david lynch – We Are Movie Geeks

David Lynch’s INLAND EMPIRE Starring Laura Dern Opens April 22nd in St. Louis at The Plaza Frontenac Cinema

“I figured one day I’d just wake up and and find out what the hell yesterday was all about. I’m not too keen on thinkin’ about tommorow. And today’s slipping by.”

David Lynch’s INLAND EMPIRE (2006) starring Laura Dern opens in St. Louis Friday April 22nd at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater (1701 South Lindbergh Boulevard # 210 PLAZA, Frontenac, MO 63131). For showtimes, check The Plaza Frontenac Cinema’s website HERE.

After an uncomfortable, borderline disturbing visitation by a cryptic neighbor, the fading movie star, Nikki Grace, is thrilled to hear that she has just landed herself the female lead role in director Kingsley Stewart’s sensational Southern melodrama called “On High in Blue Tomorrows”. However, as she gradually disappears into her complex role, Nikki’s character, Susan Blue, starts to emerge from the labyrinthine pathways of her unconscious, creeping into her delicate consciousness. More and more, as Nikki’s dissociation becomes more aggressive, and her self-transcendent experience sets in motion a sometimes subtle, sometimes profound transformation, parallel worlds interweave, and a mysterious lost girl tuned into the TV sitcom, Rabbits (2002), begins to take shape. Is Stewart’s ambitious project doomed to fail?

David Lynch’s DUNE Screens September 1st at the Arkadin Cinema & Bar – “Strange Brew”

“Father! The sleeper has awakened!”

The Strange Brew Cult Movie night returns at their new home, the Arkadin Cinema & Bar, with a screening of David Lynch’s DUNE (1980) on Wednesday, September 1st at 8:00 pm (movie starts at sundown on the backlot Patio). The Arkadin is located at 5228 Gravois Ave, St Louis, MO 63116. The Strange Brew Cult Movie night takes place the first Wednesday of every month at Arkadin Cinema. Films are currently showing on the Backlot Patio (Enter through the Heavy Anchor) and bringing extra lawn chairs is strongly encouraged. Admission: $9.00. Tickets can be purchased in advance HERE

The year is 10,191, and four planets are embroiled in a secret plot to wrest control of the Spice Melange, the most precious substance in the universe and found only on the planet Arrakis. A feud between two powerful dynasties, House Atreides and House Harkonnen, is manipulated from afar by ruling powers that conspire to keep their grip on the spice. As the two families clash on Arrakis, Duke Atreides’ son Paul (Kyle MacLachlan, in his screen debut) finds himself at the center of an intergalactic war and an ancient prophecy that could change the galaxy forever. Though its initial reception ensured that Lynch largely eschewed mainstream filmmaking for the rest of his career, Dune has since been rightly re-evaluated as one of the most startlingly original and visionary science fiction films of the 1980s. Appreciate it anew Wednesday night at the Arkadin Cinema & Bar.

David Lynch’s DUNE Available 2-Disc Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray August 31st From Arrow Video

“Father! The sleeper has awakened!”

David Lynch’s DUNE (1984) will be available in a 2-Disc Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray August 31st from Arrow Video

Following a notorious aborted attempt by Alejandro Jodorowsky in the 1970s, Frank Herbert’s bestselling sci-fi epic Dune finally made it to the big screen as the third film by emerging surrealist wunderkind David Lynch, featuring an all-star cast that includes several of Lynch’s regular collaborators.

Though its initial reception ensured that Lynch largely eschewed mainstream filmmaking for the rest of his career, Dune has since been rightly re-evaluated as one of the most startlingly original and visionary science fiction films of the 1980s. Its astonishing production design and visual effects can now be appreciated anew in this spellbinding 4K restoration, accompanied by hours of comprehensive bonus features.

4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

Brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative
60-page perfect-bound book featuring new writing by Andrew Nette, Christian McCrea and Charlie Brigden, an interview with sound designer Alan Splet from 1984, excerpts from an interview with the director and a Dune Terminology glossary
Large fold-out double-sided poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Dániel Taylor
Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproductions
Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Dániel Taylor

DISC 1: FEATURE & EXTRAS (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)

4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original uncompressed stereo and DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Brand new commentary by film historian Paul M. Sammon
Brand new commentary by Mike White of The Projection Booth podcast
Impressions of Dune, a 2003 documentary on the making of the film
Designing Dune, a 2005 featurette on the work of production designer Anthony Masters
Dune FX, a 2005 featurette on the film’s effects
Dune Models & Miniatures, a 2005 featurette on the film’s model effects
Dune Costumes, a 2005 featurette on the film’s costume designs
11 deleted scenes, with a 2005 introduction by Raffaella de Laurentiis
Destination Dune, a 1983 featurette
Theatrical trailers and TV spots
Image galleries

DISC 2: BONUS DISC (BLU-RAY)

Beyond Imagination: Merchandising Dune, a brand new featurette on the film’s promotional merchandise
Prophecy Fulfilled: Scoring Dune, a brand new featurette on the film’s music score, with interviews with members of Toto and film music historian Tim Greiving
Brand new interview with make-up effects artist Giannetto de Rossi
Archive interview with production coordinator Golda Offenheim
Archive interview with star Paul Smith
Archive interview with make-up effects artist Christopher Tucker

*EXTRAS STILL IN PRODUCTION AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE*

David Lynch’s ERASERHEAD Midnights at The Tivoli This Weekend

“Mother, they’re still not sure if it IS a baby.”

