Movie Geeks Club

Rope - October 27

2011-10-20T20:25:00.005-05:00

Rope - 1948

October 27, 2011

7:00
Charley's Club
204 S. 6th Street., Springfield, IL

Brandon and Philip are two young men who share a New York apartment. They consider themselves intellectually superior to their friend David Kentley and as a consequence decide to murder him. Together they strangle David with a rope and placing the body in an old chest, they proceed to hold a small party. The guests include David's father, his fiancée Janet and their old schoolteacher Rupert from whom they mistakenly took their ideas. As Brandon becomes increasingly more daring, Rupert begins to suspect. (IMDB.com)

October Films - Hitchcock

2011-10-17T21:29:00.004-05:00

Alfred Hitchcock

Here are the nominations for the October movie:

The Lady Vanishes
Travellers on a trans-European train are delayed for a night due to bad weather in a small fictional country called Mandrika. The passengers cram into the small village hotel where socialite Iris Henderson meets an old governess called Miss Froy. Shortly after the journey restarts, Miss Froy disappears. (IMDB.com)

The Wrong Man
The true story of Manny Balestrero, a musician unjustly accused of armed robbery. In classic Hitchcock form, Balestrero vehemently protests his innocence but acts thoroughly guilty, leading a host of policemen and witnesses to finger him as the thief. The trial goes badly for Manny, but life is worse for his wife, Rose, who falls apart under the strain of his ordeal. (IMDB.com)

Rope
Two young men strangle their "inferior" classmate, hide his body in their apartment, and invite his friends and family to a dinner party as a means to challenge the "perfection" of their crime. (IMDB.com)

The Lodger (Silent Film)
A serial killer known as "The Avenger" is on the loose in London, murdering blonde women. A mysterious man arrives at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Bunting looking for a room to rent. The Bunting's daughter is a blonde model and is seeing one of the detectives assigned to the case. The detective becomes jealous of the lodger and begins to suspect he may be the avenger. (IMDB.com)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Note: This is not the James Stewart version. This film stars Peter Lorre. While holidaying in Switzerland, Lawrence and his wife Jill are asked by a dying friend, Louis Bernard, to get information hidden in his room to the British Consulate. They get the information, but when they deny having it, their daughter Betty is kidnapped. It turns out that Louis was a Foreign Office spy and the information has to do with the assassination of a foreign dignitary. Having managed to trace his daughter's kidnappers back to London, Lawrence learns that the assassination will take place during a concert at the Albert Hall. It is left to Jill, however, to stop the assassination. (IMDB.com)

Movie Geeks Club is Back... And Better!

2011-09-14T21:39:00.005-05:00

We're Back!

Actually, Movie Geeks Club was back last month with a soft opening at the new location. Movies will still be shown once a month but will now be shown at Charley's Club which is located in the basement of Cafe Andiamo. The movies will show on the last Thursday of the month and begin at 7:00 pm so if you would like to eat some dinner at Cafe Andiamo, arrive early. Drinks will be available for purchase.

Another change will be that Bart Rodgers (drakebuckley@gmail.com) will now take the lead in Movie Geeks Club. Bart has been a die-hard movie lover, loyal member and my co-leader since John Anderson left. I will continue to assist him.

It will be a wonderful change. I attended the soft opening last month and it is a great little venue. It's very comfortable, relaxed, the staff is wonderful and I LOVE being downtown.

Movie Geeks Club
Charley's Club (Basement of Cafe Andiamo)
204 S. 6th Street
Springfield, IL

Thursday, September 29, 2011
7:00 PM

And now to the nominees for September...

Remembering John Cazale

The Godfather

The Conversation

The Godfather II

Dog Day Afternoon

The Deer Hunter

Hope to see you soon!

Micah

The End of Movie Geeks Club

2011-07-07T19:17:00.002-05:00

Unfortunately, I have to announce the end of Movie Geeks Club.

Here is what happened:

For the previous 4 1/2 years, we have partnered with Capital City Bar & Gill to bring you a movie once a month while at the same time bring in a couple hundred dollars in business for them on a night that otherwise would not have that extra business. It worked well. There were some months that I wished we had brought more people in but as long as they weren't losing money, it worked. I always viewed them as a restaurant who opened up their extra dining room for us. It probably stretched the waitresses a bit thin at times but I never worried as long as people were eating food, buying drinks and leaving tips.

Last month, the Capital City Bar and Grill had a change of ownership/management. We had heard about a change coming at the May MGC. Last week, at the June movie, it was clear that there had been a communication break down during the transition because the new manager didn't know about us. After we explained what we are and that we had been bringing in customers one night a month to watch a movie for the past 4 1/2 years, I thought we would be able to continue the partnership.

I was informed today by the new manager that he would begin charging us between $125 and $150 a night, depending on the length of the movie. As you know, we have never charged admission because we wanted this to be a free and unique experience for Springfield. We could also never charge because of licensing laws (of which we were always in the gray area on that anyway). And while I loved the Movie Geeks Club, I can't justify paying out of my own pocket while marketing business for Capital City Bar and Grill to continue this.

This is not a "call to action" but feel free to contact them if you are disappointed. In the end, it is his business decision and there isn't anything we can do.

Thank you to all who have attended throughout the years. We have shown some great films and I have met many wonderful people. I was really looking forward to our next movie because it would have been our 50th film.

Finally, even though I am announcing the end, if there is another venue out there that we can use in the future, we may continue. Unfortunately, this was a unique situation where a bar can make money and we could offer Springfield a unique opportunity to enjoy a free night (minus the food and drink) out watching a great film.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!

Color By Picture

2011-06-14T20:04:00.004-05:00

Blue Velvet

An innocent man (Kyle MacLachlan) gets mixed up in a small-town murder mystery involving a kinky nightclub chanteuse (Isabella Rossellini) and a kidnapper (Dennis Hopper) with a penchant for snorting helium in this moodily surreal mystery from writer-director David Lynch. One of the most critically acclaimed movies of the 1980s, the film inspired a generation of independent filmmakers by taking a dark look at the lives of everyday Americans.

A Clockwork Orange

In this Stanley Kubrick classic based on Anthony Burgess's novel, teenage miscreant Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) wanders aimlessly amid a bleak, futuristic urban landscape, drinking drugged milk and listening to Beethoven with his fellow "droogs." But he also spends his time stealing, raping and beating innocent people in nihilistic orgies of violence, all in an attempt to get his nightly kicks.

The Purple Rose of Cairo

Stuck in a dead-end job and saddled with an abusive husband, Cecilia (Mia Farrow) depends on the movies for her escape. She sees one picture, The Purple Rose of Cairo, so often that the film's star (Jeff Daniels) walks off the screen and into her life … and promptly falls in love with her. Writer-director Woody Allen's touching romantic comedy bagged a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay and was nominated for a host of foreign and critics' awards.

How Green Was My Valley

Recounted via the memories of the Morgan family's youngest son (Roddy McDowall), director John Ford's gentle masterpiece (which won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director) chronicles 50 years in the lives of a close-knit clan of Welsh coal miners. As the years pass, the Morgans try to survive unionization, a lengthy strike and a mining accident; meanwhile, their hometown and its venerable traditions slowly disintegrate.

The Pink Panther

Arriving at a posh resort with her precious "Panther" -- a large, priceless diamond with the image of a leaping feline inside -- sexy princess Dala (Claudia Cardinale) meets the debonair Sir Charles (David Niven), who happens to be a professional thief. Enter the ever-incompetent Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers), the clumsiest inspector ever to trip over a case. Can he stop Charles's attempts to relieve the princess of her diamond?

The White Ribbon

A year before World War I, a series of strange and brutal pranks threaten to shatter a northern German town's orderly existence. But the residents' response may have even more disturbing implications for the future. Celebrated Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke helms this Golden Globe-winning, sumptuously photographed black-and-white drama that stars Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Tukur and Theo Trebs.

Goldfinger - May Movie

2011-05-20T10:31:00.002-05:00

Thursday, May 26, 2011
7:30 pm

Capitol City Bar & Grill
3149. S. Dirksen Parkway
Springfield, IL

Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation presents "Comedians & Spirituality in Cinema"

2011-05-05T22:37:00.002-05:00

The Movie Geeks Club has been kindly invited to the May film series at the Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation. They are featuring four movies on consecutive Wednesdays throughout May exploring "Comedians & Spirituality in Cinema".

The films featured are:

May 4: Robin Williams, "The Fisher King"
May 11: Ricky Gervais, "The Invention of Lying"
May 18: Bill Maher, "Religulous"
May 25: Steve Carrell, "Evan Almighty"

This series (as all monthly films) are free, and we serve popcorn, chips & salsa and other snacks. They usually have soda, but it's BYOB.

Battle of the Bonds - May Film

2011-05-01T21:36:00.013-05:00

Who is your favorite Bond?

Sean Connery
Goldfinger

The Bank of England has discovered that someone is stockpiling vast quantities of gold and suspects international bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger of being involved. The Bank requests that British agent James Bond be sent to investigate. Bond soon uncovers an audacious plan to commit "the crime of the century" and bring economic chaos to the West.(IMBD.com)

David Niven
Casino Royale (1966)

After the death of M, Sir James Bond is called back out of retirement to stop SMERSH. In order to trick SMERSH and Le Chiffre, Bond thinks up the ultimate plan. That every agent will be named James Bond. One of the Bonds, whose real name is Evelyn Tremble is sent to take on Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat, but all the Bonds get more than they can handle, especially when the ultimate villain turns out to be Bonds nephew, Jimmy Bond. (IMDB.com)

George Lazenby
On Her Majesty's Secret Service

James Bond woos a mob boss's daughter and goes undercover to uncover the true reason for Blofeld's allergy research in the Swiss Alps that involves beautiful women from around the world.(IMDB.com)

Roger Moore
Live and Let Die

Several British agents have been murdered and James Bond is sent to New York, to investigate these mysterious deaths. Mr. Big comes to his knowledge, who is self-producing heroin. Along his journeys he meets Tee Hee who has a claw for a hand, Baron Samedi the voodoo master and Solitaire and her tarot cards. Bond must travel deep inside New York, through marshy grass and on water as he completes his mission. (IMBD.com)

Timothy Dalton
The Living Daylights

James Bond 007's mission is to firstly, organise the defection of a top Soviet general. When the general is re-captured, Bond heads off to find why an ally of General Koskov was sent to murder him. Bond's mission continues to take him to Afghanistan, where he must confront an arms dealer known as Brad Whitaker. Everything eventually reveals its self to Bond. (IMDB.com)

Pierce Brosnan
GoldenEye

James Bond has a mission to recover the 'Goldeneye' access key. A Russian computer programmer called Natalya Siminova survives a murder spree by Xenia Onatopp and General Ourumov. Bond must work with Natalya to find this key and uncovers a sinister secret. His fellow agent, Alec Trevelyan who was believed to have been shot and killed 9 years ago re-surfaces. Bond soon realizes that Trevelyan is behind everything. Bond must now battle his former friend, in order to stop him from destroying London with the Goldeneye satellite. (IMDB.com)

Daniel Craig
Casino Royale (2006)

James Bond goes on his first ever mission as a 00. Le Chiffre is a banker to the world's terrorists. He is participating in a poker game at Montenegro, where he must win back his money, in order to stay safe among the terrorist market. The boss of MI6, known simply as M sends Bond, along with Vesper Lynd to attend this game and prevent Le Chiffre from winning. Bond, using help from Felix Leiter, Mathis and having Vesper pose as his wife, enters the most important poker game in his already dangerous career. But if Bond defeats Le Chiffre, will he and Vesper Lynd remain safe? (IMDB.com)

The Pride of the Yankees - April Movie

2011-04-24T21:13:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Capital City Bar and Grill
7:30 pm

The Pride of the Yankees Biopic traces the life of Lou Gehrig, famous baseball player who played in 2130 consecutive games before falling at age 37 to ALS, a deadly nerve disease which now bears his name. Gehrig is followed from his childhood in New York until his famous 'Luckiest Man' speech at his farewell day in 1939.

Please note:

2011-04-17T21:35:00.002-05:00

Due to another scheduling conflict with our venue, April's selection will be shown on Tuesday, 4/26. We apologize for the switching back and forth as of late, but this could not be avoided. It seems that Thursdays work best for most movie geeks, so we'll aim to move May's showing back to the last Thursday of the month. Thanks for your cooperation!

Springtime: Best of Baseball

2011-04-17T21:03:00.006-05:00

Field of Dreams Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella hears a voice in his corn field tell him, "If you build it, he will come." He interprets this message as an instruction to build a baseball field on his farm, upon which appear the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series. When the voices continue, Ray seeks out a reclusive author to help him understand the meaning of the messages and the purpose for his field.

The Natural An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league in this magical sports fantasy. With the aid of a bat cut from a lightning struck tree, Hobbs lives the fame he should have had earlier when, as a rising pitcher, he is inexplicably shot by a young woman.

Bull Durham Veteran minor-league catcher Crash Davis is assigned to the Class A Durham Bulls to handle the team's star rookie, wild pitcher "Nuke" LaLoosh. Team groupie Annie Savoy romances both players, creating a comic triangle.

The Pride of the Yankees Biopic traces the life of Lou Gehrig, famous baseball player who played in 2130 consecutive games before falling at age 37 to ALS, a deadly nerve disease which now bears his name. Gehrig is followed from his childhood in New York until his famous 'Luckiest Man' speech at his farewell day in 1939.

Major League The new owner of the Cleveland Indians puts together a purposely horrible team so they'll lose and she can move the team. But when the plot is uncovered, they start winning just to spite her.

The Straight Story - Thursday, March 31 - 7:30 pm

2011-03-27T17:55:00.001-05:00

The Straight Story
Alvin Straight is a very old man with a quiet life in a small country town. When his brother gets seriously sick, he decides to put away their differences and visit him after many, many years. So, alone, he begins a long journey through hundreds of miles, just to see again his brother, even if it's the last thing he will ever do... Based on a real story.

Movie Geeks Club - Last Thursdays of the Month

2011-02-28T21:54:00.002-06:00

Movie Geeks Club has now moved to the last Thursday of each month.

THANKS!

March Film Nominations - Biography

2011-02-28T21:37:00.002-06:00

Amadeus
Antonio Salieri believes that Mozart's music is divine. He wishes he was himself as good a musician as Mozart so that he can praise the Lord through composing. But he can't understand why God favored Mozart, such a vulgar creature, to be his instrument. Salieri's envy has made him an enemy of God whose greatness was evident in Mozart. He is set to take revenge.

Downfall
As the Russians advance through Berlin in the spring of 1945, Adolf Hitler and his remaining military and secretarial staff shelter in his large bunker complex in the centre of the city. His mood swings between completely unjustified optimism that his forces will still break through, and rage against the incompetence and betrayal of his military commanders. Reality does finally start to break through and the Fuhrer and the others in the bunker start to make their final personal preparations for the inevitable.

Bonnie and Clyde
A bored small-town girl and a small-time bank robber leave in their wake a string of violent robberies and newspaper headlines that catch the imagination of the Depression-struck Mid-West in this take on the legendary crime spree of these archetypal lovers on the run.

Raging Bull
When Jake LaMotta steps into a boxing ring and obliterates his opponent, he's a prizefighter. But when he treats his family and friends the same way, he's a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any moment. Though LaMotta wants his family's love, something always seems to come between them. Perhaps it's his violent bouts of paranoia and jealousy. This kind of rage helped make him a champ, but in real life, he winds up in the ring alone.

The Straight Story
Alvin Straight is a very old man with a quiet life in a small country town. When his brother gets seriously sick, he decides to put away their differences and visit him after many, many years. So, alone, he begins a long journey through hundreds of miles, just to see again his brother, even if it's the last thing he will ever do... Based on a real story.

His Girl Friday - This Thursday

2011-02-21T20:27:00.002-06:00

This is a reminder that Movie Geeks Club is on Thursday (February 24) this month. The doors open at 7:00 pm and the movie begins at 7:30 pm.

Hope to see you there!

