My Sunday Film Festival - VIDEODROME

I have a problem. More of a sickness, really. It's called Amoeba Music.

Every so often (meaning, more times than not) I go to Amoeba Music on Sunset Blvd. and buy more movies than I should. I think I've got maybe a handful of vices... maybe I should say, I can count my vices on one hand... but one of the big ones, the thumb on that hand, would be movie buying splurges.

There is no rhyme or reason to my spending habits, they are erratic and impulsive. On one trip I'll buy up all the Michelangelo Antonioni DVD's I can find, then head over to the VHS section and buy up all of the cult section (out-of-print shit for under $5. Amazing!) Lately, I've put into place some rules 1) only buy movies I have not seen, and 2) only spend less than a $100. Both of these rules are helpful guides, but I violate them constantly. I mean, I've seen Bridge Over The River Kwai, but not on Blu-ray... so that $20 bad boy is going in the basket, rules be damned.

Unfortunately, the stack next to my chair consisting of movies I have yet to see is getting taller and taller, tilting over in a Suessical way. The best way I whittle down the stack is program my own Sunday Film Festivals. This is a joy. I love these.

First up today is David Cronenberg's VIDEODROME. This falls into the "film I saw on Showtime at my next door neighbor's house when I was way to young to watch it or get it" category.

VIDEODROME TRAILER

Considering this movie was made in 1983, it skewers our current obsession with voyeur-viewing. Back when I was a kid, the only porn you could get your hands on had a modicum of production value (like a script, or, dare I say it... actors.) Nowadays, not only is porn a click away, it's packed with amateur video. We all want to be watching our next door neighbors go at it instead of Jenna Jameson and Rocco. Or at least have the illusion that we're watching normal people. People like us.

James Woods plays a programmer (or CEO) of a cable station that plays soft-core porn and other stimulating content. But he wants something more raw and engaging. He stumbles across a signal that broadcasts a room where people are tortured and murdered. This channel is called Videodrome. 

At one point in the movie, a woman named Masha tries to sell James Woods on her soft-core programming. After she shows him a clip of beautiful, half-naked women rolling around in a Roman spa, James Woods character replies with a frown: "I'm looking for something a lot more contemporary. I want stuff that really shows what's going on under the sheets." Masha then replies, "Well... it's your market."

We now live in that market. Average Jane now rules over Jenna Jameson. Maybe she always did. Maybe all that was required was a webcam.