Starting Out in the Evening

photo courtesy of sundance.org

After this summer's Six Feet Under marathon I was delighted to see that Lauren Ambrose and Lily Taylor (along with the inimitable Frank Langella of recent Frost Nixon fame ) were starring in the film Starting out in the Evening. The film premiered in the Boston area at the Museum of Fine Arts as part of the 19th annual Jewish Film Festival, though it will be distrubuted nationally in December. The Sundance Film festival refers to it as "a quietly intense, superbly realized drama about erudite New Yorkers who tug on each other's vulnerabilities as they strive to actualize individual promise at three different stages of life." The audience, comprised largely of elderly couples, seemed to have a mixed reaction but I enjoyed the film. And I am envious of Lauren Ambrose's vintagy/ flashy librarian wardrobe. Andrew Wagner, the film's director, answered questions afterwards which was a pleasant addition.

A stranger influence of the film is the effect it has had on my diet. During the film my craving for toast with creamy peanut butter was reawakened. Just like Frank Langella's character, I let my peanut butter warm up in a pretty little ramekin (because it's supposed to be refrigerated and it doesn't spread nicely when it's cold), and then drizzle it on my buttered wholegrain toast with a little spoon. Thanks Frank (and Andrew Wagner), your bleepin' peanut-buttered Old Man Toast is going to have serious consequences for my ass if I don't watch it.

Thanks to the passes from my local public library I didn't have to spend a billion dollars on entrance fee and had a chance to see some things I'd been wanting to see in the hour and a half or so before the film began. Alas my camera was acting poopy and corrupted my entire flash card card when I tried to take a photo.

This is perhaps the most exciting exhibition title I've seen in a while. It was fun to hunt for Shy Boy, She Devil and Isis. The glass bowl in the press release is a Dale Chihuly - while his name is perhaps the best known among the artists featured I wouldn't say that this was the most impressive piece of artwork. My favorites were ceramic sculptures by Sergei Isupov.

Next we moved on to "Contemporary Outlook: Japan". While there were a number of things I liked, things I wouldn't mind having hung on my wall, I was most smitten with Akino Kondoh's animated film Ladybird's Requiem. Here's a wiggley bootleg copy.

And here's another of Kondoh's films (apparently she's into insects and great haircuts):

I also liked this jewelry exhibit:



Starting out in the evening I had no idea what to expect, but it turned out to be a pleasantly entertaining multimedia kind of night.