Topic: Cinema
Back in the days when I lived in BFE, aka Hawthorne, NV, it wasn't uncommon for me to go see two or three films in a single day when I'd hit what passed for civilization in Nevada. Outside of the occasional Film Festival, it's rare I see more than one film in a 24 hour period. Friday night/Saturday morning was an exception to the rule, as I saw two different films in two different cities only a few hours apart.
First up was a program at the Pacific Film Archive (PFA) at U.C. Berkeley, beginning with a lecture by animation historian John Canemaker on the work on artist Mary Blair, followed by a Disney film that she did conceptual work for: Alice in Wonderland. The presentation on Mrs. Blair was very interesting, and I really liked her work. Her bold, vibrant colors and elegant stylization the Disney artists were sadly never comfortable to truly bring to the screen. He evocative renderings of life in South America were enough for me to forgive her for her work on It's a Small World After All.
The film was less interesting than the lecture. But then I always felt that Alice was one of Disney's worst classic misfires (can you use those two words together?). I found the film teetered between silly and sappily sentimental and I was glad when it was over. The only positive thing I can say is that it was a beautiful 35mm print.
Oh well, at least the lecture was good, and I got John Canemaker to autograph one of his books that I owned.
Not half an hour after returning from that, Marc Finkel and I walked to the Grand Lake Theater to see a special last-minute-added midnight showing of Fahrenheit 9/11"...except it wasn't a midnight show, it was a 12:15 am show...except it wasn't that, either, because the previous show didn't let out until 12:25, and our show didn't start until 12:45. I got home at 3 am on the nose. Hoo boy, was I tired!
Seeing this film in Oakland was a funny experience. As "The Boondocks" points out, African American moviegoers often have little self-consciousness about talking back to the screen. In this instance, when Condoleezza Rice appeared on screen, some black person shouted "Traitor!", and in a shot of Colin Powell being made up for a TV spot, someone else commented, "Make me whiter!"
Some footage of civilian casualties in Iraq, wounded U.S. soldiers, and bodies burned and dragged around by mobs turned my stomach, but watching a Flint, Michigan mother dealing with the loss of her son literally made me ill. It was so terrible, it really got to me.
The film was effective. Sure, director/writer/self-promoter Michael Moore did his usual cheap shots, but they didn't bother me as much as they did in "Bowling for Columbine" because in this case, the people taking those shots so richly deserve them. For a change, Moore got out of the way for most of the film and for the most part let's the words of these public figures themselves condemn them.
Michael Moore's Website
My local theater...
On Sunday, Marc pointed me to the Michael Moore website, where a picture of our local theater made the main page, in part because the owners bucked the MPAA and decided they wouldn't treat the R rated film as an R, but as a PG-13 and let younger people in. Ahhh, activism...
More pictures of my local theater...
LINK: A queue forms...
LINK: Collage of the the scene
U P D A T E ! I forgot to mention that there's a scene in Fahrenheit that was shot right down the street from the theater where I saw it. Very strange to be watching a man on screen and know that the place he was standing is just three blocks to your back! (If you see the film, it's the older gentleman discussing how he got contacted by the FBI after voicing his opinion about Bush at the gym. Most of the shots of him are along the edge of Lake Merritt halfway between my apt. and the theater.)
Posted by molyneaux
at 10:43 PM PDT
Updated: Tuesday, 19 May 2009 11:44 PM PDT