David Lynch’s ERASERHEAD plays this weekend (August 3rd and 4th) at The Tivoli at midnight as part of their Reel Late at the Tivoli midnight series.

In the summer of ’78 I was just 16 years old. The Varsity Theater on Delmar (in the building that now houses Vintage Vinyl) was the cool theater that showed ROCKY HORROR at midnight and presented counterculture film programming, mostly for the students at nearby Washington University. BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, ANDY WARHOL’S FRANKENSTEIN, HOUSE OF WAX in 3D, and NINE LIVES OF FRITZ THE CAT were a few of the many movies I saw there. That summer, they had a midnight series on Wednesday nights they called ‘Weird Wednesdays’ (I guess the weekends were strictly for ROCKY HORROR – which I only saw there once). YELLOW SUBMARINE was the only other film I remember seeing on ‘Weird Wednesdays’ though I’m sure I went a few other times. One July Wednesday night, my friends and I ventured up to the Varsity to see a new film that was part of the series – one that put the ‘Weird’ in ‘Weird Wednesday’ – it was something called ERASERHEAD.

ERASERHEAD was of course my first exposure to David Lynch and that Lynchian style. I didn’t know who Lynch was (no one did then) but I found his seminal universe of nightmarish visions remarkable and I still have the “ERASERHEAD – I SAW IT” button they handed out that night.

Seeping chickens, dancing weirdo women, dying alien baby children. ERASERHEAD was a dark, puzzling nightmare that left me so disturbed I could not think of anything else than the film for days. I had witnessed nothing quite like it – this was long before independent surreal, avant-garde films were a dime a dozen – it was a film of the future (my experience watching the recent UNDER THE SKIN reminded me a bit of the first time I saw ERASERHEAD). Make no mistake about it, David Lynch is a genius/madman (take your choice) and ERASERHEAD was his first full blown feature film. Years later I read that Lynch had personally accompanied the film city to city in 1978 for screenings, so I assumed (or, more likely, wanted to believe) that Lynch was in the audience at the Varsity that night with me. A couple of years ago I was talking to local filmmaker Roy Zurich, who was manager of the Varsity in the late ‘70s. Roy informed me that no, Lynch was not in attendance that night.

Lynch began work on ERASERHEAD when he was given a small grant by the AFI Conservatory, but the money ran out and it took him over 5 years to finish — in spurts. ERASERHEAD is certainly not for everyone…in fact, it’s not for most, however, you can surely see the singular artistic vision that is David Lynch’s — his style, pacing, use of music, visuals, are all on display. Stanley Kubrick was a huge fan of ERASERHEAD and forced the cast and crew of THE SHINING to watch it to put them in the right mood.

ERASERHEAD had an extended run at the Varsity a couple of months later and played at the Tivoli a couple of times in the ‘80s, but I never experienced it on the big screen again. If you’ve seen ERASERHEAD only on DVD, you haven’t really seen ERASERHEAD. That’s a cliché, but in this case, it’s true. Lucky St. Louisans will have the opportunity to fly to planet Lynch and see ERASERHEAD when it screens at the Tivoli in St. Louis this Friday and Saturday nights (August 3rd and 4th) as part of the ‘Reel Late at the Tivoli’ midnight show.

I’ll be there, and I’ll be wearing my 40-year old “ERASERHEAD – I SAW IT” button

The Tivoli’s located at 6350 Delmar Blvd., University City, MO. Admission is a mere $8!

A Facebook invite for the screening can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/680323085642101/

The Tivoli’s website can be found HERE

http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/st.louis/tivolitheatre.htm

Here’s the midnight for the next several weeks:

August 10-11: GHOST IN THE SHELL

August 17-18: BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER

August 24-25: CRIMSON PEAK

August 31 – Sept. 1: MAD MAX FURY ROAD

Sept 7-8: SPIRITED AWAY

Sept 14-15: THE WITCH

Reel Late at the Tivoli takes place every Friday and Saturday night and We Are Movie Geeks own Tom Stockman (that’s me!) is there on Fridays with custom trivia questions about the films and always has DVDs, posters, and other cool stuff to give away. Ticket prices are $8. We hope to see everyone late at night in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned here at We Are Movie Geeks for more updates on the Midnight series!

LUCKY – Review

Harry Dean Stanton says farewell in the movie LUCKY, which turned out to be the beloved actor’s last. Not much happens in LUCKY and its slow, unhurried style may not appeal to everyone, but this movie has a big heart and a moving performance by Stanton that acts as a summary of his long and extraordinary career.

