|
|
| Tuesday, April 5, 2005 09:55 AM |
| On the Pope, Nessie, and a Baby or Two |
 by Fëanor |
- My sister-in-law's baby shower on Saturday was cool. The three men present retreated to the kitchen to eat while the women dined elsewhere. We talked of manly things, like technology and vomiting. Good times!
- After the shower, poppy and I hit the road, did a little shopping at the bookstore (I picked up a few more graphic novels--a Star Wars one covering a story that the Knights of the Old Republic games have mentioned, but which I've never actually read in detail; and The Dark Knight Returns, a book any Batman fan should own), and then we grabbed some Thai food at a great little Thai place up there and drove it all the way down to Philly where we enjoyed it with our friends Aerenchyma and Steak Knife. It was important that they taste good Thai food.
- At the Thai place, on their new big screen TV, I learned that the Pope had finally died. Now, I've got nothing against the Pope. Well, some things, but you know, I didn't hate the guy. But I do hate it when the news channels get obsessed with a story and do not let it go, even when nothing is going on with that story. It is not "breaking news" when all you have to tell me is that you still don't know anything, and that the Pope isn't dead yet.
And then when the guy finally kicks it, and I open the paper on Monday, I have to go seven pages into the thing before I find a story that isn't about the Pope. I know the Pope doesn't die every day, but still. There's got to be something else going on.
But a day or so before his death, this one woman reporter we saw on one news channel really blew our minds. She was there, on the ground near the Vatican, covering the story. She says on live TV, broadcast around the world, that she heard some people talking, and she's been looking at some Italian newspapers, and she thinks maybe the Pope might be dead, but because she doesn't understand Italian, she's not quite sure. Plus, you know, these Italian journalists don't have the same standards we do in America.
WTF??? I don't expect you to learn Italian for a story, but for God's sakes, you work for a big American news station, and plenty of people in Italy also speak English--find a damn interpreter, you idiot! Don't go on air with that shit! And then, after shaming yourself and your station and your country, don't go ahead on and insult the Italian press while you're at it! Seriously, that woman should be fired.
- After poppy, Aerenchyma, Steak Knife, and I were done our Thai food, and the Bubber Boo was safely abed, we settled down to check out a movie--Incident at Loch Ness. Now, I had heard something a while ago about my man Werner Herzog making a documentary about the Loch Ness monster. Then I read some of a crazy website that seemed to be accusing Herzog of ruining the shoot, faking things, and possibly even having something to do with the disappearance of one or two crew members. It sounded like insanity, and I figured it was all bull, but I was still a bit disturbed. Then I kind of lost track of the whole story.
Then Steak Knife has this DVD, and he says he thinks it's a documentary about Herzog making the film I had read about, and we pop it in and start watching. Some fifteen minutes or so in, we start to suspect that this is staged, and that this is not really a true documentary. Steak Knife finally looks up the movie and discovers that it is in fact a comedy, and one of those "mock documentaries" that are all the rage these days.
But I'm kind of glad we didn't know at first what we were watching, because it added yet another layer to the film, which plays with the line between truth and fiction. In fact, I realize now that those stories I read and that website I saw were all created just to market this film, and to give it a grounding in "reality."
The movie starts off claiming to be a documentary on Werner Herzog, but quickly becomes a documentary about Werner Herzog making his next documentary, which is on the Loch Ness monster. But as the camera follows people into backrooms and the filmmakers listen in on private conversations, we begin to suspect that things are not quite what they seem. Herzog's producer for the film is a fellow named Zak Penn, and it quickly becomes clear that he has different plans for the film than Herzog. In fact, he wants to transform Herzog's "boring" documentary into a Hollywood action/thriller behind Herzog's back, by adding special effects and a girl in a bikini. But things take another turn when some real, seemingly monster-related disturbances begin to plague the shoot, and the Hollywood action/thriller starts to become the reality.
It's quite a funny film, and Herzog plays his part with a straight face and utter believability. Zak Penn, who--like pretty much everybody else in the movie--plays a version of himself, is also the real director of the film, and one of the funnier characters. He and Herzog are both credited as writers, but the script doesn't shrink from making fun of either of them. In fact, the movie is even funnier if you know a bit about Herzog and his films, as it makes a couple of in-jokes about Fitzcarraldo and Herzog's infamous relationship with Klaus Kinski.
But you don't need to be a Herzog fan or even a documentary fan to like the film. It's goofy, and a lot of fun, and we all enjoyed it quite a bit.
- I was going to cover Sunday in this post, too, but I see that it's already gotten overlong, and I need to get back to work, so I'll just end this now with a "to be continued..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
