a highly-opinionated selection of things happening around town, and sometimes out of town. this month's page here.

tue. mar. 1

endless boogie @ satellite
found footage festival @ largo
willy mcbean and his magic machine 8 PM @ the mad mad world of rankin/bass @ silent movie theatre
crack house, redneck miller @ grindhouse night @ new beverly
my pet saddle @ the echo
you won't miss me 7 PM @ downtown independent
dash jacket @ lot 1


wed. mar. 2

the pride of pikeville 8 PM, the wedding march @ silent movie theatre
escape from alcatraz, i escaped from devil's island @ new beverly
the clockmaker of st. paul @ aero
dirt dress, bellrays @ the echo
you won't miss me 9 PM @ downtown independent
preggers @ dem passwords


thu. mar. 3

four lions, the day today (complete series) @ silent movie theatre
seance on a wet afternoon, the whisperers @ aero
come back to the 5 & dime jimmy dean jimmy dean @ ucla film archive
mary lynn rajskub, neil hamburger @ masonic lodge @ hollywood forever
you won't miss me 7 PM @ downtown independent
mavis staples @ satellite


fri. mar. 4

elephant 6 holiday surprise tour @ the satellite
autolux @ echoplex
abe vigoda @ first fridays @ natural history museum
ezra buchla @ echo country outpost
turrks @ the mime
nodzzz, audacity @ the smell
four lions, brass eye (complete series) @ silent movie theatre
belle de jour @ lacma
repulsion 9:20 PM @ lacma
coonskin, hey good lookin' @ new beverly


sat. mar. 5

mike watt & the missingmen @ redwood
autolux @ detroit bar
she saw @ 6000 avalon blvd.
nathan barley (complete series) 3:30 PM @ silent movie theatre
four lions, jam (complete series) @ silent movie theatre
tron (70mm) @ aero
the girl who dared 2 PM, rendezvous with annie @ ucla film archive
sleep my love, strangers in the night @ ucla film archive
michael showalter, david wain @ the echo
coonskin, hey good lookin' @ new beverly


sun. mar. 6

elvira mistress of the dark @ an evening with cassandra peterson @ silent movie theatre
trmrs @ 5 star bar
heller keller, foot village @ the smell
road games 3:35 7:30 PM, the anderson tapes 5:30 9:35 PM @ new beverly
hart of london @ echo park film center


mon. mar. 7

thomas lennon & ben garant: never before seen 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
road games, the anderson tapes @ new beverly
frank fairfield @ echoplex


tue. mar. 8

the birdwoman and her dreams: animated works by nancy andrews 8:30 PM @ redcat
black death (sneak preview, RSVP required) FREE 8 PM, witchfinder general @ silent movie theatre
the no mercy man, johnny firecloud, summertime killer @ new beverly
potiche @ lacma


wed. mar. 9

city lights 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
dark of the sun, hell river @ new beverly


thu. mar. 10

cointelpro 101 8:30 PM @ redcat
watts ensemble @ bootleg
shadows 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
dark of the sun, hell river @ new beverly
the black tulip (preview screening) @ lacma


fri. mar. 11

mike watt & the missingmen @ the echo
she saw @ mr. t's bowl
too late blues, the best of "johnny staccato" @ silent movie theatre
the unseen MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theatre
white lightning, the last american hero @ new beverly
stone MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
the night of the hunter, witness for the prosecution @ egyptian
tribute to tom chomont @ ucla film archive
the umbrellas of cherbourg @ lacma
donkey skin 9:15 PM @ lacma
death wish, the nightcomers @ aero


sat. mar 12

husbands @ an evening with ben gazzara @ silent movie theatre
white lightning, the last american hero @ new beverly
stone MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
the mechanic (1972), scorpio @ egyptian
on the vitaphone program one: 1927-1930 @ ucla film archive
the last metro @ lacma


sun. mar. 13

frank fairfield @ autry museum
the strange one 5:30 PM, the killing of a chinese bookie, saint jack @ a sunday with ben gazzara @ silent movie theatre
bob & carol & ted & alice 3:20 7:30 PM, blume in love 5:20 9:35 PM @ new beverly
samuel beckett's film 2 PM, waiting for godot @ ucla film archive
wild pink horse @ all star lanes
images of nature or the nature of the image: canadian artists at work @ spielberg theatre @ egyptian


mon. mar. 14

bob & carol & ted & alice, blume in love @ new beverly


tue. mar. 15

minnie & moskowitz 8 PM @ an evening with seymour cassel @ silent movie theatre
residual echoes @ the echo


wed. mar. 16

steamboat bill jr. 8 PM (w/ live score) @ silent movie theatre
man friday, cooley high @ new beverly


thu. mar. 17

man friday, cooley high @ new beverly
the man with the golden gun, octopussy @ egyptian
little fugitive, the spirit of the beehive @ aero
white fence @ satellite


fri. mar. 18

the ex @ the satellite
faces, (2nd film TBA) @ john cassavetes series @ silent movie theatre
drive-in, dazed & confused @ new beverly
cry danger, kiss tomorrow goodbye (1950) @ ucla film archive
regarde les hommes tomber @ lacma
pitfall 9:10 PM @ lacma
pretty maids all in a row MIDNIGHT @ new beverly


sat. mar. 19

a woman under the influence 7 PM, gloria @ silent movie theatre
drive-in 3:35 7:30 PM, dazed & confused 5:30 9:30 PM @ new beverly
wanda @ ucla film archive
the hour of the furnaces 2 PM @ lacma
wild pink horse @ bordello
pretty maids all in a row MIDNIGHT @ new beverly


sun. mar. 20

(1st film TBA) 5 PM, mikey & nicky, machine gun mccain @ cassavetes-as-actor sunday @ silent movie theatre
one the vitaphone program two: 1928-1930 @ ucla film archive
composite histories: the films of cathy lee crane @ echo park film center
goldfinger, you only live twice @ egyptian


mon. mar. 21

the sid saga parts 1-3 1985-1989 @ ucla film archive
requiem 7 PM @ goethe-institut


tue. mar. 22

strange boys, audacity @ the echo
mala morska vila 8 PM @ a spring equinox celebration @ silent movie theatre
the hot the cool and the vicious, fearless fighters @ grindhouse night @ new beverly
gaslight 1 PM @ lacma


