Every year Baton Rouge Gallery does Movies on the Lawn - a showing of silent movies with a live score. For 7 bucks, you get to watch a movie on an inflatable screen and feast on free popcorn. It's a lot of fun. Bring lawn chairs or a blanket, and you're good to go.
Mr. G. is not a fan of silent movies. He believes that movies require both color and audible dialogue. Just call him the Ted Turner of Baton Rouge.
However, he took a film class in college, a much beloved film class, and the teacher had touched on "Metropolis." So when I mentioned it was being screened Saturday night, he was game.
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| True that |
Bailey had a tough Saturday. She tends to have a sensitive stomach, something the pound director casually mentioned to us as we were pulling out of the parking lot and Bailey was safely perched atop her new doggie bed in the cargo area of our car.
Pound director (tapping on the car window): Oh, just one more thing.
Me: Yes?
Pound director: She gets sick from time to time.
Me: Sick?
Pound director (waving his hand as if this was really a minor issue): You know, occasionally throwing up if her food disagrees with her.
"Occasionally" was putting it mildly. We considered just putting the house for sale and moving during the transition from puppy chow to big girl food. It seemed easier than cleaning up all the puke. Finally, the vet told us to put one kibble of big girl food in her puppy chow and then increase it to two kibbles the next day and then to three kibbles, and so on. Bailey, who is 4, is almost entirely transitioned off puppy chow. Just another six months or so.
On Saturday, after a weekend of feasting on barbecued hot dogs, Bailey was sick. Apparently Mr. G. gave her hot dogs. Then Mrs. G. gave her hot dogs. For all I know, the neighbors gave her hot dogs. But she seemed to have puked all she was going to puke by the time the movie rolled around so off we went (naturally with a hot dog in a sandwich bag because we're stupid, stupid, stupid).
We got to the park early and took flyers from the pretty girls pitching some laser tag/bowling/sliders place on Sherwood. Mr. G. nodded his head at them and listened to the spiel, pretending that yes, he plays laser tag ALL the time and then quietly asked me later what the hell laser tag is.
My favorite part of any outing is the people watching. Movie on the Lawn attracts movie lovers of all ages. A nattily dressed old man turned up with his daughter.
Daughter: Say hello to the dog.
Old man: Hello, puppy dog.
Daughter: Now help me with this blanket.
Old man (to me): She said I wouldn't have to do any work.
A beautiful Husky showed up with a young couple. The Husky was most interested in Bailey, who snobbishly ignored her, even when the Husky howled to get her attention. Throughout the movie, that poor Husky rolled on her back in the grass, wagged her tail and howled while Bailey blew on her nails.
We munched on sandwiches, giving Bailey bites. She had a little hot dog and a little popcorn. And a little food from the sweet girls sprawled on a blanket next to us. Then she puked all over the lawn just before the movie started. Mr. G. quickly cleaned up the mess, and we hoped no one noticed.
"Metropolis" is a strange but also stunning film. And long. Very, very long.
It tells the story of a futuristic class struggle. It features the exaggerated acting common in the silent film era.
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| The leading lady in Metropolis |
The film was greatly cut down not long after its initial release in the 1920s. The editing apparently didn't do the film any favors. The original film was considered lost until a copy surfaced in Brazil not so long ago.
From what I can gather, the film is famous, in part, because it was massively expensive to make. Basically, it's a movie about a city underneath a city. Set in 2027, the city above is full of light, a beautiful garden, flying cars (still waiting for this!) and privileged sons of the wealthy. The city below contains the machines and the workers who risk their lives to make the city above work. Toss in a mad scientist, a beautiful woman and turmoil in a father-son relationship, and you have a movie.
"Metropolis" is a German film, and Hitler was a fan of it. So there's that.
Parts of the film are especially fantastic. The sets must have been incredible. You go from a city with flying cars and soaring buildings to the catacombs to a room with impossibly huge curtains to a man tumbling down a cathedral roof.
The dance scene above is one of the film's most famous. It's hilarious and unexpected.
One of the best things about seeing this movie in Baton Rouge was the musical score. It wasn't the original, but a new one conjured up Matsy. It had elements of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (the boatride scene). It was surprising and perfect all at once.
There are three more entries in this year's Movies on the Lawn. I'm especially excited about next month's "Peter Pan." Maybe we won't feed Bailey a boatload of hot dogs ahead of it.