HIS GIRL FRIDAY

The second screen version of the Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur play The Front Page, His Girl Friday changed hard-driving newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson from a man to a woman, transforming the story into a scintillating battle of the sexes. Rosalind Russell plays Hildy, about to foresake journalism for marriage to cloddish Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). Cary Grant plays Walter Burns, Hildy's editor and ex-husband, who feigns happiness about her impending marriage as a ploy to win her back. The ace up Walter's sleeve is a late-breaking news story concerning the impending execution of anarchist Earl Williams (John Qualen), a blatant example of political chicanery that Hildy can't pass up. The story gets hotter when Williams escapes and is hidden from the cops by Hildy and Walter--right in the prison pressroom. His Girl Friday may well be the fastest comedy of the 1930s, with kaleidoscope action, instantaneous plot twists, and overlapping dialogue. (IMDB.com)

Season for Valentines: Classic Cheeky Romance

2011-02-08T20:51:00.002-06:00

PLEASE NOTE: Due to conflicting schedules, the movie selection for February will be shown on Thursday, 2/24 instead of Tuesday, 2/22. Same time, same place. So please...make your vote count, come on out, and don't pretend you're not all hopeless romantics!!

THE LADY EVE

Returning from a year up the Amazon studying snakes, the rich but unsophisticated Charles Pike meets con-artist Jean Harrington on a ship. They fall in love, but a misunderstanding causes them to split on bad terms. To get back at him, Jean disguises herself as an English lady, and comes back to tease and torment him.

The Lady Eve is a 1941 American screwball comedy film. It is about a mismatched couple who meet on a luxury liner, written by Preston Sturges based on a story by Monckton Hoffe, and directed by Sturges, his third directorial effort, after The Great McGinty and Christmas in July. The film stars Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck and features Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, William Demarest and Eric Blore.

CITY LIGHTS

Charles_Chaplin was deep into production of his silent City Lights when Hollywood was overwhelmed by the talkie revolution. After months of anguished contemplation, Chaplin decided to finish the film as it began--in silence, save for a musical score and an occasional sound effect. Once again cast as the Little Tramp, Chaplin makes the acquaintance of a blind flower girl (Virginia_Cherrill), who through a series of coincidences has gotten the impression that the shabby tramp is a millionaire. A second storyline begins when the tramp rescues a genuine millionaire (Harry_Myers) from committing suicide. When drunk, the millionaire expansively treats the tramp as a friend and equal; when sober, he doesn't even recognize him. The two plots come together when the tramp attempts to raise enough money for the blind girl to have an eye operation. Highlights include an extended boxing sequence pitting scrawny Chaplin against muscle-bound Hank_Mann, and the poignant final scene in which the now-sighted flower girl sees her impoverished benefactor for the first time. Chaplin's decision to release the silent City Lights three years into the talkie era was partially vindicated when more than one critic singled out this "comedy in pantomime" as the best picture of 1931. Hal Erickson, Rovi

HAROLD AND MAUDE

A 1971 American comedy film directed by Hal Ashby. It incorporates elements of dark humor and existentialist drama, with a plot that revolves around the exploits of a young man intrigued with death, Harold (played by Bud Cort). Harold drifts away from the life that his detached mother prescribes for him, and develops a relationship with an old woman named Maude (played by Ruth Gordon).

HIS GIRL FRIDAY

The second screen version of the Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur play The Front Page, His Girl Friday changed hard-driving newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson from a man to a woman, transforming the story into a scintillating battle of the sexes. Rosalind Russell plays Hildy, about to foresake journalism for marriage to cloddish Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). Cary Grant plays Walter Burns, Hildy's editor and ex-husband, who feigns happiness about her impending marriage as a ploy to win her back. The ace up Walter's sleeve is a late-breaking news story concerning the impending execution of anarchist Earl Williams (John Qualen), a blatant example of political chicanery that Hildy can't pass up. The story gets hotter when Williams escapes and is hidden from the cops by Hildy and Walter--right in the prison pressroom. His Girl Friday may well be the fastest comedy of the 1930s, with kaleidoscope action, instantaneous plot twists, and overlapping dialogue.

BALL OF FIRE

Ball of Fire is a delightful retelling (by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett) of the "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" legend -- though strictly for grownups. Gary Cooper is the youngest of eight bookish professors authoring an encyclopedia. They find a perfect "research associate" in the curvaceous form of stripteaser Barbara Stanwyck, who (chastely) hides on the professors' domicile to escape her gangster boyfriend (Dana Andrews). As Stanwyck interprets various slang expression, she and the professors grow quite fond of one another; she brings out their sentimental sides, while they revive her essential decency. Naturally, Cooper is the one most smitten, though he hides his true feelings until the inevitable clinch.

Foreign Films

2010-11-16T12:04:00.002-06:00

I've Loved You So Long (2008)

After fifteen years in prison for murdering her son Pierre, the former medical doctor Juliette Fontaine travels to Lorraine to live on probation with her younger sister Léa and her family. The bitter, introspective and reclusive Juliette has spent her sentence without any visitors and totally forgotten by her family and now she has problems interacting with her brother-in-law Luc and her nieces. She has to visit every other week her probation officer Captain Fauré and seeks a job to rebuild her life. As days go by, Juliette gets closer to the family of her sister and befriends Luc and Léa's friends, specially Lea's colleague Michel. She slowly changes her behavior until the day Léa discovers the truth about the death of Pierre. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Counterfeiters (2007)

The Counterfeiters is the true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history, set up by the Nazis in 1936. Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch is the king of counterfeiters. He lives a mischievous life of cards, booze, and women in Berlin during the Nazi-era. Suddenly his luck runs dry when arrested by Superintendent Friedrich Herzog. Immediately thrown into the Mauthausen concentration camp, Salomon exhibits exceptional skills there and is soon transferred to the upgraded camp of Sachsenhausen. Upon his arrival, he once again comes face to face with Herzog, who is there on a secret mission. Hand-picked for his unique skill, Salomon and a group of professionals are forced to produce fake foreign currency under the program Operation Bernhard. The team, which also includes detainee Adolf Burger, is given luxury barracks for their assistance. But while Salomon attempts to weaken the economy of Germany's allied opponents, Adolf refuses to use his skills for Nazi profit and would like to do something to stop Operation Bernhard's aid to the war effort. Faced with a moral dilemma, Salomon must decide whether his actions, which could prolong the war and risk the lives of fellow prisoners, are ultimately the right ones. Written by Sony Pictures Classics

Talk To Her (2002)

After a chance encounter at a theater, two men, Benigno and Marco, meet at a private clinic where Benigno works. Lydia, Marco's girlfriend and a bullfighter by profession, has been gored and is in a coma. It so happens that Benigno is looking after another woman in a coma, Alicia, a young ballet student. The lives of the four characters will flow in all directions, past, present and future, dragging all of them towards an unsuspected destiny. Written by Anonymous

Waltz With Bashir (2008)

One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there's a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can't remember a thing anymore about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images. Written by intlpress@aol.com

The Secret In Their Eyes (2010)

The retired justice officer Benjamín Espósito decides to write a novel based on the Morales Case of twenty-five years ago and has difficulties to find the right beginning. He visits his former chief Irene Menéndez-Hastings in the tribunal to show his draft. In the 70's, Benjamín has an unrequited love for his new-hired chief Irene that belongs to an upper-class. Benjamin is assigned to investigate the murder of Liliana Coloto, a beautiful woman recently married with Ricardo Morales that had been brutally raped and murdered. Benjamin and his alcoholic partner Pablo Sandoval feel touched with the grief of Ricardo and go further in their investigation. Benjamin observes that a man named Isidoro Gómez is staring Liliana in many pictures and he becomes the prime-suspect. Meanwhile the tension between Ricardo and Irene increases along the days but Ricardo does not understand the signs of her eyes. Twenty five years later, Ricardo is still haunted by his love for Irene and for the unsatisfactory resolution of the Morales Case. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

October Film Nominations

2010-10-13T21:09:00.002-05:00

The Descent
After a tragic accident, six friends reunite for a caving expedition. Their adventure soon goes horribly wrong when a collapse traps them deep underground and they find themselves pursued by bloodthirsty creatures. As their friendships deteriorate, they find themselves in a desperate struggle to survive the creatures and each other. (IMDB.com)

Suspiria
A young American dancer travels to Europe to join a famous ballet school. As she arrives, the camera turns to another young woman, who appears to be fleeing from the school. She returns to her apartment where she is gruesomely murdered by a hideous creature. Meanwhile, the young American is trying to settle in at the ballet school, but hears strange noises and is troubled by bizarre occurrences. She eventually discovers that the school is merely a front for a much more sinister organization. (IMDB.com)

Peeping Tom
As a boy, Mark Lewis was subjected to bizarre experiments by his scientist-father, who wanted to study and record the effects of fear on the nervous system. Now grown up, both of his parents dead, Mark works by day as a focus-puller for a London movie studio. He moonlights by taking girlie pictures above a news agent's shop. But Mark has also taken up a horrifying hobby: He murders women while using a movie camera to film their dying expressions of terror. One evening, Mark meets and befriends Helen Stephens, a young woman who rents one of the rooms in his house. Does Helen represent some kind of possible redemption for Mark - or is she unknowingly running the risk of becoming one of his victims? (IMDB.com)

Feast
In a remote bar, costumers are advised by a newcomer to seal the place since hungry monsters will attack them in a couple of minutes. The man is immediately devoured and the clients organize a strategy to defend the place under siege of deadly creatures. (IMDB.com)

Frailty
Fenton Meeks, comes forth to tell the FBI that his brother Adam may be the serial killer who calls himself God's Hands, who the FBI has been searching for. The film uses flashbacks to show Meeks' childhood with a father who believed he was on a mission from God to destroy demons that inhabit human bodies. Fenton saw his dad as evil, while Adam saw him as a hero. (IMDB.com)

September Film - Call Northside 777

2010-09-22T09:39:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Doors open 7:00. Films starts at 7:30.
Capital City Bar and Grill
Springfield, IL

Call Northside 777

When a woman places an ad in the Chicago Times offering a $5,000 reward for information that will exonerate her son, the newspaper assigns report P.J. McNeal to look into case. He learns that 11 years earlier, Frank Wiecek was convicted of killing an on duty police officer in a speakeasy and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. McNeal is quite skeptical as to his innocence and only slowly comes to realize that there was a miscarriage of justice. The real question is whether he can find evidence that would convince the pardon board and obtain Wiecek's release. (IMDB.com)

September - Movies that have had a scene based in Springfield

2010-09-05T16:50:00.004-05:00

Trying to come up with new and interesting themes for Movie Geeks Club, I thought about how Springfield has fit into films I have seen. Then I wondered if there were even five films that did portray Springfield in some way. There are at least five that I can find. Note: I didn't have to put Legally Blonde 2 in the mix because it was shot here but not portrayed to be in Springfield. Thank goodness for that. Of the five films nominated, amazingly all of them are high quality films.

Only two of the five films were actually shot in Springfield that I know of. Of course, The Informant! had a couple of scenes that were shot and portrayed here in 2008. And the other, Call Northside 777 was most likely filmed here. I have never heard anything to support that but the director was meticulous about shooting on location. So I suspect Jimmy Stewart was in Springfield at some point to shoot some scenes. I hope someone could shed some light on that.

Call Northside 777

When a woman places an ad in the Chicago Times offering a $5,000 reward for information that will exonerate her son, the newspaper assigns report P.J. McNeal to look into case. He learns that 11 years earlier, Frank Wiecek was convicted of killing an on duty police officer in a speakeasy and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. McNeal is quite skeptical as to his innocence and only slowly comes to realize that there was a miscarriage of justice. The real question is whether he can find evidence that would convince the pardon board and obtain Wiecek's release. (IMDB.com)

The Informant!

Mark Whitacre has worked for lysine developing company ADM for many years and has even found his way into upper management. But nothing has prepared him for the job he is about to undertake - being a spy for the FBI. Unwillingly pressured into working as an informant against the illegal price-fixing activities of his company, Whitacre gradually adopts the idea that he's a true secret agent. But as his incessant lies keep piling up, his world begins crashing down around him. (IMBD.com)

Abe Lincoln in Illinois

Covers the period from Lincoln's early years as a Kentucky woodsman until his election to the Presidency in 1860. Included are his first love, his marriage, the Illinois law practice and his debates with Stephen Douglas. (IMBD.com)

Young Mr. Lincoln

Ten years in the life of Abraham Lincoln, before he became known to his nation and the world. He moves from a Kentucky cabin to Springfield, Illinois, to begin his law practice. He defends two men accused of murder in a political brawl, suffers the death of his girlfriend Ann, courts his future wife Mary Todd, and agrees to go into politics. (IMBD.com)

White Heat

Cody Jarrett is the sadistic leader of a ruthless gang of thieves. Afflicted by terrible headaches and fiercely devoted to his 'Ma,' Cody is a volatile, violent, and eccentric leader. Cody's top henchman wants to lead the gang and attempts to have an 'accident' happen to Cody, while he is running the gang from in jail. But Cody is saved by an undercover cop, who thereby befriends him and infiltrates the gang. Finally, the stage is set for Cody's ultimate betrayal and downfall, during a big heist at a chemical plant. (IMDB.com)

August Movie

2010-08-11T21:45:00.003-05:00

August Movie Nominations

July Movie - Bulworth

2010-07-17T20:45:00.003-05:00

Capital City Bar and Grill

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Doors Open at 7:00 pm

July Movie Nominations - 90's

2010-06-29T22:39:00.008-05:00

Random 90's Films

In the Name of the Father

A small time thief from Belfast, Gerry Conlon, is falsely implicated in the IRA bombing of a pub that kills several people while he is in London. Bullied by the British police, he and four of his friends are coerced into confessing their guilt. Gerry's father and other relatives in London are also implicated in the crime. He spends 15 years in prison with his father trying to prove his innocence with the help of a British attorney, Gareth Peirce. Based on a true story. (IMDB.com)

Bulworth

Senator Jay Bulworth is facing speculation-induced financial ruin, so he puts out a contract on his own life in order to collect a large, new insurance policy for his family. Living each moment on borrowed time, he suddenly begins spouting raw, unfiltered--and sometimes offensive in word but satirical in spirit -- thoughts to shocked audiences and handlers in the speech of hip-hop music and culture. His newfound uninhibitedness and new relationship with Nina carry him on a journey of political and spiritual renewal. (IMDB.com)

The Hudsucker Proxy

When Waring Hudsucker, head of hugely successful Hudsucker Industries, commits suicide, his board of directors, led by Sidney Mussberger, comes up with a brilliant plan to make a lot of money: appoint a moron to run the company. When the stock falls low enough, Sidney and friends can buy it up for pennies on the dollar, take over the company, and restore its fortunes. They choose idealistic Norville Barnes, who just started in the mail room. Norville is whacky enough to drive any company to ruin, but soon, tough reporter Amy Archer smells a rat and begins an undercover investigation of Hudsucker Industries. (IMDB.com)

Ed Wood

A biopic of the life and work of the legendary 'worst director of all time', Edward D. Wood Jr., concentrating on the best-known period of his life in the 1950s, when he made Glen or Glenda (1953), Bride of the Monster (1955) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), and focusing on both his transvestism and his touching friendship with the once great but now ageing and unemployed horror star Bela Lugosi. (IMDB.com)

Glengarry Glen Ross

Times are tough in a New York real-estate office; the salesmen (Shelley Levene, Ricky Roma, Dave Moss, and George Aaronow) are given a strong incentive by Blake to succeed in a sales contest. The prizes? First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado, second prize is a set of steak knives, third prize is the sack! There is no room for losers in this dramatically masculine world; only "closers" will get the good sales leads. There is a lot of pressure to succeed, so a robbery is committed which has unforeseen consequences for all the characters. (IMDB.com)

So Long and Good Luck, John Anderson

2010-06-28T21:17:00.006-05:00

Left, Micah Roderick; Right, John Anderson

Movie Geeks Club:

John Anderson, the idea man behind the Movie Geeks Club and co-founder has left Springfield today, with his wife Aubrey, to start a new life in Richmond, VA. The idea of a movie club was conceived about 4 years ago when John and I began looking for more creative endeavors after getting our television show up and running. John pressed on with the idea and finally made contact with the guys at Capital Bar and Grill who had just recently renovated the old theater next door.

