Henry's Film Corner
Source: Edward Douglas
December 1, 2004
Henry Rollins is a busy guy and he doesn't seem to want that to stop any time soon. Besides being one of the founding fathers of the California hardcore scene with his band Black Flag, Rollins has built a reputation as a writer, a modern-day punk poet, and an actor, and he often brings in as big a crowd with his spoken word shows as his rock concerts with the Rollins Band. In the last year, Rollins has taken this on a global scale, taking part in USO trips to meet the troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places. Earlier this year, he started his radio show Harmony in my Head on L.A.'s Indie 103.1, which mixes punk, metal and progrock with Rollins' unique brand of political commentary and humor.
On Saturday, December 4, at midnight, Henry's Film Corner, his new monthly film show will begin on the IFC Channel, joining shows like "Dinner for Five" and "Ultimate Film Fanatic". Like everything else Rollins does, his critique will be noticeably different from the Gene Shalit's and the Joel Siegel's already on the air. Between Rollins' unscripted rants about films he hates, he will be joined for his film critique by well-known directors as well as the little people, the everyman whose voices are rarely heard except for on the 'net. His first show features an electrician; another co-stars his mailman. The show's most unique feature may be the segment called "Typecast" in which groups portrayed in films respond to how they're depicted. IFC President Debbie DeMontreaux has described it as "Ebert and Roeper meets Real Time with Bill Maher."
Despite his busy schedule as he prepares for another spoken word DVD release and a USO a trip to the Honduras, Rollins told ComingSoon.net how Henry's Film Corner is ready to kick out the jams in a world desperately in need of critical film shows on television. As always, the excitable yet eloquent rocker had a lot of strong opinions on anything and everything.
CS: So did you create Henry's Film Corner?
Rollins: Not at all. The producers from Swift River, three young guys, saw me on places like VH-1 where I'm just going. They knew I'm interested in avant or fringe kind of film and will voice my contempt at any given opportunity for the stuff that I don't like. They pitched to my manager, and he asked me to take a meeting with them, cause they were really committed. Of course, there was no interest at first. Then we did a little 12-minute version of the show so that people could see what we were talking about. IFC and a few other places were interested, but IFC was interested in doing it the way we wanted to do it with more obscure and independent film and talking to directors more than cute, hunky actors, which is what VH-1 wanted. It's just that everyone else talks about them and they all go on Leno and Letterman and Conan. I want to talk to more directors, people who light scenes, set dressers. The actors interest me only to a certain extent but directors interest me hugely.
CS: With that in mind, who have you talked to lately?
Rollins: On the first episode, we have David Fincher. I'm sure he gets asked stuff like what it's like to work with Brad Pitt, but when I see his films, I want to know why there's so much fluorescent light in Fight Club, how much of that was available light, and how he gets the actors and puts them into these situations where they have to react to the physicality of the environment like in Panic Room. These are the questions I asked him and he answered. He's a very articulate guy, and I got the idea that nobody asks him stuff like that. That's maybe what an IFC audience would be interested in, since there are a lot of young director types watching this station. They don't care who's driving what or who is sleeping with whom. They're already dialed into the small of fame, the obscure, the fringe, the independent and the eclectic, and that's far more interesting to me than anything Jennifer Lopez is up to. And there again, all those kinds of films get enough big attention anyway.
CS: Who else do you have on the first show?
Rollins: For the first episode, we have an electrician. He and I reviewed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, the new Wes Anderson film. I'm a Wes Anderson freak. I think he's wonderful, and I like all those actors-Bill Murray and Owen Wilson. Cate Blanchett's just wonderful all the time; not that hard to look at and she can act. He didn't like it and I did, so we had a really good discussion, and he made really valid points for all the reasons he didn't like it.
CS: Do you get to pick the movies that you review for the show?
Rollins: Yes and no. Luckily, this time around, the Dr. Strangelove 40th Anniversary Box Set was coming out and we called saying that Henry wants to rave it to the stars, and they sent one via carrier pigeon. At the end of the show, I get to rave a couple of movies new to DVD, and go "check this one out, folks" On the pilot, I raved about Russian Ark, which is my favorite film of last year. It just hit DVD when the show came out. It's a combination of stuff I get to recommend and screenings I can get into. We happened to luck out, because the Sean Penn film came around, and they let me and David Fincher borrow a screener (and then we had to give it back). Next time around, hopefully I get the same luck again and get to see a couple of really cool films. If they're going to be two god-awful films, then they're going to hate the fact that they let me in, cause I'll say what I want.
