The Man Who Knew Too Much

March 24, 2014 posted by Stephanie in Dot Dot Dot

There’s this scene in the classic Hitchcock film, The Man Who Knew too Much, where Doris Day and the amazing James Stewart have dinner with a British couple in the epic Hotel La Mamounia in Marrakesh. They have large platters of couscous, merguez, all kinds of dips and small things. The two couples discuss the food, the culture and customs. They discuss how to eat the food and the customs related to it. “Tear the bread… Oh, allow me to show you, will you? You use only the first two fingers and thumb of the right hand. You don’t use the other two fingers, and always the left hand in the lap.”

There are no forks and no plates, just the ultimate sign of respect and conviviality of eating from the same bowl. The next day, the couples stroll the exotic markets of Marrakesh. Snake charmers, colorful food stalls, merchants selling strange skins all culminating in a plethora of enchanting noise and mysterious peddlers. It is the uneasy calm before the plot thickens into murder, kidnapping and treacherous false diplomacy.

There are few places in this world that fascinate me as much as Morocco does. As far as I can remember, Casablanca has been as cliché as it is my favorite film. I still cry every time they zoom in on handsome Humphrey Bogart and gorgeous Ingrid Bergman, tears in her eyes, the sound of the plane ready to take off… Rick’s Café Américain in Casablanca, Bogart hiding from his painful past, and she, love-of-his-life Ilsa Lund, walks in. “Of all the lousy bars in all the world, and she walks into mine.” Morocco is all about mystery, culture, history, romance… Definitely on top of my Gypsetting wish list!

Love and Light,

Stephanie