Better with an audience!

[keefelc]

Hooray! "Auntie Mame" with Roz Russell is suppose to be out on DVD this coming Tuesday. IMHO, you get the maximum enjoyment of this movie at a theater with an audience, especially a heavily gay one! I saw it at the Castro Movie Palace one time and I had such a good time. People were applauding after each segment (those of you that have seen the film will know what I'm talking about), plus the Castro crowd caught on to all the double meanings sprinkled all throughout the movie.

"The Wizard of Oz" is another movie that took on a new freshness with the Castro crowd (somebody threw a giant pink balloon into the audience when Glinda first appeared).

Of course, John Waters movies are always more fun with an audience, particularly "Polyester" in Odorama!

Anybody else remember any other films that need audience participation for maximum enjoyment??

[DanceMan]

In no particular order:

The Women
Mommy Dearest
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Imitation of Life (Lana Turner version)
Valley of the Dolls (I could never hear what Helen Lawson was saying because the BOYS in the audience were always one beat ahead of her...)
Boys In The Band
Back Street
Gypsy
Dark Victory
Network
The Shining
What's Up Doc?
Where's Papa?
Rocky
Magnificent Obsession

[keefelc]

Now how could I have forgotten "The Women" and "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane"? Isn't it odd that so many movies with "Miss J as in Joan, Joan Crawford" (I was just listening to the CD release of Lily Tomlin's "This Is A Recording") are better with the audience screaming with laughter when Joan is trying to be melodramatic? By the way, don't forget "Strait Jacket" (jingle, jingle) and "Sudden Fear".

I also can't wait for "What's Up Doc?" to be released on DVD (suppose to be soon). My cousin remembers seeing them filming in SF. Barbra was a bitch to the crowd, but Madeline Kahn didn't have any problems waving to everyone.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: keefelc on 2002-09-27 21:53 ]</font>

[BrunoRepublic]

I'm pretty sure Mariah Screechy's "Glitter" would be even more hysterical with the right audience... but just try finding enough people who'd agree to watching that atrocity.

"Showgirls" would be another...

[keefelc]

On 2002-09-27 21:55, Graham Start wrote:
I'm pretty sure Mariah Screechy's "Glitter" would be even more hysterical with the right audience... but just try finding enough people who'd agree to watching that atrocity.

"Showgirls" would be another...

Oh Graham, the thought of seeing Mariah on the big screen makes me cringe!!

[DanceMan]

I have actually been to Showgirl showings where the audience takes turns cheering for either Elizabeth Berkeley or Gia Gershon....especially when one or the other gets into a fight...the film is very culty here in New York and has actually gotten a worse rap than it deserves...it can be loads of fun compared to much else what we are subjected to......how about a big SCREAM version of Anna Nicole...now that is puke-a-vision for sure!

[markydefad]

Seeing "The Women" at the Castro Theater in SF in the early '80's was an experience I will NEVAH FORGET!!! :grin:

As soon as the credits started the audience participation began. Each actress is introduced in the credits with their picture and then an animal they could represent from the animal kingdom. They cheered the "good" characters (Norma Shearer, etc.) and booed and hissed the "bad" characters (Joan Crawford) and most hysterically, Virginia Weidler ("Little Mary") , Shearer's obnoxious daughter in the film. I LOVED that part the most--cause that kid is such a royal pain!!! :lol:

To prove the old adage that "you can't go home again" I dragged some friends to a screening of "The Women" at the County Museum here in LA and tried the applauding and booing/hissing with this audience...and failed pretty miserably...oh, I got a few scattered laughs for hissing "Little Mary"...but for the most part---THEY DIDN'T GET IT!!!! Lesson learned = SF RULES--LA sucks (But I guess I knew that already).

Now the question I want to pose is why the Castro doesn't seem to show the campy GAY classics anymore??? Everytime I check their programs it's always some boring first-run foreign junk they're screening!!! WHY???

The Castro should ALWAYS show campy GAY classics--it's their duty to the gays of tomorrow to educate them as to how to view these films!!!! That's my opinion and I'm stickin' to it!!! :razz:

_________________
Make My Feet Wanna Dance!

Markydefad

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: markydefad on 2002-09-28 12:36 ]</font>

[nrgbeat]

This thread is so GAY!!!

[DanceMan]

Not that there's anything wrong with it !!!

[Nano]

I don't get all that allusions to old Fidel ; On another vein, most horror movies are quite better when you see them in a theater packed with youg couples on a Saturday night! Specially if it's a bad movie. Of recent examples, "Bride of Chucky" comes to mind.
I remember seeing an Italian space-age movie so bad, the entire theater was LOL and clapping every time the monster (a robot alien) appeared. After 20 years, I found it on the IMDB database: the original title is "Battaglie negli spazi stellari" (1977) and in the USA is known as "Cosmos: War of the Planets" (in Argentina was known as "AÒo 2000: Guerra en el espacio"). Funnier -by far- "than Plan 9 from Outer Space". That afternoon I discovered the meaning of the word "camp"!

[DanceMan]

It is interesting how Gay and Non-Gay camp is WAY SOOOOOOOOOOOOO Different.....

[keefelc]

On 2002-09-27 22:33, markydefad wrote:

Now the question I want to pose is why the Castro doesn't seem to show the campy GAY classics anymore??? Everytime I check their programs it's always some boring first-run foreign junk they're screening!!! WHY???

The Castro should ALWAYS show campy GAY classics--it's their duty to the gays of tomorrow to educate them as to how to view these films!!!! That's my opinion and I'm stickin' to it!!! :razz:

Mark, I guess with so many of those classics out on DVD, the Castro's audience has dwindled, especially with all the special edition DVDs. That's probably why you only see the classics as a special event with a star from the movie (if any are still alive!) or as a restored edition.

[JussiK]

Straight camp / gay camp...hmmm. I'm currently teaching a course on pop culture at the local university and camp is one of the subjects that pops up (Pierre & Gilles, Madonna, MTV, retro designs and typography, disco, cult films, s/m chic etc). I'd not call "Battaglie.." camp as there is a definite difference between camp and trash/kitsch. According to most connoisseurs the phenomenon can only be understood correctly by someone with a queer sensibility, or so says the Routledge book on the politics of camp, for one. Can this be accurate? I teach the young that classic camp as it was/is understood was indeed originally a gay thing. However that was then, and this is now. To suggest a straight person could not get a camp reference is obviously absurd, look at the Baz Luhrmann films and the Bollywood stuff that inspired it.