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Our shop has a reputation for carrying a lot of the “classics” of cinema that no other video store in Bellingham dare to carry, but the task of figuring out which one to take home can be daunting. You often hear a movie is a classic, but sometimes just looking at the box just doesn’t do it for you.
I have two documentary recommendations that are, in their own ways, portable courses on film appreciation that will help get you acquainted with some of the films you know you should see.
The first of these is My Voyage to Italy, a documentary film directed and hosted by Martin Scorsese. In it, Scorsese talks about the films he saw on an Italian-language TV station broadcast in New York for the Italian-American community while he was growing up. While Scorsese acknowledges that American films contributed equally to his passion for film, he made My Voyage to Italy to share some of these many Italian films that go overlooked in America. At just over four hours, this documentary is a long one, but as there’s really no narrative to speak of it’s easy to take in smaller bits. Clips from the many films he talks about comprise a healthy portion of the film’s run time, which are indispensible in helping you decide which ones you may want to see in their entirety.
The second film is called Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, a documentary produced for cable about a cable channel. The film’s narrative documents the rise and fall of a pay cable channel run by hardcore cineastes that came about in the right place at the right time: Southern California, before the advent of home video. For the first time, cable subscribers could see movies they never had the opportunity to see theatrically, or versions of films that had never even screened in the United States before, like the extended versions of 1900 and Das Boot. Moreover, many of the subscribers were or would become highly influential figures in Hollywood, many of whom are interviewed in this film. They talk about the influence of the films they saw on Z Channel, and this documentary also provides clips from a good many of them.
I recommend watching both of these documentaries with a notepad and a pencil handy. One word of warning: many of the films referenced in these documentaries have never been released on DVD or even home video in the United States. However, in large part thanks to the Criterion Collection, a majority of them are available to you at Film Is Truth. I will humbly admit that even among these, I have not seen most of them. But I’m working on it.
Below are partial lists of some of the films highlighted by these documentaries that can be rented at Film Is Truth. These lists are by no means exhaustive.
From My Voyage to Italy:
From Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession:
The first movie I ever rented at Film Is Truth was Teeth, written and directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein. It is easily one of my favorite films, period. That’s a lot to say, I know. But every time someone rents it or I get to recommend it to anybody, I remember all over how much I loved it. So I thought I’d share my thoughts with all of you on why.
The main character is a high school girl named Dawn, who grew up two blocks away from a nuclear plant, inhaling the spewed toxic smoke all her life. They show this plant at the transitions between many scenes during the film, hinting at its possible role in our main character’s unusual development. Dawn heads her local abstinence group, giving speeches on purity and saving your most precious gift in life for the day you get married. However, through circumstances not entirely under Dawn’s control, she has sex, which leads to the discovery of something terrible going on inside her. She researches anatomy and realizes she has “adapted;” she has been born with the mythical Vagina Dentata: teeth, deep in her vagina. They imprint this theme throughout the story, hinting on evolution and the idea of a species mutating in order to better protect it. It’s an aspect of the movie that I really thought brought more substance to what could have been a very superficial story.
The film is arguably vulgar, with numerous sex scenes and gory effects. However, it’s expected since the film is Horror and it is a horrific concept. Besides, the sex scenes aren’t unnecessary; how else would you present a story about a woman’s viscous reproductive organs?
Some Horror films leave out the human element brought to the story by those undergoing the events around them, and lacks for doing so. Teeth never forgets its characters, who’ve been assigned to incredible actors/actresses who handle both the horror scenes and the simply ridiculous nature of the story with grace. The experiences Dawn, and those she copulates with, are terrible, and each character handles the moment expertly. Jess Weixler as Dawn grabs her role and gives it even more spark, whether she’s pulling an innocent, virginal expression of confusion or staring menacingly at an unknowing victim. Be sure to keep an eye out for her, as she is part of the line up in several new films (Peter and Vandy (premiered at Sundance), Welcome to Academia, As Good As Dead) that I know I will be taking a look at to see how she does.
The gore never fell short, yet the writing flowed between horror and comedy seamlessly. The outrageous nature of the film makes it clear that it is meant to be hilarious, and in that it succeeded. I watched this movie with all of my four roommates (who each have different taste in movies) and everyone liked it. Anyone who likes horror, or anyone who has a bit of a morbid sense of humor, should see Teeth.
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What were you watching last month? Here are January’s best-renting movies at Film is Truth!
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These are the ones I liked the best this year, in no particular order. Stars mean that they are really remarkable (i.e. exceptionally rad)
*Mister Lonely
*Bitter Films vol. 1 (Don Hertzfeldt Animation)
Jellyfish
Reprise
The Guatemalan Handshake
*What a Way to Go: Life at the End of the Universe
*Quiet City
*Man on Wire
In Bruges
Chop Shop
Wool 100%
Aftermath: Population Zero
Brand Upon the Brain!
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(Hounddog has been delayed until Feb. 17. Madagascar 2 comes out this Friday.)