Belcourt Wishlist

A local theater has an ongoing series of midnight movies and retrospective classics that play each weekend. The programming is excellent. They often show difficult to see films and extensive collections. A few recent revelations for myself: Touchez Pas Au Grisbi, Two Lane Blacktop, Red Beard, and The Mother and the Whore. Many films that I assumed I would never get to see in a theater have played here. Many years ago, I saw Billy Wilder’s The Apartment and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho - two of my absolute favorites. A few years later, The Shining and A Clockwork Orange. Last year, I saw Jaws and Harold and Maude. Still, there are some of my favorite movies that remain unseen on the big screen by me. I keep hoping they may include some of these in this series. So until I own my own theater and can do my own programming and invite friends to massive movie marathons of old favorites and obscure discoveries, I'll just have to whistfully ponder what movies I would like to see pop up in the programming. Here are a few:

MIDNIGHT MOVIES

The Silence of the Lambs
One of my absolute favorites, and one that I believe would do well. It’s creepy, it’s funny, it’s famous. And it’s ripe for fans to revisit. I was only fifteen (and probably single) when it originally came out, but how I would have loved to have taken a girl to see it on opening night - Valentine's Day.


Little Shop of Horrors
A fantastic dark musical that I watched over and over as a child. It's fun, energetic, and hilariously dark.


A Boy and His Dog
This misanthropic, post-apocalyptic sci-fi comedy is a bit off-the-beaten-path, so it may not do well. But the trailer is intriguing enough that surely the curious would show up.


Brick
A little recent, but it never got a proper release in Nashville. It’s become a cult movie on DVD, and would certainly bring in a loyal fan base who may have never seen it in a theater. It's tough, it's funny, and it's visually fantastic.


Return to Oz
Another of my favorite films as a child. During the eighties, Disney got rather dark (Something Wicked This Way Comes was another favorite of mine from this time). It could make a hell of a double feature with The Wizard of Oz playing as a weekend classic.


Withnail & I
A cult British comedy from the eighties. Also possibly too unknown to be popular, but it has a legion of loyal fans, and would go perfectly with a drink special. Any drink. All the drinks! My suggestion: lighter fluid.

Aliens
Has Aliens been a midnight movie? It seems like an obvious choice. One of the first R-rated movies I ever saw. (I saw it as a double feature with Stand by Me, which could also be a good midnight movie).


An American Werewolf in London
One of the best werewolf movies ever made.


The Empire Strikes Back
It would be especially awesome if the theater could get their hands on a non-special edition print. How could this movie fail?


Some Horror Movie Suggestions


The Exorcist
Night of the Living Dead

Dawn of the Dead
Scream
Videodrome
Frankenstein / Bride of Frankenstein / The Old Dark House

• Not a lot of older movies get played at midnight. They are generally reserved for the weekend classic crowd, but one of the first “proper” midnight movies I ever saw was a showing of The Bride of Frankenstein at the Sarratt Cinema eleven years ago. It got a decent crowd (it came out when Gods and Monsters was in theaters). I really suspect some older, off the wall black-and-white horror movies would do well. I would suggest Freaks, but that was shown during the outdoor series a few years ago.

Halloween

• Has this been a midnight movie? It seems like an obvious choice?

CHUD

Re-Animator
The People Under the Stairs

Some Comedies
Risky Business
The midnight movies seem to love high school comedies from the eighties. And this is my favorite. Has it already been a selection?
Groundhog Day
Ed Wood
Tim Burton movies always make for great midnight movies.


WEEKEND CLASSICS

As for the weekend classics, beyond the vast collective foreign catalog of films I don’t know about, I would love to see some American seventies films revisited. One particular series could be Paranoid Political Thrillers from the seventies:

Blow Up
Klute
3 Days of the Condor
The Conversation
The Parallax View
All the President's Men
The China Syndrome
Blow Out

And then just a general celebration of American seventies filmmaking:
General Seventies Movies:

Dog Day Afternoon
The Last Picture Show
Vanishing Point
They Shot Horses, Don't They?
Catch 22
Deliverance


And I don’t know why this is on my mind, but I think a series for Olivia DeHaviland would be an excellent choice. (She’s Bound to Die Sometime Soon):

The Heiress
Lady in a Cage
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte

Along these same lines, I would love to see a Billy Wilder retrospective. The theater has recently shown Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina, and Double Indemnity, but I would love for them to show:

The Major and the Minor
A Foreign Affair
Ace in the Hole
Stalag 17
Witness for the Prosecution
Some Like it Hot
The Apartment
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

And some friends of mine brought up the possibility of a William Castle retrospective, which could be the most awesome thing ever.

I don't get any say in what plays at the Belcourt. I have a lot of friends who work there, and I throw shit like this out all the time, but I don't think much comes of it. And I'm a terrible judge of what will do well and what won't. Still, I really hope that some of these will show up at the theater in the near future.