Kina Lillet
Does anybody know whether this is sold in Malta? It’s an essential ingredient for the Vesper, which is THE James Bond so-called martini.
three measures of Gordon’s gin
one measure of vodka
half a measure of Kina Lillet (which is not vermouth)
As you might have guessed, I watched Quantum of Solace last night – great filming, amazing locations, hot Daniel Craig, but where on earth are the super-sexy Bond girls, the gadgets, the evil-looking villains, and the dry one-liners falling from Bond’s lips? At least the man still drinks.
I’m not sure I like this sanitised version of Bond for the age of political correctness. Casino Royale had him falling irrevocably in love. Quantum of Solace has him pining for his dead Vesper (the girl, not the drink) and spurning the charms of the very striking Olga Kurylenko, except for a sudden quick and chaste kiss before the credits roll. Even the usually amazing Kurylenko comes across as oddly asexual or ambivalent, like a gorgeous young tranny or a perfectly proportioned Greek youth striding across that Bolivian desert in his mini-toga. She’s a far cry from the undulating, shimmering womanly sexiness of the Bond girls of yore, and the farthest cry of all from the iconic scene of a young Ursula Andress emerging from the sea in that classic buckled white bikini, pulsating with sensuality. There was no pulsating sensuality in this film, I can tell you.
Even the names have been toned down: the last Bond girl was named after his drink. This one is named boring Camille. At least there’s a Strawberry Fields. What a come-down from the days of Pussy Galore. Daniel Craig is far more ruggedly attractive than Pierce Brosnan and Roger Moore (though not Sean Connery), but he lacks their elegance and you can’t imagine him dropping their witty one-liners, which is probably why he hasn’t been given any. And his legs are short, which makes the famous silhouette with the gun in the opening credits a bit of a stocky problem. That said, he and the wow locations are the best bit – oh, and Kurylenko’s fabulous necklace: two rows of huge gold links with a fat golden fish pendant. Faqa, as they used to say.
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Reply to Mario Debono Click here to cancel reply
According to an article in Esquire, the Vesper hasn’t aged well. Gordon’s gin used to be 47% alcohol, but it is now 40%. And vodka used to be much stronger in Ian Fleming’s time than it is today. The recipe for Kina Lillet was changed to include less quinine sometime in the 1980s, the ‘kina’ then having been dropped from the name, so it isn’t as bitter as it used to be.
Here is the Vesper, updated with 21st century replacements. Shake with cracked ice:
3 oz 47% vol. Tanqueray gin
1 oz 50% vol. Stolichnaya vodka
1/2 oz Lillet Blanc
1/8 teaspoon (or less) quinine powder or, in desperation, 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
Buy Lillet Blanc online: http://www.thedrinkshop.com/products/nlpdetail.php?prodid=1810
Buy quinine powder online: http://store.nexternal.com/shared/StoreFront/default.asp?CS=raintree&StoreType=BtoC&Count1=500667750&Count2=417808175
Roger Moore was better-looking, more suave and debonair than the rest of the Bonds and by far the best at delivering one-liners. The lakeside scenes in ‘Solace’ were filmed in Austria (Vorarlberg).
[Daphne – Yes, I agree that he was the quintessential bond, and that he is much better looking than Daniel Craig, but lots of women define attractiveness in ways other than the classic definition of aesthetic appeal. Daniel Craig is more attractive because be is more masculine. Moore was too ‘perfect’ and indeed, in old age, he has come to resemble an old woman, as many such men do, including Michael Douglas. I have no doubt that Pierce Brosnan will end up down the same road. The lakeside scenes are amazing, as are all the location shoots, particularly the opening scenes in Siena – wonderful.]
So even the Bond films have fallen victim of this political correctness flood!
It has become really ridiculous!
[Daphne – Ah, but the villain is using environmentalism as a cloak for his villainous ends.]
I prefer Sean Connery! By the way Daphne, when someone mentions W&E (now) you end up saying that you do not mind paying as long as you pay for what you use. That is not so anymore. Read
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081124/local/extra-charge-for-sewage-possible
And don’t mention SANT!
