Bien cool, as they say in Paris. Good-looking people, twisty plot, wonderful music, great cars… kind of like MovieNight itself. Oh wait… we don’t have a car… unless you guys all want to chip in for a 300SL like the one in the movie.
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Joan Rivers, the famously sharp-tongued doyenne of comedy, and plastic surgery poster-gilf, brought plenty of mirth to us as we wrapped up the year. Although even the bleakest of movies we’ve shown this season solicits a laugh here and there, this one was pretty much non-stop… it was good to hear.
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The last line in James Berardinelli’s review of Before Night Falls was pretty much on the money: “It is an intriguing and sporadically powerful motion picture with a stellar central performance.” Although somewhat disjointed, the story did get told, and at times the camera work was delicious.
We chose to show Before Night Falls to mark Tania’s birthday (of one of our regular guests, who happens to be Cuban-born), and as part of the celebration, we had four (yes four!) special cocktails, all rum based. Rather unexpectedly, we had a full house, and for a while we were “in the weeds” behind the bar. So much so, that I kind of refused to make a Hot Pretty Lady for one of our guests (sorry Alex!) and suggested that he have a strawberry mango daiquiri instead. He seemed to enjoy the substitute, but I do feel a bit like a bully. Next time, sir, I will try to be more accommodating.
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We get very few comments from readers on this blog, which leads us to think that either nobody reads it, or that those who do are disinclined to comment. It’s not a problem, either way (Eric B., not the one of rap fame, did comment in person on the martini picture when last we saw him here).
Anyway, we imagine if people were to make comments, one of them might be that our selections for this season of MovieNight have been a bit intense… and it’s true. We didn’t set out with that intent, but somehow we got there, due in a large part to finding a film critic in England who seems to have his finger on a pulse which beats in sync with ours.
The State I Am In gets added to my list of favorite movies ever (list coming soon). Although I mostly hate it when people refer to something as being like “X” meets “Y”, this really is like the Dardenne Brothers meet Fatih Akin. There were some surprisingly funny moments, too:
Heinrich: What do your parents do?
Jeanne: They fuck.
Heinrich: For a living?
Jeanne: No. Just now.
And the state I am in today? One too many martinis.
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And here’s the proof (90 proof, that is… Plymouth)
Of course we knew this would happen… not the martini – its volumetric perfection (in the virtual dark) was unexpected. The napkin below remained unbesmirched by liquid, at least until the first sip. Still… there you have it, olives and all.
More than once, a lesson has been taught, but persistently (naively?) this lesson remains unlearned. What am I talking about? Last week, we had an minor influx of Swedes and, having not yet selected a feature for this Thursday night, I somewhat stereotypingly promised them a Bergman movie next time. We were well overdue for a Bergman anyway. The thing that we just knew would happen? Not one Swede in the house.
The notion of showing Bergman to the Swedish reminded of the time that my mother made spaghetti and meatballs for a crew of Italian-Canadian bricklayers who were bivouacked in our basement during the construction of our new home in Canada in the sixties. Although it tasted good, it didn’t seem authentically Italian, even to a nine year old. The bricklayers were polite and ate it all up. Laying bricks is hard work.
Happily, we had a house full of Russians and The Silence remains a masterpiece, Swedish audience or not.
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The Time Out review that we used to describe this MovieNight referred to Toto the Hero as “[a] deliciously offbeat film” and “an immensely vibrant, inventive, compassionate movie”. That pretty much sums it up, but the reviewer neglected to mention the theme tune, which I have been unable to get out of my head since first viewing Toto about a month ago. My wife has threatened to leave me unless I stop singing/whistling/humming it. I managed to cover it up with a layer of the theme from Winter’s Bone for a few days, but it’s back, and it’s stronger than ever!
“Boum” (Warning! This catchy tune may get stuck in your head for weeks!)
Toto the Hero was the first installment in our three-part Belgian mini-season (we won’t be doing all three consecutively), and it was suggested by Flavia who, with her second successful suggestion, gets her very own paragraph on the suggestion page.
Thanks to Jessie for (inadvertently?) injecting three lovely “flickas” into the MovieNight mix. I promised them Bergman next week. Hurra!
Also, while we’re thanking… we should also express our deep gratitude to Igor, for all the great video material he’s given us (Yello’s Touch DVD entertained us in the after hours once again!) over the years. Also for detecting the “Auto-Iris” setting that somehow got turned on on our projector. Now… about that conspiracy theory… should we show Zeitgeist at MovieNight?
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