4/1: Naked

"Mike Leigh’s brilliant and controversial Naked stars David Thewlis as Johnny, a charming, eloquent, and relentlessly vicious drifter on the lam in London. Rejecting all those who would care for him, the volcanic Johnny hurls himself into a nocturnal odyssey through the city, colliding with a succession of the desperate and the dispossessed, and scorching everyone in his path. With a virtuoso script and raw performances from Thewlis and costars Katrin Cartlidge and Lesley Sharpe, Leigh’s panorama of England’s crumbling underbelly is a showcase of black comedy and doomsday prophecy, and was the winner of the best director and actor prizes at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival."
-Criterion

We're repainting the studio, so it will be at my apartment this Sunday.

Also, on an unrelated note, my contact in the Criterion Collection's marketing department said he would send over a copy of the new "Early Bergman," the first title in the new Eclipse line. So, when that comes, maybe we can watch it together. ALL 5 DISCS.

3/25: F for Fake

after much deliberation, I've decided to choose the following film for 3/25. location TBA.



F FOR FAKE
1975, a film by Orson Welles

it's unlike anything I've ever seen... Orson Welles's last completed film provides an eccentric avant-garde study of reality, truth, and illusion as well as an interesting critique on the idea of expertise...

"Trickery. Deceit. Magic. In Orson Welles’s free-form documentary F for Fake, the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully engages the central preoccupation of his career—the tenuous line between truth and illusion, art and lies. Beginning with portraits of world-renowned art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving, Welles embarks on a dizzying cinematic journey that simultaneously exposes and revels in fakery and fakers of all stripes—not the least of whom is Welles himself. Charming and inventive, F for Fake is an inspired prank and a searching examination of the essential duplicity of cinema."
-criterionco.com

fake democracy

I have a lot of ideas for movie night this week and I find it difficult to pick one. So I'm going to ask for your opinion, your preference-- so I can ignore you. Please don't say "anything is fine" or other similar responses.

My first though is "Paris Je T'aime", a collage of shorts made by 18 different directors across the world, including famous names like Alfonso Cuaron, Oliver Assayas, the Coen brothers, Tom Tykwer, Alexander Payne, Christopher Doyle and Gus Van Sant (asshole). All the shorts are love stories happened in the City of Lights-- a tribute to Paris' reputation as a romantic city. I got that DVD when I went to China, the movie won't be released here (U.S.) until May.

On the other hand, I always thought about picking Akira Kurosawa's Stray Dog. Stray Dog is one of Kurosawa's earliest masterpiece (1949). In this movie, you can also see a very cerebral performance by Toshiro Mifune, who is famous for being the wild crazy samurai in features like The Seven Samurai and Rashomon. Stray Dog is a thrilling film noir about a cop who is finding his lost gun. You can never get enough of Kurosawa, right?

Yasujiro Ozu, another great director who has not been featured on Movie Night. What a crime! I've been thinking about picking Late Spring for a while.

so, now, tell me what your opinion

The film I am selecting for this Sunday is a 1927 silent film called Sunrise, which I have been looking forward to seeing for a while now. I have read a lot of good things about it but, unfortunately, Netflix does not offer it. Luckily, Rob Arcos @ MOViES ordered it for me and now we can decide for ourselves if it lives up to all the critical acclaim. Below is a synopsis of the film from Netflix:

Director F.W. Murnau's emotional odyssey stars George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor as a country couple whose marriage is threatened when O'Brien falls prey to cosmopolitan temptress Margaret Livingston's feminine wiles. Imbued with an intoxicating ambiance in style and substance, the lyrical silent film -- which is, by turns, quixotic, blissful, sensual and terrifying -- chalked up Academy Awards for Best Actress (Gaynor) and Best Cinematography.