Will You Take Me to the Movies?

a comet gain interview

Comet Gain records have themes. Réalistes seems to be (t0 me) about destroying everything to make it better from scratch, about getting rid of cheesy notions of emotions and getting to the real ones by any means necessary, and something about living in dreams and living in reality not being contradictory aspirations, among other things. Since weird dream/real/dream world of movies fits right in to illustrate and confuse these ideas, and since questions about music and the history of a band tend to get repetitive and boring, and since its easier to make something new than to make something old interesting again, I asked Comet Gain movie-related questions exclusively. Here goes:

Do you pay any attention to the oscars, does anyone in england? Were you surprised by any of this years nominations, are you mad about any slights?
The english, like you lot, are bewildered by oscar night as though it really MATTERED or had some cataclysmic effect on the world. Its fun as a parade + for that need to know how shallow an art form movies can be. I never watch it anymore, not even for scarce glimpses of humanity like Marlon Brando rejecting his. There is plenty of opportunity for someone like Abel Ferrara to win a prize + shoot the front row or take his cock out but we know nobody interesting wins. As for nominations, etc. I haven't a clue, it's like elections - the idiot on the left or the idiot on the right, whoever wins they're still idiots. In Britain the media goes mad when some demented old dame or Kate Winslet flouncy no-talent gets nominated so all I hope for my sake is there's no British nominee to embarass us with their cup-of-tea, bless the Queen crap.

Carolyn Mark and a bunch of people just put out a tribute/cover version of the Nashville soundtrack - What soundtrack would Comet Gain choose to recreate? What guests would you try to enlist?
We already did a pointlessly reckless live show with japanese mod film noir 6Ts movie Branded to Kill in the puke-inducing new 'fashionable' cockney east end. We just made it all up + mainly just tried to make the dilettantes sick with curving feedback violence. suited the film. I'd like to do ALPHAVILLE because like the movie it could be modern future music made by cheap mongs. Cheap keyboards + stuff. I'd get John Yummy Fur out of retirement + John Cale + Sadie Shaw + Orson Welles + do the talking. Or I'd remake cockney movie classic Steptoe and Jon Ride Again with washboards + Rod Stewart.

Does Comet Gain make movies? If so, why no enhanced CD?
We make movies our heads, go out into the night + live them badly + sleep badly + do the remake with less sex + more romance. (we're making a movie soon a kind of Intolerance for the sleepy kissers among us)

You know how in the old days all the titles came at the beginning of the movie and now the bulk comes at the end, which do you prefer?
I liked it at the end of The Magnificent Ambersons when Orson Welles spoke the credits into a microphone - face out of view. Opening credits seem grander. No one gives a shit about staying in a cold smelly cinema to see who the guy who washes Woody Allen's feet is, especially if its closing time at the local bar.

Are you knowledgeable about technical aspects of movie making, like lighting or different types of cameras, etc.? Does this affect your movie watching?
I used to do film studies + know little useless nuggets of info that blissfully have largely fallen out of my mind after years of pointless substance abuse. So I enjoy films more again. Every now and then though, I get excited at the words Lazlo Kovacs + Saul Bass.

What is your favorite era strictly in terms of the "look" of movies? Why?
In terms of happy, dumb, rush I like the colorful dayglo sixties look of films. I remember as a kid surreal rainbows in my young head - Modesty Blaise, Zazie Dans le Metro, Blow Up, Head, The President's Analyst, but now I like American 50s Frank Capra look, suits, hats, the building - a feeling of innocent nightime danger + doris day jim stewart daytime "everything alright my love" optimism. The romance of everyday people and their black+white clothes.

You have a song that says "Heaven is the closest thing to hell" - what scene in a movie best describes this sentiment?
In Peckinpah's elegy Junior Bonner Ida Lupino's character + her cheating husband are on the stairs to a motel - they separated a while ago, he's gleefully telling her he's off to Australia to carry on his broken cowboy myth; rotted by modern mores, they realize its their last night, put aside all the hurt + pain + anger, they roll up their hands + go up to a room for one last night, like 18 year old lovers spending their 1st night together again sadness + final farewells under the surface for one last burst at love.

You have a song that says "... favorite Hitchcock determines a friends real feelings.." What does this mean? also what does it mean if you can't pick a favorite?
It stemmed from a discussion about how we relate to certain iconic films or filmakers as an expression to others of our mindset, as an alibi for further revealing of our true selves. Unable how to express certain things we show our selves thru our favorite films + records + books "Oh she's like The Last Picture Show, the last go-betweens record, and a Jim Carroll poem all wrapped up, thats why I love her" etc. Hitchcock's a good one to provoke angry, barely thought out reactions. If you can't pick a favorite it probably means you're a more well rounded human being and shouldn't be wasting your time on such fluff. And today it's The Wrong Man because it's a losers parable and they're my favorite hymns to human fragility - on days when the rain hits our lips.

