A few days later, and I think I'm able to digest the films at this year's event a bit.
I was awake and watched
all 12 films and
all the shorts and trailers. But, I become an
android one day a year for this event (kudos to Gerald Peary - in Boston's defunct
REAL PAPER, he once wrote, "only the dummies and androids" stay awake for the whole Marathon!
). Personally, I love the middle of the night screenings - the audience snarkers have been tamed, the nerves and excitement have tempered a bit, your body is worn out, so it's just your eyeballs and your brain that can sit there and absorb the films.
Interstellar Radio - The pre-show isn't the ideal forum for these guys, but they were true Marathoners and didn't just duck in for the show and flee. Fun.
CLOVERFIELD- Decently done, and with some interest, but BLAIR WITCH (and others) have been there before.
KING DINOSAUR - I'm surprised this didn't get razzed (and hence, 'enjoyed' more). KING was one of my very fave MST3K deconstruction jobs. There were some nice good-bad moments here and Bruce's print was pretty remarkable for a film as obscure as this.
LAST MIMZY - Not bad, but I wouldn't have booked this myself. In a way, I admired the fact that it didn't go for the too busy scramble of most kids films. On the other hand, a lot of scenes felt almost laid back in a TV movie kind of way, lacking urgency and drive. The climax in particular, was...er... anti-climactic....
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON - As noted before, this is only the 5th feature documentary we've shown in the 33 years - not an excessive number. And, SHADOW is a terrific film. Buzz Aldrin's relaying of his Moon "first" brought down the house! Folks should seek out Michael Collins' autobiography,
CARRYING THE FIRE - nice to see he still has that sharp wit and storytelling knack.
EVER SINCE THE WORLD ENDED - The faux documentary gambit may have seemed more original in 2001 when the film first hit the festival circuit, now it seems like it's following a trend. I will grant that the film has moments of interest, but too much of it gets bogged down with talking heads interviews with folks talking about the most mundane things in the most mundane manner possible. And, the dinner scenes just seemed so gentile and civilized that you sometimes lost the sense this was a post-apocalyptic tale. If the movie had focused more on the survival run outside the city (with its way too brief shots of empty cities) as its main focus, it would have had more impact. And, a technical gaffe - though we see the "filmmakers" working with filmand even debuting it in a movie theater, the film within a film was all shot on video!! Doh!!
WAR OF THE WORLDS - Strange as it may seem, as many times as I've seen this, this was the very first time I really 'got' it. Often deemed a classic, that status eluded me. It just missed somehow. Maybe, because of the contrast with Spielberg's interesting but heavily flawed remake, or just the vibe of seeing it with this audience, but it clicked for me this time. Gene Barry really was a charming leading man, and his performance is undervalued. Certainly of its era, and technical shortcomings considered, it really is an exciting, compact version that is clearly superior to the remake.
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY - I admit, that this is not the perfect Marathon film. It's slow pacing, long silences, metaphysical philosophisizing all mitigate against it going over well in this setting. Still, it's a cornerstone of the genre, and having it show 3 times over a three decade period, is in order. Not having revisted it since it played over a decade ago at the Marathon, I still marvel at how well most of the Special Effects hold up. Sure, there are some places CGI could do a more photo-realistic job today, but Kubrick's fanatical, almost fetishistic, devotion to detail yields a remarkable vision. I'll go further and say that some of the model work is superior to that of CGI (there IS something about light and shadow hitting a three dimensional model that the best computer artists can only simulate).
BLACK SHEEP - Sandwiched between the metaphysics of 2001 and the depressing 1984, SHEEP was like a breath of very foul air.
Certainly, not a great film, it's one of those B movies where you keep saying, "they're not going to go
there are they?" They do!
1984 - I was one of the few in the USA who got to see this in the title year when it had a brief run in L.A. (and NYC) for Oscar consideration. I liked it then, and I admire it even more today, lo these many years later. It's about as dark and faithful an adaptation as one can expect. Certainly, not 'enjoyable', but Director Michael Radford (IL POSTINO) gave some humanity to such a cold heartless vision (John Hurt and Suzanna Hamilton are superb). This is an original release print complete with Eurythmics music. Radford fought to mute the effect of the Eurythmics music and hired composer Dominic Muldowney. If you want to see how bad the music
could have been, check out the trailer in this post :
http://sf.theboard.net/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1202275569/0#0
JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET - It's too bad the Sidney Pink film WAS pink.
(again, check out the colorful trailer in the above link). A fun, if mediocre 50's style B flick with hot looking 'visions'. The SOLARIS comparisons are intriguing and coincidental - Lem's novel of SOLARIS was written just before 7TH PLANET. A cosmic coincidence?
SOUND OF THUNDER - Come on. Piece of tripe. If we had to have one more newish movie in the lineup, couldn't that slot have been much better utilized with CHILDREN OF MEN or V FOR VENDETTA? (or, any of dozens of films really). Too loud, too dumb to be snarky fun. And, the "special" effects? When we first saw the plastic looking Dinosaur in the opening scene, I swore that it was supposed to be an animatronic exhibit in a museum! I couldn't believe it was supposed to be a real living being!! And, the futuristic traffic scenes look like something from a kid's video game from the early 90's! With a purported budget of $80M to $100M, this is truly embarassing. How could Warner Brothers and director Peter Hyams have signed off on them?
A BOY AND HIS DOG - I was worried that the print wouldn't arrive! Although I am certainly glad it did, it's too bad it was on last. I've never thought comedy (even black comedy) works well in the latter part of the Marathon (the 1st time SLEEPER showed it was at 4 am and it was deathly silent). It's much easier to absorb violence, special effects and action when you're fatigued than this sort of material. Still, it went over well, and I'm anxious to speak with LQ Jones and give him a positive report.
I don't think the Shorts this year were as interesting as last. LE PUPPE was far and away the best film (even if it was just a spoof on LA JETTE). THEY'RE MADE OF MEAT and ASTRO DISASTER were fun, but both lacked a 'button' - a great zinger in the end that sent it to the next level. EDEN had a good 'button' - but the first 3/4 of the egotistic Fabio & Fabio duo's film was just a MATRIX rehash. A PIECE OF WOOD was probably the most complete piece, but was a just miss (the stilted acting didn't help).
Bruce's 'Vintage' Shorts were fun to see. LIGHT didn't go over well, though it was a nice companion piece to 2001. I've seen other QUASI AT THE QUACKADERO's Sally Cruikshank work, and the colorful print enlivened things. But, SPACE BOY? Oh, my, a highlight of the Marathon for me. I adore this kind of over the top marginalia.
FAMOUS MONSTERS' Forrest J. Ackerman tells an off-color tale of 'star' Florence Marley, so it made it all the more 'special' to me!
And, the Marathon remains 'Special' to me as well!
An extra Thank you to Bruce and Joe Neff for coming out to Boston!
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