"Hit Me With Your Best Shot" Summer Schedule
Sunday, April 24, 2011 at 12:17PM An exciting special episode of this series is coming up on Wednesday night! But until then, let's look ahead. If you're a new reader the concept of this series is that we choose a movie and anyone with a web home can post their choice for "best shot" with or without explanation and we link up. Complete List of Previous Episodes. It's like a tightly focused mini blog-a-thon. Some of the titles readers have been suggesting we'll get to eventually, some never and some I'm purposefully saving for later for various anniversary or other project reasons. [Please note: Somewhere (2010), previously announced, was cancelled due to highly annoying studio contract finagling spoiling our group play experiment. Studios have just started this one-month delay thing where certain titles are only available for purchases for the first 30 days, making for confusing DVD release calendars. If you've already written something up let me know...]
Summer Schedule
May 4th Eraserhead (1977) David Lynch
Netflix, Quickflix, Blockbuster, GreenCine, LoveFilm
May 11th Matador (1986) AND/OR Law of Desire (1987) [Pedro & Antonio Double Feature]
The Cannes film festival kicks off on this day. Let's celebrate by honoring the reunion of Pedro Almodóvar and his only true male muse Antonio Banderas in The Skin I Live In. For this edition you can do a double feature or choose either of Antonio's first two leading roles for Pedro. I'm watching both since the former is the only Pedro I've disliked and the latter is one of my all time favorite films; a revisit/reconsider seems in order.
Matador: Netflix, Quickflix, Blockbuster, Green Cine, LoveFilm
Law of Desire: Netflix, Quickflix, Blockbuster, Green Cine, LoveFilm
May 18th Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) Maureen O' Sullivan Centennial. She Jane!
Netflix, Quickflix, Blockbuster, Green Cine, LoveFilm
May 25th Star Wars (1977) The Ultimate Summer Blockbuster on its 34th anniversary.
Counter-Programming: The Hidden Fortress (1958) If you're feeling opressed by Emperor LucasFilms, join the Rebellion and cover the Akira Kurosawa swashbuckler that inspired it instead.
Star Wars: Netflix, Quickflix, Blockbuster, Green Cine, LoveFilm
Hidden Fortress: Netflix, Quickflix, Blockbuster, Green Cine, LoveFilm
June 1st Moulin Rouge! (2001) Insanity! 10th anniversary
Netflix, Quickflix, Blockbuster, GreenCine, LoveFilm
June 8th The Woman in the Window (1944) Several people suggested "M" or "Metropolis" which would be totally amazing but I need to step outside of my personal Fritz Lang comfort zone. Let's do this noir.
Netflix, Quickflix, Blockbuster, GreenCine, LoveFilm
June 15th Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) Francis Ford Coppola
Netflix, Quickflix, Blockbuster, GreenCine, LoveFilm
June 22nd Rocco and His Brothers (1960) Luchino Visconti
Netflix, Quickflix, Blockbuster, GreenCine, LoveFilm
Closing titles for Season 2 will be announced in June.
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Reader Comments (14)
Thinking Banderas has a good shot at a best actor nod for "The Skin I Live In"...
Matador is an Almodóvar I actively dislike, too. It's not just the bullfighting thing I can't stomach, but it's also the actresses. Probably Eva Cobo and Assumpta Serna are some of his weakest actresses. The other Almodóvar I don't like is his first feature Pepi, Luci .... It''s funny and fresh as every first feature film should be, but it 's also incredibly uneven. And from that time, before Women on the Verge and the subsequent success, I laugh my ass off with Laberinto de pasiones every time I watch it. It's so intentionally camp I love it.
I would be more than happy to join in on the Star Wars one but I just got a HDTV and Blu-Ray player, so I sold it - and a great portion of my DVDs - on Amazon (basically, I'm re-buying my whole DVD collection on Blu-Ray and SW doesn't come out on Blu-Ray until September).
Ooo Eraserhead will be so much to see everyone's picks! By the way, the Netflix link takes you to All That Jazz.
