Keeping Track (July 19, 2012)
by HELEN GEIB
Last Week at the Movies
So, last weekend. Option #1: Friday night. Fairbanks’ Robin Hood at the Ohio Theater, Columbus’ old downtown movie palace, accompanied on the original theater organ. I’d really like to see a movie at the Ohio, which hosts a summer movie series but is primarily a performing arts venue now. Option #2: Saturday afternoon. Pandora’s Box at the Music Box in Chicago, likewise with accompaniment on the house organ. I like the Music Box, but it is a working theater and I’ve been there lots of times. In the end, it came down to location, location, location: Columbus is a nice Midwestern city but a weekend in Chicago is a weekend in Chicago.
Back home on Sunday morning and would you believe it, there in the Sunday paper is an ad for a special screening of… Robin Hood! It was showing as part of the annual Indianapolis Early Music Festival. The accompaniment by an ensemble* playing Renaissance and Medieval songs on period instruments was absolutely fantastic, one of the best live scores I’ve heard. This year I got the best of both worlds. Next year the balcony of the Ohio.
*The group is called Hesperus and tours with this performance.
Last Week at Home
Shinobi no Mono 3: Resurrection- ninjas!
Saathiya- lovely songs and an inordinate fear of realism in this Bollywood romance
Three Outlaw Samurai- Hideo Gosha’s first film and very cool
The Great Escape- as great as ever
New in Theaters This Weekend
Nobody wants to go up against The Dark Knight Rises.
What have you been watching? What are you looking forward to?
Everyone’s already forgotten about… erm… oh yeah! The Avengers! lol That movie came out so long ago…
And The Hobbit is getting a lot of flack so Batman wins again! Yay! :O)
At Home
One-Eyed Jacks- an amazing Western masterpiece starring and directed by Marlon Brando
Emperor of the North- an awesome train movie that stars Lee Marvin, playing a hobo, and Ernest Borgnine,playing the psychopathic conductor aboard the #19 to Oregon; they fight a lot and it gets bloody
…I might be forgetting others titles but that’s not important right now…
Now if only Helen would kindly close my emphasis bracket in the Emperor of the North paragraph…
Three Outlaw Samurai is a really interesting and engaging story despite the somewhat cynical and bleak elements – or possibly because of them. It looks good, too, in beautiful black and white.
I believe that Helen watched it on my recommendation. I could be wrong… But if I’m right: :OÞ
Hideo Gosha also directed Sword of the Beast (1965), another bleak samurai chibi-epic that centers on revenge and showcases outstanding chanbara.
Watching THREE OUTLAW SAMURAI and SWORD OF THE BEAST you’d never think they were the director’s first and second movies, respectively, the filmmaking is so assured. The other of Gosha’s films I’ve seen is THE WOLVES, a very cold and very good ’70s yakuza movie with Tatsuya Nakadai.
@Nir: Your recommendation didn’t hurt, but ’60s samurai cinema sells itself. :D I’ll have to add EMPEROR OF THE NORTH to my to-watch list. That’s a new title to me.
@Helen, Emperor of the North was a new title to me, as well until I’d watched it last week, for the first time. It was recommended during a podcast (when referring to how awesome Ernest Borgnine was) and a few days later I saw it in a store, in a bin, and part of a 2 for $18 deal. I snagged it and enjoyed it.
You’re also right about Gosha’s cinema. And strangely, I’ve had The Wolves at home for over a year, still in its shrinkwrapping and waiting for me to watch it. I will do that this week, now that it’s been recommended to me in return. :O)