.video store generation.
.goes to hell. by violetta louise bellocchioDeep in the heart of every film guy there lies a special place where that nice millionaire who owns the Blockbuster chain comes under the most atrocious torments in the name of personal revenge (“you’re a filthy imperialist” / “you store sixty copies of The Cyclone and only one of that iranian silent movie I dig so much” / “yesterday’s popcorn was stale”). The crime’s always the same: send mom-and-pop shops to bankrupt, fondle with merchandising and special offers and follow a slushy group policy to safeguard Miss Housewife’s happiness. Everybody knows it, the ideal customer does not fuck around and does pay when delaying. Besides, recently the chain got some visibility from banning Funny Games 1 from the shelves, and because someone downloaded a newborn baby in the kiddie movie section of Via Lippi’s store. So I pluck up some missionary spirit and there I take a trip around downtown Milan videostores to see how they manage to get along. My escort is Francesco El Mariachi Santagostino, bad endings fetishist. A question haunts us: is Blockbuster the demon from capitalism ? Damn, we have to find it out.
First stop, Tempio del Video, Via Torino. Under their checked jackets the shopkeepers are two Men in Black. They speak little and reluctantly about work, as it’s an embarrassing family secret. “Eh, they offer us these movie sets, many of them suck, how can you do.”. As compensation Spike Lee is on the art house shelf. Compared to the old rentals (a sea) new arrivals are up to nothing. Blame it on the suck factor? “Eh, also.”. Is DVD pumping? “Eh, yes”. Fine. Scared by the jungle silence that has dropped
on the store we leave without even asking if they have that one with that guy who did that movie last year.
Get down to the Cordusio underground station and find your basic God shop. Man, here they keep everything. Postatomics, George Clooney as a kid, brand fresh cable stuff, Lars Von Trier’s The Kingdom ... And the blonde lady behind the counter just * loves * the hell out of it: “We got Jack, we got Jim, we got (fill the blank with random pick of director)”. What about the foreign edition market? “Yeah, well, most of all Philippines, Filipino does great”. El Mariachi prevents me from checking the Filipino catalogue. I drop a hint:
“And Funny Games?”. The lady gives a withering look. “That’s obvious”. Obvious. We start suspecting every single videostore in this kingdom is buying Funny Games as a pure slash to Blockbuster, like that.
Different air up in Via Cesare Correnti’s Tape Runner. Here they don’t have everything, but a little of everything, gathered with passion and without conceit, and there isn’t an art house shelf because good things belong where they belong (wow). Making ends meet, two cunning and pretty girls. Especially the brunette looks like one who doesnt’t get upset whatever happens, but customers only ask her about the Richard Gere versus evil Chinese flick. Ungrateful fellas. The catalogue alone deserves a glance anyway. When asked she answers “yeah, foreign language does fine, lots of English people live around here” and “no, I don’t keep Funny Games”. A friend of ours lives far and comes to rent here all the same.
It’s time for truth. 12.30, we enter Viale Sabotino’s Blockbuster. Simulating indifference we stroll about candy floss trees and Celine Dion cut-outs. Then the (inevitable) fall. Send our small stores politics to hell and realize that, if you’re in search of anything released in the past ten years, here you find it. By now I softly sneak up to the floorwalker (who, to tell you all, has that passè demeanour of one who does fine both selling tapes and corneas). “Morning, sorry to interrupt you, I’m looking for a movie named ... Funny Games, or is it ...”. “Latest arrivals”, he answers without raising his eyes from the fridge. And indeed it’s showing up in between a load of Full Montys. Here they must have changed their minds about housewives. Before doing my exit on a mambo swing I have enough time to catch a glimpse of The Doom Generation in the drama section. “Mariachi, we should rent it out. You didn’t catch the irony.”.
1- plot: couple of psychos kidnap and torture happy family.
Mind horror more than physical. Unrated, but the wrapper advices vision only to above-18 people.
The end of the peel...
... aging accusations are standard