LUCKY follows Lucky (Stanton) and his friends and neighbors who live in the dusty desert town of Cave Creek, Arizona. Lucky is 90 years old but fiercely independent, rejecting any idea of assisted living. The film follows his routines over a few days of his life. Lucky smokes, takes a sponge bath, gets dressed, listens to Spanish-language music, does yoga, and smokes some more. Lucky’s interactions with others consists of eating at a diner run by his friend Joe (Barry Shabaka Henley) where he does his crossword puzzles, and a daily stop at the local watering hole. There he chats about mortality and spirituality (he’s an atheist) with barmaid Elaine (Beth Grant) and a couple of fellow regulars; ageing lothario Paulie (James Darren) and Howard (David Lynch), who’s dealing with the loss of a pet turtle named President Roosevelt. Lucky, feeling run down, visits his doctor (Ed Begley, Jr.), who diagnoses his lethargy as a matter of simply getting old and advises him to not stop smoking (“quitting will probably do you more harm than good”). At the shop where Lucky buys his cigarettes, the Mexican storekeeper (Bertila Damas), invites him to a birthday party for her son Juan (Ulysses Olmedo). There, Lucky sings the Spanish song ‘Volver, Volver’ .

There are no surprises in LUCKY and it’s a bit modest and brief at just 87 minutes. But the directorial debut of actor John Carroll Lynch, greatly enhanced by the evocative cinematography of Tim Suhrstedt and the sensitive music of Elvis Kuehn, is a deeply affecting look at an old man near the end of his life. There’s a wonderful scene where Lucky swaps war stories with a fellow vet he meets at the bar (played by Stanton’s ALIEN co-star Tom Skerritt). When Stanton tells of being a cook on an LST in the Navy during WWII and shares other anecdotes, these are events that actually took place in the actor’s life. Stanton’s minimalist performance shows his complexity and range as an actor who can do so much by doing so little and he makes LUCKY an enjoyable, and worthy, swan song.

Read my interview with LUCKY director John Carroll Lynch HERE

4 of 5 Stars

WAMG Interview: Actor John Carroll Lynch – Director of LUCKY

Actor John Carroll Lynch first caught the attention of moviegoers in 1996 when he played Frances McDormand’s husband in FARGO (“People don’t much use the three-cent stamp”). A native of Boulder, Colorado, Lynch spent the next decade popping up in supporting roles in a variety of films including VOLCANO, FACE/OFF, and GOTHIKA. It was his chilling, scene-stealing turn in David Fincher’s ZODIAC in 2007 that made moviegoers really take notice and when he went from being ‘that Norm Gunderson guy’ to ‘John Carroll Lynch, – dynamic character actor’. Lynch continued to impress in roles on the big screen in films like GRAN TORINO, SHUTTER ISLAND, JACKIE (where he played Lyndon Johnson), and THE FOUNDER, where he played one of the McDonald brothers. On the small screen he’s entertained audiences as John Wayne Gacy on American Horror Story and even had his own stand-alone episode of The Walking Dead. Now John Carroll Lynch has directed his first film. It’s a drama called LUCKY starring Harry Dean Stanton as a 90-year old atheist on a spiritual journey. LUCKY, which co-stars Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr, David Lynch, James Darren, and Tom Skerritt, is currently on the festival circuit and will be opening in theaters across the country this fall. John Carroll Lynch took the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about his directorial debut and about working with the legendary Harry Dean Stanton. This interview was conducted the day before Harry Dean Stanton’s death at the age of 91.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman September 14th, 2017

John Carrol Lynch with Frances McDormand in FARGO and in David Fincher’s ZODIAC

Tom Stockman: I’d like to say I’ve been a fan of your acting for many years, from FARGO and ZODIAC and beyond.

John Carroll Lynch: Thank you.

TS: My favorite John Carroll Lynch moment though is when you sacrificed yourself by walking through the lava in VOLCANO

JCL: Ha! That’s taking it back. That’s some real world stuff right there.

John Carrol Lynch in VOLCANO

TS: Let’s talk about LUCKY. I was fortunate enough to watch it over the weekend and really enjoyed it. Congratulations.

JCL: Thank you so much.

TS: How did this movie LUCKY become your directorial debut?

JCL: One of the writers, Logan Sparks, is a good friend of mine. The writers were getting the piece together and they approached me. They had written it with Harry Dean Stanton in mind, obviously. They really wanted it to be a party for him. They had asked a friend of his to direct and they wanted to know if I wanted to play a part in the film. I read it and thought it was a lovely script and agreed to play a part. Then they were struggling to keep in touch with the director. He was very busy doing a lot of different things. During the summer of 2015, they called me. Logan knew that I had been wanting to direct for a long time and they asked if I was interested in directing, since it wasn’t working out with this other guy, who just didn’t have time to commit. So I talked to them about what I thought the movie should look like and feel like and we started working on the script from there.

TS: You said you’ve been wanting to direct film for a long time. When did you decide that you wanted to direct?

JCL: Oh, I’ve been wanting to get in the director’s chair for 10 or 15 years. I’ve never directed anything, not even short films. I’ve tried to leverage myself into the director’s chair with several television projects that I’ve been involved in, but most of the time that happens in the third season of a television show and while I’ve had a wonderful career, I have not been in any third seasons, so I didn’t get there that way. I’ve been writing with a writing partner and all the pieces that we have written have ended up being more ambitious than a first time director should tackle.

