THE DEATH OF LOCAL LEGEND COSTAS MALEKOS SETS THE MIND TURNING TO THOUGHTS OF DVD
It’s an ill wind. Signs of summer torpor at the multiplex – the only new film last week was the underwhelming Miss Potter – already had us thinking thoughts of DVD, but the death last week of Costas Malekos, at the age of only 56, makes a small-screen special not just practical but morally imperative. More than anyone else, Malekos exemplified the joys of video, at least for Nicosia cinephiles of a certain age – most recently in his capacity as proprietor of Movie Time, the video club on Kennedy Avenue, but most memorably in his days at Studio 7, the ’80s institution that created many a film fanatic (including this one). Probably no single person influenced my career choices as profoundly as Costas Malekos; which is odd, because I barely even knew him till his last few years at Movie Time.
Malekos was a larger-than-life figure. The ’80s VHS boom was mostly pirate video (at least in Cyprus), and he was nothing if not piratical – prone to lusty yells and bawdy remarks, foul-mouthed, impatient and funnier than a dozen Captain Jack Sparrows, especially when insulting people on the phone. The regulars loved him, and the more he insulted them the more they loved him. His genius as a video-club owner wasn’t cinephilia as such (his tastes ran more to BBC mini-series); he was never the omniscient Tarantino-like video geek. His genius – his defining trait – was recklessness, a greedy hunger with scant regard for business sense; in a strange way, he defined movies for his customers because he had the same thrilling, escapist insouciance you’d find in a movie. His video clubs were a pirate’s treasure-chest, teeming with shiny gewgaws no-one else even knew about. Studio 7 had close to 20,000 films, hugely more than anyone else in those dark pre-Internet days – though even now, when you can order anything with a couple of mouse-clicks, most video clubs are too timid (or ignorant) to venture far beyond the beaten path. Movie Time is an exception, with 12,000 titles including a near-complete set of Hitchcocks and the best world-cinema section in Nicosia.
Did he make any money? Certainly, it’s fashionable to say that the video club – like the bookshop – is on its way out. In the brave new world of downloads, our PC becomes our personal video club, allowing us to roam across film and TV history like modern-day Pac Men, gulping as we go. That’s the hype, at any rate; but I’m not convinced. I’ve no doubt millions of titles will eventually be available for download – millions already are, if you’re using bit-torrents – but how do we decide what to download? And how do we connect with the films we’ve never heard of, and our friends have never heard of? The download revolution sounds like another chapter in the ongoing fragmentation of culture, ensuring people stay in their target audiences and niche TV channels, knowing only what Big Business wants them to know. How, after all, can we broaden our horizons if we don’t go to a place where titles and DVD covers lie in ambush, waiting to surprise us even if we don’t actually click on them – and where a passionate person like Costas Malekos acts as enabler, bringing all the different kinds of films (and you, the viewer) together in one room? I’ll miss his energy, and I’ll miss his recklessness.
Fortunately, Movie Time itself goes on – and new proprietor George Christou promises he’ll hew to the Malekos style of eclectic purchasing, with special attention to world cinema. Here then, in a combination tribute / good-luck toast, are 10 excellent alternatives to the big screen – 10 films currently available for rental in local DVD shops, all of them worth your £1 (or sometimes £1.50). The rules, trying to narrow things down a bit, are that DVDs are only recommended if they’re:
(a) Films that haven’t played in Cyprus cinemas;
(b) Films that I doubt will ever play in Cyprus cinemas;
(c) Films in English, or available in Cyprus with English subtitles;
(d) Films I’ve spotted in at least one local video club;
(e) Preferably films that arrived in the past couple of months.
I’ve also tried to go for the more unusual stuff, just because it tends to get lost in the shuffle, and also limited myself to films I’ve seen. Look for them at discerning video clubs, which for Nicosia readers would include DVDream, Plateau and E.L.A. as well as Movie Time itself.
In alphabetical order:
BLACK BOOK. An exception to (b) above, since I’m pretty sure this rollicking Dutch adventure will play here eventually, whether at the Friends of the Cinema or even the multiplex; not only is it directed by Paul Verhoeven (of Basic Instinct fame), it’s that trendy Euro-genre, the WW2 movie. Carice Van Houten is our plucky heroine, going through reversals, grisly setbacks – and a mordant final twist, making Peace even more dangerous than War.
BRICK. How do you describe this? ‘Philip Marlowe in high-school’ is the usual description, but that makes it sound like a gimmick – whereas it’s actually spare and haunting, mixing Coens-like black humour with a sly comment on self-destructive masculinity and a deep suggestive stillness. As our hero, Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives the best performance of 2006.
CRANK. More high-energy fun than any movie on this list – at least if you’re watching at 2 a.m. and have a yen for super-stylish action comedies with a bit of the old ultra-violence. Even better if you’re slightly drunk, though not too drunk or you’ll miss the feverish visual invention.
DELIVER US FROM EVIL. Last year’s best documentary was actually Iraq in Fragments (coming soon to DVD) but this chilling tale of child abuse in the Catholic Church was perhaps the most acclaimed. Only available, as far as I know, at DVDream in Nicosia.
FLANNEL PAJAMAS. The kind of movie no-one makes a fuss about, because it’s neither Hollywood nor ‘European’ and doesn’t sound especially original. In fact, this indie drama – purporting to show an entire relationship from beginning to end – has a lot going for it, including a welcome sexual honesty, a Bergmanesque insistence on detail, and the lovely Julianne Nicholson, an elfin-yet-grounded presence reminiscent of a young Shirley MacLaine.
THE HOST. Most successful film ever at the Korean box-office. Ranked among the Top 10 of the year by highbrow French mags Cahiers du Cinema and Positif. A monster movie that combines thrilling Spielberg-like set-pieces with a strong family story and a comment on recent Korean history. Can any film be all of the above? The Host can.
I AM A SEX ADDICT. The first-person diary is a cinematic genre in its own right – and Caveh Zahedi is one of its top practitioners, at least on the evidence of this uproarious comedy. Brutal, compulsive honesty undercut by neurotic angst, occasional sweetness and Zahedi’s own scrawny presence; not for all tastes, but those on its wavelength will have a blast.
INFAMOUS. It’s All In the Timing Dept.: this is a film about Truman Capote, and his moral contortions while trying to write the classic In Cold Blood. Unfortunately it came out a few months after Capote, another film about Truman Capote and his moral contortions while etc, so everyone ignored it. In fact it’s a lot more fun than Capote, as well as more Capote-ish – more cartoony, spicy, camp, hysterical. As Truman, Toby Jones’ pitch-perfect caricature stays in the mind considerably longer than Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Oscar-winning star turn.
THE NIGHT OF TRUTH. Can it be a film from Burkina Faso, by a woman director to boot? Absolutely. Also a powerful, ‘18’-rated drama with Shakespearean overtones (think Titus Andronicus) and a Grand Guignol climax, set in an unnamed African country in the aftermath of a genocidal civil war – though it’s only available, as far as I k
now, at Movie Time video club. Thank you, Mr. Malekos.
OLD JOY. Two old friends go on a camping trip, find they’ve drifted apart. That’s about it in terms of plot, leaving a contemplative drama with piercing moments of beauty in its trim 75-minute running time. Is it good? It’s better than Miss Potter…
