The University of Louisville Floyd Theater film screenings are back in full swing. They kicked off the spring semester last week with a showing of “The Devil’s Double,” and starting this week they are back to their normal schedule of two films a week.
First up this week is tonight’s showing of the documentary “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” by director Morgan Spurlock, mastermind behind “Super Size Me.” Spurlock’s latest film explores the world of advertising and product placement. It screens twice tonight, at 5:00 and 8:00.
The weekend brings four chances to see “The Rum Diary,” based on a novel by the great Hunter S. Thompson. Everybody is aware of Thompson’s prolific career in journalism, which ranged from riding with the Hell’s Angels to ingesting all sorts of hallucinogens in Las Vegas to declaring himself the incarnation of the Hawaiian god Lono. What people may not be aware of, though, is that all throughout his career Thompson’s dream was to write fiction. “The Rum Diary” was written when Thompson was in his early twenties, before he even wrote “Hell’s Angels.” It didn’t get published until 1998 (and it is this writer’s opinion that the reason it got published at all is because of Thompson’s immense popularity - it doesn’t stand too well on its own).
Now, Thompson’s novel has been adapted into a film starring Johnny Depp (who, of course, has played Thompson’s fictional counterpart once before in the film adaptation of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”) and directed by Bruce Robinson. It tells the story of Paul Kemp, a freelance journalist who takes a post in Puerto Rico in the 1950s. “The Rum Diary” plays Friday at 5:00, Saturday at 5:00 and 8:00, and Sunday at 8:00.
(Bonus suggestion: watch Bruce Robinson’s incredible film “How to Get Ahead in Advertising,” a smart and hilarious satire on the world of the ad industry. It is streaming on Netflix instant viewing and is available at Wild and Woolly Video.)
The Floyd Theater is located on the third floor of the Student Activities Center on the U of L campus.
Image courtesy of the Internet Movie Database.
