Not a very big crowd this week, but what a great night! I can find De Palma’s work to be a bit over the top sometimes, but this was one of his very best. It was an honor to share it on the big screen with some who hadn’t ever seen it.
Ironically, and totally unintentionally, this was the second movie shown here in a row in which an awl was featured as a murder weapon. I always have one in my toolbox, but had never thought to use it in that manner!
The advent of the smartphone has put an extremely capable camera in many of our pockets. This has enabled an great amount of creativity to blossom, while at the same time proliferating an abundance of mundane imagery. “Everybody’s a photographer these days!” as they say.
Well… turning the clock back to the late nineteenth century, photography wasn’t easy at all, and creative expression was often not part of the craft. Lucas, the Danish priest dispatched to Iceland to build a church is obsessed with photography, but (often comically) wouldn’t know a good picture if it slapped him in his stoically dopey face. For example, the playful younger sister tried so hard to help him take a good picture, but…
And the horse gave up too, and walked away before he could get a picture.
This is a gorgeous film, and we enjoyed a good turnout tonight. NewScreen continues to shine!
Another great screening tonight. Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää’s Dogs Don’t Wear Pants has been described as a black comedy, but the romantic in me sees it as a love story, albeit not your average love story – not that you would ever see an average love story on our screen.
Sadly, I mistimed my banana ripening this week, so no banana bread tonight. They were just too green! However… Borodinski bread with rollmops to the rescue. Fancy schmancy!
I found nothing new suitably inspiring enough to be the short for this week, so I went “digging in the crates” and found a gem: Pursuit by Gesaffelstein. Always exciting.
Paul Thomas Anderson returned to form (by which I mean, Magnolia form… it’s not as though his film-making has been too shabby in the inerim!) with the multi-layered and star-studded Licorice Pizza. Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman are officially stars.
NewScreen continues to return to form too. Tonight was one of those nights that I felt hesitant about starting the movie. Conversation at the bar was lively, with some first-timers, unable to hide their delight at this “new discovery”, striking up conversations with our more “regular” guests, some of whom hadn’t attended for many years. But… the show must go on, and so it did. As expected, we were mesmerized.
The old “Aprez” playlist got dusted off too, and although I know it’s just wrong, we danced once again to that perennial favorite, Step In The Name Of Love, by the disgraced R.Kelly. Oops.
Our very short feature tonight was a mid-eighties Wendy’s commercial poking fun at the lack of choice in the then Soviet Union. And, by the way… Fuck Putin.
NewScreen Tuesday nights continue to attract nice sized groups (although a few of you have gone AWOL, it seems…) so the plan is to stick with this new night for a while.
“Women in charge” emerged as the theme for tonight’s program. Not only because the protagonist in Woman at War (wonderfully portrayed by Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) was a take-no-prisoners, environmental activist force to be reckoned with, but our short feature had already set the scene: Be a Lady They Said, directed by Paul McLean, and narrated by Cynthia Nixon, lays out a whole gamut of mixed signals that have been directed at women since, well, forever. The viral video has provoked a screaming match on line. Taken down, put back up, etc. Thought provoking stuff.
On the most mundane of notes (not really!), the banana-ripening time was perfect this week! Not a crumb survived. Hashtag yummyloaf ))
I had been wanting to show this one for a while and, what can I say but ‘Wow!”. Amanda Kernell’s debut feature Sami Blood is a coming-of-age with a different slant. It looked great on our new screen, but you should still seek it out if you haven’t seen it.
For some reason, the invitation emails have become unreliable again, and many of you were unaware of this screening. I don’t really know what to do about it, but I would urge you to just check here to see what’s showing in a given week. This blog is updated at noon on Mondays, if there will be a screening during the week.
Today was Joni Mitchell’s 67 birthday, and we honoured (Canadian spelling, for the Canadian lady) it with a video of her outstanding live rendition of Big Yellow Taxi at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970, with a bit of hindrance from a misguided “friend”.
Despite of the torrential rains, we had a great turnout for Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s touching A Fantastic Woman, tonight. Thanks to all for braving the elements ))
Our stop-motion short was a rather disturbing and highly amusing look at the human condition, and our lack of involvement. No, I Don’t Want to Dance! was directed by Andrea Vinciguerra.