The Del Mar

Here's a couple of photos of the lovely blue marquee of the Del Mar. Opened in 1939, it seated around 600 fine Los Angelinos before being shuttered as a movie theatre in the 1980s. It was vacant, used as a church, vacant, used as a photography studio and is currently a working recording studio. Don't hope for movies to return here, at some point the seats were taken out and concrete was poured in to level the flooring. Progress!

The Del Mar's marquee remains though and since it is pretty close to where I live, I'll likely be taking more photos of it--I didn't really like the way the light was reflecting off the marquee on the day I stopped to shoot it.

The Big Year

Make Believe

Damsels In Distress

Tabloid

Sheba, Baby

The Do-Deca-Pentathlon

Phase IV and its original ending

A few weeks ago I saw the 1974 Saul Bass science-fiction film Phase IV at Cinefamily. I love science-fiction and didn't think I had seen this movie about ants turning into a collective mass of killers, but early on I realized that I had seen this as a young kid and it had really freaked me out. I forgot the title, but I hadn't forgot a few of the scenes that were seared onto my delicate childhood imagination. I would have enjoyed just watching this lost movie from my youthful subconscious, but somehow the folks at Cinefamily found a long-rumored, barely seen ending of the movie that the studio had forced out of Saul Bass' sole directorial effort. Evidently, this sequence's existence has just been a rumor for a long time, but on this night, rumor became reality. 

So, after we watched the movie and took a break, we watched the intended ending and it was an absolute mindblower of a montage. It is a three or four minute sequence that is full-on 1970s tripped out weirdness that is proof of how criminally wrong the nitwits at Paramount were to not include as the ending of the movie. Maybe it wouldn't have been a flop had they included this ending? It is so good that Cinefamily immediately re-threaded the film print and the bulk of the audience watched it in silent reverence a second time! I wrote a short typewriter review of Phase IV after I saw it, but felt I should say a little more about it--hence this paragraph + the review below. News of this unearthing spread like wildfire to film geeks on the internet--google "original ending phase iv" for more articles about the screening. 

SJ reviews Beasts of the Southern Wild

SJ and I saw the new American film Beasts of the Southern Wild on July 4th and she liked it so much she wanted to write a typewriter review of it. It's been sweeping awards at various film festivals--Golden Camera at Cannes as well as winning best film at Los Angeles, Seattle and Sundance film festivals--and director Benh Zeitlin's imaginative and ambitious film is going to be much talked about throughout the awards season. Here's the poster and SJ's typewriter review of Beasts of the Southern Wild: 

Herb & Dorothy

[didn't get to finish my typewriter review--here's the rest of what I wanted to write]...their devotion to the art and artists they supported is incredibly loyal and genuine.

Your Sister's Sister

June movies

June was a good month for movies. I started out in Seattle for eight films at SIFF which I wrote about in a post a few weeks ago. The rest of the month saw me really watching a lot of documentaries--ten for the month in total. SJ and I saw four films at the Los Angeles Film Festival [post soon with details on that] and I saw a group of good new releases [Killer Joe, Safety Not Guaranteed, Your Sister's Sister] and one disappointing new film [Prometheus]. Seeing Tootsie with a full house at the Orpheum with Dabney Coleman killing the pre-screening Q and A was another highlight of the month. Here's the full list:

Best Intentions---2011---romania   **
Coteau Rouge---2011---canada   ***
Earthbound---2011---ireland   ***
We Are Legion: The Story of the Hackivists---2012---usa   ****
Kryptonite!---2011---italy   ***1/2
The Mexican Suitcase---2012---usa   ***1/2
Romancing Into Thin Air---2011---hong kong   ***
Rent-A-Cat---2011---japan    ****
Tootsie---1982---usa    *****!
Big---1988---usa    ****
Prometheus---2012---usa   ***
Into the Wind---2010---usa   ***1/2
Risky Business---1983---usa   ***1/2
Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times---2011---usa   ***1/2
Killer Joe---2012---usa   ***1/2
A Band Called Death---2012---usa   ***1/2
The Iran Job---2012---usa   ***1/2
Safety Not Guaranteed---2012---usa   ****
Beauty Is Embarrassing---2012---usa   ****
Your Sister's Sister---2012---usa   ***1/2
Phase IV---1974---usa   ***1/2
I Knew It Was You---2009---usa   ***1/2
Card Subject to Change---2011---usa   **1/2
The People Vs. George Lucas---2010---usa   ***

Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles is a dreamland for movie palace lovers. There's the Million Dollar Theatre, the Palace, the Orpheum, the Los Angeles and the United Artists just to name a few. Rarely are films shown at them, but every summer the Los Angeles Conservancy schedules screenings. Thanks to the screenings, the theatres can be experienced for the reason they were created: watching movies. I'd been inside the Million Dollar Theatre and the Orpheum, but the Los Angeles I'd only admired from the street as I looked up lovingly at its bright red marquee.

Recently, SJ and I got to go inside the theatre [with over a thousand others] to see the 1973 film Paper Moon. What a jewell! I was kind of awestruck by this ornate, painfully beautiful structure. If you even attempt to tell me we've progressed as a culture regarding the way we watch movies since the Los Angeles was built in 1931, I might be tempted to slap you across the face and tell you never to talk to me again! Now we have multiplexes or boxed rooms that are indistinguishable from one another, then they had places like the Los Angeles. The Los Angeles has all the bells and whistles for the era, including an actual ball room below the theatre! Check out the images below and make yourself sad that you are forced to watch movies in the sterile confines movie theatres have devolved into.

Seattle International Film Festival

A few weeks ago I flew up to Seattle to spend four days watching movies, seeing friends, eating at favorite restaurants and getting away from Los Angeles. I hadn't left Los Angeles county since moving here last October and I was more than ready for that dreary Pacific Northwest weather. I am already a bit sick of the uninterrupted bright sunlight that penetrates the hazy Los Angeles cityscape day after day. Seattle was a perfect four day respite for that. Don't believe the photo on the left with blue skies and clouds, that was an brief patch of blue during my visit. Here's a rundown of the films I saw--eight of them.

Day One. I started off with a dud in the 2011 Romanian drama Best Intentions. I love seeing films from this part of the world and there's been kind of a surge in great films from young directors coming out of Romania, but this confused movie isn't one of them. Shot with a gimmicky P.O.V. style that comes and goes throughout the film which I loathed, Best Intentions had little to it that makes it worth recommending. My second and third films, while kind of flawed and not world beaters, were at least pleasantly entertaining compared to Best Intentions. Coteau Rouge, a Canadian film set in a Montreal suburb, is uneven but has enough festival styled charm to warrant a viewing. These kinds of low-reaching comedy/dramas from another country seem all over the schedule every time I've gone to SIFF over the years. Last on the schedule was Earthbound, an Irish sci-fi romantic comedy that veered close to being too cute for its own good. The nice ensemble cast, led by an adorable Jenn Murray, saves the day for this one.

Day Two. I love anything to do with computer hackers, so when I saw We Are Legion on the schedule, I snapped up a ticket as fast as my fingers could type on the keyboard. Telling the story of the mostly leaderless Anonymous hacker community, We Are Legion is an entertaining documentary romp through the world of hackers fighting for good and evil [some might say illegal]. Or, they are just getting their lulz. I love reading or watching this kind of techno-mayhem, so this one was right in the sweet-spot. Kryptonite!, an Italian comedy/drama, had an absolutely knock-it-out-of-the-park first 15 minutes, but it couldn't maintain that level. It's still a fun look at Naples in the 1970s as a young boy comes of age surrounded by a family of eccentrics. I ended the day with another documentary, The Mexican Suitcase is about the Spanish Civil War and the discovery of a lost suitcase in Mexico City that contained thousands of negatives from the war by famed photographers Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David "Chim" Seymour. I actually saw an exhibit with these images at International Center of Photography when I was last in New York, so I found this documentary fascinating. It's not only about the civil war, but the dangerous war photography that these three photographers helped break ground regarding the art form.

