So a conversation with buddhasynth got me thinking: we have a thread devoted to absinthe and music; we need a thread devoted absinthe and movies.

Not absinthe in movies--already got a thread for that.

But absinthe and movies: Does anybody louche up before they pop in a movie on Friday night? What movies pair well with absinthe? What absinthe pairs well with movies? Seen any good movies lately, absinthe in hand or not?

Discuss.

Ever since my bro cut down his consumption, I usually enjoy a dose with a movie, or a couple of episodes of some show. I had a dose or two watching Deconstructing Harry last week.

I love your photo of Siouxsie Sioux, AIO.

I love Siouxsie.


But if I may paraphrase Henri Langlois: "There is no Siouxsie Sioux. There is no Karen O. There is only Louise Brooks."

I'm not the biggest Woody Allen fan, but I was able to tolerate Deconstructing Harry. That and Match Point are the last of his I've seen. Heard good things about Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but I'm afraid of getting burned again.

For my money, the best he's done is Zelig.

Agreed, but throw in a touch of Isabella Rosellini, and Siouxsie is almost Louise's punked out identical twin.

Sigh. Where to begin? I labored through Manhattan a number of years ago while watching it with a friend, only to be very amused by a joke at the very end. I saw a good amount of Annie Hall, but haven't actually sat down and watched the whole thing.

My brother got me interested in Deconstructing Harry, because his description of the opening scenes had me real interested. However, it was a real labor because I'd put it on and try to watch it at times when I should have just gone to bed. I fell asleep on it two or three times, at one point, I fell asleep while some woman was yelling at him, and woke up again to find another woman yelling at him. I wasn't in the mood for that much yelling that night, and didn't bother with it for a few days after that. The last time I watched it though, I made it all the way though, with a dose of absinthe. I think it was Duplais.

I'm curious about Sleeper, and if I find it has difficult to get into, I think I'll take a long brake from Allen.

I did like the ending of Deconstructing Harry rather well. I had never thought about a room full of all of the characters I've written about applauding me, which does weird things to an ego...

"The Descent" was greatly intensified with Duplais and Marteau, as was "I Am Legend" and its older brother classic "The Last Man on Earth" with the great Vincent Price,one night recently ...

Morgan!


Come out...Morgan!

I see you and I are on the same page when it comes to Woody Allen. I just remembered another of his films--came out around the same time as Deconstructing Harry--that I enjoyed, though: Sweet and Lowdown. Very slight story, but good performances by Sean Penn and Samantha Morton, and great 1930s music. Lots of Django Reinhardt-inspired stuff.



The Descent struck me as one of the better horror movies I've seen in recent years.

And I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for The Last Man on Earth and those other crazy B horror movies that AIP put out in the '50s and '60s: Wasp Woman, Pit and the Pendulum, X... I hear Roger Corman is getting an honorary Oscar next year--about time.

I liked Woody a lot more in my youth, I thought Sleeper was particularly funny, but Zelig was pretty much it for me. Maybe the "serious" ones would have more impact in retrospect but by the late 80's I found his stuff to be just a bit redundant and pretentious. The better the photography got, the more formulaic and transparently predictable the content became.I mean how many times are we expected to empathize with these Invariably Jewish Neurosis-laden New-York-centric academic types who need to be led by the hand like a toddler thru their interpersonal relationships? And EVERYONE has an analyst. Is that all the guy can come up with? And his recent trend toward lighthearted comedies reeks of contractual obligation and  just makes it painfully obvious that despite staying busy for decades he hasn't produced an actual work of Art in a quarter century.

Hammer, meet nail.

Another absinthe minded flick is "They Live" a little known jewel from John Carpenter about a homeless drifter who has been wandering since he was a kid, but when he stumbles into one ordinary town he discovers something beyond extraordinary... Aliens landed on earth there some time ago and have been using mind control to prevent us from seeing them.

To the rest of the world the aliens appear to be humans, but with the help of some special glasses he finds, the drifter and his co-worker can see them in their true form, and wage a two man war on the alien empire to reclaim earth...very well done

One more is "From Beyond" a journey with with a pair of scientists who are trying to stimulate the pineal gland with a device called The Resonator. An unforeseen result of their experiments is the ability to perceive creatures from another dimension, who proceed to drag the top scientist into their world. He later returns as a grotesque shape-changing monster and preys upon the others at the laboratory

Another green sipper is "Forbidden Planet" with Leslie Nielsen,hands down the best Sci-Fi flick of the 50's.......

