Which Movies Move You?

Adding spice to your cinematic snack.

Image: Roswell Films

Cinema appreciation runs deep in my family. Favorites include The Great Escape, North By Northwest, Young Frankenstein, Vertigo and It’s A Wonderful Life. Son Henri maintains his Frames and Fools podcast when the spirit moves with pal Dylan, who’s based in Los Angeles. So it’s with pride and joy that adult Henri and I appreciate the occasional night out to catch a flick in a local theater.

In 2016, he rode his Moto Guzzi V11 Sport Ballabio to meet me in San Francisco when I was managing the Dainese store in SOMA. A newly restored The Third Man was playing at a tiny theater off Van Ness, so we rode together to enjoy it.

A few years prior—before our garage bulged with motorcycles—Henri and I rode cupcake on his Honda Elite 80 scooter to see Pacific Rim. I had just returned from a business trip in France and was exceedingly jet lagged. Henri chose the 10:30 pm showing and Jean was using our one car, so I gamely hopped on the Honda with an old Bell helmet that clunked against Henri’s as we tried desperately to wring as much speed out of the struggling Elite 80, barely cracking 30 mph on the two overpasses. After watching a movie about gigantic humanoid mechas battling colossal sea monsters, we climbed back on our faded and woefully underpowered scooter and returned home, laughing and glad for the shared experience.

In September 2015 we scored cheap tickets to see the Foo Fighters at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. I had to race home from San Francisco to meet Henri, and we split lanes for eight miles through stopped traffic on Shoreline Avenue to get to the concert in time. Our reward was free parking at the main gate near the tour buses. After watching Dave Grohl and company rock out for three hours (!) we rode home, once again content with the shared experience.

Last night, Henri and I rode to AMC Mercado in Santa Clara to watch Studio 666, a comedy horror film starring the Foo Fighters. Sunday Moto Club pals Brian and Tina joined us; with several mainstream blockbusters coming out, it was no surprise the four of us were the only ones watching Grohl et al doing a more than passable job of entertaining and making Tina scream repeatedly.