Here I am... relaxed... calm... in a short span of 24 hours I will already begin my ascent into filmgoing nirvana. Pure unadulterated joy. An event for only the most dedicated and loving of film fans.
This will be the Fourth Quentin Tarantino Film Festival here in Austin... this year it's being called... QT QUATTRO...
What I'm about to experience with my fellow occupants of the Alamo Drafthouse over the next 10 days is cinematic bliss. Now... I know, you're thinking that this must be some ego short stroke for Quentin... a place where he feels above everyone and pontificates to the masses as though they ar lowly vassals gathering straw for bricks...
I remember how I felt going into QT1... the first Quentin Tarantino Film Festival... I remember reading the list of films... being unfamiliar with the titles and going to see the movies. At the time, I was on a rant about how PULP FICTION wasn't all that... and I had read this stuff in papers about this gigantic egomaniac named Quentin Tarantino... I went with quite a bit of... why can't they just show the movies attitude. And as Quentin stepped in fron of the screen at the Egyptian Room at the Dobie Theater here in Austin... and as he introduced THE SAVAGE SEVEN... a biker flick which... delighted me beyond belief... followed by a William Smith flick called THE HOLLYWOOD MAN... and it was here... with this second film that I realized... Tarantino was no film snob... Quentin loved film... not in that idle intellectual pontification manner... but in that... "Hey baby, let's fuck" sort of way. There is an energy and a vibe about film that Quentin gives off at these fests that... Well, there is no way to describe it... you have to experience it.
That first festival of Quentin's I decided that by the end of it... I wanted to talk about film, love film and share film for the rest of my life. I felt that way before the fest, but after it... I was committed. This was my path. I would write and live in and around film. It would be one of my key passions.
Since then... every year... everytime I attend Tarantino's festival... I meet new people whom I inevitably invite into my little wacky AICN world. We become friends... we share dreams, conversations, beer and by the end of it all... we're drunk not from the alcohol alone... but by the rush... that cinejection of experiences. There are ideas and images and themes I whistle, hum, quote and reenact.... character traits acquired from these festivals... And folks... I can not tell you the sheer joy of attending a film festival... where no film needs distribution.... where there are no prizes.... where there are no development deals, publicists and the filmmakers are all absent. You see.. Quentin never shows his own films here.... He's just a film fan like those in the audience.
We've seen films that noone I have ever met had seen before... including Quentin... like when he screened GHETTO FREAKS and GIRL ON A CHAIN GANG and LEGEND OF THE WOLF WOMAN.
We will be assaulted with a non-stop barrage of images from trailers, videos, 16mm films, 35 mm films and so on. At the end of the trip.. we're left tingling with joy.... like prisoners that have become institutionalized... not knowing how to now fit in out in the real world. The Alamo Drafthouse will become our chapel... Quentin our Pastor.... The Saints this year will be portrayed by Toho Monsters, Fulci gore, Mike Connors, Vince Edwards, Jeannie Bell, Rosanne Kanton, Jennifer O'Neill, Dario Argento, Michael Caine, Kirk Douglas, Jesus Franco, Brett Eklund, Tony Curtis, Henry Silva, Fernando DiLeo, Bill Cosby, Fernando Baldi, Walter Hill, George Hilton, Richard Pryor, Peter Bogdonovich, Chan Wei-Min, Sonny Chiba, Leif Garrett, The Animals, Herman's Hermits and even Jackie Chan all on the illuminated 24 pages a second manuscript stretched before our eyes!
Here's ticket information again... but you should know.. this is very near a sell out at this point. I can not strongly recommend enough the 10 day pass... it could change your life... however, you can purchase single night passes and 5 day passes. Here's that info:
For tickets: Available in advance through Thursday, August 24 at 2:00 p.m. from the Austin Film Society only (512/322-0145): 10-day badge $125 5-day badge (any 5 days!) $75 Single evening pass $20, or $30 for Friday and Saturday nights Sundays and Tuesday are bonus nights, with two films for the price of three. Advance tickets available to Austin Film Society members only. Membership begins at $20. Any remaining seats sold at the door, 15 minutes before showtime.
Click Here For My Coverage of QT1
Click Here for My Coverage of QT2
Click here for the intro to QT3
Click here for Day One of QT3
Click Here For Day Two of QT3
Click Here For Moriarty's Thoughts on QT3
Click Here for Day 4 of QT3
Click Here For Day 5 of QT3
Click Here For Quint's coverage of the final night of QT3
And with that... I leave to rest in the land of cinematic angels... I went out with Moriarty, RoRo, El Cosmico, Father Geek and Babyface Nelson to get a pre-injection of joy by going to see GODZILLA 2000.... ahhhhhh... MAN IN SUIT.. MAN IN SUIT... MAN IN SUIT... Till tomorrow night my friends...
