Friday: Another double feature day
I should actually state, for the record that the place I've been renting these videos from is called "Kim's". They've got a store right outside Columbia, at about 114th Street, next to the NYPL. They've also got a stores down in the East Village and West Village. Anyway, I really like the store cause it has everything strange and avant garde, as well as commercial box office successes. I could spend an entire year borrowing stuff that I want to watch everyday and there would still be more. Anyway, I also like the fact that it's relatively cheap - a buck twenty five if you borrow and return on the same day, and only a buck if what you want to watch happens to be a "pick". This of course, can't compare to one of the best things that ever happened to Singapore -- the Library at the Esplanade-- where lots of great stuff can be got for a low low annual fee.
Which brings me to Friday's selections. The first thing I watched was The Dark Crystal. It was a "staff pick" so I decided to get it. Some background: I've got fond memories of this film because 1. It was the only thing I'd watch over and over whenever I went to my Dad's place, while growing up, 2. The new Agey thing about Evil-Good being part of the same plane of existence always intrigued me as a powerful narrative trick. And of course 3. I've always like the Muppets and Jim Henson and Frank Oz go all out in this one.
Watching it after what must be about 15 years (?), I realized how much one's tastes and opinions are shaped by the specific mode of consumption. Not that I have particularly fond memories of hanging out at my Dad's place. There was nothing to do except to take in the extremely neat living room and lounge on the fresh Ikea furniture. Nothing to do except bemoan the fact that he didn't own books, had only one other silly video -- Victor/Victoria -- and a bunch of Witney Houston CDs. Nothing to do by play Donkey Kong Jr. on an old Nitendo handheld -- the only game that I've managed to run the scores right round the hundreds and back to zero. So The Dark Crystal was something to watch. Watching it yesterday was painful. It's really slow: it doesn't help that it's life-sized puppets or men in suits playing to roles (making them clumsy and awkward), it's also about a dying planent, making things deliberately slow. I guess I've been spoilt by jump cut editing and a brisk storyline.
The other thing I borrowed in my trip "down amnesia lane", was Amadeus. I've had fond memories of the film ever since I watched it as a kid. It was made in 1984 so I must have seen it around the same time as I was stuck with The Dark Crystal. I even had a pirated copy of the soundtrack on tape. Must have watched its irreverance on the cusp of telling my psychotic piano teacher that enough was enough and not touching the piano for the next 5 years. Anyway, this trip was much more rewarding. Tom Hulce and F Murray Abraham were just brilliant in counterpoint and it's so brilliantly campy I started to wonder what I saw in it as an eleven year old. There IS a tremendous amount of dialogue that I find wickedly funny now that I couldn't possibly have appreciated then. I guess the fact of the genius that never gets his due because he can't play the politics of court and the tremendously insecurity of Salieri in the face of Mozart's raw musical genius was what drew me in. So -- 1 out of 2 is not bad when one reaches back to a strange time.
I should actually state, for the record that the place I've been renting these videos from is called "Kim's". They've got a store right outside Columbia, at about 114th Street, next to the NYPL. They've also got a stores down in the East Village and West Village. Anyway, I really like the store cause it has everything strange and avant garde, as well as commercial box office successes. I could spend an entire year borrowing stuff that I want to watch everyday and there would still be more. Anyway, I also like the fact that it's relatively cheap - a buck twenty five if you borrow and return on the same day, and only a buck if what you want to watch happens to be a "pick". This of course, can't compare to one of the best things that ever happened to Singapore -- the Library at the Esplanade-- where lots of great stuff can be got for a low low annual fee.
Which brings me to Friday's selections. The first thing I watched was The Dark Crystal. It was a "staff pick" so I decided to get it. Some background: I've got fond memories of this film because 1. It was the only thing I'd watch over and over whenever I went to my Dad's place, while growing up, 2. The new Agey thing about Evil-Good being part of the same plane of existence always intrigued me as a powerful narrative trick. And of course 3. I've always like the Muppets and Jim Henson and Frank Oz go all out in this one.
Watching it after what must be about 15 years (?), I realized how much one's tastes and opinions are shaped by the specific mode of consumption. Not that I have particularly fond memories of hanging out at my Dad's place. There was nothing to do except to take in the extremely neat living room and lounge on the fresh Ikea furniture. Nothing to do except bemoan the fact that he didn't own books, had only one other silly video -- Victor/Victoria -- and a bunch of Witney Houston CDs. Nothing to do by play Donkey Kong Jr. on an old Nitendo handheld -- the only game that I've managed to run the scores right round the hundreds and back to zero. So The Dark Crystal was something to watch. Watching it yesterday was painful. It's really slow: it doesn't help that it's life-sized puppets or men in suits playing to roles (making them clumsy and awkward), it's also about a dying planent, making things deliberately slow. I guess I've been spoilt by jump cut editing and a brisk storyline.
The other thing I borrowed in my trip "down amnesia lane", was Amadeus. I've had fond memories of the film ever since I watched it as a kid. It was made in 1984 so I must have seen it around the same time as I was stuck with The Dark Crystal. I even had a pirated copy of the soundtrack on tape. Must have watched its irreverance on the cusp of telling my psychotic piano teacher that enough was enough and not touching the piano for the next 5 years. Anyway, this trip was much more rewarding. Tom Hulce and F Murray Abraham were just brilliant in counterpoint and it's so brilliantly campy I started to wonder what I saw in it as an eleven year old. There IS a tremendous amount of dialogue that I find wickedly funny now that I couldn't possibly have appreciated then. I guess the fact of the genius that never gets his due because he can't play the politics of court and the tremendously insecurity of Salieri in the face of Mozart's raw musical genius was what drew me in. So -- 1 out of 2 is not bad when one reaches back to a strange time.
 | Don't you just love those old movie posters that used to be hand painted ... |
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