First off, Happy Friday the Thirteenth and Happy Valentine’s Day. And if you know any girls who are really into Sergio Leone films, have them call me. So, a friend of mine, Robert Gottwald, was reading this column last weekend as we ate at Summerfields (because there’s really no other choice) and said to me, “Robert (because that’s what he calls me), your articles are always just about convincing people to see movies that they wouldn’t normally see.”
And, yeah, I guess he was totally right. He figured out my modus operandi. But I think I’m also neglecting something in the column. I think I’m neglecting movies you have already heard of and have already seen. Who’s to say that you shouldn’t see those too? I mean, sure, I don’t know who “you” are. The movies that “you” have seen and know well may be pretty damn obscure. The thing is, I feel like we all have one or two movies that we always fall back on as the old standby. It may not be your favorite film, but it’s the one that you enjoy watching the most and the most often. Now maybe your old standby is “The Big Lebowski,” or “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” or “The Royal Tenenbaums,” or “Annie Hall,” or maybe it’s something like “Blue Velvet” or “Aguirre: The Wrath of God,” or “Lagaan,” or “W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism.” Whatever it is, you’ve got it and you love it and you’ll watch it.
But the thing that I do not understand and will never understand is why the hell you would choose to stay in and watch that same movie that you always watch instead of going out to see something new! If you want a simple decision to actually be beneficial, turn off that DVD of “Super Troopers” or “The Boondock Saints,” because you watched it last weekend. Turn it off!
And if you’re watching TV, and would rather stay in watching lies than go to a theater to have a real experience, then my attempts to sway you from the dark side are futile. Because once you’re hooked, there’s no way out. Every other art form is classier and will make you a better person. TV’s a narcotic, and it will suck you in and not let go. It will turn you into a zombie and then you will be undead, and then, when you die, you’ll have already been dead for a long time, so your death will be inconsequential. Unless of course you’re in the TV class. In that case, you watch TV in an academic manner and are not at fault. In fact, you are helping us to understand why TV is so fascinating and disgusting.
So, please watch TV, but don’t let it consume you. I guess the point is that you should choose to make the best use of your time here. Because “Cremaster 3” may never be out on DVD, but whatever is playing at Destinta right now will.
So this week, it’s my job to try to convince you to see another movie that you probably don’t know. You might not even be able to pronounce it. In fact, when it came out, I wanted to see it, and called Moviefone (thanks for creating it, Acadamy Award nominated director Andrew Jarecki). After punching in the first three letters, I heard Mr. Moviefone say, “You have selected Lahm-berge Espianoli.” I knew this was wrong. So I laughed. The movie is called “L’Auberge Espagnole,” directed by Cédric Klapisch, and it’s new and it’s French and it’s funny. And Audrey Tautou, that minx of a Gaul, who played Amelie in the movie of the same name, is in L’Auberge Espagnole (which was reason enough for me to go). The movie is about a French student who takes a semester abroad in Barcelona and the bizarre and attractive international characters with whom he shares an apartment.
Now, I did not go abroad. I’m a lifer, as they say in prison. So for me this is a fun comedy. But if you went off into the world for a semester or a whole year, then this movie appears in the series specifically for you! So see it! Embrace the wave of nostalgia! Unless of course you are abroad now, in which case…don’t. “L’Auberge Espagnole” plays in the CFA Cinema Friday and Saturday, February 13 & 14 at 7:30 and 10pm, $3.
For free in the Science Center: In eighth grade I went to a double feature of David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” and “Wild At Heart.” It was a seminal film-going experience. Last semester we showed “Blue Velvet.” This semester it’s “Wild At Heart,” the story of Sailer and Lula, played by Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, lovers on the run. This is as close to Lynch will ever get to making a romantic comedy. I don’t want to say too much about this movie other than: if you have not seen it, and you like at least one David Lynch movie, then by all means go see this movie. It won the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, which, in retrospect, is pretty crazy.
To entice you, an innuendo-filled line of dialogue from this bizarre and erotically charged movie:
“Speaking of Jack, One-eyed Jack’s yearning to go a-peeping in a seafood store.”
John Ford’s films are godhead. If you’re in Richard Slotkin’s class on Western Films, you are in the lucky position of getting to see many of them. I took that class a couple years ago and, well… Slotkin, too, is godhead. That class is amazing. I heard firsthand from Michael Bay that it was his favorite class he took here. And, with “Pearl Harbor,” it seemed like Bay’s attempt to meld a retro-classical/contemporary aesthetic was a call to all his critics, saying something like, “Hey, I know you hate my quick cuts, but I really love John Ford. You accuse my films of jingoism, but Ford’s films are as jingoistic, if not more. And they are classics.” And the same critics probably hated “Pearl Harbor” all the same. But Bay’s films aside, Ford truly was a master filmmaker. “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon,” was the second of Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy starring the Duke, John Wayne. It features gorgeous Oscar-winning three-strip technicolor cinematography, the beautiful landscapes of Monument Valley, and a romantic subplot that will satisfy your Valentine’s Day craving. And, if you’re in Slotkin’s class, GO SEE THIS MOVIE! Now my next goal is getting Ford and Wayne’s “How Green Was My Valley,” into the series.
“Wild At Heart” plays in the Science Center Friday, February 13 at 7:30 and 10pm. “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon” plays in the Science Center Saturday, February 14 at 7:30 and 10pm. Next Week: Wednesday in the Cinema at 8 “Le Cercle Rouge”: Jean-Pierre Melville’s simmering French crime films are amazing. They were hugely influential on the directors of the French New Wave and on Quentin Tarantino. This is arguably his greatest film, and we have a beautiful newly restored 35mm print thanks to Rialto Films. Seeing this one is an event.
Thursday in the Science Center at 8 “Three World War II Shorts”: But not just any World War II shorts, these were directed by Frank Capra (“It’s A Wonderful Life”) and John Ford (see above) from the Why We Fight propaganda series. These are incredibly interesting films both historically and because of who made them.
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