RKS 2023 Film: “Subtraction”: Riders on the Storm and “Rear Window”

Watching the French-Iranian film “Subtraction” I think of Jimmy Stewart in Hitchcock’s 1954 “Rear Window”. Why?

If you watch this film keep this refrain from the Door’s song “Riders on the Storm” in mind:

“There’s a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin’ like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If you give this man a ride
Sweet family will die
Killer on the road, yeah”

The easy part of the film is its beginning. Farzaneh (Taraneh Alidoosti) spots a man on a bus in Tehran whom she believes to be her husband Jalal (Navid Mohammadzadeh) disembarking and entering an apartment building. From the road outside the apartment building she sees this man talking with a woman by the window. Jalal vehemently denies it was him. In fact he was at a bank outside of the city centre from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. the day he supposedly disembarked from the bus.

Jalal visits the apartment and finds a woman Bita looking almost exactly like Farzaneh and not only that as matters transpire her husband Mohsen looks identical to Jalal! Mohsen is an aggressive and violent man. Yes Director Mani Haghighi is starting to play with our minds!

Farzaneh is on anti-depressants and suffers from anxiety and after believing Jalal’s denial he was not the man on the bus starts thinking she is having hallucinations. Yes viewer you may want to ask if the whole series of events is a hallucination! And you may be right.

Matters become more complicated and chance and circumstance take charge to the point you may be like a spectator with your mouth open at the twists and turns in the plot. You may feel like Jimmy Stewart in “Rear Window” glued to the film like it is a window with a potential murderer on the other side of it.

Both a grisly and puzzling ending. Who is who? This must be an hallucination! Right?

All the Iranian non-documentary directed films I have seen take a jab at the theocracy but often in an allegorical way. As Canadian-Iranian director Haghighi states, “Living in a theocracy splits you in two. You must become two people to survive. A private life, and a public mask. The split seeps into the narrowest crevices of your life, and your every cell produces a simulacrum of itself: a copy that looks just like you. You produce this copy to protect yourself from the brutality around you. You produce this copy to protect yourself from the brutality around you, but it can turn against you and destroy you.”

And yes don’t forget the never-ending “rain” in Tehran even when sunny. Get the hint?

“Subtraction” opens in Canada on June 23, 2023.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 96/100.

RKS Literature: “Zorba the Greek”: Splendid Ierapetra Wine

“We clinked our glasses and drank. Splendid Ierapetra wine, as black as hare’s blood. When you drank, it was though you were receiving earth-blood as Holy Communion. You flourished. Your veins were filled to the brim with strength, your heart with kindness: if you were a coward, you became brave: if you were already brave you became a wild untamed monster. You forgot humble trifles; narrow borders broke down; you joined with humans, animals, God-becoming one with everything.”

Nikos Kazantzakis, “Zorba the Greek”, 1947.

RKS 2023 Wine Tourism: What is Wine Tourism?

I attended Wine and Tourism Week in Porto, Portugal last February. Having attended many wine shows both in North America and Europe my mind was more focused on wine but Wine and Travel Week shifted that focus where the theme was the interrelationship between wine, gastronomy, accommodations and culture. Combine all those elements together and you have wine tourism. A perfect symbiotic relationship where wine is an important but not a sole component.

Aside from Pico Island grapes there is a tea planation there as well!

At Wine and Travel Week exhibitors were not pouring any wine! They were promoting wine tourism. The moral compass of this event as I saw it was to escape the “tyranny of the beach and sun”. Sure hit the beach but why not stop at a winery for a tasting and some top rate food! Perhaps even stay at a winery or nearby. And stop and visit cultural sites while you are at it. Not that sun and beach is bad or for that matter simply focusing on wine at wineries. But there is more!

Nouvelle cuisine at Azores Wine Company on Pico Island! Photo Robert K. Stephen

Let me give you an example. The Wine and Travel Week conference was at the Alfândega which is the old custom’s house an historic building in Porto. At Wine and Travel Week we experienced two gastronomic lunches prepared by top Portuguese chefs and many bottles of wine selected to suit that food. One lunch was surf and the other turf. A gala dinner was at Museu do Carro Electrico (Electric Tram Museum). And then 10 of us flew to Pico Island in the Azores. I had an ultra hip room at the Azores Wine Company where we also tasted wines and ate some awesome nouvelle cuisine. We visited several wineries and ate local dishes at two of them. We visited the Pico Island Wine Museum, a national park, a distillery and stopped for a seaside walk. So we had wine, culture and gastronomic feasts both homey and hipster!

You will not be crabby eating this Pico Island crab! Photo Robert K. Stephen

The result was a fuller understanding of Pico Island and a desire to return and give it the two weeks as a minimum it deserves. I understand its topography, some of its history, its food, its culture and its wines. There is more to life than a beach!

Sadly there was virtually no North American presence amongst the media invitees nor any North American exhibitors. Wake up and smell the coffee and get there next year for Wine and Travel Week. Canadian wineries are great at wine tourism so why don’t they tell the rest of the world about it?

RKS 2023 Film: “The Eight Mountains”: Travel the Eight Mountains and Seas or Climb the Mountain in the Centre of it All?