wed. mar. 23

films by cyprien gaillard FREE 7 PM @ hammer
sun araw, lucky dragons @ the smell
'round midnight @ aero


thu. mar. 24

strange boys, white fence @ eagle rock center for the arts
love streams, opening night @ silent movie theatre
semper fi: always faithful FREE 7 PM @ hammer
my pet saddle @ satellite
audacity, king tuff @ 5 stars bar
thunder road, five minutes to live @ new beverly


fri. mar. 25

thee oh sees @ eagle rock center for the arts
the avenging eagle, duel of the iron fist @ new beverly
more @ lacma
trash 9:40 PM @ lacma
jon brion @ largo
tecumseh @ pehrspace
the upsetter: the life & music of lee scratch perry 8 PM @ downtown independent
we hate everything including this film series 8 PM @ echo park film center
rantouls, personal & the pizzas, king tuff/strange boys, ty segall, moonhearts @ burger boogaloo @ thee parkside/el rincon (SF)


sat. mar. 26

the best of "in search of..." 4 PM @ phenome-con saturday afternoon party @ silent movie theatre
the amazing world of ghosts, the legend of boggy creek, journey into the beyond, the devil's triangle @ phenome-con @ silent movie theatre
the avenging eagle 3:45 7:30 PM, duel of the iron fist 5:30 9:30 PM @ new beverly
the fighting fists of shanghai joe MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
native land 2 PM @ ucla film archive
jordan belson: films sacred and profane @ lacma
the upsetter: the life & music of lee scratch perry 8 PM @ downtown independent
lt. watada: a matter of conscience 2 PM @ japanese american national museum
traditional fools, audacity @ burger boogaloo @ thee parkside (SF)


sun. mar. 27

neil hamburger @ satellite
the pyramid 4 PM @ phenome-con sunday afternoon party @ silent movie theatre
unknown powers 8 PM @ phenome-con @ silent movie theatre
celebrating laurel & hardy FREE 2 PM @ ucla film archive
the upsetter: the life & music of lee scratch perry 8 PM @ downtown independent
my bloody valentine night @ part time punks @ the echo



mon. mar. 28

victory over the sun: films and videos by michael robinson 8:30 PM @ redcat
the upsetter: the life & music of lee scratch perry 8 PM @ downtown independent


tue. mar. 29

(film TBA) w/ live performance by nilbog 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
the upsetter: the life & music of lee scratch perry 8 PM @ downtown independent
LA font @ labrie's


wed. mar. 30

the godless girl 8 PM (w/ live score) @ silent movie theatre
a hatful of rain @ aero
the upsetter: the life & music of lee scratch perry 8 PM @ downtown independent
the finches 7:30 PM @ family bookstore
chris murray combo, queen p and the apologies @ dub club @ echoplex
walkabout @ egyptian theatre
a hatful of rain @ aero


thu. mar. 31

2001: a space odyssey (70mm) @ aero
the upsetter: the life & music of lee scratch perry 8 PM @ downtown independent
the double life of veronique 8 PM, sisters @ an evening with rodarte @ silent movie theatre


sat. apr. 2

bill frisell trio plays selected works of buster keaton 2 PM @ ucla royce hall
LA font @ lot 1


sun. apr. 3

the loons @ casbah (SD)


mon. apr. 4

betzy bromberg's voluptuous sleep series 8:30 PM @ redcat


tue. apr. 5

chronopolis 8 PM @ the phantasmagoric films of piotr kamler @ silent movie theatre


wed. apr. 6

thomas mao 8:30 PM @ redcat


thu. apr. 7

winter vacation 8:30 PM @ redcat


fri. apr. 8

oxhide ii 8:30 PM @ redcat
grass widow @ the echo


sat. apr. 9

single man 3 PM @ redcat
disorder 7 PM @ redcat
i wish i knew 9:30 PM @ redcat
trainspotting @ devil's night drive-in


tue. apr. 12

moon duo @ the echo


wed. apr. 13

moon duo @ casbah (SD)


sat. apr. 16

dr. lonnie smith trio @ the mint


sun. apr. 17

scenes of city life FREE 2 PM @ getty center


mon. apr. 18

russ forster films 6 PM @ 7 dudley cinema
eija-liisa ahtila: where is where? 8:30 PM @ redcat


wed. apr. 20

films by camille billops FREE 7 PM @ hammer


sat. apr. 23

dukes of hamburg, the ogres, swiss family skiiers, wild pink horse @ mr. t's


tue. apr. 26

when a woman ascends the stairs 8 PM @ silent movie theatre


thu. apr. 28

spectrum @ troubadour


thu. may 5

tamaryn @ troubadour


fri. may 6

tamaryn @ troubadour


sun. may 15

black angels, sleepy sun @ el rey


mon. may 16

the detroit publishing story: my postcard collection 6 PM @ 7 dudley cinema


sat. may 21

aloe blacc @ detroit bar


sun. may 22

aloe blacc @ music box
neu! @ the echo


thu. may 26

heroes & heroines @ cat club


sat. may 28

vinyl in the woods record fair FREE @ henry miller library (big sur)


tue. may 31

ricky jay & david mamet 7 PM @ hammer





WHAT IT IS:


Belle de jour
1967/color/101 min. | Scr: Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière; dir: Luis Buñuel; w/ Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli, Jean Sorel, Geneviève Page, Pierre Clémenti. 
Luis Buñuel, the great Spanish-born director and former surrealist, who once remarked that Keaton's College was a film with "the cool beauty of a bathroom," achieved his most immaculate-looking, most formally perfect film with Belle de jour which he made at the age of sixty-seven. Ostensibly the tale of a far-from-ordinary wife whose sadomasochistic fantasies drive her to spend her afternoons in a high-class bordello where she attracts a possessive young thug, the subject allowed Buñuel to blur the line between reality and dreams, and thus to fashion from the physical action depicted onscreen a surrealist poem. As the inscrutable Sévérine aka "Belle de jour", Deneuve whom Buñuel called "an excellent actress, very beautiful, reserved and strange", gives one of her greatest performances. "Buñuel wants us to understand Sévérine by contemplating the nature of her obsession. Instead of indulging in sentimental psychology by staring into Deneuve's eyes, Buñuel fragments her body into its erotic constituents. His shots of feet, hands, legs, shoes, stockings, undergarments, etc. are the shots not only of a fetishist, but of a cubist, a director concerned simultaneously with the parts and their effect on the whole… Buñuel loves Sévérine because he sees Belle de jour as Sévérine's liberator, and he wishes neither to punish Sévérine nor save her. He prefers to contemplate the grace with which she accepts her fate."—Andrew Sarris. 


