Carol’s Comments June 2025
Hello Everyone! Welcome to another new issue of Carol’s Comments. My blog has reached a milestone this year. This issue will be its 50th posting. To celebrate, I've decided to write a film and literary tribute to three of my favorite authors, actors and literary characters, specifically Stanley Tucci, Dame Maggie Smith and Cassandra Austen, Jane Austen’s older sister.
I adore Stanley Tucci’s movies, especially the lighthearted ones like The Devil Wears Prada and Julie and Julia. My most favorite is the 1996 independent film Big Night. Co-produced, directed and written by Tucci, he also co-stars with Tony Shalhoub as Italian brothers Secondo and Primo who own a small struggling restaurant in 1950s New Jersey. Facing bankruptcy and imminent closure, the brothers hope a special dinner for singer Louis Prima will save their business. Unfortunately, the singer never arrives. Fortunately for the viewer, what makes this fun movie memorable is the special multi-course traditional Italian feast the brothers for their friends. Also starring Allison Janney, Minnie Driver and Isabella Rossellini as Tucci’s and Shalhoub’s girlfriends and love interests, Big Night ranks as one of the best food -oriented films of all time. I highly recommend it.
After watching CNN’s 2021 documentary travelogue series Stanley Tucci; Searching For Italy for the third time with a Max trial subscription on Amazon Prime last winter, I realized I had never read Taste, Tucci’s bestselling memoir also published in 2021.
Subtitled My Life Through Food, Tucci’s engaging and detailed memoir extensively chronicles how food and cooking played a pivotal role in his life from childhood to the present day.
The book contains many scrumptious recipes especially those lovingly prepared by his mother in the family’s Westchester. New York home. For instance, the recipes range from simple dishes like Pasta Aglio e Olio (Pasta with Garlic Oil) to more elaborate fare like Timpano only served at Christmas and also prominently featured in the movie Big Night. These recipes and many more are scattered each chapter for the reader to savor and make for themselves.
More importantly, Tucci’s memoir vividly recounts his successful battle with oral cancer which could have robbed him not only of his life but his sense of taste and smell forever. I highly recommend this clever and poignant book to food enthusiasts and movie lovers alike. Bon Appetit!
Late last fall while browsing through The New York Times Book Review, I spotted a positive review announcing that Stanley Tucci would be publishing a follow-up memoir to Taste entitled What I Ate In One Year.
Written in diary format, the book begins on January 2, 2023 and not only notes the food that Tucci ate throughout the year but also focuses on making the Oscar winning film Conclave where he played Cardinal Bellini.
I especially enjoyed reading about the culinary adventures he shared with his fellow castmates while shooting the movie. For instance, I thought the most unusual meal he ate with Isabella Rossellini and John Lithgow was eating Duck a la l’orange prepared by singing Carmelite nuns at a convent-turned restaurant regularly frequented by Ingrid Bergman, Rossellini’s mother.
Filled with many fascinating film and food anecdotes along with mouthwatering family recipes, What I Ate in One Year is the perfect companion to Taste. I loved it so much I read it in six days!
Late last September, I read in the New York Times that Dame Maggie Smith had died on September 27, 2024 at age 89. I wanted to honor her with a film tribute because her role as Dowager Countess Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey had brought much joy and happiness to my life. Using streaming services I subscribed to (mainly Amazon Prime Video and Netflix) and Turner Classic Movies, I watched seven of her most notable movies: Downton Abbey, Downton Abbey: A New Era, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, A Room With a View, Gosford Park, Young Cassidy and my favorite, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie which won her a Best Actress Oscar award in 1970.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was the most difficult film to find. I didn’t get to see it until Turner Classic Movies aired it during their Maggie Smith movie salute two months after her death. I didn’t know if it would be available later on Xfinity On Demand due to film broadcast restriction rights so I set my alarm clock early and enjoyed a 6 a.m. breakfast viewing of one of Maggie Smith’s brilliant film performances.
After watching The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, I realized I had never read Muriel Spark’s original novel published in 1962. Fortunately, the St. Joseph County Public Library owned a copy, so I quickly checked it out.
Spark’s short novel set at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls in 1930s Edinburgh, Scotland gives a more impressionistic look at how Miss Brodie’s free-thinking and unorthodox ideas profoundly influenced the young girls in the “Brodie Set.”
I think the 1969 film’s adapted screenplay written Jay Presson Allen better depicts how Miss Brodie’s unconventional views strongly controlled her students’ behavior in a very provocative and tragically sensational and destructive way. Allen’s screenplay achieves this by dramatically changing the fates of three of Miss Brodie’s favorite students: Sandy, Jenny and especially Mary McGregor. I recommend that readers skip Spark’s novel and watch the classic 1969 film whenever it becomes available.
After waiting nearly 18 months, the Miss Austen miniseries finally premiered on PBS Masterpiece May 4. Set in 1840, Keeley Hawes stars as Cassandra Austen who travels to Kintbury not only to help young Isabella Fowle transition to a new life after her father’s death but also to locate incriminating letters that her younger sister Jane Austen wrote to friends and relatives and destroy them to protect her beloved sister’s literary legacy.
Andrea Gibbs’ marvelous screenplay seamlessly blends Cassandra’s current present with her past while reading Jane’s letters. This cinematic flashback technique makes the plot less confusing and complicated than it was in Gill Hornby’s novel.
In the flashback sequences, I especially enjoyed Symnove Karlson’s energetic and feisty portrayal of young Cassie Austen. For instance, after tragically losing her fiancĂ© Tom Fowle in an ill-fated accident, she vows never to marry anyone else. Despite her obviously strong attraction to Henry Hobday, played by Max Irons, actor Jeremy Irons’ son, Cassie vehemently rejects his marriage proposal and devotes her life entirely to her younger sister Jane even after her untimely death in 1817.
I highly recommend the Miss Austen miniseries to all Jane Austen fans as well as incurable romantics like me.
The books and movies reviewed in this blog can be found at most local public libraries. My readers in St. Joseph County, Indiana can visit the St. Joseph County Public Library’s website at https://sjcpl.org/ for additional information. Thanks for reading! Enjoy summer! See you all next time.
