Went to my first ‘outdoor screening’ at the Belcourt tonight.  A fantastic selection of old adverts, cartoons and incredible Scopitones was there for all, with the evening topped by the absurdly wonderful/colorful/sexy commentary on male infantilism that is ‘The Girl Can’t Help It!

Just another thing that makes me love Nashville - and on that note click below to watch Brook Benton’s ‘Mother Nature / Father Time’, one of the Scopitones shown tonight - I’ve never seen it before and was so affected… I think it has changed my idea of cinema - it’s like Nietzche - it calls for a revaluation of all film values!

Well well well ladies and gentlemen, here we are in the glorious Carolinas on a gorgeous sunny day…and the mystery of life deepens in gratitude as a result of the recent presence of my genial co-host Mr Jett Loe, just departed for his homestead in the Big Sleepy.  We spent yesterday together in the confines of a ten-screen multiplex, and discovered that of those ten screens, there were at least three films worth talking about.  Woody Allen’s latest ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’, the Coen Brothers’ riotous satire ‘Burn After Reading’, and the alleged saviour of comedy Seth Rogen’s hash hash ‘Pineapple Express’.  We’ve already recorded this week’s episode - in which the aforementioned Messrs Allen and Coen come under the TFT microscope; and we’ll get to what the elevated voices of Cahiers du Cinema might term ‘L’expres d’Ananas’ later.  Suffice to say, I slept through much of one of them, laughed out loud at another, and felt let down by a third.

So I shall endeavour to explore the glories of more Russian mysticism in ‘Andrei Rublev’ instead.

PS: Thank you to all dear listeners who have welcomed me to the US and A - glad to be here, soaking up the Southern culture.  If you’re in the area, drop by and say hi.  On email first.

Hey There Dear Listener:  The Two Hosts Meeting In Person Does Not Stop One of Them From Having a Good Snooze!

Films Reviewed This Week: Burn After Reading / Vicky Christina Barcelona

* The Film Talk - Part 36 - Burn After Reading / Vicky Christina Barcelona (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)
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Hey There Dear Listener:  Holy Ground is Created High Above in this Action Packed Episode!

Films Reviewed This Week: Man on Wire, Solyaris, Solaris

* The Film Talk - Part 35 -  Man on Wire / Solyaris / Solaris (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)
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Oh my, has the season of films such as Wanted and the Mummy come to a close for another year? Will we at last be able to watch some films made for adults, and children who don’t feel like being insulted or pandered to?

I hope so - here’s some of the films I’m [looking forward to / we'll be reviewing] in the coming months:

House of Adam (Gay closeted cops - and ghosts!)

Ping Pong Playa (alliteration is always powerful)

Able Danger (the film is being directed under the pseudonym ‘Paul Krik’ - why? I don’t know but as I’m writing this as ‘Jett Loe’ I have a soft spot for the folks who made this)

Burn After Reading (Please not another Man Who Wasn’t There or Ladykillers)

Flow (Water Wars?  Mad Max and Waterworld were right!)

Little Red Truck (Documentary about a traveling children theater - how could this not be gold?)

Moving Midway (After my recent experience in Alabama - am looking forward to this documentary about slave owners - hopefully it will help illuminate the strange place I now live)

Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys (hey, who doesn’t love Tyler Perry - and his name is in the title)

Amexicano (sequal to Meximerica?)

Appaloosa (I’m a sucker for Westerns)

Allah Made Me Funny (note to director: please don’t cut to the audience too much for needed cut-aways = learn from Jonathan Demme)

Righteous Kill (Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as police detectives working together to capture a serial killer.   Really? Working together to capture a serial killer.  Is this the best they could do?  Will be the equivalent of watching someone pawn their family heirlooms to pay the rent)

Ashes of Time Redux (if only for the title - sounds like part of a video game franchise for a discontinued game platform)

The Women (you couldn’t pay me to see this)

Towelhead (you know, in retrospect American Beauty was just an awards grab - but I’ll give you another chance Alan Ball)

The Duchess (Keira Knightley as the 18th century aristocrat Lady Georgiana Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire - Dear Listener, if you feel the need to see this feel free to do so and email me to let me know how it was - you can reach me at: Jett Loe, care-of A Good Movie)

Ghost Town (Ricky Gervais plays a jerk dentist who can see dead people - this has the potential to be one of the unfunniest films ever made.  Oh, and it has Tea Leoni in it)

Hounddog (Dakota Fanning growing up in rural Alabama - it’s always rural Alabama in films isn’t it?

Lakeview Terrace (This looks like another great portrayal of evil by Samuel L. Jackson - and directed by Neil LaBute!)

Quilombo Country (Slaves escaping and forming their own villages?  Why can’t we rise up like this here in the U.S.A.?)

