The Las Vegas Film Society and West Side Story

I went to my first screening as a member of the Las Vegas Film Society on Tuesday. It was really cute, the founder guy of the LVFS had a little table set up at the entrance to the theatres and he gave me an envelope with a welcome letter and a little laminated membership card. Then the founder's wife had to escort us into the theatre past the theatre employee since they don't actually give you tickets, all the while dragging her poor, young son along behind her. Kind of funny.

I met my friend Su for the movie which was quite surreal. Su and I were very close friends during my first few years of high school, then we kind of lost touch as teenagers tend to do, then ran into each other once about 8 years ago at Savers but Su was living in Portland at the time and was just visiting so nothing came of it, then about a month ago she found me here on myspace (it's CRAZY I tell ya!) and she's back in Vegas, but with the hectic holiday season we never could find time to get together, until now for West Side Story!

Su and I immediately started talking talking talking, catching up and up and up and were happy to remember that West Side Story begins with what feels like a 10 minute overture so we were able to keep talk talk talking. There were only about 15 people total in the huge theater, and that's including me and Su and the founder, his wife and son so luckily our talking wasn't really disturbing anyone since there was no one really around us. And we were whispering and the music was very loud. Do you get how I am trying to convince myself that we weren't disturbing anyone? I'm not quite sure that was the case, but I'm hopeful that it was. I know now that a movie was probably not the ideal place for Su and I to meet up at when we haven't spoken to each other for longer than 2 minutes in the past oh, I don't know, nearly 15 YEARS!! We did watch the movie a little too, but come on, it's not like neither of us haven't seen West Side Story plenty of times. Plus it's a classic Shakespeare story - everyone knows it! There were times when our rushed whispers stopped and we were brought back into the movie by some fantastic dance sequences and great songs.

West Side Story is just ripe for the MST3K treatment and we did a lot of that too. We tried to pick out all the members of the "gangs" that were obviously gay, which really wasn't too difficult with those tight pants and twirly dance moves. Richard Beymer who plays Tony really does have the most ginormous set of teeth ever. It's hysterical how in order to get Russian beauty Natalie Wood to look Puerto Rican they darkened her skin in a way that just made her look kind of dirty. And what was up with Natalie Wood's accent in this? Instead of sounding like English was her second language she just sounded like a dimwit. Oh and we forgot how much we both HATE the song "I Feel Pretty."

Oh and then I accidentally ruined My Fair Lady for Su forever by spewing out one of my endless tidbits of trivia that I've filled my brain with since birth. Here's how it went:

Me leaning over to Su, "So you do realize that Natalie Wood's singing voice in this is dubbed by Marni Nixon who also dubbed Audrey Hepburn's singing voice in My Fair Lady."

Su, horrified, "What? That's not Audrey singing in My Fair Lady??????"

Me, a little bewildered, "Um, no, everybody knows that, it's common knowledge."

Su, completely crushed, "Well I didn't know it! Now My Fair Lady is ruined for me forever!!"

I'm sorry Su.

Overall it was a great time. It was really wonderful to see Su and catch up with her and feel like no time has passed at all and like I have magically gotten a friend back! I hope we do it again soon.

Next month: Raging Bull!!