Double Bills.

[small_world]

I remember going to the pics to see The Darjeeling Limited, and it was shown alongside Wes Anderson's Hotel Chevalier, as a double bill. And for a while I've been interested in this kind of set up. Which films work with which others and why? What would you show as part of a double bill, maybe if you were to show your favourite film. I'm sort of asking this because I forced 4 Lions on to my parents over Christmas, and while they didn't hate it, they struggled to get in to it. And looking back I wish we'd watched something to get them into the 'mood'. I don't know what that would be, but there we go.

Over Christmas we also watched Tristram Shandy with my parents, they had seen most episodes of The Trip and as I hadn't seen TS' A Cock and Bull story, I thought it's be a nice family film. So, as a double bill kind of idea/thing, we sat down to watch the last episode of The Trip, followed by Tristram Shandy, A Cock and Bull Story. The two worked well together, and it was interesting to watch Coogan and Brydon in a 'real' film after seeing them in The Trip.

Along similar lines, last night I watched 127 hours, and immediately after we went to bed and watched Buried. While Buried was pretty shite, it was good to see two similar-ish films back to back.

So what films would you say suited being shown alongside one another? Or maybe a TV episode or documentary and a film together?

[the midnight watch baboon]

and immediately after we went to bed and watched Buried.

Blimey you are tight with your parents!

Can't remember the last time I watched two films back-to-back, probably on a flight. Finding Nemo than Buffalo Soldiers. Worked quite well actually thank you.

[Dead kate moss]

10 years old. For some reason Maidstone cinema had a double bill of Spider-Man (the US TV series amalgamated into a UK movie release) and the Debbie Boone (?) biopic of her writing and having a hit with 'You Light Up My Life' which is in the extremely boring movie about twelve times. Me and my friend did not realise we could leave the cinema after Spider-Man. Torture worse than water-boarding at the time.

[ThickAndCreamy]

I watched an excellent double bill a few months back of F For Fake and Exit Through The Gift Shop.

Both movies revolve around the art world, trickery, deception and perception. They're both good in their own way, but F For Fake is especially fantastic, with editing that has so heavily influenced the modern film and television industry with it's speed and style. It's one of my favourite Orson Welles films, and certainly for me, the one with the most charm.

I'd highly recommend watching them both after each other. Noth discuss, in a very nonchalant and entertaining way, the value of art, of movements and forgery. They're films in which you're never sure what's true and what's false with their ambiguity and are all the better for it.

[small_world]

Over Christmas we also watched Tristram Shandy with my parents...

Along similar lines... immediately after we went to bed...

Yeah, back at home now, last night I went to bed with my girlfriend, not with my parents. And after we watched Buried, I 'buried' my big lad in her tight body.
Zinger.

They showed DeathProof and Planet Terror as part of a 'Grindhouse' double. But I'm pretty sure I only saw Death Proof. Er, yeah.

[Bad Ambassador]

The last double bill I remember watching was Doctor Zhivago and Big Trouble in Little China.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Moon and Sunshine.

[Famous Mortimer]

Dammit, someone beat me to the Basketball Heads tag.

I watched the 1938 and then the musical 1970 version of "A Christmas Carol" over Christmas, and that was jolly nice. Although with me, double-bills tend to be something horrible, then something light to cheer me up - the evening of "Cannibal Holocaust" followed by "The Wedding Singer" springs to mind.

[Maybe Im Doing It Wrong]

A mate of mine used to have a VHS tape on which he'd recorded Cronenbnerg's Dead Ringers and the Will Hay film Ask A Policeman, which I think is probably the worst double bill of all time.

[kidsick5000]

Nick And Norah's Infinite Playlist and Scott Pilgrim Vs The World.
Both starrinbg Michael Cera, both about young folk and a local music scene.
The former is less flashy but nails the chaos and haphazardness of a night out and is frankly ace.
The latter plays like a dream sequence version of the former.

[SavageHedgehog]

On ebay once I saw a poster advertising a double bill of The Exterminaor and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981). A curious match

[small_world]

Just been to the pics and saw the new Chronicles of Narnia film The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, and because I'm a cheeky cunt we snook into The Way Home, a great film based on the story of a group of Soviet prisoners escaping from a Gulag(sp?) in Eastern Siberia and crossing 4000 miles of the most (probably) inhospitable terrain on Earth, crossing the Siberian wastes into Mongolia, across the Gobi desert and then over the Himalayas, simples.

