Yes. I listen to music all the time, and keep up, most of the time, with my web sites. Since music and movies are my hobbies, and I have no kids (at home) or dogs, I have all the time in the world outside of work.
I would agree with you. It’s the whole experience for me, being in a darkened theater, seeing a movie the way the director intended. Plus I’m very impatient. I like seeing movies now, not 3-6 months from now. There’s more but I have to get ready for work.
Have you walked out on a movie this year, or for that matter, ever?
See above, the re-make of The Producers. It’s the only time I’ve ever walked out on a movie. I sat through the entirety of The Human Centipede, so I’m pretty tolerant, but that night I just was NOT in the mood for The Producers. Not by a long shot. I’m not sure why. It was just stupid to me and I couldn’t stand it.
Btw, add Duncan Jones and George Clooney to the list of directors above that I’d see any movie they directed. I can’t believe I forgot them.
I haven’t decided if I’ll go to see Cropsey this evening at the Music Box. Has anyone seen it?
On average, how many films do you see when the Chicago International Film Festival starts up? At the festival, how do you decide which films to see and do you also see any of the short film packages?
(logging in from work, something I rarely do, but I’m on break)
I haven’t attended the CIFF since 1999, but this year will be different, because last week I signed up for a membership. They haven’t charged my credit card yet but I hope they hurry so I can get my membership card. In 1999 I worked for them prior to the festival. My work on the program book was of course done by the time the festival started and I got an All-Access pass, and I wasn’t working so I saw a LOT of movies. I still think of 1999 as a hugely great year in films and still have my list of all the movies I saw that year. Not with me though.
Between 1999 and now I haven’t had the free time to work/volunteer and usually didn’t have much extra money around the time of the festival, so missed the whole thing year after year. This year I’m not volunteering, but with a membership card movies will be cheaper and I can budget. I’ll just look at the program when it comes out and decide what looks good and what I can afford and what my work schedule will allow.
Are you in Chicago and a film festival person? Maybe you can steer me to some good choices.
I like shorts, and they’re a great way to pick up on potential interesting directors/writer, but I have to admit I haven’t ever attended any shorts programs at the festival. In fact the only ones I’ve ever attended are the ones shown for Oscar clips. Are you into shorts? Maybe you can steer me toward some good ones too.
In the next few weeks I also plan to join the Independent Film Project for the first time ever. Besides the potential free screening passes, I’ll also be able to vote in the Independent Spirit Awards. I’ve always wanted to do that and this year is special because I want my vote for Winter’s Bone to count. Are you a member there?
Yep, I’m in Chicago. I think we’ve chatted about film before on here, my old username was HelloNinja.
My wife and I love the festival, but it’s been hard to get to very many screenings since we had our daugher in 2007. We never went crazy w/ the number of films we saw but we’d try and find aa handful of interesting films and usually at least one shorts package. We didn’t go last year but we saw a few good ones in 2008 (The Wrestler and *Synechdoche, New York *were the stand outs).
My favorite part of the festival is the Q&A’s with directors, writers, cast members, etc. Got to see Jason Schwartzman and Claire Daines do a Q&A for Shopgirl a few years back. Also, in 2008 we got to see Darren Aronofsky at *The Wrestler *screening and Charlie Kaufman at Synechdoche. Got to meet and chat w/ them both and they were really gracious w/ taking the time to talk to fans and sign autographs.
I didn’t like it. As a fanboy of the TV series, I was put off by “the great vowel shift” in the movie where they didn’t pronounce any of the characters’ names right. Further, Shamyalan had the unfortunate task of trying to condense the first season of Avatar by about four-fold, if I guesstimated in my head correctly. I liken it to putting Wagner’s ring cycle in a 30 minute: like it or hate it, your glossing over a lot of plot and nuance to shoehorn it in.
I could go on and on, but I suspect no one would care, lol. It’s like those obnoxious people who say “The movie wasn’t as good as the book” (which I’ve only said once in my life, with Grisham’s “Runaway Jury”, lol). I would simply say that I disliked the kid playing Aang (sorry, Ong…:rolleyes:), and that the 3D seemed very unnecessary.
I see you’ve seen a fair share of 3D movies according to that list, Equipoise. How do you feel about seeing a movie in 3D versus 2D? I personally find that unless it’s done very idiomatically (a la “Avatar,” James Cameron one), that it’s really just a nuisance. I’m curious what someone who’s seen probably 100 times as many movies as me this year thinks. 
Yeah, having never seen the series or knowing anything about it, I didn’t care. In fact, the story was to me the weakest part, and so obvious that a lot had to be cut out. Too bad he didn’t come up with his own original Wuxia. I did like the kid. I’ll see any sequels that are made, if any are made. I saw it in 2D btw.
