Somewhat amusingly, many of you were expecting a Chinese film. I guess my invitation to “Chinese anyone?” was a bit misleading. Anyway… it was great to have so many Ruskies in the house for this quiet and charming film from Denmark.
The famous MovieNight sangria returned this week… was it good? As Feng would say, Dammit Keld! (take that as a resounding yes!)
A few years ago, I had the good fortune to be introduced to “Nine Good Teeth” and to its director, Alex Halpern (by Bob, who at the time of writing is running just one very small point behind leader Andy in the Successful Suggesters list). Thanks to her grandson’s charming monument to her, Mary Mirabito Livornese Cavaliere, who many of you “met” for the first time on the MovieNight screen as “Nana”, continues to command admiration from the grave. Nana died in January of last year at the age of 107.
As you can imagine, we try very hard to generate interest in upcoming MovieNight features, not just for the sake of just getting butts on sofas, but more importantly to introduce folk to great movies that they might otherwise miss completely. That process involves making a tempting “snippet” of visuals and sounds, and finding a good review to post on the web page. In this case, mostly becaus the film was so little known, it was impossible to find a good review, so I ended up having to use material from the movie’s own website. There were bad reviews, mind you… critics seemed to be bothered that this movie “doesn’t go anywhere”. Who gives a %*$# if it doesn’t go anywhere? It travels around the heart like a shot of Danny Bo’s chocolate vodka. To me that’s going somewhere.
Judging from your reaction last night to Nine Good Teeth, you agree.
It’s taken rather a long time to write this post, but this was a fun MovieNight. Woody was completely back to form on this one. Part of me wishes that he’d been the narrator, and another part of me is thankful that he wasn’t. You know. The projector performed beautifully, just like it had done before I sent it for repair. I will be writing a separate page about this. Soon.
Speaking of parts of me… perhaps not all of you know how I almost cut the end of my thumb off recently. I’m expected to make a complete recovery, aside from a bit of feeling. Time will tell how the nerve heals. If you’re curious about this injury, you can see a few graphic pictures. Not for the faint of heart.
Andy picks up another point. Nicely done.
What’s next? We’re off to Poland next week so MovieNight will return on April 2nd.
MovieNight took a somewhat different form this time… a short film (28 min.) followed by a rather short (67 min.) feature. Oddly, this was my third watching of Somers Town, and had I not needed to find out its run time, I never would have suspected it was as short as that. It always felt like baby bear’s porridge – just right.
And, although there’s always a short before the feature, they’re normally more throw-away than La Jetée, serving to give folks notice that it’s time to take a seat, and wait for popcorn. This one was rather intense. So beautiful though.
As always, we wanted to make sure people got their “money’s worth”. To that end, Bo Selecta made an unscheduled appearance in the after-show, starting with “Michael Jackson” introducing his family. “Jam on, mothafu**er!”
Apologies to those who got in the way of the clumsy barman’s candle hurling stunt. Especially Mary, whose name is now “Waxy Pants”. It’s kind of a sexy nick name, but the hot iron trick does work, if you don’t want to keep rocking that look.
See you next time.
I normally don’t like period movies but, watching this, I felt like Zhang Yimou had schooled me. Did anyone else think they’d just been transported to feudal China? The new screen + projector combo really brought it to life.
Also, it was so nice to have the studio not smelling like an ashtray in the morning. It seems that most of you are able enjoy movies without a fag in your hand. Another change for the better!