Matinee

Discuss releases from Arrow and the films on them.

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cdnchris
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Re: Matinee

#26 Post by cdnchris » Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:31 pm

I actually assumed they were just quick trims

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JamesF
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Re: Matinee

#27 Post by JamesF » Sat Sep 24, 2016 2:41 pm

I wondered the same as domino, especially given there isn't any accompanying menu text unlike the rest of the extras? There isn't the customary second of black at the start or end either. Anyway, minor nitpick for an otherwise terrific disc!

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domino harvey
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Re: Matinee

#28 Post by domino harvey » Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:45 pm

domino harvey wrote:Just got my copy in and I think there's something hinky with the deleted scenes? The last two (?) scenes seem truncated far beyond what one would expect. The next to last is just Lisa Jakub saying "If you count up all the real people--" which then cuts to the TV and someone saying "Mexico City" and then the deleted scenes end? What the hell? They collectively run 2:27 on my copy, is this right Arrow?
For those curious, the deleted scenes only run 2:21 on the Shout Factory release and don't include the incomplete snippets described above at the end

M Sanderson
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Re: Matinee

#29 Post by M Sanderson » Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:00 am

Is it just me or did the transfer look funny, shiny and smeary almost like videotape? Or is it my bias, knowing it comes from a Universal source? No one else seems to have had an issue with it.

Also am I the only person who saw edge enhancement on Peter Fonda’s beautiful Hired Hand, also a Universal Property?

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tenia
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Re: Matinee

#30 Post by tenia » Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:18 am

The Hired Hand is clearly a dated master and you're not the only one to have picked up the EE, though it seemed infrequent to me.

IIRC, Matinee is a more recent restoration, though it now looks quite dated too (but not as much). In any case though, I certainly wouldn't call it smeary, even less like a videotape ! If this looks like videotape, I will go back at my VHS straight away.

M Sanderson
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Re: Matinee

#31 Post by M Sanderson » Thu Feb 22, 2018 2:37 pm

I’m exaggerating a bit. Didn’t think it was from vhs for one minute, ha! Just strangely bright, shiny and not filmlike, Matinee. And I couldn’t believe it was a creative choice from the filmmakers.

Definitely, Hired Hand was a good restoration, back in 2000 or 2003, whenever it was I caught a screening.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Matinee

#32 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Oct 12, 2023 12:49 am

I've gradually come to believe that this might be the perfect Movie.

Dante clearly believes in the power of fantasy to influence real life through a safe relationship forged in the movie theatre, where the link between man and a harmless screen (rather than ominous forces of politicized warfare, an unclear future, etc. ubiquitously provoking anxieties outside the heavenly theatre) allows artifice to unlock our vulnerable emotional truths, breathe, and feel - even physically, with all the right gimmicks! I love how Dante makes a movie that is about facilitating intimacy and which also self-reflexively facilitates intimacy, conveying these limitless possibilities of relatable imaginative narrative filled with every conceivable genre.

I mean, what isn’t this film? It qualifies as (and accurately homages) a mature wartime romance, youthful rom-com of folly, family melodrama, action and suspense and disaster flicks, hilarious satire and a sincere affirmation of life's possibilities, seamlessly transitioning across these spectrums while remaining consolidated in a comfortable, breezy spirit. But for such a light ride, this is densely packed with rich thematic insights. Matinee is about (and simultaneously functions 'as') the magic of the movies and the reality of life's actual pleasures and horrors; a synthesis of all movie magic to grant its characters - and us - momentary reprieve from these stressors.

Goodman facilitates most of the action in the film, even if he's not the 'main character'. But isn't he on some level? Lawrence Woolsey walks into town as an angelic Higher Power on Earth. He fills the romanticized role of both a compassionate diety and a flesh-and-blood capitalist individualist who unironically shares collectivist values of utilitarianism with equity, tipped towards morality when it counts. He's an idealized version of both Lancaster Dodd and God himself - collecting acolytes, issuing maximal manipulation with all available resources to foster personalized human connection. He brings people together and creates spectacle that makes life worth living amidst an intimidating world of limitations and fear. Movies are a safe haven, a bunker from the anxieties of nebulous nuclear threats overwhelming the collective consciousness, which - in an artless world, might reinforce isolation, bar affinity, and swallow us up like.. Mant! Oh, these puritanical parents - did we learn nothing from the French Renaissance?

