Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (2005)

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 06-25-2005, 11:57 PM:

CINEMA: Fleur Cinema & Cafe, Des Moines, IA
AUDITORIUM: 1
PRESENTATION: Analog 1.0 Mono
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None
RATING: Three stars (out of four)

As I walk to the door, I spy the ticket girl wandering off somewhere, seeing me, and getting that look on her face before she scurries back to her post. It's the same look the counter guy at the convenience store down from my house gets when I walk toward the door just as he's walking out to smoke. It probably involves swearing under his breath. Like I care. What's more important...You killing yourself smoking, or me winning Powerball?

So she sells me my ticket and immediately takes off. I insert change in wallet and head for Auditorium 1, which as it turns out she's heading to as well. I open the door and she says "Oh...The previews haven't started yet."

Gee, I hope not. It's twelve minutes before the show is supposed to start. So I head in and realize something IS playing.

"I mean...it's not..." she starts before pausing.

"The previous show is still running?" I helpfully ask.

"Yeah. It'll be done in five minutes."

I look at my watch. "Doesn't that give you only seven minutes to clear?"

She looks confused for a few seconds, then says "Yes."

So I scan the lobby for something to do. The Fleur is a dreadful old four-plex shoebox that was abandoned in a lease-shedding spree (sorry..."bankruptcy proceeding"). The building owner spruced up the lobby and re-opened it as the local indie film house. The lobby has ample comfortable seating which patrons put to good use. You can hear some fascinating conversations here just by settling in and keeping your ears open. So I settle in, but don't have much luck overhearing anything of interest.

Five minutes later, patrons exit the auditorium, and ticket girl comes out with trash. She's not only the ticket girl...she's cleaning the auditoriums. Good thing too, because everybody else behind the snack bar is busy gabbing.

Three minutes before showtime, she emerges again and tells me the auditorium is ready. I thank her and head in down toward the front. This is your classic "aisle down the middle" design where one side has five seats, the other maybe six, and the room seats 250 or more. Then the walls curve inward down by the screen. I've often stared up at the ceiling outline and wondered if somebody took a blueprint of the Hindenburg, lopped off the ends, and said "NOW GO BUILD MOVIE THEATER."

"Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" is a documentary about some dude who got lost between hippie and beatnik, musician and writer, and who ended up living on the streets of San Francisco for years. Somewhere along the line he started watching and feeding these parrots, ended up writing a bestseller about it, and getting a documentary made. The woman shooting the documentary has a REALLY nice VW Bus. The story even has closure.

It's much more interesting than it sounds.

Really.

Especially if you spent the earlier part of your day watching movies featuring Herbie the Love Bug and Will Ferrell.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 07-05-2005, 10:02 PM:

I enjoyed this one. Sure wish I could afford to live in that city or anywhere in the bay area.

Gotta love Conner. [Smile]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-06-2005, 12:22 AM:

I haven't seen this one, nor do I much care to, however I do give high scores to The Evil Sam Graham's review, as always. [thumbsup]

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-19-2005, 07:27 AM:

Good show. The ending is somewhat sad (SPOILER: one of the parrots gets eaten), but it really is a fascinating story, especially since no one but the Parrot Guy seems to have taken an interest in the parrots, as they are a "non-native" species (and thus apparently not worth the interest of any ornithologists or environmental groups.