“The brilliant young French actress Camille Rutherford (Low Life) stars as the doomed monarch in this sumptuous historical drama by Swiss director Thomas Imbach.”
We got up and secured tickets for Mary Queen of Scots, a 9:00AM show at TIFF Bell Lightbox, the festival’s classy theater. We took the streetcar downtown, and Mark went for tickets, while I went for coffee. The first Starbucks I thought I’d try was in the mall, so not quite open – though a TIFF line already wrapped around the building, movies goers waiting to get into the multiplex. I walked two blocks back to the one right by where we’d gotten off the streetcar, and tho the line was out the door, it went pretty quick. The nice thing for us, on a hot day, is that, once we were equipped with tix and coffee, the waiting lines at Lightbox are inside, in the air conditioning. The movie is structured as a series of (fictional) letters that Mary wrote to her cousin Elizabeth I, and a 1935 biography by Stefan Zweig. There’s been controversy surrounding Mary’s letters for 400 years, already. We thought this was another mess (like Tom) – in need of editing. But, unlike Tom, a charming mess, as Mark said. I was not sure if they were making fun of melodrama – there were a lot of scenes where the music would swell, and we’d cut to an image of a sky or some clouds or water or Mary’s face – like the waves crashing on the rocks in Dark Shadows.
We came back to the apartment for breakfast/lunch – split the blueberry scone I’d gotten at Starbucks, along with the good fat bacon from the market, and bananas and bagels and cherrios and vanilla yogurt – tho I had my yogurt with the last prune plum cut into little chunks and scattered over the top. The yogurt was on the sweet side, but good – all the grocery stores we’ve been in so far, the big Loblaws on College, and the Freshco under our apartment, have a dizzying array of yogurts – the flavored Greek yogurts are all 0 fat, which I don’t like, and the most appealing flavors only come in giant cartons. We discovered another grocery chain, Metro, and are going to check it out tomorrow.
We walked to Bulldog, and had a coffee, sitting outside, despite the heat – heard a car crash on Church, but didn’t go to gape like most of our neighbors. The guy sitting next to me was working on a syllabus – I couldn’t quite tell if he was a teacher or a student – but made me feel guilty. Still, I have the “no reliable wifi” excuse – and have been keeping up just fine, if I do say so myself. Then we took the subway up to Bloor for our last movie of the day, How I live now. At the end, the people behind us review was, “overacted teen flick” – but we liked it. Mark is very knowledgeable and a fan of YA lit – he’s already got the book in his Overdrive queue. We watched a bit of the post film Q&A – mostly trying to figure out how the hell you say Saorsie Ronan – I think it’s like “serchie”.
Our plan was to get dinner in Little Italy – we thought this place (actually in Little Portugal) yelped well – Enoteca Sociale. We couldn’t make an Open Table reserve, but figured since we’d arrive on the early side, better to just walk in. But when we got there, all we could smell was paint – they were not serving any food, at least on Weds. Seems like they have re-opened in time for the weekend:
After a week’s worth of renovations – things are looking good! Photos to follow in the next day or two! #Renovations #AlmostDone
— Enoteca Sociale (@enotecasociale) September 8, 2013
I saw the Lakeview Restaurant through the window of the streetcar, and thought we should walk back there. We strolled back east n Dundas, and stopped for a baguette at a bakery. I haven’t been able to find the article, but I swear it just got written up in one of the cooking mags – for making good use of local produce & products and having a store next door that sells them. Anyways, it was a great example of serendipity – Lakeview turned out to be the perfect spot for our early dinner. Mark had a cornflake fried chicken sandwich, and I had their version of toad in the hole eggs, and we both went home happy.
At least until I tracked my UPS-shipped forgotten passport – but I think I will relegate the rest of that saga to Thursday morning, where it belongs.
Lakeview eggy in the middle (toad in the hole) there’s an egg under the square of cheese, and the housemade maple sausage was just that
Lakeview cornflake fried chicken sandwich
