Secret Cinema

So I have this story that would work beautifully to explain the appeal of the Wexner Center's Secret Cinema screenings, but I realized I can't write it yet. I remember reading about a critic (I think it was Ebert) who saw this particular movie at a film festival without knowing a thing about it, which made the final twist that much more satisfying. See, this is one of those cases where it would really help to name the title because the twist is honestly that good, but I honestly want to try this knowing-nothing thing on someone else, so once I've acomplished that, remind me to come back and talk about the movie again. Man, this story sucked, didn't it?

Well, here's a better story. I remember hearing about the Secret Cinema screenings when I was in New York, and it always sounded like a cool idea, even though I had never heard of any of the movies they show. So here's the set-up: You go and pay $3 to get into the newly remodeled screening room (although it's still not very comfortable) and a Wexner Center employee talks about the movie and starts dropping hints as to the title. You see, when you buy a ticket, you have no idea what kind of movie you're walking into. It could be the Columbus premiere of a recent movie, a newly restored classic or something completely obscure. In this case, the guy said it was a mixture of two and three, which sounds about right. I think the strangest part is even though you've already paid and even though the movie is getting ready to start in a minute or two, they still give nothing specific away. No title and no names. When the lights go out, you're still totally unsure about what's about to start unspooling.

In this case, it was the 1967 British film "Privilege," directed by Peter Watkins. It's a "1984"-esque film that follows the world's biggest pop star (Paul Jones) as he is manipulated into keeping the British youth occupied and out of politics. There's a scene at the very beginning where he's locked in a cage on stage and he has to sing from behind bars. The entire stage is covered in fake cops and all of these girls are crying all over the place and the entire auditorium erupts in chaos when the cops start to hit Stephen (as part of the show). It's absolutely insane and Stephen, once the girls pull the cops off him, just walks off stage and goes into his dressing room with his manager. It honestly is this completely brilliant moment that you, the reader of this blog entry, will probably never see. With the exception of random screenings like this, "Privilege" never gets shown and it's not yet available on DVD. It's a shame too, because it's a movie that's completely worth screening. So therefore, if you ever get the chance to see a completely random movie that you won't know the name of until it starts, you should give it a shot. It might just be this one.