Thursday Movie Night @ The Hydrant

At the Movies Friday Nov. 5

On Wednesdays I will be posting films that will be opening the upcoming weekend that I feel are worthy of note. The films will be listed by my interest in seeing the films in descending order. Meaning the movie at the top of the post is the one to see if you are making plans and the one at the bottom is worth noting but more than likely is lame. If anyone is looking at this and has any feedback to offer please do so in the comments section. Still trying to think of a clever name for this feature, please help.

Opening Friday

Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould
2009 - Michèle Hozer & Peter Raymont
Angelika Dallas

I wasn't too familiar with the titular composer before seeing the amazingly well crafted film Thirty-Two Short Films about Glenn Gould. Gould is an interesting subject because even though he had all the trappings of a tortured artist, in reality the guy was pretty down to Earth, if not with out his quirks. The aforementioned film while informative was no where near a complete picture of the man as a person so I hope this documentary will fill in some of the gaps that us classic music nativities might have about the man and his work.

A Film Unfinished
2010 - Germany - Yael Hersonski
Angelika Dallas

Oh great another documentary about Nazis. If you happen to frequent the documentary section of your local library I am sure you are familiar the amount of titles focused on those scum bags. I am a sucker for archival/restored footage, no matter how depressing the subject matter. Did you happen to check out Hidden Fuhrer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality, I really felt like that should be the release to close the book on the Third Reich reflections but the subject seems to be as omni-potent as the natural gas pockets being tapped across central Texas.

Inside Job
2010 - USA - Charles Ferguson
Angelika Dallas, Plano

Oh great another movie about how fucked up our financial infrastructure is. I doubt this will be news to any one who reads the Washington Post on a somewhat regular basis but hopefully the narrative of the film is told with enough style to get some of the less enlightened into the theater seats. I'm sure having Matt Damon do the voice over work doesn't hurt either.

Tamara Drewe
2010 - England - Stephen Frears
Angelika Dallas, Plano

I picked up the collection of Tamara Drewe comics for a buck or so at a Half Priced Books bargain counter after reading some positive press over the English soap-comic. This trailer looks pretty horrific and paints the movie to be a stereotypical cheeky rom-com, but to their credit the English do seem to do them better for us. You can also tell by the American accented voice over that the trailer might be dumbed down for our collective marketing demographic. Another possible saving grace is the director Stephen Frears who also directed High Fidelity. Seems like a great movie to take a date to, but the way things have been going for me recently I will probably be waiting for the DVD release.

At The Movies - Thursday Nov. 4th

WELCOME! Every Wednesday I will be posting notable movie openings and special screenings that are taking place through out the metro-plex. This week I will be doing a special Thursday only post to highlight one awesome screening in Dallas and another awesome one in Denton, brought to you by yours truly. So here are the two things going on Thursday night, other movies opening this weekend will be posted later. See you at the movies!

Loki - Paulo Henrique Fontenelle - 2008
Texas Theater 7:30pm - free

The Texas Theater will be having a special screening of Loki, the Brazilian made for TV documentary over Os Mutantes member Arnaldo Baptista. I sat down virtually with Texas Theater man behind the scenes Jason Reimer and asked him a couple of questions about the screening which is happening Thursday at 7:30pm.

FP: Will there be subtitles?

Jason Reimer: yes it's got English subtitles.

Is it fair to assume that this screening was planned to coincide with the Os Mutantes show?

Definitely. I've known they were coming for some time but it was very difficult to find a film about them. That's the main reason we haven't been able to promote it as heavily as I would've liked. I actually thought I was going to have to cancel until the DVD arrived yesterday.

I read that this was originally a documentary produced for Brazilian television in 2008, did the film ever have a theatrical run or DVD release stateside? I was hard pressed to find info about either.

To my knowledge it played at a function for David Byrne who's largely responsible for their comeback on his record label - and at a south american festival in California but outside of that it's not around. I read somewhere that Universal may pick it up for US distro but nothing yet.

Can we look forward to more of these one night, left of center screenings? Specifically ones that are tied into local happenings like this presentation.

Sure as much as possible. Kris Youmans is doing lots of good work trying to get cool shows in the Dallas area so anything I can do to help I'd gladly do.

Have you seen the film yet? Do you think it will appeal to those outside of the Os Mutantes fan base?

I watched some of it to make sure the disc worked but honestly i'd like to watch it at the Theatre for the first time. It's mostly about Arnaldo obviously as an artistic force. I would think anyone interested in wildly creative minds would like it.