[Daphne –
I haven’t watched Quantum yet, will do this Wednesday, but I do not mind if the Bond films take a different direction, I mean we had forty years of Bond quips, one liners, and Bond humour. Do you remember an actor called Lewis Collins, he used to play ‘Bodie’ in the series ‘The Professionals’, he was earmarked to replace Roger Moore, but was ditched when he insisted to play a more serious Bond, minus the Bond gadgets etc. He was twenty years before his time I guess.
Daniel Craig reminds me of Steve McQueen. I don’t know much about attractiveness, but I noticed that women who like cute guys like Brad Pitt, dislike the more rugged ones, for example Al Pacino, and vice versa .
[Daphne – You’re right. He’s got a lot of Steve McQueen about him, and he’s probably pushing all those very same buttons with women (just as George Clooney pushes the Cary Grant/Gregory Peck/Sean Connery buttons). When women like ‘cute’ guys like Brad Pitt, what they are really attracted to is the absence of sex. They’re ‘non-threatening’.]
Ah! The perennial argument… who was the best Bond? I personally think that each actor was the right one for his time (Dalton being the odd one out), and I like Craig in the role very much… Re QoS I agree wholeheartedly with Daphne’s comments. When Matt Damon’s Bourne Trilogy gave the spy genre a kick up the butt, I think the producers of QoS tried to emulate it by upping the action quotient almost to a fault, to the detriment of the Bond-isms we’ve come to love and expect. It’s still a great movie though. And I just LOVED Judi Dench. Ok, back to work now…
Daphne, they still say “faqa”… Perhaps not as often as before, but plenty of my mates say it.
The whole idea was to move away from the previous James Bond films ‘camp’ formula. I don’t think political correctness has much to do with anything.
It is of course controversial; some prefer the Roger Moore or 60s Bond and some prefer the ‘Bourne’ type of film. It may be the sign of times, as Batman films have also gone down that road. Judging from the box office sales we are going to see more of this type of Bond in the future, and have to watch the old Bond movies and re-runs of Remington Steele for the campy fun.
Sorry guys, couldn’t agree with you less. Moore was the pits. He took the character he invented in The Persuaders and changed the name. Unlike Connery, he never took his character seriously. Eventually battling increasingly preposterous villains such as Jaws in Moonraker (shudder!). I think Craig takes his lead from the only James Bond film starring George Lazenby, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.[Spoiler Alert! this is the one where Bond marries and his wife is shot dead on their honeymoon]
True, it was not a popular movie and I suspect audiences still want their spies to be glamorous, as the sentiments expressed above are similar to those expressed in other quarters. Still, it’s good to see the Bond franchise reinventing itself and not going down the route of repeating itself as most sequels do – 40 years on, that in itself is an achievement!
Nah – give me Brosnan any time (but don’t take that too literally…..)
Chris, I think ‘On her majesty’s secret service’ was one of the best Bonds ever; I really liked the poignant ending ‘She’s only sleeping’. Both Lazenby and Riggs played the parts magnificently.
I think, apart from Moore and Brosnan, all the other Bonds tried to come over as cynical tough-as-nails no nonsense characters. Roger Moore just played himself as he usually does; he is a two-dimensional actor. No depth to the characters he portrays. Even when he played a Nazi you could not help but like him. Brosnan was inspired by Moore I guess.
[Daphne – When women like ‘cute’ guys like Brad Pitt, what they are really attracted to is the absence of sex.]
I think that Pitt always does his damnedest to look super-ruggedly handsome and steeped in machismo, and you’re calling him cute?
[Daphne – ‘Does his damnedest’; that says it all. And now he’s shacked up with a super-sexy chick and keeps bringing in the kids. Makes you wonder what he’s trying to prove. ‘Hey, I’m a real guy….’.]
Mela Malta kont nistaqsi ghal Vodka Martini u kienu jwegbuni, “Wiehed vodka, u wiehed martini?”
“Le, vodka u martini fl-istess tazza.”
Nah it was a great movie – this Bond is actually much closer to Fleming’s (very human) original. As a kid I read his books time and time again – far better than Guze Chetcuti’s poetry and small enough to hide behind a medium-sized text book.
The film had very good stunts and action scenes and they’ve done away with the one-hit-is-all-it-takes fight scenes.
But I miss those one-liners too.
Anyway, I guess it all boils down to taste. I personally think that Casino Royale is one of the best Bond movies and its sequel did not disappoint me.
Forget Pussy Galore – what about Mary Goodhead and Plenty O’Tool?
I am an avowed fan of the Bond films. Sean Connery was the quintessential Bond for me. The opening scene from Dr No is just a classic. At the gaming table….he gets a cigarette out from a cigarette case, as a true gentleman should, lights it with an old Zippo lighter and says…Bond…James Bond. Just classic. The franchise has moved with the times.
[Daphne – I think you’ll find that the only iconic image from Dr No to linger down the last 46 years is that of Honey Ryder, played by Ursula Andress, emerging from the water holding two shells strategically, wearing that buckled white wow bikini with a knife slotted into it. I used to have one of those bikinis when I was very thin, very 20s and very brown, but I dispensed with the knife. It wouldn’t have gone down too well at the Reef Club, I don’t think.]
I agree.This was another iconic scene, copied rather poorly by Halle Berry in Die another Day. She was singing a song. Underneath the Mango Tree…..
As for the bikinu u had, Daphne, they were all the rage after the film was released. Worn on the right girl, as I have seen it worn in Malta last summer, they are faqa…
I just am thankful u dispensed with the knife. Gives me delicious shudders imagining it…….and imagining the Two Ronnies in the Water at the same time. Or maybe u would have used it to prise “imhar” from the rocks and eat them, or a sea urchin or two perhaps….Ahjar ma nkomplix
To think I used to read the books and see the films frame by frame to see how they differed…….daqshekk kont iffssat fuq Ian Fleming u James Bond.
I sometimes hanker for that era of elegance and suaveness….the 60’s. Wish I was born at least 8 years before and experenced London in 1968…flower power, James Bond,mini coopers, Pink Floyd, bell bottoms, and all that. Somehow these times are more sterile and much less fun.
[Daphne – You would have had to be born at least 16 years earlier, in 1950.]
[Daphne – ‘Does his damnedest’; that says it all. And now he’s shacked up with a super-sexy chick and keeps bringing in the kids. Makes you wonder what he’s trying to prove. ‘Hey, I’m a real guy….’.]
What a waste of man. And Jolie is truly, the sexiest woman alive, but her penchant for brooding is legendary. Soon she won’t be so sexy if she continues this way.
[Daphne – She’s not actually having them, Mario, except for the twins.]
Sorry….a slight miscalculation. I meant 1950.
Mark my words, Jolie will brood and brood untill there’s no tomorrow.
http://www.jamesbondfilme.de/musik_01.htm
For those of you who wonder what Honeychile Ryder was singing when bond saw her first
http://www.jamesbondfilme.de/musik_07.htm
And another of my favourite ones
http://www.jamesbondfilme.de/musik_10.htm
and another one ….remember the end scene with HMS Fearless and this song going on in the background. ????
Daniel Craig makes a good budgie smuggler…hehe
Work this one out.
[Daphne – Attenta, Miss hej, ghax tisma l-cassock chaser tat-torta tal-lampuka.]
I thought he was rather good in “Burn After Reading”. Now THAT’s a movie for you, Daphne: witty, tight, self-contained, and with a brilliant performance by John Malkovich.
MOGGY – “I think that Pitt always does his damnedest to look super-ruggedly handsome and steeped in machismo”
He still looks like too much of a pretty boy.
[Daphne – Yes, that’s what we’re saying.]
Mario Debono – “I just am thankful u dispensed with the knife. Gives me delicious shudders imagining it…….and imagining the Two Ronnies in the Water at the same time. Or maybe u would have used it to prise “imhar” from the rocks and eat them, or a sea urchin or two perhaps….Ahjar ma nkomplix”
Mur bennen, Mario!
