April 11, 2008
Movie Crew Brings 9/11 Tribute Back to St. Paul's Chapel
Photo courtesy Mike Lewis.
If you passed by St. Paul’s Chapel near the World Trade Center site yesterday you may have felt like you’d stepped back through time to the city’s raw, post-9/11 days, when the chapel’s fence was festooned with photos and tributes to the attack's victims. The new Nora Ephron movie Julie & Julia recreated the makeshift memorial, which was dismantled in November 2002. (Using a crane, the crew also pasted leaves to the trees.)
Amy Adams stars in the film, which is adapted from the book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment, a chronicle of Julie Powell’s attempt to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. Although the two never met in real life, the film intertwines their life stories, with Meryl Streep playing Julia Child and Stanley Tucci as Paul Child.
But don’t let The Devil Wears Prada-esque casting and Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle pedigree lead you to lump Julie & Julia into the chick flick category, as Times reporter Michael Cielpy recently did. Powell, who spoke with Gothamist about her book in 2005, says Cielpy’s an “asshat” for slapping on chick flick label, which has become as tired as it is vaguely misogynistic.
And perhaps it is only New York Times-style stuffiness that leads him to define chick-lit—as if it were some up-to-the-minute new phenomenon rather than a phrase that entered the lexicon an ice age or so ago—as "books written for, and often by, professional women in their 20s.... [with] covers... bright and fluffy, with amusing illustrations...and an outlook... unabashedly feminine."Maybe we’re just afraid of getting our balls ripped off, but something tells us Julie & Julia’s going to kick ass.Unabashedly feminine. Yes, we females are so silly and dear with our femininity and whatnot… But to write of the movie as being about me and the "cooking enthusiast" Julia Child? COOKING ENTHUSIAST?!!! Pardon my french, but what the FUCK?! I don't consider myself a raving old-school feminist, but this article makes me want to honestly observe male-oriented body parts by ripping them from male bodies.
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I was disappointed the Times lumped Julie & Julia into the "chick flick" ghetto, because it was never really chick lit either, unless anything with a female voice/main focus is chick lit. But I'm still excited to see the movie and foodie fans who have not read "Julie & Julia," go and get it, it's terrific.
Julia always has such class . . . Julie never will..
Maybe it's just my balls talking, but it sure sounds like a chick flick to me.
It would probably help if Gothamist "articles" on these movies came off as genuine instead of as paid advertising. I mean seriously, something tells us Julie & Julia’s going to kick ass. ??
Amazon.com write up on the book:
Julie & Julia is the story of Julie Powell's attempt to revitalize her marriage, restore her ambition, and save her soul by cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I, in a period of 365 days. The result is a masterful medley of Bridget Jones' Diary meets Like Water for Chocolate, mixed with a healthy dose of original wit, warmth, and inspiration that sets this memoir apart from most tales of personal redemption.
When we first meet Julie, she's a frustrated temp-to-perm secretary who slaves away at a thankless job, only to return to an equally demoralizing apartment in the outer boroughs of Manhattan each evening. At the urging of Eric, her devoted and slightly geeky husband, she decides to start a blog that will chronicle what she dubs the "Julie/Julia Project." What follows is a year of butter-drenched meals that will both necessitate the wearing of an unbearably uncomfortable girdle on the hottest night of the year, as well as the realization that life is what you make of it and joy is not as impossible a quest as it may seem, even when it's -10 degrees out and your pipes are frozen.
Powell is a natural when it comes to connecting with her readers, which is probably why her blog generated so much buzz, both from readers and media alike. And while her self-deprecating sense of humor can sometimes dissolve into whininess, she never really loses her edge, or her sense of purpose. Even on day 365, she's working her way through Mayonnaise Collee and ending the evening "back exactly where we started--just Eric and me, three cats and Buffy...sitting on a couch in the outer boroughs, eating, with Julia chortling alongside us...."
Inspired and encouraging, Julie and Julia is a unique opportunity to join one woman's attempt to change her life, and have a laugh, or ten, along the way.
"Julie & Julia" wasn't a half bad book... I admit to reading it over my wife's shoulder... but in the hands of Nora Ephron it's a mortal lock to suck.
"You're Got Mail" is as much of an argument for this country having a Ministry of Culture as I've ever seen (not that I'm in favor of that... step away from the keyboard... but it would have saved us all from that).
eyekantspel, I hear your skepticism, but having followed Julie Powell's blog 5-6 years ago and having actually read the book, it didn't seemed overwhelmingly chick-litty to me (and I've read my fair share). Sure, it's written by a woman but it's also about her life and using cooking as an outlet. In fact, the person who told me about her Julie/Julia Project was a guy who absolutely loved it.
I think the Amazon description was written by the book publisher in attempts to rein in female readers, which makes sense, because not many men would read a book about cooking by a woman. Though there seems to be a huge crossover audience for Anthony Bourdain's terrific, but very macho Kitchen Confidential.
This film will suck. It is as certain as death. There is no way for it not to suck. It already sucks for doing that to St. Paul's. I can see the pretty heroine walking by that fence all teary-eyed now. And sucking.
"...only to return to an equally demoralizing apartment in the outer boroughs of Manhattan each evening."
wtf?
911 = inside job!
I don't know, sounds pretty chick-flicky to me. Just based on the whole premise of a woman dealing with life by living it through a cookbook...
Even if it had been the story of a guy dealing with life by living it through another guy's cookbook for a year, it's the self-indulgently flakey aspect that we're all supposed to be enchanted by (of not tolerant of) is what makes people think of chick-lit. That's what makes this movie such an easy target for the chick-lit accusations.
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"...only to return to an equally demoralizing apartment in the outer boroughs of Manhattan each evening."
wtf?"
A lot of the country seems to think the idea that NYC living -- having to ride public transportation, crowds, small apartments -- is "demoralizing" and suffered only under duress.
It's part of the wonderful cocktail that fuels mutual provincialism and distrust.
If only Mohammed Atta had a cookbook and a zest for life and a desire to know all its flavors!
my "wtf" was actually about the fact that according to the quoted passage, our entire city is called Manhattan and it's possible to have an apartment that exists in more than one outer borough at a time.
This movie will rend your soul like "Under the Tuscan Sun", if you are a cretin
At least there's Amy Adams.
Jen, if he told you he "absolutely loved" a story about someone's attempt to revitalize her marriage, restore her ambition, and save her soul by cooking, assuming he's heterosexual, have you considered the possibility he's just telling you what you want to hear because he wants to sleep with you?
When he said it, was he making eye contact, or stealing glances at JenChungsBra?
#12: I see. And I second your wtf.
Lousy attempt trying to recreate the tributes on the fence. Didn't look like that at all. There was more clothing, banners with signatures...it was moving. This looks cheesy.There weren't all these stuffed animals, fake flowers and balloons. Jeez...aren't there enough photographs of the place to be able to recreate it accurately?
who cares- i know the set dresser in the picture is glad to be back to work after 100 lousy days off during the fucking writer's strike like moi- ugh!
9/11=INSIDE JOB
youtube: loose change final cut pt. 1 & 2