We held our inagural Movie Geeks Club with Run Lola Run on January 30, 2007. Since then, we have shown films that range all time periods and genres. Some good, most great. John and I never knew where this "Club" was going when we started but we knew we weren't going to quit until we were asked.

I will continue to try to provide the same caliber of films that were shown in the John Anderson era but I have also brought in some help from a long time Movie Geek, Bart Rogers. He will assist in nominating films and other duties as not assigned.

John will be greatly missed in Springfield but I'm sure Richmond will gain something interesting and fun. We just don't know what that will be yet. I can say this, I'm glad John left us the Movie Geeks Club for all of Springfield to enjoy.

Good Luck John and Aubrey!

On behalf of all the Movie Geeks in Springfield, you will be missed.

Micah

100 Classic Sci-Fi Movies You Can Watch Online For Free

2010-06-28T21:00:00.000-05:00

Click here to see the list. Thanks to Movie Geeks friend Amanda Harris for this.

Five Gems From British Directors

2010-06-08T20:40:00.003-05:00

The Third Man

An out of work pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins, arrives in a post war Vienna divided into sectors by the victorious allies, and where a shortage of supplies has lead to a flourishing black market. He arrives at the invitation of an ex-school friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job, only to discover that Lime has recently died in a peculiar traffic accident. From talking to Lime's friends and associates Martins soon notices that some of the stories are inconsistent, and determines to discover what really happened to Harry Lime.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041959/

The 39 Steps

Richard Hannay is a Canadian visitor to London. At the end of "Mr Memory"'s show in a music hall, he meets Annabella Smith who is running away from secret agents. He accepts to hide her in his flat, but in the night she is murdered. Fearing he could be accused on the girl's murder, Hannay goes on the run to break the spy ring.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026029/

Withnail and I

London 1969 - two 'resting' (unemployed and unemployable) actors, Withnail and Marwood, fed up with damp, cold, piles of washing-up, mad drug dealers and psychotic Irishmen, decide to leave their squalid Camden flat for an idyllic holiday in the countryside, courtesy of Withnail's uncle Monty's country cottage. But when they get there, it rains non-stop, there's no food, and their basic survival skills turn out to be somewhat limited. Matters are not helped by the arrival of Uncle Monty, who shows an uncomfortably keen interest in Marwood...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094336/

The Lavender Hill Mob

Holland, a shy retiring man, dreams of being rich and living the good life. Faithfully, for 20 years, he has worked as a bank transfer agent for the delivery of gold bullion. One day he befriends Pendlebury, a maker of souvenirs. Holland remarks that, with Pendlebury's smelting equipment, one could forge the gold into harmless-looking toy Eiffel Towers and smuggle the gold from England into France. Soon after, the two plant a story to gain the services of professional criminals Lackery and Shorty. Together, the four plot their crime, leading to unexpected twists and turns.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044829/

The Commitments

Jimmy Rabbitte, just a tick out of school, gets a brilliant idea: to put a soul band together in Barrytown, his slum home in north Dublin. First he needs musicians and singers: things slowly start to click when he finds three fine-voiced females virtually in his back yard, a lead singer (Deco) at a wedding, and, responding to his ad, an aging trumpet player, Joey "The Lips" Fagan. Song by song, gig by gig, the Commitments start their climb to the top: Dublin gets soul. But internal strife also builds: Deco is insufferable, Joey's a Casanova, and Jimmy may lack the seasoning to hold things together. Will the Commitments slip away?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101605/

And the May movie is....

2010-05-12T15:24:00.003-05:00

The Night of the Iguana

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Doors open at 7:00 pm
Movie begins at 7:30 pm
Capital City Bar and Grill
3149. S. Dirksen Parkway
Springfield

May Film Nominations - John Huston

2010-05-04T22:20:00.002-05:00

John Huston Films

Prizzi's Honor

Charley Partanna is a hit-man who works for the Prizzis, one of the richest crime syndicate families in the country. Unbeknownst to Charley,the Prizzis just hired Irene Walker, a free-lance killer, to eliminate someone who double-crossed them. When Irene and Charley fall in love their jobs become complicated. Their jobs become impossible when each is given a contract that neither can go through with. (IMDB.com)

The List of Adrian Messenger

Messenger asks a friend to check into a list of names before leaving on a trip. When his plane is blown out of the sky, the matter becomes more serious. As his friend checks into the list, each seems to have died in mysterious circumstances. As he goes down the list, the deaths become more recent and a race to find the remaining survivors and what put each of them on this list ensues. (IMDB.com)

The Night of the Iguana

When American minister Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon is expelled from his Virginia church, he travels to Mexico in search of his destiny and sanity. There he becomes a tour guide for a bus load of spinsters and a teenage nymphet named Charlotte Goodall, who is being chaperoned by the group's leader, the inflexible Judith Fellowes. Miss Fellowes, who is quite jealous of Charlotte's attentions to Shannon, discovers the young woman in his room and vows to have him fired. To thwart her plot, Shannon takes control of the bus from Hank, the bus driver, and speeds the tour group on a wild ride through the Mexican jungle to the crumbling, secluded hotel of an old friend, the recently widowed Maxine Falk. Eventually Shannon becomes enamored with another guest at the hotel, the rather genteel Hanna Jelkes, an itinerant quick sketch artist and her poet grandfather Nonno. As the wise Hanna partially restores Shannon's fractured world, Shannon struggles to get back the rest of his sanity and his self-respect. (IMDB.com)

The Misfits

Roslyn is a very beautiful woman who just got divorced. She meets two friends, Guido and Gay, who take her to Guido's house in the country to relax and forget the difficulties of the past few weeks. Everything is fine at first, but soon the two men fall in love with Roslyn and start showing some bad aspects of their characters. Soon they meet another friend of Gay's, and the four of them go to hunt some wild horses. This is when things just... explode! (IMDB.com)

The Maltese Falcon

Sam Spade is a partner in a private-eye firm who finds himself hounded by police when his partner is killed whilst tailing a man. The girl who asked him to follow the man turns out not to be who she says she is, and is really involved in something to do with the 'Maltese Falcon', a gold-encrusted life-sized statue of a falcon, the only one of its kind. (IMDB.com)

April Movie Nominations - Roger Corman

2010-03-27T21:18:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it took us so long to do this.

Little Shop of Horrors

Seymour is a young man who works in a flower store. He manages to create a carnivorous plant that feeds on human flesh. Nobody knows about it, so Seymour and the plant become good "friends". The plant needs food to grow up, so it convinces him to start killing people. (IMDB.com)

Bloody Mama

A psychological gangster film based on fact. Machine gun totin' Ma Barker lead her family gang (her sons) on a crime spree in the Depression era. Her loyal brood have every perversion imaginable. The sadistic Herman sleeps with his Ma. When Fred Barker is released from prison, he brings home his cell mate/lover Kevin Dirkman, who also sleeps with Ma, much to Fred's chagrin. Lloyd Barker is a spaced-out drug addict who sniffs glue if nothing better is around. Ma kidnaps happy-go-lucky millionaire Sam Adams Pendlebury and holds him for ransom. Arthur Barker - Ma's wallflower son - and Herman's hooker lady friend Mona Gibson also figure in the story. The bloody finale is virtually choreographed and a visual stunner. Filmed in the Ozarks. (IMDB.com)

The Last Woman on Earth

Ev; her husband, Harold; and their lawyer friend, Martin, are skindiving while on vacation in Puerto Rico. When they resurface, they gradually conclude that an unexplained, temporary interruption of oxygen has killed everyone on the island - maybe in the world! (IMDB.com)

The Wild Angels

Peter Fonda plays 'Heavenly Blues', the leader of Hell's Angels chapter from Venice, California while Bruce Dern plays 'Loser', his best pal. When they both botch their attempt to retrieve Loser's stolen bike, Loser ends up in the hospital. When the Angels bust him out, he dies, and they bury him. Nancy Sinatra plays Mike, Blues' "old lady" and Diane Ladd plays Loser's wife (Dern's real-life wife at the time). The plot is basically a buildup to the last half-hour of the film in which Loser's funeral becomes another wild party. (IMDB.com)

The Trip

Paul Groves (Peter Fonda), a television commercial director, is in the midst of a personality crisis. His wife Sally (Susan Strasberg) has left him and he seeks the help of his friend John (Bruce Dern), a self-styled guru who's an advocate of LSD. Paul asks John to be the guide on his first "trip". John takes Paul to a "freak-out" at his friend Max's (Dennis Hopper) pad. Splitting the scene, they score some acid from Max and return to John's split-level pad with an indoor pool. Paul experiences visions of sex, death, strobe lights, flowers, dancing girls, witches, hooded riders, a torture chamber, and a dwarf. He panics but John tells him to "go with it, man." Would you trust John? Written by Jack Nicholson. (IMDB.com)

Top 10 Movie Mad Scientists of All Time

2010-02-18T22:45:00.003-06:00

"Top 10 Movie Mad Scientists of All Time"

Here's the link:

http://becomingaradiologist.org/top-10-movie-mad-scientists-of-all-time/

Thanks to Carolyn for sending that along.

March Film Nominees - "Future" Films

2010-02-18T22:19:00.003-06:00

Blade Runner (1982)

Los Angeles, 2019: Rick Deckard of the LAPD's Blade Runner unit prowls the steel & micro-chip jungle of the 21st century for assumed humanoids known as 'replicants'. Replicants were declared illegal after a bloody mutiny on an Off-World Colony, and are to be terminated upon detection. Man's obsession with creating a being equal to himself has back-fired. (IMDB.com)

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)

After The Atomic War the world is divided into three states. London is the capital of Oceania, ruled by a party who has total control over all its citizens. Winston Smith is one of the bureaucrats, rewriting history in one of the departments. One day he commits the crime of falling in love with Julia. They try to escape Big Brother's listening and viewing devices, but, of course, nobody can really escape... (IMDB.com)

Metropolis (1927)

It is the future, and humans are divided into two groups: the thinkers, who make plans (but don't know how anything works), and the workers, who achieve goals (but don't have the vision). Completely separate, neither group is complete, but together they make a whole. One man from the "thinkers" dares visit the underground where the workers toil, and is astonished by what he sees... (IMDB.com)

Brazil (1985)

Sam Lowry is a harried technocrat in a futuristic society that is needlessly convoluted and inefficient. He dreams of a life where he can fly away from technology and overpowering bureaucracy, and spend eternity with the woman of his dreams. While trying to rectify the wrongful arrest of one Harry Buttle, Lowry meets the woman he is always chasing in his dreams, Jill Layton. Meanwhile, the bureaucracy has fingered him responsible for a rash of terrorist bombings, and both Sam and Jill's lives are put in danger. (IMDB.com)

Sleeper (1973)

A clarinet player who also runs a health food store is frozen and brought back in the future by anti-government radicals in order to assist them in their attempts to overthrow an oppressive government. When he goes off on his own, he begins to explore this brave new world that has Orgasmatron booths to replace sex and confessional robots. (IMDB.com)

February Movie Nominations

2010-01-29T21:17:00.002-06:00

We have posted the movie nominations for February 2010. You can see the common theme.

The Way We Were

Katie and Hubbell are students in the same college but with very different lives. She is a communist compromised against the civil war in Spain and the rise of Hitler in Europe, and has to work to pay her studies. He is more interested in sports a and sceptic about politics. However, Katie is impressed by his charm and she still is when they meet some years after. (IMDB.com)

Love Story

Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri share a chemistry they cannot deny - and a love they cannot ignore. Despite their opposite backgrounds, the young couple put their hearts on the line for each other. When they marry, Oliver's wealthy father threatens to disown him. Jenny tries to reconcile the Barrett men, but to no avail. Oliver and Jenny continue to build their life together. Relying only on each other, they believe love can fix anything. But fate has other plans. Soon, what began as a brutally honest friendship becomes the love story of their lives. (IMDB.com)

Venus

Maurice and Ian are successful but aging actors, close friends whose conversation revolves around theatrical shop talk and the infirmities of septuagenarianism. Ian in particular is fearful that death is right around the corner, so he agrees to let his niece's daughter Jessie move in to his flat to care for him. Jessie, a provincial girl in her early twenties, turns out to be a nightmare for Ian, a hard-drinking, rude, and dismissive twerp. But Maurice sees something else in the girl, a potential for humanity which blossoms under his kindness and gentle guidance. Something else blossoms, for Maurice, as well: romantic love for a girl fifty years younger. Surprises follow, all around. (IMDB.com)

Adam's Rib

Married lawyers Adam and Amanda Bonner find themselves on opposite sides of the courtroom in this comedy. Adam is prosecuting a high-profile case in which a woman is accused of trying to murder her philandering husband. Amanda acts as her defense attorney, and the sparring begins. (IMDB.com)

Splendor in the Grass

Deanie would risk everything to be with Bud. Bud is afraid of his father, the most powerful man in a small Kansas town in 1928. Deanie will have to wait until Bud spends four years at Yale. In the meantime he can't spend a lot of time with her, because Deanie isn't that kind of girl. His sister Ginny, back from Chicago, is a constant reminder just how bad a bad girl can be. (IMDB.com)

January Film is The Italian Job -1969

2010-01-23T22:32:00.002-06:00

Finally! Our first film since October will be The Italian Job (1969). We hope to see you there. We will let you know the choices for the February film soon.

Date:	Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Time:	7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:	Capital City Bar and Grill
	3149. S. Dirksen Parkway

Movie Geeks Cancelled for November

2009-11-18T14:57:00.000-06:00

Due to emergency repairs at Capital City Bar and Grill next week, we will be unable to hold our monthly Movie Geeks Club screening. Sorry for any inconvenience.

November Films

2009-10-20T15:58:00.004-05:00

Here is the list of the November film nominees. We we went with a theme that I am having a difficult time giving a title. It is "less-famous originals that were made into famous remakes". There were many films to choose from but we settled on these.

Scarface (1932)
Remade as Scarface (1983)

Big Louis Costillo, last of the old-style gang leaders is slain, and his former bodyguard Tony Camonte is taken into custody. Since Costillo's body has never been found, the police have to release him, though they strongly suspect Johnny Lovo paid Tony to remove Big Louis. Tony begins taking over the rackets in town with violent enforcement, and he becomes a threat to Johnny and the other bosses unless they work for Tony. Meanwhile, Tony's sister wants to be more independent, but finds it difficult to escape from her brother's overprotective grasp. The dissatisfaction of the other bosses and the relentless pursuit of the police push Tony towards a major confrontation. (IMDB.com)

Internal Affairs "Mou gaan dou" (Hong Kong, 2002)
Remade as The Departed (2006)

The setting is the never-ending war between the police and the Triads of Hong Kong. Chan is a cop who's been assigned to undercover work inside the Triads for so long that he's been able to rise through the ranks to a position of some authority. Lau, meanwhile, is a secret member of the Triads who has infiltrated the police force with an equal level of success. As they feed their bosses information on the plans and counter-plans of the organizations they pretend to serve, they both begin to feel the stresses of their double lives as they become torn between the oppressive obligations they owe to their superiors and the growing camaraderie they share with the foot soldiers around them. As the two organizations become increasingly aware of the moles in their midsts, the race is on for Chan and Lau to try and get out of the game alive. (IMDB.com)

The Italian Job (1969)
Remade as The Italian Job (2003)

Charlies' got a 'Job' to do. Having just left prison he finds one of friends has attempted a high risk job in Italy, right under the nose of the Mafia. Charlies friend doesn't get very far, so Charlie takes over the 'Job'. Using three Mini Coopers, a couple of jaguars and a bus, he hopes to bring Torino to a standstill, steal the Gold and escape. (IMDB.com)

Alfie (1966)
Remade as Alfie (2004)

For Alfie, the only real life is sex life; only then can he kid himself he is living. Sex is not used as the working-class boy's way to 'the top'. Executive status has no appeal for Alfie. Nor has class mobility. He is quite content to stay where he is, as long as the 'birds' are in 'beautiful condition', as he assures us they are in one of the candid, over-the-shoulder asides to the camera which the film carries over from "Tom Jones". The film shows how much of the 'swinging 60's' quality of London life was a male creation, and through the dominance of the fashion photographers, a male prerogative. (IMDB.com)

The Omega Man (1971)
Remade as I Am Legend (2007)

In 1977, two years after Russia and China had engaged in germ warfare and destroying most of mankind, U. S. Army scientist Robert Neville, who had immunized himself, is practically alone in the city of Los Angeles, except for a group of albino-like survivors, led by a former newscaster, now calling himself Matthias, who had predicted the destruction, His group , sensitive to light and heat, are bent upon smashing all remnants of the prior civilization, especially Neville. (IMDB.com)

The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Remade as I Am Legend (2007)

Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) is the only survivor of a devastating world-wide plague due to a mysterious immunity he acquired to the bacterium while working in Central America years ago. He is all alone now...or so it seems. As night falls, plague victims begin to leave their graves, part of a hellish undead army that''s thirsting for blood...his! (IMDB.com)

Movie Geeks Nominations for October Movie

2009-09-28T11:17:00.000-05:00

For October we're offering a selection of horror movies. Read below and then vote on the right hand side of the page.

