Reply #47: Rare, but on video [View All]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Peking Opera Blues--a Hong Kong movie with slapstick that you've never seen before. I've never seen an audience react so hysterically as they did that night at the Portland Film Festival ca. 1989.

2. Whiskey Galore (also known as "Tight Little Island") Humor about drinking is no longer considered in good taste, but this 1940s film about an island off the coast of Scotland that is denied whiskey due to wartime rationing is damned funny. "Some men are born two drinks below par."

3, The Wrong Box--(see this week's edition of Movies for Democrats in the Meeting Room for details) "My father was a missionary, but he was eaten by his Bible class."

4. The Loved One--Someone else already mentioned this satire on the funeral industry, and I second that opinion. Liberace as a fake-sincere funeral director is priceless.

5. Tampopo--You just knew I'd have a Japanese film in there, didn't you? Built around the story of a truck driver trying to help a widow make a success of her noodle shop, this comedy is full of surreal vignettes about food.