I
like movies.
I like movies so much that I sometimes feel the need to evangelize my favorites,
especially if they are unseen or underappreciated.
Some of you already know that I have sporadically taken over various labs at weird hours to show movies from my collection. The movies I show range from the almost-mainstream, like Donnie Darko and Barbarella, to the obscure, like the Hong Kong hitwoman melodrama Naked Killer, to the out-and-out insane, like Even Dwarfs Started Small, the all-midget German masterpiece.
The common thread is that they are all cool, unique, but not-especially-well-known, and they deserve to be shown. But beware: my tastes can be damn strange at times, and I'm not afraid to inflict them on others.
mailing list
Sound good? There's a mailing list where I announce the movies (and possibly other things I feel like selectively spamming). You can join by sending an email to majordomo@cs.ubc.ca with the line subscribe cellardoor in the body.
times and places
There's not much in the way of regular schedule. It depends on how busy I am and the availability of projectors. These days, I show the movies in LCI (room 108 of the CICSR building at 2366 Main Mall). Call me at the lab (604.822.6625) if you need to get into the building. Bring any snacks and drinkables you like, but please keep the place clean, and help with the setup and teardown.
dec 9 at 8 PM in LCI Pee-Wee's Big Adventure |
Tim Burton went on to make a number of movies that made him a household name, but this movie is my favorite. He directs with his usual visual flair (though without the bloated budgets and self-indulgence that would mar, you know, pretty much everything from Batman on). But what really makes the movie is the great character of Pee-Wee Herman. Pee-Wee, for those who somehow don't know, is a bizarre bow-tied man-child, who, to quote Pauline Kael, "seems to have gone from child straight to adult without hitting adolescence, and is now suffering the consequences". He lives an idyllic lilfe combining adult responsibilities with childhood fun, until his beloved bicycle is stolen, forcing him out into his "big adventure" -- the world outside his playhouse. It's a really fun film; one of the best of the 1980s, even if it runs out of steam towards the end. And it led to the TV show Pee-Wee's Playhouse, which is one of the most brilliant things to ever make it onto TV. I mean, it has LAURENCE FISHBURNE AS COWBOY CURTIS, fer chrissake. The TV show, that is -- not the movie. Anyway, then there was that whole arrest-thing which kind of killed off the character. Though hey, good news! Paul Reubens has been saying recently that there are two new Pee-Wee movies in the works -- basically, one for adults and one for kids. Should be interesting.
|
nov 25 at 8 PM in LCI Slacker |
Now widely considered to be the most influential indie film of the early 90s. It was filmed over the course of two years for $23000, and showed that with a great idea and an incredible amount of dedication and talent, it was not only possible to make a great movie outside the studio system, it might help. If it weren't for this film, there might not have been any Kevin Smith films, any Robert Rodriguez films, or even any Quentin Tarantino films. This is the one that blew the indie scene wide open. It's plotless and brilliant. Sometimes funny, sometimes philosophical, sometimes completely inane. It's a documentary-like, short-attention-span stroll through the lives of the slackers and bohemians around the University of Austin over the course of a day and a night. Many of the actors are basically playing themselves and wrote or improvised their own dialogue (the original screenplay is a very short and very unique read). This is one of my all-time favorite films, and one of my top three or four films of the nineties. We'll be watching a brand-new criterion DVD edition that just came out, plus as many extras as people can stomach. |
In
1985, a 26-year-old Disney animator named Tim Burton was given
the chance to direct his first film, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, based
on a character created (and performed) by Paul Reubens.
The
indie masterpiece that debuted at Sundance to an audience of "around
10 people", most of whom walked out.