the king of hearts
I just saw a movie last night watching pbs . they have "starlight theatre" on the pbs here in new orleans. and me and laura used to watch it nearly every night at 10 p.m. usually they would show "meet me in st. louie" or a wwII john wayne flick or something, so I watched it last night to re-live my former life here (the starlight theatre theme at the begining before they show the film brings tears to my eyes...)
anyway, last night they showed a 1966 movie that I had always heard about even in high school, but never saw...."the king of hearts"...fucking brilliant. it's about a british soldier in the first world war who is sent to a french town to warn the people that the germans plan to destroy the town with a huge bomb, and defuse the bomb if possible..... and he finds the town is totally emtpy : except for the zoo animals have escaped the zoo, and the patients at the insane asylum have escaped. so it's a town filled with bears, tigers and insane people who are all dressed totally surreal like one guy who thinks he's pope, and a guy who thinks he's in napoleon's time, and a woman who is a duchess, and girls dressed like circus performers...etc.... to escape the germans he has to hide out and fit in to the surreal world the the crazy people make for themselves in the empty abandoned town..and he slowly realizes that the crazy people's beautiful surreal world is actually more sane than the brutal war that is going on all around them.. ...it's really lighthearted and heartwarming in the way that tati's movies are but also a bit of a comment of the insanity of war...and really, not just war, but the insanity of everyday life and the world, and how it's important to dream and to see and enjoy the beautiful things in life and in our imaginations.
anyway, last night they showed a 1966 movie that I had always heard about even in high school, but never saw...."the king of hearts"...fucking brilliant. it's about a british soldier in the first world war who is sent to a french town to warn the people that the germans plan to destroy the town with a huge bomb, and defuse the bomb if possible..... and he finds the town is totally emtpy : except for the zoo animals have escaped the zoo, and the patients at the insane asylum have escaped. so it's a town filled with bears, tigers and insane people who are all dressed totally surreal like one guy who thinks he's pope, and a guy who thinks he's in napoleon's time, and a woman who is a duchess, and girls dressed like circus performers...etc.... to escape the germans he has to hide out and fit in to the surreal world the the crazy people make for themselves in the empty abandoned town..and he slowly realizes that the crazy people's beautiful surreal world is actually more sane than the brutal war that is going on all around them.. ...it's really lighthearted and heartwarming in the way that tati's movies are but also a bit of a comment of the insanity of war...and really, not just war, but the insanity of everyday life and the world, and how it's important to dream and to see and enjoy the beautiful things in life and in our imaginations.