Category: Films

Films Set in Venice: Don’t Look Now

Am image of a canal in Venice, Italy featuring a church and gondolas and the words "Bashful Adventurer Film Club" superimposed. Photo credit: M. Ciavardini.

Since the only sort of travel any of us are actually engaging in during the COVID-19 era is some very hearty channel surfing, this seems like a good a moment as any to indulge in movies about travel and, more…

Watch The Trip to Greece Film

An armchair adventure with the Bashful Adventurer: Watching The Trip to Greece film brings back memories of Hydra. Photo credit: M. Ciavardini. Pictured: a view of the bay in Hydra from a restaurant window.

Limited to armchair traveling, the Bashful Adventurer fires up the latest Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon collaboration. But will watching The Trip to Greece do more than bring on a bout of nostalgia?

Cong Beyond The Quiet Man

The Quiet Man Museum in Cong celebrates the John Wayne movie of the same name. Photo credit: M. Ciavardini

If you are not into the film, should you bother visiting Cong? As robust as one’s Netflix account might be, some of us just are not big fans of The Quiet Man, the John Ford-John Wayne-Maureen O’Hara film about a…

Free Radical: The Lesson of Louise Bryant

Moscow Photo credit: M. Ciavardini

A Russian Revolution Chronicler’s Extraordinary Life I am late to the life of Louise Bryant. I become interested in her long after watching Reds, and reading her husband’s book, Ten Days That Shook the World, and going to Russia, where…

Austrian Anomalies

Vienna

Looking for Understanding in France and New York I don’t know much about Austria beyond the Sound of Music. Little makes sense to me about Austria despite my efforts to understand. How could the homeland of Marie-Antoinette, who herself struggled…

American Red

A bust of Vladimir Lenin in the Moscow subway Photo credit: M. Ciavardini

A Romance with Revolution Rewatching the 1981 Warren Beatty film Reds, about journalist and eventual collaborator John Reed’s coverage of and interest in the Russian revolution, I remember that Reed is buried at the Kremlin, a point that I neglect…

Depressed in Paris?

Think it's impossible to be depressed in Paris? Michael Caine's character in the film 'Last Love' proves the City of Light isn't inspiring everyone.

There are some places on the planet where gloom just doesn’t settle: Key West, Fla.; New Orleans; Paris. Does anyone visiting these destinations ever have a bad time? How could they? So it is surprising to watch a film about…

French Film: Crazy on a Bad Day

The film Just a Sigh portrays the fine line between stalking and being adventuresome.

Given that adventuring is all about random encounters, romance, and a little bit of train travel, the film Just a Sigh (2013) provides just the right amount of escapism for anyone contemplating Paris or pursuit of a whim. Emmanuelle Devos,…