Some of us, however, prefer our movies

1. In color
2. In English
3. Audible (meaning with audio tracks from the last 20 years)

Also, I need montage sequences set to music that reminds me of my own life, not French folk songs from the 1930s. This helps a lot when you’re trying to salve fresh recession wounds.

Now, my original premise was that Lucas’s highfalutin old timey films are going to require a NetFlix account, or even a Mondo Kim’s purchase — and neither option abides by the spirit of the recession diet. But then I looked them all up at the Brooklyn Public Library, and it turns out that four of the five are available for the price of a free library card.

And yet, my argument defeated, I’d still like to plow forth with my proposal that the IDEAL recession film is within arm’s reach of the couch: the movies you (and your roommates) already own, but never watch. So reader, I give you:

ANDREW’S RECESSION FILMS ON THE CHEAP (AND LAZY)

1. Me and You and Everyone We Know (sort of melancholy, much like a recession)
2. Clueless (forgetting your troubles by California Dreamin’ dates back to the Joads)
3. Marie Antoinette (added benefit of taking the bloom off the boom-time rose, recessionites!)
4. Marc and Liz’s Wedding (my sister’s wedding, where almost everything was made or donated by friends. Not sure if it’s any fun to watch, but recession chic, non?)
5. Annie Hall (hm, not recessiony at all, even though I think the oil crisis was happening or was just about to)
6. Mother (a short my friend made that won something at Cannes, paid for through donations from friends. Très recesssion!)
7. Letters from Iwo Jima (I have no interest in watching this, but my dad gave it to me, and maybe someday it will come in handy)
8. Russian Ark (Russia is a permanent recession for most people, right?)
9. Etc.

You get the point. This recession is going to be all about nesting and making-do over here in my world. Add movies you own to the comments list, and maybe we can swap!

“L’Argent” (1983, Robert Bresson)

A teenage boy in Paris passes off a counterfeit bill to make some extra money, and we follow the repercussions, eventually leading to a man’s incarceration, and a family’s murder. Robert Bresson, cinematic genius and Jansenist Catholic, delivers his final film, and the only one completely devoid of any hope for redemption. Dealing with the manner in which duplicity and dishonesty are passed along from generation to generation, this is recession special #1.

“Thieve’s Highway” (1949, Jules Dassin)

Nick Garcos comes home from war to find that his father has been crippled by a crooked produce distributor in San Francisco. He sets out to take revenge, but gets wrapped up in a plan to drive a truck full of Golden Delicious apples from Fresno to San Francisco, running into more than a few troubles once he gets there. Directed by later-blacklisted director Jules Dassin (“Never on Sunday,” “Topkapi”) this is another one that takes on our corrupt system, scrutinizing it at its most basic level, the selling of food.

“Wages of Fear” (1952, Henri-Georges Clouzot)

Yves Montand is a drifter who’s come to a dreary oil town in Venezuela with hopes of striking it rich. He and his friends spend most of their time in a dingy town bar drinking and waiting for their big break; then suddenly it comes—an offer of two thousand dollars to drive a truck full of nitro-glycerin over treacherous roads to the other side of a jungle. One false move and—BOOM—the whole rig’ll blow sky-high. The best suspense set-up ever (sustaining the constant risk of death through a whole picture), and another relentless portrait of a world where money always trumps a man’s life, and humanity itself is worthless. Also, the only sequence in movies where a man drives a truck to the rhythm of “The Blue Danube Waltz.”

“They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” (1969, Sidney Pollack)

All of the action in this film takes place during a dance marathon on the Santa Monica Pier in 1932. Contestants dance for as long as they possibly can, with a ten minute break every two hours. The prize at the end is fifteen hundred dollars, though some just dance for the free food (which they must consume while dancing), or in order to be noticed by the Hollywood scouts they’ve been told will be in the audience. A film about exploitation, people’s perverse willingness to be exploited, and our insatiable interest in watching the results, “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They,” is a great movie to watch when you have the recession blues, because, hey, those suckers got it way worse than you, don’t they?

Recession and the movies. As Daily Variety will tell you, hard times equals good box office business. That’s because Hollywood assumes that during a recession you, the moviegoing public, crave escape from your misery, and that the easiest place to find that escape is at the multiplex.

But easy escape isn’t for you, right? You’re an adult, after all, an intellectual, and during hard times the last thing you need is some false sense of security. No—what you want are confrontational films. Films at whose heart lie scathing criticisms of our nihilistic, money-hungry society. Films that show how capitalism corrupts even the best of us, sullies us, and forces us, if we ever want to survive in this world, to commit reprehensible acts of evil, eventually stooping to the same base level as all the other scum on this earth, just to get ahead. Isn’t that right? I thought so. Well then, friend, here are a few choices to help you nurture all that righteous indignation. Enjoy.

“The Sweet Smell of Success” (1957, Alexander Mackendrick)
You art types might know it as the source for Christopher Wool’s painting, “Cats In Bag Bags In River,” but the film’s got another line that’s apt for anyone struggling to get by during recession time: “Watch me run a fifty meter dash with my legs cut off.” Press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) commits one morally reprehensible act after another in a bid to get in good with his boss, the all powerful gossip columnist, J J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster), but nothing he does is quite good enough. Featuring one of the best scripts of all time by legendary leftist playwright Clifford Odets, the film is one of the most clear-eyed indictments of capitalism ever printed on celluloid. With beautiful on-location cinematography in 1950s midtown-Manhattan by the great cameraman James Wong Howe.