TS: What were some of the unexpected challenges of directing a movie for the first time?

JCL: There were a lot of challenges that I did expect, but there were a lot of days making this film, especially in preproduction, where I had a level of discomfort. I wasn’t quite sure whether I liked doing it or not. Then I remembered, back when I was learning how to act, this is how it felt then as well. I realized that the discomfort that I was feeling was about learning, about not knowing and figuring it out. There was so much to learn. While I had been around production a lot, reproduction was new to me. I absolutely loved it, especially collaborating with the DP and the art director and the costume designer and the producers on the project and building the mold for the piece. And postproduction as well, I just fell in love with all the aspects of that, things that I have never done before. The real challenge was the kind of quick study that I had.

TS: Where was LUCKY shot and how long did it take to shoot?

JCL: We had a very short schedule. 18 days, which is a especially short when you have an 89-year-old actor in every scene, so we staggered the schedule over more weeks than three. We shot through most of the month of June in 2015 and then part of July. We shot mostly in Los Angeles with two days where we shot in Cave Creek, Arizona.

TS: Let’s talk about Harry Dean Stanton. He’s 91 now. You said he was 89 when the film was shot. What was his energy like?

JCL: His energy was needed because it’s a lot of work. I had done an 18-day shoot just before this as an actor and I’m twice his size and half his age, and I was exhausted, so needless to say, it was a lot for him to take on. And on top of that, he was really close to the material. It was inspired and based on his life and his personality and his character. This was some very personal material, and because of that he was proprietary in a way that I don’t think he would’ve been in a feature that wasn’t based on him. There was a lot of negotiation around what was in the movie and who Lucky was and who Harry Dean is. One of the basic tenants of Harry Dean, one of the things that he is absolutely rabid about, is that he’s not acting, and he’s not going to do that. He’s himself, and that’s one of the challenges for a director, to direct someone who’s not going to act.

TS: You said the movie is a tribute to Harry Dean Stanton. There’s a wonderful scene in LUCKY where Harry Dean Stanton swaps war stories with another old vet that he meets played by Tom Skerritt. Tell me about that scene. Was Harry Dean Stanton telling his own story there?

JCL: Yes, Harry Dean tells the story of the LST (Tank Landing Ship) that he was on in World War II. It’s in the guise of Lucky, but it’s his true story. He was a cook on an LST in the Navy and then was assigned as an anti-aircraft a guy on that ship. That was absolutely his story. Now Tom Skerritt’s story was a construct, but it was inspired by true stories that were told to the writers by various family members that had served in the war.

TS: Skerritt was likely too young for World War II.

JCL: Just barely.

TS: And those two actors were reunited from ALIEN almost 40 years later, which will be of interest to fans of that film.

JCL: Yes. That was the first time they had worked together since ALIEN.

TS: What about the Mariachi music? Did Harry Dean Stanton provide some of that himself? I know he has a Mariachi band.

JCL: Harry Dean was so deferential to the Mariachi band were used for the film, and they were fantastic. He just loves Mariachi music, and the song played in the film, Volver Volver, is one of his favorites. He had performed it many times before, so yes, that came from him as well. LUCKY all kind of a flowed from him. This story was created to emphasize or to encapsulate the worldview that Harry had come to after 89 years of life.

TS: He’s a great actor. What about David Lynch? How did he get involved in this project and what was he like? No relation, I assume.

JCL: No relation to me and no relation to Ryan Sparky Lynch who was a gaffer on the Film. Harry Dean suggested David for the part since he had been in seven of his films. They’re very close friends. I had seen David’s acting before and had seen him with Henry in a documentary called PARTLY FICTION. That relationship on screen in that documentary certainly convinced me that Lynch would make a wonderful choice for the part of Howard and he really exceeded expectations in every way. He’s just tremendous in the film and was very generous to appear in it since he was in the midst of postproduction on Twin Peaks. He worked for us for two days and that’s a lot of material for just two days.

TS: As an actor you’ve worked for, among others, Joel Coen and Clint Eastwood and David Fincher. Is there a Director out there that you would like to work with as an actor that you haven’t had the chance yet?

JCL: There are plenty. I just watched a new, terrific movie by Taylor Sheridan. I’ve had the chance to work with Karyn Kusama who I think is tremendous. I’d like to work with her again. There are a lot of directors that I’ve worked with and would aspire to work with. I’d love to work with Quentin Tarantino. There are so many wonderful directors out there but now that I’ve directed myself, I’d love to direct again. I’ve learned a lot and I’d like to apply it to other movies and other material.

TS: I saw you in JACKIE last year where you were convincing as Lyndon Johnson. Do you enjoy playing real life characters and does that bring a special challenge?

JCL: It does, especially with someone is iconic as LBJ. My father was an aid to a senator, John Carroll, when he was at law school in DC in the 1950s and he knew Lyndon Johnson. It was funny that my father, who is 86, said that you know you’re an old fart when your youngest son is playing LBJ. My dad had a small part in LUCKY. He’s in one of the bar scenes.

TS: And Beth Grant played Lady Bird Johnson in JACKIE and she has a plum role in LUCKY as well.

