So Monday was supposed to be my relaxing day, I didn't have to get to the theater until 7:15, watch 2 movies, and go home. But thanks to technical difficulties over the weekend, I had to get out of work early and catch the 5:00 show.
That 5:00 show started with the short, "The Combination". A guy plays the same lottery numbers every week for 20 years. Finally they pay off. You just know there's a catch. Allegedly based on real events. It's well done and pretty funny.
Then the feature was the very, very french comedy, "La Creme". The hero is a bit of a loser, a basically unemployed salesman who goes door to door hawking charity postcards as a scam--and a not very successful one at that. Meanwhile he's interviewing for a sales job, and is put in competition with one other candidate. The rules are that they have one week, and at the end of the week they must decide who gets the job. Basically if you can "sell" the other candidate on the idea that you should have the job, you win. He doesn't really have much of a chance. It's also Christmastime, and--through his wife's paycheck--he manages to scrape together a small pile of presents for his family (they have one young son). One of the things "Santa" brings him is a container of facial creme. He puts some on, and suddenly his postcards are selling like hotcakes. Turns out, when he's wearing the creme everyone thinks he's famous. He gets things for free, people ask for his autograph, and breathlessly tell him that they have all his albums (although he's never actually made one). Hijinx ensue, and of course they're wacky, but also very French with a dry wit and plenty of sex. Cool.
I then had a choice between killing some time--getting a real dinner, having a drink or two--or rewatching "The Road to Nod" (which was the replacement for the cancelled screening of "La Creme" last weekend. I thought "The Road to Nod" was okay the first time, but didn't really care to see it again. Still, I am an addict, so I watched it again (I also knew if I had too many drinks I'd fall asleep in the 9:30 show). Well, an amazing thing happen. The movie I thought was slow the first time was perfectly paced the second time. What I first thought was tons of driving and no action only had driving in the last 20 minutes or so (and yeah, it was still extended scenes of driving, but they worked this time). The music, which I liked even the first time, was even better. In other words, I totally got it the second time. Good choice! Go me!
And finally, the late show was a dose of bleak Japanese nihilism, "This World of Ours". Playing heavily on "A Clockwork Orange" (the 9th by Ludwig Van is featured), this movie is so bleak it starts with 9/11 as a point of optimism (I guess in that it wakes people from their malaise and apathy). Then we meet a host of peripherally related high school characters, from bullies to bullied (for a while it was playing out like it might be the Japanese "Ben X"). Everyone is miserable, nihilistic, callous, but damaged in some way. It goes just about everywhere, and I'll just say it's pretty fucked up.
And that's it for Monday. Now I'm only 5 movies behind in my posts.
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