Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I had the great pleasure of attending the C4GED Movie Marathon yesterday at the Alamo Drafthouse. The number 4 is in the title because this is the fourth five movie-long marathon of mystery movies starring Nicolas Cage the Alamo has put on. That means we've burned through quite a few of his more famous great movies like Leaving Las Vegas, Raising Arizona, Face/Off, Con Air, Valley Girl, Wild At Heart, etc. But it's a testament to the sheer amount of work Cage has turned out that we could still have good movies to hit.
This show is the love child of Alamo employee and overall good dude Greg MacLennan, who is the biggest Nic Cage fan I know. He has curated 15 films over three years personally, but this year he handed over the reigns to the only person more qualified to program a Nicolas Cage movie marathon: Nicolas Cage himself.
Not only did Mr. Cage handpick the five films that played, he also came to Austin and watched them with us. Yes, Nicolas Cage surprised the crowd and didn't even get out a hello before doing the most Nicolas Cagiest thing imaginable: He read the entirety of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart to the crowd. Read is the wrong word. He performed the entirety of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. And it was recorded. Watch:
Awesome, right? Even more awesome is Cage took a seat and watched 5 of his films back to back with the crowd, something he later said he never does and that this was his first time rewatching each one of these films since they premiered.
The five films were Bangkok Dangerous (which he said he picked because his current girlfriend was from "that exotic locale"), Joe (which he picked because it was shot in and around Austin, so he thought it was fitting), Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead (hands down the best film that played yesterday), the more recent Army of One and Lord of War (or the better version of War Dogs.
Cage stuck around, watched easily a dozen trailers from his movies that spanned Leaving Las Vegas to The Rock, and all the crazy Nic Cage-themed Alamo pre-show reels that played between features. You haven't felt surreal until you've been in the room with Nicolas Cage while he's watching YouTube songs using his Wicker Man dialogue for the lyrics.
After the movies he took the stage and took some questions from the audience. He mentioned having auditioned for The Dating Game as a fluke when he was 13-15ish and getting accepted, but his father wouldn't let him actually appear on the show. He talked about his Superman, but only in vague terms, like that he knew how he was going to do the character and how Tim Burton was going to make the movie and was excited about it and very sad they didn't get to make it. Then said he had to watch what he says about that one because any time he mentions that project the internet catches fire.
He was asked if he had any words for his haters out there. After a pregnant pause he smiled slyly and said, "You don't know what you're missing" which, of course, garnered huge applause from the crowd.
A long time ago I sat down with Nicolas Cage on a set visit for a movie that was then called The Medallion and ended up called Stolen. Way back when I pitched him on coming to Drafthouse and programming some movies. "My movies?" he asked. I told him he could do whatever he wanted, even program movies he loved. That caught fire in his mind back then and he brought up a few titles, but that was it. When I tried to follow up I didn't get anywhere with his people.
It took MacLennan's passion and the great work of wunderpublicists Ryan and Brandy Fons to finally get him here, but I remembered how fired up Cage got at the idea of programming other films, so I raised my hand, was called on by Greg and I asked Cage "We know now which films of yours you'd program, but if you could program any movies for us to watch, what would they be?"
He once again got animated at the thought and listed off a few Kubricks, including 2001. I remebered the title he was most excited about in that surely now forgotten years-ago geeky chat and shouted out "Phantom of the Paradise?" He pointed at me and said "Yes! Yes! I watch that movie anually."
So, hopefully Mr. Cage had a good time. I'd love to see him come back and program a night of hand-picked films he geeks out about. The man was a great sport and was very humble with his interactions with the crowd, taking selfies and holding court between films. It was a very special night, one that is up there with the all-time Alamo great moments.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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