Kudos to Nora Ephron for undertaking the daunting task of merging the essentials from two books into 125 minutes of pure entertainment.

Julie and Julia depicts Julie Powell’s search for an escape from her mundane life,  by cooking her way though Mastering the Art of French Cooking and blogging about her experiences along the way.

My Life in France chronicles Julia Child’s introduction to and continuing love affair with French cuisine.

It can’t be said too much or too often:  Meryl Streep is truly an amazing actress.  Ms. Streep transformed herself into Julia Child in every way possible: looks, mannerisms and speech.  She nailed Child’s warbling, gusty, enthusiastic, just short of pompous style of speaking from the movie’s opening to the ending credits.

Watching Streep interact with her make believe husband (played superbly by Stanley Tucci) as he gleefully initiated his new bride into the joys of French cooking was a delight.

After a brief stint at hat making, Julia muscled her way into an all male class at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu and proceeds to massacre an onion to the amusement of the other students.

But nothing daunts Julia for long as we see in the next scene. Child’s diplomat husband reels, stumbles and finally retreats as the acrid aroma emanating from a veritable mountain of ‘properly’ chopped onion greets him at the kitchen door.  Words were not possible nor necessary.   Veterans Streep and Tucci relied almost entirely on facial expressions and subtle gestures for communication in this humorous scene.

Some reviewers faulted Ephron for portraying the Child’s marriage as idyllic, free of tension and discord.  But their life was hardly problem free:  Julia couldn’t conceive, Paul was scrutinized by Joe McCarthy’s goon squad and the U. S. government seemed to change diplomatic postings willy nilly.

Ephron didn’t ignore these setbacks, but instead used them as a backdrop for Julia’s  struggle with the French language, and her collaboration with  fellow cooks Simone Beck (Linda Emond) and Louisette Bertholle (Helen Carey) to produce the first French cookbook for American housewives, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Fast forward 40 years and 3,000 miles to a dismal apartment in Queens where the  normally adorable Amy Adams assumes the persona of Julie Powell, one dissatisfied young woman. Bolstered by attentive husband (Chris Messina), Powell sets out to change her life through cooking. At 35,  Adams stretched beyond her usual cheerfully optimistic role to one of insecurity, resentment and gloom.

That’s not to say that some of Powell’s experience weren’t funny-they were.  The most memorable was her bout with the lobsters.  The sack quivered and rattled ominously on the ride home from the store prompting nervous glances from the would be chef. Once, the wily crustaceans hit the boiling water, the pot lid clattered to the floor driving Powell from the kitchen.

Ephron could not intertwine the life of Julia and Julie since they had never met much to the latter’s regret.  Instead the director chose to skip back and forth from the 1950s to 2002 as the movie progressed which several reviewers found distracting.

Thankfully, Ephron’s screenplay eliminated most of the profanity that made Julie and Julia almost unreadable.  Regardless of Ephron’s efforts, the Julie vignettes were just not as interesting as those of Julia.

Many reviewers, myself included, would have preferred more Julia, and little or no Julie.

]]> http://www.bookclubcompanion.com/reviews/two-books-one-movie/feed 1 http://www.bookclubcompanion.com/biography/female-spies-in-wwii http://www.bookclubcompanion.com/biography/female-spies-in-wwii#comments Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:29:12 +0000 Linda http://bookclubcompanion.wordpress.com/?p=850 Furtively glancing right and left before pulling a plain brown envelope from the hidden pocket of her trench coat, the shadowy figure hesitantly stepped  from the doorway of the burned out and deserted building.  A tall thin man, shrouded entirely in black, sidled from the darkened alley way to her left, accepted the packet and hurried away without a word of greeting.

A scene from one of those campy 1940s spy movies filmed entirely in black and white?

Not for some of the 4,500 women who actively engaged in espionage work for the OSS during WWII.

Josephine Baker

Spying for her adopted country of France, Josephine Baker personally carried confidential information throughout Europe.

Blinded by her stardom, passport checkers never once guessed that the famed entertainer’s sheet music carried secrets penned in invisible ink. When recruited by her agent’s older brother, Baker eagerly agreed to pass on any tantalizing bits of information overheard at cocktail parties.

Sipping martinis while idly chatting with high-ranking Japanese officials and Italian bureaucrats at embassy gatherings, the singer could easily contribute to the French Resistance movement.

