My son here for a few days to visit, time to catch him up on Culture. I'm forever recommending him books and films, and he's forever making notes never to see them, so - trapped in my company for a couple of days we take in a few classics.
First of all Art Bell & David Paulides - The first - host of Coast to Coast AM Radio - excellent listening for the long drives, and the second, for his unique take on Missing People in the wilderness. (Missing 411).
Which are wonderfully disquieting things to listen to when you're up too late driving someplace too far and you need interesting company.
Which - while briefly here - and having listened to any number of the episodes - are easy to dismiss as the ravings of a lunatic or mental illness - but there's always the "What IF?".
By which I mean, what would you do if you saw something truly inexplicable? Like a close encounter with a Bigfoot - or UFO? Would you tell anyone? And how do you communicate experiences - such as "enlightenment" for example - via language to someone that hasn't shared the experience? How would you persuade them?
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Anyways, those two, merely to share a taste. Follow this up with "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" - Season 3, Episode 20 of the "X-Files" - with which he's not so familiar, but my personal favorite, which addresses the theme of "Truth" when dealing with extraordinary events, "Truth" as told from the various points of view and biases of the several witnesses who were there.
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Follow this with "The Evil Dead II" - which I've reviewed and recommended elsewhere here - and to him - only *busy busy boy* he's not yet seen.
He gets it. Or - at least he gets why I like it so much - for a completely schlock horror/comedy film it touches quite a few nerves. My nerves, at least.
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And now to: "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover". Starring - a very Sexy Helen Mirren, Tim Roth, Michael Gambon, etc, etc.
I billed this as "The Unicorn Chaser". My bad.
So, over thirty years since I've seen this - and - it upset me then - and upsets me still now. But I'm better able to make sense of it.
By which I mean I "got-it", when I saw it, the bullying privilege and bungling incompetence, Margaret Thatcher in Britain, etc, etc, BUT - Another 30 plus years in the world and I'm really getting it. Wow. Revise the accents, update the dialogue (and food - no more fine cuisine, use Chick-Fil-E and Taco-Bell,...) and here we are...
7 Years fine dining in Calgary. I get it.
It's a masterpiece. Don't read the reviews, they've been done by half-wits and eunuchs, cuckolds and idiots, watch it, it's trying, it's difficult, it's cinematically the equivalent of watching all of Van Gogh's (or Rembrandt's or Vermeer's) paintings in a single viewing, their life's understanding distilled into a movie, the aesthetics, the dialogue, the characters, it's never been more relevant - or topical.
The boy (so he says) loved it.