Info below….

DINOSAUR EXHIBITION!!!!
Opening Party April 19th, 2008 6-9pm
89 Walker St #2F, New York, NY

We’ve transformed Barometer into a prehistoric wonderland!! Come check out some dino tessellations, ascii art, airbrush action paintings, silkscreened posters and a group DINORAMA.
We’ll be rocking to T-Rex all night long with buckets of swamp drink to keep the party rolling.
Tasty vittles graciously provided by Whole Foods!

www.barometernyc.com/dino

ARTISTS
Warren Bennett, Lauren Bergholm, Brett Beyer, Patrick J. Campbell, Christopher Connolly, Matthew Cumbie, David Dawson, Lisa di Donato, David Geiger, Holly Gressley, Aaron Hitchcock, Max Kuller, Stephen Lowery, Phil Matricardi, M.C. Rockinstein, Fred Sager, Olivia Valentine, Jenna Wainwright, and Christina Zawerucha

Image: Garfieldminusgarfield

Recipe courtesy of Carl. We ate it during the thrilling conclusion of Project Runway. Everyone was very happy.

A WHOLOTTALASAGNA (VEGETARIAN)
Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
1 box lasagna noodles (can be more if your pan is larger or you want more starch?)
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic minced
2 cups sliced shitaki mushrooms, sliced into thin strips
1 large eggplant, diced into 1/4 in cubes
1 large carrot, shredded (optional and annoying to shred)
1/2 cup red cooking wine (a really old bottle as long as its not vinegary works fine, it doesn’t have to be good wine)
1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
24 ounces canned whole tomatoes
1 1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup fresh basil (half diced / half whole leaf)
1 large 16 ounce container ricotta cheese
1 1/4 cups shredded parmesan cheese
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg

Prep:
Chop all your vegetables before cooking everything. Dice all that Parsley, Basil, carrots, mushrooms, eggplant, onion etc. Also get out 2 baking sheets (with wax paper or oiled if not non-stick) for the lasagna noodles to rest on after cooking (this is really important).

You will also need a 9 x 13 or 9 x 12 pan to cook this in. It’s a WHOLOTTALASAGNA.

Directions
1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet until shimmering.

1a. As olive oil is heating also put on a really large pot of water to boil lasagna noodles.

2. Add onion, garlic, eggplant, and mushrooms to skillet. You will cook all of this for 15 – 20 minutes, or until all ingredients are soft. Make sure the eggplant gets really well cooked, as its much tastier that way.

2a. When water in the large pot is boiling dump in all the lasagna noodles into the pot.

3. Add carrot, wine, parsley, tomato sauce, and whole tomatoes to skillet with eggplant and mushrooms. I cut up tomatoes in the can with a clean pair of scissors.

3a. Follow instructions on the box for cooking the lasagna noodles, (8 – 10 minutes). When the lasagna noodles are done, drain them and take tongs or a fork and lay them all out on the baking trays, or plates. If they stay in the colander they will stick together and you will be FUCKED. Seriously.

3b. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. Add oregano, parsley, salt, pepper and a the diced fresh basil to the sauce. You can also add ‘italian seasoning’ if you are lazy. Just make sure it tastes how you like your sauce to taste and probably it should be a little bit saltier since the ricotta is pretty sweet.

5. Simmer sauce uncovered until its thick and delicious. You still want there to be some moisture, but not too much. It should take about 45 minutes to an hour in total to finish the sauce.

6. Grease the bottom of a 9 x 13″ baking dish with non-stick cooking spray, or butter if you are feeling it.

7. Sort your cheeses into bowls. Combine all of the ricotta with the the egg and a 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese. Leave the rest of the cheeses in bowls so you can layer with them.

Building the Lasagna
8. Spread about 1/4 of the sauce in the bottom of the pan. This is your base.

9. Layer 1/4 of the lasagna noodles on top of the sauce base.

10. Grab a silicone spatula and scoop 1/3 of the ricotta / egg / parmesan mixture on top of the noodles. Spread it around awkwardly. Layer remaining basil leaves on top of the cheese mixture.

11. Sprinkle 1/3 of the parmesan and 1/3 of the mozzarella on top of the ricotta mixture.

12. Now throw down 1/3rd of your chunky sauce and go back to step 9 and repeat this 2 more times.

13. You should now have a 4 layers of lasagna with a layer of sauce on top. Add the remaining noodles on top and put more sauce on top. If you have run out of sauce, grab the canned stuff you have laying around in your fridge and throw it on top.

14. Sprinkle your remaining Mozzarella and Parmesan on top of the sauce layer and cover with foil. (Some people suggest you coat the foil with more cooking spray… whatever).

15. Put it in the oven.

16. Bake for 25 minutes and then remove the foil.

17. Bake for another 25 – 30 minutes.

18. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes. It’s molten hot inside.

19. Enjoy.