Like a a corporeal prophet, Goodman cultivates and spreads opportunities for anthropological attachment through the power of joint experience. Matinee validates our concerns while inventing a fabricated nostalgia for a time where human connection can be universally-prioritized as the supreme utility of importance for all. So of course everything works out in the end - if only for an instant while the film's celluloid is spinning 'round the projector (or the Arrow blu is being read by my player's laser). Goodman's wisdom dispensed in the denouement indicates a Sisyphean struggle where the moral lies in seizing the present moment. The kids have seen the “coming attractions” with accumulated trauma of fearful engagement with life stressors, and they'll face a lot more pain down the road, but this is held alongside vacuumed optimism that hones in on the infinite value in the person before us. The movie is quite philosophically deep, touching on moral relativity when it comes to politics of war, and cites the zoom-outs as incomparable with the fear of loved ones' safety on either side of the political lines, always landing on the key principle of humanism trumping all else.

It's also a celebration of showmanship, made by a showman, and inclusively opening up that definition of identification for anyone who motivates themselves towards generous passion - be it self-betterment, kinship, romance, or making magical machines to fleetingly rescue youth; providing them with a space to really be a kid - and that includes the youthful part in us adults too.

And then there's the moral component, the one that reminds us to always be mindful of the responsibility to be sensitive in wielding our agency in social relationships. This is a nonstop exercise in Fun, but there's a deliberate message that we can hurt others easily if we're not careful... it's just not pronounced with intrusive omniscient muscle, because the film is so confidently hopeful that characters will do their best and wind up okay (and it seems to believe that we, on the other side of the screen, all have the capacity to reach the same fate). I love when a random patron child looks up at the ceiling as the theatre rumbles, and flippantly asks, “What are you, God?” - a cheeky reference to Goodman's meta-allegorical, enigmatic characterization. The (of course, in a socially-conscious movie, narcissistic) poet-hoodlum villain-vehicle gives this theme the kick in needs: its climax, which demonstrates that these gifts Goodman disperses are awesome in the right hands, but catastrophic in the wrong ones. From art to war to the intimate trust between two people, this rule of intentionality and conscientious prudence applies.

I also love how Dante reflexively emulates the concocted artificial film-within-a-film (Mant!) as well as expresses respectful awareness of the larger celestial mysteries beyond the scope of this film, all within Matinee's humble narrative trappings. I guess that makes the world of Matinee the middle-ground and a stand-in for our world, with Mant as Matinee, the film we're watching, and the fears from the uncontrollables and unknowns somewhat shared if still unique to us all. Anyways, back to the constant mirroring: My favorite bit is during the suspense at the end, when the theatre owner picks up the phone and says, “Get me the cops” with a warped angle moving in as he stares up and screams at the rumbling theatre crashing down like a nuclear strike - precisely when Mant! is about to manufacture this exact experience only forged securely on the silver screen! These are moments that authenticate our fears and also rub our shoulders to remind us that it's all a movie and we’re taken care of (a bit like a.. God does?) We're safe while we're watching it. Put the fear away, or let it out at a distracting, novel, tangible target. Escape into the place where dreams are made of, are regurgitated back, and harmonically breed more dreams in sync with the audience. Matinee is an ode to Art, and it doesn't discriminate on high or low brow or wherever your own schematic order ventures, because it has it all.

And I still don't think there's a more magical movie moment than when Goodman is taking the kid through the theatre to explain the sublime experience of entering that sacred space, and we switch to a POV perspective climbing the stairs. Dante brings his audience in with an unexpected formal switch that functions as a warm hug. This forced participation allows us to be triggered by our favorite memories of entering those theatres in our youth, minds impressionable and ready to mature by learning about ourselves and life through the medium. It’s just one of many gifts the film has to offer, and that great artists offer us in spades all the time, just as life is composed of constant opportunities for growth and grace. It’s a movie that makes me feel grateful.

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