DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
The Amazing Mr. Bickford and Does Humor Belong in Music?
Frank Zappa and Congress are no strangers. It was over 20 years ago that the musician testified before a Senate subcommittee largely representing the interests of their wives and their little killjoy club, the Tipper Gore-led Parents’ Music Resource Center. Thankfully, at least one member of the Gore household ended up finding worthwhile dangers to devote time and energy towards. But in 1985, it was dirty language that was going to destroy the world, and Zappa, while not the most popular, certainly ranked high among the legions of the potty-mouthed. There is, then, a certain poetic justice in the fact that Congress’ very own library is now celebrating the man’s truly bizarro cinematic work with a mini-film festival.
Zappa never did anything quite like anyone before (or since), and his few forays into filmmaking bear the same try-anything sense of eclectic experimentalism that informed his music. This week the Library of Congress screens two hour-long selections. The first, The Amazing Mr. Bickford, may be familiar to those who’ve seen one of the few Zappa films readily available for home viewing, Baby Snakes. Mr. Bickford features the animation of Bruce Bickford, some of which also appeared in Snakes. It is essentially a series of claymation music videos for a series of Zappa compositions, and is as evocative of altered states of mind as one would expect. The second, Does Humor Belong in Music?, is essentially a concert film. Zappa, ever the innovator, actually recorded the visuals digitally, not such a common medium in 1985. These are both extremely difficult to find on any medium, so this LOC screening is a pretty rare event. The festival concludes a week later, December 8, with a screening of Zappa’s best known film, 200 Motels.
Watch some clips from The Amazing Mr. Bickford.
Monday at 7 p.m. at the Library of Congress’ Mary Pickford Theater. Free, though reservations are recommended to guarantee seats to popular programs (202. 707.5677).
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Gus Van Sant’s last couple of historically-influenced films have been marked (and criticized by the short-sighted) more for their departures from the events they were inspired by than any commitment to verisimilitude. But what made Elephant‘s tragically beautiful depiction of Columbine and Last Days‘ more problematic (yet still evocative) look at Kurt Cobain’s suicide work was their impressionistic bending of reality. The question surrounding Milk is whether Van Sant can make as good a film when hewing closer to the truth. Also in question is whether, after the near-decade of self-imposed exile in avant-garde auteurism that followed the rightly maligned mess of Finding Forrester, the director can step back into mainstream filmmaking. All signs point to yes, as his biopic of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician to attain elected office in the U.S., has quickly jumped into Oscar front-runner status. Sean Penn plays the title role with a supporting cast all decked out in the best 70s perms, but it’s not just the period-accurate feel that’s pulling in the accolades for the film. Van Sant may be poised to receive the highest honors of his career for this one, no small feat considering the large shoes it must fill in living up to the incredible 1984 documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk.
View the trailer.
Now playing at E Street and Bethesda Row
