|
Notes
from QT Quatro - The Quentin Tarantino Film Festival at the
Alamo Drafthouse
Tim the Wonder Horse called me the other day to give me the
scoop on the QT Quatro going on at the Alamo. He went Friday
and Saturday night. Apparently, he wasn't all that impressed
with the films because, well, QT is pretty much into a lot
of old crap. I mean, don't get me wrong, Q has some awesome
flicks in his arsenal, but one of the attractions of his film
fests here in Austin always seems to be highlighting old flicks,
many of them are thought of as cool by fanatics but regular
film-goers will be bored by them. Of course, no one would
act like they didn't like one of the films Q picks to his
face. Tim told me, "You should have seen Harry Knowles' crew,
they were totally riding his jock..." Then again, some people
are truly excited about bad flicks. Tim wasn't being mean
about it, just thought it was amusing that they got so hyped
about some films that were less than worthy of praise, in
his book.
Tim watched 3 movies on Friday, one I wished I would have
seen. "Hammerhead" is a bad 60's James Bond rip-off that used
to play every once and awhile on the late show when I was
a kid. I don't remember much about it now, but I used to really
love it years ago. I'd would be cool to see for nostalgia
sake. Tim said it had some really strange things in it like
a fight scene where a gun gets kicked down a hill and the
camera follows the gun all the way down the hill, leaving
you to wonder what is happening in the fight. I just remember
it being cool and colorful. It probably had cool cars in it
or something that I dug when I was 11. Also on Friday night
was "Kiss the Girls and Make them Die" and Lightning Bolt."
On Saturday, Q played a lot of Godzilla and Italian Horror
flicks. The most interesting was "The Psychic" by Lucio Fulci.
QT says that he wants to remake the film and Bridgit Fonda,
who loves these kinds of films, has agreed to play the lead!
Tim had never really seen Godzilla flicks at a theater so
he said it was, "kinda cool to see them on the big screen."
One of the first films Q showed was "The Mysterians." All
of the prints are, as far as I know, owned by the man, so
he brings them from his personal collection. Somehow, he left
the last reel of "the Mysterians" behind but showed what he
had brought and explained to the audience that it was pretty
easy to see where it was going where it leaves off. He promised,
if the reception to the film was positive, that he would get
the last reel into Austin and show it before the fest was
over.
As for celebs, they were out in full force. Austin regulars
Linklater and Robert Rodriguez were there as were Texas luminaries
Tobe Hopper and Mike Judge. Amanda Plummer spent almost the
entire evening watching flicks with the crowd on Saturday
night and signing autographs for fans in-between.
Tim overheard some folks say that QT's next film may be some
WWII POW flick. Not too sure what that might be.
Tim also had a hell of a time with the AFS (Austin Film
Society) when he bought his badge for the fest. He canceled
his order for the badge and, through some sort of clerical
error, they still sent him one even though he had not paid
for it. Not wanting to "cheat" AFS, he called and tried to
return the badge and explain the error. "All I got was a lot
of attitude," he said. I was surprised at this because I first
thought he was talking about the Alamo folks, and they are
generally really cool and easy to talk to. But AFS must have
a staff of wannabees who don't know how to deal with the public.
Here's a guy trying to be nice, not rip-off AFS and return
an expense pass to the QT fest that he received in error and
he gets ATTITUDE! What a pain in the ass. Somebody somewhere
is dropping the ball. Someone high up at AFS (isn't it run
by Rodriguez's wife, or is it Linklater's wife?) should teach
their staff how to deal with the public. I'm sure they get
a lot of phone calls and stuff on these high profile events,
like QT Quatro, but that's no excuse for being rude. C'mon
people - you are not only representing AFS and the Alamo and
all of the QT sponsors - but the entire city of Austin! Shape
up!
Tim also went on a week night for some films at QT Quatro.
He saw "shoot First, Die Later," "Wipeout" and "Hickey and
Boggs." The first was a pretty interesting Italian film which
had some gay characters. He felt it was kind of daring and
unique for a 70's film. It was a crime story "about a cop
like Dirty Harry, but with sex appeal. Everyone swoons over
him," Tim told me.
"Hickey and Boggs" is a 70's flick directed by Robert Culp
that was written by Walter Hill. Culp starred in the film
with his "I Spy" costar Bill Cosby. Tim didn't care for it
all that much.
Tim knows a few folks in Harry Knowles circle and one of
them is apparently working on interview segments for Harry's
proposed TV series. He was going to do some interview segments
with QT, I believe. Perhaps even with Linklater and Mike Judge
who seem to be hanging out at the festival quite a bit.
Notes
from aGliff 2000 - The Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival:
The only thing worse than an impatient
group of queens is a hot, sweaty, impatient group of queens.
The
Calendar
All contents of www.filethirteen.com
are the property of the webmaster and the author of filethirteen.com
and cannot be reproduced, copied, distributed, quoted or in
any other way used without our written consent. For more details
please e-mail us at
lodger@filethirteen.com Links to the site are appreciated
and do not require permission. Informing us of your link to
our site may result in gratitude and heartfelt thanks.
|
