FATHER GEEK's look at a week of film viewing including MATRIX, MOD SQUAD, Seijun Suzuki, Cartoons, and some real discoveries
Published at: April 5, 1999, 1:01 a.m. CST by staff
Father Geek here with a report on the motion pictures that were
viewed by the Geek Headquarters crew this last week (March 29th - April
4th, 1999). This was really a quite typical non-film festival week here in
Austin, Texas for us. We caught some new releases, some revivals, some
special presentations, viewed a couple of videos, and previewed some
upcoming DVD’s. What follows is a diary of sorts of my observations for
the last seven days.
On Monday we exercised some of our Free passes to MOD SQUAD
and Tom Joad, Quint, Copernicus, Harry and I ventured forth to General
Cinema’s Great Hills 8 to catch the film none of us wanted to pay for.
Well, our expectations were met, unfortunately. This is not only the most
un-mod thing to attempt to pass itself off as mod that I have ever seen
grace the big screen, but it is universally baaaad to boot. We were simply
bored shitless, except for Copernicus who vacated the theater twice to
visit the john, to wretch in agony no doubt. It seems that Robo, Hooper,
Sister Satan, Lobo, Roro, Glen and the other AICN regulars who turned
down our offer of free passes were the better off for it. A supposed action
flick that fails to impress, even a little bit, a group of males in the 17 to 50
age group can only be branded a total failure as a piece of entertainment.
This chunk of celluloid crapola is to be avoided at all costs. It failed to
interest any of our bunch at any level, and our comments to each other on
leaving centered mainly around the notion of how to get our money back
since we got in SCOT-FREE.
Harry and I left for home, a sour taste in our mouths. On arriving at
Geek Headquarters we needed something to rinse away the memory of
the last 2 hours. It lay on a stack of scripts next to our living room coffee
table, a spanking new sealed VHS print of that great documentry, FRANK
AND OLLIE. For those of you who never saw this film when it was in the
theaters Father Geek cannot recommend it highly enough. It is a
wonderful, heartwarming document of the lives and friendship of Disney’s
masterful animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson. These guys were
some of the geniuses, the creative force, the uber talent behind
Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, Lady and the Tramp, Jungle Book, Sword in
the Stone and many, many other feature length animation masterpieces.
Their life-long friendship and creative partnership (they’re next door
neighbors) is not only informative, it is incredibly entertaining, witty and
wise. It was an 89 minute cleansing of our souls, with tons of original
vintage Disney Studio art thrown in for good measure. Keep in mind that
we didn’t even put this tape on till well after midnight and it held us
spellbound. It is money well spent!
Tuesday we were going to go to The Austin Film Society’s 35cent
screening of THE WOMEN, the 1939 classic with Crawford, Goddard,
Fontaine, Shearer, Butterfly McQueen, etc... that is part of their series on
vintage films that were written by women being hosted by the Alamo
Drafthouse Cinema for 1930’s admission prices. However, Harry and I
opted for a trip to San Antonio to visit my parents (ages 79 and 74) and
my brother who has been in Turkey the pass 2 years working for the US
Navy and NATO. We got in a good long visit with them as well as my
sister, niece, and grand niece. My brother, the Commander, presented his
Austin relatives with a bottle of Romanian Blood Vodka purchased in a
small village near Bucharest. The box stated “500 years of eternal life”
and had Vlad the Impaler’s likeness embossed on it. The red vodka (a
natural color) was bottled on his former estate and has a folk-style
wooden cap carved in the shape of his head. Just toooooooo cooool!!!
But, that wasn’t all. While in Turkey he had artisans carve 2 large
Meersham pipes into 3-D portraits of each of us. They are perfect.
Amazing. Now Harry and I can suck on ourselves until we are too hot to
handle.
