Little Big Screen – Page 4

March 23, 2013August 16, 2019

Double Cynical

Abstract sign on Lake Road near Sea Breeze

I thought I was the only one in the world with the John Philips solo album with “Holland Tunnel” on it but there it was in a movie we watched last night. For a minute it made me wish I hadn’t sold that at our garage sale last year. The Amazon review of the soundtrack to “The Squid and the Whale” with The Cars “Drive”, Lou Reed’s “Street Hassle” and The McGarrigle’s “Heart Like A Wheel” says it will “probably be most enjoyed by the cynical” but that doesn’t make any sense at all unless it’s one of those double negative situations.

We watched the movie last night and it seemed like we had seen it already but we weren’t quite sure. Maybe we saw it at someone’s house or somewhere where we couldn’t give it our undivided attention. Regardless it was great to see it again and it was a real surprise to see the end credits for soundtrack go to our neighbor’s brother, Dean Wareham. The cast was perfect and amazing. I felt like we were watching a play in our living room.

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March 15, 2013August 16, 2019

Higher Plane

Fallen tree in the ice near Lake Ontario

The grey skies of Rochester got to our neighbor. It’s her first Winter here and she was ok until March when she expected a change. We walked up to the lake with her and I tried to cheer her up by pointing out the snowdrops that were blossoming off to our left but it was a bright sunny day and that’s all it took. She told us she always feels like she’s high when she gets near the lake but only when she is alone so we missed out on that one. On the way back she asked if we wanted anything from the new Trader Joes. We told we hadn’t been there yet and then we made plans to go today.

We filled up our little red buggy with fun stuff and then got on the wrong side of the check out lane so we were invading the cashier’s space. She told us to get on the other side and relax and asked if we’d seen any good movies lately. We said, “Yeah, we just watched the Jean Luc Goddard’ Contempt last night with Bridget Bardot” but we got kind of a blank look so we dropped it. Goddard movies make sense on a higher plane than plot.

Jerry Prokosch (played by by Jack Palance): “I like gods. I like them very much. I know exactly how they feel – exactly.”
Fritz Lang (playing himself): “Jerry, don’t forget. The gods have not created man. Man has created gods.”

Peggi is reading Neil Young’s book now and she tells me Jean Luc Goddard is his favorite director. Somehow I missed that.

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September 28, 2012August 17, 2019

Tray-ler

Paradise Lost is the name of an epic poem by John Milton, a dark rock band from the UK and three documentaries made by HBO in 1996, 2000 and 2011 about the three teenagers in West Memphis, Arkansas who were convicted of the grisly murders of three young boys. The title doesn’t fit the documentary but neither do the charges. West Memphis is sub culture plunge, so deep the real life characters tend to overwhelm the details of the story. After watching the first episode I couldn’t get the accent and presence of the key players out of my head. Maybe it’s because I lived in a trailer (pronounced “tray-ler”) in southern Indiana for a few years. They smoke and pull their teeth out on camera. The accused teenagers dressed in black and liked Metallica whose music is used to great effect throughout the three films. The small town cops and judge saw Satanism and railroaded the jury into convicting.

Three documentaries on the same subject seems excessive. They wander and tug you crazy directions. When I saw the third installment sitting next to our tv I thought what more could they possibly add to this story but it keeps digging deeper and getting better. The clumsy movie making is somehow a virtue. The big budget “West of Memphis” movie by Amy Berg and Peter Jackson is in our queue but I expect it to be heavy handed by comparison.

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August 12, 2012August 17, 2019

Bewilderment

We had some of the best meals of our lives in Barcelona but the “Menu del Dia” there is a long way from El Bulli, the so called best restaurant in the world before it closed a few years ago. It was only open six months out of the year, the other six months were spent in Barcelona creating an ever changing menu. The restaurant took reservations in January for the whole season and would not seat walk-ins even if they had an empty table so as not to set a precedent.

The German documentary, “El Bulli: Cooking in Progress,” played at the Dyden Theater last night and contrary to the blurb on the Eastman House website it was not “the next best thing to dining there.” It was better than dining there. Not that I have ever set foot in the place but how good can a meal be? The brilliant moviemakers stayed in the kitchen and capture the Spaniards finely tuned attention to detail.

