This spring, Facets Multi-Media added a midnight movie series to our cinematheque schedule. The brainstorm of my department at Facets (specifically our writer/editor Phil Morehart), the series is designed to bring in younger audiences to the cinematheque. From the beginning, those of us who chose to participate worked collectively to make the series fun, engaging, and different from the average midnight movie experience. I think the spirit of camaraderie, plus the fact that no one is looking over our shoulders telling us what to do, helped make the first series a success and inspired us to move forward with a second session, which began this weekend.

            Our spin on the midnight movies series is to make it more of an engaging experience so that our audiences become active viewers. In this day and age of mind-numbing large-scale Hollywood “event” movies, with their chaotic, fractured editing, viewers of all ages tend to sit back passively and let the films whip their senses to a pulp. And the major studios reinforce the idea that movies are a “product” that is part of a “franchise” to be passively and mindlessly consumed.  If viewers are passive and led to believe that “it’s only a popcorn movie,” then they won’t question why they are paying $10 to see some poorly crafted, ill-conceived junk they won’t remember the next day. Well, that’s just not the Facets way.

"STUDENTS" OF FACETS NIGHT SCHOOL

            One of Facets’ greatest assets is its employees, most of whom are very knowledgeable about film. From the people in rentals to the programmer of the cinematheque to the stalwarts in customer service to those of us in sales and marketing, we are a bastion of information on cinema. For our approach to midnight movies, we make good use of the staff. Each film is selected by a staff member who then presents an introduction or mini-lecture just before the movie is shown. Audience members have something to think about as they actively watch the movie. Afterwards, anyone who is so inclined can stick around for a Q&A with the presenter. At first, we were unsure whether viewers would be willing to hang around after 2:00am to chat about the movies, but never under-estimate the stamina of a cinephile. Each week, more than enough viewers have hung around, asking questions or offering their interpretations of key scenes or shots. The name for our midnight movie series, Facets Night School, honors this educational component behind the series.  

A HIT WITH NIGHT SCHOOL AUDIENCES

           Because each participant selects his or her own movie to present, the series represents a diverse selection of films, which is one of its greatest strengths. In the first session, the films ranged from classic Hollywood films to exploitation horror to experimental features to the closing selection, Dawn of the Dead. I selected Night of the Hunter and spoke about the film’s Expressionist visual style, using handouts of film stills to explain how the style enhanced the content. One of our video rentals staff, Bruce Neal, introduced the exploitation horror flick Street Trash as evocative of the Reagan era; another employee from the videotheque, Amy Boyd, dug up a film few have ever heard of, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One. This clever documentary by William Greaves features acting students doing a scene from a melodrama in Central Park as a second camera crew chronicles the making of that film. A third camera then documents the crew of the second camera as they argue about Greaves’ purpose and intent with the film. The ultimate in self-reflexive filmmaking, S:TO reminded me of the willingness of 1960s feature filmmakers to joyfully experiment with conventions of cinema. Based on the spirited discussion afterwards, the audience seemed to enjoy the film, though I don’t think anyone succeeded in pronouncing the title correctly. (Our own Morlock Jeff wrote about this film a couple of years ago; click here to read his interpretation.)

            Our inaugural series opened on May 2 with Alexandro Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain. If Jodorowsky’s name sounds familiar, he was also the director of the midnight movie favorite El Topo. Brian Elza, who writes Facets’ online catalogue copy, talked about Holy Mountain’s indirect influence on not only 1980s action fantasy films (Conan the Barbarian) but also on heavy metal bands. Other films and intros included an interpretation by Cary Jones of the Jim Henson film Labyrinth as a young girl’s coming of age story; a feminist look at the horror film The Entity from Miguel Martinez; a look at the English satire Eat the Rich as a parable of Margaret Thatcher’s England by Lew Ojeda; a great introduction by my work partner Dan Mucha to the gritty English rock musical Quadrophenia; and a guide to the symbolic use of zombies in George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead by Phil Morehart. Audiences came to the films because they wanted to revisit old favorites given new twists by the presenters, or because they wanted to catch notable films they had never seen, or because they enjoyed the upbeat atmosphere. Fans of fantasy movies flocked to Labyrinth; fathers who had enjoyed Dawn of the Dead as kids brought their sons to bond over a shared experience; classic-movie lovers came to Night of the Hunter to see it in a theater on a big screen.

