Thursday, April 12, 2012

Everything Is Out Of Order




But just a few months after WindyCon,
when Donna and I had broken up and
Derrick and Martha had broken up, too,
I took Martha to a midnight movie
up at Northwestern University.

I think it was “Heart of Glass,” by Herzog.







Holding a large frozen turkey from the store and the shotgun, Bruno returns to the garage where he works, loads the tow truck with beer, and drives along a highway into the mountains.

Upon entering a small town, the truck breaking down, Bruno pulls over to a restaurant, where he tells his story to a German-speaking businessman. He then starts the truck, leaves it circling in the parking lot with a fire taking hold in the engine compartment and goes into a tourist trap across the street, where he starts a ski-lift and rides it with his frozen turkey. After Bruno disappears from view a single shot rings out. The police arrive at the scene to find the truck is now fully ablaze. The film ends with a sequence showing a chicken dancing, a chicken playing a piano and a rabbit riding a toy fire truck, in coin operated attractions that Bruno activated on his way to the ski-lift.


from the plot synopsis
of Werner Herzog’s 1977 film
“Stroszek” at Wikipedia




One day last year in August, a Thursday,
I said the next day I would write about
a classic old science fiction movie
called, “Forbidden Planet.” But the next day
I wrote about the real star called “Altair”
instead of the “Altair” in the movie.

So today, on a Thursday afternoon,
I sat down to finally write something
about the great film, “Forbidden Planet.”

I saw that I had first mentioned the film
six years ago talking about Martha.

I talked about when Martha and I went
to see Werner Herzog’s film, “Heart of Glass.”

Somehow we’d seen “Stroszek” before that night
although “Heart of Glass” was made earlier.

We found out other people had, also.

During “Heart of Glass”—a dense, obscure film—
most of the midnight showing audience
had simply started openly talking
as if we were sitting in a film class.

There’s a quick close-up, during “Heart of Glass,”
of a chicken. There in the audience
a woman asked, “Is it going to dance?”

Everyone in the theater laughed.

The woman’s comment was a reference
to the very sad ending of “Stroszek”
and the whole audience had understood.

I loved the movie “Stroszek.” Herzog filmed
the story in Europe and Wisconsin.

At one point somebody says something like
‘In Europe they beat you up physically
but don’t wreck your mind. In America
they beat up your mind but not your body.’

In the movie “Stroszek” someone says that,
I mean, not someone from the midnight show.

Today I had wanted to write a post
about the movie, “Forbidden Planet.”

Everything is out of order here
but I haven’t given up and someday
I’ll manage to put together a post
about that classic science fiction film
where people battle monsters from the id.


























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