I got a free pass to Hubble so I didn’t have to pay for it. I saw Alice In Wonderland and How To Train Your Dragon in 3D out of curiosity, but realized I enjoyed them more in 2D. I wear glasses so 3D glasses are a pain in the ass. I’ve decided that, for me, 3D is totally unnecessary 99% of the time and I’ve pretty much vowed to not see anything else in 3D, unless it’s really really REALLY special. To me it’s just a way to charge more for tickets. Unless I get a free pass to something, which I’ll happily accept, the next movie I see in 3D will be Avatar 2. I must admit I was tempted with Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me, but I’m not going to encourage them with my extra dollars. I’d rather see 3 movies at 2D prices than 2 movies at 3D prices.
Oh! I didn’t realize you’d changed your username. Of course I know who you are.
Same here. I met a lot of cool people in '99, including Janet McTeer and Gavin O’Connor when they brought Tumbleweeds to the festival. I liked it so much I saw it twice there and brought my husband the second time. Gavin liked that I liked it so much, and asked if he could give me a hug, he was so sweet and humble. McTeer was very funny and everyone was shocked that the brassy southern Mary Jo Walker was played by a Brit. Everyone gasped as soon as she started talking. We weren’t the only ones to enjoy it and her. A few months later McTeer was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for the role.
Oh yeah, remind me that I was (and still am) absolutely INSANELY jealous! Oh what I would give to go back in time and buy tickets for those screenings. To meet Aronofsky AND Kaufman. Oh my god. Bang bang bang my head. I am so envious!
Are these films in exact order? Because it’s funny to think about the sequencing - two splatterfests in Reservoir Dogs and The Wild Bunch, for example, followed by the cartoonishness of the A-Team. And Twilight preceding all that.
Also, I’m unfamiliar with Winter’s Bone, but if it’s an independent film…is it likely to get nominated for an Oscar?
Black Dynamite is a 2009 release, by the way.
Yep, they are in order. Ha, you’d be even more amused if I had listed what movies I saw on the same day. For instance, Fahrenheit 451 and Grindhouse back to back. Mother and Child and The Human Centipede back to back. Kick-Ass and The Last Song back to back. Or how many I saw in the same day. I don’t always go out to see just one movie. To me it’s a wasted trip, so I see two, three, or more on the same day. Eclipse I saw the same night as Small Change, The Secret of Kells, and Winter’s Bone. I think the record is Friday April 23, when I saw all these movies in a row:
Kick-Ass
The Losers
The Joneses
Death At A Funeral
Date Night
after I got off work! They’re all very short movies and I got off work early that day. Kick-Ass and The Joneses were my favorites that day. They stuck with me, big time. I barely remember the others. I couldn’t tell you who was in The Losers, except for Zoe Saldana, without looking it up. I intended to see Date Night again because by then I was a bit fuzzy, but I never got around to it.
Saturday June 19th I saw these back to back:
High and Low
I Live In Fear
8: The Mormon Proposition
Jonah Hex
Toy Story 3
The first 3 there were at the Gene Siskel Center, then I went to a multiplex a few blocks away for the other two. I do have the ability to turn off and compartmentalize prior movies when I go into the next one. Some people can’t do it, I know. (and yes, I pay for all the movies)
Oh yes, several. In my thread about the movie I said this:
It’s an excellent movie, and I think it will be rewarded with nomination recognition when the time comes. I would be very shocked if it didn’t at least get Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay nominations. I expect it to win Best Adapted Screenplay too. That’s the only thing it might win, but that’s fine. The nominations will be enough to make me very happy.
If you get a chance to see it, do. It’s still playing in some places. Here in Chicago it’s still at the Landmark Century.
Ooops, you’re right, I forgot to note that and it didn’t occur to me when I wrote my OP. I missed it the first time around, and luckily a theater brought it back for a week.
Do you review them on a blog somewhere?
Have you ever wanted to work in movies somehow?
No. I suck at reviewing movies. For one thing, I’m too easy-going. I don’t look at movies with a critical eye. I am too optimistic and cheerful about most movies. I go into every movie with the idea that there’s gotta be something about it that will please or interest me, even if the movie as a whole is crappy. I don’t tend to go to movies that I would think otherwise about. Some people might notice that I never saw Sex and the City 2, for instance. I had zero interest.
As a kid I wanted to be an actress, but that didn’t last. I’d not mind working behind the scenes in some capacity because I’m fascinated with things like art direction and editing and costumes. I’m one of those people who loves those categories at the Oscars. But mainly, no, because I’m impatient. It’s hard to imagine working on a movie, then having to wait months, or even years, to see the final product. But it all interests and fascinates me, how all the different parts come together prior to filming and then again at the finished product. I often feel bad if I walk out of a movie thinking, that was ok, because I think, man, it took hundreds of people months to put that together, and that’s all I say? But they got paid, and that’s cool.
