What did you do over Spring Break?
Did you cruise the Bahamas?
Did you have a home-cooked meal?
Or did you stay here
And work on your thesis?
Hello.
I am Max Goldblatt.
Wesleyan Class of 2005.
And I stayed here.
Making a film in Middletown, CT.
Making a film as your thesis
Is not
Like writing a thesis as your thesis.
Because
It’s just different.
Not worse or better
or harder or easier.
Just a different thing.
Entirely.
Mine is on film.
As opposed to video.
Because I like the way that film looks.
Like old movies
Not like music videos.
It’s a long crazy process
Any way you cut it.
And to those seniors
buried
deep
in thesis quicksand
the film series salutes
you.
If you get an
Hour
Of free time…
See a movie for fun.
Okay?
Because I can’t.
Too busy.
Too busy to watch any movie other than my own.
Too busy to actually write this column.
THIS WEEKEND IN THE CFA:
Last week a new musical opened on Broadway called “Spamalot!” It’s a big hit and everyone likes it and Mike Nichols directed it (which is a little weird to me) and blahblahblah whatevs. The thing, though, is that it is based on “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” which is a very funny movie. You know the Pythons. They’re English, they cross dress, they did that “Dead Parrot” sketch and that movie where the fat guy exploded. Without the Pythons, there’d be no Mr. Show, no The State, definitely no Kids in the Hall. They are our sketch comedy forefathers and, like a fine wine or a bigoted cousin, they only improve with age (the wine tastes better and the bigoted cousin will eventually become incontinent and later die). So, we could show you “Holy Grail,” but the Wesleyan Film Series would be seen as nothing more than opportunists jumping on the success of a Broadway musical. And we wouldn’t want to be seen as opportunists. To opportunity, we say, “Thanks for knocking, but you cannot enter!” We’re not trendy. We’ve never been trendy. We buck trends. To trends, we say, “Buck you!” So instead, and in honor of the Crucifixion of our Lord (well, not my Lord, but…ours), we’re presenting “Life of Brian,” which is basically a funnier version of “The Passion of The Christ.” Because this one has a musical number sung by guys on crucifixes, entitled “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” Well, so did Mel Gibson’s movie, but that was just homage.
“Life of Brian,” Friday and Saturday at 7:30 and 10 PM, in the CFA Cinema, $4.
Simultaneously and for FREE in the Science Center:
FRIDAY: “I Confess;” Montgomery Clift stars as a priest who hears the confession of a murderer and becomes the suspect himself in this less seen Hitchcock picture.
SATURDAY: “The Lusty Men;” a lusty Western from Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without A Clue) starring the unstoppable Robert Mitchum.
Wednesday in the Cinema:
Beat Takeshi’s “Zatoichi.”
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