Well, we returned to the house about 11pm and being the media
junkies that we are immediately plugged into our DVD surround sound
system. We had picked up several new DVD’s (11 at an average price of
$ 7.50) at the Austin Record Convention over the weekend so we wanted
to check some of them out. First up was SHORT CINEMA JOURNAL a
great little collection of wonderful films you never get to see except at film
festivals and in college film classes. My favorites out of this collection
were OS CAMARADAS from Brazil and the AFI’s CHAPTER. The former
is a fantastic Kafka-esque journey down the dark road into bureaucratic
insanity. Bruno de Andre’s camera is perfectly positioned to milk the most
from each angst filled shot. Bizarre. The latter effort bombarded me with a
montage of imagery aimed at explaining the nature of Hollywood’s star
system in the 30’s and 40’s when that modus operandi was firmly
entrenched. I adore this type of short film, machinegun editing to flood the
mind with pictures, words, and ideas testing the power of one’s brain to
file and sort the information into some meaningful essay on the nature of
the human condition. It harkens back to the days when I made my living
performing psychedelic lightshows for rock groups like Grand Funk, Spirit,
Mountain, and an embryonic ZZ Top.
A short while after midnight a dust covered Tom Joad appeared on
our door step. We invited him in and slipped SPHERE into our
wunderbox, turned out all the lights save our Dragonfly Tiffany-style
stained-glass lamb that rests amongst the ruins of my vintage Marx
tin-litho Alamo that is painstakingly arraigned upon the livingroom coffee
table, and sat back to take a journey 1000 feet below the Pacific’s blue
waves. This was the special edition DVD with all the extra goodies
included, love that Sam Jackson commentary. We all liked this film when
it hit the theaters and had read both the novel by Crichton and Hauser’s
script, but the extras, the documentary, the trailers, etc... made this well
worth the 5 bucks we had paid for it at the record show a couple of days
before and the sound on our system here at Geek Headquarters was far
better than I remembered it being in the cinema. Suddenly Johnny Wad
poked his head pass the steamed up psycho nude Anne Heche that is our
front door. “What’s up?” he queried. He entered and we put our new $10
copy of TROMEO & JULIET in the trusty DVD player. Now this is one we
had missed at our local cinema, so it was a total surprise. A real treat
based on the immortal Shakespeare play. Father Geek has seen dozens
of treatments of this, from high school and college stage productions to
the Thalberg/Cukor lush effort to Zeffrelli’s exceptional version to Baz
Luhmann’s stylized update to this year’s Academy Award honored best
film, but none of them can match Troma Film’s kinky fun filled
underground farce. Don’t get me wrong this is not Shakespeare and I still
prefer the 1968 vision, but director Kaufman has woven a violent, sexy,
irreverent look at the great bard’s most well known work and it is gigantic
enterainment. Loads of fun. We all loved it. I’ll tell you something else,
Troma knows what DVD is all about. This copy was packed with tons of
extras, everything you could want in a home issue.
Wednesday arrived at 1:30pm. Harry and I leaped into the Kirby
inspired Silver Surfer that is the Aint-It-Cool-mobile and busted ass for
General Cinema’s Highland 10 and it’s 2pm screening of MATRIX. We
had read the script months ago and had high expectations for this film
even though they had cast one of our least favorite actors in the lead.
Well fellow geeks to get right to the point, this motion picture rocks! It is
the best of the computer conspiracy films that I have seen. It is near the
top of the heap of American made martial arts movies. As science fiction
its the finest I’ve seen since Dark City and as pure entertainment
excitement I feel its the year’s best, so far. Sure, there’s nothing really
new or innovative about the plot, there were no earth shattering new
special effects invented to bring the tale to the big screen, the actors are
all 2nd or 3rd tier in my opinion, buuuut, they reached beyond their norm
and gave us solid, interesting performances, the art direction is cool, the
story and effects while nothing new work great here and I left the theater
excited, happy, and full of energy.