A few more questions for ya…
First, and this is more of a suggestion than a question, but if you don’t listen to the “Doug Loves Movies” podcast you really should start. It’s a hilarious recording of a live show that comedian Doug Benson does every week at the UCB Theater in LA. He always has two or three guests on, mostly other comediants but also actors sometimes (Jon Hamm and Ellen Page have both been on). It’s about 45 minutes long and they mostly talk about movies and they play movie related games which are a lot of fun. It’s really entertaining stuff and I think as a movie lover, you’d really enjoy it.
Second, have you been to any of the new “luxury” theaters in the area?I think there are a few different companies doing this in the area (Muvico, Showplace ICON, Gold Class). I saw Iron Man 2 at the Gold Class Cinemas in Barrington and it was unreal how pampered they make you feel there. The theater only had about 20 seats and you sit in big comfy recliners w/ food and drink service. They even brought us blankets to snuggle up in. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend. Well worth the drive.
Last question, and you don’t have to answer this one if you’d rather not, but do you always pay for every show that you see or do sometimes slide into another showing after your first one is over? I’m not ashamed to say that I used to do this back when I didn’t have a babysitter to get back home to. When we had more free time, my wife and I would pay for one movie and then turn it into a double feature. It was a good way to see a movie we had no intention of actually paying to go to. I know it’s pretty easy to do at River East, as well as 600 North. Yes yes yes, everyone… I realize that this makes me a scumbag thief, but I accept that.
That’s pretty great! I like movies and wish I could see more of them. Even in earlier days I never got around to seeing more than one or two per month. Now that I’m a father of a baby I don’t get to see them in the theater at all.
I want to see Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky this weekend. What are your thoughts on the film? Did you know anything about Chanel or Stravinsky beforehand? I mainly want to see it because I heard it opens with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring ballet, and that’s a ballet I’ve been wanting to see for years now! Is the ballet a prominent feature of the film or do they just show a few minutes worth and move on with the plot?
I liked it as a movie, though I went in thinking they had an inspiring and lovely romance. I have no idea where I got that notion. Sometimes it is a problem not reading much about a movie before seeing it. After seeing the movie, I didn’t consider as a great romance but as a torrid and sleazy and embarrassing affair. That aside, it was pretty fabulous. All I knew of Coco was from the movie Coco Before Chanel with Audrey Tautou. I enjoyed that quite a bit, though it ended just as her career got going. This movie started after she was already world-famous, and at some point I’d like to see a movie about those in-between years. Oh my god, the clothes! I am the least fashion-conscious person in the universe, but oh my god, the clothes! They were awesome. She really did change the world in her way.
Stravinsky came off as a real dick (at one point he says to her “I am an artist. You are a shopkeeper” at which point she quite rightly throws his pretentious ass out) but oh my god, the music! Yes, he was a genius. I knew some of his music, probably what most people know, but not much. I can’t say if the movie was actually any good, but for me, the clothes, the music, the acting by Anna Mouglalis who played Coco, the set decoration, the setting, the period, the slices of their life, all that was great!
It does feature prominently at the beginning. I don’t know how long, but at least 15 minutes and probably quite a bit more is spent with the ballet premiering, and the audience’s confusion, and the back and forth between audience members who hated it and those who loved it (“Bravo!!” “Outrageous!!”), showing how the dancers just didn’t quite get what they were supposed to be doing and the frustration of Stravinsky and Nijinsky watching in the wings, and the orchestra performing beautifully, while a near riot starts, and the police come. A riot at a ballet! I’d never heard that story before. It was all very exciting and fascinating. The rest of the movie didn’t live up to that amazing beginning, but of course it couldn’t, because it’s the climax. The rest of the movie is a flashback leading up to the premiere, including of course a few scenes of him writing the music.
I think you’ll be pleased with what’s there. Let me know after you see it.
Congratulations papa! I know you have good taste in movies so it’ll be fun for you when your child gets older and you can show a lot of movies. I’ve always loved movies, but I’ve gone whole years barely seeing 5 movies in the theater. The last 10-15 years and especially the last couple, I’ve been catching up. (Btw, when I saw Kagemusha recently, I kept thinking of Kate, who put that movie on a list of favorite films once.)
Thanks for the tip. I’d always be wary of spoilers, but it sounds fun.
I haven’t ever been to one. I can see the appeal, and it might be worth trying once, at some point, but it would be difficult for me to justify spending the money. I could see several movies for the cost of one, plus I don’t eat theater food or drink theater drinks (I stay away from carbs and aspertame), and in a regular theater I’m fairly comfortable sitting in the reclining seat in the front row with my feet up on the bars. They’re supposedly opening up one of those in Block 39 on State Street downtown, a half block from the Gene Siskel Center. If they do, we might try it, once, maybe.