JCL: Yes, she was very nice to come aboard LUCKY. We were so fortunate that she said yes and she did a terrific job in the movie. So much of the casting was Rolodex or contact list casting, people that you could get with one phone call. That’s how she came aboard and Ron Livingston came aboard, and obviously how David Lynch came aboard. And also James Darren who had worked with producer Iver Steven Behr on Deep Space Nine.

TS: I remember James Darren from Time Tunnel.

JCL: He’s had an incredible career, just amazing. Started as an actor, became a singer, and then went back to acting then back to singing, and now hopefully he’ll get more chances to act.

TS: How has LUCKY been received so far?

JCL: It’s been an amazing ride so far. You make a movie that you hope is going to be good. You’re risking people’s money because you don’t have distribution to start. You get it at a festival and it’s extraordinarily well received. The reviews are great so now a distributor comes aboard and you get distribution for the feature and they’re really supporting it.

TS: Have you been traveling to these film festivals with the film?

JCL: I went to South by Southwest. I’ve gone to a few of them, yes, and I will continue to as the movie goes towards its national and Canadian releases.

TS: You said you’d like to direct again. Are you looking at scripts? What are your plans?

JCL: My writing partner and I are writing a feature right now and other writers have some projects that I want to foster. I think it will come that way, the same kind of work that LUCKY came about. With luck, this will do well and if it does well financially, investors might be interested. That’s kind of what you hope for. Clint Eastwood’s idea of bringing it in on time and under budget and making a movie that makes money is an intoxicating thing for people in the film industry.

TS: I look forward to seeing LUCKY again, next time on the big screen. What’s next for John Carroll Lynch acting wise?

JCL: I’ve done two small screen things. No-End House, which is coming on next weekend and running for six weeks. It’s a horror anthology series on the Syfy channel and I think it’s going to be really good. Then I did this crazy show called Crawford that will be on Comedy Central in late winter or early spring. It’s written and directed by the same person that made Trailer Park Boys. It’s really funny, a family comedy about pot, cereal and raccoons. It’s crazy.

TS: Sounds interesting. I look forward to that. Congratulations again with LUCKY. Terrific film and thanks for taking the time to talk with me.

JCL: Thank you very much I really appreciate it.

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME Midnights This Weekend at the Tivoli

“If I had a nickel for every cigarette your mom smoked, I’d be dead.”

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (1992) screens Midnights This Weekend (September 1st and 2nd) at the Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd., University City, MO.) as part of the Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight Series.

I love when people try to write out a plot synopsis for David Lynch movies. They only sound jumbled, confusing and morbid, and though those are words synonymous with the incredible writer/director/producer, they miss the point. David Lynch isn’t the kind of filmmaker who produces a point A to point B story. He is an abstract artist painting a picture of the human condition. TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME may be a depiction of the final days of Laura Palmer and a last hurrah for the beloved 1990 series (until this year’s revival), but at its heart, it’s a portrait of an abused and very deeply disturbed young woman. I watched TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME when it was new and without having ever seen the series, and I have to admit the first time took me aback with the film’s shocking and often abrasive imagery as well as it’s… unique… dialog, which can at times seem over-the-top or even corny, but TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME is filled with both beautiful and disturbing scenes accompanied by creative dialog that accentuates the condition of each character. Don’t see this movie with expectations in comparison to the old series or the new one and don’t see it as a casual pop-corn thriller. Make an event out of it this weekend midnights at The Tivoli because what you’ll get is a thought-provoking probe into the insanity of a genius at the peak of his craft.

A Facebook invite for this film can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/1087540604723781/

Here’s the Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight schedule for the rest of the year:

Sept. 8-9 PRINCESS MONONOKE
Friday & Saturday midnight Subtitled
Saturday 11:30am matinee in English

Sept. 15-16 THE MATRIX

Sept. 22-23 GOODFELLAS

Sept. 29-30 SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD

Oct. 6-7 POLTERGEIST (1980)

Oct. 13-14 RE-ANIMATOR

Oct. 20-21 and Oct. 27-28 ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW with live shadow cast, Samurai Electricians!
All tickets $10

The Tivoli’s located at 6350 Delmar Blvd., University City, MO.

The Midnight at the Tivoli Fans Facebook page can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/groups/255754067866051/

30th Anniversary – BLUE VELVET Plays at The Moolah Beginning Friday

“I have your disease in me now.”

BLUE VELVET will be showing for one week beginning Friday, April 29th at the Moolah Theater

BLUE VELVET is set in the quiet picture postcard logging community of Lumbertown. Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan), a somewhat naive and squeaky clean college boy, finds a severed human ear. Shocked and disturbed, he reports it immediately to the police while, with the help of his girlfriend (Laura Dern), he begins his own investigation, which soon leads him into stumbling into the seedy and violent world of abused nightclub singer Dorothy (Isabella Rosellini) and drug-sniffing psychopath (Dennis Hopper). BLUE VELVET is the first movie in which David Lynch really showed us all his cards and united themes and imagery, now familiar to millions through the likes of MULLHOLLAND DRIVE, WILD AT HEART and Twin Peaks. Now 30 years old, David Lynch’s BLUE VELVET has lost none of its shock value. It is still deeply and uniquely disturbing, at times incredibly surreal and utterly compelling viewing. Beautifully filmed and directed by Lynch, its aesthetic value is often deliberately at odds with the subject matter and it is a work of dark genius. It also features superb acting performances all round. In particular, MacLachlan, Rosselinni, Dean Stockwell and Laura Dern shine, but it is Dennis Hopper’s berserk performance as a drug sniffing twisted psychopath that most people remember.