CS: Do you write a lot of stuff for the show ahead of time?
Rollins: No, all that stuff where I'm just mouthing off, I just make it up right there. I just got it on tap. If I like it or I hate it, I know what I want to say.
CS: Who is in your top 10 list of directors you want to have on the show?
Rollins: Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, PT Anderson, Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmusch. He'd be cool. I'm sure I could think of some more. Billy Bob Thornton. He directed Sling Blade and it's one of my favorite movies and I think he's an interesting guy.
CS: You have a reputation for being very political. Is that going to be reflected on the show at all?
Rollins: Oh, yeah. There's a section where I just get to mouth off and if you're a BS artist like I am, you can get anything to tie back up into anything else. I learned it from reading David Lee Roth interviews. When we shot the first episode, I talked about the 40th Anniversary edition of Dr. Strangelove, which is one of those films you should watch all the time anyway, just for your general health. It's just so funny now having been to Iraq because people ask me what was Iraq like? It's spring break meets Dr. Strangelove.
CS: Having been on the frontline, what did you think of Saving Private Ryan?
Rollins: Personally, I thought Saving Private Ryan was really boring. It didn't move me at all. That opening scene was really intense, but it never occurred to me that I was watching a movie. If you want to watch a real war movie, you can watch James Nachtwey's documentary War Photographer. I saw that at a movie theatre in Washington, DC last year and just got the DVD recently, and man, that was strong stuff! You've seen his photos; he's taken a lot of famous war shots. They just put a small camera on the end of one of his lenses as he goes to Bosnia, Africa, Palestine and it's just like carnage. That's just what he sees and what he goes through. Its just women throwing themselves on the dead son who goes home, and it's sickening how plain and dull dead bodies look and how small they are when they come back in little boxes.
CS: Do you think that movies have the ability to shape society?
Rollins: Animal House was a first-run theatre movie when I was 14 or 15, and it was one of those things that gave me the guts to get through high school. Just the spirit of Bluto and all those guys gave me such a shot in the arm, because I went to a fairly oppressive place with a bunch of military-type teachers telling me to shut up all the time. Did it make me go and shoot a horse or put a bed sheet on? No. Was it a great thing to see when I was young? Absolutely. I get asked a lot can a song stop a war? Can a rock 'n' roller change a vote or an election? Obviously not. Movies can be somewhat influential, but I think we highlight the stupid, where we used to highlight the more valorous and the higher road in the '50s. I think that America has changed. Zappa said that we value the mediocre and we fear the excellent, where King Crimson draws few people but some silly punk rock band with silly get-ups sell 3 million records.
CS: Is it a bit strange reviewing movies when you're a working actor and you may offend someone who might give you work in the future?
Rollins: No, because I've never taken an acting lesson in my life and I've never taken a pro pundit class in my life. I come from the minimum wage working world. I used to park cars, shovel manure, work at lab facilities, scoop ice cream, tear movie tickets, what you do for $3.50 an hour and less. Went from that into music into speaking dates, voice-overs and the minimum wage working world is this far nipping at my hind. So when someone asks "Can you do a radio show?" YES! "Can you act?" Oh, yeah! I just BS my way right in.
CS: Is that why you're so driven to keep yourself busy all the time? Ever thought of taking a month off?
Rollins: Hell no. That terrifies myself. I don't know how you all exist, but my income is approval based. When people stop saying "yay" I start missing out on three square meals a day. I was raised by two very ambitious parents who worked their asses off, and I have been gainfully employed since I was in fourth grade. I've always worked. I get a few days off around Christmas, and I just go to my office, goof around, look up stuff and read and write and by January 6, I'm working again. I don't understand any other way. I fear unemployment. In my line of work, unless you're Ozzy Osbourne or Frank Sinatra or Mick Jagger, you have your time and then "thank you very much, now get out of here!" Unless you want to look like a damn fool and stick around for two tours long. So I try and keep testing myself, and I keep myself honest by stepping into deep water.
CS: Since you like keeping so busy, have you ever thought about running for office yourself?
Rollins (jumps back in fear from the thought of it): No! I was born and raised in Washington DC. My Mom worked for LBJ and Humphries and coming from all of that, in my opinion, the last (way) to get anything accomplished politically is to be in politics.
Henry's Film Corner debuts on IFC, the Independent Film Channel, on Saturday December 4.
