When you hear the name “Tiffany,” what do you think about? Camille Di Donato and my three granddaughters think about necklaces, bracelets and earrings. I think about stained glass windows. The Metropolitan Museum of Art evidently thinks about Tiffany’s glorious estate. It’s current exhibition is “Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall: An Artist’s Country Estate.” Never before did I see an exhibition at a museum that comes with its own porch – and what a porch! The Daffodil Terrace is larger than my grandson’s Manhattan apartment. When I was a newlywed (I know, ancient history) the first wallpaper I picked out for the kitchen was decorated with huge clusters of daffodils. It was my favorite so you can imagine my reaction to Tiffany’s glorious Daffodil Terrace: tall marble columns topped with clusters of yellow flowers – daffodils – made not from paper but made of blown glass. Be still my heart! It’s all reassembled at the Met for the first time since Laurelton Hall burned to the ground in 1957. Tiffany’s grand estate was built on 580 landscaped acres overlooking Long Island Sound – and, lucky us, we get to see it at the Met – along with the stained glass windows. Oh, yes, I also adored seeing an upright piano that Tiffany designed. I thought it was inlaid with mother-of-pearl but I read that it was ingeniously carved and painted. “Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall: An Artist’s Country Estate” is a strange, rare and lovely exhibition that continues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 20.
If you decide to see the film, “The Good German,” because you want to lust after its dreamboat male lead, George Clooney, forget about it. In his role as a reporter for The New Republic he is distractingly ineffectual. As Jake Geismer he returns to Germany following World War II to check out the doings at the Postdam Conference. If you remember, that was in August 1945 where Churchill, Truman and Stalin met as allies for the first time. The movie spins around Lena (Cate Blanchett) who looks as if she could use more than a few good meals. She tries to emulate Dietrich with a husky voice and a face, a taut mask of enigma. “The Grand German” has its characters constantly smoking and drinking, which I suppose is right for a film set in Berlin in 1945. In the immediate wake of World War II it was a city in fragments, a city split into four zones – the American, the British, the French and the Russian. In spite of all that history, “The Good German” has little impact. It is only mildly engrossing trying to capture the look and feel of ’40s to ’50s era movies. Shot in black-and-white, it was at times hard to watch and was not flattering to the star-power of Clooney and Blanchett. All the dense grays and haze-edged whites challenged my vision and distanced from the unappealing melodrama. The closing scene is a tribute to Casablanca and comes across as too precious. I missed Bogart and Bergman.
Most of us believe that all that glitters is not gold. Those strange green marks on my wrists and fingers seemed to prove that trite saying. But, wait – at the American Museum of Natural History all that glitters there is gold. On view through Aug. 19 is a major, yes dazzling, exhibition titled, you guessed it, gold. Throughout history the precious metal has been an unparallel symbol of treasure, beauty and power. Gold features extraordinary natural specimens and cultural artifacts as well as exhibits all ages can enjoy. I saw several groups of youngsters open-mouthed over an entire room covered in three ounces of gold. The room included recovered sunken treasures and a scale where they could learn their weight in gold. No, I didn’t weigh in (no sense in spoiling a lucky day!). Even though I realize that gold is beautiful and valuable I still prefer silver (so, sue me!). At the museum I learned about the history of gold. It’s an extremely versatile mineral with its amazing physical properties making it invaluable for technological uses from telephones and televisions to satellite circuitry and astronauts’ visors. One section of this exhibit features decorative items from around the world. In another section called “Golden Achievement” there is an Oscar statuette, a Grammy award, two Emmy awards and a Kentucky Derby trophy. With all that gold in mind I still looked for the museum’s eatery. Learning new things always enhances my appetite. I found it: Gold Nugget Café. It features a menu styled after “American Gold Rush” cuisine (try the miners’ chicken stew). The American Museum of Natural History is the one museum that my adult children remember: “Oh yeah – the one with the dinosaurs.” And now there is something new. Starting in late Oct., the museum will host sleepovers! For kids ages 9-12 and their parents it will be a unique after-hours chance to explore the museums halls, see a space show and participate in special activities. As the night winds down, they’ll camp out “under the sea” in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. Lucky kids! It almost makes me wish I had a child to take. I said “almost!”
“The History Boys” is a close to a theatrical experience as a moviegoers could hope for. A six Tony-awarded play by Alan Bennett translates well to the big screen with the actors who originated the roles in London. There are too many good performances to pick any one person. The story examines the school and its 8 students who are preparing to apply to Oxford and Cambridge. It captures the worries and pressures as well as the arrogance, humour and sheer smart-aleckness (is that a word?) that surround the boys’ dialogue. It includes the hilarity and torture of adolescence. The poetry-spouting eccentric teacher of general studies reminded me of Charles Laughton (if you don’t know who he is you must be under 40). In one scene the students converse comically in French. Even though I graduated with one of my majors in French it’s been too long a time of not using the language and I had trouble following the rapid fire speeches. I did enjoy the musical interludes where the lads leap to an old piano and acquit themselves admirable with camp song routines (brought back memories where I was a camp music counselor – and I still remember many of the routines. At times it’s easier to remember the past than the present). The History Boys is not for everyone’s tastes and/or sensibilities. The performances are stellar, the characters are great and for me it was a film worth seeing. You, too, might find the 109 minutes an uplifting cerebral experience and an entertaining exercise as well.