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Tonight’s movie selection was between Match Point and Munich.  Match Point sounded like a Woody Allen love story.  Jill thought that didn’t sound as intense as Munich, so Match Point was the winner.

In tennis, sometimes the ball hits the net.  Sometimes you’re lucky, and you win.  Other times you are not, and you lose.

The movie was excellent, but it’s one of these films that kept me squirming in my seat the entire second half of the film.  I was filled with soooo much anxiety – the writing was great (well, it’s Woody Allen), but damn.  The lead character, Chris, was such a dumbass in many ways.  Of course, he brought everything upon himself, and the audience is just having to live through it.

On IMDB:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416320/

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

I just picked up the highly anticipated DVD release of this cult classic film. Which is one of my favorite movies of all time. Oh, it’s crap. I know it. But it’s still great.

From Wikipedia:

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a 1970 drama film starring Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, John LaZar, and Michael Blodgett. It was directed by Russ Meyer, and co-written by Meyer and Roger Ebert. Despite its title, it is not a sequel to the novel or film versions of Valley of the Dolls, but a satirical pastiche inspired by the original.

It is one of two films produced by independent filmmaker Meyer for 20th Century Fox (the other being The Seven Minutes), and one of three films that film critic Ebert wrote with Meyer. Ebert has written that Beyond the Valley of the Dolls “seems more and more like a movie that got made by accident when the lunatics took over the asylum.”

The film’s plot concerns the adventures and misadventures of an all-female rock band called The Carrie Nations (after temperance advocate Carrie Nation), who fall under the spell of a flamboyant, evil record producer (modelled after Phil Spector) named Ronnie “Z-Man” Barzell (John LaZar). Other significant characters include Lance Rock (Michael Blodgett), a gigolo; Ashley St. Ives (Edy Williams), a pornographic actress; Roxanne (Erica Gavin), a rapacious lesbian clothes designer who pursues The Carrie Nations’ bass player Casey (Cynthia Myers); and Harris (David Gurian), the ill-fated boyfriend of the Carrie Nations’ lead singer Kelly (Dolly Read).

The camp style of Beyond The Valley of the Dolls has influenced the films of John Waters and the Austin Powers series, as well as having been cited as an influence on a number of rock bands favoring a camp-trash aesthetic, such as The New York Dolls (whose name was an homage to the film), the Scissor Sisters singer Ana Matronic and Tito el Boludito, who covered a song from the film.

In 2001, the Village Voice named the film #87 on its list of the 100 Greatest Films of the Century.

sure, i was excited about “delicatessan” FINALLY coming out on DVD, but it took even longer for Russ Meyers to finally release “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” on DVD.

Coming June 13th !

Matthew Sweet made a music video based on this movie, Austin Powers took several great lines and scenes from it, Roger Ebert wrote it and how else would we have such great band names as “The Kelly Affair” and “The Carrie Nations”.

IMDB Url: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065466/

After the huge success of director Russ Meyer’s VIXEN!, 20th Century-Fox knew that he was a talent to reckon with and hired him for a two-picture deal in 1970. His first film (his only good studio film) was written by Roger Ebert and was titled as a sequel to Fox’s VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, an embarrassment to the studio. When this was released, it was almost as big an embarrassment. But it’s an awesome film with something to please everyone. While not as sex-filled as Meyer’s earlier and later works, it still works as a spoof, a drama, and an adults film.

Dolly Read, Cynthia Meyers, and Marcia McBroom play Kelly, Casey, and Pet, an all-female rock group called The Kelly Affair that start out small and make it big in Hollywood as The Carrie Nations. The story is filled with soap opera contrivances, such as various love affairs, lesbianism, drug addiction, suicide attempts, and money scandals. While some of these instances can be seen as serious drama (these girls can act, believe it or not), most of them are played to be campy, complete with cheesy soap-opera organ music in the background.

for more details, checkout http://www.beyondthevalleyofthedolls.com/

FINALLY !

After years of wait, Delicatessen is being released on DVD in the US !

I almost bought a European release of it last summer.

Now I can get rid of my bootleg copy, and enjoy the dgital delight that is Delicatessen on DVD !

Coming May 2nd !