Watch the staff carefully place salt crystals on delicate arrangements of tiny servings (thirty five plates in a typical meal) was thrilling. And I’m so happy they didn’t go out to the dining room. It would have deflated the intense focus. Imagine watching De Kooning paint, digging the painting and then cutting to the hedge fund manager who had enough money to buy the thing. My favorite line is Chef Ferran Adrià saying that he wanted to bewilder diners.

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June 5, 2012August 17, 2019

Breaking Brilliant

Black and white dragon fly in woods near Rochester, New York

We’ve been gorging ourselves on the first three seasons of Breaking Bad, all available as “Instant Play” on Netflix, in preparation for the launch of season four on Netflix dvds. Season five drops on June 14th but we don’t have cable tv so this is how we do it. The reruns still have plenty of meat on them.

We’re crazy about the show but also worry that the writers may not be able keep this brilliant run up. When we mention the show people are always trying to us into other shows like Mad Men, Six feet Under, Weeds or The Wire and we’ve given them all a try but come on. Breaking Bad is the bomb.

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April 24, 2012August 18, 2019

Sculpting In Time

Loading docks on Mushroom Boulevard in Rochester, New York

The Russian director, Andrei Tarkovsky, defines filmmaking as sculpting In time. “The Sacrifice” is a magnificent sculpture. We spent three nights with the movie, watching it and the extras a few times. Tarkovsky says an artist doesn’t look for a subject, “the subject grows within the artist.” This film is so beautiful that it hardly matters that the story is about Armageddon.

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April 7, 2012August 18, 2019

Passion Days

Still of Maria Falconetti from The Passion of Joan of Arc

They really were better actors in the silent days. If you don’t believe me check out 1928 movie “The Passion of Joan of Arc”, “one of the greatest movies of all time” according to the Netflix envelope. The expressions on the actors faces are so over the top I kept wanting to pause the dvd and take a photo. Cindy Sherman could have shaped her whole career with this movie. No movie has ever effected me this way. I couldn’t wait to watch it again in the morning before the sun light steams into the room and wrecks the mood.

Joan is a heroine in France and a saint but in the fifteenth century her claims of divine guidance were met by the church hierarchy with a drawn out trial and death by burning at the stake. This movie portrays the leering old men of the cloth in devastating fashion as they challenge Joan on her manly dress and push for details on her vision of Saint Michael at one point asking “Was he naked?” They wish. And they couldn’t wait to pile into the torture room to exact a toll on nineteen year old Joan.

The poor church did not like the way they were portrayed and the movie was denounced, cut, and burned just like Joan was. So little has changed this movie could have been made today! Perfect fare for a Good Friday evening. I hesitate to mention that the entire movie is available on YouTube because you really should see the higher res Criterion Collection dvd.

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March 2, 2012August 18, 2019

I Don’t Wanna Grow Up

Fifties Chevy BelAir station wagon on Brooklyn street

When our Netflix queue ran dry we put out the word and loaded it up with recommendations from friends. We lost track of who recommended what but I’m pretty sure our friends A & R pointed us toward “Momma’s Man“.

We watched the movie a couple nights ago and were transfixed by it. A low budget movie with the director’s parents ((avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs and painter Flo Jacobs, shown third and second from the right in this photo) playing versions of themselves in the fourth floor Manhattan walkup he grew up in. The director, in the form of Mickie, comes home and wallows in his adolescence. We saved the extras for the next night and the movie only got better. Instead of the director talking over the movie he dispensed with a rerun of the visuals and recorded a conversation with his parents about the movie, a minimal masterpiece, that deepens the movie’s impact.

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March 1, 2012April 11, 2019

Transcendency

Remember PIL’s performance on American Bandstand? It was one of those transcendent moments of rock n’ roll bliss. We watched it live and hadn’t seen it until we followed this link on the Mojo site. I had a scare last week when SMR almost reached the one week mark without a new post. Turns out it was just a temporary lapse and it’s come roaring back with posts on Kraftwerk and early Swamp Dogg.

