As the latest Twilight fan-fic opens nationwide, it seems only fitting that I finally get around to writing something about a South Korean vampire film I watched a few weeks ago at The Uptown Theatre. Now most people know director Park Chan-wook for his Vengeance trilogy (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance) or possibly for his segment from the horror film Three Extremes making him one of the better known foreign language film makers in the US. So when I heard he’d be making a vampire film, I was excited at the possibilities, but I got something I never expected.
Thirst follows the story of a priest who undergoes an experimental treatment, during the course of which a blood transfusion transforms him into a vampire. Soon he discovers that if he doesn’t feed, that his disease will return, thus he must soon abandon his morality in order to survive. But that is scarcely his furthest fall.
You see, our priest has a secret, he’s in love with his friend’s wife. And his hunger isn’t simply for blood, but for other things just as carnal. Thus, our intrepid hero must slowly abandon his faith in order to satiate his growing desires. And that’s when Thirst truly blossoms into a modern masterpiece of film making.
While Thirst is a morality play to be sure, and it is full of horror elements, at its heart it is a romance, though a very twisted and dysfunctional one to be sure. As our priest falls deeper in love with the woman of his desires, he makes a rather foolish step that propels the two of them into an unending struggle for dominance of their lives, their relationship and of their hunger.
Following in the footsteps of last year’s outstanding vampire film Let the Right One In, Thirst creates complex and realistic characters that are thrust into worlds they can scarcely imagine let alone control, try as they might. These are people with faults and flaws, and simply craving the taste of blood won’t change that, but it just might amplify their flaws. Thirst simply isn’t just the best vampire movie of the year, its one of the year’s best movies, period.
Great news for the next midnight movie series out at The Uptown Theatre, as one of the upcoming films is the John Carpenter classic (and arguably his best film) The Thing will be playing on December 18th at the slightly misnomer-esque 11:45 PM time slot. Why the excitement? Because prints for The Thing had only been available for reel-to-reel projectors, that is, up until now. As a brand new print has been struck for the more modern platter-style projection systems and that print will be headed our way for this midnight screening.
John Carpenter’s The Thing
Saturday, Dec. 18
Uptown Theatre
11:45 PM l $9
So the Internet is a flutter with the release of the latest trailer for A Serious Man, the Coen Brother’s new film. Shot around Minneapolis, and being centered on their hometown of St Louis Park, A Serious Man is a dark comedy set in 1967 about nice guy who always finishes last. Populated with local actors, the film looks to be a loving tribute to the town that the Coen’s grew up in, you know, like Fargo. But what most people don’t know, including the Internet, is that A Serious Man exists because of me (and my boss).
You see the Coens and their cinematographer Roger Deakins were in town shooting some footage on the film stock they wanted to use for the film. But they wanted to see how the film stock would look up on the big screen. A few nights earlier our theatre hosted an event for Tippi Hedren and he met several people involved with film here in Minnesota. When A Serious Man Executive Producer Robert Graf started inquiring on a theatre they could take a look at their test footage, our theatre was the first one to be recommended.
When Robert Graf called I was the Manager on Duty and I was happy to work out an agreement where Robert could come in and we would thread up the film for him to take a look at it. I knew Roger Deakins was in town, so I assumed that he would be the one making the decision.
The day I picked for Robert and Roger to come by to come by both me and my boss were working. I made sure to bring a copy of my DVD of The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford, because Roger Deakins was the cinematographer on it, and it is easily one of my favorite films. I figured since we were letting them use our theatre for free (they offered to pay and we declined), that getting Roger to sign my DVD was a pretty cool trade.
Robert was the first to arrive and my boss was who answered the door. They said hello to each other and my boss introduced me to Robert. My boss asked him if he had the film with him so he could thread up, and Robert simply replied that he didn’t have it, but that Roger, Joel and Ethan did and they would be right in once they parked the car.
It was less then five minutes before the Coen’s and Roger Deakins showed up at our door, but it felt like years. Its not often you get to meet your favorite cinematographer AND your favorite living film makers. Granted I’ve met a few actors and film makers over the years of working at the theatre, but this was leaps and bounds ahead of anything else.
My boss took the film and went up to the booth to thread everything up. He later told me that he had never been so frightened in threading up a film, knowing that it was showing for the Coen’s and Roger Deakins and that it was to see if they would use this film stock for A Serious Man.
But while he was upstairs threading up the film, I had to make small talk with people not exactly known for being gregarious and outgoing. With Joel talking with Roger I decided to ask a few questions to Ethan. Nothing was particularly deep or probing, they dealt more with how often they make it back to St Louis Park and if they still have any family in town, but Ethan seemed to have no problems simply “shooting the shit” if you will, with me. Sure it was obvious that neither of the Coen’s is particularly outgoing, as hey both appeared visibly uncomfortable at first, but I think the fact I was not drooling all over them helped set them at ease.
Once my boss had the film threaded the Coen’s headed up stairs to watch the footage. We had a one sheet for Burn After Reading up since it would be opening in the next week or so, and both the Coen’s and Roger were particularly interested in it. None of them had seen the one sheet yet, and all three remarked that they liked it a great deal. I was stunned to discover that they hadn’t been involved in the marketing of the film, as it was quite obvious they had never seen the one sheet at all. I had always assumed they were the type that have a hand in every aspect of their film, marketing or otherwise, yet here was definitive proof that they only focused on making the movie.