Based on the novel by Paolo Cognetti, “The Eight Mountains”, a 2022 Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize winner, is the story of a friendship. Of children becoming men who try to erase the footprints of their fathers, but who, through the twists and turns they take, always end up returning home. Pietro (Luca Marinelli) is a boy from Turin. Bruno (Alessandro Borghi) is the last child of a forgotten Italian mountain village of Grana. Over the years Bruno remains faithful to his mountain, while Pietro is the one who comes and goes. Their encounters introduce them to love and loss, reminding them of their origins, letting their destinies unfold, as Pietro and Bruno discover what it means to be true friends for life.

Bruno and Pietro, both 12, meet in Grana. Bruno is living with his aunt and uncle in Grana while Pietro is the only child of a teacher and engineer from Turin who rent a summer residence in Grana in the mountains of Valle D’ Aosta in Italy so well captured by cinematographer Ruben Impens. They form a friendship that spans the entire film however not in a linear fashion.

As the boys mature both drift apart from their fathers yet at points they are exactly like their fathers.

The intellectual matrix of “The Eight Mountains” is based upon a man who approached Pietro on his trip to Nepal explaining that eight mountains and oceans formed the world with Mount Sumera in the middle with a question who has learnt more. The man that has travelled the eight mountains and eight oceans or who has climbed Mount Sumera. As a viewer you’ll make that decision!

One of the men loses himself in tragic fashion and the other finds himself after years of wandering through life. One of the men finds the father he drifted from although it is too late to tell his deceased father that he never should have shunned him. There may also be a question of Italy losing itself in a financial crisis and a traditional way of life.

The mountains surrounding Grana are the immovable centre of the film. Human relationships are the fluidity.

A memorable epic.

This Italian, French and Belgian film is 147 minutes in length and opened in Canada on May 19th. It is in Italian with either English or French subtitles. It is directed by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 92/100.

RKS Literature: “Zorba the Greek”: Will God be Ashamed in Front of Zorba?

“I’m telling you Boss: all these things that happen here in this world are unjust, unjust, unjust! I don’t sign my approval, I the tiny worm, the slug, the Zorba. Why should young boys and girls die while decrepit oldsters remain? Why should small children die? I had a small child, my Dimitraki, and he died on me when he was three years old-and never, never (do you hear me?) will I forgive God! When I breathe my last, if he has the nerve to appear before me, you should know that, if he is truly God, he will be ashamed-yes ashamed before me, Zorba the slug.”

Nikos Kazantzakis ,“Zorba the Greek”, 1947.

RKS 2023 Wine: Simple Vin de France Chardonnay with a Viognier Twist

This Novellum 2021 Chardonnay has an intriguing twist to it. Although 100% Chardonnay it has been aged on Viognier lees with a small proportion of oak ageing. You might want to think of lees as spent yeast cells sort of a goopy gook? Viognier is vastly different than Chardonnay being more perfumed and full of peach apricot and pineapple. What does it do to this Chardonnay?

Aroma: While many Chards have apple, pear, pineapple and quince aromas this Chardonnay has apple, pear and melon notes but also peach, apricot and mango imparting the influence of the Viognier lees.

Palate: More luscious fruit here than you would expect with most Chardonnays. Think of it as a Chardonnay that is almost a quarter of the way to being a Viognier! Moderately long finish.

Personality: A Chardonnay with pizzazz and character a gazillion miles away from ABC!

Food match: Portobello mushroom burger where the mushrooms are marinated in garlic, balsamic vinegar, tamari sauce and olive oil. Topped with grilled onions, roasted red pepper and arugula with a side of home baked fries and Ontario asparagus. Will match simply grilled chicken too!

Cellarbility: Drink by end of 2024. Will not improve with ageing.

Price: $19.95.

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 90/100. Robertparker.com 90.

(Novellum 2021 Chardonnay, Vin de France, EMB 66136, Perpignan, France, 750 mL, 13%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 390781).

RKS 2023 Film: What is Darker?  The Nasty Sasquatch or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? “Dark Nature” (Terreur Sauvage)

The Canadian film “Dark Nature” may be a psychological thriller or perhaps a horror film. Place your bets and say it is a bit of both. If it is showing at your local drive-in theatre bring some blankets to keep warm from the chills wafting through the film. If watching in a theatre or at home put on a sweater!

Joy (Hannah Emily Anderson) escapes a viciously abusive and just about murderous relationship with crazed puppy killer Derek. She joins her friends Carmen and zombieish Tara in a Rocky Mountain mountainous hiking retreat with acclaimed psychiatrist Dr. Dunnely. All her buddies are suffering from horrific trauma and are experiencing terrifying flashbacks. Joy is reluctant about this retreat surmising that reliving and confronting the past may only aggravate her psychological problems. She may be right! However Dr. Dunnely believes there is no coming to consciousness without pain and discomfort. Yes there is pain and discomfort…..deadly pain and discomfort. The three girls and Dr. Dunnely’s guide have flashbacks. Nasty flashbacks. Raw flashbacks. Possibly deadly flashbacks.