1. Night of the Creeps (USA - 1986) - In 1959, an alien experiment crashes to earth and infects a fraternity member. They freeze the body, but in the modern day, two geeks pledging a fraternity accidentally thaw the corpse, which proceeds to infect the campus with parasites that transform their hosts into killer zombies.

2. Near Dark (USA 1987) - In the dusty heart of the American southwest, innocent country boy Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) is seduced by a beautiful girl (Jenny Wright) into joining a pack of vicious drifters. But this is no ordinary band of outlaws, and Caleb is soon trapped in a nightmarish world of soulless evil and hellish mayhem that thrives on blood and absolute horror. This extraordinary shocker is one of the most ferociously original vampire movies of our generation.

3. The Host (Korea 2006) - In Seoul's River Han, a giant mutant creature has developed as a result of toxic chemical dumping. When the squidlike monster scoops up the teenage granddaughter of humble snack-bar owner Hie-bong (Hie-bong Byeon), he races to track down the murderous beast. With no help from the authorities, who are convinced the girl is already dead, Hie-bong and his family will have to band together to save her -- and possibly the entire city.

4. Inside - (France 2007) - Four months after her husband's tragic death, Sarah (Alysson Paradis) prepares to head to the hospital to deliver her miracle baby. But what should be a blessed Christmas Eve event turns terrifying when a crazed woman (Béatrice Dalle) arrives at her home intent on taking Sarah's baby.

5. Ginger Snaps - (Canada 2000) - The teenage years prove especially difficult for sisters Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and Ginger (Katharine Isabelle), who have an unexplained fascination with Goth and death. On the night of Ginger's first period, she's bitten by a werewolf and quickly develops several new traits -- including an aggressive sexual appetite. But as Brigitte tries to reverse the transformation, she must also hide her sister's mounting victims

Movie Geeks Nominations for September Movie

2009-08-24T21:01:00.002-05:00

I know it's kind of last minute, but another month has sped past. For September, we've chosen to go with "Weird" movies. So, here are the nominees. Vote as soon as you can. All votes before tomorrow night will be counted. In the event of no votes or a tie, we'll just pick one. Yeah, that's how a democracy works in Moviegeeksistan.

So here are the nominees.

Brazil: In a highly structured and bureaucratic state, the government has installed extreme and highly counterproductive measures for which to track down terrorists. A "bug" in the system mixes up the last name of a terrorist (Tuttle) and an innocent man (ironically enough Buttle). Thus, the wrong man (Buttle) is arrested and killed while Tuttle continues to roam free. Sam Lowry, an average man with a mother who "knows people", is assigned to investigate the error. At the same time, Jill layton, Buttle's neighbor, is trying to report the mistake to authorities. Due to the extremely inefficient bureaucracy, she finds the process to be very tedious. Meanwhile, Sam Lowry, who has been dreaming about Jill, gets sidetracked by his fantasies and ends up also being a victim of the counter productivity of the government. (from IMDB)

The Idiots: A group of perfectly intelligent young people decide to react to society's cult of an aimless, non-creative and non-responsible form of intelligence by living together in a community of "idiots". Their main activity becomes going out into the world of "normal" people and pretending to be mentally retarded. They take advantage of this situation to create anarchy everywhere they go and try by every possible means to make people annoyed, disturbed, miserable, ridiculous, angered, and shocked. The films start as they recruit a new lost soul and introduced her to their megalomaniac leader. (from IMDB)

Delicatessen: The story is centered on a microcosm of a post-apocalyptic society where food is so rare it's invaluable and is used as currency. The story centers on an apartment building with a delicatessen on the ground floor. The owner of the eatery also owns the apartment building and he is in need of a new maintenance man since the original "mysteriously" disappeared. A former clown applies for the job and the butcher's intent is to have him work for a little while and then serve him to quirky tenants who pay the butcher in, of course, grain. The clown and butcher's daughter fall in love and she tries to foil her father's plans by contacting the "troglodytes", a grain eating sub-group of society who live entirely underground. The "trogs" are possibly the most sensible of the lot, as they see food as food and not money. (from IMDB)

Pi: In Manhattan, behind six locks, lives Max Cohen, a mathematician and computer whiz. Since staring at the sun at age six, he's had terrible headaches; plus, he can't abide human contact except with an aging professor, and he's obsessed with finding numeric patterns. His current obsession is the stock market; his theories bring him to the attention of Wall Street traders. He also keeps running into Lenny, a fast-talking Hasidic who fronts for a cabal that wants to rediscover long-lost mathematical mysteries in the Torah. Neither group is benign, and they pursue Max as his hallucinations and headaches worsen. Does nature offer any solutions? Can Max find them? (from IMDB)

Drowning by Numbers: Three generations of women, a mother, her daughter and her niece - all called Cissie Colpitts - experience dissatisfaction with their husbands and cause them to drown. The local coroner, an inveterate game player called Madgett, is drawn into a plot to disguise the murders. The story is paced by the numbers one to one-hundred, which appear sequentially through the film. (from IMDB)

August Film - Romance

2009-07-24T13:43:00.002-05:00

To my knowledge, we have never had a category of selections for "romance". Romance can be a wide open category it can really be contained in any time of genre. Action, comedy, horror, porn...

Here are the nominees for August, 2009.

It Happened One Night
1934

Rebellious socialite Ellie Andrews marries King Wesley but her wealthy father has it annulled. Tired of her father's control, she runs away by diving off the family yacht in Miami and heading for New York. On the bus she meets street-smart reporter Peter Warne. They end up traveling together as Warne hopes to get a great story, and Ellie needs his worldly help. Nearing New York, with their many adventures coming to an end, they find that they are reluctantly in love and afraid to admit it to each other. After she mistakenly thinks that Warne has run out on her Ellie returns to King Wesley, but for how long? (IMDB.com)

Love Story
1970

Harvard Law student/hockey jock (Oliver Barrett IV) meets Radcliffe music wonk (Jennifer Cavalleri), and the couple soon enter into a relationship. When the couple decide to get married, Oliver's father (Oliver Barrett III) threatens to disinherit him from the family will, leaving Oliver and Jennifer to start their marriage at rock-bottom. Jennifer and her dad (Phil Cavalleri) do what they can to bring father and son back together, but the two prefer to remain at war with one another. Years go by, and the young couple attempt to have children, only to discover that she is malfunctioning. (IMDB.com)

An Affair to Remember
1957

Handsome playboy Nicky Ferrante and beautiful night club singer Terry McKay have a romance while on a cruise from Europe to New York. Despite being engaged to other people, both agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months. However, an unfortunate accident keeps Terry from the reunion, and Nicky fears that she has married or does not love him anymore. Will he discover the truth behind her absence and reunite with his one true love, or has fate and destiny passed them by? (IMDB.com)

Say Anything...
1989

An improbable couple meets after high school graduation and must deal with their friends, family, and other pressures just to stay together. Lloyd Dobler is an average kickboxer with a good heart but limited ambition. Diane Court is an aloof genius who is very closely protected by her father. When Diane gets a scholarship to study in England, she has a weighty decision to make. (IMDB.com)

Edward Scissorhands
1990

In a castle high on top of a hill lives an inventor's greatest creation - Edward, a near-complete person. The creator died before he could finish Edward's hands; instead, Edward is left with metal scissors for hands. Edward has always lived alone, until a kind lady called Peg discovers Edward and welcomes him into her home. At first, everyone welcomes Edward into the community, but soon things begin to take a change for the worse. (IMDB.com)

Dark Victory
1939

Judith Traherne is at the height of young society when Dr. Frederick Steele diagnoses a brain tumor. After surgery she falls in love with Steele. The doctor tells her secretary that the tumor will come back and eventually kill her. Learning this, Judith becomes manic and depressive. Her horse trainer Michael, who loves her, tells her to get as much out of life as she can. She marries Steele who intends to find a cure for her illness. As he goes off to a conference in New York failing eyesight indicates to Judith that she is dying. (IMDB.com)

To Catch a Thief
1955

American expatriate John Robie living in high style on the Riviera is a retired cat burglar. He must find out who a copy cat is to keep a new wave of jewel thefts from being pinned on him. High on list of prime victims is Jessie Stevens, in Europe to help daughter Frances find a suitable husband. Lloyds of London insurance agent is using a thief to catch a thief. Take an especially close look at scene where Robie gets Jessie's attention, dropping an expensive casino chip down decolletage of French roulette player. (IMDB.com)

June Movie Nominations - War

2009-05-23T14:00:00.008-05:00

The new poll is up and the theme is "war". The films selected for June all have a war theme but are all very different and are from different time periods. We could not select the very best of war films because so many of them are epic. We decided to go with relatively shorter films that are also rated very high. Here they are, from Stanley Kubrick to Charlie Chaplin.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Our oldest film nominated. Filmed just 10 years after the end of World War I. This is an English language film (made in America) adapted from a novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque. The film follows a group of German schoolboys, talked into enlisting at the beginning of World War 1 by their jingoistic teacher. The story is told entirely through the experiences of the young German recruits and highlights the tragedy of war through the eyes of individuals. As the boys witness death and mutilation all around them, any preconceptions about "the enemy" and the "rights and wrongs" of the conflict disappear, leaving them angry and bewildered. This is highlighted in the scene where Paul mortally wounds a French soldier and then weeps bitterly as he fights to save his life while trapped in a shell crater with the body. The film is not about heroism but about drudgery and futility and the gulf between the concept of war and the actuality. (IMDB.com)

Full Metal Jacket

A two-segment story that follows young men from the start of recruit training in the Marine Corps to the lethal cauldron known as Vietnam. The first segment follows Joker, Pyle and others as they progress through the hell of USMC boot-camp at the hands of the colorful, foul-mouthed Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The second begins in Vietnam, near Hue, at the time of the Tet Offensive. Joker, along with Animal Mother, Rafterman and others, face threats such as ambush, booby traps, and Viet Cong snipers as they move through the city. (IMDB.com)

Letters from Iwo Jima

The island of Iwo Jima stands between the American military force and the home islands of Japan. Therefore the Imperial Japanese Army is desperate to prevent it from falling into American hands and providing a launching point for an invasion of Japan. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi is given command of the forces on the island and sets out to prepare for the imminent attack. General Kuribayashi, however, does not favor the rigid traditional approach recommended by his subordinates, and resentment and resistance fester among his staff. In the lower echelons, a young soldier, Saigo, a poor baker in civilian life, strives with his friends to survive the harsh regime of the Japanese army itself, all the while knowing that a fierce battle looms. When the American invasion begins, both Kuribayashi and Saigo find strength, honor, courage, and horrors beyond imagination. (IMDB.com)

M*A*S*H

November, 1951. The 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is shaken up by the arrival of Captains "Hawkeye" Pierce and "Duke" Forrest...crack surgeons but lousy soldiers. Joined by renowned chest-cutter "Trapper" John McIntyre, the surgeons set about dealing with the daily carnage of the war by raising hell. From getting rid of the idiotic Major Burns to helping the camp dentist commit "suicide", there's no lengths the Swampmen won't go to to distract themselves from the horrors of war. (IMDB.com)

The Dirty Dozen

In late March 1944 a rebellious US Army Major is "volunteered" to train twelve convicted military criminals for a suicide mission - to parachute to a heavily-guarded Nazi general staff officers' retreat to try and assassinate German officers on leave. To get his unorthodox assignment done the Major must convince Army brass to grant pardons to the men, then try to mold the twelve recidivists into a functioning unit, a task made more daunting by the doubts of a by-the-book General and by the suicidal nature of the mission. (IMDB.com)

The Great Dictator

During the last days of the First World War, a clumsy soldier saves the life of devoted military pilot Schultz. Unfortunately, their flight from the advancing enemy ends in a severe crash with the clumsy soldier losing his memories. After quite some years in the hospital, the amnesia patient gets released and reopens his old barber shop in the Jewish ghetto. But times have changed in the country of Tomania: Dictator Adenoid Hynkel, who accidentally looks very similar to the barber, has laid his merciless grip on the country, and the Jewish people are discriminated against. One day, the barber gets in trouble and is brought before a commanding officer, who turns out to be his old comrade Schultz. So, the ghetto enjoys protection from then on. Meanwhile, Dictator Hynkel develops big plans, he wants to become Dictator of the whole world and needs a scapegoat for the public. Soon, Schultz is being arrested for being too Jewish-friendly, and all Jews except those who managed to flee are transported into Concentration Camps. Hynkel is planning to march into Osterlich to show off against Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria, who already has deployed his troops along the other border of the small country. Meanwhile, Schultz and the barber manage to escape, guised in military uniforms. As luck would have it, Schultz and the barber are picked up by Tomanian forces and the barber is mixed up with Hynkel himself. The small barber now gets the once-in-a-lifetime chance to speak to the people of Osterlich and all of Tomania, who listen eagerly on the radio. (IMDB.com)

Movie Nominations for May - Jim Jarmusch

2009-04-21T16:49:00.002-05:00

For May, we decided to enter the world of Jim Jarmusch. Here are the films.

Stranger Than Paradise

This is about a self-styled New York hipster (John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards) who is paid a suprise and quite unwelcome visit by his pretty sixteen-year-old Hungarian cousin. From initial hostility and indifference a strange affection grows between the two exiles. Due to complete boredom they decide to visit their aunt in the wastelands of Cleveland and then proceed to sunny Florida where they lose all their money and unwittingly gain a fortune. With a final ironic twist, they are at the end, back where they began. (IMDB.com)

Down By Law

DJ Zack and pimp Jack end up in prison for being too laid-back to avoid being framed for crimes they didn't commit. They end up sharing a cell with eccentric Italian optimist Roberto, whose limited command of the English language is both entertaining and infuriating -but rather more useful to them is the fact that Roberto knows an escape route. (IMDB.com)

Mystery Train

A Japanese couple obsessed with 1950s America goes to Memphis because the male half of the couple emulates Carl Perkins. Chance encounters link three different stories in the city, with the common thread being the seedy hotel where they are all staying. (IMDB.com)

Dead Man

Dead Man is the story of a young man's journey, both physically and spiritually, into very unfamiliar terrain. William Blake travels to the extreme western frontiers of America sometime in the 2nd half of the 19th century. Lost and badly wounded, he encounters a very odd, outcast Native American, named "Nobody," who believes Blake is actually the dead English poet of the same name. The story, with Nobody's help, leads William Blake through situations that are in turn comical and violent. Contrary to his nature, circumstances transform Blake into a hunted outlaw, a killer, and a man whose physical existence is slowly slipping away. Thrown into a world that is cruel and chaotic, his eyes are opened to the fragility that defines the realm of the living. It is as though he passes through the surface of a mirror, and emerges into a previously-unknown world that exists on the other side. (IMDB.com)

Coffee and Cigarettes

A comic series of short vignettes built on one another to create a cumulative effect, as the characters discuss things as diverse as caffeine popsicles, Paris in the '20s, and the use of nicotine as an insecticide--all the while sitting around sipping coffee and smoking cigarettes. As director Jim Jarmusch delves into the normal pace of our world from an extraordinary angle, he shows just how absorbing the obsessions, joys and addictions of life can be, if truly observed. (IMDB.com)

Movie Nominations for April -- Canadian Comedies

2009-03-26T10:59:00.003-05:00

For April, we're nominating a variety of Canadian Comedies. Some of these are your run-of-the mill comedies that you think of when you think of Canadian comedies. Others are a little more off the beaten path. Here are the nominees. Cast your vote on the right hand of the page now.