The Best of "In Search Of..."
“This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily the only ones, to the mysteries we will examine.” -- "In Search Of..." opening narration
Starting off the weekend is a host of third-eye-unlocking activities (TBA!) on our backyard Spanish patio, plus a casual screening of the best of "In Search Of...", the popular syndicated TV show that aired during the pinnacle of the Phenomena Phenomenon! Hosted by Leonard Nimoy, the show covered the usual paranormal subjects (UFOs, Loch Ness, Stonehenge), but over its four-year run, it also examined a surprisingly wide range of oddball topics (can laughter combat disease? Was there a military cover-up of Glenn Miller's Death?) Threadbare historical re-enactments, interviews with crackpot "experts" and Nimoy's chilling-yet-warmly-familiar narration -- set to a menacing analog synth soundtrack -- all add up to pure TV gold. Join us for a curated selection of Cinefamily's favorite "In Search Of..." episodes!


Betzy Bromberg’s Voluptuous Sleep Series
“Images that, once seen, will stay with you forever.” —LA Weekly 
Betzy Bromberg returns to REDCAT with Voluptuous Sleep Series (2011), her first film in five years and a mesmerizing two-part 16mm meditation on the nuances of light, sound and feeling evoked through the poetic artifices of cinema. Bromberg’s close-up lens becomes a tool of infinite discovery that reveals as much about our bodily sensations as it does the natural world. Paired with two intricately composed soundtracks created in collaboration with Dane A. Davis, Zack Settel, Jean-Pierre Bedoyan, Pam Aronoff, James Rees and Robert Allaire, Voluptuous Sleep is an emotional tour de force that serves as a rapturous antidote to the fragmentation of modern life and a new experience of cinematic time and memory. An active filmmaker since 1976, Bromberg has presented work at the Museum of Modern Art, Harvard Film Archives, Anthology Film Archives, London’s National Film Theatre, and the Centre Pompidou, as well as numerous international film festivals.  In person: Betzy Bromberg


BILL FRISELL TRIO PLAYS SELECTED WORKS OF BUSTER KEATON
Incomparable guitarist Bill Frisell along with his bandmates Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen will create a live score to the Buster Keaton classics Go West, The High Sign and One Week. Rediscover the timeless charm of Keaton’s magic reimagined with live music in an afternoon of film and music the whole family can enjoy.


The Birdwoman and Her Dreams: Animated Works by Nancy Andrews
“Like its main character, Behind the Eyes are the Ears embraces the full scope of the unknown—from the sinister to the rhapsodic.” —Colin Capers
With characters and stories synthesized from sources including history and autobiography, Nancy Andrews works in a hybrid form that combines research with storytelling, documentary, puppetry, and vaudeville. The program presents a selection of shorts along with two of her latest animated works. Inspired by classic "mad scientist" horror films and research into the physiology of insects, Behind the Eyes are the Ears (2010, 26 min.) features a soundtrack by Andrews and Zach Soares and mixes animation, live action and found footage to follow the revolutionary attempts of Dr. Sheri Myes to expand human perception and consciousness. On a Phantom Limb (2009, 35 min.), with music by John Cooper, invokes the realm of the invisible and takes as its starting point the filmmaker’s near-death experience during a harrowing surgical procedure. Andrews is the recipient of awards and grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others.  In person: Nancy Andrews


Black Death (sneak preview!)
Set deep in the decomposing throes of the catastrophic bubonic plague, the grit and grime of medieval Europe comes alive in this bloody Christianity-vs-paganism thriller from director Christopher Smith (Severance). It is a 14th-century world without hope, as none are spared from the Black Death -- that is, until rumors reach the King’s ear of witchcraft, necromancy, and a small marsh village that remains untouched by the pestilence. As a violent knight and an idealistic monk investigate these supernatural tidings, faiths are tested, beliefs are questioned, and bodies are ripped to shreds! Taking cues from The Wicker Man, Witchfinder General and a little Braveheart for good measure, this squirmy, writhing actioner delivers Outback Steakhouse-sized “nasty outbreaks of gutting, braining, dismemberment, and one particularly eye-watering bit of horse-drawn carnage!” (Elliot Noble, Sky Movies) Starring Sean Bean, Carice van Houten (from Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book) and with an increasingly all-too-rare appearance by genre stalwart David Warner, Black Death will cast a pox of good times upon your house. You’ll bubble over with boils of joy!
Director Christopher Smith will be here at the Cinefamily for a Q&A after the film! Dir. Christopher Smith, 2010, 35mm, 97 min. 


The Black Tulip
2010/color/116 min. | Scr: Sonia Nassery Cole, David Michael O'Neill; dir: Sonia Nassery Cole; w/ Sonia Nassery Cole, Haji Gul Aser, Walid Amini.    
Shot on location in war-torn Afghanistan by American director Sonia Nassery Cole, an Afghan expatriate, The Black Tulip tells the story of a Kabul family that, after the fall of the Taliban regime, opens a restaurant called "The Poet's Corner," where artists and writers are encouraged to make use of an open mic. But the family soon learns that their window of freedom is fleeting and pays a high price for daring to embrace culture again. Director Cole, who plays the role of a passionate mother in the film and is the founder and CEO of the Afghanistan World Foundation, will be present for a Q&A following the screening.
In person: Sonia Nassery Cole


BLUME IN LOVE
(from IMDB)
George Segal (on a roll at this period in his career) gives his usual solid, likable performance as a Beverly Hills divorce lawyer who soon finds himself divorced as well--from working-girl Susan Anspach; he quickly tries winning her back, despite the fact she has taken up with a hippie musician (Kris Kristofferson). Paul Mazursky wrote and directed this quirky comedy-drama about love and heartbreak, a well-cast, well-written picture for grown-ups; a hidden gem. Bruce Surtees' cinematography is very expressive, supporting performances by Kristofferson and Marsha Mason are first-rate. 1973, USA, 115 minutes. written & directed by Paul Mazursky; starring George Segal, Susan Anspach, Kris Kristofferson, Marsha Mason, Shelley Winters, Donald F. Muhich, Paul Mazursky


BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE
Mazursky's directorial debut is the classic farce about spouse swapping in the swinging '60s. When filmmaker Bob (Robert Culp) and his wife Carol (Natalie Wood) attend a trendy California sex therapy group, their free thinking rubs off on their married friends Ted (Elliott Gould) and Alice (Dyan Cannon). Paul Mazursky---USA---1969---104 mins. 


