Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Audience Questions
Due to a family emergency that has occurred over this week I was unable to attend class this week. For all panelists I did watch the movie in advance for Juile and Julia. I thought it was a really good movie! My two questions for anyone not just the panelists are: Do you think it was more than just achallenge to Julie cook all Julia's 524 recipes, like an inner challenge rather than to just prove that she could? My other question is why did she choose Julia's recipes? I don't think that it explained the why very well because it was French food not just American meals. Once again I apologize for not being there but I enjoyed this class and it was a pleasure to get to know some of you!
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I think that towards the beginning of the movie, Julie mentioned something about Julia's recipes reminding her of home...I'm thinking maybe her mom used the cook book?
ReplyDeleteJulie had mentioned to her husband that the cookbook was her mothers and she had borrowed it, and laughed. It was a way for herself in some ways it appeared.
DeleteWhy did Julia Childs not like Julie or her blog?
ReplyDeleteIt was nice for narrative purposes--to find out it was real is interesting. On a "personal level", I think it was mainly because they were from different generations. I don't want to entirely blame the age gap, but blogs--particularly around Julie's time--are pretty odd to look back at. Child's editor, Jones, said in an interview that the blog wasn't appealing to them. (article: http://goo.gl/LcWPzH ) I think that the film brings out these apparent differences like those Jones mentions to not only highlight the characters as individuals, but to nicely bring about the "you saved yourself" to tie everything up nicely.
DeletePerhaps Julia did not like it (assuming Julia actually made the comment as in the movie) because Julie was simply creating the recipes from a cookbook. She was not making her own recipes, just executing the directions that Julia provides. The real skill is putting together such a large collection that was created by scratch with every recipe being tested. Julia's artistry in food is expressed in her cookbook. Julie's artistry in writing is expressed in her blog. Those are two different types of artistry.....albeit linked, but still very different.
DeleteThe key is that we don't really know the truth. the story is coming from Julie's perspective, so who knows what Julia thought...or if she even read the blog! I'm of the opinion that she never read it, and only heard of it from someone.
DeleteI agree. Unless I am forgetting something, I would find it hard to believe that Julia would not have liked her or her blog. Being of two different generations, she may have had a difficult time grasping the blog concept, but I felt that her passion for food would have shown in her love for anyone who shares the same passion.
DeleteI also doubt that Julia ever read the blog. I can see Sarah Hudson's point IF she did in fact see it. I'm not so sure she did. I think it was more than likely something made up by a reporter wanting to get a comment from Julie to make headlines. It's too bad that Julia didn't live to see this movie. I think after seeing it, she would have had a hard time not liking Julie and her passion and enthusiasm for Julia's work.
DeleteI think there was definitely the almost dual challenge of cooking (difficult foods at that) when she hadn't had much cooking experience, and to show herself that at 30 she wasn't worthless and floating through life.
ReplyDeleteI felt that she took on this challenge for personal reasons. I felt that she was in a low point in her life. Her friends are doing big things in life and she is stuck in her dead end job in middle management. I too have felt like this, and felt that a new challenge would be a great solution.
DeleteWas there not a section of the movie that flashed a magazine flashed 30 is the new 20. And all of her friends appeared to be more successful in their careers than she was at the time.
ReplyDeleteShe was frustrated and not challenged by her current job. Her friends seemed to have so much more going on. One of her friends was blogging about something and had several followers. Julie discussed the idea with her husband and he encouraged her to start a blog as well. The idea of blogging about cooking came to her mind. I think it was a personal challenge for her and a way to find self fulfillment.
ReplyDeleteBut she never said in her blog that how she could relate to Julia. She just posed a challenge to cook the recipes by a deadline.
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ReplyDeleteJulie does more or less explain why she chooses Julia Child to focus her blog/project on. She mentions how her mother made Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon for a dinner her father gave for his boss, and Julie felt somehow Julia was there overseeing everything like a great big good fairy, she says. In a way her position as the original celebrity chef makes her an inevitable choice, though Julie's age might mitigate against that.
ReplyDeleteThe unexpected negative reaction from Julia to Julie's blog is puzzling, and never has been clarified entirely why or even what exactly she objected to. Julia does seem suspicious of Julie somehow, but that apparently was her view of many others who invoked her name without her knowledge. Unlike current celebrity chefs who all have various product lines and are only too willing to endorse what advertisers and manufacturers might present them with, JC had none of that. Consequently, she may have felt Julie was somehow infringing on her imprimatur or claiming one that she hadn't given.
What I find more interesting about the flap, whatever it stemmed from, was how the once rejected rabble-rouser (or at least challenger to the established order), now becomes the oppressive force of the established against the new up-and-comers. Neither of these labels exactly fit, but there is something of that dynamic in the incident.