favorite films – dead man

It is preferable not to travel with a dead man – Henri Michaux

And so begins Jim Jarmusch’s masterful (and barely released) 1995 “acid western” Dead Man, shot in gorgeous black & white by Robby Mueller and featuring an incredible score by Neil Young.

Johnny Depp plays mild mannered Cleveland accountant William Blake who thinks he’s making his way out West for a new job in the town of Machine.  In actuality he’s descending into the heart of darkness aka the American West.

As luck would have it, the job is no longer available when he arrives. After getting caught in the middle of a lovers quarrel that results in bloodshed, Blake finds himself on the run.  It is here in the forest that he is discovered by an outcast Indian who goes by the name of Nobody (Gary Farmer), who mistakes him for a reincarnation of the great poet William Blake.

What follows isn’t so easy to summarize in a brief blog post, so just see it already and then read Jonathan Rosenbaum’s excellent analysis in the BFI Modern Classics Series.

If you’re here in the Twin Cities you can see it on the biggish screen this Friday & Saturday night at the Trylon.  For the rest of you, it’s on DVD.

that movie i watched last night – sound unseen film festival, international shorts program

I made my first visit to the newish Trylon Microcinema in South Minneapolis last night for one of the great shorts programs put on by the Sound Unseen Music & Film Festival, now in its 10th year.

First of all, the Trylon is pretty sweet.  Situated in a non-descript building, the Trylon features a storefront art gallery, a 20-foot screen, two 35mm projectors, a hi-def video setup and about 50 quite comfortable real cinema style seats.  It’s a far cry from past microcinema experiences, which generally consisted of a bunch of folding chairs in an ugly room with mediocre projection.  I plan on being a repeat visitor.

It was a cold and rainy night here in Minneapolis, which along with a huge Twins game, a number of other Sound Unseen events around town and some big time movies opening in wide release led to a pretty sparse crowd (I was literally the only person in the room until just a minute or two before the lights went down[awkward]).

Fortunately, the small but receptive “crowd” was treated to some gems.  Highlights included:

One Man Brand: The story of Matthew Shultz, who writes and records one novelty song a day – everyday – for the website woot.com (full disclosure:  Matthew is a pal ‘o mine and I’ve met director Josh Aiello a couple times too… Good people). I could pretty much sit around and listen to Matthew tell amusing anecdotes forever, so given the chance to gain some insight into the strange process of novelty song making from deep within the bowels of The Hulk Room is worth braving the weather and missing the ball game.  If you ever have the chance, see this.  For now you can at least check out the tunes themselves at woot.com.

The Archive:  Director Sean Dunne presents a touching tale about the worlds largest record collection.  Being a bit of a record store nerd, this one really struck a nerve for me.  Of course I love the convenience (and anti-socialness!) of iTunes and BitTorrent, but it seems like something special about the rock & roll experience is fading away…  Only about 7 short months until Record Store Day 2010! In the meantime, you can watch The Archive below.

The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

Love You More:  This was the “big shot” film in the program.  It played Sundance and Cannes and even had the late Anthony Minghella on board as a producer.  So yeah, it’s good.  Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood and written by Oscar Nominee Patrick Marber, the picture is set in 70s London on the day the Buzzcocks single Love You More is released.  A couple of hip teens manage to fall in love/lust as a result of their mutual fandom for the Buzzcocks and the fact that the local record shop only has one copy of the single.  What follows is a lot of fun, flirting, gobbing on each other, doin’ it and general good times.  Plus the Buzzcocks rule.  See a scene below.

Love You More preview from Matt Cooper on Vimeo.

Long For The City: Jem Cohen is one of my favorite directors.  His abstract, ethereal, and often quite moving short and feature films are in a world of their own.  Shot in glorious Super 8mm, Long For The City is “A short portrait of Patti Smith in the city where she lives. Patti recites the very first poem-song she ever wrote, and then a later one, “Prayer”, from the early 1970s. We take a walk in her changing neighborhood, and I ask her what she saw. Footage was shot in the moment, as well as drawn from the archive I’ve gathered over many years. ” -Jem Cohen

Great film and a terrific choice to close out this shorts program.