Brass Eye
Brass Eye shifted the focus off of The Day Today’s outrageous headline news stories, and onto the skewering of exposing moral panic and social ills through the medium of the Dateline-style investigative format. A press release for Brass Eye promised that it would "take media terrorism to a level never seen on British TV before" -- and the show completely delivers on ever level of that promise, as real-life political figures, unaware of the show’s satire, are shown embarrassing themselves Ali G-style by supporting (or condemning) the fictional hot-button issues. Watch Morris shout the “facts” (with the kind of fervor usually reserved for traffic cops) atop exposés of weasel fighting, cow graffiti, and “Czech Neck," the terrible side effect of the Eastern European drug “Cake” that affects the section of the brain known as “Shatner's Bassoon”! Also included in our program is the 2001 “Paedo-geddon” TV special, a Brass Eye report on pedophilia that received the third highest number of viewer complaints in BBC history.
1997/2001, digital presentation, approx. 180 min. 


CELEBRATING LAUREL & HARDY
UCLA Film & Television Archive celebrates Laurel & Hardy as we kick off a major preservation effort to restore all of the surviving negatives of Laurel & Hardy at UCLA, most of which have been seriously abused by generations of rereleases. With this program, the Archive also kicks off a new website and an international fundraising effort through that site, which will also feature lots of “Stan and Ollie” lore, and on-going reports of our preservation efforts. Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Jeff Joseph, a major lead gift has already been pledged for the first project.
Tonight’s special program features the alternate versions of two early Laurel & Hardy sound comedies made for foreign language markets in which the boys speak their lines in Spanish, surrounded by a cast of native speakers. These rarities, La Vida Nocturna (1930) and Politiquerias (1930), screened at the very first UCLA Festival of Preservation. 


Chronopolis
The Phantasmagoric Films of Piotr Kamler
(feat. Chronopolis)
We’ve crossed paths with many wondrous works throughout our adventures in programming, but when it comes to the films of Piotr Kamler, we never fail to take a collective pause in order to gather our jaws off the floor. Often labeled as science fiction, Kamler’s works explore the inner depths of imagination more than the far reaches of outer space, eschewing linear narratives for dynamic, hallucinatory symbolism rendered in everything from clay to ink, paper cut-outs, early CGI and even pinboard animation -- all paired with startling musique concrète scores by the likes of Luc Ferrari and Bernard Parmegiani. Tonight we’ll eagerly peer into Kamler’s mind-expanding output, culminating with a rare 35mm screening of Chronopolis (his only feature film), an Egyptian-flavored cybernetic opus that immediately sucks you into a transcendent alternate universe with its own M.C. Escher-like laws of physics, space, time, and dream-logic. As alien as every sound and every moving part is, it feels vaguely comforting and familiar, as if you remember it from childhood or dreams. Fans of surrealist animators like the Brothers Quay will see similarities to their earlier films, which were likely influenced by this monumental achievement.
Chronopolis   Dir. Piotr Kamler, 1982, 35mm, 52 min. 


City Lights
As the sound era dawned, everyone wanted to hear the Tramp speak -- everyone, that is, except Chaplin himself. Feeling that words in the Tramp’s mouth would evaporate the universality of the character, Chaplin pushed ahead with City Lights, easily his most focused, shining effort, and a rare silent film produced after the 1920s had closed. In it, the Tramp befriends a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) who believes he’s a millionaire, and tries his hand at a variety of odd jobs to pay for her eye operation; meanwhile, a real-life alcoholic millionaire (a fantastically kooky Harry Myers) befriends the Tramp, except for trying to get the Tramp arrested every time he sobers up. Seriously funny and deeply affecting (especially in its devastating final scene, which will leave no audience member unmoved), City Lights is a marvel for being such a tightly-wound, densely-plotted work even though it was born out of Chaplin’s obsessive on-the-fly scripting while the film was in production -- and it feels light as air to boot.
Dir. Charles Chaplin, 1931, 35mm, 87 min. 


THE CLOCKMAKER OF ST. PAUL
Co-presented with French Film & TV Office, French Embassy With the support of E.L.M.A. (European Languages and Movies in America)
Bertrand Tavernier's first feature is a clear-eyed critique of the moral corrosion that lurks under - and is fed by - the bourgeois lifestyle.


COINTELPRO 101
“The government’s COINTELPRO program was nothing short of an assault and that assault, Cointelpro 101 makes clear.“ —Black Commentator
CalArts faculty member Sam Durant introduces a screening and discussion of COINTELPRO 101, a film that exposes illegal surveillance, disruption, and outright murder committed by the U.S. government in the 1950s to the 1970s. COINTELPRO refers to the official FBI Counter Intelligence Program carried out to surveil, imprison and eliminate leaders of social justice movements, and to disrupt, divide and destroy the movements as well. Through interviews with activists who experienced these abuses first-hand and rare historical footage, the film provides an educational introduction to a period of intense repression and draws relevant lessons for the present and future.
Following the screening, Martín Plot moderates a discussion with COINTELPRO 101 filmmaker Claude Marks of the Freedom Archives, SF8 defendant and organizer Hank Jones, and legendary author and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. 


COME BACK TO THE 5 & DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN
(1982, United States) Directed by Robert Altman
Robert Altman’s screen adaptation of the Ed Graczyk’s play (which Altman also directed on Broadway) relates the twenty-year reunion of a James Dean fan club at a Woolworth's in a small Texas town. Older and wiser, club members, all of them women, recount their aspirations and failures, illuminating feminist themes of sexuality and power. While boasting a stellar ensemble cast, the film proved a breakthrough for Cher, in particular.
Screenplay: Ed Graczyk. Cast: Sandy Dennis, Cher , Karen Black, Kathy Bates. 35mm, Color, 108 min.
In person: Kathryn Altman, Karen Black. 


