Throughout the Wisconsin Film Festival, I promised to tweet sightings of Madison’s ultimate cine-couple, Larry and Dee Dee (I refrain from using their last names here only because they are more or less off the internet/grid, so this would probably come up as their first and only hit in a Google search). As I’ve mentioned before, whenever you see Larry and Dee Dee at a Wisconsin Film Festival screening, you pretty much know that you made the right selection for that time slot.
First Dee Dee and Larry sighting: First row of stadium seating, STAY DOGS. #wifilmfest
— Madison Film Forum (@MadFilmForum) April 4, 2014
I skipped reporting several Dee Dee and Larry sightings. Of course they are at DANCE OF REALITY, how could they not be? #wifilmfest.
— Madison Film Forum (@MadFilmForum) April 9, 2014
I always look forward to running into Dee Dee and Larry before or after screenings because they always guarantee a great conversation. In fact, on at least two occasions during the Festival we found ourselves standing in or near a parking ramp for several minutes so that we could finish up a post-screening chat. Larry almost always has some newspaper or magazine clippings with him to share, the most recent example being a clipped out copy of the New York Times Magazine profile of Alejandro Jodorowsky, which he showed me after the screening of The Dance of Reality (which made both of our Top Ten Lists for the Festival).
So when Dee Dee and Larry say that they saw 22 films at this year’s Festival, that means they did it the old fashioned way: they stood in 22 lines, and watched with 22 audiences. Unlike me they didn’t have the opportunity to see press screeners before hand (in fact, they don’t watch movies at home). Larry was kind enough to take the time to send me a list of what they ended up seeing along with scores and rankings. If you want to catch up with any of these titles, again I recommend using the GoWatchIt bookmark to put titles in your queue for updates about theatrical releases (national), and home video availability.
Hi Jim, DD and I scored each film from 1 to 5 and then combined our scores. For the 22 films we saw here is how that turned out:
10 points: Stray Dogs, Three Seats for the 26th, Stand Clear of Closing Doors, and Jodie Mack: Let Your Light Shine.
9 points: The Dance of Reality, Mystery Road, and Il Sorpasso.
8 points: Ilo Ilo, The Rocket, Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, You and the Night, Salvo, A Room In Town.
7 points: Like Father, Like Son and When Evening Falls on Bucharest
6 points: The Champagne Murders, Of Vodka Water and Mannequins, All About the Feathers, Visitors.
5 points: 20,000 Days on Earth and Young and Beautiful
4 points: A Spell to Ward off Darkness
As you can see Jim, we are quite generous in our judgments when it comes to movies—pretty much everything we go to see, film fest and beyond, we are hoping to like, or find something to like, about them…