the anguished victim of Ava Gardner’s dazzling charms…
And yet, considering the actual fare (adapted by me) -
One small loaf of crusty sourdough or French bread
One chunk of Gorgonzola or Bleu Cheese
One bottle of Chianti or (my suggestion) Zinfandel or its alter-ego, Primitivo
- I couldn’t help but think of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and that famous phrase, “a jug of wine, a loaf of bread – and thou.” Clearly M.FK. Fisher’s “Monastic Supper” could also be applied to on and off-screen togetherness.
I could go on, but will save more for another day...meanwhile, I'm open to suggestions.
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