Composite Histories: The Films of Cathy Lee Crane
Cathy Lee Crane in person!
Filmmaker Cathy Lee Crane visits from Ithaca NY with the first North American survey of her work. The four films span a decade of the filmmaker’s preoccupation with telling lyrical stories in dialogue with their European predecessors. More than mere adaptations, these films combine both staged and archival material which simultaneously provoke and elide the friction between present and past. A self-avowed formalist, Crane’s conceptual concerns, rooted in the non-linear nature of history, are explored through the dynamic system of the frame and the cut. Through shooting on locations rife with historical, literary, or biographical valence, narrative density collides with the film’s own simple goals of telling one woman’s story. In fact, Crane insists on the near impossibility of doing anything simple when history is involved. These films constitute an experimental film practice as interrogation wherein the logic of linearity itself is subjected to doubt through a masterly use of both horizontal and vertical montage.


CRACK HOUSE
(from IMDB)
Rick and Melissa are a pair of young lovers hoping to get out of the slums for good and escape the poverty and crime their families and friends have gotten involved in. All this comes to an end when Rick feels he must rejoin his old gang to avenge the killing of his brother by a rival gang. In the course of getting even, Rick is arrested, leaving Melissa without anyone to protect her. She falls in with a crack dealer and quickly becomes addicted to the drug. When she gets sold to a drug kingpin by a minor dealer to pay off a debt, only Rick can save her.  Dir. Michael Fischa, 1989, 90 mins; starring Jim Brown, Anthony Geary, Richard Roundtree, Cher Butler


CRY DANGER
(1951) Directed by Robert Parrish
In this underappreciated noir gem, the terse, pitch-perfect Dick Powell portrays ex-convict Rocky Mulloy who returns to Los Angeles to find the gang who framed him. Aided by a hard-drinking, crippled ex-marine, Mulloy prowls the streets for justice while flopping at a Bunker Hill trailer camp, home to his ex-girlfriend, played by the graceful Rhonda Fleming.
Screenplay: William Bowers. Cast: Dick Powell, Rhonda Fleming, Richard Erdman. 35mm, B/W, 79 min. 


DARK OF THE SUN
A band of mercenaries led by Captain Curry travel through the Congo across deadly terrain, battling rival armies, to rescue $25 million in uncut diamonds. 1968, UK / USA, 100 minutes. Not Available On DVD! 35mm print courtesy of BFI. directed by Jack Cardiff; starring Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Peter Carsten, Jim Brown, Kenneth More, André Morell, Olivier Despax


The Day Today
"Fact x Importance = News!" Before Four Lions, Morris was most famous for his scathing television news satires, the first of which was The Day Today. Based upon the landmark radio comedy program “On The Hour” and co-created by the equally brilliant Armando Ianucci (I’m Alan Partridge, In The Loop), the show stars Morris as the head anchor of a hysterical, surreal current affairs roundup, and ramps up the stereotypes of the genre to gleefully absurd levels of detail, including a large (and very prescient) amount of tacky, overboard CGI linking animations. Always played straight, the show lacks any tact or control in presenting its ludicrous stories -- and if it weren’t for this groundbreaking satire pointed towards media hysteria, it’s unlikely U.S. shows like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report would have ever existed. Plus, it marks the screen debut of Steve Coogan’s “Alan Partridge” character! Highly, highly recommended for fans of laughing.
1994, digital presentation, approx. 180 min. 


THE DETROIT PUBLISHING STORY - MY POSTCARD COLLECTION - A History of the American Picture Postcard ('10, 90m) at 6pm. At the turn of the next to last century postcards became an enormous fad in the United States, millions of postcards were sent daily, sometimes many a day, like we make phone calls or email today. The collectors began saving them and the results are a fascinating pictorial history of life in America a century ago. John  Collier’s colorful documentary on the history of the American picture postcard with beautiful photographs of “Turn-of-the-Century America”, 1880-1924 goes farther to describe American history than any other art form., The photographs served as the basis for picture postcards of the time. Prominent subjects include buildings and views in towns and cities, colleges and universities, battleships and yachts, resorts, natural landmarks, industry and national parks. They covered America with images, over 18,000 different views and in a kind of holding up a mirror to themselves they reveal much about themselves, their thoughts and society of the time. 


DISORDER (XIAN ZAI SHI GUO QU DE WEI LAI) 
Los Angeles premiere | 2009, 58 min., DVCAM
A splendid, original experiment on how to translate urban texture on the screen. Huang Weikai collected more than 1,000 hours of footage shot by amateurs and journalists in the streets of Guangzhou. He then selected 20-odd incidents, reworked the images into quasi-surreal grainy black-and-white and montaged them to create a kaleidoscopic view of the great southern metropolis, in all her vibrant, loud and mean chaos.


DMTV
Films by: Barry Doupe, Michael Robinson, James Mercer, Eurico Coelho, Jacob Ciocci, Milton Croissant, David O’Reilly, Dash Shaw, Dalibor Baric, Kihachiro Kawamoto, Max Hattler, Jesus Rivera. 
Floating World Animation Fest returns with a new name and trippier mission.  We’ve dug even deeper into the vaults of psychedelic animation to curate a heroic dose of visionary video art for this year’s animation fest.
For our fourth annual animation fest it was time to focus on what we liked best from previous shows and continue to seek out films that really embrace the infinite mysteries that resonate with us.  The result is DMTV, a program that goes further into experimental realms of video art and abstract visuals.
Highlights of this year’s program include:
Travel, aka The Trip (1973) – Kihachiro Kawamoto studied puppet animation in Prague in 1963 before going on to create his own haunting puppet and cut-out animations drawing from his own Japanese heritage.  Travel depicts the journey of a young girl into the Dali-esque landscape of her own psyche.
Apeiron (1996) – Eurico Coelho depicts a modern technological labyrinth where society has surrendered to the cold lamps of their computer screens.  The entirety of this ten minute film was animated on a Commodore Amiga 4000, giving the film a completely fresh aesthetic that has outlived the technology with which it was created.
The Peace Tape (2008) – With a title hearkening back to the analog era, The Peace Tape is a frenetic remix of old and new “found” video. Culling his sources from thrift stores (countless straight-to-VHS childrens’ programs), the Internet (a single YouTube clip featuring “dog in a dog costume”), and his own designs (flash animation of eyes and mouths, subliminal flickers of text), Ciocci concentrates hours of light entertainment into a dense, four-minute block. Saved from total sensory overload by the musical logic of Extreme Animals’ “A Better Way,” The Peace Tape is cryptic, hypnotic (and above all), empathetic. “Culture is out of control,” Ciocci explains, “but it is ok.”
The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D (2009) – This original animated web series is based on graphic novelist and comic book artist Dash Shaw’s latest book of the same title. Shaw’s animation has been widely praised for its eclectic style, innovative design and emotional depth. 