Now it’s time to see BLUE VELVET on the big screen again. St. Louis’ The Moolah Theater (3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63108) will showing the film for one week beginning Friday, April 29^th.

Showtimes:

Fri & Sat: (2:00), (4:30), 7:00, 9:30, 12:00 AM

Sun: (2:00), (4:30), 7:00, 9:30

Mon – Wed: (4:30), 7:00, 9:30 Thu: (4:30 PM)

THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY – The DVD Review

I love the movies, really, truly I do, I love the movies. Cinema, motion pictures, movies, film, whatever you want to label this peculiar art form that we all cherish here at We Are Movie Geeks, I have loved it ever since the first time I saw a movie on television, in a theater or at a drive-in. I wish I could recall the first movie I ever saw and what the medium was in which I saw it.

One of my earliest memories was the yearly showing of Wizard of Oz on television and my delight at seeing Judy Garland in a different movie, Pigskin Parade, and realizing that actors made a living by appearing in more than one movie or television series.

I can recall seeing Battle Beyond the Stars at the Pine Hill Drive-in in Piedmont, Missouri, one of the Russian space movies bought and re-edited by Roger Corman. I stood in the playground in front of that huge screen in awe of the space adventure unfolding against a night sky that blended seamlessly with those images of silver rockets and asteroids and weird looking monsters.

I can recall my family going to an indoor theater, probably in Greenville, Missouri, to see a western, in color, and feeling lost in the wide open spaces captured in that (probably) B-movie landscape.

I came to love every genre of film and from every country that makes them. Italian peplum, Russian fantasy films, Japanese historical and giant monster epics, English historical romances, American westerns, comedies, monster movies, musicals, everything, just everything.

And among my favorite films are movies about the movies, documentaries giving the history of the medium or narrow casting down to the history of a single studio or director or actor and using numerous clips to illustrate the story. In my collection are excellent documentaries on the history of Warner Brothers, Universal, RKO and MGM studios. Biographies of John Huston, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Roger Corman. Profiles of Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, James Dean, John Wayne, Ginger Rogers and Jimmy Stewart. I particularly love a series called 100 Years of Horror hosted by Christopher Lee and featuring clips from every monster and horror and science fiction picture imaginable.

I say all this as an introduction to an incredible piece of work, a 15 episode history of innovation in the movies, The Story of Film, sub titled An Odyssey by Mark Cousins. This project should be subtitled a Personal Odyssey and I’ll get to that in a minute. I found this box set at one of St. Petersburg’s libraries and brought it home, knowing nothing about the project. Of course I became hooked and watched it all, usually one episode a day, then watched the whole series again and have dipped into certain episodes ever since.

A “Personal” Odyssey would be a more accurate subtitle as Mr. Cousins, (who first wrote a book covering this same ground and then spent six years shooting the documentary) lets us know up front this is his personal and highly opinionated story of film. He takes us step by step through every technical innovation from the invention of the camera to the recent changeover to all digital shooting and projection. He accurately informs us that it was not the camera that made the movies, it was the editing table. The first time two or more pieces of film were spliced together to create a narrative, cinema was made. Then came color tinting, sound, wide screen systems, stereo sound, 3 Dimensions.

If you have ever taken a course in film history or read any of the many books on the subject you’ll recognize a lot of the names here. Among the usual suspects are the Lumiere Brothers, Georges Melies, DW Griffith, Murnau, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, John Huston. And covering so much ground in only 15 one hour episodes of course a lot gets left out. David Lynch is well represented and I was delighted to see David Cronenberg also discussed at some length. If Woody Allen or Mel Brooks were mentioned I missed it.

Cousins narrates his project with his soft Irish brogue and takes a global view of film. Which makes it all the more curious that he does not mention Irish film at all, since there is such a thing. Angela’s Ashes qualifies as Irish and so does The Crying Game. Europe is will represented but there is no mention of the astonishing work of Harry Kumel of Belgium.

Among the countries discussed at length: Germany, Russia, the French New Wave and the Italian neo-realist school. Ozu gets quite a lot of coverage, and rightfully so. But we also get quite a lot on Takeshi Miike (that most horrifying shot from Audition, if you’ve seen it you know what I mean.) and Shinya Tsukamoto.

But I was glad to learn so much about film makers I had never heard of, from countries I had no idea made world class films, or that I had very limited knowledge of. Egypt, Israel, Iran, and Brazil are discussed at some length. Although there is no mention of Jose Mohica Marins (Coffin Joe,) probably the most well known Brazilian film maker, to me anyway.