NOTE THE LECTURE TITLES FOR OUR FIRST NIGHT SCHOOL SESSION

            In addition to the informative introductions, Facets Night School promotes an active movie-going experience with pre-movie high jinks that sprang up spontaneously during our first series. It started the week Bruce Neal, a performance artist, offered a brief presentation based on Street Trash, complete with squirting green goo and zombie impersonations, before introducing the movie. Amy Boyd raised the bar when she staged a 1960s-like happening for Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One in which three cameramen filmed each other filming Amy as she interviewed viewers and staff before the event — in the style of the film itself. When I presented Night of the Hunter, I sold copies of a book of ghost stories I had cowritten with a partner. The tie-in to the movie was that the stories take place in the same locale as the movie, which is in West Virginia along the Ohio River. My partner, Grace Morrow, and I autographed copies of the book and gave one away as a door prize. Dan Mucha offered his audience a booklet of material on Quadrophenia, which he compiled himself on our photocopier. My favorite evening was when presenter Lew Ojeda popped out of a cake just before his intro to Eat the Rich. Lew also brought a sheet cake decorated with a photo of himself as a rich, cigar-smoking capitalist. Audience members “ate Lew” as they consumed the cake, which was in keeping with the title of the movie. Even when there were no special events, audiences were treated to wine, music, and offbeat trailers before the lecture and program began, plus a drawing for a free DVD after the movie. Articles about each film were provided for viewers in case they were interested in investigating the topic further.

ELVIS: COMING UP IN AUGUST

            Our second session began over the weekend, with a screening of Sergei Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible, Part One, and an audience of diehard film enthusiasts listened to presenter Brian Elza’s intro and then watched a 1944 subtitled Russian film till 2:00am. I appreciate the dedication of our presenters and our audiences. Other films offered this session include the hip-hop documentary Wild Style, a Hong Kong action flick called Riki Oh: The Story of Ricky, the horror film God Told Me To by 1970s auteur Larry Cohen, the Elvis musical Viva Las Vegas (Guess who is presenting that one?), the documentary Crumb about the counterculture comic strip artist, the Chevy Chase comedy Fletch, an Italian horror film Cemetery Man, midnight movie favorite Harold and Maude, Jonathan Kaplan’s forgotten 1970s social drama Over the Edge, and everyone’s favorite Chris Tucker movie The Fifth Element. I hope that all of you in the Chicago area will join our midnight ramble at Facets Night School. Aside from engaging comments on a series of diverse movies, you’ll find a jovial atmosphere, a crowd of movie lovers who like to get the most out of movies, and perhaps even some madcap movie high jinks. If not high jinks, then at least popcorn. Check us out on www.facets.org/study cinema.

            After the second session is over in mid-September, we are tweaking the concept a bit to offer a whole month of horror movies for October. We are going to shorten the schedule to a month but expand the series to both Friday and Saturday nights. Halloween is a major holiday in Chicago, and we want to celebrate with ten horror movies of all styles and types. One film in the works is the Swedish silent film Haxan, with two of the Facets staff providing an original, live musical score in a metal-rock style to update the 1922 film for modern audiences. Might not be your cup of tea but I like the idea of showcasing a silent classic with contemporary trappings.

            If anyone has any suggestions for films to show in October, please let me know. We welcome all suggestions — from classic to modern, from indie films to studio releases, from Hollywood to Europe, from exploitation to high brow. Like both sessions so far, Facets Night School for Horror will offer something for everyone.