Believe In The Films You Like #Popeye & #TheWiz

#MiDNiGHTSFORMANiACS will be entertained & enlightened by two films featuring people who are (and sadly, now were) living legends during their life times. #Popeye & #TheWiz will be shown FRiDAY @ #TheCastroTheatre.

Popeye, the 1980 film, did not do so well critically & financially when initially released. It’s now being seen a bit more charitably, and perhaps will find a ‘home’ with a new generation who may turn out to become more appreciative than we expect, once exposed to screening opportunities such as this one, coming Friday–29 August 2014. It remains to be seen how screening opportunities for the next couple of generations will come about, considering the rapid demise of single screen houses & 35mm film projectionists.

Robin Williams as Popeye & Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl bring the comic strip characters from the televised animation many of us knew as children during the 1950s-60s & give them a spin that enhances their depth, especially as they touch real issues of biological identity angst (Popeye) & eviction from one’s home (the whole Oyl Family).

YOU TUBE OF THE 1980 FILM POPEYE-FEATURING ROBIN WILLIAMS & SHELLEY DUVALL

The other film featured is #TheWiz (1978), based upon the book by L. Frank Baum, originally entitled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This film, too, derives from the long-established & popular classic film #THEWIZARDOFOZ. The Wiz was a remake of a classic specifically to engage black Americans in a universal application of the theme of the importance of knowing where your home is. Dorothy, played by Diana Ross, discarded the trappings of glamour, which had been embedded in her career, & made the simplicity of her soul her only resource. This was all she needed. Her journey was not about wealth, but about wisdom. Michael Jackson, also too soon gone, played the scarecrow (made) of garbage, and this Oz, based in New York City, features the now extinct World Trade Center. Dorothy once again finds the meaning of growth & renewed value in what home really means, made especially more important when threatened with it’s loss.

One of the greatest joys offered in this film is the legendary Lena Horne as Glinda The Good Witch of the South. #LenaHorne sings #BelieveInYourself, which was a show stopper. I remember seeing this film during it’s initial theatrical run, downtown #Indianapolis @ the #CircleTheatre, one of the last single houses left, Indianapolis having switched to multiplexes 15 years before that movement hit San Francisco. Her performance garnered a huge applause from the audience, something Indianapolis audiences seldom displayed. I knew who Lena Horne was, in a vague sort of way, but this commanding performance of hers sealed her into my psyche, and turned me into an instant fan. Being reminded of her loss, too, brings simultaneously a sadness, but a joy from knowing that she met the challenges of her day with a gusto tempered with class, a rare combination.

YOU TUBE FEATURING THE LEGEND of LENA HORNE: Believe in Yourself-1978

This will be an evening of challenge, moving on from loss, Robin Williams, Michael Jackson, The World Trade Center…and challenge to continue to find truth in from past generations of films that can resonate for all audiences, young, & those who are old enough to be familiar with the history of both films and what came before. This film series is taking a different spin, embracing films that were intended from the start to be “mainline” films, but were not well-accepted during the eras in which they were made. This night may be #JesseHawthorneFicks chance to turn some of that around.

INSTAGRAM DOES NOT LIKE THIS JEWELRY!

We are tougher than the Marines & we are ready for action! Thanks to William Lustig & JesseHawthorneFicks–We are MANiAC COPS! Princess Melita Bonaparte, the most beautiful woman in the world, is passionately committed to doing the work that only #ManiacCops can do, & has volunteer to arrest people for breathing, or if they just look suspicious.

So, I will post it the old way. I have a new set of bracelets just for #JessieHawthorneFicks & #WilliamLustig ….They are my Tiffany Specials. There seems to a need, per the news papers for new cops. Well, will be out there in force–all the #ManicacCops you could ever possibly need. We got to keep order in this town, you know! See us tomorrow @ the #YerbaBuenaCenter! Be there yourself, if you know what’s good for you!

Friend of Tonto!-The Lone Ranger

ACiD WESTERNS: THE LONE RANGER!!

He rode again…only with more reason & much more finesse. It’s not a remake of the television series–but goes where no television series of that era dared even take a peek, let alone take one giant step for mankind. This film took us to the moon while still here on Planet Earth, direct from Planet Hollywood.

Tonto, rather than being the side-kick, was the top banana in a film that really took deep breaths during its two & a half hour journey & gave our cultural map a serious going over, but did so by employing skillful use of the sardonic & second helpings with generous doses of sarcasm.

The Manifest Destiny theme showed how the West was really won. It was not won, it was stolen. The buffalo were there to be shot at & the native inhabitants were at best a nuisance. At worst, they were subjected to near annihilation. The compromise ended up being the Reservation System, not the subject matter of the script, but common knowledge for anyone who has seriously studied American history.

I am grateful that Jesse Hawthorne Ficks included THE LONE RANGER in this lineup of ACiD WESTERNS. I did not have time to take it in during its all-too-brief theatrical release. Those critics who lambasted it were just plain wrong. The film ranks up there with Able Gance’s Napoleon, Epic, but funny. You get the accidental meetup of two men who forge an unlikely friendship that just works. They evolve into caring about each other, faced with bizarre circumstances that brought them a sort of involuntary cult status, as crime fighters. Good guys who don’t really look the part.

