I randomly remembered a post-restaurant-shift late night watch, today. It was this mockumentary film about a British pop star who was actually completely manufactured and controlled by the government to, in turn, control the youth of the country. I looked it up. It’s called Privilege (1967).
I don’t recall thinking it was all that good, but I do remember being rather struck by the premise, and the commentary it was making on how influential musicians had become in that time. It was a cool twist on that, I thought. I still do; it’s obviously stuck with me. Apparently reviews on it have always been mixed—it probably should have been better than it actually turned out to be. But, yeah. I’ve never forgotten checking it out.
As I sit and think about it, I don’t think it was a late night watch. I think it was during the day. Before a shift, maybe. I used to just flip through the IFC and Sundance channels and if something on them caught my eye, I’d watch. I was exposed to a surprising amount of cinema that way. That’s something I miss about “linear” television. It didn’t happen super often, those really cool moments of discovery, but it feels like they did looking back, because it is those moments you remember.
Night night.