Rochester’s favorite realtor, Rome Celli, had his yearly bash last night treating his past and present clientele to popcorn and a movie at the Little Theater. We chose the Descendants, which featured a realtor, and then squeezed in to the café where Annie Wells was playing with a big band. Her ethereal, upper register voice was lost in the din but we did get to hear a bit of a Dave Ripton song on the way out.

I picked up a City Newspaper and was thrilled to find Frank DeBlase back in the saddle after his hospital tweak. Frank’s writing doesn’t get sidetracked with the back story crap. He goes right for the gut and conveys music’s potential for transcendent moments.

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February 15, 2012December 17, 2019

4D

Regal Cinema sign at Culver Ridge Plaza in Rochester, New York

Back in college I let my roommate, Steve Hoy, write a paper for me. It was an English class of some sort and a creative writing exercise so the topic was wide open. Steve wrote a Sci-Fi like paper about time as the “Fourth Dimension.” It received an “A” with a little note that read “Very nice Mr. Dodd.” It was the best mark I ever got in that class.

Craig, who used to be in our painting class but is now across the hall in a figure drawing class, said “The Artist was a good movie but Hugo is a great movie.” Peggi and I loved The Artist so Hugo became a must see.

It is amazing that both movies cover such similar territory in similar time periods, France, dogs and movie making but there were some striking differences. The Little Theater was packed for the Monday night showing of The Artist. Regal Cinema in Culver Ridge Plaza was almost empty. There were three other people in the theater with us with the 3D glasses on. The Artist was whacky and fun while Hugo was steady and sure footed. It felt too long about three quarters in and I started thinking about how much money the movie must have cost. I vote for The Artist.

Five of the movies playing at Regal Cinema were in 3D. I’m waiting for 4D.

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January 28, 2012August 18, 2019

Monk Minus Piano

Dr. Carl Atkins playing Bye-Ya at the Baobab Cultural Center in Rochester, New York

I had the best tofu I have ever had at Edibles on University Ave. It was marinated in a ginger sauce and grilled in some fashion that left it moist and soft on the inside but slightly charred on the outside with a caramelized sauce. We had dinner with our neighbors before heading down the street to the Baobab Cultural Center where noted Jazz authority, saxophonist, and RIT Professor, Dr. Carl Atkins and his group, “Culture Clash” gave a lecture lecture-performance. He was Co-Director, along with bassist Ron Carter, of the Thelonious Monk Institute. He led a very cool group of bass, drums and vibes and w would up with, “Epistrophy” and “Ruby, My Dear” and “Well, You Needn’t” swimming around in our heads. That led us to YouTube this morning where watched and listened to main ingredient. And then we dug up dvd copy of “Straight, No Chaser” that Jeff Munson gave us. That’s now number one in our queue.

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September 22, 2011August 20, 2019

Art Films

White flower weeds lining the path in Spring Valley

As a long time one movie at a time Netflix customer I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about when they jacked up their rates to cover the Instant Play movies that weren’t part of the package when I signed on but the announcement of the two separate companies seems plain crazy. At least they didn’t bring Meg Whitman on board.

On Tuesday we watched the Alice Neel movie from our Instant Queue. She is one my favorite painters so all they had to do was fill the screen with her paintings and I was happy. The movie was made by her grandson and he tried to come to terms with how Alice put her painting in front of family as if it follows that great artists should also have stellar parenting skills. Alice put her all into her work and her paintings testify to this. She was mostly ignored by the art world until well into her seventies. The story of how her sensational paintings could ever have been overlooked would have made a better movie.

The same art world embraced Mark Kostabi, the subject of Wednesday night’s movie, “Con Artist.” This one came in the mail in a red envelope. Kostabi did some really cute little line drawings early on and then decided to stop getting his hands dirty. He out flanked Warhol and hired a staff to not only churn out the work but come up with the concepts, mostly ugly, noisy paintings. They were snapped up as fast as he could sign them. Kostabi reminded us of Bob Ament, the muckraking candidate for our town supervisor. He rubbed his fakeness in the faces of the art establishment and demand continued to soar. So this really is the movie about how the art world ignored Alice Neel and it really isn’t all that good a movie.