Day Three. Johnny To is a veteran Hong Kong filmmaker who specializes in tightly plotted crime films and shoot-em-ups, Romancing in Thin Air is a sort of spotty departure for him that has him taking on the romantic drama genre. Full of all the usual emotional over-the-top shenanigans you expect in a Hong Kong film, there's no way you'd ever guess the man behind the lens of this one is bad-ass Johnny To. Glad to see him branch out, but I prefer To's crime films to this one. My last film of the festival was also my favorite, the oddball and wonderfully titled Rent-A-Cat. This Japanese film is a cat lover's dream movie that had the audience eliciting multiple "ahs" of cuteness on the screen when there was some sort of cute feline action. Sleepy cats in baskets? I'm more of a dog person, but even I had multiple goofy grins on my face at some of the cat-related shots. The story involves a lonely single woman who has a lot of cats. She rents them out to emotionally needy people to help them in various ways and then we follow her relationship with these cat-renters. Rent-A-Cat is a quirky charmer, written and directed by Naoki Ogigami, and I'm hoping to catch some of her other films.

Safety Not Guaranteed

May movies

Saw more films this month, although there were a bunch of films I'm not listing due to Slumber Party 4 secrecy issues. I'm sure there was a CineRobot first in May--three scores of five in a row when I saw The Lady Eve, West Side Story [in 70mm!] and The Straight Story [also on film in a theatre] back-to-back-to-back. I also got to see Paper Moon at the ornate and beautiful Los Angeles in downtown [there's a ballroom below the theatre!] and was charmed and entertained by the raconteur Peter Bogdanovich for a blissful thirty minutes.

Roadie---2011---usa   **1/2
The Sound of My Voice---2012---usa   **1/2
Monsieur Lazhar---2012---canada   ***1/2
Vigilante---1983---usa   ***
Submarine---2011---england   ***1/2
Urbanized---2011---usa   ***1/2
Bernie---2012---usa   ***1/2
Identity Card---2011---czech republic   ***1/2
Matchmaking Mayor---2011---czech republic   ***1/2
Long Live the Family---2011---czech republic   ***
Moonrise Kingdom---2012---usa    ****
The Lady Eve---1941---usa    *****!
West Side Story---1961---usa   *****!
The Straight Story---1999---usa    *****!
Friday Foster---1975---usa   ***
Damn! Is the Price of Fame too Damn High?---2011---usa   **1/2
The Dictator---2012---usa   ***
Paper Moon---1973---usa   ****

Moonrise on Wes Anderson by Stephanie Huettner

Believe it or not, it’s been sixteen years since Wes Anderson released his first theatrical film. Bottle Rocket announced him to a limited indie audience as a new voice in cinema and won him the Best New Filmmaker award at the MTV Movie Awards. As silly as a distinction from the network that is currently airing “Jersey Shore” may sound now, MTV used to be pretty good at predicting new filmmaking talent. Fellow winners of this award include Christopher Nolan, Spike Jonze, and Sofia Coppola. His most recent film, Moonrise Kingdom recently premiered as the Opening Night Film at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

The main criticism I hear of Anderson’s work is that it is repetitive, mostly in style. This critique is, to me, actually a compliment of sorts. A young writer/director who has his own self-possessed style immediately out of the gate is the something that makes every wannabe director in film school seethe with envy. The lingering static shots, the almost universal asocial behavior of characters, the picture-perfect set pieces; it just wouldn’t be a Wes Anderson movie without these things. In truth, the actual content of the films differs wildly from one to the next; a buddy road movie, a tale of teen angst, a family drama, a deep sea diving adventure, an international travelog with estranged brothers, a groundbreaking animated children’s film, and now, a coming-of-age story about first love. Throughout all of these can be found a menagerie of strange but endearing social misfits.

Moonrise Kingdom, for whatever reason, has thus far been universally successful with both critics and audiences, receiving rave reviews and breaking box office records for limited release films. The reasons for this upsurge in popularity for Anderson are a mystery to me. Perhaps there’s a successful Twitter campaign that I’ve been missing. In any case, it’s possible that Anderson will have his most financially successful film since his third effort, The Royal Tenenbaums. This isn’t to say that I didn’t like Moonrise Kingdom, which I most definitely did. However, I’ve liked all of his films and that hasn’t made everyone go see them. Perhaps it’s the sheer cuteness of Moonrise Kingdom’s plot that has theater-goers flocking to it. Two young kids in love, surrounded by a troupe of wilderness scouts, and Edward Norton uttering lines like “Jiminy Crickets.” Yes, cute it most certainly is. Don’t think old Wes has gone soft, though. There’s still the same dry wit and pregnant comedic pauses which fall flat with some and send others into torrents of giggles. I experienced this firsthand when my mom, brother, cousin, aunt, and I went to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. My brother, cousin, and I were in fits of laughter the whole time, while our parents insisted that it had some mildly amusing moments at best. Their lackluster response didn’t faze us one bit. We got it, and that’s all that mattered.