I've been wanting to see They Live again for a while.






I always forget about that one, but I've liked it the most out of all the others, now that you've reminded me of it.

I love the scene where he takes his date to "Shoot rats".

Great movie. I love the totally gratuitous wrestling scene (it seems like it goes on for ten minutes!) between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Keith David in the alley. By the way, is there a more underrated actor than Keith David? He's badass even when he's just doing the voiceover for Ken Burns's stuff.

Gotta say, though: the best John Carpenter film for me, hands down, is The Thing (followed closely be Escape from New York).



Another classic. Better than Re-Animator.



Hard to argue with that, but I think the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers gives it a run for its money. Also the The Incredible Shrinking Man, Them, and The Quatermass Xperiment. Very different kinds of movies, but equally excellent.

From Beyond made me think of Naked Lunch. Or is it the other way round?

Watched "Shaun of the Dead" last night with my GF, and had a splash or two--probably more of a beer movie, but absinthe is tasty almost any time. Last weekend we were watching "La Vie en Rose" and had a couple as well--seemed appropriate. One of these nights I'll get around to watching "Synecdoche New York" (I bought the damn thing), probably with a glass of something.

AiO-
The gratuitous fight scene in the alley has always been a mystery to me, I don't know if it detracts or adds to the film, but usually I find it amusing none-the-less. As well as the scene when the signal gets disrupted and the poor woman realizes what she's doing to...and I'll leave it at that.


Carpenter really did a good job with The Thing, when I read Chamber's "Who Goes There?", I was really surprised and really impressed at how well he adapted it.

I think I louched up a glass when I saw Quatermass and The Pit, but I don't remember it was over a year ago now.
Lynch's Dune is fun to watch with some Montemarte in hand.
Eraserhead...not so much.

I think I had a little absinthe the last time I watched Peck's version of On The Beach. It's hard not feeling like enjoying a dose with that movie playing.

Thinking that Casablanca would be a good one, and Rocky Horror Picture Show on Halloween.

Ah, the RHPS... I went to an interactive session a few days ago.

Absinthe and movies ?
Well, duno why, but anything involving vampires and New Orleans makes me want to sip a glass (True Blood being overall well indicated as a weekly excuse)

Moulin rouge, lastly, obviously (even though they burn it in the movie)

Anything romantic or old fashioned is a good movie

On a side note, I cannot watch The Big Lebowsky without my "white russian kit", but it has little to do with absinthe

I just watched that one last weekend.

Terrific cast, but the temporal ( and locale) shifts were a bit over the top, even for my taste, and I usually enjoy those.

oh, come on, now. Lighten up!


 

Agreed,baubel!

Another night a while back, while in a military mood, the disturbing "Jacobs Ladder","Straight Metal Jacket" and the ahead of its time "Johnny get your Gun" were green contenders...

I always pictured Carpenter saying, "Well hell, we got Rowdy Roddy Piper in the lead... we need some wrestling in this thing!" Fun scene.



Good call.




I actually quite liked it, though you're right--those sudden leaps forward in time (plus the way the movie veers between fantasy and reality, comedy and tragedy) can be very disconcerting.

Its definitely one of those movies that requires (and repays) a second viewing, too. The problem is, you're so worn out and depressed by the end of it, you're not sure if you can take it again! At least not right away.

A second viewing is the plan, but I'll definitely wait until this lingering depression dissipates before I tackle it a second time

What about Apoc. Now?

OK, I'll take the bait.

It has brilliant moments, but I've always found it meandering, overlong, and not a little pretentious at times. And the "Redux" version? Fuhgeddaboudit. I actually like his wife's documentary about the making of the film, Hearts of Darkness, better.

For my money, Coppola's best movie is the criminally-underrated The Conversation, a loose remake of Blow-Up with Gene Hackman. Yes, it's better than The Godfather (Parts I, II, and III) IMO. I'd like to see his latest movie, Tetro, though. Anybody caught that yet? It's got Vincent Gallo--an interesting director in his own right (Buffalo 66, The Brown Bunny)--in the lead. Looks intriguing.

Now you got me thinking about Buffalo 66. "Spanning time, we're spanning time..."

Havent caught either Buffalo66 or Tetro but both do look interesting and need to see for sure..
How about the painful "The Machinist " with a severely emancipated Christion Bale and the "Hangman" game?
and the new Jason Statham stuff would also be great with the Fairy in attendance.. I believe hes gonna be working on a new version of "The Mechanic" soon... oh those Charles Bronson movies! ...

Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch are my favorites of Jason Statham's work.
That's not to say I haven't enjoyed his more recent films, I just like the early stuff.

An American Werewolf In London with a drink in honor of the full moon edition being released

The conversation huh...I'll have to check that out! Espec if you enjoyed it more than The Godfather & Bram Stoker's Dracula...

I don't think you'll be disappointed--just don't expect the fireworks of Apocalypse Now or the opera of The Godfather. It's a film in a completely different register. Great, great movie. It also has one of my favorite musical scores of all time--really haunting.

Check out Buffalo 66 too while you're at it. Take a look at this trailer and tell me it isn't one of the best ever cut.

Funny you mention Buffalo 66. A buddy gave me a stack of obscure and indie films to watch, and Buffalo 66 was one of them.

As a matter of fact, I got on here to recommend a different one from that stack. If you all haven't seen Winter Passing, you should go find a copy somewhere. Maybe the rental stores will have it. Netflix probably does. It made me fall in love with Zooey Deschanel all over again too (HG2G).

Pan's Labrynth

Been hittin' Young Frankenstein pretty hard in the last few days; last night was Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress.

Showgirls: The unrated version?

"Naked" by Mike Leigh (one of my favorite directors). David Thewlis's performance as Johnny is classic. Although I have watched many women leave the room during this film.

Brutal movie. And brilliant.


I'm about to pop in Godard's Contempt and give it another watch before we tackle it in class this week. I'm thinking that Meadow of Love may pair well with Brigitte Bardot.

really? I was not impressed. Me and the wife were bored stiff.





  

Truly. But I'm a sucker for British/UK social realism--Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Lynne Ramsay, Andrea Arnold, etc.--going all the way back to the early '60s "kitchen sink" stuff.

I find Naked fascinating mostly because of the protagonist. I'm always interested when a movie puts a thoroughly unsympathetic--in this case, downright despicable--character in the lead role. It's like a game--it challenges to our tendency/desire to identify with the "hero" of the film--but (at the risk of sounding totally pretentious) I think that it also teaches us something about humanity, both ours and Johnny's.

For an interesting contrast to Naked, check out Mike Leigh's last movie, Happy-Go-Lucky. It's protagonist is the exact opposite of Johnny in every respect, but her indefatigably sunny and chipper personality tests the audience in exactly the same way.

Indeed!

Thewlis's performance was one of the greatest of all time, in my opinion.

Okay, it was no Daniel Day Lewis in "There Will Be Blood", but it was pretty damned incredible, nonetheless.

The Killer Shrews, starring Festus himself James Best. Mystery Science Theater 3000 did this movie. One of my favorite episodes, but this is just the movie in all it's grandeur.

I'd go with the older brother (I'd rather almost call it completely nonrelated distant cousing) any day. I am Legend completely destroyed the intent of the book. Last Man stayed true to the book, and it had Vincent Price.

Speaking of The Descent, I saw Pandorum last week. It wasn't what I was expecting at all from the trailer. Not bad. Not life changing. It's very much a cross between The Descent and Event Horizon.

The Thing is one of my all time favorites.



Lynch's Dune is one of my all time favorites. Echo?

YES!!! the big shrews that are obviously dogs! I saw that when I was young enough to seriously dig Godzilla and the blatant dog-ness of the shrews blew me away.

The baldfaced audacity!

I just saw that recently myself... I got it in a boxed set with Yojimbo, Sanjuro, & The Seven Samurai... Any suggestions for my next Kurosawa film?

Rashomon, baby. Quintessential Kurosawa.(say that 5 times fast when drunk!)

Ikiru. One of the most moving films ever made. Up there with The Seven Samurai as my favorite Kurosawa.

I'm also a big fan of High and Low, a ransom thriller with Toshiro Mifune in the lead.

Throne of Blood has some great imagery in it as well. If you like that sort of thing..

I still remember that 50 gal barrel's raggedly cut square viewing window with a long fang hung up on its edge,trying to get in..

Another jewel classic is "Panic in the Year Zero" with Ray Milland finding a place to hide his
50's family when enroute to go camping ,(a nuke hits LA behind them)...great panic scenes like throwing gasoline out and trying to cross the main LA escape drag with the family trailer in tow!

We need to talk film my friend, "En Ra Ha"!!!