Lars and the Real Girl and Mr.Woodcock

....were directed by the same guy.......what the hell?

I feel used.

varsity myspace, writers strike

if you feel the want, there is a myspace for the varsity up. Listed under our friends, or myspace.com/varsitydesmoines

Add as your friend.

Sidenote, how many people know their is an upcoming writers strike in the movie industry threatening to shut down new productions? The TV writers strike is already starting I think. Prepare for reality tv shows en masse.

4 year anniversary event announcement november 1st

The tedious and inevitable tying up of loose ends as regards the event slowly continues.

I promise full disclosure as of next week, with tickets on sale then. It should be fun, we may publically speak. Grievances will be aired, duels will be paced, movies shown, dvds given away, much rejoicing.

The only 4 year old's Birthday party that goes into the wee hours

Finalizing details, putting calls into tokyo, getting on the red eye to seal deals with Bono (without his permission, nothing in Des Moines moves, little known fact), getting excited.

Saturday December 8th, all day multi-venue BASH.

The Varsity, The Vaudeville Mews.

Ever since V for Vendetta, we're V haunted.

More giveaways and fun then your silly bones can handle.

There might be actual stormtrooopers.....fingers crossed.

More cryptic messages coming soon.

To Be-rlin Alexanderplatz or not to Be-rlin Alexanderplatz

Berlin Alexanderplatz is director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (pronounced fossbinder, fossssbinder if your a snake) epic climax to his career. This film could hardly ever be watched in any form for the past few decades. Recently, it was restored, cleaned, given the deluxe treatment and given a renewed theatrical run at select film houses and film forums. It was adapted from the acclaimed German novel, and is coming out via Criterion this November.

.....oh, yeah.

It's 15 hours long.
It's a 7 disc set.

So, the conundrum. This landmark of film, this milestone, how do we rent it, do we rent it? Is there going to be enough people to even break even on it?

We took the plunge as loyal criterion-ites and ordered it.

So again, the challenge of renting out a 15 hour movie.

So let us hear if you want to see this film, if you know of someone who might. Can we tempt you?

We are going to split it into 2-4 hour chunks, or renting it out by 1-2 discs at a time.

Check it out, and give us some feedback.



Here is a synopsis from Criterion's website:

"Rainer Werner Fassbinder's controversial, fifteen-hour-plus Berlin Alexanderplatz, based on Alfred Döblin's great modernist novel, was the crowning achievement of a prolific director who, at age thirty-four, had already made forty films. Fassbinder’s immersive epic, restored in 2006 and now available on DVD in this country for the first time, follows the hulking, childlike ex-convict Franz Biberkopf (Günter Lamprecht) as he attempts to "become an honest soul" amid the corrosive urban landscape of Weimar-era Germany. With equal parts cynicism and humanity, Fassbinder details a mammoth portrait of a common man struggling to survive in a viciously uncommon time."

Plus, it comes with an entire second adaptation of the novel by another director.....

# New high-definition digital transfer from the 2006 restoration by the Fassbinder Foundation and Bavaria Media, supervised and approved by director of photography Xaver Schwarzenberger

# - Two new documentaries by Fassbinder Foundation president Juliane Lorenz: one featuring interviews with the cast and crew, the other on the restoration

# - Hans-Dieter Hartl's 1980 documentary Notes on the Making of "Berlin Alexanderplatz"

# - Phil Jutzi's 1931, ninety-minute film of Alfred Döblin’s novel, from a screenplay co-written by Döblin himself

# - New video interview with Peter Jelavich, author of Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture

4 Year Anniversary whispers pt 2

But seriously, 2 venues, all day, locally catered food, an exclusive local artist designed tshirt, a director, ridiculously priced, loads of dvd giveaways from some amazing labels.....it might be december 8th.

I have a hunch.

What is really in the hatch on LOST

In 4 years, we've gotten opinions and insane suggestions from a wide variety of people. Some are helpful, some are angry, others are just bizarre and slightly creepy. Most people don't realize the surreal and irrational world that is video rental, or business for that matter.

With netflix, redbox, and other means for renting movies, our biggest gripe is that people are blatantly persuaded of things that are either not true or completely trivial. A few examples.

At some point during the beginning of Harsh Times or Factory Girl, a polite title comes up - exclusively available to rent at Blockbuster.

Which is strange considering we rent these out.

The Weinstein company, the one that split off from Disney - run by the infamous Weinstein Brothers, has come up with an ingenious marketing ploy, lying.

Weinstein and the big blue made a deal to exclusively rent their titles. There were ads, press, a whole public marketing campaign, as seen from the in-dvd warnings.

Except that its illegal. Little known law called the "First Sale Doctrine" is the entire ground that allows the rental business to exist. This is what allows any rental store to rent movies out without having to get explicit copyright permission for every single film, individually.

Everyone is renting the Weinstein discs, the Weinsteins are in court for this blatant misinformation campaign.

We are the ones who are asked if we can rent them out.

We get customers afraid of giving out their credit card information who will swipe it freely at some random and anonymous mcdonalds rental kiosk, a kiosk that flat out tells you it will charge your card for everyday you have it. Customers who keep a film for 3 weeks who complained there was no 1 day option. This is the wonderland of customer service in the video rental niche.

The omnipresence of this saturation, its beginning to get out of hand.



You see - netflix, redbox, downloads - its the same waste repackaged. If a company doesn't take money out of your pocket and put it in theirs, they don't open to begin with. These companies have done the numbers. If the consumer actually got more for their buck, it wouldn't be worth the companies time to exist. Remember, the house always wins.

Video rental and the film experience is always worth something. No matter how much the current climate seems to make movies and TV disposable as if it were a contest to see who can digest the most film fastest with as little reason, we still firmly believe brick and mortar is the way to rent. It connects the film and the experience to a tangible place, a place that exists and is vulnerable to the environment around it, that changes and can be changed, that is reminiscent of the worlds you visit on the screen, dramatic - eventful but well, real.

As long as both we and you, the movie watcher, stay honest and realize that our financial well being rarely hinges on insisting for 2 days instead of 3, that we do in fact drive quite far to go to stores and restaraunts, or bars and bookstores out of our way apart from BPE, and that no matter how technology changes, the stories seem to stay the same, we will get along nicely.

Now if I could only get rid of those "community" movie bloggers at the register......................

4 Year anniversary Rumblings

Multi-venue citywide 4 year anniversary bash?

Can't say much more right now, as it is 'under wraps', but a word to the wise - keep december 8th clear on your calendar.

Rambo and the Illuminati

Quick question, the upcoming and final Rambo film tentatively titled 'John Rambo' takes place in Burma, or as it is also referred to in current news headlines 'Myanmar'.

One imdb post (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462499/board/nest/86072340) posits:

"I bet Stallone is nervous about the situation in Myanmar."

Nervous? Let's recap.

Aging, steroid drowned actor finished the last bookend film of his two main 80's characters, Rocky Balboa and John Rambo.

As the post points out, Rambo 3 was sullied when the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan before the film premiered, leaving the story behind current events.

What's a promotional junket to do? Incite civil war in Burma.

The news is rife with pop star gossip, will smith is thinking of remaking the karate kid with his 9 year old son, is Sylvester Stallone leading a shadow military junta for ticket sales really that crazy?

The clincher: Stallone's Judge Dredd costume - missing.

Red Carpet Stallone dazed under flashbulbs spotted mumbling 'ima demolition man'. Think about it.