We had free passes to a preview of Never Been Kissed at 7:30, or
we could go to the Alamo’s Kubrick tribute at 10, but we decided to
instead host an intimate gathering in our backyard to view our new 16mm
print of Rankin & Bass’ 1977 THE HOBBIT , Disney’s PINOCCHIO from
1940, and 5 BETTY BOOP cartoons made in ‘32 and ‘33. Harry, Tom
Joad and I were joined by the always stunning Dawn, the adventurous
Lori, and the spicy Ginger for an evening of animation delights. We
started the night off with Minnie the Moocher and Cab Calloway followed
by Mothergooseland, Betty’s Halloween Party, Betty Boop’s Museum, and
finished up with Cab and Snow White. None of our guests had seen any
of these other than the first one and none had seen it projected except
Joad, so ol’ Father Geek loved catching their reactions to Betty’s zany
world.
Next I treaded up our 35mm reduction print of Walt’s 2nd feature
length cartoon. Its rich colors filled our 8 foot screen and sucked us all
into its storybook kingdom. I still think, all things considered, that this is
the best hand animated motion picture ever made. Its a timeless tale,
flawlessly drawn, painted, and transferred to film. I’ve seen nothing using
modern techniques that captures the charm, the miracle of this movie.
None have surpassed the look of the Blue Fairy, the complexity of the old
wood carver’s room, the social commentary of Pleasure Island, or the
flagitious danger represented by the baneful puppeteer and the vicious
Monstro. It is complete, total enjoyment.
Now we come to the reason for the night’s get-together, a film new
to the Knowles collection, one none of us had ever seen thrown upon the
silver screen, one for which we had the LP, the story book, and the deluxe
coffee table book, but one we had never seen larger than 27 inches. Well,
what we have is an original 16mm library print struck by Xerox.
Absolutely beautiful, a flawless, crystal-clear, perfectly colored film. Its an
immortal fantasy, its J. R. R. Tolkien’s epic odyssey through Middle Earth
with the help of the voice talents of John Huston, Richard Boone, and
Orsen Bean among others. Johnny Wad appears out of the shadows in
the darkness under the still leafless trees and joins our group of merry
adventurers. “The greatest adventure is the one yet to come...” echoes
through the chilled night air, and we are transported to another world. Our
small campfire flickers tongues of orange light against the blackness of
bedtime. Trolls, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night parade
before our eyes. “There are moments which can change a person for all
time,” Bilbo muses and we suddenly wondered if we would ever see our
snug hobbit-holes again. We wondered if we actually wanted to. After
3000 feet of animated wonder we were jarred back to our earth, our time.
“String up the Boops again,” someone shouted. We would stretch-out the
magic a little longer.
Around noon Thursday I hear a rustling on the front porch followed
by the clang of our mailbox being closed. I stepped out onto the wet
concrete, it had been raining all morning. Laying at my feet, soaking up
the moisture, was a stuffed manila envelope. There was no return
address. Harry’s name and our domicile’s location were scrawled across
its face. The postmark read Los Angeles. I take it in to Harry who is busy
mining the site’s E-mail and he rips it open. Three yet to be released
DVDs fall on to the head geek’s bed, no letter, no insider note, no spy’s
cryptic message, just 3 Criterion Collection films in digital form, 2 of which
we had never heard of. Such is our life at Geek Headquarters, you never
know what to expect next.
