MONDAY! MONDAY MONDAY!

The Power of Nightmares part 3, selections from Wholphin.
My house.
Pizza.
Soda and beer and water and chocolate soy milk and juice.
VIRGIL.
-Austin

MOViES Closing

It's a sad day for Houston.

From Rob:

"Dear customers,

After weeks of seeking out investors, struggling to make ends meet and down right being left without a penny to my name, the store will begin the process of closing this Saturday.

This is very, very difficult decision for me. I'm not only letting myself down, but the hundreds of people who have come to appreciate our little shop. Over the last year, I have met some of the most incredible, thoughtful and caring people in my life. Your patronage through the tough times gave me the courage to continue working. When I was having a bad day, several of you would come through and just turn that around. With either your conversation, your smile or even just your presence, you made it easier. You were all a constant reminder why this venture seemed right.

The store isn't closing because of competition or lack of customers. In fact, from Nov. 1st thru the 13th, we opened 35 new accounts, pushing us over 800 members. With Cactus Music now reopened, we're receiving plenty of referrals from them. The one and only reason we're closing was because I didn't save enough money in the beginning. The capital that I had just wasn't enough to get us through. The most frustrating part about this is that the store continues to grow at a pace that would have gotten us out of the red in a few months.

To even consider staying open, the store needs about $6,000 over the next week. But that's just for our immediate debt. To really make a difference in the store, we would need about $20,000 - $25,000. That sum would dramatically increase our inventory, take care of our food permit/stock and give our front signage a complete overhaul. Believe me, I have exhausted any and all possibilities of additional funds.

Beginning on Saturday, we will no longer offer rentals. All inventory will be priced out to sell.

Catalog - $5.00 a piece (except for criterion and television)

New Releases - $8.00 a piece

I wish I could go lower, but whatever we end up with will be divided among my creditors.

Thank you all again for your patronage over the last year. This was an incredible experience, one I will always remember. Mostly in a good way.

Sincerely,

Rob Arcos"

Tonight

Sorry everyone, but I need to cancel movie night at my house tonight. I've been pretty sick all weekend, and still don't really feel up to having people over (who I would probably just get sick) and eating dairy products.
I can pick up next week, or we can move on, or whatever. I just can't handle it with a fever right now. Cowbell only makes it worse.
Sorry everyone,
AUSTIN

11/5/07: Veronica Lake's on the take!

SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS
1941, written & directed by Preston Sturges

Since we recently saw Day for Night, I thought we might watch another of the classic "movie-about-a-movie" movies, Sullivan's Travels. This film should help explain why Adam Sandler continues to get work.

Mac vs. PC

So, now that a higher percentage of us have had the pleasure of viewing this blog on both Mac OS and Windows (Francisco, Austin, and Brittany have made the switch), I feel I can finally comment on how much crappier this site looks on PC.

The text looks like total shit.

It's something I've thought for a while, but only now choose to verbalize for personal reasons.

10.29.07 Movie Night

Hey. Movie Night is at my place tomorrow. We're gonna watch the 1955 film Pather Panchali, directed by Satyajit Ray. This is the first film in Ray's acclaimed "Apu Trilogy". We'll be watching a bootleg DVD that I ordered online because it is not currently in print in the States. Why did I pick this movie? Two reasons. One is that I have been wanting to see it for a while - many directors and critics hold it in very high regard so I want to see what all the fuss is about. Two is that if Cinematheque Houston is truly about "presenting significant films from around the world" then India, with the second-highest population of any country in the world, has been under-represented so far and I wanted to rectify that.

See you on Monday at 8 pm.

Funny review on The Darjeeling Limited

Funny and insightful, unlike Ebert and Roeper:


and on Superbad:

see you at Joe's at 8 pm on Monday.

Free Screening: No Country for Old Men

Hey, guys. I just wanted to let you know that there will be a free screening of the new Coen brothers film, No Country for Old Men, at 11 a.m. Tuesday (tomorrow) at Angelika.

10/22 - La Nuit américaine

as in Day For Night in English

The title refers to the technique for filming night scenes during the day with the use of filters or other measures. It is Francois Truffaut's tribute to filmmaking.

Wes Anderson has paid homage to this film in his American Express Commercial, which features the music from La Nuit americaine:

Speaking of Wes Anderson, here is one of the few new commercials he made:

10/15 - White Cane Safety Day

Celebrate the achievement of blind people, who cannot watch a movie.

That's mean.

To make it worse, we're going to have a movie night.

I think it is my turn this week. But the mystery remains, what are we going to watch?

Is it...

a) an American independent cinema classic
b) a foreign family comedy
c) a movie about making a movie

You decide.

This is da bomb!

with a 82-page book. Available on Tuesday.

10/8: The Power of Nightmares (parts 1 and 2)

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" and "The Phantom Victory" are the first two parts of Adam Curtis's three-episode documentary about terrorism and its "truthiness" (to borrow from Stephen Colbert).

I would show all three parts, but they are 59 minutes each. So, for my next selection, I'll show part three and a short film.

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.