If Cousins work has a failing it is an open prejudice about main stream Hollywood product. From the beginning he shows us a Christmas tree ornament hanging in space near the Hollywood sign (really!) and labeling Hollywood “the Bauble”. From many comments throughout the series we are asked to consider most of that body of work useless and without merit. I have to be fair and admit that a lot of disposable fluff came off the Hollywood assembly line in the 30s through the 50s. But many smart, personal, well thought out films were made by several directors, most of which have stood the test of time.

Our narrator also makes some truly outrageous statements, and some glaring omissions. While covering Orson Welles we are told that in his entire career Welles “never worked for any of the four major studios!” FOUR major studios? I thought there were about 6 or 8 major studios, RKO was never major? Or Universal? What about Columbia? Also when we get to the French New Wave we are not told that Truffaut, Godard and most of the rest of that crew had been film critics. Their back ground is critical in understanding where, how and why the French New Wave came about. For that matter we never hear the name Cahiers du Cinema, easily one of the most important film magazines ever published.

One very curious statement, Cousins spends some time on Performance, the outrageous psychotropic English gangster mind melding, cross dressing enigma and proclaims it THE film that any aspiring film maker should watch, to see how a movie should be made! Please don’t get me wrong, I love Performance, have watched it numerous times, abused a variety of substances in order to do so. But that is a very strange statement to make. Just as an aside, any time I see James Fox in anything I cannot help but think of Chas and that outrageous Memo From Turner! “Does that sound equitable?”

But when Mark Cousins is on top of his game this series hums. Cousins really gets warmed up when he gets to the 70s and the Decade under the Influence, when the styles of the neo-realists and French New Wave were absorbed by Hollywood film makers like John Cassavetes and Robert Altman. In fact I got the impression that covering the 70s was the point of the whole series.

Many Directors are interviewed and more than a few actors, but even here there are some odd choices. We get interview footage with Gus Van Sant, for instance. But then we get a side by side comparison of Hitchcock’s Psycho and Van Sant’s ill advised remake and what amounts to an apology for the color remake being made in the first place. Van Sant (who I do like by the way, I thought My Own Private Idaho was brilliant) explains that he made the remake basically for the paycheck. Fine, he has that right, just as I have the right never to watch the thing. The main point seems to be that Van Sant could show much more of Ann Heche’s naked body and bloody open wounds than Hitchcock could have ever gotten away with in 1960. Thankfully that is about the only time spent on useless remakes.

The real danger in watching a series like Story of Film is the urge to get out copies of the complete films and watching them all, all over again. If I see clips from Intolerance, Vampyr, Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Passion of Joan of Arc, The Searchers, Blue Velvet, The Godfather, Once Upon a Time in the West or any number of other titles, I want to see the whole movie again.

And the real value in a series that attempts to be this comprehensive is in learning about so many new film makers and their projects. I kept a notebook and a pencil handy to write down Directors and titles while watching Story of Film, and so should you.

There is only one special feature to this set and it is on all five discs, a 90 second ad which covers the whole series in a machine gun edit of clips from every major film and director interview. Maybe I have spent too much time watching movies; I could name just about every clip as it flashed by.

With any faults this is a very valuable and enjoyable series for any movie geek, I learned quite a lot, and I have been accused of knowing everything about movies. The more I learn, about anything, the more I realize how much more I have to learn.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to watch Gallipoli, Kansas City Bomber and West of Zanzibar again. Oh dear, not enough hours in the day……

WAMG Interview: Actress Grace Zabriskie – Star of Twin Peaks and THE MAKINGS OF YOU

Actress Grace Zabriskie has worked with such powerhouse directors as David Lynch, Gus Van Sant, and William Friedkin. Now she has come to St. Louis to co-star in THE MAKINGS OF YOU, the feature debut of Matt Amato, acclaimed director of a variety of music videos. THE MAKINGS OF YOU tells the story of Judy (Sheryl Lee) and Wallis (Jay R. Ferguson), who share dissatisfaction with their own lives and an irresistible attraction to each other. Caught between the freedoms offered by Wallis and the demands of her troubled family, Judy struggles to reconcile the two. Deftly avoiding romantic clichés, THE MAKINGS OF YOU is a classic love story rich in atmosphere — palpable summertime heat, lush music, and beautifully decaying surroundings. Grace Zabriskie plays Sheryl Lee’s mother, a role she has played before in the TV series Twin Peaks. Grace, along with costar Jay R. Ferguso

Grace Zabriskie took the time to talk about her life, her career, and THE MAKINGS OF YOU

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman November 6th 2014

We Are Movie Geeks: I’m so glad of that you’ll be here next week for the big premiere of MAKINGS OF YOU.

Grace Zabriskie: Yes, I cannot wait.

WAMG: Have you seen the finished film yet?

GZ: Yes, I’ve seen it through many incarnations.

WAMG: Had you spent much time in St. Louis before you filmed that here?

GZ: No I had not, but every Christmas for the past 20 years Matt (Amato, the film’s director) goes back to St. Louis and he always calls me and I talk to his whole family, who I have met many times when they visited him in L.A., and they always say I should come to St. Louis and visit but I never have been able to tear myself away and get there. But as soon as I got there to film MAKINGS OF YOU, I felt like I had been there many times. It was amazing.

