PASS THE ALOO GOBI!

Our last two features have left us extremely hungry for samosas and aloo gobi. Last week, it was A PASSAGE TO INDIA; this week it was the World Cup-inspired selection of BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM. I found both films to be totally delightful, though obviously on slightly different levels. I don't quite kn0w why it took me twenty years to see David Lean's grand tale of British-occupied India, but it did. And I absolutely loved it. It was a much more intimate, personal story than I was expecting. What was I expecting? Something a little more sweeping, I guess. Something a little more...well, David Lean. But with the incredibly dramatic and explosive backdrop of the impending political upheaval in India, Lean painted yet another gorgeous, epic-feeling masterpiece. Special kudos to Peggy Ashcroft for being the imbodiment of well-intentioned righteous indignation. Her Mrs. Moore was clearly ahead of her time, and just a general bad-ass. And Victor Banerjee as Dr. Aziz was mesmerizing. How come we never saw more of this guy in English-language film?

BEND IT LIKE BECKHMAN was certainly light fare, but I thought it told a sweet, simple story of a young girl fighting to express her true self in the face of intense familial and cultural pressure to conform to a prescribed notion of who she was "supposed" to be. Football is my new favorite sport, and this was a great way to fill the gap between World Cup matches.