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The movie-watching experience usually occurs at a remove from nature: in an air-conditioned theater, at home on the couch, on a trans-Atlantic flight. But directors know that, somehow, film has a way of recreating the transporting feeling that can be gleaned from a landscape — or from a single obsessed-over bloom. Then too, as the … Read more

How to Be Cultured Menu 1. Poem everyone should memorize? “Pablo Neruda’s ‘Ode to the Onion’ (1954). I find his adoration of simple objects appealing. It springs to mind when I’m cooking.” 2. Recipe everyone should know? “Italian ceci, or chickpeas. They should be roasted or fried, so they’re crispy, and garnished with nothing but … Read more

How to Be Cultured Menu 1. Novel that explains the world? “ ‘We’ (1924) by Yevgeny Zamyatin, one of the first to be censored in the Soviet Union. It’s a portrait of the ways technology serves as a tool of autocratic control, a precursor to George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (1949) and a stunning read.” 2. Relatable … Read more

How to Be Cultured Menu 1. Greatest onscreen performance? “Marlon Brando in ‘On the Waterfront’ (1954). He’s so calm, and he speaks the way he’d speak in real life, kind of mumbling. Paul Newman, too, in ‘Cool Hand Luke’ (1967). These men were almost father figures for me. I observed them in the absence of … Read more

How to Be Cultured Menu Film 1. The supporting cast of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939), directed by Victor Fleming “The performances that influenced me were always by character actors, the people who populated the world that you sometimes cared more about than the lead actors,” says Stephen Root, 74, known for his supporting roles … Read more

How to Be Cultured Menu Film A scene from Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” (1950). ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950), directed by Billy Wilder “What I love about this movie,” says Bronstein, “is Gloria Swanson,” who plays Norma Desmond in Wilder’s tragic portrait of a former silent-film star desperate to make a return to the screen. Bronstein, 46, … Read more

How to Be Cultured Menu Film Leo McCarey’s “Make Way for Tomorrow” (1937). The Criterion Collection ‘Make Way for Tomorrow’ (1937), directed by Leo McCarey The log line: After the bank forecloses on their home, an elderly couple must separate, each living with a different one of their adult children.  The pitch: “It’s a film that Orson … Read more

How to Be Cultured Menu Film The origins of avant-garde cinema date to the silent era, when artists in the 1920s like Man Ray, Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dalí began to explore film as a kind of abstract form. In the 1930s and ’40s in America, Harry Smith, Mary Ellen Bute and Maya … Read more