Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession Page #5

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or go get a glass of water...

and he'd come back...

and he would be

incredibly depressed...

because he had looked

at the corner of the room...

and realized that

the workmanship was shoddy...

and start

getting depressed about...

how people don't care

about anything anymore.

And somehow in those moments...

that he would have had

that revelation...

it would sink him

into this depression...

about how the planet

was doomed...

and nobody gave a sh*t

about anything anymore.

And he said, in a very serious,

intense way...

"I'm really crazy.

I'm paranoid."

He wrote letters to me

at the time...

talking about what eventually

would happen to him...

that one day he would

lose the struggle.

Not in a threatening way,

but he talked about it.

And in rare moments

of lucidity...

what frightened him was

something inside of him...

that he didn't know how

to deal with.

I don't know how I got around

the "I'm crazy..."

and "I'm paranoid," line...

but I went to work there and

found that to be pretty true.

It's Black Flag.

I made the movie.

The guys that paid for it...

were a couple of independent

businessmen from the valley...

who wanted to make

a porno movie.

And I went in to talk to them...

and they didn't know

I was gonna come in...

and pitch a punk rock movie,

but I told them...

that punk rock was

the next best thing to porno.

So, "Hey, let's sign a check."

And they did!

We showed the film

one night, midnight.

They had to shut down

Hollywood Boulevard...

And 300 motorcycle cops came.

We had a letter from,

afterwards...

from Darryl Gates,

the Chief of Police, saying...

"Please don't ever show that

movie in Los Angeles again."

When I go to concerts,

it's like...

my friends get beat up

by my friends.

And it's like, "F***!"

It's because, like, they're not

beating up the right people.

They're not beating up

the f***ing posers.

They're beating up

just my friends.

It's f***ed.

The cops recognized Eugene from

having been in "The Decline"...

and arrested him.

Because they saw it on Z.

Yeah, because they saw it

on Z Channel.

Took you a little longer

than I thought.

I'm afraid it's going to take

a little longer than that.

I'm leaving now.

Road's wet.

It wasn't raining

when I got here.

No?

Too bad.

People really did not

understand that film.

They didn't get it,

and the critics didn't get it.

You f***er! I hate you!

Stop that!

Blow it out your ass! F*** you!

I was up for an audition

to go do "Star Wars"...

of all things.

And so I was reading

"Star Wars"...

and my agent was pressuring me,

"Go read for Star Wars!

"This is gonna be this thing."

And I'm going, "I don't know."

I always said

as my little actress prayer...

"If somebody just

gave me the chance...

"I could just show them.

I know it. I could.

"Please, God,

give me this chance."

And then, "Bad Timing"

fell in my lap...

and I was like,

"Holy... Should I do this?"

Alex! You want me?

Come on! Do it now, Alex!

Here it is, Alex.

Here it is, look at it, Alex.

Don't you want it?

There it is, Alex, Come here.

Take it. That's what you want.

Here it is, come on!

In terms of the Z Channel

showing it so much...

because it had such a small

release theatrically...

especially in this country...

that was really where everybody

had a chance to see it.

I swear, even to this day, I'll

have people come up to me...

and tell me how much that

that movie affected them.

How did you go about

finding those films?

Because obviously

it took some effort.

No one else was doing it.

You look at a lot of things...

that you think might be

interesting based on somebody...

not everybody that was involved

in it or what it's about...

or what it's based on

or where it was filmed.

There's a million reasons.

Just like anything in life...

you say,

"Gee, that sounds interesting."

HBO, Showtime,

The Movie Channel...

all of us are at this big

convention in some hotel.

Big table, dais, pitchers

of water, nameplates...

Jerry's down at the other end.

And everybody's

going down the list...

talking about how many

committees they've got...

how many market research.

"We hired this firm

from New York."

"We've got this firm

from Chicago."

"Jerry, how many firms

do you draw on...

"to choose your programs?"

He says,

"I don't consult anybody.

"I just see movies.

I just show good movies."

"Yeah, but your decision-making

process. Who's your committee?"

"I don't have a committee.

"We have people in the office

we talk... we like movies...

"but basically, it's just

whatever we want to see."

Jerry was an early and

passionate admirer of a film...

called " The lmportant Thing

Is to Love"...

directed by Andrezej Zulawski.

That film had a huge cult in

Europe in the mid-seventies.

I would sometimes,

seeing European films...

see clips from it...

because other European directors

were so in awe...

of " The lmportant Thing

Is to Love"...

that they would run little clips

in their movies.

Lovers in French films would

often be going to see...

"The lmportant Thing

Is to Love."

It became this immediate

touchstone...

that automatically was

being quoted in other films.

But it only opened briefly.

It only opened for a week.

And it just was

misunderstood...

by the first critics

who dealt with it.

And so it didn't go anywhere.

It didn't form the cult

that it could have...

here in the United States.

The thing about the Z Channel...

is that the sensibility was

offbeat and a little bit...

I don't know.

I mean, they showed everything.

It was really appropriate

that it was in L.A. In a way...

because in New York,

we did have a lot of venues...

to find those kind of movies.

When I started working

at this video store

in Manhattan Beach

called Video Archives...

and the guy who owned

the store, Lance Lawson...

I would ask, " Hey,

do you have this movie?"

"Do you have that movie?"

And he'd pull them out,

And as I'd watch them...

I'd realize that these were

the old Z Channel tapes.

And I still have probably

hundreds of hours of films...

that I recorded

off the Z Channel.

I saw " Dead Pigeon on Beethoven

Street" from Z Channel.

I had a whole... and he just

lent me the film...

and then I watch it,

and then it just...

It makes me go like this because

at the beginning of it...

"Our Tribute to Sam Fuller!"

All right?

And you see all the other movies

that they also showed...

but Lance only taped

"Dead Pigeon," all right?

I'm like, " Damn!

I want to see Fixed Bayonets!

"Park Row! God damn it!

Tape Park f***ing Row!"

In those days, that was the only

game in town, you know.

It was the only cable channel...

that you can watch

real good movies...

that totally disappeared

from the screen.

And some of them

were my movies...

and of course I always

liked to see my movies...

just to see if it works

on television.

When "McCabe & Mrs. Miller"

first came out, it was a flop.

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