Her other war efforts included: sending Christmas presents to French soldiers, hiding Belgian refugees at her house in Southern France and securing passports and visas for people dodging the Nazi regime.

Accompanied by her entourage, Baker smuggled information out of Spain by pinning it inside her underwear. Not only did the St. Louis native sing and dance for allied soldiers in North Africa, but she also entertained liberated inmates of Buchenwald too frail to travel.

Recognized as the first American women to receive the Croix de Guerre, France’s highest military honor, the St. Louis Walk of Fame and Hall of Famous Missourians also honor Baker’s accomplishments.

For more information regarding this world-famous, African-American entertainer read: Josephine Baker: The Hungry Heart by foster son, Jean-Claude Baker.

Julia McWilliams Child

Before achieving celebrity status as The French Chef, Julia McWilliams Child processed top-secret documents for the OSS, the forerunner of today’s CIA.

Too tall for the WACS or WAVES, this advertising copywriter worked for OSS Leader General William Donovan as a research assistant in the Secret Intelligence Division.

In those years before computers, her orderly mind came in handy when assigned the task of keeping track of 10,000 officers by typing each individual’s name on a white note card before adding their vital information.

In the Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section, Julia helped develop a signal mirror for downed pilots and “cooked up” a shark repellent to steer the sea creatures away from underwater explosives intended to blow up German U-boats.

Ripe for adventure, the California native volunteered for a posting in Ceylon where she handled highly classified papers dealing with the invasion of the Malay Peninsula.

Given top security clearances in Kumming, China, Julia personally examined every incoming and outgoing message for all the intelligence branches involved in war efforts.

Besides receiving the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service for her leadership in the OSS Secretariat in China, Julia McWilliams landed a husband who helped launch her star-studded culinary career after the war.

My Life in France chronicles the Child’s life after the war in Paris, Marseille, and Provence.

Virginia Hall

Considered “the most dangerous of all allied spies” by the Gestapo, Virginia Hall spent 15 months helping to coordinate the workings of the Underground in occupied France.

Called “the limping lady of the OSS,” Hall ducked behind enemy lines to map drop zones for necessary supplies and parachuting Allied forces . While working with the Underground, they cut  telegraph power lines disrupting vital German communications as the D-Day invasion played out.

The amputation of her left leg below the knee might have killed her chances for a diplomatic career but didn’t hamper Hall from training three battalions of Resistance forces in guerilla tactics for use against the Germans. Hobbling around on her wooden leg named Cuthbert, the operative continued to update reports of German troop movements until the Allies relieved her group.

In September 1945, Hall accepted A Distinguished Service Cross, the only one awarded to a woman in WWII. Previously in July 1943, British authorities had quietly recognized Hall as a Member of the Order of the British Empire fearing that a higher honor would ‘blow her cover’.

After marriage to OSS agent, Paul Goillot, the CIA requested her services as an intelligence analyst on French parliamentary affairs.

To learn more about Virginia Hall, read The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America’s Greatest Female Spy by Judith L. Pearson.

Amy Elizabeth Thorpe

By all reports, the most controversial lady spy, Amy Elizabeth Thorpe exploited her beauty and seductive charms to secure valuable enemy data from admiring men in high places.

“Ashamed? Not in the least,” she retorted, “My superiors told me that the results of my work saved thousands of British and American lives.”

Under the code name, Cynthia, Thorpe procured cables, letters, files and accounts of embassy activities and personalities from her lover Charles Brousse, a French embassy official in Washington, D. C.  As his mistress, Thorpe exploited Brousse’s anti-Nazi sentiments and connections with the Vichy French government to her advantage.

Not afraid to scare off an inquisitive night guard by stripping down to her necklace and heels, Cynthia paved the way for the theft of  naval codes. In November, 1942, these ciphers proved to be extremely useful in planning the Allied invasion of  French-held North Africa.

The modern day Mata Hari remarked, “It involved me in situations from which ’respectable’ women draw back—but mine was total commitment. Wars are not won by respectable methods.”

Dubbed as one of the most successful spies in history, Amy Elizabeth Thorpe Pack Brousse also secured conclusive proof of Hitler’s plan to rip apart Czechoslovakia and linked the Polish and Allied efforts to break Germany’s enciphering machine, Enigma.

Some sources credit this translation of German ciphers with bringing an end to the European war two year earlier than previously expected.

The most accurate version of her life and service can be found in Sisterhoodof Spies – The Women of the OSS by Elizabeth P. McIntosh

And the public does remember the humor and the dynamic personality of the six-foot, two-inch woman named Julia Child.

