Weird people and THE FRENCH CONNECTION

This city is full of odd folk. And yes, every city is full of odd folk, but I swear to God, San Francisco, California has more nuts per square mile than other spot in America that doesn't have padded walls and wooden baton wielding nurses. Over the course of the last month or so I've encountered a few and I thought, hell, why not introduce you folk at least to small bit of my city. The excessively weird bit:

1. Yesterday, I'm walking home from Duc Loi, the super-cheap Asian grocery store nestled directly behind my house, and as I'm walking I step past a churning pile of pigeons gorging themselves on feed. This isn't a rare sight, especially in The Mission, so I keep walking. I take the corner though and feel a breeze whip over my head, look up and the entire pile 'o' pigeons is dive bombing over my head, intent on another pile of unknown edibles. I'm a little baffled, so I look around to see why this flock of pigeons are migrating down the street and what do I see? A sketchy woman peering across a car, her hand full of bird food, tempting the pigeons down the street. Now I don't know if she was looking for a tasty dinner of stringy pigeon meat or just wanted to bring home some friends, but yeesh, if this didn't push me in to the house a little quicker than usual.

2. Weeks ago, I stumble, boozy and exhausted on to the 14 to the Ferry Building where I work. I'm surrounded by geriatric Asian women and angered that for whatever reason this bus stops every single street. No joke, once a block, like clockwork. Somewhere between 10th and 5th, a twenty-something woman gets on the bus, disheveled and wearing what might be the fakest wig I've ever seen. But she isn't wearing it as a joke, or as a costume, she's wearing this nappy weave as if it's her real hair. She just sort of stares at me hungover and staring at her hair and gets off at the next stop. Pretty much made my morning.

3. Three days ago. It's ten 'o' clock or so and I'm walking to the video store to drop off a finished Criterion film and pick up whatever's next (sadly I think it's Hamlet (82)). I'm talking to my brother on the phone and not paying attention when I look up to see a man wearing only a white leather tiger striped vest, white leather pants, a pair of white sunglasses, and white leather boots, holding a white guitar case and singing at the top of his lungs. As I walk past he pulls out a pair of drum sticks waves them in the air and yells something completely unintelligible. I walk faster. On my return trip, he's gone. Lord knows where.

That's just three I pulled off the top of my head. God I love living in a city.

Everyone in the whole world who loves a good movie should see The French Connection. I know, I'm supposed to be writing about Criterion movies, but Alex and I abandoned Ozu last night in favor of William Friedkin's beloved modern classic and I couldn't have been happier. You've seen clips from this film. You've seen Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) standing the street, staring up at the train line, a look of such rabid determination flashing across his face you're almost fearful of what he'll do next. You've seen the shooting on the stares. You've seen all this because this is a famous, famous film from the 1970s.

And I can't believe it took me this long to watch it.

I'm almost happy it took me this long, because watching it as a pseudo-adult I think I saw the greater issues at hand in the film. On the surface, this is a crime film, a story of two police officers and their obsessive quest to find out why a Frenchie, a low-rent Italian hood, and a whole host of hoods are collaborating in the seediest era of New York City. At it's heart though this is the story of Popeye Doyle, a man obsessed with solving a crime, solving a crime by any means necessary. There's illegal shakedowns, shoot-outs in broad daylight, stunning car chases (and I mean this, this is one of the great car scenes you'll ever see in a movie, riveting and frightening all at the same time), and of course Gene Hackman just chewing the scenery like a seasoned pro. What's great about this movie is it doesn't pander to a stupid action-flick audience. We know almost nothing about Popeye Doyle and his partner Cloudy Russo (Rod Schneider), just that they love to drink, seemingly have no families, and for some unknown reason NEED to solve this case. And that's all we get, two obsessed detectives burying the hurt of their lives beneath a need to solve crime.

It's a beautiful, tragic film, and it deserved all the awards it won. I sat their last night, mouth agape at how good this film was 'till the very last frame. The ending, bleak and disturbing, brings this film home exactly the way I wanted. Afterwards, inspired, Alex and I looked up what the real French Connection was and have already put the John Frankenheimer sequel on the Netflix queue.

You haven't seen this film yet? Get the hell off the computer! Get out there, rent this film!

Wednesday: Good Morning (84)

MOVIE ORGY!

I usually watch a lot of movies. There was a period of time where I'd made it such a ritual in my life to stagger through a few minutes of a movie before I fell asleep at night, I became unable to sleep without the constant presence of some sort of cinematic vision on screen. I would try and try but without the smash cuts and lingering tracking shots of a film I'd be wide awake, my own thoughts tumbling about in my mind.

Of course though in regards to my filmic intake, it ebbs and flows. A lot of the time I'm obsessive, striving to watch two or three movies a day, and others I'm a movie sloth, finishing one film over the course of weeks and weeks. Right now, I'm at a near peak in terms of movie consumption. I've been blowing through Criterion films and documentaries like candy and it's been, well, fucking exciting. I thought I'd share some of the non-Criterion films I'd been watching, you know, to perhaps talk about a few films we've all actually seen.

1. Plagues and Pleasures on The Salton Sea dir. Chris Metzler

This is great little documentary about an area of California referred to as the Salton Sea. It's an accidental sea created by salty run-off that at one point was considered to be the French Riviera of the state. Unfortunately due to pollution and ignorance the lake turned in to a salty sort of fishy-death trap. This film follows the Sea's history while showcasing the residents who continue to live near its barren shores. John Waters, he of Flamingo fame narrates. It's quirky and wacky and there's a lot of fish and bird death. I found it quite entertaining.

2. American Swing dir. Matthew Kaufman & Jon Hart

This film has the makings of an excellent documentary. It's the story of a truly sex-tastic, well, swinger's club in New York City called Plato's Retreat and the owner who battled police and censorship to allow it to thrive. Sounds fascinating right? Well, this documentary was not. It was interesting but moved at an inconsistent rate and couldn't figure out if it wanted to be a film about sex in the '70s, censorship in general, or just a story about a bunch of people who really enjoyed getting it on. There are great interviews, but I found the film only slightly entertaining when I was expecting far more.

3. Milk dir. Gus Van Sant

I already talked about this film two days ago, but it's a part of the filmic orgy so I'll bring it up again. This is a good film that should've been great about an amazing figure and an amazing movement. I wanted to be more inspired, but it definitely opened the floor for some great discussion at my house. Regardless, the acting is fantastic, and Sean Penn certainly deserved this Oscar.

4. Made In U.S.A. (481) dir. Jean Luc Goddard

This is actually on it's way to becoming a Criterion film, but I saw it at the amazing Castro Theatre as a part of its road show. I'll blame a taxing road trip and the beauty of the theatre, but I slept through most of this oddball take on the American crime film. It was strange, and the parts I caught were quite interesting, but I can't have a full take on the film as I was curled up in Slumberland for the majority of it.

Four films! That's a shit-ton and that's while finishing a record four Criterion films in a week. I'm positively assured to not hit this mark again as I have two hours of Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (82) to slog through this weekend, but still, not bad right?

Friday: Variety Lights (81)