Seattlest went to see the allegedly brand new, fully-restored print of the 1959 Robert Bresson classic Pickpocket at the Northwest Film Forum Tuesday night. We havent seen the French masterpiece since the late '90s when we caught at least part of it at the Grand Illusion, but we must not have stayed for the whole thing because we don't remember falling this madly in love with distressed ultra-goddess Marika Green (move over, precious Natalie Portman!). Seattlest will defer film criticsm to the experts, but for our money, it is indeed a classic: the much-hyped, convincing naturalism by way of Bresson's stylized minimalism, and intense visceral tension in all the close-ups and intimacy with the stealing tradecraft, etc. As for the film's alleged print restoration: to our layman's eyes the picture seemed pretty clean, but the sound quality was mired by the aged hissing/static noise that kind of subsided toward the end. But what can you do? It's an old, old movie. C'est la vie.
At least one of the heads of the multi-headed beast that is Seattlest noted the lack of signs on the theaters at the Film Forum. That can be really annoying. So we had to just wander through the first open door we saw, fingers crossed, hoping we were in the right place and hadn't stumbled in to a theater playing some unwatchable piece of crap that we would never ever want to pay money to see. If the Film Forum can afford a fancy new exterior sign, the least they can do is buy some dry erase boards to hang up inside indicating which movies are playing in which theaters. Then Seattlest could tag that shit, man, and draw stupid Van Halen logos and anarchy symbols and stuff. That would be great.
After watching Pickpocket, Seattlest got all misty-eyed and nostalgic thinking about the old times, back when people who wanted money for not working went to the trouble of developing special pick-pocketing skills rather than just standing in front of Dick's on Broadway screaming at passers-by. Ah... Those were the days. Are you reading this, Broadway Kids? Get off your asses and start robbing me!
Also from the NWFF Dept: An anonymous source has informed Seattlest that the Minutemen documentary also screening at the Forum is worth your time and money as well. This testimony further confirms our previous post on the matter when we interviewed We Jam Econo producer Keith Schieron and gave a demanding recommendation for the film after its world premiere. Go see it now, limited screenings at 11pm this Friday and Saturday.
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