Mike Leigh’s hysterically funny Nuts in May appeared on BBC2’s Play for Today series in 1976, and it was a perfect choice for Chantal’s “moving-back-to-England” send-off. Add to that a bit of Andrew Blake’s Blond and Brunettes, and you’ve got a very fun MovieNight.
Whahoo!
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To show The Mysteries of Lisbon at MovieNight was certainly an ambitious idea: Ruiz’s masterpiece was without doubt beautiful and captivating. Alas, only one person was able to see it in it’s entirety on Friday night, as far as I know. Some left before the conclusion of part one. Others left at intermission. We had prepared an intermission meal of mac and cheese, which went down a treat, but it wasn’t far into the second part of the movie that my eyes closed… and they remained so until after the closing credits. I awoke to find two guests sleeping soundly, and everyone else gone.
Four and a half hours is just too damn long. Still, it was fun while it lasted.
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I can’t remember exactly how we discovered this one. Certainly under-promoted, and seemingly up against some distribution obstacles, A Swedish Love Story was made in 1970 and saw limited release outside of Sweden in 2007-2008. The trailer emphasizes the sweetness and beauty of young love, and indeed that is the film’s central theme, but the two adolescent principals are hysterically surrounded by adult dysfunction and what is coming to be known here at MovieNight as Swedish eccentricity. The movie was knee-slappingly funny between moments of tenderness and teen angst… so much so that I thought of making a new trailer and showing it again the following week… not making our own trailer in the first place was fuck-up number one. Sorry number one.
Fuck-up number two was just another in our current spate of technical glitches. I guess it was a just bit of schmutz on the disc. Fortunately, I had another copy, and after a comical moment of audience speculation over which chapter to go to (“Four!”, “No, I’m sure it’s five!”) we were back in business. Quite embarrassing… I hate interrupting a feature! Sorry number two. 🙁
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I guess we should have shown this one for St. Patrick’s Day, and given everyone a green cocktail.
Not.
Unlike the celebration of St. Patrick’s day (in New York City at least), The Guard was intelligent, and actually Irish. In fact, so Irish that we left the subtitles on and picked up a few words that had evaded comprehension on a previous viewing.
Above all, though, The Guard was funny. Thanks to all who came and laughed. Comedy, comedy, comedy! will continue soon.
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Although we had unofficially just begun our rather casual comedy mini-season, we felt the necessity to interrupt it and bring you Take Shelter as soon as we could get our hot little fingers on the just-released Blu-ray disc. Michael Shannon’s performance was epic… the intense mental pressure he was enduring seemed as if it might force his eyeballs clean out of their sockets at times. It was great to see Jessica Chastain on our screen again so soon, but occasionally it seemed a bit like she was reciting lines… not enough to bring the movie down, though… it was all about Shannon.
It turns out that Take Shelter was the third part of an unintended Apocalyptic Mini-Season! We were just choosing some great movies from the the past year, and before you could say “The End is Nigh!”, the deed was done: Melancholia, The Tree of Life, Take Shelter. Judging from the turnout at each of these, MovieNighters love apocalyptic!
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Let’s face it: there’s nothing like a good comedy to make our MovieNight crowd happy. Even better… a quirky comedy drama from a Nordic director (I would have used the term Scandinavian, but apparently, that little club of Sweden, Denmark and Norway like to keep it an exclusive threesome). Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre was certainly funny, and definitely quirky (“I’m the Albino of the family”), but also a keenly observed glimpse into the plight of many African refugees and their struggle to survive largely unseen within the EU.
Le Havre marked a kind of unofficial start to a comedy mini-season in response to a request for less Noir and more Comedy. Personally, I found plenty to laugh at in each of our Noir, noir, noir! features. Especially The Big Sleep. Stay tuned.
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