Original Cast Album: Company is a 53-minute documentary by the late great legend, D.A. Pennebaker. It documents the original cast recording of the theatrical 1970 musical, Company, by Stephen Sondheim. Jim’s obsession with seeing this documentary began last year when he saw the IFC Documentary Now! Spoof on this film, Co-op. Now, thanks to The Criterion Channel, Jim got his wish–and he’s obsessed.
On this week’s episode of Stuff We’ve Seen, Jim and Teal discuss Company, the Documentary Now! spoof, and the genius of D.A. Pennebaker’s fly-on-the-wall camerawork, and tension-building editing.
Also on the program, Jim takes a dive into some additional Criterion Channel offerings from filmmaker Cheryl Dunye. Dunye’s 1992 Watermelon Woman is an interesting, self-reflexive part narrative, part documentary, part mocumentary look at black lesbian issues, and the history of black female representation in film. It serves as a reminder for Jim that not all film offerings need to be feature commercial narratives.
Also on this week’s agenda is Jim re-examining Gus Van Sant’s 1991 follow-up to Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho. Idaho is currently playing on Criterion Channel as part of Criterion’s Queersighted: Turn the Gaze Around series.
And if that is not enough for you, dear listener, Jim watched a truly bizarre 1971 offering, Daughters of Darkness, courtesy of Amazon Prime, and Teal watched Trolls: World Tour. Oh, and we find out that Teal hates Harry Potter. So there is a ton to unpack. Get at it!