The arrangement of the William Tell Overture, brought in during a ludicrous scene with Armie Hammer riding Silver on top of the moving train was theatrical, over-the-top brilliance. And Johnny Depp, Tonto. He was splendid in a role that was meant to be. It’s just too bad that others in a position to help this film along, withdrew their support. The film went by quickly, and these two guys were loveable & enjoyable characters in a world gone ACiD MAD due to the misplaced values of the Industrial Revolution & technology without humane compassion. Get this, and you get the film.

ACiD WESTERNS were presented 8 November 2013 @ The Castro Theatre-for more fun there was Dead Man & Walker. It was a triple bill! Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Bill Murray? No, but they’d make a great team for an ACID WESTERN! Why isn’t Paramount calling me?

Maybe Paramount is calling me, but I can’t print that in a review about a film from Disney Studios.

His Imperial Highness, Prince Roland Bonaparte II, dressed as The Lone Ranger!

There comes a time when a good man must wear a mask…

The Unexamined Life Of The Wild West—
Soldiers were sent to make peace with the Indians.

Imperial Bonaparte Award for the Most Authentic Lone Ranger Mask of the Century!

Of course, I am a friend of Tonto!

I found my prop gun on the street. That is probably appropriate!

MiDNiTES for MANIACS & FILM NOIR FOUNDATION-Support Silent Film Festival

T H E F I L M G O I N G C O M M U N I T Y

LOVE OF FILMS & BEING ABLE TO EXPERIENCE THEM AS INTENDED, THAT COMMUNAL SHARING ASPECT, IS

VERY IMPORTANT! IT WAS LOVELY TO SEE THIS SLIDE PROJECTED-IT GIVES US ALL A BIT OF HOPE THAT

FILM GOING AUDIENCES WILL CONTINUE TO BE A PART OF OUR CULTURE. IRONIC, TO BLOG THIS, CONSIDERING

THAT THE BEWILDERING ARRAY OF ZEROS & ONES IS PART OF THE PROBLEM. PERHAPS IT WILL BECOME PART OF

SOLUTION! CONGRATULATIONS FOR THE MUTUAL SUPPORT & SHARING OF THIS UNIQUE ART FORM. APPLAUSE!

Linking & building appreciative film-going audiences is the important goal. This was terrific to see!

Happy Birthday-Johnny Depp-ON THE BRINK OF REALITY!

Last night was Midnites for Maniacs.  My confession is this:  I only got to see one of the films, the middle one, WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE.  I had just returned from my Kansas trip, my people, my father, my roots, the small towns that have been put on life support systems as they come into a New Century where they no longer seem to have an understandable role, individually & collectively.  Walmart has taken over small towns throughout America.–The park in Istanbul (which I prefer to call CONSTANTINOPLE) is not total digression.    When huge corporations tear @ the very fabric of life, the individual becomes an inconvenience.  I think this was a background message in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.  His small grocery store could not compete with the big one, and a hamburger chain came in their town, sort of like a stealth bomber, and started the take over process of consumer fast food right before their very eyes.

 

Johnny Depp is for me, what Mia Farrow is–an actor who had not taken the usual route, yet has achieved a level of fame & artistic integrity that seems to bring in audiences who are comprised of loyal, but independent thinkers.   It will be interesting to see what Johnny Depp does (if he continues) as an older man in a world where many of us are invisible simply because of our age.  We are passed over for job promotions that are well within our reach & gain admission to see films as senior citizens simply because the people who work the ticket booths don’t look up to really see us–and we go, a dozen years short of actually being ‘senior citizens,’ compromising our ethics due to our being invisible in a culture that enshrines youth at the expense of age. 

 

I hope that the parks in Constantinople* will be victorious to the morbid plans of corporate developers, that Johnny Depp will find a role that will address the issues of dealing with being invisible due to being older than 50, and that the parks of the world & Johnny Depp will have Happy Birthdays & be sources of inspirations for art, relaxation, wildlife, and peace of mind. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/31/istanbul-park-protests-turkish-spring

BENNY & JOON

WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE

Witnessing the playing out of the dysfunction within & without this family unit was an emotional overload.  This film is brilliant & has withstood the test of time very well. 

CRY BABY

John Waters–he manages to lighten things up & get us to think @ the same time.  It was good that he got Johnny Depp to agree to play this part.  

 

Wish Johnny Depp a Happy 50th Birthday!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Midnites For Maniacs–Souvenir Ticket

Last night’s theme that linked the films depicted in the ticket was “MENTORS MATTER.”   How true that is–even as you age, you can become a mentor, or seek one in an area of expertise, or even spiritual thinking, as long as you can avoid the master-slave relationship.  Jesse Hawthorne Ficks hosts this event on a near-montly basis, featuring 3 films “CELEBRATING OVERLOOKED & UNDERRATED CiNEMA iN A NEO-SiNCERE WAY.”   This venue has introduced me to films I certainly overlooked when they were first released & am glad he does this, as it has expanded my range of cinema going. In effect, Mr Ficks is a mentor himself!  Bravo!  May the shows continue. 

 

 

Last Night= ROCKY III, THE PROFESSIONAL, and STRANGE DAYS.