Time for Napa Valley Film Festival 2019
Ford vs. Ferrari ***** (5 out of 5 stars)
It is the 9th annual film festival and it has started with a bang! Last night, with my popcorn and peanut m&m combo (thanks to my friend, Kim for this secret snack -you just changed my life in an instance!) we had a sneak peek of Ford vs. Ferrari the action-packed movie that tells the 1959 story of Henry Ford on a mission to battle and beat Ferrari at the 24 hour Le Mans. and it is thrilling and well-acted. Christian Bale and Matt Damon star in this action-packed but intelligent movie. To get the full effect, be sure to watch in theaters with Dolby sound and the big screen. It would not be half as exciting on a small screen, so go now. The Cameo theater offered the perfect screening space - we are so lucky to have this theater in Napa Valley.
After the movie, Patrons (this is the ticket level that gets you past all the lines and into all the parties) and filmmakers were invited to the Meet The Artists Reception at the Caldwell Snyder Gallery. I usually take this opportunity to seek out and meet some filmmakers at this annual event, but I got caught up greeting old friends and I was so busy sipping the delicious wines (Roam was a standout) and cocktails on offer, and sampling the passed appetizers served up by Meadowood, that I missed my chance to meet and greet any artists…ah well, many opportunities lie ahead. As has been our annual tradition, we ended the evening, with some new and some old friends, in the basement bar of Goose and Gander for their amazing burgher and fries. Today is the official start, and I will deep dive into it all. I will report back soon!
Portrait of A Girl of Fire **** (4 out of 5 stars)
I think this French-made movie is this year’s Call Me by Your Name. To enjoy this film, you have to be very committed to foreign films, be ok with reading subtitles, and seeing lots of beautiful scenes of girl on girl. Set in an island off of Brittany, France in the 18th century, it is about a precocious and independent young female portrait painter from Paris, Marianne, who is hired to paint the portrait of the beautiful and reluctant young Heloise, a headstrong but naive young woman, whose widowed mother is hoping to get her married off to a wealthy Italian. Back in the 18th century when emails and photography do not exist, the oil portrait of Heloise is tremendously important as it will be sent to a suitor in Milan, and if it pleases him, he will marry her and bring her and the mother to Italy. Over the course of the two weeks it takes to paint the portrait, the two young women grow to love each other and in the end, the inevitable happens. It is, of course, doomed from the start, so we feel the torture of impending loss, and we know that when the portrait is finished the short love affair will be over, and both girls will have to live only with the memory of this first love. This is a truly beautiful work of art, but it as some slow moments and some very strange sexual moments that may be off-putting to some…so similar to Call Me By Your Name, just more French and more female!