Although a bit long back to back, I thought the two of them worked well together. A good load of propaganda in both, and both based on fantastical voyages.
I'm a huge kid at heart and Narnia, while a bit rushed, was always going to entertain me.
Oh, and by the way, Colin Farrell was pretty good as a Russian crim.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Withnail and I followed by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Both mad comedies about characters getting off thier tits and going on disastrous holidays. Both examine the death of the '60s hippie dream as a major theme, but in a before and after sort of way.

[Icehaven]

The Electric in Brum did an East is East and My Beautiful Launderette double bill some years back, that was good. They also did one with Being John Malkovich but I'm damned if I can remember what the other film was, damn it.

[rjd2]

I watched Bad Lieutenant remake followed by Four Lions last summer, they didn't have much in common but it was quite an enjoyable afternoon really.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

10 years old. For some reason Maidstone cinema had a double bill of Spider-Man (the US TV series amalgamated into a UK movie release) and the Debbie Boone (?) biopic of her writing and having a hit with 'You Light Up My Life' which is in the extremely boring movie about twelve times. Me and my friend did not realise we could leave the cinema after Spider-Man. Torture worse than water-boarding at the time.

I went to see that cobbled together version of Spider-Man too, but it was in a double bill with Cactus Jack, a sort of live-action Tex Avery western spoof starring Kirk Douglas, Ann Margret and - together at last - Arnold Schwarzenegger. I actually enjoyed it more than the Spider-Man film, and I fucking loved Spider-Man as a kid.

I have a feeling that, watched in the cold, dead light of adulthood, Cactus Jack would be a screaming pile of old toot, but I wouldn't want to ruin a perfectly pleasant childhood memory.

EDIT: Mercy, here's the trailer, under its original US title The Villain. And yes, that is Paul "The Hooded Claw" Lynde.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohrzfr3BI6U

Looks hilarious.

[CaledonianGonzo]

My one abiding memory of Cactus Jack is that after Kirk Douglas finally steals a kiss from Charming Jones, the Looney Tunes music starts up and he starts bouncing around the town like a hopped-up Zebedee.

That and Arnie in a stetson, of course.

The Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh does double bills every Sunday afternoon, but as it's a pretty good cinema, most of them are more-or-less sensible pairings.

[Jake Thingray]

In the mid-90's, as domestic British cinema was being strangled by period costume mush, I hatched the idea of one day programming KEEP IT UP DOWNSTAIRS (1977), smutty nonsense filmed in Knebworth with Diana Dors, Mary Millington and Willie Rushton, also made in a hardcore version, alongside REMAINS OF THE DAY or some such stodge.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

My one abiding memory of Cactus Jack is that after Kirk Douglas finally steals a kiss from Charming Jones, the Looney Tunes music starts up and he starts bouncing around the town like a hopped-up Zebedee.

That rings a bell. Or maybe I'm just imagining it (accompanied by tweeting cartoon birds). All I remember about it are papier mache boulders falling on Kirk's head, which you can see in the trailer anyway. Good to know that someone else has seen it anyway.

[ColonelVolestrangler]

That rings a bell. Or maybe I'm just imagining it (accompanied by tweeting cartoon birds). All I remember about it are papier mache boulders falling on Kirk's head, which you can see in the trailer anyway. Good to know that someone else has seen it anyway.

I saw 'Cactus Jack' as a kid and loved it. When I saw it again, years later, it just didn't work and was terribly disappointing. Then I caught it again a couple of years after that and found it hilarious again. Must've been a raised then lowered expectations thing.

[lazyhour]

Nice idea for a thread. The other night we watched Camp followed by But I'm A Cheerleader. BIAC is the superior of the two, but they complimented each other nicely.... in an effeminate voice, arf!

Camp, while far, far, far from perfect, still makes Glee look like the watered-down empty toss that it is.

Lately we've been watching Nazi/sinister network/conspiracy films either back-to-back or over consecutive nights. Black Book and Good over two evenings was a great double-punch. Likewise The Odessa File followed by the slightly less plausible The Boys From Brazil.