Source: Edward Douglas
December 1, 2004
Henry Rollins is a busy guy and he doesn't seem to want that to stop any time soon. Besides being one of the founding fathers of the California hardcore scene with his band Black Flag, Rollins has built a reputation as a writer, a modern-day punk poet, and an actor, and he often brings in as big a crowd with his spoken word shows as his rock concerts with the Rollins Band. In the last year, Rollins has taken this on a global scale, taking part in USO trips to meet the troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places. Earlier this year, he started his radio show Harmony in my Head on L.A.'s Indie 103.1, which mixes punk, metal and progrock with Rollins' unique brand of political commentary and humor.
On Saturday, December 4, at midnight, Henry's Film Corner, his new monthly film show will begin on the IFC Channel, joining shows like "Dinner for Five" and "Ultimate Film Fanatic". Like everything else Rollins does, his critique will be noticeably different from the Gene Shalit's and the Joel Siegel's already on the air. Between Rollins' unscripted rants about films he hates, he will be joined for his film critique by well-known directors as well as the little people, the everyman whose voices are rarely heard except for on the 'net. His first show features an electrician; another co-stars his mailman. The show's most unique feature may be the segment called "Typecast" in which groups portrayed in films respond to how they're depicted. IFC President Debbie DeMontreaux has described it as "Ebert and Roeper meets Real Time with Bill Maher."
Despite his busy schedule as he prepares for another spoken word DVD release and a USO a trip to the Honduras, Rollins told ComingSoon.net how Henry's Film Corner is ready to kick out the jams in a world desperately in need of critical film shows on television. As always, the excitable yet eloquent rocker had a lot of strong opinions on anything and everything.
CS: So did you create Henry's Film Corner?
Rollins: Not at all. The producers from Swift River, three young guys, saw me on places like VH-1 where I'm just going. They knew I'm interested in avant or fringe kind of film and will voice my contempt at any given opportunity for the stuff that I don't like. They pitched to my manager, and he asked me to take a meeting with them, cause they were really committed. Of course, there was no interest at first. Then we did a little 12-minute version of the show so that people could see what we were talking about. IFC and a few other places were interested, but IFC was interested in doing it the way we wanted to do it with more obscure and independent film and talking to directors more than cute, hunky actors, which is what VH-1 wanted. It's just that everyone else talks about them and they all go on Leno and Letterman and Conan. I want to talk to more directors, people who light scenes, set dressers. The actors interest me only to a certain extent but directors interest me hugely.
CS: With that in mind, who have you talked to lately?
Rollins: On the first episode, we have David Fincher. I'm sure he gets asked stuff like what it's like to work with Brad Pitt, but when I see his films, I want to know why there's so much fluorescent light in Fight Club, how much of that was available light, and how he gets the actors and puts them into these situations where they have to react to the physicality of the environment like in Panic Room. These are the questions I asked him and he answered. He's a very articulate guy, and I got the idea that nobody asks him stuff like that. That's maybe what an IFC audience would be interested in, since there are a lot of young director types watching this station. They don't care who's driving what or who is sleeping with whom. They're already dialed into the small of fame, the obscure, the fringe, the independent and the eclectic, and that's far more interesting to me than anything Jennifer Lopez is up to. And there again, all those kinds of films get enough big attention anyway.
CS: Who else do you have on the first show?
Rollins: For the first episode, we have an electrician. He and I reviewed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, the new Wes Anderson film. I'm a Wes Anderson freak. I think he's wonderful, and I like all those actors-Bill Murray and Owen Wilson. Cate Blanchett's just wonderful all the time; not that hard to look at and she can act. He didn't like it and I did, so we had a really good discussion, and he made really valid points for all the reasons he didn't like it.
CS: Do you get to pick the movies that you review for the show?
Rollins: Yes and no. Luckily, this time around, the Dr. Strangelove 40th Anniversary Box Set was coming out and we called saying that Henry wants to rave it to the stars, and they sent one via carrier pigeon. At the end of the show, I get to rave a couple of movies new to DVD, and go "check this one out, folks" On the pilot, I raved about Russian Ark, which is my favorite film of last year. It just hit DVD when the show came out. It's a combination of stuff I get to recommend and screenings I can get into. We happened to luck out, because the Sean Penn film came around, and they let me and David Fincher borrow a screener (and then we had to give it back). Next time around, hopefully I get the same luck again and get to see a couple of really cool films. If they're going to be two god-awful films, then they're going to hate the fact that they let me in, cause I'll say what I want.
CS: Do you write a lot of stuff for the show ahead of time?
Rollins: No, all that stuff where I'm just mouthing off, I just make it up right there. I just got it on tap. If I like it or I hate it, I know what I want to say.
CS: Who is in your top 10 list of directors you want to have on the show?
Rollins: Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, PT Anderson, Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmusch. He'd be cool. I'm sure I could think of some more. Billy Bob Thornton. He directed Sling Blade and it's one of my favorite movies and I think he's an interesting guy.
CS: You have a reputation for being very political. Is that going to be reflected on the show at all?
Rollins: Oh, yeah. There's a section where I just get to mouth off and if you're a BS artist like I am, you can get anything to tie back up into anything else. I learned it from reading David Lee Roth interviews. When we shot the first episode, I talked about the 40th Anniversary edition of Dr. Strangelove, which is one of those films you should watch all the time anyway, just for your general health. It's just so funny now having been to Iraq because people ask me what was Iraq like? It's spring break meets Dr. Strangelove.
CS: Having been on the frontline, what did you think of Saving Private Ryan?
Rollins: Personally, I thought Saving Private Ryan was really boring. It didn't move me at all. That opening scene was really intense, but it never occurred to me that I was watching a movie. If you want to watch a real war movie, you can watch James Nachtwey's documentary War Photographer. I saw that at a movie theatre in Washington, DC last year and just got the DVD recently, and man, that was strong stuff! You've seen his photos; he's taken a lot of famous war shots. They just put a small camera on the end of one of his lenses as he goes to Bosnia, Africa, Palestine and it's just like carnage. That's just what he sees and what he goes through. Its just women throwing themselves on the dead son who goes home, and it's sickening how plain and dull dead bodies look and how small they are when they come back in little boxes.
CS: Do you think that movies have the ability to shape society?
Rollins: Animal House was a first-run theatre movie when I was 14 or 15, and it was one of those things that gave me the guts to get through high school. Just the spirit of Bluto and all those guys gave me such a shot in the arm, because I went to a fairly oppressive place with a bunch of military-type teachers telling me to shut up all the time. Did it make me go and shoot a horse or put a bed sheet on? No. Was it a great thing to see when I was young? Absolutely. I get asked a lot can a song stop a war? Can a rock 'n' roller change a vote or an election? Obviously not. Movies can be somewhat influential, but I think we highlight the stupid, where we used to highlight the more valorous and the higher road in the '50s. I think that America has changed. Zappa said that we value the mediocre and we fear the excellent, where King Crimson draws few people but some silly punk rock band with silly get-ups sell 3 million records.
CS: Is it a bit strange reviewing movies when you're a working actor and you may offend someone who might give you work in the future?
Rollins: No, because I've never taken an acting lesson in my life and I've never taken a pro pundit class in my life. I come from the minimum wage working world. I used to park cars, shovel manure, work at lab facilities, scoop ice cream, tear movie tickets, what you do for $3.50 an hour and less. Went from that into music into speaking dates, voice-overs and the minimum wage working world is this far nipping at my hind. So when someone asks "Can you do a radio show?" YES! "Can you act?" Oh, yeah! I just BS my way right in.
CS: Is that why you're so driven to keep yourself busy all the time? Ever thought of taking a month off?
Rollins: Hell no. That terrifies myself. I don't know how you all exist, but my income is approval based. When people stop saying "yay" I start missing out on three square meals a day. I was raised by two very ambitious parents who worked their asses off, and I have been gainfully employed since I was in fourth grade. I've always worked. I get a few days off around Christmas, and I just go to my office, goof around, look up stuff and read and write and by January 6, I'm working again. I don't understand any other way. I fear unemployment. In my line of work, unless you're Ozzy Osbourne or Frank Sinatra or Mick Jagger, you have your time and then "thank you very much, now get out of here!" Unless you want to look like a damn fool and stick around for two tours long. So I try and keep testing myself, and I keep myself honest by stepping into deep water.
CS: Since you like keeping so busy, have you ever thought about running for office yourself?
Rollins (jumps back in fear from the thought of it): No! I was born and raised in Washington DC. My Mom worked for LBJ and Humphries and coming from all of that, in my opinion, the last (way) to get anything accomplished politically is to be in politics.
Henry's Film Corner debuts on IFC, the Independent Film Channel, on Saturday December 4.