Once the impromptu screening was finished, the group came downstairs and my boss and I asked them to sign a few things for us and the theatre. Roger had wandered off a bit, probably assuming that we would only be interested in having the Coen’s sign things, but instead I said that I wanted him to sign my DVD, as it was my favorite film of the past year. Roger smiled, made a snide remark to the Coen’s, something like “Suck on that boys.” and happily obliged. Now that wasn’t exactly what he said, but it certainly cut through any remaining tension or apprehension that might have existed. From that moment on all three were laid back and, sure enough, gregarious.
We ended up having all three of them sign a poster of No Country for Old Men for the theatre, and then my boss had them sign a Blood Simple poster for him. Sure enough, they hadn’t ever seen that poster either. But while all that was happening, something rather unexpected occurred.
Joel and Roger were having a conversation. Well, no so much of a conversation as Joel was excitedly describing a movie to Roger. Over and over I kept hearing him proclaim “It was fucking amazing!” and as I kept listening, I soon realized which movie he was talking about, it was Man on Wire. Evidently Joel had seen it at The Uptown Theatre while they were in town, and was trying to convince Roger to go see it. It was quite the thrill to see him so passionate about a move he clearly loved. It was an extra added bonus to what was already an experience that had shot past surreal thirty minutes earlier.
I only have one regret about that morning. You see we have an ax hammer in our theatre’s toolbox, for what I don’t know. But since neither my boss or I had seen Burn After Reading, neither of us knew just how integral a role an axe hammer would play in the film. As great as it was to have the three of them sign a No Country for Old Men poster for the theatre, getting the Coen’s to sign an axe hammer would have been truly amazing and downright hilarious.
So there you have it, the tale of how the film stock for A Serious Man was picked. So when you watch the film, make sure to remember that if it wasn’t for me, you would be watching a completely different movie.
An absolute ton of new additions this week, including Humpday, Spread, The Damned United, New York I Love You, Coco Before Chanel and An Education. But the one I am most excited about, and never thought possible is the inclusion of the animated film 9. I’m incredibly excited to see it, as it is probably my most anticipated film of the year, and it certainly fits my idea of the type of mainstream films I’m more then happy for the Lagoon to show.
*** – Denotes recommended viewing
All dates subject to change
07/15 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Lagoon
07/17 Treeless Mountain Lagoon
07/17 Tetro Edina (tentative)***
07/24 500 Days of Summer Uptown
07/24 Betty Blue: The Director’s Cut Lagoon***
07/24 Seraphine Edina (tentative)
07/31 In the Loop Uptown
07/31 $9.99 Lagoon ***
07/31 Soul Power Lagoon (tentative)
07/31 Shrink Lagoon/Edina
07/31 The Merry Gentlemen Edina
07/31 Humpday Lagoon (NEW)
08/07 The Cove Uptown***
08/07 The End of the Line Lagoon
08/07 The Answer Man Edina
08/14 Not Quite Hollywood Lagoon***
08/14 Adam Edina
08/14 Ponyo Edina ***
08/14 Spread Lagoon (NEW)
08/21 Inglorious Bastards Lagoon***
08/21 Lorna’s Silence Edina
08/28 Cold Souls Uptown ***
08/28 The World’s Greatest Dad Lagoon ***
08/28 Taking Woodstock Lagoon***
08/28 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg Edina
08/29 The Adventures of Robin Hood Edina (One Night Only) ***
08/30 The Bride of Frankenstein Edina (One Night Only) ***
08/30 It Happened One Night Edina (One Night Only) ***
09/04 Thirst Lagoon ***
09/04 Afghan Star Lagoon
09/04 My One and Only Edina
09/09 9 Lagoon (NEW) ***
09/11 The Baader Meinhof Complex Uptown
09/11 Captain Abu Raed Lagoon
09/18 The Beaches of Agnes Edina
09/18 Burning Plain Edina /Lagoon
09/25 Somers Town Lagoon***
09/25 Paris Edina
10/02 Amreeka Edina
10/09 Earth Days Lagoon
10/09 The Damned United Lagoon (NEW)
10/16 Still Walking Lagoon
10/16 New York, I Love You Lagoon (NEW)
10/16 Coco Before Chanel Edina (NEW)
10/23 The Horse Boy Lagoon
10/23 An Education Uptown (NEW)
I apologize for the terrible trailer, for what I hear is a pretty good movie. I only hear because I didn’t attend the screening of In the Loop this morning, because I was too busy watching The Hurt Locker until 4 am last night. Which is a good movie, and certainly better then this terrible trailer.
Interest level: Exhausted
In the Loop opens exclusively at The Uptown Theatre on July 31st.
As the latest Twilight fan-fic opens nationwide, it seems only fitting that I finally get around to writing something about a South Korean vampire film I watched a few weeks ago at The Uptown Theatre. Now most people know director Park Chan-wook for his Vengeance trilogy (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance) or possibly for his segment from the horror film Three Extremes making him one of the better known foreign language film makers in the US. So when I heard he’d be making a vampire film, I was excited at the possibilities, but I got something I never expected.
Entries (RSS)