Nothing was on our calendar til the Alamo’s midnight flick so I
scooped up the treasures and headed into the living room cum screening
facility. I slid the 4 1/2 inch mirrored disc for TOKYO DRIFTER into our
player, cranked up the sound, clicked out the lights, and settled back into
my accustomed viewing spot beneath James Dean’s soulful blue gaze. I
was not prepared for what was to follow. I’m embarrassed. I feel
inadequate. My film literacy, my role as AICN historian is called to
question. I am not worthy of the title “Father Geek”. Not only was I not
familiar with this film, I had never even heard of its director Seijun
Suzuki. Who? Doesn’t he make cars, or motorcycles, or something like
that? After years of film school, after a life time of dealing film
memorabilia, after 40 years of talking to fans, throwing and attending film
festivals, watching hundreds of thousands of hours of motion pictures, big
and small, American and foreign, films of all genre, sub-genre, even
no-genre, in any viewing format - theatrical release, pirated 16mm, 8mm,
super 8 sound, broadcast TV, one inch reel-to-reel video, beta, VHS,
CED, laser disc, and finally DVD... I had not a clue to the fantastic film
library produced by one of Japan’s most gifted director/auteurs Seijun
Suzuki. But now, now I do know, and like a reformed drunk, a born-again
christian, a child with a new toy I’m spreading the word, the gospel from
the tallest soapbox a public speaker can use. This master filmmaker, this
nihilistic philosopher will no longer slip through the cracks on the cutting
room floor. He will not slide down that fireman’s pole to some Hell of film
obscurity. He will not languish in cinema purgatory, living only in the
memories of his hardcore Japanese fans. In case you can’t tell this lush,
surreal gangster film blew me away. This maverick director of
aestheticised violence, and wildly innovative motion pictures blew me
away. This 1966 color movie is lightning fast crime drama that is simply
mind-warping. It is part spaghetti western, part art-house cinema, part film
noir, part Kabuki stage play and totally unique. It is an eye-popping
fantasia, a stylistic potboiler about the struggle for individualism, a sort of
“masochistic cartoon” to quote one of Japan’s top film critics. It will be on
DVD sales lists soon. Watch for it. Do not fail to add it to your film
athenaeum. You, your family, your friends will be far richer for it!
Harry stumbled out of his cyber-cave. I was viewing a collection of
original Suzuki and Joe Shishido Japanese movie posters on another
Criterion DVD. They sucked him in. He fell into his chair under our lifesize
mounted Nipponese dragon head. His eyes never left the screen. “These
are fantastic titles,” he exclaimed. “Why have I never heard of these?
Who made them? Why haven’t I been told about him?” I explained how
Suzuki was blacklisted by his country’s oldest film company, Nikkatsu
Studio, after producing over 40 hits for them. How he witnessed atrocities
we can only imagine during WW II. How he imbraced the French New
Wave and blended it with Haikara and the Edo era comic literature to
develop a surrealistic style all his own. You see, Father Geek had been
industriously doing his homework. “Those who are not busy being born,
are busy dying,” to quote a late 60’s anthem. We began to enter the world
of 1967’s BRANDED TO KILL and we would be born again, anew. John
Woo is obviously no stranger to this film. In fact, I am sure that he has
seen it more than once, and I bet Chow Yun Fat has more than a passing
interest in it’s star Shishido. “Branded” is a brutal action film, a
bullet-riddled saga of Yakuza hit men, and women. It is a cinematic
masterpiece of surreal innovation and stylistic incomprehensibility. It is 45
automatics, Mexican standoffs, and blazing fire fights. It is influential
filmmaking at it’s finest. It is some of the best use of B&W widescreen
cinematography that I have ever seen. It is seminal work by a true master
who made some of Japan’s most original, disturbing, and unique motion
pictures of the 1960’s, a man who was a major Japanese television star in
the 50’s. Suzuki has said, “Making things is not what counts, the power
that destroys them is.” See this film and spred the word!
Wow! Still hours to kill before we go to the Alamo. What to
do? Well there’s the 3rd DVD that arrived anonymously today. We
started the special feature packed disc of TIME BANDITS from that
banner year 1981. Gilliam’s phantasmagorical trek through time is
one of our favorite films. We decided to watch it this time with the
audio commentary by Terry, Palin, Cleese, David Warner and
others. It was a wise choice. These train-of-thought comments by
filmmakers are one of the things I love about the DVD format. As it
turned out watching these 3 films was the perfect warmup for the
Alamo’s midnight movie madness. We slipped on our shoes and
headed downtown marveling at the foresight of our phantom
benefactor.
We arrived to a packed theater and were joined by Quint,
Johnny Wad, and Tom Joad. The Dolomite trailer appeared on
screen. Rudy Ray Moore will be appearing live at the Alamo April
30th and May 1st along with Dolomite and Disco Godfather. Joy!!!