I think there are no gadgets cause Casino Royale actually goes back to the very beginning of Bond not continues.
[Amanda Mallia – He still looks like too much of a pretty boy.]
That’s why I said he “does his damnedest”, as in tries very hard to look very masculine. Personally I find Brad Pitt intensely off-putting, but that’s only me.
@ Daphne
What? I just said Daniel Craig’s a member of FKNK. Snigger.
[Daphne – Forsi hi taf taghmel torta tal-budgies ukoll u ggibilna wahda….]
Prefer Pierce Brosnan. Has that classy British aura about him. Craig is more of an ‘action man’ kind of guy.
@ Daphne
I don’t think la Benoit cherishes competition…
Besides you don’t qualify for any baked goods since you’re a bad woman.
Moggy – No, it’s not only you; pretty boys are usually off-putting … to most women.
Brad Pitt’s probably the equivalent of Di Caprio of the younger generation.
Hey Daphne,
I remember you walking down the steps at the Reef Club, but I think it was a red bikini. In the mid-nineties, very brown, slim, alone, alluring, somewhat aloof, no knife, but carrying an interesting book. Forget where you had it tucked.
[Daphne – I wouldn’t have been alone. I would have had three small boys with me, and probably a friend or two of theirs as well. But they used to vanish as soon as we got there, usually to be returned by the security guards at the Hilton construction site, after having swum across to explore.]
Ok………forget the surly Bond (who I think needs a few good one-liners to move him away from his very wooden acting role. (Mind you it’s still great escapism and beats ‘sirchurges’….)
but now to a bit of real BOND …..What was Manoel Cuschieri scheming whilst having a cosy dinner with the BON girl,at the Corinthia San Gorg, when his master was spouting rubbish at Mile-end.
Hint hint it was MC with SEB !! Methinks the plot thickens.
[Daphne – Manwel Cuschieri was having dinner with Sharon Ellul Bonici. Yes, somebody has rung already to point that out.]
Amanda ….insejtu zmienek? Its 2.36 and Thats exactly what i am doing. Typing with one hand whilst a 6 weeks old toddler full of beans and not an ounce of sleep on her looks on. A true representative of her sex…..ma tifhimiex u qas tidher ahseb u ara meta tikber.
And in case this concoction doesn’t go down well (and I don’t think it will – I once tried vodka-Martini and had to make an effort not to wretch) you can lead the life of a British Secret Service agent –
http://www.tjbd.co.uk/james-bond-drink.htm
Tony Pace – Maybe she’s doing undercover work for the man in tights
Ah, NGT, but then you should use real vodka. All this Smirnoff rubbish that they feed you. Real mean drink Russkii Standard, or Flagman. I don’t think you can get it outside Russia. The bee’s knees, what. Besides, what they give you in Malta, and in Continental Europe, isn’t the real vodka martini. They should be using dry Martini, while they use the sweet version.
Anyway, I’ve switched to Pimm’s recently.
[Daphne – Yes, I’ve rediscovered that. I love it.]
Ah. With lemonade, mint leaves, a slice of lime, orange and lemon, and a little cherry at the bottom? (Which is how it should be drunk; when I asked for a Pimm’s at Coconut I was handed a shot. Why? Why?)
Mint leaves and lemonade…with a little cherry at the bottom? How sweet. Anyone for a Zombie?
Thank you to all you ladies here for your disparaging comments about Brad Pitt’s appearance. I am also of the opinion that his looks are overrated.
However I must also grudgingly concede that if someone were to make me an offer: Brad Pitt’s looks for my right testicle, chances are that there would be one more Brad Pitt out there (albeit with a slightly higher pitched voice).
[Daphne – Take our advice: give up your right testicle for Daniel Craig’s looks and persona instead.]
Looks apart, I have to say Brad Pitt is a damn good actor; he has a gift of getting into the character he is portraying. In the film Kalifornia (with a ‘K’) he was this most disgusting, unwashed, southern white trash of a murderer, and then in the film Joe Black he came over as angelic and naïve as can be, even though he was supposed to be the angel of death. He is like a chameleon.