FUBAR: a 2002 mockumentary film, directed by Michael Dowse, based on the lives of two lifelong friends and head-bangers living out their lives, constantly drinking beer. It first debuted at the Sundance Film Festival as an Official Selection of the Festival. Since its release, it has gained critical acclaim and a cult status in North America, but especially within Western Canada.

Strange Brew: a 1983 film starring the popular SCTV characters Bob & Doug McKenzie, played by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, who also served as co-directors. Max von Sydow co-stars. The story is loosely based on the Shakespearean play Hamlet, with the McKenzie Brothers taking the roles of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Canadian Bacon: a 1995 comedy/satire, and the only fictional film written, directed and produced by Michael Moore. It was the last film released to star John Candy, although it was filmed before Wagons East!. While not entirely Canadian, this one is close enough for us.

Brain Candy: a feature film by The Kids in the Hall, a popular Canadian comedy troupe. Directed by Kelly Makin, filmed in Toronto, and released in 1996, it followed the five season run of their television series, which had been successful in both Canada and the United States.

Highway 61: a 1991 film by Canadian director Bruce McDonald. An orphaned barber named Pokey Jones in a small town near Thunder Bay, Ontario dreams of becoming a jazz musician. One morning, Jones discovers a frozen corpse in his backyard, and soon meets Jackie Bangs, a tough and mysterious roadie who claims the dead man is her brother. Jackie's real intention is to use the body, a vagrant unknown to anyone in town, to smuggle stolen drugs into the United States. She convinces Pokey to use his parents' car, which hasn't been driven in decades, to drive her to New Orleans to bury her brother. So Jackie and Pokey set out along Highway 61, coffin strapped to the top of the car, and follow Bob Dylan's famous U.S. Highway 61 south through the heart of the United States.

Movie Geeks for March 31: The Proposition

2009-02-25T14:31:00.003-06:00

March's screening will feature The Proposition, a 2005 Western directed by John Hillcoat and written by musician/writer Nick Cave. I'm excited to see this film as it's been on my short list for a couple years now. Hillcoat is directing the upcoming film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, so I'm interested in seeing some of his work prior to that. Additionally, I find Nick Cave to be an all-around interesting artist and human being. To see this brainchild of his will be a treat, I'm sure.

Here's the trailer:

Last Night's Turnout Dismal

2009-02-25T08:18:00.003-06:00

Last night, the turnout was completely dismal. We had a total of four moviegoers who stuck the whole thing out. There was a couple who came in, but apparently couldn't stand the basketball game on the big screen that played prior to the movie starting at 7:30. They left before the movie got underway. Another lady claimed, "This is not the Werner Herzog I know," threw her hands in the air, and made her best beeline straight for the exit.

That left the four of us.

And it's a shame. Because the film was great. Stroszek. A Herzog classic. As Roger Ebert wrote:

"Stroszek" (1977) is one of the oddest films ever made. It is impossible for the audience to anticipate a single shot or development. We watch with a kind of fascination, because Herzog cuts loose from narrative and follows his characters through the relentless logic of their adventure. Then there is the haunting impact of the performance by Bruno S., who is at every moment playing himself.

A classic of cinema. A film I've long wanted to see. And last night we gave people the opportunity to see it on the big screen. An opportunity you're not likely to find in many places in the Midwest. I just think it's sad that people have an opportunity to see great films (great art), and they don't.

I'm sure people have their reasons, and I understand. People have children. It's cold outside. The economy sucks. We were competing with Barack Obama's speech to Congress. I understand.

That's why I'm going to do an increased job of spreading the word this month. I'm going to work on getting the message out about Movie Geeks. I mean, we've been around for two years now, but I guess people still don't know. Or worse, I fear, don't care.

March Films - Westerns

2009-02-16T22:50:00.002-06:00

Here are the list of movies that have been nominated for March. The March films are all Westerns. There is a very diverse group in here so do some research before you vote.

The Searchers

When Ethan Edwards decide to go find the Indians who killed his family, he is joined by his nephew, Martin Pawley. The problem is that Pawley is 1/8th Indian and there's nothing in the world that Edwards hates more than Indians. The journey to find the Indians and Edwards' niece last for years. (IMDB.com)

Once Upon a Time in the West

A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad in this long frontier epic. Mysterious pasts and the strength of loyalties is explored amid lightning fast gun battles and stylish vistas. (IMDB.com)

Westworld

A amusement park for rich vacationers. The park provides its customers a way to live out their fantasies through the use of robots that provide anything they want. Two of the vacationers choose a wild west adventure. However, after a computer breakdown, they find that they are now being stalked by a rogue robot gun-slinger. (IMDB.com)

The Shootest

John Bernard Books, a gunfighter approaching his 58th birthday, finds that he has cancer and two months to live. He takes a room with Bond Rogers and her son, Gillom, to wait until death comes. Of course, his very presence starts off events in the town. The Marshal comes, prepared to die in a shootout, Gillom tries to idolize him, Bond first is disgusted and then pities him. Then, realizing that he will die in great pain, he comes up with an idea to go out with a bang. (IMDB.com)

The Proposition (2005)

Rural Australia in the late nineteenth century: Capt. Stanley and his men capture two of the four Burns brothers, Charlie and Mike. Their gang is held responsible for attacking the Hopkins farm, raping pregnant Mrs. Hopkins and murdering the whole family. Arthur Burns, the eldest brother and the gang's mastermind, remains at large has and has retreated to a mountain hideout. Capt. Stanley's proposition to Charlie is to gain pardon and - more importantly - save his beloved younger brother Mike from the gallows by finding and killing Arthur within nine days. (IMDB.com)

Movie Geeks for February: Stroszek

2009-01-28T14:49:00.002-06:00

Werner Herzog's Stroszek. Roger Ebert called it "one of the oddest films ever made" and we're bringing it to the big screen February 24.

Capital City Bar and Grill
Tuesday, February 24.
Doors open at 7:00. Film starts at 7:30.

Apology to the Movie Geeks and a Call to Action

2009-01-28T14:25:00.003-06:00

If you have attended a Movie Geeks in the past few months, you've likely noticed the darkness of the screen. And those of you who were in the house last night got to spend the evening with that ugly encroaching blue line on the right side of the screen.

We've had this problem once before at Capital City, a little over a year ago. The problem then stemmed from the bulb on the projector. As the bulb goes bad it emits less light, resulting in a darker screen. The blue line on the side of the screen . . . I don't have an explanation for that.

Needless to say this makes the movie-going experience rather unpleasant. Viewers have a difficult (often impossible) time seeing characters and actions during nighttime or otherwise darkened scenes. Key plot points can be missed. Key gestures can be missed. Elements of the film that the director wanted you to be able to see are going unseen before our watchful eyes.

Please know that Micah and I(John) have no control whatsoever over the equipment at Capital City Bar and Grill. We select a movie once a month and try our best to drag people to the theater for our screenings. Capital City provides the screen, DVD player, sound system, and projection unit. They also provide the service of food and drink.

I know that there is no cover charge for viewing the films, but I still feel if people are willing to make time out of their busy schedule to take in a film, they should be treated to a watchable film. Micah had a brief discussion with one of the owners last night who explained that the bulb was replaced recently but was messed up during a recent concert when a band tech was messing with the lighting.

Whatever the reason, we've noticed that the picture quality has been growing increasingly worse over the past few months, and we're concerned that we will start losing participants.

If you were in attendance last night or in previous months and you felt that the screen quality was poor or that the film was unwatchable, then please contact the bar and voice your concerns. The Movie Geeks Club consistently draws 20-30 paying customers. We buy drinks and food. We tip the waitstaff. We bring in revenue that they wouldn't ordinarily draw on a Tuesday night. Although we don't pay a cover to watch the movie, it is only fair that we be given a reasonable film-watching experience.

You can contact Capital City Bar and Grill by calling (217)529-8580. Let them know you are a paying customer who enjoys coming to the movie club and that you were disappointed in the quality of the film. Maybe they'll get the problem fixed.

Thanks,

John and Micah

Movies for February

2009-01-13T14:27:00.002-06:00

Here are our movies for February. Vote now in the poll on the right-hand side of your screen.

Pi -- In my opinion, the finest film Darren Aronofsky ever did. I'm a big fan of number theory, even though I'm terrible at math itself, and it's possible esoteric implications. I loved the section in the book Contact that discusses pi (thank you, Carl Sagan), and I love the Chudnovsky brothers. So, what's not to love about Aronofsky's conspiracy theory-fueled story of one man's attempt to figure out the world in numbers?

6ixtynin9 -- This is a great Thai film (original translation of the title: Funny Story 6 9). Released in 1999, it tells the story of Tum, who loses her job in the financial district during a depression in the Asian economy. She finds herself broke and jobless. Then she finds a box of money in front her apartment and things really start to change for her. Especially when the people who left the money decide they want it back. A darkly hilarious number play that rises into an interesting mystery film.

Stroszek -- A film by Werner Herzog. Written in four days, specifically for German actor Bruno S., this Herzog masterpiece tells the story of Bruno, an alcoholic Berliner, recently released from prison, who joins an elderly friend and a prostitute in their dream to leave Germany and seek a better life in America . . . in Wisconsin to be exact. This film is extraordinary in its ability to keep viewers from predicting what will happen next. Herzog used non-actors for most of the lesser roles in the film. If all of this doesn't sell you, the film was shot in Ed Gein's hometown.

The Fountain -- For someone who is absolutely crazy about esoteric, hermetic, and other random bits of world and spiritual knowledge, this Aronofsky flick was like mind candy. Aside from being beautifully shot, The Fountain contains three narratives (one in the past, one in the present, and one in the future) that orbit around the themes of thanatophobia, the fountain of youth, death, rebirth, and the central soul of mankind and possible deification of such. A true pet project of Aronofsky's, and definitely worth seeing for film fans and seekers of spiritual food.

Lost Highway -- What list of this magnitude would be complete without David Lynch? For this month, we offer up Lost Highway, a film noir treat coupled with surreal themes that we, the obfuscated illusory humans face on a daily (or at least weekly) basis. With an Angelo Badalamenti score, direction by David Lynch, and a role by Robert Loggia, how can you say no? Really, how can you? If you don't vote for this film, I want at least a 500 word essay explaining why.

Update - December Movie Geeks Club Canceled

2008-12-10T19:10:00.002-06:00

Due to a party on the last Tuesday night of December at the Capital City Bar and Grill, the December Movie Geeks Club is canceled. Once won the vote for December so it will be come the January film. Sorry about this folks. Enjoy the holidays and have a Movie Geeks Night with your family.

December Films (now January film)

2008-11-13T20:53:00.010-06:00

We have the December movie poll up and you might notice a bit of a theme. We selected these films for nomination because we wanted some "feel good" films. Movies with a bit of inspiration. The movie night in December falls right in the midst of the holidays so we didn't want to present anything gritty or provoking. Not that that's all we do by any means but it's a good time of the year to feel good. The ultimate inspirational film is probably It's a Wonderful Life. We don't need to show that because there's a good chance you'll be watching that anyway. We did throw in a Capra film for good measure though. Meet John Doe is a quintessential Capra film that stars Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The most modern of the films is Once. John highly recommends this film to everyone. I have yet to see it but I know some of the great music. Only Angels Have Wings is a Cary Grant film that most people, including Cary Grant fans, have never seen. Life is Beautiful was a huge hit in the late-1990's and included an unforgettable performance by Roberto Benigni. I have never seen Breaking Away but I found it highly rated on all of the "inspirational" lists. Here they are:

Once

"An (unnamed) Guy is a Dublin guitarist/singer-songwriter who makes a living by fixing vacuum cleaners in his Dad's Hoover repair shop by day, and singing and playing for money on the Dublin streets by night. An (unnamed) Girl is a Czech who plays piano when she gets a chance, and does odd jobs by day and takes care of her mom and her daughter by night. Guy meets Girl, and they get to know each other as the Girl helps the Guy to put together a demo disc that he can take to London in hope of landing a music contract. During the same several day period, the Guy and the Girl work through their past loves, and reveal their budding love for one another, through their songs." - IMDB

Meet John Doe

"As a parting shot, fired reporter Ann Mitchell prints a fake letter from unemployed "John Doe," who threatens suicide in protest of social ills. The paper is forced to rehire Ann and hires John Willoughby to impersonate "Doe." Ann and her bosses cynically milk the story for all it's worth, until the made-up "John Doe" philosophy starts a whole political movement. At last everyone, even Ann, takes her creation seriously...but publisher D.B. Norton has a secret plan." - IMDB

Life is Beautiful

"In 1930s Italy, a carefree Jewish book keeper named Guido starts a fairy tale life by courting and marrying a lovely woman from a nearby city. Guido and his wife have a son and live happily together until the occupation of Italy by German forces. In an attempt to hold his family together and help his son survive the horrors of a Jewish Concentration Camp, Guido imagines that the Holocaust is a game and that the grand prize for winning is a tank." - IMDB

Only Angels Have Wings

"While waiting for her boat, Bonnie Lee stops at a small airport in South America. The pilots there deliver mail over a dangerous and usually foggy mountain pass. Geoff Carter, the lead flyer, seems distant and cold as Bonnie tries to get closer to him. Things heat up as Judy MacPherson, Geoff's old flame, shows up with her husband who is an infamous pilot." - IMDB

Breaking Away

"Dave, nineteen, has just graduated high school, with his 3 friends, The comical Cyril, the warm hearted but short-tempered Moocher, and the athletic, spiteful but good-hearted Mike. Now, Dave enjoys racing bikes and hopes to race the Italians one day, and even takes up the Italian culture, much to his friends and parents annoyance. While meanwhile, the 4 friends try to break away from their townie, Indiana reputation while fighting with nearby college snobs." - IMDB

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

2008-11-01T21:10:00.006-05:00

It was a close race until the final hours between The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Butch Cassidy surged ahead and that will be our November film. It is a well known film that includes one the onscreen best duo's that Hollywood has ever put together. Paul Newman and Robert Redford make Brad Pitt and George Clooney look like children putting on a play for their accomodating neighbors. It looks like it is more fun for them than it is us. Don't get me wrong, I like Clooney and Pitt but Newman and Redford were different. They were fun, cool and "punch you in the face" manly. The film is loosely based on historical fact about two bank robbers who are escaping from the law and trying to go straight.

In a bit of irony, this month marks the 100th anniversary of the (disputed) deaths of the real Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid.

You will also enjoy the music of Burt Bacharach.

The film will play on Tuesday, November 25th at 7:30 pm.
Capital City Bar and Grill

We will nominate the December film and let you know very soon.

November is Paul Newman month

2008-10-15T14:26:00.007-05:00

In honor of the late Paul Newman, we will be showing one of his films in November. It was too difficult to pick the usual 5 or 6 films for nomination so we decided to go with a dozen to choose from. The film that will be voted on from today until October 28th will be shown on November 25th. Looking at the list made me want to dedicate every month in 2009 to Newman but you'll have to make a tough decision and watch the other 11 on your own. I won't give a description of each film (too much time) but I will provide a link for each.

Here they are:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The Hustler

Cool Hand Luke

Butch Cass idy and the Sundance Kid

The Sting

The Tow ering Inferno

Slap Shot

The Verdict

The Color of Money

Nobody's Fo ol

Road to Perdition

The Long, Hot Summer

October Film Nominees: Horror Movie Month

2008-09-25T13:11:00.002-05:00

Micah and I went back and forth on what to do for our horror movie nominations for October. Last year we showed Rosemary's Baby, which I always think of as a classic horror movie. This year we flirted with nominating a group of horror films from the classic B-horror movie era. Films like Spider Baby, or the Maddest Story Ever Told, Orgy of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, or something similar.

We finally decided to select six films for nomination that span the "horror" genre. Here are the nominees. Learn about them. Then vote in the poll on the right hand of your screen.

