Double Feature

Unlikely Double Features

The Double Feature is a dying artform. Save for Grindhouse, going to the theater and seeing two films back to back is rare. Why not host double feature parties / DIY screenings? Here are a few of my ideas:

Babel and Lost in Translation

 Think about it: Japan, hospitals, travel admid marital difficulties, and of course, not being able to communicate.

The Cowboy and the Frenchman and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Cowboy and the Frenchman and a brilliantly weird David Lynch short film that's available on a recently released collection. I've been thinking for a while now what it would be like to see it in front of Luis Bunuel's surrealist/mannerist masterpiece. 

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First time I watched The Seventh Seal (1957), I was sooooo depressed. So I figure, why not follow it with Little Nicky (2000)?

The Illusionist (ho hum) or The Prestige (ho hum) and The Magician (Bergman magic)

Old and then young. Always cheers me up:

Julie Christie - Away from Her and Darling

Katherine Hepburn  - Long Day's Journey into Night and Little Women

Clint Eastwood - Million Dollar Baby and Revenge of the Creature

...and btw, the double feature is dead, but surfing at the Metroplex is alive and well. A bit of POTC, Harry Potter, Chuck and Larry,  and Transformers, and then the full Live Free or Die, and then a little Hairspray and Ratatouille and back to work... nothing better...

 And finally, my most enjoyable double-feature experience: slipping out of work, 1982, over to AMC. Me and two other patrons distributed maximally throughout the theater for Conan the Barbarian and Road Warrior,  with a giant coke and popcorn.  

Re: Unlikely Double Features

Ha, very nice Kevin.

I think the movie Grindhouse was a double feature, because my impression was the double features generally were more suited for grindhouse type movies.  Or at least movies movies that were more on the action end of the spectrum as opposed to drama.

But pretty interesting to have an art movie style double feature.  I think the difficult thing about that is that movies like this usually leave you thinking afterwards and if you saw two of them it might be too much for your mind to take.  If the first movie was especially like that it may be hard to concentrate on the second one.

I had a friend who went out and saw two movies (I think it was Good Night, and Good Luck and Capote) in the same afternoon.  He said they were both amazing but he felt like he short changed himself by seeing them together because he couldn't think about each one individually because they were fighting for his brain's attention.

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In the 40s and early 50s, it was all double features, except for the occasional Gone With The Wind-type exception. Two movies played Monday through Wednesday, and two Thursday through Sunday (actually, I can't remember which pair got Thursday). There would be an A picture and a B picture, sort of like the A and B sides on pop records. Some folks would just come for the A show and then go home. The A show always played in the prime-time slot.

Later, when TV took over and theaters began running single features, grindhouses ran low-budget and second-run movies, and nobody was going to pay to see just one of those. In fact, in the end, most of them were running three or four features at a time.

Or so I remember it. 

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The idea that the two movies somehow blend together is what i'm interested in. See Capote and Good Night on the same day might be a mistake, espeically if you're seeing them for the first time. i guess i'm interested in the home-brew double feature because it could be a way to get more out of the movies than you could get watching them separately, not less. kind of like combining flavors in a dish. just yesterday the guy working at the deli down the street told Paul and i to try honey on tuna. never would have thought of that.

here's an example of a double feature that i think would bring out aspects of each film that wouldn't surface otherwise:

Predator and Kindergarten Cop 

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porcupine:

here's an example of a double feature that i think would bring out aspects of each film that wouldn't surface otherwise:

Predator and Kindergarten Cop 

Porcupine, if you put up a pair like that, you need to splain it. My first guess is that you had to help out in a kindergarten class one time and it totally freaked you out?

(But no. If you were comparing kindergarten children to predators, like I hoped, you would have put the movies in the opposite order. So I guess this is like Fistful of Dollars and Bronco Billy or Terminator and Junior.)

In which case I offer Going My Way and Bad Education.

Perspectives on war:

Letters from Iwo Jima and We Were Soldiers

Paths of Glory and Jarhead

Times change:

Max and Der Untergang (Downfall)

Pan's Labyrinth and L'Auberge Espagnole

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The Children's Hour (1961) and Boys Don't Cry (1999)

 Both films deal with sexuality issues, but in different ways.  I think they were both revolutionary and important for their time.