HUNGRY GERALD

Here’s a recipe for a perfect night. Start with a dinner of barbecued, Adobo dusted chicken breasts accompanied by a melange of olive oil gilded, grilled vegetables (Belgian endive, red bell peppers, Vidalia onions). Drink plenty of red Malbec. Settle down in the Eames lounge chair with a snifter of Bushmill’s Irish Honey Whiskey. Watch The Leopard on TV (the three-hour Italian language subtitled director’s cut version). Directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Burt Lancaster (adroitly dubbed into Italian), The Leopard (Il Gattopardo), was made in 1963 and is one of the few films that deserves the term “epic.” The final 45-minute ballroom sequence, exquisitely and subtly acted by Lancaster, is a cinema masterpiece, combining social commentary, visual splendor and individual experience. Movie magic. The film is faithful to the great novel upon which it is based, The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomaso di Lampedusa, a Sicilian of noble lineage. Read the book. See the movie.