Pocket Symphony

Before I get to the Spiritualized post, I wanted to share that as of today, I’ve decided that I’m going to join the ranks of those movie geeks who are attempting to see all of the movies on the 1,000 Greatest Films List that’s compiled and hosted by the lunatics at They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?.

Even though I’ve already seen many of the movies on the list, I’m going to try and watch all of them, in no particular order, including revisiting the ones I’ve already seen.

I’m also including the 35 films on their “must-see” list that aren’t currently in the Top 1,000 (as of the December 2007 list).

I’m going to try and make a brief post about each one I see - and perhaps have a “most recent movie” in my sidebar, so you can play along.

Tonight’s choice: 12 Angry Men.

I admit that even though I’m a movie lover, for the last couple years most of my movie watching has been at home. It’s expensive to go to theaters, and unless I see a movie on opening weekend, the prints are usually so scratched that waiting for a copy on HBO or DVD tends to be a more attractive option. Sadly, though, I miss out on the big screen (obviously) and the the experience of seeing a movie with a crowd.

Since I moved to L.A., I’ve come to realize that, as movie fans go, I’m an amateur. This town is unquestionably a movie town, and there are so many opportunities to see films in special places with special people, that I’ve recently started “going to the movies” again.

To that end, I became a member of American Cinematheque.

There are several reasons why I’m glad I did this:

• A membership at American Cinematheque gives some well-needed money to an organization that’s “dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the Moving Picture in all its forms.”
• I get discounted tickets to see movies at both the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica and, more importantly for me, The Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.
• The programming at both of these landmark theaters is adventurous and impeccable.
• The crowds are great - full of lovers of cinema.
• As a member I get invited to special screenings of super-cool movies

And that last reason is why I’m posting right now.

Last night, I was lucky enough to attend a screening of Mr. Lonely, the new movie by Harmony Korine.

Korine is probably best known as the former prodigy who wrote the controversial Kids and directed the (equally controversial) Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy. I don’t want to get into a full-blown review here - maybe sometime later - but I will say that I really enjoyed it. Unlike many of his peers, Korine continues to make independent, true-to-his-vision films. While the main plot of the movie (Michael Jackson impersonator leaves the big city to live on a commune populated exclusively by other impersonators and finds his true self) seems like it is intentionally “weird” - I found the film to be quite gentle and touching.

The cast of the film features some unknowns (including non-actors) as well as a few surprising and cool choices. Playing (impersonators of) The Pope and The Queen are James Fox and Anita Pallenberg, who last appeared together in the Roeg/Cammell 1970 cult masterpiece Performance. Playing a priest in a parallel story is the great director (and friend of Korine) Werner Herzog.

After the screening of the movie, Korine engaged in a Q&A session (in which the moderator seemed confused and awkward and Korine - acting against his previous public persona - was collected, honest and articulate. A particularly nice surprise was when Werner Herzog came up from the audience to help Korine field some questions.

At that point, I reached for my camera and shot a few minutes of video, which I share with you here. A couple of caveats: I wasn’t close to the front of the theater, so I used crappy digital zoom, resulting in odd focus and a “hot pixel” that seems to dance around in the frame. I didn’t edit this at all - it’s just a quick grab of a couple minutes of live footage. I’m too lazy to look up the Dogme rules, but I’m fairly sure it wouldn’t be up to snuff. Enjoy anyway.

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