Peeping Tom: a 1960 psychological thriller film by the British film director Michael Powell. The title derives from 'peeping Tom', a slang expression for a voyeur. The film is a horrific tale of voyeurism, serial murder and child abuse which revolves around a young man who murders women while using a portable movie camera to record their dying expressions of terror. The film was written by the World War II cryptographer and polymath Leo Marks.

The Innocents: a 1961 horror film based on the novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Directed and produced by Jack Clayton, it starred Deborah Kerr and Michael Redgrave. Falling into the subgenre of psychological horror, the film makes use of its lighting, music, and direction for its effect rather than gore and shock factor. Its atmospheric feel was achieved by Academy Award winning cinematographer Freddie Francis, who employed deep focus in many scenes, as well as bold, minimal lighting.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: the classic 1974 American independent horror film written, directed, and produced by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel. The film is the first in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, featuring Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Teri McMinn, William Vail, Edwin Neal, and Paul A. Partain. The plot revolves primarily around a group of friends who embark on a road trip to rural Texas to visit the Hardesty family gravesite, which according to radio reports, had been gruesomely vandalized. On a detour to visit the Hardesty mansion, the friends fall victim to a family of cannibals, including the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface.

Magic: a 1978 film starring Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret. It was written by William Goldman, who also wrote the novel on which it was based. Magic tells the story of Charles "Corky" Withers (Hopkins), a man that has just failed his first attempt at professional magic. His mentor says that he needs to have a better show business personality. A year later Corky comes back as a ventriloquist with a foul-mouthed dummy named Fats. Do you really need any more than that?

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer: a 1986 film directed by John McNaughton, based on the life of real-life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. The film stars Michael Rooker as Henry, a nomadic serial killer. Henry meets up with an old friend from prison named Otis in Chicago, who he introduces to the delights of random murder. The film was shot in less than a month on a budget of about $110,000, it was not released until 1989 due to repeated disagreements with the MPAA over the movie's violent content. The film was ultimately released without a rating.

Don't Look Now: an Anglo-Italian thriller, directed by Nicolas Roeg and released in 1973. It is based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier.

September Film: Oldboy

2008-09-02T08:02:00.003-05:00

For September we will be screening the Korean film Oldboy, a film critics called, "a bloody and brutal revenge film immersed in madness and directed with operatic intensity." Roger Ebert gave the film four stars (out of four) and claimed that it was "a shock to find a movie in which the action, however violent, makes a statement and has a purpose."

Screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004, the film took home the Grand Prix, although the President of the Jury, Quentin Tarantino, attempted to secure the Palm d'Or for the film.

Oldboy is a truly unique film, a blending of revenge drama, martial arts action flick, and intense character study. It is also terrifically violent, but the violence serves the ultimate purpose of revealing just how twisted one can become when set on revenge against those even more twisted.

Oldboy is really a unique film and worth seeing for anyone interested in film.

Here's a trailer for the film.

September Film Nominees

2008-08-25T23:12:00.002-05:00

We're still trying to get back on track for September. We'll do a hand count of these movies tomorrow night at Movie Geeks, and the poll will remain up until 9/1. At that point, the film with the most votes will be the September selection.

We decided to go with Foreign Language films for September. Here are the nominees.

Oldboy

Les Diaboliques

8 1/2

Rashomon

Week End

Take a few minutes. Check these films out. Vote for the one you want to see in September.

Trekkies

2008-08-24T11:35:00.003-05:00

Trekkies
Tuesday, August 26
Doors open at 7 pm
7:30 pm
Capital City Bar & Grill
Admission is free.

The voting is finished and after a late surge, Trekkies will be the August movie. I saw part of the film several years ago and I really liked what I saw. The film is about Star Trek fans. Not the average Star Trek fans but super Star Trek fans. These people live Star Trek. Star Trek fans are often the target of jokes and mockery but I believe this film was made so that average fans can say "See, at least I'm not that bad."

I have only seen one Star Trek movie in my life and I believe it was the 9th film. I have also never seen any of the television shows. I have always been interested in why there are so many die-hard fans out there so this does at least give some insight in to that culture. It is also timely to note that the Star Trek movie series is getting a re-boot next year. From what I read, it will be an origin story so I do plan on seeing the film and figuring out what it's all about.

August 26 Movie Nominations

2008-08-13T08:55:00.002-05:00

We are fulfilling our promise of getting this club back on track with some actual democratic voting. The theme this month is documentaries. Many people have asked if we would do this so we decided this would be the right time. The reason the voting is getting cut off so far away from the actual movie club date is because these films may be hard to track down. We will need a little time to find them. Here are the nominees. Just click on the link to read more about them.

The Thin Blue Line

My Best Fiend

Gates of Heaven

Trekkies

Spellbound

Movie Geeks Club for July 29

2008-07-23T08:26:00.002-05:00

On the night of July 29th, we'll be screening the Hitchcock classic The Trouble with Harry. This is one of my all-time favorite Hitchcock films. To me, it stands out because it's different. It's an example of Hitchcock playing with some different ideas and some different story elements than what you typically think of when you think of a "Hitchcock" movie. This film features early performances by Shirley MacLaine, Jerry Mathers, and John Forsythe.

Unfortunately, I won't be in attendance on the 29th. I have to be in Chicago that day for an important event at the friendly confines. Micah will be in charge of the night's festivities.

As always, doors will open at 7, and the movie will start at 7:30. There is no cover charge.

Movie Geeks Club Tonight: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

2008-06-24T08:46:00.003-05:00

Join us tonight for a screening of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the 2005 neo-noir/black comedy film starring Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer.

As always, we'll meet at Capital City Bar and Grill. Doors will open at 7:00, and the movie will start at 7:30.

Don't worry. There's no need to vote tonight. Due to the tie-vote last month, we'll be screening Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry next month.

Animated Short

2008-06-13T14:00:00.001-05:00

I found this animated short today, and I found it pretty entertaining. Thought I'd share. This is nice work for a student filmmaker. Cool stuff.

The Vote is In

2008-05-28T08:11:00.003-05:00

It's a tie. 16 votes for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and 16 votes for The Trouble With Harry. For the first time ever, we've had a dead tie for movie of the month. Although Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was the leader going into last night, the number of in-house votes for The Trouble With Harry brought the two to a neck-and-neck tie for June movie.

At first Micah and I discussed just selecting one of the two movies and making a decision. After considering everyone's comments, however, we decided that it was important to show both films. On both sides, people really wanted to see these two movies.

So, we decided to show both movies. We flipped a coin to decide which movie would screen first, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was the winner. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang will be our official June movie, with a screening on June 24, and The Trouble With Harry will be our official July movie, with a screening on July 29.

The trailer for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Harry's trailer is a few posts down.

Movie Geeks Club Tonight: Subtitle Alert

2008-05-27T13:43:00.005-05:00

Don't forget to come out tonight and catch The Seventh Seal on the big screen at Capital City Bar and Grill. As always, the doors will open at 7:00, and the movie will start at 7:30. Drinking can commence whenever you feel like it.

I'm looking forward to tonight's movie. I've never seen The Seventh Seal, so I'm excited to add a new classic to my "watched-movies" list. The copy we secured is from Lincoln Library. I've cleaned the disc, and it looks to be in pretty good shape. I didn't watch the whole thing, but I did pop it into my player here at home and scanned through to see if the disc would give me any problems. It didn't. Fingers are crossed that we'll have another incident-free night tonight.

It's a pretty crappy night tonight, which always makes for a nice night to sit inside with some drinks and a great movie.

Hope to see you there.

WARNING to all of you subtitle haters: this one has subtitles. Better bring your reading glasses.

I'm Pulling for Harry

2008-05-02T11:25:00.003-05:00

I'm not going to lie, Movie Geeks. I'm not going to pretend. I am pulling for The Trouble with Harry for next month's screening. The other four films are all great choices, as well, and I hope that everyone casts their vote with the same conviction that I do.

The Trouble with Harry is one of my favorite movies of all time. I love Hitchcock's films, and I think Harry is one of his most unique. For a change, Hitchcock finds a way to make audiences tense in a lighthearted and humorous way. So often known for the darkness of Psycho or the bun-clenching tension of Rear Window or the philosophical musings of Rope, Hitchcock presents a totally different vision of the world in Harry. He presents a utopia where villagers are at peace with the nature of things, the cycle of life. He presents a picture of people who are willing to help out those who are in need. He presents a simple place and simple people. He still manages to dig at the darker elements that make human beings human beings, but he does so subtly.

Not only is Harry a funny picture, it's also a beautifully shot picture. In Technicolor, the sweeping landscape around a small Vermont village in autumn is almost dreamlike. It's the kind of place that you know could never really exist, but secretly you wish it did and you could go there and be a part of life there. A simpler life.

Another reason I like Harry is that a lot of people haven't seen it. Even pretty well-rounded Hitchcock fans I know tend to miss this one somehow. And then when they see it, they're always surprised that it's taken them so long. So, I've cast my vote for Harry. Now, I must wait to see how the rest of you will decide to vote.

The Original Film Trailer: I'm always amazed at how different trailers used to be.

June Movie Geeks Club Nominees

2008-05-01T16:35:00.008-05:00

John and I have finally compiled our list for next month's MGC nominees. We wanted to go in a different direction this month. The past couple movies have been great but the subject matter was kind of depressing. As you can see, there is no real theme here. These are all very different films so choose your mood. They are all certain to be great.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Val Kilmer

The Trouble with Harry directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Mulholland Dr. written and directed by David Lynch

Pan's Labyrinth written and directed by Guillermo del Toro

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels written and directed by Guy Ritchie

Last Night's Movie Geeks

2008-04-30T09:02:00.002-05:00

We had a great turnout last night for Movie Geeks Club. Most of our regulars were in the house, and we had several new faces. Thanks for coming out, folks.

We screened Roman Polanski's The Pianist last night, and by the time it was over, everyone in the house was thoroughly depressed and feeling guilty about the burgers they'd consumed while watching the Szpilman family split an overpriced caramel 6 ways. This is really an incredible film. It really does a good job of placing the viewer into the life of Szpilman during his struggle for survival during World War II. A very moving film.

The voting was finished last night for the May Movie Geeks selection, and the winner is: The Seventh Seal. Regarded as a masterpiece of cinema, Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal follows the journey of a Medieval knight (Max von Sydow) across a bleak and plague-ridden landscape. Along the way, he encounters many facets of Medieval life during the plague, particularly how people of the time faced impending death and the lengths they would go to in order to keep death from coming for them. The film is probably best known for its scene in which Block, the knight, has to play a game of chess against Death, with his fate to be decided by the outcome of the game. This scene has been parodied on numerous occasions, most notably in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, in which Bill and Ted defeat Death at Battleship, Clue, electric football and Twister.

Micah and I are still kicking around some ideas for the nominations for the June movie. We were thinking about feature-length documentaries. We'd come up with a list of five and you could vote on the one you'd like to see. We've not yet screened a documentary, and I thought it might be a nice change of pace. Another thought is that we've seen a couple of long, slowly paced films, and maybe we'd like to do something a little more fast-paced and intense for the warm weather month of June. Thoughts, Movie Geeks?

The Polanski Problem

2008-04-11T06:10:00.004-05:00

As you know, this month we are playing our second Roman Polanski film. The Pianist is a great film and everyone was really excited about seeing Rosemary's Baby. I also think Chinatown would be a great film noir to show in the future as well. So there is no doubt that Polanski is a great director. Unfortunately, there is often an inner struggle on how much to like him.

Polanski's life is in itself a great story that should be made into a film. His father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic (both Polish). His young life could have been played out in The Pianist. He and his family were forced into the Krakow Ghetto by the Nazis. His mother was eventually sent to Auschwitz where she died and his father barely survied a concentration camp in Austria. Roman escaped the ghetto and ended up living in his grandfather's barn until the end of the war.

Fast forward to his early film career. His first big picture was Rosemary's Baby which was filmed in New York. Shortly after that was released he met Sharon Tate. They fell in love and got married. She got pregnant and they moved to a Hollywood Hills home that was formerly owned by Candice Bergen and Terry Melcher. Shortly after they moved in, Charles Manson ordered the break in at the home and the murders of everyone inside. That included the brutal murder of Sharon Tate and their unborn baby. It was more a case of mistaken identity because the target was Melcher.

To that point, his life seemed full of tragedies that always followed him. But in 1977, Polanski was photographing a 13 year old girl at Jack Nicholson's house and he she accused him of raping her. This is where the Polanski story gets complicated. He plead guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor but the judge threw out the plea bargain and convicted him of rape and several other charges including rape by use of drugs. Polanski fled the country so he would not have to serve time. Polanski claimed that the mother of the girl set the situation up for blackmail but his accuser stands by her story to this day. She does appear to want to put it behind her. He has not set foot on U.S. soil for 30 years.

Here is THE problem. Do you believe him? Was he innocent? Why not believe the accuser Samantha Geimer? If you do believe he is guilty, can you still enjoy his films? He is a convincted child rapist. Shouldn't we protest? Do we believe he is innocent because he couldn't have possibly committed this act becuase he is a great director? So if he where a mediocre or bad director or actor, he would be more likely to be guilty? Robert Blake? Nobody wants to see him again, let alone praise him for his work. I tried to think of other examples but he came to mind first. Hollywood is a bit hush-hush to the situation but the Oscar nominations for The Pianist did create some controversy.

So my conclusion is this. Roman Polanski has directed a few great films but I think he should either be fighting for himself or doing time.

I still watch his films but I believe that he could be doing more to clear his name. He certainly has the money to pay attorney's to work out another deal. He seems not to be too damaged by the fact that he can't return back to the U.S. It's like he's saying "Oh well." I don't like that about him. I consider the charge to be very serious. I guess the question comes up all the time with celebrities. Charlton Heston just died but the tributes were very light from Hollywood because of his NRA stance. So can you seperate the work from the personal side? The same goes for Mel Gibson and Michael Richards. Can you still enjoy their work? I ask more questions than I can answer. I am probably making it more complicated than it needs to be but it always burdens me when I hear the name Roman Polanski.

On David Lynch

2008-04-01T09:31:00.001-05:00

David Lynch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Unfinished and unrealized projects"

I came across this section of David Lynch's Wiki about his unfinished or unrealized projects, and I just had to share some of them. I would love to see some of these projects come to life. They're just crazy enough to be totally beautiful pieces of art. As for Lynch doing an adaptation of Kafka's The Metamorphosis, I'm not sure there is a better director out there for the project. This is right down Lynch's alley. Anyway, here they are:

One Saliva Bubble: This was a comedy that Lynch co-wrote with Mark Frost and intended to direct with Steve Martin and Martin Short starring. It was set in Kansas. Robert Engels describes the premise of the film in Lynch on Lynch: "It's about an electric bubble from a computer that bursts over this town and changes people's personalities – like these five cattlemen, who suddenly think they're Chinese gymnasts. It's insane!"

The Dream of the Bovine: Lynch and Robert Engels wrote the screenplay for this film after Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. According to Engels in Lynch on Lynch, the film was about "three guys, who used to be cows, living in Van Nuys and trying to assimilate their lives."

The Lemurians: This was a TV show that Lynch was going to do with Mark Frost based on the continent of Lemuria. Their premise for the show was that Lemurian essence was leaking from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and becomes a threat to the world. It was intended to be a comedy but when Lynch and Frost tried to pitch this show to NBC, the network rejected it.

Metamorphosis: This was intended to be an adaptation of the story written by Franz Kafka. Lynch has expressed on several accounts his desire to film the story of Metamorphosis. He has even written a script. The main reason that Lynch has not filmed it is a matter of money and technology involving the transformation of a man into a beetle.

May Movie Geeks Nominations

2008-03-26T11:30:00.003-05:00

Your movie nominees for the May screening will be:

Eraserhead (dir: David Lynch)
Night on Earth (dir: Jim Jarmusch)
The Seventh Seal (dir: Ingmar Bergman)
The Conversation (dir: Francis Ford Copolla)
The Killing (dir: Stanley Kubrick)

To place your vote, leave a comment on this post, vote in the poll on the right hand side of the page, send us an e-mail, or show up to the Movie Geeks Club screening of The Pianist on April 29.

