Jason says farewell to the Red Vic by seeing HAROLD AND MAUDE

So of course I feel guilty about not going to the Red Vic Movie House more, now that it's in its final swansong. In fact, this was only my second time there. Sure, I live in Fremont and that's a heck of a schlep, but that hasn't stopped me from patronizing the Roxie or Castro (I haven't done the Balboa much, and now that its future is uncertain I feel guilty/determined to go there more). In any case, thank you to a San Francisco institution, best of luck to the proprietors in their future endeavors, and best of luck to the remaining arthouse theaters in the Bay Area (and to my local readers, if you don't want them to die, obviously you have to give them your business).

Now the movie--HAROLD AND MAUDE is the perfect sendoff. I heard a rumor this was the first movie they showed, but it's appropriate thematically, too.

I will now assume any reader has already seen HAROLD AND MAUDE, so I might get spoilery below. If you haven't seen it, go see it right away. I'll wait.

...

There, wasn't that awesome!?

More importantly, it occurs to me that the story of aged but vivacious Maude teaching young, rich, death-obsessed Harold how to embrace life is a nice metaphor for the Red Vic closing. The Red Vic is Maude, who brings so much joy to life and teaches us to embrace, defy, and sing out. We, the audience, are Harold (except for being rich). Maybe we aren't always obsessed with death, but right now we are obsessed with the death of our beloved cinema institutions. Maybe the Red Vic, unlike Maude, didn't choose the time and manner of her death, but by approaching it with dignity and imploring us to patronize the remaining arthouse theaters, we and the Red Vic echo the scene where Harold, realizing Maude is dying, says, "But I love you!" And Maude/The Red Vic replies, "Oh, that's wonderful! Go love some more."

Also, although this is about the 5th or 6th time I've seen it, this is the first time I remembered going in that Maude is a Holocaust survivor. This is revealed in one brief scene, near the end, where we see a close up of Maude's arm with a number tattoo. This colors all her scenes in retrospect, but none more than when she's reminiscing about a garden party in the Viennese palace. She describes how fun it was, how she thought then she would marry a soldier, and then she gets quiet, tears up, and mumbles something about that being "before..." It's the first hint that as joyful as she is, she has painful memories. Clearly, these are memories of the Holocaust.

She was a little girl at the party, and given that she's turning 80 and the movie was released (and I'm presuming takes place) in 1971, that means she was born in 1891. Presumably the party she refers to took place just prior to WWI (started in 1914, when she was 23). The soldiers at the party would be Austrians or Germans, and if they survived and stayed on the side of power in Germany and progressed in rank, would be fairly high ranking Nazi officials during WWII. Perhaps at that party or some other time she even met a struggling artist in Vienna who would go on to become a decorated WWI soldier and ultimately Der Fuhrer. That's right, I went there, imagining a Maude/Hitler fan fiction romance. Now try to sleep at night!

Running Time: 91 minutes
My Total Minutes: 243,950

Jason spends the day at the Red Vic with the Film on Film Foundation

Embarrassing confession. I've lived in the Bay Area over 10 years now, and have never made it out to the Red Vic. It's kind of a schlep from my home in Fremont, but I make it to other SF theaters (e.g., the Roxie) all the time. I don't know, maybe it's the extra transit from BART, or that they don't host the big film festivals. Doesn't matter, I busted my cherry there last Saturday, with the good folks at the Film on Film Foundation, and it was a blast of animated fun.

First up was GUMBY 1, the optimistically titles first (and only) feature length Gumby film. It came out in 1995, same year as TOY STORY. I remember hearing rumors that Art Clokey was offered substantial money for Gumby to appear in TOY STORY, and passed to make his own money. You can argue the business wisdom of his decision, but something as weird as GUMBY 1 could only come from one man's vision unfettered from committee decisions. A weird tale in which the Blockheads foreclose on the family farmers' lands, and Gumby and his band hold a benefit concert. The Blockheads kidnap Gumby's friends and make duplicate robots to wreak havoc...and then things get weird. He's green, he's clay, he's a cosmic display, he's Gumby. And by far the highlight has to be the Gumby vs. Robogumby lightsaber battle (incidentally, the sound was done by Skywalker sound, so you know George Lucas had to know about this and give it the okay). Wow!

While Gumby was trippy for the simple, handmade charm that celebrated Gumby as a clay-based space alien (with a sad-sack pony and a dog that cries tears), the second movie was a claymation masterpiece of complexity by Will Vinton, the man who coined the term "claymation." Based on the life and works of Mark Twain, the framing device is Twain travelling in a steamboat/airship to reach Haley's comet for his final act. Along the way are stowaways Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher. It starts out with very childlike whimsy, but quickly transitions into some rather mature, adult whimsy (The Diary of Adam and Eve) and even a little darkness with (The Stranger), until a conclusion that explicates and celebrates the necessary existence of everyone's dark side. I don't know why I had never heard of this film. It's an absolute masterpiece.

And finally, things went full adults-only with Peter Jackson's early bad taste puppet extravaganza, MEET THE FEEBLES. I've seen it many times before, and it's still fun (if crudely structured and lacking a narrative flow). In a Muppets-esque variety act, the star bunny (oh yeah, there were bunnies in all three films, which of course tickled my fancy) has V.D., the knife-throwing frog has a drug problem (brought on by his experiences in Nam), the diva hippo has a weight problem, her producer boyfriend Bletch the walrus is banging some pussy (an actual cat) on the side and taking part in the shady business of drugs and pornography. And that's just the tip of the sleazeberg. The only thing that would make it better is if we had an impromptu sing-along to the Sodomy Song.

So yeah, that happened.

Total Running Time: 270 minutes

My Total Minutes: 224,430