- Marie Antoinette and Southland Tales both received boos at their Cannes premieres; this makes me want to see Sofia Coppola and Richard Kelley's newest films even more. Films booed at Cannes include Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Velvet Goldmine, and even L'Avventura. So in my mind, the divisive (and in the case of Southland Tales, downright hostile) response makes both films as important as the Palme D'Or winner (Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes The Barley; never been much of a Ken Loach fan, but it does star Cillian Murphy, so I'll give it a try). This doesn't necessarily mean that either film won't suck - The Brown Bunny was booed too - but at least they're ambitious and divisive.
- News of the halfhearted release of the Star Wars trilogy in its original form (I'm the biggest Lucas advocate around, but non-anamorphic on the eve of HD is a slap in the face) was quickly trumped by the announcement of a Blade Runner megaset coming next year and featuring the theatrical, director's, "ultimate," and international cuts. The new "ultimate" cut will also play in select cities next year. I missed the re-release of Alien because the nearest screening was in Connecticut; I won't make the same mistake twice.
- Major pet peeve: the tendency of midnight and repertory screenings to be shown on DVD unannounced. Max and I first experienced this a few years ago when we drove three hours to see Tron (shut up) at the Coolidge, only to find that the print had never arrived. Forgivable, except we didn't realize this until we'd bought our tickets and sat down. This month alone, the DVD switcheroo has occured at the Pleasant Street Theater, the Spectrum 8, and even our beloved Brattle. First of all, 35mm is the reason to even attend; the Brattle cited a damaged print, but for me, that's just a romantic reminder of the print's journey across various movie houses. Second, I understand when a print cannot be obtained after a schedule has been announced, particularly with a program as Pleasant Street's "31 Days, 30 Movies" marathon. But it seems unethical to charge full ticket price for a subpar, artifact-ridden presentation, particularly as Pleasant Street's screens are extremely small to begin with. In the interest of full disclosure, Images occasionally shows films on DVD, but only for reduced-price or free screenings as far as I know. And we make up for it with the complimentary shoeshine (ask for Chet).
- Last night I watched The Elephant Man, and it was a case of watching just the right movie at just the right moment. Tears ensued. When's the last time you had a case of cinematic/cosmic synchronicity, when it felt like a movie was speaking directly to you?
2 comments:
Yeah, I didn't really appreciate paying 8 bux to see Brazil on DVD at Pleasant St. There were also some Python nerds yucking it up so loud and so often I couldn't hear the audio.
Same thing happened to us during Blue Velvet. It's a very funny movie in places, but the audience was guffawing during practically every single shot like it was Weekend at Bernie's or something.
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