Movie Night: The Virgin Aquatic with Quills

Another intense movie-watching experience: eyes glued from one movie to the next with nary a second to catch a bite to eat. Okay, I lied, eating is the most crucial activity of all; it beats even watching movies. But other than those lengthy breaks for food, the night was devoted to nothing but movies.

After hastily arriving at Steff's house, we decided to do our part in fighting obesity by walking all the way to Video Signals (a distance much shorter than I just made it sound.) The journey was uneventful except for the 4 mosquitoes that I managed to feed. Remind me to never hang out with Steff outside. Somehow, she is even more mosquito-repellant than I am, a remarkable feat since I usually never get bites.

As soon as we figured out how to connect the VCR (old school VHS version of The Virgin Suicides necessitated this), we hit the couch in anticipation of a heavy night of cinema. Our stomachs demanded nourishment after the first movie, so we ransacked the kitchen to "cook." Our creation was an "omelet," more properly described as eggs + oil + pepper + cheese + random contents of the fridge, which was washed down with Coke and (possibly expired) peanut butter--a taste of college life indeed.

But yes, most important of all: The Films! Strangely enough, Steff and I had similar reactions to all of them, even the 3 minutes of A Woman is a Woman.

The Virgin Suicides (Coppola, 2000)
Having loved Jeffrey Eugenides' haunting novel, I eagerly awaited Sofia Coppola's adaptation of The Virgin Suicides, also her feature debut. It is the inherent trap of adaptations that they are judged according the quality of the original work, in which case Coppola's film comes up short by much more than a razor's edge. Her film is too slight to pack the emotional weight of the novel; the script glosses over too much to find depth in its characters. Coppola is torn between balancing the boys who narrate the tale and the Libson family, and the result is a skim off the top of both. On a more positive note, this was the first, and probably last time I liked either Kirsten Dunst or Josh Hartnett in a movie.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Anderson, 2004)
When we were renting this movie, the guy warned us that it was "awful" and that he walked out "after the first 5 minutes." This put a severe damper on expectations, something that probably turned out for the best. Because The Life Aquatic so surprised me with its exuberance, its excitement, its humor, its vibrancy, its energy, its wit, its life. The Life Aquatic is clearly the work of a deft filmmaker with a vision and a love for cinema. I've always felt that Anderson's weakness was in creating an amazing cast of characters but giving them nothing to do. No such quibbles here, because the sprawling cast is both pitch perfect and provided with an adventure to boot. Someone once wrote that Anderson creates hyper reality within abstract worlds, and he does this perfectly, wrapping everything up in a purely enjoyable story.

Fangirl fawning: Wes was so hot in the extra features! Holy crap, he looks so good with longer hair. Compare with dorky guy in The Royal Tenenbaums. 0_0
Random movie geek trivia tangent: Sofia Coppola and Wes Anderson are good friends. Anderson, a frequent collaborator with Bill Murray, helped convince Murray to star in Coppola's Lost in Translation.

Quills (Kaufman, 2000)
“Conversation, like certain portions of the anatomy, always runs more smoothly when lubricated.” Such deliciously lurid prose, as spoken and written by the notorious Marquis de Sadem, spices the dialogue of Quills, a highly fictional account of the Marquis’s last days. Quills is an engaging romp—juggling dark wit, tension and sordid pleasure—with plenty of sexy accents and pretty costumes. The cast is excellent, the story captivating, and the dialogue sordid. My God, a truly enjoyable film.

A Woman is a Woman (Godard, who knows)
Whoa, back up here because I watched all of 3 minutes of this film. We decided that an old French movie with shoddy sound and subtitles was too much for 3 AM and went channel surfing instead. Good choice.