In the same song you mention "hollywood rubbish" - please name some notable exceptions other than Rushmore.
Recently Ghostworld, Memento, Way of the Gun, Mulholland Drive! Oh I dont know, its easy to guess really. Films that entertain but don't pander to generic themes + the pot of gold for the masses of the happy ending and 'names' as if the presence of Mel Gibson elevates the story to something special. For me its the FILM, the story, the emotion, + mood + not the commodity. (there are moments of course when I have a toothache and a limp brain + I yearn for buildings to blow up + revenge shootouts. dull worthy overpsychologized films as bad as Will Smith 'vehicles')

Do you know any other languages besides English? If so, when you watch a subtitled movie do you just read or do you try to understand the speaking?
I recently watched some english spoken movies in France and they had French subtitles + I kept reading them before I recalled my mother tounge. I also saw some french movies on the french TV + enjoyed not having a clue what the fuck was going on except when they were naked or said 'fromage'.

If a movie were to give you a VERY STRONG feeling, what feeling would you like best? Any success with this?
Any extreme of emotion is good to keep the blood flowing + fists clenched or tear ducts working. Art is there to attempt descriptions or empathy with certain emotions so a film like Cool Hand Luke equates with defiance, The Apartment with romance, Butterfly Collector with obsession, any movie that leaves you feeling emotions have risen to the skin are good. I especially like ones of rage Battle of Algiers, If, etc. + a certain kind of redeemed doomed romance. love + hate

Speaking of strong feelings, how do you feel about porn?
No feelings. Numbness + inertia. I don't watch it but I don't watch horror movies or Sharon Stone movies or police academy movies, breasts, cocks, vaginas, arses - we've all seen them. They seem to make some people very happy. so.

What do you do when you get scared at movies?
Put the tiger back in it's cage.

In the US we seem to be way freaked out about sex in movies, so that movies with sexual content are given stricter ratings than movies with violence, what are the parents most scared of children seeing in england?
At the moment anything pro-IRA after these two films about Bloody Sunday in the early 70's + they're too anti-imperialist bent - an unhealthy distrust in provoking too much debate in past mistakes that damages the house of cards, + recently any mention of pedophiles. But we have a fairly okay European appetite for rubber fetishes, sex + violence + left wing whispers, our leading independent film mavericks, Loach + Leigh are proud socialists.

How are movie-snack habits of americans different from british ones?
Salmon (poached with a light dusting of lemon), croutes, white wine or port, roast potatoes, peking duck, etc. The usual mid movie snack when they're explaining the villain's motives.

Add up the letters in your first name +1. Then take the larger digit of your age and subtract the smaller digit. Your two answers in that order form a year (without the 19). Check your math. What is your favorite movie from that year and why?
1961 - Die You Cockney Scum! - Burt Lancaster's hard bitten wino cop comes to the London East End to wipe the scum off the street with hilarious + violent results also starred Beryl Reid, Terry Thomas, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Babs Windsor, + a young Dudley Moore as a toilet attendant. The film paved the way in its graphic depiction of kneecapping, market trading, homosexuality + a noir style. Anyone who loves movies should search this out.

What movies have you turned off or walked out of the theatre and for what reason?
(1) I've run out of cheap beer and can't possibly watch teenage American kids laugh it up on 'campus' without about 12 more to numb the pain.
(2) Salo - 120 Days of Sodom by Pasolini, possibly with Dale Shaw punk poet at the long lost sleazy fuck/smack den the Scala cinema - if anyone's seen this they'll understand. Oh look mum they're eating more shit! how sweet.
(3) I hadn't bought my ticket, I got rumbled, they caught my brother but I was like a tiger in the jungle.

Please suggest 10 movie marathon ideas.

generic questions that are still entertaining:
Who would play you in a movie & why?
What recent movie is most overrated, and which is underrated? explain.
A freaking experimental amalgam of Will Smith (actor of his generation), Oliver Reed (a bon viveur of the finest things), Christopher Walken (I want to kill with a smile on my face), Boris Karloff (we look exactly alike) + Warren Oates (same accent/accidental beard)
OVERRATED: Rush Hour 2 - lacks the subtle chaplinesque humanity of #1
UNDERRATED: Gangster #1, surreal english london savagery + real movement, nice suits, malcolm bleedin mcdowell + David Thewlis

Please list 1-5 words to describe each of the following movies - if you haven't seen them, either watch them and come back to this or fabricate a plot based on the title. Your plot may exceed 5 words.
Charade - I love a good heist
Rocky Horror Picture Show - Endless Years of Annoying Mimicry
Hard Days Night - He's a very clean old man (english sneering punks + McCartneys)
Barry Lyndon - Johns pensive brother wanders around
The Swimmer - Stepping stones across crumbling empire
Get Carter (1971) - Caine as broken jesus avenger
The Pink Panther - Christmas day childs nostalgic giggling
8 1/2 - surreal painting bursts to life
Amelie - Melancholic daydreamers win their prize
Five Easy Pieces - American European minor chord Odyssey

for the record, Comet Gain chose to ignore:
Mary Poppins
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Top Gun
Josie and the Pussycats
The Royal Tennenbaums
Shine
Run Lola Run
Leprechaun In the Hood

Answers by David Christian, interview by sasa, March 2002