Screening Log: 7 December 2011

1. /It Felt Like a Kiss/ (2009, Adam Curtis) Yep, still dazzling. All of the ’60s, plus the tragedies planted during it (AIDS, Al-Qaeda, etc.), dumped into a time warp. Every time you get comfortable with it, it pulls the rug out from under you. Builds to the argument that the ’60s really ended with the release of Tina Turner and Phil Spector’s ”River Deep, Mountain High” (see above — oh, and NSFW), which finally burst the bubble everyone was living in and left everyone an insane loner holding onto their own tailor-made belief. The notion that none of us can agree with basic reality is even more potent now, which of course is the point. Also, just beautifully edited. Curtis’ use of clips and songs is instinctual and only sporadically ironic in an obvious way (see: The Crystals’ “He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)” playing over a crying woman. [repertory screening — watch the whole thing here]

2. Curtis’ three, bouncier but no less bleak shorts for the BBC show Newswipe, which you can watch here, here and here. [repertory screening]

3. /Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas/ (1977, Jim Henson) [DVD]