I can’t say I’ve never done it, especially at times when I was very very broke and just had enough to see one movie. Now, I pay pretty much all the time. The one thing I do, sometimes, which could get me blasted, is…if there’s a big blockbuster I want to see, a movie I know will make tons of money, I will sometimes pay for a ticket to a smaller indie movie I want to support, which of course I would have already seen by then, and then go into the big blockbuster. Yeah, I know it’s unethical, but really, I’d rather financially support, say, Winter’s Bone, than Twilight Eclipse. The most recent was buying a ticket for The Girl Who Played With Fire, which I’d already seen twice, and ducking into Salt. My favorite instance of doing that was buying a ticket to City of God and ducking into Passion of the Christ. I still chuckle at that.
I love your method. I’ve never thought to do that and I think I might try it. I won’t try and say it’s ethical, but it feels morally right.
I thought I would add a little more about paying for movies, even though no one asked. We rarely, very rarely, pay full price for tickets. The last time I did was fairly recent, for Micmacs, but before that, it was The Fall in 2008. I paid full price 8 times for that sucker, I loved it so much, and at the theater I hate most in Chicago, because it was the only place it was playing (btw, I saw it 9 times, but the first time was a free screening). Here’s how we spend money on movies:
We buy AMC passes at Costco, 2 passes for $15.99. We buy a lot of them. It’s only a savings of $3.50 per movie, but when you see a lot of movies, that adds up quickly and it’s very welcome. We use those for important first run movies we can’t wait to see, or, as stated in my last post, to pay for smaller/indie films we want to support.
For “big” films we can wait for or want to see again, we go to Regal’s $6.00 Tuesday specials, because it applies to all movies, all showings, except for 3D, which we don’t care about.
We see a lot of matinees, especially on Fridays when I usually get off work early. Evanston Century’s matinees are $6.50 for showings before 6pm, and they show both arthouse and big budget films.
Landmark’s matinees are $8.50 (normal price $11) for showings at or before 5pm. Since I usually get off work at 4pm, I can make 5pm shows. I saw the 5pm Agora there last week at a matinee price, but I only went there because that’s the only place it was showing. I really don’t like giving Landmark my money, because I hate their chairs. I appreciate that they exist and applaud the movies they show, but damn, I hate paying to be uncomfortable. Still, that’s where I saw Micmacs, even though I got off after 5 that day and paid full price. It’s also where I saw The Fall all those times. If it’d been playing anywhere else, I would have gone elsewhere. If they had a $5 or even $6 Wednesday special, I’d be there every week.
Arthouse/revival: Music Box’s $5 Mondays has been a fantastic bargain for me. I used to hardly ever go there, and now I’m there almost every week. I saw Cropsey last night (good film!) and next week will be Stonewall Uprising.
Arthouse/revival: The Gene Siskel Film Center. I’ve already mentioned how I bought a membership. $50.00 a year, and now all movies, all showings, are $5.00. That’s another place I hardly ever went to, but now I’ve become addicted to the place. I pour over their program, and write in pencil on a calendar hanging on the wall what I want to see. When I actually see it (or any movie) I write in the name with a Sharpie. That’s how I’ve been keeping track of all my movies.
Free screening passes. I use to get a LOT of these, but haven’t much in the past couple of years. Part of it was working nights last year put a cramp in my movie-going style and I didn’t pursue passes, and so lost most of my contacts and fell off of mailing lists for inactivity. I still get the occasional pass from GoFoBo.com, such as the Hubble 3D IMAX pass, but most of the time I just get “Sorry, all screening passes are taken…” because they get snatched up very quickly. I’m hoping that my memberships in Cinema Chicago and (soon) Independent Film Project will get the passes rolling again. We’ll see. One of the perks for a Gene Siskel Film Center was supposed to be free passes, but I’ve been a member for 2 months and haven’t been offered one yet. I’d be miffed except that $5 movies MORE than makes up for that bit of false advertising.
That’s all I can think of at the moment. It’d be bizarre and expensive if I paid full price for everything, but I don’t. So, if anyone wonders about the expense of all those movies, it’s not really that bad.
It’s hard to do on opening weekends, because the theater employees usually check tickets at the door. Theaters don’t make much money on big new movies anyway. If I pay for something that’s been playing a while, or a smaller film where they get a bigger cut, I feel I’m supporting the theater more.
Rationalizations are wonderful, aren’t they?
Oh hey, what did you think of Vincent: A Life in Color?
I love seeing that guy around town. I’ve read articles about him and he seems really interesting.