Ash Wednesday
March 5, 2014
I made my own Mardi Gras last night. I ordered in white pizza from V&T's (a famous pizza parlor and a neighborhood institution), and bought a small cheesecake. I got a chance to watch Fred Zinneman's Day of the Jackal, a wonderful film based on the idea that there was a follow-up assassination attempt on the life of President de Gaulle after the first --which actually occurred on August 22, 1962. In the movie, OAS, an underground group of military men opposed to de Gaulle's decision to grant Algeria independence, demoralized after the first attempt's failure, entrust a cold-blooded assassin, "The Jackal", to kill de Gaulle.
The film, based on the Frederick Forsyth novel of the same name, stars Edward Fox as the Jackal, Cyril Cusack as the maker of the gun the Jackal uses in the assassination attempt, Ronald Pickup as the forger of identify papers, Michael Lonsdale as Deputy Commissioner Claude Lebel and a very young Derek Jacobi as his assistant, Caron. Eric Porter plays Colonel Rodin of the OAS, the ravishing Delphine Seyrig ("Last Year At Marienbad"), is Colette de Montpellier, the aristocrat he romances. Donald Sinden is Assistant Commissioner Anthony Mallinson of Scotland Yard, who is ordered by the Prime Minister to help his French counterparts in order that the Jackal, believed to be an Englishman, may be prevented from disgracing Britain by killing de Gaulle.
The film belongs to Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale. Fox appears soon after the credits (which are set against footage of the first assassination attempt and execution of the perpetrators). Deputy Commissioner Lebel only appears later, after the French Minister of the Interior has run out of ideas for finding The Jackal. Police Commissioner Berthier, invited to the meetings by the Minister, is asked for his recommendation, at which point he says that to find the identify of The Jackal, it will take a detective. Who is his best? the Minister asks. Deputy Commissioner Lebel, comes the reply. The camera cuts away.
Lebel is first seen standing in a dovecote, tending to his pigeons. He is smiling, until his wife runs out of their house in the country to tell him that his boss, Police Commissioner Berthier, is on the phone. The investigation is conducted in absolute secrecy and under the supervision of the Minister of the Interior until the Jackal murders Colette de Montpellier, at which point Lebel is told his help is no longer needed. Only when the bureaucracy falters is Lebel recalled. The assassination is prevented, but only just barely.
The Jackal is a brilliant psychopath, Lebel is a bloodhound on his trail. "The Day Of The Jackal", is so popular because it delineates so tautly the rigor of each character's pursuit of his objective: in the Jackal's case, to execute a fantastic killing that will end his career, but leave him a millionaire; in Lebel's case, to prevent the violent death of a head of state who epitomized France's resistance in World War II and the years of progress that followed. The Jackal is flashy, but cunning; Lebel is self-effacing and relentless. In the penultimate scene, Lebel, carrying a powerful automatic weapon, bursts into the attic room where the Jackal has his lair, killing the Jackal in one violent burst of weapons fire before the Jackal can kill him. The last scene has Lebel at the graveside of the man called the Jackal, who it turns out is not Englishman Charles Calthorp, whose identity the Jackal had assumed for his last job. The Jackal's identity remains, to the end, a mystery.
***
Today being Ash Wednesday, I went for ashes at noon at my nearby church, a few blocks away. As today is a fast day, I decided to eat simply, lunch, the main meal allowed, being a boiled potato, pickled herring and onions sautéd in garlic, a dish I prepared myself.
Pickled herring and potatoes is a favorite Scandinavian dish. Herring has been popular there for centuries because it keeps for long periods when cured or pickled. It is a basic dish in cold climates because its basic preparation has taken place long before it is eaten and it can be accompanied by hot potatoes or noodles, both of which require little cooking. As it is still quite cold outside, pickled herring and a boiled potato is perfect for a cold Ash Wednesday.
At Ascension, the pews were filled to bursting and it was standing room only. Ascension supports a diverse community of Spanish speakers who are among the church's most faithful parishioners. It also serves the English-speaking community in the area. The two communities do not cross paths that often, as there is a Spanish-language Mass and there are English masses, and a only few bilingual ones on selected holy days of obligation.
So it is striking to see the range of the parishioners at the noon service: uniformed food service workers from the Dominican Republic, still wearing their hairnets over black, straight hair tied in a bun; Mexican men, Columbia students, neighborhood people, church stalwarts. A few minutes into the service, one of the two uniformed ladies finds a seat in a pew in front of me and slips her hairnet off: the gesture reflects her awareness that she is in church, not the food counter, and it touches me.
Into the space at the end of my pew, a very elderly and feeble man from the Dominican Republic and his daughter, squeeze in. The man sits next to me and asks me a question or two through the service: "Will there be Mass after the ashes are given out?" ("Yes"). What are those people on line in the central aisle doing?" ("They're taking communion.") He, like quite a few of the Hispanic men present, does not take communion. I read somewhere that many Catholic men will go to Mass, but won't confess before. Knowing they have something to confess but not doing so, they won't take communion. (Which shows respect for the Church's rule, but perhaps at their own expense.)
After, I go upstairs to the organ loft to visit with the Music Director. He had to play the organ with one foot because of surgery to a bunion. It will be a very busy day for him, as the last service will be at 7:00 p.m. The forty days of Lent have begun.
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