Ten Things I've Learned at the Movies, From Slicing Garlic with a Razorblade to Applying Lipstick

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by Carrie Rickey
March 6, 2013 12:37 PM
2 Comments

Jean Seberg in "Bonjour Tristesse"

Who says movies aren’t educational? I’ve learned a lot, frivolous and otherwise, while watching the big screen:

1) That everyone should have his/her own theme music ("Dr. Zhivago," "I’m Gonna Git You Sucka")

2) How to brown mushrooms, (do not crowd skillet), brown meat (pat it dry first) and chop onions ("Julie & Julia")

3) How to crack an egg (decisive wrist action) ("Sabrina")

4) How to make gnocchi ("The Godfather," "Part III")

5) How best to slice garlic (with a razor blade) ("GoodFellas")

6) How to modernize a frock by ripping off frou-frou ("A Letter to Three Wives," "Bells Are Ringing")

7) How to apply lipstick ("Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?," "Bonjour Tristesse," "Lost in Translation")

Read the rest of this article here.

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spassky | March 6, 2013 2:07 PMReply

This is some of the best writing Carrie Rickey has ever done -- i.e. not very much of it.
rgm | March 6, 2013 1:41 PMReply

What Carrie Rickey is not mentioning is that the movies taught a whole generation to smoke. From the" sophisticated" black and white comedies of the 1930s, to the serious '40s -- i.e. "Now Voyager," of 1942, where we were tutored in "cigaretiquette" right along with Bette Davis, --- then onward, through the technicolor '50s, the "action" '60sâ¦.. until, the first, shocking Surgeon General's report of 1964.

And then, of course, there was drinkingâ¦."shaken not stirred"