April Movie: The Pianist

2008-03-26T11:23:00.003-05:00

On April 29 the Movie Geeks Club will screen the Roman Polanski World War II memoir adaptation The Pianist. As always, the doors will open at 7:00, and the movie will start at 7:30.

The Pianist won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival as well as the Oscars for Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

This is actually a film I've never seen, so I'm excited to check it off my list.

Dan Schneider on Aguirre: The Wrath Of God

2008-03-24T19:59:00.001-05:00

Dan Schneider on Aguirre: The Wrath Of God: "DVD Review Of Aguirre: The Wrath Of God"

Werner Herzog may just be the best film director of the last forty years. Period. And I mean worldwide. While some directors of film rely primarily on precision-think Alfred Hitchcock, intellect- think Ingmar Bergman and Stanley Kubrick, visual poesy-think Terrence Malick, or visceral reaction- think Akira Kurosawa, there is no other major filmmaker that I can think of who combines all of these things so skillfully, as well as having a mastery of music, outside of Herzog. From musical scoring to narrative pacing to visual imagery, he reigns supreme. Before watching his 1972 masterpiece, Aguirre: The Wrath Of God (Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes), for the first time, all I had seen of Herzog were some of his documentary style films and Fitzcarraldo. This was enough to intrigue me to explore his corpus more fully, and I’m glad I did, for there’s a reason this film made him a ‘name’ on par with his contemporary German directors, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders.

Aguirre: The Wrath Of God is a film that combines the best elements of such diverse great films as Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Apocalypse Now, although it is a much more visceral work than any of those films, and is topped off by one of the truly great screen performances of all time, with Klaus Kinski as the titular lead, Don Lope de Aguirre, a cripple who may also be a hunchback- whose outer deformities seem to have scarred him internally, as well. While there are numerous other supporting characters that turn in fine performances, Kinski utterly dominates the screen every second he’s on it, moving like some perverse and slavering arachnid, moving in for the kill of an insect he will never bleed fully for he will never truly get it.

The making of this film has become as legendary as Coppola’s own odyssey in bringing the similarly themed Apocalypse Now to the screen. Aguirre was shot on a low budget of less than $400,000, in about a month in 1971, with a 35mm camera Herzog admits he stole, but it was his fighting with Kinski on the set, and the legend of Herzog’s pulling a gun on the actor, to keep him in line, that helped contribute to its worldwide success. Herzog reputedly wrote the screenplay in two and a half days, if his informative and thankfully fellatio-free DVD commentary with Norman Hill is to be believed, but Herzog is a known embellisher. Likewise, although he has long claimed that the film was based upon the real story of the real Aguirre, a Conquistadore, Herzog admits on the commentary track that the bulk of the film is fictive, with only a few historical details peppered within.

[spoilers excerpted]

While the film may seem slow going at first, especially in the twenty or so minutes after the haunting visual descent from the Andes that opens the film, there is simply no way to not be swept up in the grandeur of this film, for it was shot with just one camera, and in such close quarters, that when I have read this film described as ‘epic’ I know that the critic is merely tossing about a word that will catch someone’s attention. Lawrence Of Arabia is epic, but this film is a highly personalized portrait of one man, in both its acting style and shooting style, that relentlessly circles its lead until we stare full bore into the maw of megalomania. Aguirre himself, seems to look directly into the camera as he declares, late in the film, ‘If I, Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees, then the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the wrath of God!’ Such a head on glare into insanity gets a viewer almost emotionally claustrophobic by film’s end, which is the exact antithesis of the definition of ‘epic’. And, unlike 2001: A Space Odyssey, which ends in transcendence, Aguirre merely ends, before the cusp. And, at only 94 minutes in length, it seems much longer- but in the best and grandest sense, whereas 2001: A Space Odyssey and Apocalypse Now are much longer films, if no more effective thematically and poetically.

Other than the DVD commentary, which with Herzog is always a treat, philosophically and in terms of the film’s making, the DVD transfer by Anchor Bay is sterling, and because it is a period piece, it has not aged one bit in terms of look. It is as vibrant as a recent film, with great tone and an excellent soundtrack by Florian Fricke’s German band Popol Vuh (after the Mayan creation myth), which always is a Herzog strength. They used electronic equipment to generate the almost human sounding choral hymns, which are hauntingly sad without being mawkish, nor bathetic. Yes, the film is slightly cropped for a television screen, at a 1.33:1 ratio, but that’s a minor quibble given the fact the film was originally shot in a almost identical 1.37:1 ratio, meaning Herzog never intended the film to be in widescreen format, some seemingly divine ratio only American films seem to obsess over. What is really terrific is that the film is expertly dubbed into English- in fact, it was actually filmed in English first, so that there is no noxious reading of subtitles necessary for the wise viewer who wants to avoid eyestrain. This means one can enjoy the film in one viewing, and even those people who hate dubbing cannot complain because the dub is as flawless as I’ve ever seen in regards to lip synchronization. There are also three trailers for the film included.

Many critics often opt out of a real discussion of Herzog’s excellence in craft by falling back on the old and misguided notion that he simplistically follows his whims and is guided by the same sort of madness he accuses Kinski of always fostering. Yet, any look at a film like this shows that Herzog transcends such myopic claims, even if unwittingly; although I seriously doubt the man who is such a scrupulous artist has ever let a foot of film be released under his name without a bit of wit applied to it. As for the screenplay? It is brilliant, knowing when to let the characters speak, and what they should say, and also relying on chance events, such as a flood which washed away Herzog’s rafts. He incorporated that misfortune into the tale. Yet, what the film ultimately says means less than the whole experience, or how it is said through the art. Herzog’s small budget becomes a strength when he cannot do overhead shots from a plane, or elaborate crane shots, nor delving close ups that gradually close in on someone, nor elaborate retakes, as Herzog, in the commentary, admits that one take was the rule- although out of practical necessity, rather than the odd obsessiveness of a Fassbinder. The camera, helmed by cinematographer Thomas Mauch, is always with the Spaniards, not beyond them, and by the film’s end the apparent motion of the raft is circular, with shots showing it move from left to right, then right to left, onscreen, whereas earlier the movement of the film and the characters was always straight ahead, almost at the viewer. The final shots, with the deluded madman Aguirre in full rant, has Herzog in a speedboat, circling around, adding final anomy to the motion of the story, and possibly history. Yet, there are other bravura celluloid moments, such as the aforementioned leaving of the horse, an early shot of the ferocious and turbid brown rapids that Herzog holds on long enough to unsettle a viewer, raindrops being left on the camera lens during a drizzle on the river, and an eerie close up of an Indian flutist, whom Herzog says, on the commentary, was retarded.

Yet, Herzog admits with justified pride that this film succeeds precisely because it does not follow the Hollywood formula: there is no real hero to root for, no predictable victory to cheer for, no visible bad guys, and no romantic interest for the leading character.

[spoilers excerpted]

Aguirre: The Wrath Of God is an indisputable masterpiece, and one of the greatest films not only of German cinema, but human cinema. That Herzog directed it when he was only twenty-eight years old is astonishing. Its combination of improvisation- for Herzog loathes storyboards, calling them the ‘disease of Hollywood’, with an almost Bergmanian chamber drama focus on an individual, also makes it one of the most unique films ever crafted. It is a film to be seen by anyone with a love of art, intellect, and human nature, at any age, and in any age.

All Systems Go!

2008-03-23T17:21:00.003-05:00

We are full steam ahead for Aguirre, the Wrath of God on Tuesday night. Thanks to Russ, one of our oldest and most loyal movie geeks, we will have a copy for the screening.

Capital City Bar and Grill
Doors open at 7:00 PM. Film starts at 7:30 PM.

As always, there is no cover charge or admission fee.

Interesting Facts about Aguirre, the Wrath of God

2008-03-21T23:21:00.004-05:00

In order to get the performance he desired, before each shot Herzog would deliberately infuriate Kinski. After waiting for the hot-tempered actor's inevitable tantrum to "burn itself out", Herzog would then roll the camera.
The camera used to shoot the film was stolen by Herzog from the Munich Film School.
The low budget precluded the use of stunt men or elaborate special effects. The cast and crew climbed up mountains, hacked through thick jungle, and rode ferocious Amazonian river rapids on rafts built by natives. At one point, a storm caused a river to flood, burying the film sets underneath several feet of water and destroying all of the rafts built for the film. This flooding was immediately incorporated into the story, as a sequence including a flood and subsequent rebuilding of rafts was shot.
The soundtrack was composed and performed by German progressive/Krautrock band Popol Vuh.
Near the end of the shooting, Werner Herzog thought he had lost all the negatives that the film was shot on. He later discovered that the shipping agency at the Lima airport had completed all paperwork that accompanied the transportation of the film cans, but had not actually shipped them. The cans were thought lost for several weeks before the oversight was revealed.
To obtain the monkeys utilized in the climactic sequence, Herzog paid several locals to trap 400 monkeys; he paid them half in advance and was to pay the other half upon receipt. The trappers sold the monkeys to someone in Los Angeles or Miami, and Herzog came to the airport just as the monkeys were being loaded to be shipped out of the country. He pretended to be a veterinarian and claimed that the monkeys needed vaccinations before leaving the country. Abashedly, the handlers unloaded the monkeys, and Herzog loaded them into his jeep and drove away, used them in the shot they were required for, and released them afterwards into the jungle.
Many of the scenes depicted in the film were unrehearsed and unstaged, and the dividing line between the cast acting in character and simply reacting to their situations as people became very blurry. For example, in one of the opening scenes, when the carriage holding Aguirre's daughter tips over and threatens to collapse, a hand comes in from the right side of the frame to assist the actors in steadying their hold. That hand belongs to director Werner Herzog.
Aguirre was shot in five weeks, following nine months' worth of pre-production planning. The film was shot in chronological order, as Herzog believed the film crew's progress on the river directly mirrored that of the explorers' journey in the story.
Herzog wrote the screenplay “in a frenzy”, which he completed in only two and a half days. Much of the script was written during a 200-mile (320 km) bus trip with Herzog’s football team. During the bus trip, his teammates got drunk after winning a game and one of them subsequently vomited on several pages of Herzog's manuscript, which he immediately tossed out the window. Herzog claims he can't remember what he wrote on these pages.
On one occasion, irritated by the noise from a hut where cast and crew were playing cards, the explosive Kinski fired three shots at it, blowing the top joint off one extra's finger. Subsequently, Kinski started leaving the jungle location (over Herzog's refusal to fire a sound assistant), only changing his mind after Herzog threatened to shoot first Kinski and then himself. The latter incident has given rise to the legend that Herzog made Kinski act for him at gunpoint. However, Herzog has repeatedly debunked the claim during interviews, explaining he only verbally threatened Kinski in the heat of the moment, in a desperate attempt to keep him from leaving the set.
Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now, a movie based on Joseph Conrad's 1902 novella Heart of Darkness, was influenced also by Aguirre, as it contains seemingly deliberate visual "quotations" of Herzog's film. Coppola himself has noted, "Aguirre, with its incredible imagery, was a very strong influence. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it."

Problem with Aguirre, The Wrath of God

2008-03-20T15:03:00.003-05:00

Here's the problem with Aguirre, the Wrath of God (or any other Werner Herzog movie outside of Grizzly Man or Rescue Dawn): it's nearly impossible to get your hands on a copy here in Springpatch.

Knowing that a problem might ensue with securing this film for our screening, I ordered a copy from Amazon. Then I was notified that there might be a delay in shipping which would mean the film would not arrive in time for our March 25 screening. I had a backup plan, however. Lincoln Library has the only lending copy of the movie in town. I've checked it out before, and I was more than prepared to check it out again. When I went to check it out, however, I found that it had already been checked out. Until the 24th. I've placed a hold on this copy, and if it is returned on time, we will not have an issue. I'll pick it up on the 25th and all will be well for Movie Geeks Club.

If, however, I cannot secure a copy of the film, I have a couple of scenarios for you. Here they are:

1) We watch the Errol Morris documentary Gates of Heaven. I thought this was a reasonable replacement for three reasons. First, I already have a copy of this film in my possession. Second, this movie is the reason that Werner Herzog had to eat his shoe, which was captured in the short film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. Third, many critics, including Roger Ebert, consider Gates of Heaven one of the top ten movies of all time. If we go this route, we will screen Aguirre, the Wrath of God in April and move everything else back one month.
2) We flash forward a month and screen Roman Polanski's The Pianist. This movie is running away with the online vote, and I'm certain it will be our nominee for the April movie. If we screen this movie in March, then we will screen Aguirre, the Wrath of God in April. The old switcheroo, see?
3) We screen the much more mainstream (and not as interesting) Werner Herzog feature film Rescue Dawn, starring Christian Bale. This film, based on Herzog's 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, is about German-born Vietnam Veteran Dieter Dengler. This is a totally sweet movie, by most standards, but I feel like it lacks some of the oomph that most of Herzog's features exude. Regardless, it would be a Herzog substitute, and one that we could get our hands on readily. If we go this route, we may want to forgo Aguirre, the Wrath of God until a later date, as I think it is in bad principle to show films by the same director in back-to-back months.

What do you think, Movie Geeks? Let us know via e-mail or in a comment on this blog.

Thanks,

John

Revered Movie Remakes

2008-03-17T15:55:00.000-05:00

MSN Movies - Hollywood Hitlist: "In scarier news, Variety reported this week that Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes production arm are working on a modern version of the classic 'Rosemary's Baby' for Paramount Pictures. It's become acceptable in Hollywood that no matter how revered a movie is, it's a candidate to be remade. This is one that clearly shouldn't be. Screened today, director Roman Polanski's 'Baby' is just as scary as any modern flick. Plus, how any filmmaker could match the original's intensity is hard to imagine, and a quality director wouldn't go near a project like this with a 10-foot pole after the public whipping Gus Van Sant got for remaking 'Psycho' a decade ago."

Review of Aguirre, the Wrath of God

2008-03-17T13:15:00.006-05:00

Here's a film review of Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

After seeing Werner Herzog's recent documentary My Best Fiend about his five-time lead actor Klaus Kinski, and also the animated The Road to El Dorado, it seemed like a perfect time to go back and watch Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), which I had been wanting to see for years. The few images I saw from it in My Best Fiend really haunted me, much more so than anything else in that movie.

Though it's slightly less impressive on video, I was still riveted and awestruck. It's a truly amazing movie, an epic made from genius, stubbornness, and madness. It's the story of Lorenzo's search for El Dorado, the lost city of gold. Aguirre (Kinski) is one of the members of the party who ends up taking over a splinter faction and leading the men to their deaths. The whole movie is shot in the jungle and on the Amazon river, and it feels as alive as if it were shot there yesterday. The film is nearly 30 years old and the story five hundred years old and somehow it still seems vivid.

The film benefits from seeing My Best Fiend and knowing a few behind-the-scenes factoids. When it opens on the tremendous shot of an endless line of travelers winding down and around a mountain, and popping up just at the bottom of the frame, we know that there are normally clouds covering that mountain, and that they cleared just for that shot. Herzog says that he believes he had God on his side. What we don't tend to think about is that Herzog put himself through this ordeal as well, placing the camera in very narrow, slippery spots on this hillside.

We also learn from My Best Fiend that Kinski perfected a kind of twist-pivot that brought him snakelike into the camera's view, rather than simply marching into the shot and turning sideways. This shot is used toward the end, when the men are feverish and dying on the raft. Before long, Kinski is cradling his 15-year-old daughter's head and lurching around on the raft, frightening the hundreds of monkeys who have now taken over as its primary passengers on its out-of-control voyage to nowhere.

I think that one reason the film feels so alive is that Herzog never cheats. He never shoots an overhead perspective shot from the comfort of a helicopter. When Aguirre and his band are on their raft, Herzog is on the raft, too. We don't see it from a distance (until the very last shot). As the raft tumbles down the rapids, the camera has water spots on it. We know that they couldn't go back and get the shot again, or cut to a safe master shot. So the water spots made it to the final cut.