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August 15, 2011August 20, 2019

Guston Butts

We stopped by Clover Pools on East Ridge Road to pick up a new solar cover for our street pool. We found some paperwork that says we bought one back in 2007 so I guess these things only last five years or so out in the sun soaking in chorine. Clover Pools sells hot tubs and patio furniture too so we looked around a bit.

We had recently told Rich and Andrea that our NetFlix queue was getting dangerously low and they emailed back their picks. Hot Tub Time Machine was on both of their lists so we just watched it last night. I fell asleep and that’s a thumbs up from me. I couldn’t get over this set of patio furniture that they wanted $2,325 for. The circular table had what looked like Philip Guston cigar butts in an inset fake fire pit.

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February 22, 2011August 21, 2019

People Who Do Things

We walked to the library in last weekend’s snow and picked out a double sided dvd (Does anyone get books at the library anymore?)” We curled up last for the double feature.

I certainly admire people who do things.” Bruno said this to Guy as he sat down next to him on the train in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 movie, “Stranger On A Train.” Bruno, a mama’s boy, who was wealthy enough to not work hated his father and had hatched a plan to get rid of him. Guy was supposed to be the good guy but in the Hitchcock’s hands Bruno was more likable. Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley) wrote the novel and she makes a cameo in a record store. Hitchcock’s cameo has him hopping on a train with a stand up bass that is as big as he is. And Hitchcock’s daughter gives an sizzling performance. We watched both the Britsh and the American version last night. The British one supposedly had homosexual overtones that escaped the American style censorship but we didn’t spot the extra footage. Both were amazing.

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February 11, 2011August 21, 2019

“He Walked Into The Sea”

Andy Warhol and DannyWilliams from "A Walk Into The Sea" at the Little Theater in Rochester New York — Andy Warhol and DannyWilliams from “A Walk Into The Sea” at the Little Theater in Rochester New York

You can stream “A Walk Into The Sea” from Netflix but it was so much more fun to see it last night with a crowd in the Little Theater’s big venue “Theater 1.” Rochester Contemporary sponsored the event, an unusually arty documentary about Andy Warhol’s lover, Danny Williams, a film maker who disappeared and the following discussion. The beautiful black and white footage in the movie is all Danny’s except for a bit of “Chelsea Girls” and it was all edited in camera. Some great raw footage of the Velvet Underground and the Factory crowd all wrapped in a “who was using who?” who done it.

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January 20, 2011July 27, 2024

Jimi & Keith

The George Eastman House has a world famous collection of films in their vaults and they screened a rare print of Joe Boyd’s 1973 film “Jimi Hendrix” last night. Made just three years after Hendrix’s death there wasn’t time for revisionist history and the interviews with Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton still show signs of jealousy. Lou Reed pretty much gives it up for Jimi, about as much as he can. And in the film Jimi gives it up for Bob Dylan with an incredible performance of of “Like A Rollin Stone.”

I left Woodstock before Hendrix performed because Dave thought we were going to starve and I’ll never let him forget that decision even though he is dead. I did get to see Hendrix in Indianapolis in 1969 with Dave’s ex, Kim. I sort of remember losing my brown shoes in a cemetery before the show. And what I mostly remember from the show is Hendrix flipping the bird to the fat cops who stood with their arms crossed in front of the stage.

There is some jaw dropping performances in the film like 1967’s black and white performance of “Purple Haze” at London’s Marque Club and Jimi in a TV studio playing 12 string against a white seamless backdrop. You can see why there hasn’t been another Hendrix movie since. They could never outdo the real thing and this is as close as it gets. I was transfixed by Jimi’s longtime girlfriend, Fayne Pridgon. She has a major role in this film and she was so engaging I came home and googled her but didn’t come up with much. Guess I’ll have to rent the dvd for more.

Peggi’s almost done with Keith Richards’ book and then I’ll set down my Guston book to dive in. There is only one more film left in the Eastman’s “Rock n’ Roll” series, next Wednesday’s showing of the “The Last Waltz.”