Donkey Skin
1970/color/90 min. | Scr/dir: Jacques Demy; w/ Catherine Deneuve, Jacques Perrin, Jean Marais, Delphine Seyrig.
Following the death of her mother, a Princess (Deneuve) is appalled and frightened when her father, the Blue King, declares that the only woman in the land beautiful enough to be his new wife and Queen is his daughter.  Help arrives in the glamorous guise of the lilac fairy who advises the Princess to distract her father with impossible requests—such as a dress the color of the weather—and then to don the skin of a donkey and flee into the forest. Shunned by the residents of the village where she finds shelter and is reduced to working as a scullery maid, the Princess goes unnoticed until, one day, a prince happens to ride by... As in Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, Demy splits the action between fantastical sets and real Loire Valley chateaux, and unleashes a stream of surreal images and anthropomorphic creatures: a singing parrot; blue and red kingdoms each populated with blue and red people and horses; a hag who coughs up frogs; a donkey that excretes gold coins. Aided by a lilting Michel Legrand score and the dazzling color cinematography of Ghislain Cloquet, Demy successfully realized his unique vision: a fairy tale for adults set in an imaginary kingdom estranged from any particular time or place, where the forces of dark and light coexist. "A visual feast... Deneuve was then, as she was before and since, a great beauty with the confidence such beauty requires."—Roger Ebert 


THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE
Kate and Laura Mulleavy, sibling fashion designers and founders of Rodarte, come to the Cinefamily to present a unique double-header of “double” movies! The element of sisterhood has played a critical role in their creative process, making their work on Black Swan’s thematically bifurcated ballet costumes have all the more artistic resonance. We’re pleased to see, when asked to pick two films, that Kate and Laura selected this duo of doppelganger stories: one light, one dark, together making a balanced and dynamic evening of entertainment. First up is Krzysztof Kieslowski’s masterpiece The Double Life of Veronique, which Laura describes as “an exploration of the interconnected nature of humanity, culture, and landscape. More often than not, this connection is fragile and dislocated. The film starts with a simple notion, one that most of us have thought: is there someone else, right now, at this moment, living the same life as me, uttering the same words, sharing a collective memory?” Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1991, digital presentation, 98 min.


Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Where is Where?
“Truly pushes forward the possibilities of split-screen cinema.” —Time Out New York
Los Angeles premiere | Finland, 2009, 55 min., 35mm
In her critically lauded experimental narrative Where is Where? (Missä on missä?), Finnish multimedia artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila has designed a visually mesmerizing four-image split-screen to evoke and deconstruct the murder of a young French boy by two Algerian playmates during the Algerian War of Independence in the 1950s. Ahtila’s fragmented mise en scène interweaves the elements of the tragedy originally recounted in Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth—moribund colonialism, the arid seduction of the Algerian landscape—with a postmodern sense of moral ambiguity as it comes to haunt a European poet, embodied with mystery and flair by Aki Kaurismäki’s muse, actress Kati Outinen. The evening also includes earlier shorts by Ahtila, whose installations and film works have been presented internationally at venues such as The Museum of Modern Art, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Marian Goodman Gallery. 
In person: Eija-Liisa Ahtila


Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
An Evening With Cassandra Peterson (feat. 1988's "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark"!)
NOTE: Ms. Peterson will not be appearing in character as “Elvira” during the show. Boobs, “B” movies, being a brassy broad -- all of those things played their part in making horror hostess Elvira first a local L.A. heroine, and then a national sensation. But there’s one more “B” we shouldn’t forget, and that’s brains: not the kind in a jar, but the ample lobes of Cassandra Peterson, the Groundlings graduate (Class of Pee Wee Herman!) who brought her to life. Holder of the Guinness World Record for “youngest Vegas showgirl,” Cassandra dated Elvis, lost her virginity to Tom Jones, and ran off to Italy to become frontwoman for a rock band, which led to her casting in Fellini’s Roma -- all before Elvira’s creation! Ms. Peterson will be with us tonight to watch her frighteningly fun 1988 feature film debut Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (which she co-wrote with fellow Groundling alum John Paragon, who also played “Jambi” of “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse”), as well as rare, favorite, and new episodes/segments of Elvira’s "Movie Macabre"! Bring your Q’s, and get ready for what will undoubtedly be some A’s (and T’s) to remember!  Dir. James Signorelli, 1988, 35mm, 96 min. 


ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ
Clint Eastwood stars in one of director Don Siegel's best films--a tense, yet understated drama based on the true story of an escape attempt from the legendary "escape-proof" maximum security prison. Although convicts Frank Morris, Clarence and John Anglin are portrayed as more sympathetic figures than they probably were in real life, the film's methodical, authentic detailing of their mission is quietly riveting. Also starring Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Fred Ward and Jack Thibeau.  Don Siegel---USA---1979---111 mins. 


Faces
After an early-‘60s spell as a studio director on Too Late Blues and A Child Is Waiting, Cassavetes spent four years planning Faces, a trip to the emotional badlands that marked a return to his indie roots and the establishment of key repertory players that he would work with many times after. John Marley and Lynn Carlin play a May-December couple who realize their marriage is dissolving, and who both seek unhealthy trysts: Marley parties with stunning call girl Gena Rowlands, while Carlin brings home libidinous young hippie Seymour Cassel. The stunted atmosphere of tense sexuality, wild outbursts and off-the-cuff turns of phrase, all seen through the gritty filter of purposefully dirty 16mm, results in one of Cassavetes’ most moving efforts, and one that many are still shocked to learn is entirely scripted, rather than improvised. Amongst a truly powerful ensemble, Carlin gives perhaps the greatest performance of all; after discovering her while she worked as a film industry secretary, Cassavetes elicits from Carlin a mesmerizing portrayal of a neglected wife as brave and honest as you’ll ever experience.
Dir. John Cassavetes, 1968, 35mm, 130 min. 