Roger Ebert, who considers this film one of the best ever made, calls it "foolhardy", and compares it to other mad masterworks like Erich von Stroheim's Greed (1924) and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979). Pauline Kael wrote about the "film folly" and lists Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 (1976) and D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). These are madmen whose visions are so monumental that whole crews must suffer intolerable conditions for unendurable lengths of time so that great foolhardy films may be made. I was thinking, now that Herzog and Coppola have both been tamed, who is left to make these mad films? Titanic wanted to be such a film, but it was too controlled and its script was too childish. No, it could be that Aguirre is one of the last of these kinds of films. Herzog tried to duplicate it with Fitzcarraldo (1982), which is only a fraction as interesting or poetic as Aguirre.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God remains a treasure. It's a glimpse into a visionary's mind. It's a passionate love/hate poem to the jungle and to Klaus Kinski. It's an incredible statement about the nature of man. And it's as potent today as the day it opened. Hopefully one day it will be available on DVD with Herzog commentary, but for now, the VHS tape, by New Yorker was enough to make me a believer.

Herzog Conversation

2008-03-06T13:08:00.004-06:00

A conversation with documentary filmmaker Errol Morris in The Believer Magazine. It is very interesting at it gives a little more insight into Werner Herzog. Here is an excerpt.

II. “AN ELEPHANT WITH A MOZART SOUL”

EM: When Werner and I first met each other, we took a trip to visit this serial killer [Edmund Emil Kemper III] in prison in Northern California.

WH: Vacaville, yeah.

EM: There were three of us. And Kemper’s lawyer. To circumvent a lot of red tape, the lawyer identified us as psychiatrists. Werner’s producer, Walter Saxer, came along with us. So there was Dr. Saxer, Dr. Morris, and Dr. Herzog allowed in because—
WH: We were scared shitless because Kemper was a very huge man, fairly young, I think still twenty-six by then. But something like six foot five or six foot four.

EM: I think bigger.

WH: Maybe bigger, yes.

EM: Very large.

WH: Capital punishment was suspended at the time he was condemned. And he chose seven or eight consecutive life terms, but he wanted to die in the gas chamber. And the only way to get to the gas chamber when it was reinstated at that time was to kill someone inside the prison. So the attorney was really scared. And he was in a way relieved that he had some solid men as his guards or his company. And reading all the transcripts of Kemper, I had the feeling that what was interesting was that the man, in my opinion—and I’m speaking of Edmund Emil Kemper—he made a lot of sense. In a way he makes a lot of sense, why he killed and how it all originated.

And at the end, after having killed seven or eight or so coeds, hitchhikers, he killed his mother and put the severed head on the mantel and threw darts at it. And then there happened to be some leftover turkey in the fridge from Thanksgiving. And he called the lady next door, the neighbor, and asked—am I correct? Yeah, asked her if she would like to pick up the turkey leftovers, and she walks in and then he killed her as well, and put her in a closet. And then he fled in his mother’s car and crisscrossed the West until he ran out of money and ran out of gas. And in Pueblo, Colorado, he kept calling the police. [To Morris] You know better what happened there. I think they thought he was kind of gaga and didn’t believe him.

EM: He desperately tried to turn himself in to the police by making repeated phone calls from this phone booth. Now he would have had a cell phone. So I guess it’s easier now for serial killers to turn themselves in. And the police kept hanging up on him. They just—

WH: And he was down to his last quarter to make his last call, and then two detectives actually picked him up at this phone booth. I remember their names because they sound very German: Schmidt and Grubb. And Schmidt and Grubb took him to the police station, and what was smart of them was, they just randomly turned on a tape recorder and Kemper spoke for six hours, pretty much nonstop.

And this transcript is really wonderful—

EM: Quite amazing, yes.

WH: Very, very amazing. And Kemper was, in a way, a very sensitive person. When you looked at his hands, like the hands of a violin player, in a way. I remember he looked like an elephant with a Mozart soul.

EM: Yeah. That’s the way Werner described him at the time. An elephant with the soul of Mozart. I’m not sure that most of the prison authorities would have described him in the same way, but at the time I found Werner’s description very interesting. I thought for a long time about it. It made it situational, as if God in his infinite perversity had somehow mismatched Kemper’s various attributes in order to produce some kind of nightmare, some kind of tragedy. I remember thinking, Yeah, if Othello had been in Hamlet’s place, and vice versa, there would be no tragedy.

It’s so mixed up in my mind—Werner in these early years, graduate school, and what I myself was thinking. I was a very disaffected graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. That’s where I first met Werner. It was just shortly after he finished Aguirre and his films were being shown in the United States for the first time. It was an amazing experience to see Werner’s work. There was really nothing quite like it in America at that time, and probably not since that time.

And I became really fascinated by Werner’s films. I’m thinking about it even now, now that we’re talking about it, our attempts to understand what people are thinking. What is going on in another person’s mind? How do they see the world? Kemper was a perfect example. I would drive every day from Berkeley to Santa Cruz and I would attend the Kemper trial. I became a regular fixture. And I would say the trial transformed my thinking about many, many, many things.

In those days, murder trials were chopped into two pieces. There would be a guilt and innocence phase and a penalty phase.

And there was this wacko psychiatrist, Dr. Joel Fort, who took the stand and said that Kemper was not even neurotic. Kemper had killed a dozen people. He had killed his grandparents. He had been put away in a juvenile facility, released under California law when he reached eighteen, and then went on to kill eight more people. And Kemper had described how these murders occurred. He would pick up women hitchhiking. He would be killing a woman with a knife and talking to her, saying, “I hope this isn’t really unpleasant. I hope you’re not uncomfortable. I hope this is not too frightening.”

So, the psychiatrist—I’ll make this as short as possible—the psychiatrist took the stand and said, “You know, this man is not even neurotic. Not only is he not psychotic, he’s not even neurotic, because he can’t empathize with the victim. He has a sociopathy or a psychopathy. He can be completely dispassionate while he is killing another person.” And I started to wonder—I still wonder about this stuff—I started to wonder how in god’s name does the psychiatrist know what Ed is thinking? Maybe Ed has this fantasy of being in control. Maybe in this writing after the fact he imagined himself as being dispassionate. Perhaps he was completely out of control, deeply psychotic. This kind of discrepancy between the accounts that we provide about ourselves and the world.

And I think it’s very much—in a different way—but it’s very much in your films as well, and something that deeply inspired me.

III. APOLOGY
WH: There is something about Kemper and, of course, Ed Gein as well—we had a falling out over Ed Gein at the time, sometime later.

EM: Cannibals can turn friends into enemies. Go figure.

WH: But actually, yes, it was a deep concern and in a way it had to do with cinema, for you at that time were more into the direction of writing. But we had a very, very intense rapport over it. Errol had a problem with me when we tried to find out in Plainfield, Wisconsin, where Ed Gein—the very probably most notorious—

EM: The movie Psycho was based on Ed Gein. Robert Bloch, the writer of the novel Psycho, lived in a small Wisconsin town, Weyauwega, about twenty miles from Plainfield. Ed Gein was notorious. And the farmhouse where he lived alone became the ultimate house of horrors. He had upholstered furniture in his house with human flesh. He was a human taxidermist, cannibal, serial killer, grave robber, necrophile. An all-around good guy.

WH: Errol wanted to know more about the grave robberies, because Ed Gein had not only murdered people. He also excavated freshly buried corpses at the cemetery. And I do remember: he dug up graves in a pretty perfect circle. And in the very center of this circle was the grave of his mother. And Errol kept wondering, did he excavate his mother and use her flesh and skin for some sculptures in things at his home?

EM: A relatively innocuous question. [Laughter]

WH: So the only way to find out is, I proposed, let’s go to Plainfield, grab a shovel, and dig at night. And I showed up in Plainfield, Wisconsin, because I was doing some filming up in Alaska and I came in a car all the way from Alaska down to Plainfield to visit Errol—

EM: I was living with Ed Gein’s next-door neighbors at the time, who I had befriended. Beth and Carroll Gear.

WH: You didn’t show up.

EM: Oh, much later, yes. The chronology of all this is coming back to me.

WH: I was there, but you didn’t show up. And we had a date. It was something like September 10, and I said, I’m going to be there, and you will be there, and you didn’t show up.

EM: He’s unfortunately correct.

WH: And I would have dug, even though Errol wasn’t there. I was kind of scared because people open fire easily in this town.

EM: Well, wait a second. I had been living there. I had become friends with this very strange doctor, Dr. George Arndt. He had written one academic paper in his entire medical career, called “A Community’s Reaction to a Horrifying Event.” Essentially it was a compendium of Ed Gein jokes. I had befriended Dr. Arndt and together we drove to Plainfield Cemetery. He had a very, very big Cadillac.

It reminds me actually of that scene in your Antarctic movie. Dr. Arndt and I had put our ears to the ground in the vicinity of the Gein graves, looking for hollow areas in the earth.

WH: I had forgotten about it completely. So things come back thirty-five years later.

EM: And Dr. Arndt, who was really quite mad—I should tell you at least one of the Ed Gein jokes. Do you remember any of them?

WH: I don’t think so.

EM: Why did Ed Gein keep his chairs covered overnight?

WH: I don’t know.

EM: To keep them from getting goose pimples. So I was there with George Arndt in the cemetery and Arndt had this theory that Ed was so devious that he wouldn’t have gone down directly into his mother’s grave. I had discovered that many of the graves that he had robbed made a circle around his mother’s grave. And Dr. Arndt took this new information and came up with the hypothesis that Gein went down into one of the side graves—he only robbed the graves of women who were middle-aged and overweight, like his mom. He went into one of those graves and then tunneled, that there would be this radial tunnel toward the center, toward his mother’s grave.

Arndt’s theory was that Gein would never have gone directly down into his mother’s grave. Psychiatrists have amazing theories. But he would never go down into the grave. As Arndt put it: Gein was too indirect, too devious. Hence, his radial digging, this tunneling. And I wondered, Wait a second—is she really down there?

I could never get an answer. I could never get a straight answer from anyone. Is Mrs. Gein still buried in Plainfield Cemetery? And I told the story—this was the big mistake here—I told the story to Werner.

WH: And I showed up in Plainfield.

EM: And so there was this horrible realization: he’s actually going to do it. And I have to say, I did get scared. I had this picture—you know, I was always really—I probably still am—trying to please my mother. I had already been thrown out of these various graduate schools. I was a ne’er-do-well, and down for the count, and I saw my life flashing before my eyes. I saw myself arrested with the Germans. I saw this full moon. I saw the Plainfield police. I saw the police photographers. I saw myself being led away with the Germans in handcuffs, the complete disgrace.

So this is an opportunity to apologize. I apologize for not showing up.

WH: I have to apologize for something else, because my car had broken down and there was no mechanic in the mile out there. There was a wreckage yard, and I fell in love with the guy who fixed my car.

EM: Clayton Schlapinski.

WH: Yes, Clayton Schlapinski. And I said that we were going to do a film there in Plainfield, and that really upset Errol a lot. He thought I was a thief without loot. This was his country, his territory, his Plainfield, and I shot in Plainfield. I shot a film, Stroszek, which I think is forgotten and forgiven by now, and we can maintain friendship over this now.

EM: I told Werner: For you to steal a character or a story isn’t real theft. But to steal a landscape, that is a very, very serious crime.

WH: I understand that. I take it to heart, but there actually is a film out there, and we can’t take it off the map.

EM: It’s a very good film.

WH: It has a beautiful end with a dancing chicken, and I really like it.

EM: Yes.

WH: But what might be interesting is what somehow creates movies. What sort of odd fascinations, and they return in a very different form somewhere. And even I forgot about putting the head to the ground and banging the ground and listening whether there was anything hollow. And all of a sudden in the film that I just finished and showed yesterday, something similar like that in staged form appears.

EM: And it’s a wonderful scene.

April Movie Geeks Nominations

2008-02-27T14:41:00.002-06:00

For April, we'll be voting among five incredible war films.

They are:

Apocalypse Now
The Deer Hunter
Full Metal Jacket
Das Boot
The Pianist

To place your vote, leave a comment on this post, vote in the poll on the right hand side of the page, send us an e-mail, or show up to the Movie Geeks Club screening of Aguirre, the Wrath of God on March 25.

March Movie: Aguirre, the Wrath of God

2008-02-27T08:21:00.002-06:00

On March 25 the Movie Geeks Club will screen the Werner Herzog classic, Aguirre, the Wrath of God. As always, the doors will open at 7:00, and the movie will start at 7:30.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God follows the travels of Spanish soldier Lope de Aguirre, who leads a group of conquistadores down the Orinoco River in South America in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. Using a minimalist story and dialogue, the film creates a vision of madness and folly, counterpointed by the lush but unforgiving Amazonian jungle. Although based loosely on what is known of the historical figure of Aguirre, the film's story line is, as Herzog acknowledged years after the film's release, a work of imagination. Some of the people and situations may have been inspired by Gaspar de Carvajal's account of an earlier Amazonian expedition, although Carvajal was not present on the historical voyage represented in the film.

The film is the first collaboration between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski. Their work together was immediately volatile, with the director and actor disagreeing on numerous aspects of the film and of Kinski's role. Herzog learned to play on Kinski's hostility and anger and used it throughout the film to charge scenes. Rumor holds that, at one point, Kinski threatened to leave the production but was held at gunpoint by the desperate director. Herzog reportedly threatened to shoot Kinski and then turn the gun on himself if Kinski quit the shoot. Both Herzog and Kinski have different versions of this story.

It is considered by many to be a masterpiece, and it has been included in Time Magazine's list of "All Time 100 Best Films." It is ranked #245 on IMDB's top 250 Movies list. It is also ranked as #46 on Entertainment Weekly's "Top 50 Cult Films of All-Time." It carries many of the literary and dramatic themes as the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness, and it is seen by many critics as an obvious influence on Coppola's take on the Heart of Darkness narrative, Apocalypse Now.

from Wikipedia and IMDB entries on Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Map of 3149 S. Dirksen Parkway

2008-02-26T10:03:00.003-06:00

If You Love the Sound of an Angry German . . .

2008-02-25T13:44:00.002-06:00

then you'll love these clips of legendary actor Klaus Kinski throwing tantrums both on and off the sets of movies. Most of these clips were recorded by film director Werner Herzog, who collaborated with Kinski on five films. In 1999, Herzog released the documentary My Best Fiend, which detailed the difficult relationship between him and Kinski.

There were numerous occasions during their relationship where they became violent toward one another. One famous story holds that Herzog held Kinski at gunpoint and required him to stay on set. Another famous story tells of the South American natives working on the set of Fitzcarraldo offering to murder Kinski for Herzog because he was a troubled and problematic person for them to deal with.

Enjoy these clips. Then vote for the March movie at the right.

From Fitzcarraldo. A "mild" argument about the catering.

Kinski on his Jesus tour. Herzog claims Kinski finished this right before he came to the set of Aguirre and expected everyone to treat him like Jesus.

In this scene, Herzog explains the murder offer made by the natives, and how he regretted his decision to prevent them.

Voting for March Movie Club

2008-02-24T16:16:00.000-06:00

Next Tuesday is our February Movie Geeks Club. We'll be screening the film-noir classic Angels with Dirty Faces, starring James Cagney. As always, doors open at 7:00. Movie starts at 7:30. There is no admission fee. You can buy food and drinks before, during, and after the movie.

After the movie, we will vote for the March 25th Selection. You can also vote any time by sending us an e-mail or leaving a comment at the end of this post. We've decided to make March our "Kings of Independent Film" month. We have have selected five movies from three incredible independent directors. Here are the nominations for March 25:

Director 1: Werner Herzog
I decided to select three of Herzog's movies for nomination, mainly because I couldn't decide which of them I would rather see. I'm a fan of Herzog's work, especially of his legendary relationship with Klaus Kinski, and I think these are three great movies.

Aguirre, Wrath of God

Fitzcarraldo

Cobra Verde

Director 2: Harmony Korine
I like Korine's movies, as difficult as they can be to watch. I wasn't a big fan of Kids, but I loved Korine's hyperrealist/surrealist take on small-town Midwestern life in Gummo. I think julien donkey-boy is much more suited for Movie Geeks.

julien donkey-boy

Director 3: Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch is an independent heavyweight, and it's hard to pick one of his movies. I've always been a little partial to Dead Man. It's one of those movies that just sticks with you. It's maybe not one of his more well-known flicks, but it's among his more interesting, for my two cents.

Dead Man