Sadly, the TV chef left us in August 2004, but her influence continues in numerous cookbooks, food videos and soon-to-be released motion picture, Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep.

At the oldest restaurant in the country of France,  Paul Child introduced his new wife to French cuisine with a meal of oysters, sole meuniere and fine wine. Having been raised on hearty New England fare, Julia characterized the dining experience as, “an opening up of the soul and the spirit for me.”

The newly weds both worked for the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) when they met.  At first, these two contradictory individuals cared little for each other.

Ten years older than Julia McWilliams, Paul Child, an artist and poet with a black belt in judo, spoke flawless French.  Before the OSS posting, the adventure-starved young woman worked as an advertising copywriter for a New York upscale furniture business, W & J Sloane.

In a letter to twin brother Charlie, Paul, a world traveler, described Julia as “wildly emotional” and  an “extremely sloppy thinker” who couldn’t “sustain ideas for long”.

On the other hand, Julia despaired of Paul’s, “light hair which is not on top, an unbecoming blond mustache and a long, unbecoming nose”.  After a cross-country trip, livened up with 8 bottles of whiskey and 1 bottle each of gin and mixed martinis, the couple wed the following September, 1946.

With Paul’s assignment to France, his new wife’s education in the art of fine food began in earnest.  “I was hooked,” she remarked and soon enrolled in the Cordon Bleu, the esteemed cooking school which has produced Food Network chefs, Giada De Laurentis, Mario Batali and Sandra Lee.

Along with six months of instruction and private lessons with Master Chef, Max Bugnard, the budding gourmet haunted the open-air street markets gleaning food lore from fish mongers, bakers and sellers of fruit.

Not to be left out of the adventure, Paul squired Julia to neighborhood bistros as well as fine restaurants further increasing her knowledge of well-prepared food and its presentation on the plate.

A collaboration with two French women, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, over a period of ten years, produced Mastering the Art of French Cooking, volume 1. During this time, the Childs were posted throughout Europe and then back to Washington making communication between the three colleagues difficult in those days before e-mail and fax.

Detailed reports of individual recipes, each page typed with six carbon copies, flew back and forth across the continent and the Atlantic throughout the 50s.  Exhausted at one point from the exacting experience of perfecting one-ingredient recipes, Julia exclaimed, “I’ve just poached two more eggs and thrown them down the toilet”.

Clearly, she couldn’t stomach another Salad Layonnaise, a traditional French salad of  curly endive, hot bacon, and a freshly poached egg.

After testing all those recipes, volume 1 was rejected by several publishers for being too much like an encyclopedia.  Weighing in at 734 pages, they weren’t too far from wrong.  But persistence paid off with publicity from The French Chef on WGBH, Boston’s public TV station, the cookbook sold 200,000 copies by 1965.

Imagine those housewives of the early 60s who regularly stocked their pantry shelves with Shake ‘n’ Bake, Reddi Whip and Tang reaching for whisks, molds and copper bowls to produce quiche Lorraine, boeuf bourguignon and reine de saba.  Quite a change and all because of a former advertising copywriter.

Recovering from a full radical mastectomy in 1968, Julia dried her tears and threw all her energies into completing volume 2 of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. “Rushing from stove to typewriter like a mad hen,” she quipped.

Success from more episodes of The French Chef catapulted Julia from cook to a celebrity.  But Paul’s declining health took away his French and verbal fluency.  From then on, he served as manager, photographer, recipe tester and proofreader leaving the limelight to his adored wife.

Consequently, Julia’s  40-year career devoted to fine food, yielded  an induction into the Culinary Institute of Fame (1993), France’s Legion of Honor (2000) and the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom(2003).  In August 2002, The French Chef’s kitchen was welcomed into the Smithsonian National Museum as an exhibit.

Besides being recognized with honorary degrees  from various universities , the distinctive voice and manner of Julia Child have been  parodied on SNL (Saturday Night Live) by Dan Aykroyd,  by Heathcliff Huxtable on The Bill Cosby Show (1984-1992) and  on Garrison Keillor’s radio series, A Prairie Home Companion, by Tim Russell.

During her 90 plus years, this restless young woman from Pasadena, California, who once cooked up shark repellent for the U.S. Navy during WWII,  grew into an iconic figure  synonymous with fine dining in the kitchens  across  America.