Someone (Frisoli I think) mentioned a few posts back how the New Beverly in Hollywood sucks. To this I think we all agree. But let’s for a moment champion the idea of the intelligent double feature, depsite the fact that the New Bev provides few, if any. This is a simple exercise: what would be an ideal double feature? Forget, for a moment, the typical New Bev 2x (such as The Godfather and The Godfather, Pt. II) and let your imaginations run wild. If you were in charge of booking at the New Bev, and you had an unlimited budget, what double features would you show? I’ll start things off:
Monsieur Beaucaire (1946) and Love and Death (1975)
The Graduate (1967) and Donnie Darko (2001)
The Ladies Man (1961) and Tout va bien (1972)
Mean Streets (1973) and Bad Lieutenant (1992)
If you want to suggest a double feature, I encourage you to provide a sentence or two that explains how each film complements the other. I’m too tired right now. Maybe I’ll do that later.
I dont want to watch two movies.
That’s too many. One is plenty.
Do something else. Get some exercise.
Mark, you don’t have to watch both movies. You can just sit in the bathroom stall.
Murder by Death and Murder, My Sweet
Both have murder in the title. Actually, both have very funny lines and some whacked-out hallucinating, too.
Big Trouble in Little China and Kung Fu Hustle.
Edward Scissorhands and Halloween.
Does he have to sit?
Kung Fu Hustle? Watched it last night. For about twenty minutes I thought this is going to be great, but then repetition set in and the comic bits grew stale and I grew bored.
Code Unknown and Crash
Fanny and Alexander and Bullets over Broadway
Grave of the Fireflies and Nobody Knows
War of the Worlds and The Toxic Avenger
Secondhand Lions and Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer
The Purple Rose of Cairo and the BBC’s The Singing Detective
Now that’s one long night at the theatre!
a long night at the theater? try watching a double bill of L’Avventura and Last Year at Marienbad, something I did in San Francisco many years ago….I kept “holding it” because I didn’t want to miss the moment when something decisive might happen. I enjoyed both, but my bladder has never been the same.
Dawn of the Dead and Scenes from a Mall
Peyton Place or Some Came Running and Blue Velvet
The Wages of Fear and The Wild Bunch
The Professionals and The Wild Bunch
The Nutty Professor and Ed Gein
Zabriskie Point and The Road Warrior
Point Blank and Collateral
Le Samourai and Taxi Driver
Prime Cut and Hoosiers
The Breakfast Club and River’s Edge
The Shawshank Redemption and Desperate Living
Just a few ideas—if anyone has the capital I’m ready to throw out the academic life and manage a second-run theater. By the way, I am moving to something called Bowling Green Ohio, where it is unlikely that I will ever see anything other than a “blockbuster†movie—at least in a theater—ever again. help me….
my mistake..I meant Female Trouble not Desperate Living.
also Persona and Eyes without a Face, proving the frequent superiority of disreputable genre over serious artiness.
8 1/2 and The Pickle.
Top Hat and Dead Alive.
If you are moving to Bowling Green, Ohio due to a recent hire then I say CONGRATULATIONS. If you’re just moving to Ohio for the hell of it then I’m keeping mum.
Dead Alive does have a good dance sequence….
Bowling Green, I seem to remember had a rather well respected Cultural Studies program back in the day when I was searching out additional degrees. The fact that the word “Green” was followed by the initials “OH” kept me from getting too comfortable with the idea. Congrats on the gig Michael.
White Dog, Because of Winn-Dixie and Baxter
Downfall and Nixon
I forgot all about Baxter… That’s funny.
All right, I wasn’t going to play, but:
Bad Boy Bubby and Stevie.
OK, “Once Upon a Time in the West” and “Unforgiven” because they are my favorite westerns (except “Wild Bunch” which already got several mentions). I could make a case here, something about gunfighters trying to escape their past (that may be every western, certainly “Shane”), and failing. But mostly they are bloody wonderful movies. Both have superb pacing, and I could watch the scene at the train station waiting for Bronson every night for a year. Also, you get Morgan Freeman before he just started caricaturing himself, and great, great Gene Hackman.
I drove through Toledo (home of Bowling Green) not two hours ago, and as Ohio goes, it’s a nice town. If you want to see a decent movie, Ann Arbor is less than a hour away.
Congrats on the gig, Michael. My brother went to B.G.S.U., about a decade ago. It’s flat.
Baxter! Now I’m going to be saying that all day long.
Thief and Bottle Rocket.
Oh yeah, forgot this:
Jeff said “Kung Fu Hustle? Watched it last night. For about twenty minutes I thought this is going to be great, but then repetition set in and the comic bits grew stale and I grew bored.”
Wrong.
Oh, and congrats to John, too, for finally removing the taint of sin from his relationship with Alicia.
Grease and Never on a Sunday.
Thank you all for your congratulations. Chris–I will definitely check out Ann Arbor when I can. Mike–any traces of your brother remaining in BG, say a carving in a frat house paddle I should look for? does he have pleasant memories of the place, especially his writing courses? I will be in Flatland as of Saturday. the nice double pairing of The Wizard of Oz and Badlands comes to mind.
We had many meal-time conversations featuring this question. Thanks for saving my marriage (Pete hates that I eavesdrop on other people while we dine).
My cousin Stephanie suggested Jungle Fever and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Her husband gave us American Beauty and American Pie. The rest are Pete and/or me:
Leaving Las Vegas and Days of Wine and Roses (to drive you to the edge of suicide)
Camille Claudel and Breaking the Waves (to drive you to feminism)
Parallax View and Manchurian Candidate
Midnight Run and Down By Law
Free Willy and Jaws
We were trying to think of a good small movie to go with The Good Girl. Suggestions?
The Good Girl and The Secretary, or Office Space?
Which Free Willy? Indeed, which Jaws? All superb in their own way, but to match them up would be delicate work.
“the good girl” and “rodger dodger”? or maybe “andrei rublev”?
how about matching films by mood and not just theme? or opposing films. for example, “out of sight” and “jackie brown”–two very different ways of doing elmore leonard.
“the seventh seal” and any film about a family with a disturbed son who adopts a lovable seal.
Gentle Ben & Grizzly Man
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster & Ordinary People
The Polar Express & Track 29
The Lost Weekend & Drunken Master
“The Aristocrats” and “Jackass: The Movie” would be one of the funniest double-bills around.
Arnab, there is nothing small about Andrei Rublev, the 2nd worst movie I’ve ever watched. And I was studying Russian.
nikki, has living in philadelphia so quickly destroyed your sense of humour?
“andrei rublev” is a great movie regardless. i note that you also hated “fanny and alexander”. to quote bruns: “j’accuse!”
No, I just hate Andrei Rublev with a passion that blinds me. I still want those four hours–oh, okay three hours and twenty five minutes–of my life back. I think it’s being in such close proximity to Stokes Hall (where I watched it lo these many years ago) that makes me so crazy. And don’t forget, I’m only on the blog because I have the worst taste in movies. Oh, except for your penchant for seeing Summer Blockbusters.
Track 29! What a great damn movie. It has one of my favorite opening shots of all time–Gary Oldman at the edge of some bucolic road, arm extended and thumb up to hitchhike. John Lennon’s screaming “Mother” on the soundtrack, and Oldman doesn’t move, so it looks like a freeze-frame, until you notice a dog wander on and up to Oldman’s legs, before running off.
I should probably set aside my Stuart Gordon tribute to pay homage to Dennis Potter.
Runaway Train and Silver Streak.