Blindness (Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, in some sort of vaguely sci-fi dystopia - why do I feel like I’ve seen this already - several times?)

Choke (Sam Rockwell as a lovable loser.  In others Sam Rockwell in the Sam Rockwell role)

Eagle Eye (zzzzzz…..(oh and I bet the ‘mysterious woman’ in the trailers running everything is emergent sentient A.I.)

Miracle at St. Anna (C’mon Spike Lee!  You can do it!  Make at least one great film! ((am not counting ‘Do the Right Thing’ as that should be labeled as co-directed with Ernest Dickerson)

Nights in Rodanthe (not only could you not pay me to see this - I will pay YOU not to see this)

Obscene (They won’t allow you to publish? F**k ‘em)

Right, that’s it for now.

Cinema!

It lives still.

Dear Listener

Last night I sat down with my friend Terry and watched a film on the same system I have used for the past eleven years.  I used a windfall of a few hundred quid to purchase a Kenwood Dolby Pro-Logic five speaker surround system in January 1997; I remember the salesman showing me the shoot out scene from Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’ to demonstrate its capabilities.  I have used these five speakers since before Tony Blair was Prime Minister, before anyone had heard of Monica Lewinsky, before Seth Rogen had made a film, before Arnie had played Mr Freeze or recalled a governor, before a Presidential election was ambiguously settled, before the Good Friday Agreement was signed, before Paul Thomas Anderson had written ‘Magnolia’, before I owned a house, before I had properly seen ‘The Exorcist’ on something other than pirate VHS, before I ever fell in love, before I knew what I was doing with my life (and so it goes, much of the time), before Van Morrison started making albums for the sake of it, before carbon emissions were everyday parlance, before Gene Hackman had announced his retirement, before the Rolling Stones didn’t, before I had written a published word, and before a serendipitous encounter at Belfast’s Queen’s Film Theatre when a certain Maestro and a certain Professor Doctor’s paths crossed when we walked out of the same bad film at the same right moment.  So you might imagine I have a sentimental attachment to my home cinema system.

But alas it cannot follow me on my impending long travels, so I have sold it.  To a friend, of course, so it will stay in good hands, and I may get to see it in use in the future.  I wanted to close this chapter of its place in my life with something special.  So I watched the recent film that I consider most likely to grow in my affections more than any other; one of the most visually astonishing films that US cinema has produced; an elegant poem about love and mystery, and the ultimate questions; indeed, something close to this generation’s ‘2001′.  My genial co-host and I tried to record a show about this film last year, but emotions were high and we decided not to release it upon an unsuspecting public; I fear the Maestro may never enjoy this film, never mind love it.  And so I am reluctant to name it; but I shall say this: it may sound naive or petty, but I’m sure most of us have developed a fondness for the equipment we use to watch movies.  I’m not a fan of spending huge amounts of cash on the latest upgrades - my Kenwood system has cost me approximately a hundred bucks a year to keep in constant service, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t last another decade or more; but I’ve heard more great movies through its speakers than anything else.  And so it deserves this eulogy.

And leads to these questions, Dear Listener: what piece of home cinema equipment are you most attached to?  And if you had only one more movie to watch on it, what would it be?

I’ve always had a soft spot for Crispin Hellion Glover ever since, as a young man, I saw his astonishing performance in River’s Edge and listened to his album The Big Problem Does Not Equal the Solution, The Solution Equals Let It Be.  I haven’t really paid attention to his ‘career’, or jobbing acting work I guess you’d call it, but was familiar with his now infamous appearance on the David Letterman show.

So my mental model of him was not clear - I suppose I thought him as the talented yet drug-addled child of wonderful character actor Bruce Glover and not much else.

But hearing that he’s to appear at the Belcourt Theater this Friday and Saturday night, bringing his impossible to see anywhere in ‘the cloud’ film ‘What Is It’ I had another look at his work.

And it’s brilliant.

He’s not just a talented actor, (or visual sculptor/motion-performer??), but an extremely clear thinker regarding the current state of corporate capitalism, (see clip above).  This statement in particular grabbed me:
“If something doesn’t fit into…corporate monetary conventions it’s (branded) insane”

Absolutely right.

Now, being excited that this ‘excitement’ was coming to town I managed to contact the Communications Director of the Belcourt, Josh Hayes, to quiz him on the event:

Recorded Call with Josh Hayes

If you’re in the area, (the American South), tomorrow or Saturday Dear Listener, then head over to the Belcourt - it’ll be good for you.

Crispin Gover at the Belcourt, Nashville

Hey There Dear Listener: The Co-Hosts Can Not Disagree More Than This!

Films Reviewed This Week: Tell No One / My Winnipeg

* The Film Talk - Part 34 -  Tell No One / My Winnipeg (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)
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More LaFontaine goodness: