What better way to spend Monday night than watching a documentary about a photographer? I just watched Bill Cunningham New York about the New York Times street-fashion photographer known for riding around on his bike for decades. I recommend it.
“This is the guy that comes on a bicycle.” —Bill Cunningham exuding modesty on the phone with a photography shop
Somehow I had completely missed until today that there is a documentary about the making of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot called I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. The opening credits are beautiful for both their rendition of film’s namesake song and the black and white photography of Chicago. I also caught myself nodding at this quote from the film:
We’re now in a culture, not just a business, but a culture in which we expect everything to happen [finger snap] like that. Ya know, you have people outside, standing around, talking on cell phones, ya know, the gist of the conversation is “I’ll be there in five minutes.” Who gives a fuck? Just be there in five minutes, don’t talk about it.
—David fricke senior editor rolling stone
Oh, and it’s available for streaming on Netflix.
Ed. Note: The above post has actually been sitting as a draft since Nov. 26, but I was just reminded of it as I was watching Ashes of American Flags, and thus finally remembered to hit publish.
Coincidentally, tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of 9/11, which is the date Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was originally set for release.
I was hoping to see Thursday night’s opening film at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, “500 Days of Summer”, but my sieve of a memory prevented that from happening.
I did, however, manage to take in “The Girl from Monaco” (“La fille de Monaco” for your Francophiles) and “I’m Gonna Explode” (“Voy a Explotar”) Sunday night and enjoyed them both.
The festival runs through April 30. Check out their calendar and get your butt in a seat.