Ivory is faithful to Forster’s picnic at Fiesole, where a group of English tourists gathers to enjoy the view from Fiesole. * This prospect offers a glorious of Florence, but neither Ivory nor Forster describes it. As so many picnics do, the day begins well but...
The Princess Bride is Rob Reiner’s adaptation of William Goldman’s novel, for which Goldman wrote the screenplay. The story is known for its humor and gentle satire of romantic love and swashbuckling mischief. Vizzini’s picnic at which he duels with...
Edwards’s comedy is sometimes madcap, but when matters settle, there is a happy ending with a picnic on the beach. What else is new? See Blake Edwards’s Blind Date (1987). The screenplay is by Dale Launer. Featured Image: Bruce Willis as Walter Davis; Kim Bassinger as...
Isla Sorna is a dangerous place to picnic. Traveling by Range Rover over Costa Rica’s bumpy roads to a deserted beach, the Bowman family for adventure and picnicking on the beach. When they get there, they are alone. Ellen Bowman is afraid of snakes. Young Cathy...
Benton’s screenplay by Tom Stoppard angered E.L. Doctorow because they made too many revisions to his novel Billy Bathgate. They did, however, get Billy Bathgate’s picnic right. The picnic is a pivotal moment in Billy’s romantic education. It takes...
Foster’s Howards End, Ivory’s picnic reveals Edwardian hypocrisy, the inferior status of women, predatory sexuality, and the illusion of male superiority. This pivotal episode occurs when Henry Wilcox is undone by his former mistress, Jacky Bast, at a...
What’s to be done after a long night of love-making? Go on a picnic, of course. Eastwood’s picnic setup in Bridges of Madison County is stagy: a cloth on the grass, a cooler, oranges (never peeled), and apples (never eaten). Coca-Cola (never opened)....
Austen knows how to ruin a picnic, as she does in Sense and Sensibility. Ang Lee and his screenwriter Emma Thompson get the disappointment right. But then invent an original picnic to make up for Austen’s to mitigate the Dashwood family’s letdown. Critics...
Wood ants ruin a picnic in Angels & Insects. It’s a comic episode adapted from A.S. Byatt’s novella, Morpho Eugenia, a novella about predatory deception among the English gentry. Taking advantage of Midsummer’s Day, the Alabaster family settles...
Ivory and Jhabvala imagine a “typical” gala Parisian garden party circa 1784. It was hosted by the Marquis de Lafayette for Thomas, then acting as American ambassador. Though de Lafayette was philosophically democratic, he was required to cultivate relationships with...