What is your favorite Os Mutantes song?

oof. that is incredibly hard to answer. When those records came out it was all I listened to for the better part of a year.

I think the question should be the reverse... did they ever record a song you didn't like? ... no.


How much does the event cost? Is there alcohol?

I made the showing Free to help promote the Texas Theatre and the live show without costing fans more money. I'll gladly take a loss to get a few folks in to see what's happening at the theatre and help Kris and Gorilla vs Bear out in some small way.

We are still waiting for our official license so yes there will be "refreshments" on hand for free or people can BYOB if they wanna.

sidenote: our brand new popcorn machine kicks major ass.

Stop Making Sense - Jonathan Demme
The Hydrant Cafe
7:30pm - Brought to you by Phosphate on Film and We Denton Do it

The nice folks at wedentondoit invited me to co-host a new movie night starting up at The Hydrant in Denton and begging this Thursday the 4th. This first week's feature is arguably the greatest live concert film ever made, The Talking Head and Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense. We will be watching the newly released blu-ray version of the film in stunning high definition. It will be like Byrne's sweat is flying right at you. This is a test run so we will see how it goes, if all goes OK you can expect to hear the announcement of next weeks films shortly. The party starts at 7:30 with some cartoons and shorts with the film starting around eight.

Opening this Weekend

On Thursday I will post all the movies opening over the weekend that I feel like are worthy of mentioning. Still thinking of a clever title for this feature.

Breathless
Jean-luc Godard - Angelika Dallas

If you are visiting this blog I have a feeling you are all ready familiar with this, the poster child for the French New-Wave. This is the fiftith anniversary of the film with an all new restoration. The film will be released on Blu-ray via Criterion later next month. Highly recommended you check this out in the theater, it probably won't be here very long...

Jean Micheal Basquiat: The Radiant Child
Tamra Davis - Angelika Dallas

I'll have a review of this one up by the end of the weekend.

Cairo Time

Rubba Nadda - Angelika Plano and Dallas

Winnebago Man

Ben Steinhauer - Angelika Dallas

The Switch

Josh Gordon and Will Speck - Angelika Dallas and Plano

Now I know that this may seem a little out of place here but I thought I would include it because it has the potential of being a decent movie that is being packaged as a light rom-com to help spur ticket sales. Other than the likeable and taltented B-list cast, the script is based on a short story by Jeffrey Eugenides, author one of the greatest modern novels, Middlesex and one successful film adaptation (Virgin Suicides). This might suck but it might be an under the radar gem.

(L) ost

This is a feature called (l)ost where I will post out of print soundtracks that you can listen to in the comfort of your own home. Unlike the Tuesday and Thursday new movie post these will be sporadic but hopefully frequent. If you are looking for a soundtrack and want me to put my best men on the team email at frankphosphate@gmail.com and I'll see what I can do.

OST - The Sun of Dracula

1972 - Harry Nilsson/Ringo Starr

The early 70's were a wild and wacky time in cinema as the independent visions of auteurs were defining the standard for independent cinema for years to come. There were also numerous celebrities/musicians begging to burn out from years of drug abuse and made the financial decision to breach into the world of cinema. One of the many gems to come out during this wave was Son Of Dracula starring Nilsson as the young Dracula who longs to be a human capable of love and Ringo Starr as Merlin the Magician. The soundtrack is essentially a rehashing of songs from Harry's albums "Nilsson Schmilsson" and "Son of Schmilsson" with dialog interludes from the movie. There is one original song on the album, Daybreak, which is a typically delightful take on the highs and lows of vampire life. Surprisingly the musical selections and clips flow well into one another making for a fairly cohesive re-telling of the story. The film was directed by respected 60's B-Movie horror director and two time Oscar winning (Glory 89'/Sons and Lovers 60') cinematographer Freddie Francis.

Despite the chops of the personnel and the world's never ending love of vampire movies, this one has remained out of print for the past 25 years. So much like the rest of the world I have not had the chance to see this movie, there is a VHS release out there but is extremely hard to find. If anyone has the hookup let me know. While it's hard not to be interested in a vampire movie starring Harry Nilsson, the dialog from the movie - while fascinating - sounds pretty drug addled and non-nonsensical. Of course this doesn't have to be a bad thing. I'm just not expecting something of the caliber of The Point, Nilsson's more highly regarded foray into film. If you really want to see Ringo Star in a decent movie from this time check out Ken Russell's Lisztomania one of the finest pop art films of the early seventies, and another soundtrack I will be posting in the future.

Team Nilsson