Okay this has nothing to do with anything but I had to share.
Yesterday at my clothing retail job a girl came in shopping because she was looking for something to wear to the Pirates 4 premiere. She was Rob Marshall's niece and so gets to go to these things and see Johnny Depp in person.
It was the first time I've ever experienced murderous jealousy.
Holly -- just don't act on it. you can't be jailed for your private thoughts ;)
Amy -- whoops. I almost did all that jazz but i wasn't ready to take on that behemoth just yet. fixed.
Iggy -- i haven't seen Pepi Luci Bom. I am actually very frustrating at how spotty his filmography is in terms of what's available for viewing. You'd think a filmmaker of his stature would have everything on DVD. but it's really hard to find a few of the films. and even some of the films that are available are only available from some outlets and not from others. it's very frustrating.
I hope the closing titles include Performance. I have been harping a bit on it, I know, but it's wonderfully shot overall and there's no one iconic shot, so you'll likely get lots of picks.
Nat, I must have seen Pepi, Luci...a couple of years ago on VHS tape borrowed from a local college library. I can see why it's not on DVD - it's entertaining and uneven (the central premise - that the protagonist was "raped" by a cop - makes no sense, in that she's the one who lifted her skirt to him and dared him to fuck her to begin with. Unless the subtitles were completely wrong.) It's a film meant to push boundaries (sexual boundaries, especially), meant to be in your face and offensive, scrungy and scruffy and no-to-low budget (or at least appears to be so). There's a scene of a woman being abused by her husband that would be horrifying - except that the character has already been established as being a mentally unhealthy, really over-the-top masochist, so in context it was as funny as it was uncomfortable.
I don't think I would have rented it at all if not for Almodovar's name (I had only recently seen All About my Mother and Women on the Verge...as distant from Pepi Luci...as can be imagined) and of course Carmen Maura's. I have endured some cinematic oddities and outright horrors for the sake of watching her.
BTW - I saw "Moulin Rouge" and couldn't help wondering "the next chapter of the long-promised tribute essay? Please?"
Yes, there's all that and a golden shower scene played by an underaged punk girl. There's also a general erections contest... It's what Janice says, pushing boundaries just for the sake of doing it. Not surprisingly it didn't get much financing and when they ran out of money they stopped shooting until they could get some more. And it shows.
I thought it would be available everywhere, I got my copy out of a collection that you could make buying the newspaper (=coupons) and it was an all Almodóvar collection (the same paper had other 2 different collections on Spanish cinema and some others). So, the dvd exists. It's true that now I think about it, I've never seen it in stores outside that collection. I guess the subject matter and the images don't help. One would think that's what Criterion and similar collections are for, but who knows.
Iggy -- i wish SPC had the rights to all of them. They've done a good job with supporting his releases once they were involved but clearly other companies hold the rights to the ones that aren't in the VIVA PEDRO set.
its annoying that TIE ME UP TIE ME DOWN is not part of that collection for example. and i can't find LABYRINTH OF PASSION.
So we're not doing anything on Wednesday then? :(
I'd just re-watched "Somewhere" for this ep.
Sorry I've been rubbing salt into the wound, then :(. I'd lend you my copies but there's something they call an ocean in between. I think in cases like this, if piracy isn't entirely justified, it'd be highly understandable.
If you haven't seen it yet, here's a link to Almodóvar's reaction to being selected for Cannes in an interview he gave for the news (where he showed the poster for La piel que habito). He says all the actors are terrific in the movie, that he likes the result, he mentions that the commitee who selected it told him it's very different from his other movies and he's also proud that they're keeping the title in Spanish for the distribution in France.
http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20110415/pedro-almodovar-piel-habito-muy-diferenciable-del-resto-cinematografia/424949.shtml
This'll give me a great reason to FINALLY see Peggy Sue Got Married.
I know, I know.
Also, I need to finish Eraserhead once and for all.
I know, I know.
Jose -- i'll still link up to anyone who has written up somewhere but it's not available yet through Netflix which is the service I use.