One thing none of Anderson’s films has failed to is delight me upon repeated viewings. Zissou has gotten better and better in my personal esteem, I once watched Rushmore several times on a loop in one day, and The Royal Tenenbaums went from my favorite movie of that year to one of my favorite movies of the decade. “His movies are so full. They aren’t just made with two turnarounds to get us to act 2 and act 3. He gives us fully rewatchable stories where no matter how many times you watch them you can still be surprised.” This came from my I Luv Video coworker, Steve Quinlan, while we watched our third Anderson film in a row at work. Steve and I see pretty much eye-to-eye where comedies are concerned, and the above reasoning is why. Most comedies are compiled of Big Funny Moments, often built around otherwise pedestrian dialogue and halfway developed characters. Even comedies that I enjoy immensely upon first or second viewing rarely pull many satisfying laughs from me after that. Anderson’s comedies, I think of them all as comedies among other things, are built instead upon hundreds of Little Funny Moments with no dead space in between.

What truly sets all of Anderson’s work apart from the hordes of people trying to master the art of twee is an unshakable emotional core. There are many who think the opposite is true, finding his work to be all about the surface image. While the visuals certainly play a huge role in all of the movies, as mentioned before, I’ve never left one without feeling moved in some way. For all of his bastardly behavior, Royal Tenenbaum loves the hell out of his family. In spite of his aloofness, Steve Zissou is deeply affected by everything going on around him. And, if nothing else, I find the drowning scene in The Darjeeling Limited unfailingly stirring every time. Really, folks, if you can sit through the end of Life Aquatic with the sweet strains of Sigur Ros playing over visions of a jaguar shark swimming over a miniature yellow  Zissou submersible without feeling the slightest swelling of emotion, well then we are just wired differently.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to change anyone’s mind about Anderson who doesn’t like him, but I suppose that’s never really mattered to me. I get it, and that’s all that matters.

Vigilante

Moonrise Kingdom

2004 statistics!

Here's the last of my statistical updates as from 2005 on, those have already been published on CineRobot since I started the blog in that year. 2004 had me living part of the year in Seattle and then moving back to Oklahoma for graduate school. Do you get the feeling I like to move around a lot based on these statistical updates and the amount of my moving around? Well, after my move from Norman to Tulsa in May of 2005, I stayed in one house, one city, one state for over six years. And then I moved again, to Los Angeles. Here's 2004's stats for you number junkies.

Total: 263

By decade

1920-29: 1
1930-39: 2
1940-49: 3
1950-59: 5
1960-69: 9
1970-79: 29
1980-89: 23
1990-99: 9
2000+: 182

In a theatre: 134
Documentaries: 29

Where I saw 'em

102--Seattle, Washington
75--Pryor Creek, Oklahoma
43--Norman, Oklahoma
28--Tulsa, Oklahoma
5--Siloam Springs, Arkansas
4--Broken Arrow, Okla.; Oklahoma City, Okla.
1--Dallas, texas

By country

165--US and A!
14--France
13--England
11--Japan
9--Canada
6--Hong Kong
5--Italy; Spain
4--South Korea
3--Germany
2--Australia; Austria; China; Denmark; Ireland; Taiwan; Thailand
1--Belgium; Brazil; Czech Republic; Hungary; Iran; Israel; Mexico; Mongolia; New Zealand; Poland; Scotland; Sweden

Who I saw 'em with

178--loner style
35--Nancy Churillo
16--Lillian Blevins
11--Shane Davis
9--Kelly Healy
8--Trevor Koop
5--Phil Hollins
4--Sherrill Davis; Michael Ninburg
2--Dave Showinski; Lily Yuan
1--Nicole Agostinelli; Michael Aycock; Jory Boling; Jack Buchans; Katrina Gibson; Emily Hennigs; Joshua McNichols; Katherine ???