Tension builds with rotting animal corpses, “Deliverance” type crossbow hunters and the disclosure the lasses are in an ancient spiritual ground for aboriginals. The spirits are very unhappy or are the flashbacks creating PTSD delusions?

Does Joy embrace the essence of her PTSD and “get the cure”? Or is the PTSD not PTSD and instead reality. Wonderful symbolism.

Is trauma the horror or is horror the trauma? The logic and body count may be the answer but is there logic to be found in horrific trauma? What happens if the spirits and trauma get entangled?

“Dark Nature” began its North American theatrical release on 19 May and if you missed this film it will be released on VOD this summer.

Get spooked by this trailer if you wish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAGZ-U_rS3I

RKS 2023 Film Rating 89/100.

RKS 2023 Wine: Montepulciano D’Abruzzo: Italian Easy Drinker

Montepulciano D’Abruzzo is an easy come easy go red wine. If Montepulciano was a politician it would be pleasing everyone from kissing babies to visiting senior’s residences making a long list of promises. But it is a wine and not a politician yet it is easy going and likeable by many. A centrist wine if you wish. We verify the ballot count trying a Tiberio 2020 Montepulciano D’Abruzzo. No relation to Roman emperor Tiberius.

Aroma: Some luscious blackberry, blueberry, black cherry with a hint of mocha.

Palate: Some serious structure here with gentle broad-based tannins and firm black fruit but readily accessible and in no way austere. By firm black fruit I mean it is there but not gushing all over the place like some over the top hot-headed politician on the campaign trail desperately seeking reelection. This wine will not be storming any legislature!

Personality: I am easy going but serious easy going ready for the palate of discerning wine drinkers and not for young bucks causing a ruckus on the political trail. I am also not a philosophical wine that nobody understands.

Food match: https://www.seriouseats.com/pasta-canciuova-e-muddica-atturrata-sicilian-pasta-with-anchovies-and-toasted-breadcrumbs.

Price: $22.95.

Cellarbility: Drinking window would be until the end of 2026.

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 92/100.  93 Eric Guido, vinous.com.

(Tiberio 2020 Montepulciano D’Abruzzo D.O.P., Agricola Tiberio, Cugnoli, Italia, 750 mL, 14.5%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 14005).

RKS Literature: Zorba the Greek: Thoughts on Madame Hortense

“We were waiting for Madame Hortense today so that she could join us in celebrating the resurrection. We had roasted lamb on the spit, had prepared stuffed lamb intestines as an appetizer, and spread a white sheet on the sand, and had dyed some eggs. Zorba and I, half in jest, half with emotion, had agreed to accord her a grand reception today. When present on our isolated beach, this paunchy, sweetly odoriferous, somewhat rotting siren exerted a strange fascination on us in spite of ourselves. In her absence something was missing: an aroma like eau de cologne, a red colour, a waddling gait resembling a duck’s, a more or less husky voice, and two acidic, discolored eyes.”

Nikos Kazantzakis, “Zorba the Greek”, 1952

Italian Wine: The Penniless Pensioner Looks for A Sparkling Good Deal

The Penniless Pensioner or PP as we all know him isn’t exactly penniless. In fact he’s filthy rich and a bit of a rebel. He can afford 1982 Chateau LeSnob but looks for a deal and sometimes I think it is to aggravate his wine snob friends. If you have been reading his autobiography lately in this publication you may remember he was madly in love with Ginevra the most beautiful woman in Italy. Unfortunately as the daughter of a very bad mob boss in Naples, Don Lupara, she was murdered in a car bomb attack just before PP was to marry her. Enough of that sadness.

Ginevra the love of PP’s life!

PP did recall while living in Naples and often dining with Ginevra and Don Lupara they had wines made by local growers bought in demi-johns for unbelievable low prices. And they were great wines. Don Lupara was a vicious brute if you were on his wrong side PP used to say and as PP was the apple of Ginevra’s eye Don Lupara treated PP with respect but also warned him if he ever double dealt Ginevra he would personally slit PP’s throat.

It was Don Lupara that introduced PP to Prosecco although he could have afforded the best Champers because he was a true Italian at heart supporting the Italian wine (and cocaine) industry. Don Lupara was fond of Albino Armani Prosecco which PP loves to drink although he tends to cry as it reminds him of Ginevra so he asks me to have some with him to offer friendship and consolation. You see PP has “gone through” countless women but it is Ginevra that stirs his soul.

The Prosecco has fine bubbles and on the nose is loaded with lime and lemon with lemon tarts Ginevra’s mother used to make with local lemons grown in her own orchard in Positano. It is crisp and frothy, lightly citrusy. More of a sensation than a wine PP likes to say. PP loves it with prawns flown in from Capri prepared in a butter garlic sauce. The Prosecco cuts through the garlic and butter and compliments the prawns. We went through four pounds of prawns and two bottles of the Prosecco and PP did not cry thank goodness.

(Albino Armani 1607 Conegliano Valdobbiadene D.O.C.G. Cantina Vini Armani, Ala, Italy $18.95, Liquor Control, Board of Ontario # 16602).