FEARLESS FIGHTERS
When To Pa, an evil member of the mighty Eagle Claw Clan, orders his fellow fighters to steal a government gold supply, the group's loyalties are tested. Man-Hung Mo directs a spirited marital arts adventure buoyed by zippy one-liners, vivid characters, and impressive choreography. With David Chiang, Yee Yuang, and Chen Lieh. Man-Hung Mo---Hong Kong---1973---82 mins. 


THE FIGHTING FISTS OF SHANGHAI JOE
(from IMDB)
A Chinese immigrant named Chin How lands in a small Texas town inhabited by hard-nosed cowboys who don't take kindly to outsiders. The town folk soon realize that Chin is no ordinary drifter and he quickly gains a reputation for his unbeatable fighting skills. When word of Chin's skills spread to Stanley Spencer, the owner of the states largest cattle ranch, Chin lands a job working for Spencer as a fellow cowboy. Friend soon becomes foe when Chin realizes he is working for a cattle smuggler bent on brutalising Mexican farmers and anyone else who stands in his way.  1974, Italy, 98 minutes. directed by Mario Caiano; starring Chen Lee, Klaus Kinski, Gordon Mitchell, Claudio Undari, Carla Romanelli, Carla Mancini


Films by Camille Billops
Noted artist Camille Billops worked for many years in sculpture and printmaking before turning to the medium of film. Join us for a rare opportunity to view her breakthrough 1991 film Finding Christa (55 min.), a Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Winner, preceded by the short film Suzanne, Suzanne (1982, 25 min.). A discussion with Camille Billops will follow the screening.  Finding Christa: Filmmaker Camille Billops placed her daughter Christa for adoption in 1962. In this moving documentary, she chronicles the emotions surrounding her reunion with that daughter nearly two decades later. Interviews with Camille's family and friends as well as with Christa's adoptive family shed light on the complicated decision to give up a child. Finding Christa won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.


Films by Cyprien Gaillard
Through his mesmerizing films, videos, and photographs, Cyprien Gaillard explores the landscape of the built environment with subjects that include modernist tower block housing complexes, Mayan ruins and brutalist resorts, and skateboarding and graffiti in neglected urban spaces such as corporate plazas and train tunnels. The program will include a selection of recent film and video works. Gaillard is currently an artist-in-residence at the Hammer.


Four Lions
Morris’s brand-new foray into feature filmmaking raises eyebrows with a subject matter so brazenly contentious that its greatness is forced to shine: a slapstick comedy about a cell of jihadists. Morris takes the fear-inducing, terrorizing Islamic extremist movement and trips them into a puddle of mud, throwing pies in their face by demonstrating just how ridiculous a group of guys who want to blow themselves up can be. “Morris gets a lot of comic mileage out of the unlikely juxtaposition of sacred ideals and the ridiculousness of pop culture, from a half-wit who espouses his beliefs through hilariously awful rap songs to the wannabe Bin Ladens communicating via a virtual site in which they all assume the avatars of cartoon puffins.” (The A.V. Club) In skewering these lads, Morris is able to shine a riotous light on how insanely the world reacts to these threats, and how that madness feeds into the institution of fear that pervades the global climate. DJ R-Rated will be here to spin tunes before and after the program on Friday, March 4th!
Dir. Chris Morris, 2010, 35mm, 97 min.


THE GIRL WHO DARED
(1944) Directed by Howard Bretherton
An invitation to a party at a remote old house, a succession of murders, the telephone line cut—The Girl Who Dared has all the makings of a classic whodunit. Briskly adapted from Medora Field’s 1942 novel Blood on Her Shoe by John K. Butler (himself a prolific author of pulp-fiction), this Republic Pictures mystery clocks in at under an hour but packs a thrill-filled punch.
Screenplay: John K. Butler. Cast: Lorna Gray, Peter Cookson, Grant Withers. 35mm, B/W, 56 min. 


Gloria
What originally started as a run-of-the-mill action film pitch by Cassavetes to Columbia Pictures evolved into yet another of his deep and meaningful stories of love and human connection. In the title role, Gena Rowlands kicks ass and takes names -- schooling about a dozen NYC gangsters in the process -- in a sharp turn from the domesticity and vulnerabilities of A Woman Under The Influence’s Mabel. As with Chinese Bookie's Cosmo, Gloria is that rare Cassavetes character with a gun, but that genre-specific element is superficial; at Gloria’s core is a story of a woman looking for and defending family, as she protects a young boy wanted by the Mob as a potential source of valuable “information.” The formula has been seen before, but only Cassavetes could inject his particular brand of honesty into a film like this: the contemplative pace, the awkward humor, and John Adames' unconventional and joyous portrayal of the boy who Gloria protects. This is Cassavetes painting a commercial canvas, yet still making something as ambitious and nakedly emotional as anything he’d done before.
Dir. John Cassavetes, 1980, 35mm, 123 min. 


THE GODLESS GIRL
"The Godless Girl is to atheism what Reefer Madness is to marijuana." -- Cinema Styles
The Godless Girl is simply one of the most riotous silents you'll ever see! The campy on-screen chaos of Cecil B. DeMille's final film from the silent era kicks off with a rivalry between school clubs -- an Atheist society that swears its allegiance on a monkey head, and a Christian group that takes its Bible-thumping literally: by pummeling the Athiests into a pulp. When their confrontations lead to lawbreaking, all are hauled off to cute his' and hers' prisons that conveniently neighbor each other, and where their torture at the hands of countless sadists forces the groups' leaders to work together. Prepare to howl when crosses get burned into their hands as they touch through an electric fence! The Godless Girl is remembered for its fever pitch, but it's also notable for the fervent fan mail Lina Basquette's performance elicited from a young Adolf Hitler. Score by Beth Custer & Richard Marriott!
Dirs. Cecil B. Demille, 1929, 113 min. 


A HATFUL OF RAIN
1957, 20th Century Fox, 109 min, Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Korean War veteran Johnny Pope (Don Murray) becomes hooked on morphine in a military hospital. When he moves into an apartment complex with his wife (Eva Marie Saint) and brother (Anthony Franciosa), his addiction has drastic repercussions for the whole family. A terrific score by Bernard Herrmann adds to the drama.  Discussion following with actor Don Murray.


