Sunday, February 25, 2018

Nightcap 2/25/18 - Thoughts on a possible future piece on movies that are just sort of there

Not that many of you have noticed but the regular Sunday nightcaps have kind of drifted off. It's not that I haven't wanted to do them, more it's simply I've been heading in differing directions both in my personal life and in the film world.

I've also been watching a lot of films. I'm running back on my schedule of pre-2017 when I was frequently doing three, four or five films a day. Lest you think that's all I do remember many are program films from the 30's and 40's that run around an hour and lots of exploitation films that run around 90 minutes. I'm watching stuff that looks interesting to me and not something being spoon fed to me by PR people. Its me cinematically recharging my batteries as I remind myself that there are great films out there that have been abandoned  and need to be put on  people's radar.

As a result of all of this watching I've been stockpiling reviews. As it stand now if all of the reviews were collapsed to fill the Tribeca slots Unseen would run on its own until sometime in July, maybe August. When I say I have been watching movies I mean it.

While there have been lots of good ones and lots of bad ones I'm running more and more into films that are just sort of there. Watching them they kind of engage but at the same time if you walked off in the middle you'd kind of forget you were watching them. Once finished they are gone from your memory.

Take for example GUERRILLA GIRL about a young woman fighting for the resistance in occupied Greece who ends up fighting commies. It sound interesting and on some level it kind of is for the weird choices it makes but by the 20 minute mark you're ready to move on to something else.

Then there is SWORD OF THE EMPIRE which is an ancient Rome set film about the barbarians and the fall of the Empire. Supposedly it's a low rent version of Anthony Mann's FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE but despite some great set pieces I simply don't care enough to try and make the connection.

And I've seen a lot more recently but frankly I simply can't remember the lot of them. They simply fade from memory- not when done but while they are running. How the hell did some of this utterly forgettable films get made? Watching them I completely understand how many of them are completely off everyone's radar. I suspect even the filmmaker don't remember they made some of the turkeys.

I've seen enough recently that I'm trying to work out hat to do with them.   Good bad or indifferent all films should be noted but how do you note something that you're forgetting as it is happening before you?

It should be noted that this is different than films that put you to sleep. I'm doing a piece on that when I can tie in a few more titles, hell some of the sleepers are pretty interesting even if they produce sleep. Just sort of there films are just that they exist but I'd be hell bent to say any more than that.

I have no idea of my making note of them but it might...we'll see...

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