Movie Natters: September 21, 2006 Archive

Walking the Dog

Posted at 3:19 PM on September 21, 2006 by Euan Kerr

For those of you who missed Jacques Thelemaque's appearance at the Walker Art Center earlier this week, he'll be at the Lagoon Theater tomorrow and Saturday to do q and a's after the 7pm screenings of his film "Dogwalker."

The film is an intriguing tale of Ellie Moore (Diane Gaidry) who escapes her abusive boyfriend by heading to the nearest airport and taking the first plane out of town. She ends up destitute on the streets of Los Angeles, and after a series of misadventures ends up befriending Betsy Wright (Pamela Gordon) a misanthropic professional dogwalker who gives Ellie a place to stay. It turns out Betsy has a grim future due to illness, and an even grimmer past. She needs Ellie to walk the dogs.

As Ellie goes somewhat unwillingly into her new dogwalking life, she enters the world of "dog-people," where she learns the parallels between human and canine behavior, whether it be pack mentality, or ideas of trust and loyalty.

It would be easy for this story to lapse into a queasy cutesiness, but Thelemaque doesn't back away from the reality that relationships, whether human or dog, can sour, and seldom follow logic.

Movie pictures

Posted at 4:00 PM on September 21, 2006 by Euan Kerr

Having returned within the MPR firewall I have been able to add pictures to the recent postings about the GFT, the Filmhouse, and Pirates.

I also wanted to present an image of something I stumbled across as I wandered around Edinburgh.

I passed the Odeon Cinema on Lothian Road, a place I have spent more money than I care to think about in years long passed. It used to be called the ABC. This was the place I nervously queued as a 16 year old to get into "Death Race 2000," a Paul Bartel masterpiece which the British Board of Censors labelled with an "X" certificate. At that time it just meant no-one under 18 was allowed to be admitted.

The flaw in the system was no-one in Britain, or at least very few folk, carried photo ID, so if you looked a little older than you were you could bluff your way in. This was the first time I had tried, and I was scared witless I'd be refused admission. It had not yet occurred to me that the movie house was quite eager to take my money, and wasn't really in the business of turning people away.

Anyway fast forward thirty years and the place has a new name, and a very spiffy makeover with electronic billboards. Yet the effect was spoiled by the thing lying outside the front door.

People don't often misplace their bathtubs, but someone clearly had.