Theater Weekend

“Yesterday is but a dream,  Tomorrow is only a vision. 
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope.” 
― Kālidāsa, The complete works of Kalidasa

      This was my "theater" weekend! Saturday night I went to the Fine Arts movie at the Modern of Fort Worth with my good friend, Joy.  We saw "The Handmaiden" which was quite intense!  It was again in subtitles as many of their movies are.  The setting was Japan; the languages were spoken were Japanese  and Korean so the subtitles (which was told to the audience at the beginning) were in white for one and yellow for the other. And that was important because it helps the viewer realize that not all characters spoke both languages so some subterfuge was occurring.

The four main characters

      This is not a film all would enjoy because there are some scenes of very graphic love-making but we both thought the development of the intrigue, the mystery; how the plot grew, twisted and changed to a very satisfactory finale, was so gripping that the love-making was a vital part of the complete story!  This is  film I will not soon forget!

      Then we continued the evening with a late dinner at The Tavern, one of my favorite restaurants in FW. One of their signature dishes is their iron skillet cornbread!  They also have great soups, salads, seafood...Joy said her crab cakes were the best she had EVER had!  Cornbread can be purchased by the slice or by the skillet...I recommend the skillet so there is some left to take home!

Inside the Tavern

      Then today (Sunday), this afternoon, several of us went to the play at the Stage West where we have season tickets.  We also ate lunch there before the performance which is always another eating favorite!  They serve a brunch on Sunday which is huge!!  And tasty!  Quiche, fruit, cup of soup (today it was corn chowder), and a mini muffin.  They also have sandwiches and salads for those not wanting the Brunch.  And the Mimosas are hard to pass up! Desserts are always a real treat, too.

       The play we saw today was "Murder for Two"...there are only two actors in the whole play; one of them is the Detective, and the other guy plays ALL the suspects!   They are also  singers, pianists, and dancers.  It is a very cute farce with two very talented young men!

The "Murder for Two" Cast

     I think this play is on for another 2-3 weeks.  I have given you a link to the Stage West website if you want to check it out.

Hope Springs....

           When the world says, "Give up,"   
                   Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."
                                                                ~Author Unknown

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

     I am so fortunate to live in such a neat city...Fort Worth is also called "Cowtown" because that is where it all began...as a center for the cattle market. Big meat packing companies operated here...Swift-Armour for one.  This is where the cattle drives of yore ended up.  In fact today, in Northside where the packing houses were located, there is a twice daily cattle drive with the Longhorn Herd which is quite the tourist attraction!

     But I diverse!  As I so easily do....The Modern Museum, which is in the Cultural District (also home area to the annual Stock Show/Rodeo right across the street!!)  about 15 minutes from where I live, has an auditorium where they show Independent Films several times a year.  These are sooo good!  A couple weeks ago, my book club went to see "A Man Called Ove" because that happened to be our book for the month of November. 

                                                              

The author, Fredrik Backman, is Swedish...a very young man and this is his first novel!  I will be eager to read his next book.  The film was in subtitles, which is OK...I've gotten in the habit of using closed captions on television especially for the British Shows on PBS which I love but have a bit of a problem with the accents!

     I highly recommend this book....I keep a running list of the books I read and rank them...this is a definite five star in my opinion!  We did have a big discussion about the differences in the film and the book.  I thought they did a great job of sticking to the story line.  Others thought it was quite different.  As always, I recommend reading the book first then seeing the film.  In this case, the film was just shy of two hours so they had to leave out a lot of the filling out of the characters, etc. but as far as the story line, it was spot on!

      They also have previews of upcoming attractions, and that is where they get me!  I want to see them all!  A week later, one of my friends and her son and I went to see "The Dressmaker", a very dark comedy/tragedy starring Kate Winslet, coming home to serve revenge on the Australian Outback community which had been very unkind to her as a child....many twists and turns!

       Several of these films may be available on Netflix or the IFC channel.  And some even make their way to public theaters.  "Boyhood" is a good example of a film that started out in art theaters then made it big. You may recall....the filming over 12 years of a boy's journey through life. 

       The next one up for us is "The Handmaiden"...not the Margaret Atwood story.  This takes place in Japan...a geisha and her life....doesn't look very pretty, but these films can be a bit on the bleak side.

    And I just looked Fredrik Bachman up to see what he has coming up and "A Man Called Ove" is not new, was published in 2012.  His next book out was "My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's  Sorry"-2013; then "Britt-Marie Was Here"-2014; the latest-"And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer".    Hmmmm.....looks like I have a new favorite author!