WAMG: How did you know Matt?

GZ: I’ve known him for 20 years. I knew him because we had a mutual friend and Matt has been trying to get a script to me for a long time. I think they were early drafts of the film that we finally did.

WAMG: MAKINGS OF YOU was his first feature film as a director. You’ve worked with a lot of directors. What kind of job do you think he did?

GZ: I have worked with a lot of directors, and what Matt did was work with his own instincts and that, above anything else, is what I have come to prize most in a director. Someone who isn’t doing things according to some, usually rather imperfectly understood way to do things. It’s amazing how often you find that, working with someone who want you to do things a certain way and then you realize that they don’t really have a good reason for that. They don’t even understand the reason, they just know that’s how it’s done. Matt had to been working in film and directing and writing and editing for many, many years, mostly on music videos, so he had begun to see the world in terms of music on a really profound level.

WAMG: Was he open to ideas from you and Sheryl and Jay about your characters or did he stick to the script?

GZ: He was completely open to ideas, almost to a fault. Some of the other actors would suggest alterations before they had even tried what Matt had written. I am a huge advocate of starting with the page until there is a reason not to, until your understanding of what is trying to be done tells you that there is a way to do it even better, not second-guessing what a character might say. To me, that’s my job, to make his lines work.

WAMG: In the MAKINGS OF YOU, there is a scene where you are listening to an old LP. I believe that is your character as a younger woman.

GZ: That’s right.

WAMG: Was that your voice?

GZ: No, But there are moments in the film where you hear her speak to her grandsons in a way that makes it very clear that she’s savvy about music and that it’s always been her thing, But it’s easy to miss.

WAMG: I know that in addition to acting you like to paint and sculpt and write poetry. Have you ever performed music before?

GZ: I have had to get up and perform a song to be for a role before and I said to Matt that I was willing to perform a song but I didn’t want him to just spring it on me. I wanted to work on it. I have to get up in it. He tried to get me to do it the way I was afraid he was going to make me do it, and I dug my heels in so he found something, he found the perfect music for the scene. There’s no music that he doesn’t know or can’t find. I sent MAKINGS OF YOU to a friend of mine who I met doing another film called ONLY CHILD. She said that she had been able to fall into the pace of the film and practically had a beatific experience. The way she described it, she realized that the film made her appreciate Memphis, where she had spent a lot of time. I’ve talk to people who, if they’re in the wrong the mood, the film is just too slow for them. But if they’re in the right mood with the expectation of slowing down a little bit, they were able to return to that place in their lives that was slow, not rushed.

WAMG: It made St. Louis look like a sleepy, small town in some ways.

GZ: Yes, in some ways it’s a St. Louis that exist only in the imagination and somewhat in the past. It seems to exist in an interesting time, doesn’t it? It doesn’t seem today yet it doesn’t seem relentlessly period.

WAMG: Yes, he was clearly going for a timelessness quality and succeeded. You played Sheryl Lee’s mother two decades ago on Twin Peaks. Was playing her mother again in this film a coincidence?

GZ: It was, though we have played mother and daughter at least one other time between these projects. It was something that neither she nor I can remember the name of.

WAMG: It would be easy to look up.

GZ: Well it’s not something she or I deliberately leave on our resumes.

WAMG: We’ll leave it at that then. What inspired you to enter a career in the arts when you were growing up?

GZ: I grew up in New Orleans, in the French Quarter, but I don’t think I have had that moment, that moment that some people describe when they knew they wanted to be an actor, or they realized they wanted to write, or whatever. From the time I was three years old, I knew I was going to be a teacher. All four of my grandparents and many of my aunts and uncles were teachers and that’s just what I knew I was going to be. But I read widely and inappropriately at a young age and at some point I decided I would write and do visual arts and act as an amateur. Now it’s turned out that I do all those things as a profession and I teach as an amateur.

WAMG: What other type of art that you do brings you pleasure?

GZ: I’m a woodworker. That’s the direction my visual arts has taken me now. It seems that every 10 years or so it takes some new form. I’m making furniture and sculpting with wood now.

WAMG: Do you find that relaxing?

GZ: No. I don’t look at it as a hobby. It’s something I need to do when I do it.

WAMG: What is your next project?

GZ: There are several films I’m in that are still to come out. When I finished the last one in the March or April, I told my agent that I wanted to do no more films for the rest of the year so I can just stay in my woodshop. I was just in THE JUDGE with Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall and there’s a couple of others.

WAMG: Will you be involved in the Twin Peaks reboot that they are talking about?

GZ: Yes, apparently so, but I’m not sure exactly in what capacity. I know so many people who never watched television until Twin Peaks premiered.

WAMG: I’ve always enjoyed you in films. My favorite Grace Zabriskie part was when you played Matt Dillon’s mother in DRUGSTORE COWBOY. He comes over and you hide your purse. You played that so perfectly.

GZ: Thanks

WAMG: Good luck with MAKINGS OF YOU and I’ll see you at the premiere next week.

GZ: Thank you, I’m so looking forward to it.

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