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December 18, 2010August 21, 2019

There Is No Conspiracy

Frozen wetlands off Hoffman Road in Rochester, New York

The Eastman House put up a mint copy of the 1974 political thriller “The Parallax View” with Warren Beatty last night. And it was free for members. Peggi and I both thought we had seen it back in the day but we hadn’t. We would have remembered the spectacular shots. Same cinematographer as the Godfather movies and it really looked good on the big screen, so good I was laughing at inappropriate times. The plot was delicious too. Just like the Warren Commission got to the bottom of the JFK assassination and George W.’s plan to hire Henry Kissinger to get to the bottom of the World Trade Center bombings we never really know who’s calling the shots but there is probably a multinational corporation behind it.

Graham Nash curated the Rock n’ Roll photography exhibit at the Eastman House and we’ve been trying to get there for a month or so. I’m hoping Anton Corbijn’s Beefheart portrait is in the show.

Don Van Vilet was a rock n’ roller and real painter. He told The Associated Press in 1991. “I don’t like getting out when I could be painting. And when I’m painting, I don’t want anybody else around.”

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December 11, 2010August 21, 2019

Ground Zero Rochester

Bowling at L&M Lanes in Rochester, New York

Local film director, Robin Lehman has two Oscars under his belt or above his fireplace or stashed away somewhere in his Rochester home. The Eastman House honored Lehman last night by showing three of his documentaries and then grilling him in a post movie Q and A session. I liked the first short the best. Beautiful, liquid shots from inside an African volcano that were orchestrated to a Bach organ fugue. The second short, close-ups of underwater creatures, was unbelievably beautiful but the soundtrack was cornball and the third, main feature, “Forever Young”, about aging well, was just what you would expect. Get into something and get into it good, advice that could just as easily be offered to people of any age. My neighbor, Leo, in his nineties, is a perfect case. Whenever I say “Take it easy,” as a parting salutation he shoots back, “I don’t want to take it easy.”

And then (we were following Rick and Monica around tonight) off to L&M Lanes on Merchants Road in the old hood for a few games of bowling and some pints of Victory Hop Devil. The juke box hits the spot as well with Neil Young, Parliament and Zeppelin. This place feels like ground zero Rochester.

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December 8, 2010August 21, 2019

BBad TV

John Gilmore insisted we put this cable tv show called “Breaking Bad” in our Netflix queue. In fact he asked for our password and he added the movie himself. We spotted it in there and bumped it down a few times (I didn’t like the name of it) but it eventually worked its way to the top when we weren’t looking and then showed up in our mailbox.

We really love it. It’s over the top and believable at the same time without getting into reality tv territory. We watched the first three episodes in a flash and while we were waiting for the next disc to arrive our neighbors brought over a movie called “Leaves of Grass” with Susan Sarandon and Richard Dreyfuss. It was a similar topic. We watched the movie together and I was obnoxious throughout because I couldn’t believe how pale this thing was stacked up to “Breaking Bad.”

We don’t have cable tv so we have a lot of catching up to do and there is nothing but “Breaking Bad” in our Netflix queue now.

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October 20, 2010August 22, 2019

Mad As Hell

Our car is over at Jeromes’s getting the once over. It was time for an oil change but it’s also time for new brakes, new tires and a new pump for the window washer fluid. Those guys are the best so I know it’s in good hands but it is a strange sensation handing over the keys to a car with an Obama sticker on it to a garage where Glen Beck’s fire and brimstone rants are blasting. Bipartisanship in action. We just watched Network the other night and were surprised how relevant the thirty four year old move is.

We borrowed our neighbor’s car so Peggi could get to emergency because she had a bloody nose that wouldn’t stop. They packed it with liquid cocaine solution. her lips went numb and the bleeding stopped. And then we borrowed our other neighbor’s car so I could get to my painting class. I didn’t mind asking him because I had just helped him take down a diseased tree. You can see his time tested method in the photo above. You basically create a hinge that runs across the center of the tree by cutting the wedge perpendicular to and facing the direction you want the tree to fall in and a cut straight in on the other side about four inches above the wedge cut. The tree teeters on the uncut “hinge, you can almost tip it with a wedge and it drops. Can’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon.

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