I watched and enjoyed Daybreak Express anyhow. Got a few choices to make regarding weds film night...
First name on the team sheet is the follow up to Life in the XXIst Century by my friend Iosu, he's sent me it and his first film went down really well so I'm showing it unseen.
Next; I really like the feature films of Czech animator Karel Zeman, I guess his films lack the Freudian references and ultimately depth of those of his more famous contemporary Svankmaijer, but in terms of the animation and the way they look I prefer them... for eg
And I've found a beautiful short he did called Inspiration which will fit in nicely.
One of the best short stories I've read is An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, it's noteworthy for being the earliest I've ever read to employ a device that has since been used in many films and books such as Carnival of Souls and The The Third Policeman.
Kurt Vonnegut famously said "I consider anybody a twerp who hasn't read the greatest American short story, which is 'Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,' by Ambrose Bierce." - and I expect most Lisbonites would be twerps in Vonnegut's book - I'm not gonna read them the story, but there is a highly regarded short film adaptation and I'm thinking to show that.
Next up is (maybe) one I'm in two minds about as it's far more mainstream than anything I've considered showing before. But... it's a good film and, even though it won an Oscar, I can't imagine many will have seen it. It's called Curfew* and it's about a NY Julie hipster type who at the start of the film has just taken a load of pills and is in the process of slitting his wrists when his bossy high-flying sister phones and demands that he looks after her annoyingly precocious daughter for the evening. So our hero binds up his wrists and drags the child round a load of unsuitable places with him - over the course of the evening, while he (and we) experience hallucinations due to the pills he bonds with the irritating brat and finds, predictably yet still touchingly, redemption through looking after her.
I am really unsure about whether or not to show it as it's far from underground, but then part of me likes the idea of being completely varied and showing glossy Hollywood stuff as well as Belgian student movies from the seventies, as long as they are good... what do you guys think?
Oh, almost forgot, gonna show Street of Crocodiles - the Quay Brothers animated loose adaptation of the book by Bruno Schulz.
After all of those I've decided to show Le Grand Depart with the sound down and the DJ playing, that way everyone can experience the beautiful psychedelic imagery and see a purple and green cat-headed man sexually assaulting red riding hood before joining a cult and going to space on a raft - but without getting bored because they have to sit in silence through the slow bits.
*After the success of the short they remade it at feature length - called Before I Disappear - but although it's not exactly bad, the padding is unnecessary, plus the child actress has got noticeably older in the intervening time so the dynamic changes.