Some Indian flair for the evening.

Monsoon Wedding (2001) was directed by Mira Nair, and India-born, New York based film director. I have watched an interview with this director, and she stated that her goal of the movie was to let the viewer understand the dynamics of an Indian family amongst the chaos of an elaborate Indian wedding. There are several subplots, which keep the plot interesting and humorous. This movie, like most Indian films, has alot of ethnic music throughout. I liked it so much, in fact, that I bought the soundtrack and I rock out to it in my car every now and then. I'll bring the CD, in case anyone wants to copy it so they can nerd out and listen to it in their car too. Enjoy!

Hotel Chevalier

Wes Anderson's 13-minute short film Hotel Chevalier is free on iTunes but you need to have a pansy ass iTunes account to download it. Personally, I refuse to hand over my credit card information to Steve "Blow" Jobs. So I am not able to download it. I would appreciate it if anyone can share their download with me.

iTunes lick balls.

9/24

Sept. 24th, 2007
8pm

Two-Lane Blacktop on Criterion

Weeks after talking with Caitlin about this movie, Criterion is releasing it in this coming December. I don't know what superpower she has to summon a release, but it's pretty cool.

9/17 - I Pugni in Tasca

My pick for Monday is I Pugni in Tasca, or, Fists in the Pocket.

From The New York Times:
Considered one of the great lost classics of Italian neo-realism, this bleak drama was the debut feature of filmmaker Marco Bellocchio. Lou Castel stars as Alessandro, an epileptic from a large family of similarly afflicted siblings, headed up by a blind matriarch (Liliana Gerace). The only healthy member of the family is Alessandro's brother Augusto (Marino Mase), who wants to marry his girlfriend but refuses to saddle a bride with the enormous burden of helping to care for his ailing relatives. Sympathetic to Augusto's plight, Alessandro decides to murder the rest of the family so as to set his brother free and assure him of an inheritance. After hurling his mother into a ravine and drowning his little brother, Alessandro returns home to suffer a seizure. Long hailed by critics and historians as an unjustly ignored film, I Pugni in Tasca (1965) was one of 15 titles selected by New York's Museum of Modern Art for its "Second Act" retrospective of post-war Italian cinema in the spring of 2000.

I'll be showing it at 8 p.m. Monday, unless anyone has a scheduling conflict, and there will be pizza/drinks. I don't think most of you know where my new place is, but I'll get a hold of you to give directions. See you then! (Unless anyone wants to see 3:10 to Yuma this weekend. In that case, give me a call and I'll see you before then.)

9.10.07 Movie Night @ Rory's

Hey everybody. I am still waiting for my bootleg copy of the 1955 Indian film Pather Panchali (dir. by Satyajit Ray). If it doesn't arrive in the mail tomorrow then we'll watch the 1976 film Taxi Driver (dir. by Scorsese), which was just re-released on DVD. If we watch Taxi Driver then we'll watch Pather Panchali for my next pick. I'll explain why I selected the movie (whichever one we end up seeing) in person on Monday night.

Thanks for giving me a reason to clean my apartment. See you at 8 PM on Monday at my tiny hovel on the west side.

New List

beginning September 10th:

Rory
Caitlin
Jason
Brittany
Joe
Austin
Jennifer
Francisco

9/3 - Winter Light

Winter Light

Directed by Ingmar Bergman

80 minutes

Sweden

Berg-man strikes again! After viewing this film 2 weeks ago, I just could not get it out of my head. I empathize with the feelings conveyed by this film. The movie speaks to me.

From Criterion.com:

“God, why did you desert me?” With Winter Light, master craftsman Ingmar Bergman explores the search for redemption in a meaningless existence. In this stark depiction of spiritual crisis, small-town pastor Tomas Ericsson (Gunnar Björnstrand) performs his duties mechanically before a dwindling congregation. When he is asked to assist with a troubled parishioner’s (Max von Sydow) debilitating fear of nuclear annihilation, Tomas is terrified to find that he can provide nothing but his own uncertainty. Beautifully photographed by Sven Nykvist, Winter Light is an unsettling look at the human craving for personal validation in a world seemingly abandoned by God.

It is also one of Bergman's personal favorite:

"I think I have made just one picture that I really like, and that is Winter Light. That is my only picture about which I feel that I have started here and ended there and that everything along the way has obeyed me. Everything is exactly as I wanted to have it, in every second of this picture"

9/3, 8:00pm, Joe's place. Pizza and drinks.