| The terms double feature and double bill are practically obsolete now. The concept of two movies for the price of one took a serious knock when multiplexes became popular and then another with the advent of home video. With the demise of the drive-in they practically vanished.
One of the most recent examples of double-features I can recall is about a decade ago, when Calgary’s Uptown Screen offered discounts if you stuck around for both of that evening’s films. At first, thematically-linked films were booked because of their suitability as double features. One example was The Return of Martin Guerre (1982) being teamed up with fellow imposter-posing-as-missing-relative flick Olivier Olivier (1992). After this practice was dropped, the double-feature pricing continued, leading to such bizarre double bills as the kid-friendly barnyard romp Babe (1995) with the wrenching suspense thriller Clean, Shaven (1994).
Of course, these days, if you want to watch two movies back-to-back, you do it at home. Video store compromises have resulted in so many bipolar movie nights that we don’t even think about it any more. ("Fine, you can rent Whale Rider, but only if I can rent Blade II.") Still, let’s have a little fun and consider a few disparate films as components of a single evening’s entertainment rather than as separate entities.
· Out of the Past (1947) and Blastfighter (1984): Two movies about quiet, idealistic tough guys trying to live simple, normal lives, while past tragedies and persistent villains conspire to bring them down.
Oh geez… I almost made these films sound remotely similar for a minute there. Believe me when I say that they are not. In fact, watching them together resulted in a shift of tone and quality so drastic, I think my brain fell out, which certainly helped make Blastfighter more tolerable.
Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past is a suspense classic, considered by many to be the definitive film noir. Lamberto Bava’s Blastfighter is a craptacular example of knuckle-dragging hicksploitation in which several dozen evil rednecks get blown up real good. One can imagine enjoying either film separately, but considering both films together just crashes my mental hard drive. It’s been a few weeks now and I’m still haunted by a composite hallucination in which Robert Mitchum escapes the Gordian knot of fate he’s ensnared in by grabbing a high-tech automatic shotgun and blasting several pickup-truck loads of inbred yokels. "Build my gallows high, baby. Yee-Haaawww!"
· Castle in the Sky (a.k.a. Laputa) (1986) and Conquest (1983): I hate to pick on two Italian movies in a row, but geez, Conquest, what the hell is wrong with you?
Both of these films strive to create entirely new fantasy worlds, unlike any setting ever seen in fiction or history. That’s a fine goal and the two filmmakers approach it in different ways. In Castle in the Sky, master animator Hayao Miyazaki imagines an alternate version of industrial revolution-era Europe populated with ancient robots, magically levitating islands, steam-powered trains, complex likable characters and, well, er, capri-pant wearing sky pirates. All of this is rendered with Miyazaki’s highly detailed, breathtaking artwork. It’s a genuine feast for the eyes (apart from those goofy pirate pants).
Conquest’s director Luci Fulci, on the other hand, strives for a dreamlike mood by drowning the camera in fog, lens flare, double exposures, soft focus, general murkiness, Vaseline on the camera lens and airborne lint. You can barely see the movie, which I guess is a mixed blessing. The story itself is a brutish sword-and-sorcery yarn about an evil brain-eating sorceress who wears only a spiky G-string and a gold mask. Her usual daily routine consists of eating a human brain, making love to a boa constrictor and then having nightmares about getting killed by a beefy guy with a laser bow. She decides to send the forces of evil to go kill Laser Bow Guy, who has never met Naked Snake Bitch and simply has no clue.
I confess that I haven’t actually watched these films back to back. Instead, I came home from a day of movie shopping and started them each up in succession, just to check for possible defects. It was like having my eyes gently massaged, and then scoured with steel wool. I had to blindly flail about for the eject button before Conquest could permanently damage my corneas.
By now, you get the idea. Try some double features yourself, and see what weird combinations you come up with. John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise (1983)? They’re two completely different movies that go great together. How about Mary Poppins (1964) and Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1988)? Akira (1988) and Animals Are Beautiful People (1974)? Fight Club (1999) and The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916)? The combinations are limitless. Have fun! |
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