Suddenly the familar John Carpender theme music filled the hall,
the crowd went crazy, and a beautiful widescreen print of BIG
TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA began on “a dark and stormy night.”
What can I say? “Well, you know what old Jack Burton says.” This
is pure fun, comedy, horror, and action packed martial arts all
furiously blended into a Homeric adventure like no other you’ve
ever seen. Kurt Russell is a god in this motion picture. By the time
it ended I was so pumped up I couldn’t even think of sleeping, as
we walked to the car I had an uncontrollable bounce to my walk, I wanted to kick some supernatural ass,
and I’ve seen this flick dozens of times. Seeing it again on a
full-size theater screen sent me and everyone else there into
ungovernable geekasms. The Alamo was sooooo full of cool vibes the
ice in our drinks never melted. This is what going to movies is all
about.
We slept till 3pm Friday, downloaded mail, and I wrote some
on this story. At 5:30 we left for the Paramount Theater and their
7:30 showing of a beautiful print of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS,
DeMille’s 1956 epic production. We hit the salad bar at the Hickory
St. Grill across the street, met up with Tom Joad and then entered
the 1915 belle of Austin showplaces. The only place in town to
view such a motion picture. While certain minor aspects of this film
have not aged all that well its scope and power are totally intact.
When it comes to its momentous grandeur not many films are in
the same class and I can put up with a little hokey melodrama. That
problem is completely overshadowed by the sets, the costumes,
the lavish spectacle of it all. Click over to the Aint it Cool Museum
and read about my thoughts on the film’s premiere in San Antonio
43 years ago. While the picture was not made in surround sound
the Paramount’s new state of the art resonance did wonders with
this print’s simple stereo sound track. The theater’s screen is huge
so the rich Technicolor Cinemascope print offered up plenty of
marvelous eye-candy for even the most jaded viewer. The movie
ended at 11:40, and Harry and I rushed the 3 blocks to the Alamo
to view BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA a second time. Quint was
there for another look also and Director del Toro joined us along
with his Mimic storyboard artist at 2nd row center. Like the night
before the electricity running through the jampacked audience
touched us all, infusing the crowd with jolts of excess energy.
Saturday is finally here. The day I’ve been waiting for the last
3 months. Today at 4pm we experience Douglas Fairbanks and his
1924 silent classic THIEF OF BAGDAD. Except it was not to be
silent for us. Kamran Hooshmand and his 1001 Nights Orchestra
would be using over 50 middle eastern musical instruments to
bring life to the roguish pickpurse who won a kingdom and the love
of his life. From the opening refrains of Miserlu (used in Pulp
Fiction) to Kamran’s own Gypsy Nights the music was note perfect.
When Ahmad sets forth on his dangerous quest to win the hand of
the princess he loves the music blends a perfect theme from
traditional Persian, Macedonian, and Turkish folk tunes. I cannot
imagine a better musical accompanist for this motion picture. If this
pairing of sight and sound were offered up to audiences in New
York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or San Francisco and promoted
properly I’m convinced it could run for weeks on end. A totally
satisfying film experience. A fantastic marriage of celluloid and
symphony. William Cameron Menzies’ sets are beyond words.
They are gigantic, fanciful creations that put most of today’s CGI to
shame, and these were actually built by craftsmen. One more thing, this presentation drew some fascinatingly beautiful Persian women to the Drafthouse. Two of them were constantly in my field of vision. Statuesque bodies, dark hypnotic eyes, perfect complexions, thick cascading hair, I knew why Ahmad went to the ends of the earth. I too would join the quest for the golden apple in an instant for such a princess. This series of
the Alamo’s is pure genius. I will die if I miss a single installment.
Next up is City Lights. I can’t wait!
And on the seventh day he rested, well...until 4pm anyway. Then it was off for Tobuly(?), Grilled Kabobs, Large dark olives, Brie, Red wine and Jack Daniels, delightful company, and ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL.