Part 2 of our surrealist mini-season, Nicolas Roeg’s weird and wonderful Walkabout, pulled in a great crowd and moved Norris up to 3rd place in the Successful Suggesters list (getting to 2nd place will take some doing, however!). Walkabout is a movie that lingers in the memory, in no small part because of the crazy camerawork with sudden cutaways to close-ups of animal inhabitants of the outback.

I’ve seen Walkabout a few times, but this was the first time on Blu-ray. Maddeningly, the “brand new” Blu-ray disc started acting up just past the half-way mark, so we had to eject, wash, dry, put back, etc. This is so unfair. Anyway, people assured me that it didn’t detract from their MovieNight experience… were they just being nice?

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Christian Petzold’s excellent Barbara was a riveting MovieNight experience. I say riveting, but there is one caveat (by the way, is there ever more than one caveat?). As you might know, Barbara is currently playing at Angelica and, as you might also know, we love to be able to bring you great current movies when we can get our hands on an imported DVD. When we previewed the PAL disc, there was noticeable and distracting “combing” (when the edges of an object onscreen seem to get fragmented into horizontal lines, rather like the teeth of two combs interacting). Our workaround was to rip the disc and show it with a computer using the excellent video player application VLC. The image looked really beautiful, as the film-maker had intended… a bleak world portrayed in vivid color. The caveat? We were unable to figure out how to keep the subtitles loaded when each new segment began. So every twenty minutes or so, I had to pause the movie and turn the subtitles on. Annoying, yes, but our lovely guests seemed un-preturbed. Indeed, there was a round of applause for Barbara. Yay!

I’ll have to ask Igor for some VLC advice. I’m guessing he’ll know.

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Our Valentine’s special, about a wealthy man driven to distraction by some great, surrealist cock-teasing, wrought by interchangeable beauties brought another surprisingly good turnout. Our parlor was filled with either couples or singles who came alone… therefore all qualified for the 2-for-1 drinks special! Buñuel’s That Obscure Object of Desire was highly entertaining and provoked an unexpected “Which one do you like?” debate… the two Conchitas were both stunning, but were perceived quite differently… one, a hot-blooded Latina, and the other, a perfect porcelain icicle. The debate continues.

Ironically, although I consider myself to be something a movie buff (no shit), it somehow escaped me that Fernando Rey, who played the lead role, was also “Frog 1” in The French Connection. Norris pointed that out to me about 20 minutes in, and that kept a smile on my face for the rest of the movie. Duh.

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Another great turnout at MovieNight! This time there was extra seating though, so everyone got to sit comfortably… which is just as well, given the rather uncomfortable story we saw played out on our screen. Sean Durkin’s creepy (good creepy) first full-length feature, Martha Marcy May Marlene, is remarkably assured,  and made all the better by another debut: that of the stunning younger Olsen sister, Elizabeth (are there any more waiting to pop up?). Say what you will about the ending (try Googling Martha Marcy May Marlene, and you’ll see that the word “ending” auto-fills the first line in the search box) but, after hating it for a week, I’ve decided it’s quite brilliant. Call me fickle. Rickle? Dickle? In any case, I look forward to Mr. Durkin’s next picture, Janis, which is in pre-production. Sean, I can’t imagine the pressure you must be under after such a strong first effort, but try to keep it real, dude.

So far we’re liking 2013.

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