A special showing with Walt Curtis in the audience and answering questions after, so this was a treat. I love the attention to detail in this movie, the threadbare shirt, the blinking light in the kitchen, the signs in the store. Someday I’d like to do a compare/contrast of the same streets today.
Cost: $4.00
Where watched: 5th Avenue Cinemas. (My first visit! They had free popcorn!)
Poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1988/mala_noche.html
Not a big Van Sant fan. Is this one of his earliest films? I was surprised when I looked it up to see that it came out in 86.
This is his very first film! I think Criterion says it came out in 1985, but Walt Curtis tells me it was filmed in 1983. It's interesting to think of film audiences in the mid-80s watching two men have sex on film. But not, you know, in a porno theater. It's not super graphic, but even watching it now it made me realize how rare male-on-male sex is in movies, or the movies I watch.
Also, fun fact from the Q&A after. The apartment where the main character lives was Walt Curtis's apartment. He said he lived there for 14 years and paid $145.00 per month for rent. I think he gave the address as 133 NW 18th. Right across from the Catholic Church.
In one part in the movie the actor carves something into the apartment door of the main character and that was already carved there. He had to pretend to carve it.
I just think ii is so fantastic to get the insider's take on the film. Was there a special reason they were showing it? And truth about heteronormativity; it is everywhere!
And yes. That term is brought to you by my PhD. Not sure why I never really heard it before this last semester.