We went to see Good Will Hunting (1997) in the glorious grounds of the Chewton Glen Hotel as part of the Rick Stein endorsed Pop-Up Picture Company tour. Stein talks in a preamble to the film about matching his food with appropriately watchable movies. I suppose my problem with this idea – as a student of Film and a lifelong foodie – is can you really mix the two: film and food?
We were invited to purchase/order any drink we might want beforehand. The hotel, presumably, had chosen a small selection of reasonably priced wines and we chose a white wine as an aperitif and a rose to appear at the intermission. We had been asked to arrive at 7.30 and the film was to begin at 8.15. In the absence of sufficient seating, outside of the tended viewing space, it might have been better to start the film slightly earlier but then people had travelled from all around and so perhaps the three quarters of an hour was actually, very sensible. It was a beautiful warm and sunny evening and so standing chatting, with a cold glass of wine, was not too much of a hardship.
The film duly began as the starters were arriving. Caroline and I had chosen the cold, garlic soup, which was excellent. I was already getting into the film, directed by Gus Van Sant (he of the frame by frame re-make of Psycho fame) I know the film quite well although I haven’t see it for some time. I particularly remember it as having been scripted by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who also star in it, of course. It was a real breakthrough film for them both and their careers have taken off thereafter. Soup, is a simple thing to have in this context. Easy to consume and no need to take one’s eyes off the screen. We were seated at the front, by the way, on comfortable sofas with blankets provided for when it grew dark and the temperature dropped.
