Tonight we watched "51 Birch St.," an independent documentary (aren't they all) about how, following his mother's death and the surprise marriage of his father to his former secretary three months later, a filmmaker sets out to discover the true nature of his parents' life together. Much is revealed through old home movies--our director was a tireless, and probably tiresome, cameraman--and new interviews with his father, the new wife, and the director's siblings. His deceased mother is ever present through 20 years of diaries, discovered post-mortem, in which she poured out her personal thoughts, which include her frustrations about her marriage. To avoid spoilers I will say no more about the notebooks. The film says a lot about what it was like to be married in the '50s and '60s--and what it is like now. Among other things, it underscores a main point of Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique," whose opening lines I am struggling here to recall. It also touches on the difficulties of relationships, though this is beyond the grasp of our director, who I think is in denial on his own marriage. We had a good discussion after the film, watched the extra features (nothing great) and we agreed to rate this film 3.5 to 4 stars.
"51 Birch St." reminded us of other good docs we enjoyed including "Following Sean," "Capturing the Friedmans," "Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollack," "I Like Killing Flies," and the wonderful "7-Up" series. Add to that "My Best Fiend Klaus Kinski"--a real freakshow--and that one about the grizzly man!! Joining Netflix helped us break our sometimes not so healthy TV watching habit, just as signing up for Fresh Direct broke us from our unhealthy walk through the aisles and load up the cart grocery store habits.
PS--Looking for that small film on Levittown, but no one seems to have it.
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Of the ones you listed, I've seen Capturing the Friedmans, Klaus Kinski: My Best Fiend (hilarious) and Grizzly Man (talk about a freakshow--the coroner was awesomely bizarre.)
I'm eagerly awaiting the availability of Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World. I also hope Chevolution comes out on DVD (no known release date at this time)--it traces the evolution of how that image of Che Guevara became so iconic and ended up on the t-shirts of kids who don't even know who he is. Man on Wire also got excellent reviews--about the guy who high wire walked between the Twin Towers in the 70s.
I posted a comment that did not get posted, dammit. I said that Netflix now has that Levittown film. It is called Wonderland, and it is an oddity about oddities. Not really "about" Levittown; it just follows some of its denizens and lets them speak about their lives. Pretty damn good unless i am misrememebering. To the front of the queue, i say!--KTB
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