I'm making my way over to the Revue more often than I would have expected, but I still don't think I will really make a habit of it, and I don't think it would be worth it to get a membership there. On New Year's Day, I saw Waking Life, which is an animated film by Richard Linklater. I thought it was interesting but definitely too long. Indeed, the main character "The Dreamer" starts commenting towards the end that he has been trying to wake up but just keeps ending up in a different dream. There is even a guy who turns up to explain what lucid dreaming is, and how one of the key "tells" is that you can't change the lighting level in a dream, so if you switch a light switch in a dream and nothing happens, then you know you are in a dream. I think this is a movie I would have enjoyed a lot more in my 20s. I don't want to get into a long discussion of my dreams, though I will say they have generally been a lot more involved in the last year or so, and usually are just crammed full of details, like me looking over full bookcases or tables full of stuff, as at a jumble sale. It's kind of impressive just how much mental energy must go into that.
While I was there, I asked about getting tickets to Withnail and I on Friday, but they were sold out. The young woman working the ticket booth said that almost everyone that showed up and got into the rush line eventually got in. I debated it for a while, then decided I would do that. I left work a bit early, though not when I had planned to leave, and caught the Kitchener train with 3 minutes to spare! It was a cold evening. I remember hoping that they would just take our info in line and then we could go somewhere else, and I was debating if I had time to make it over to MOCA and back or not. Or alternatively, if they said there was no hope in getting in, I would have stopped in at MOCA. I have seen the current exhibits at MOCA, so I didn't feel that it was critical I get back over there, but it would have been something to do. That didn't happen, however. We just stood in line in the cold for 45 minutes, but we did all get in in the end. What was particularly frustrating is if it had been just a few degrees warmer, I could have gotten quite a bit of reading in while waiting in the line, and I would have finished the 3rd Maqroll novella Un Bel Morir. I only just finished this up last night, so I would have been pretty deep into the 4th novella by now.
I will say that being quite cold, particularly in my toes, was probably good training for the film, where the characters are cold in London and then cold and wet and particularly miserable in the countryside. I certainly thought it was an interesting though squalid film. I'm pretty sure the reason I didn't want to see it back in the day was just how claustrophobic it all felt when Monty shows up and tries to seduce Paul McGann's character. I may or may not have been aware back in the day (from other critics) just how much gay panic runs through the entire film, and this aspect of the film is still very hard to tolerate. I had a bit of a toxic friendship that lasted into my early 20s, though I certainly didn't get up to the same sort of hijinks that these two did, but I hadn't broken away when the film had first come out, so it might not have spoken to me in the same way if I had seen it fairly early on after its original release. Or indeed, maybe it would have hastened the breakup, but most likely not, as the events that really led up to our breakup didn't happen for years afterwards. (I'm sure I had a few opportunities to catch the film at second-run theatres in Toronto or Chicago in the early to mid 90s, but there was a long stretch in the 90s when I didn't have a TV and obviously not a VHS player or DVD player, which is why I do have lots of gaps particularly for movies from this era.)
Towards the end of the month, the Revue is showing La Dolce Vita, and I already have my tickets for that, so no rush line for me! It will be almost 10 years since I saw it (for the first time!) over at TIFF. How time flies! I noted back then that I had wanted to see Amarcord but couldn't make it work out. I did see Amarcord over at the Revue in 2023, and this was likely the first time I had been over there.
They have been advertising a few other movies they are showing there, including Antonioni's L'Avventura. I debated it for a while but decided it was worth checking this out as well, so I ordered tickets to that. I have seen Blow Up over at the Paradise. I am sure I saw The Red Desert, mostly likely out in Vancouver, though I am not sure if I did see this in a theatre or not. I'm pretty sure I saw one but possibly two Antonioni films on the big screen while I was there. If I had to guess, I would say it was L'Eclisse. I don't think I have seen La Notte, which features Marcello Mastroianni, covering one day and night in his character's life. I probably should watch it either right before or right after La Dolce Vita. Or before Linklater's Before trilogy. It turns out that the Revue is showing all 3 in a row in early Feb., and I decided I might as well go to that. I do wish they had a special pass to see them together, but they aren't doing that. Too bad. This may well be too much of a good thing, but I've always been at least a little curious about these films, none of which I've seen.
I would say that the Revue is pretty much my ideal 2nd run movie theatre, though the bathrooms are a bit grotty and too small. I do like the Paradise a bit more, but there are weeks when they are hardly showing any movies (and the bathroom situation isn't much better though at least the fixtures are newer). The Fox now generally shows one or two movies for an entire week and nothing else, and it is just so far to get to on TTC and there really aren't many good dining options out that way. The screens at Carlton are a bit too small. The Royal has still not recovered from COVID and doesn't show many movies at all. TIFF really does not show nearly enough older movies, and I am pretty fed up with their ticketing policies and how they never have enough seats available for older foreign movies. But between all of them, there are definitely a lot of movies to be seen. I have to run for now. Ciao!