HELL RIVER
(from IMDB)
As with the Italians, the Yugoslav film industry made quite a few WWII movies, always detailing the struggles of the "Partisans". Like THE BATTLE OF NERETVA, this tells of a major German offensive to erradicate the enemy and their struggles against the invaders.
It's 1941, and the Partisans are on their own. Marko (Rod Taylor), fresh from an education in America, returns to his homeland and discovers how brutal the Nazis really are. Instead of returning to the States, he stays in Yugoslavia and organizes a resistance movement. On the other side, we have Captain Kohler (Adam West, of all people) who discovers that his childhood sweetheart, Anna (Brioni Farrell aka Xenia Gratsos) is among the Jews he's transporting to the POW camp. Marko's men attack the boat, and Anna helps Kohler escape. She's taken by the partisans, though, and soon finds herself in love with Marko. The rest of the movie involves partisan encounters with Kohler's troops, culminating at a huge river battle a few months later. 1974, USA / Yugoslavia / Liechtenstein, 100 minutes. Not Available On DVD! directed by Stole Jankovic; starring Rod Taylor, Adam West, Brioni Farrell, Velimir 'Bata' Zivojinovic, Peter Carsten, Olivera Katarina


THE HOT, THE COOL AND THE VICIOUS
Considered one of the earliest martial arts features to stress the many different styles of fighting, this movie boasts some great combat choreography. Three kung fu experts compete to see who is the true master. "4 fists out of 5...some of the best two-on-one fights ever filmed" (The Essential Guide to Hong Kong Movies). Lee Tso Nam---Hong Kong---1976---93 mins. 


The Hour of the Furnaces
1968/b&w/260 min./16mm | Scr/dir: Octavio Getino, Fernando E. Solanas.
Argentine activist filmmakers Fernardo E. Solanas and Octavio Getino co-authored the seminal manifesto "Towards a Third Cinema" which called for a break from the escapist spectacle of Hollywood production ("First Cinema") and Europe's auteur-driven works of personal expression ("Second Cinema"). "Third Cinema" would be made by and for the masses, outside mainstream channels and screened secretly. Solanas/Getino put their theory into practice with this epic, four-hour agitprop masterwork, whose call for a violent social revolution in the face of tyrants and imperialists is matched by Soviet-style montage, vérité footage and Brechtian appeals to the audience. An award winner at both Venice (Special Jury Award) and Cannes (Best Director), The Hour of the Furnaces has never been released on home video, perhaps due to its appropriation of newsreels and subversive indictment of American expansionism. "A brilliant tour de force of tumultuous images and sledgehammer titles, fused into a passionate onslaught of radical provocation to jolt the spectator to a new level of consciousness. Here is a Marxist film that 'rocks'"—Amos Vogel. 


Husbands
In his first of four roles for John Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara completes the blessed unholy on-screen trinity that also includes Cassavetes and Peter Falk in the beautifully volatile Husbands. Three middle-aged, middle-class close buds attend the funeral of a fourth friend -- and then they go berserk. Faced with their own mortality, they start to live larger than they ever have; bouncing from basketball court to bar, to card game to bar, and impossibly all the way to London(!), the audience is taken on a wild ride that’s so left-field that you yourself will feel drunk at the end, laughing the whole way. Gazzara’s emotionally athletic performance is shouty, but in the most truly cathartic and savory way possible, with his electrifying singing challenge scene alone takes the audience through more emotional peaks and valleys than the entire filmography of lesser actors. His contribution to Husbands is a testament to the flawed man-in-a-suit: smart, noble, loved and hated, sensitive and brutal.
Dir. John Cassavetes, 1970, 35mm, 138 min. (Archival 35mm print courtesy of Sony) 


Images of Nature, or The Nature of the Image:  Canadian Artists at Work
Introduced by Irina Leimbacher
Spanning four decades of Canadian experimental cinema, tonight’s program is comprised of work visually and viscerally engaged with the natural world.  Made by artists from or living in Canada, these films and video employ an array of aesthetic strategies and image technologies to depict nature while simultaneously exploring the nature of the cinematic image.  They include photograms of natural objects as well as a reprise of the first filmed images ever shot in Canada and range from quiet and slow contemplations to multi-layered and optically printed frenzies. While some investigate Canadian landscapes with intensity and proximity, others explore the animal or the animated with ironic distance.  With passion, intensity and humor, film artists David Rimmer, Ellie Epp, Richard Kerr, John Price, Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof, Daichi Saito, and Emily Vey Duke, and Cooper Battersby offer us provocative visions of this land they call home.—Irina Leimbacher
Guest curator Irina Leimbacher was invited by the CFMDC (Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre) to survey their catalogue of approximately 3000 films to create programs for Canadian and international presentation as part of its newly launched International Curatorial Residency Program: Avant-Garde Canada; Curating The CFMDC Collection. CFMDC would like to acknowledge the full support of the Canada Council For The Arts for funding this project initiative.


I WISH I KNEW (HAI SHANG CHUAN QI)
Los Angeles premiere | 2010, 138 min., HDCAM
China’s most significant filmmaker of the decade has done it again, with another alluring hybrid of documentary and fiction. Here Jia weaves a dense texture between amorously shot footage of contemporary Shanghai and the films the city created or inspired. Peeking through the gaps of an architecture menaced by permanent urban renewal, he finds the traces of a romantic or brutal past, and echoes the voices of survivors or those who went into exile.


Jam
The most strange and ambitious of Chris Morris's avant-garde television projects, Jam’s sketch comedy inhabits a twilight zone where laughs and abject horror intermingle, and everyday situations quickly go from wrong to wronger to wrongest. An extreme button-pusher in regards to taboo subjects and queasy moral quandries, Jam’s purposefully hazy, floating-in-brine tone, coupled with a David Lynch-like freaky surreality and an amorphous electronica soundtrack, creates a highly unique comedy experience in which laughs take a back seat in favor of a general vibed-out “pleased” feeling that indelibly lasts for weeks after viewing. Morris spoke of “Blue Jam”, the radio series from which Jam was adapted, as occupying a "flu groove" -- which is an apt description for a TV show that feels woozy and disquieting in its tone and texture, whilst being as funny as anything you've ever seen.
2000, digital presentation, approx. 180 min. 


JOHNNY FIRECLOUD
A Native American returns from duty in Vietnam to find his hometown controlled by a vicious bigot in Johnny Firecloud (1975, 98 mins.). Ralph Meeker (Kiss Me Deadly, Paths of Glory) plays the town boss, who has Johnny Firecloud beaten and jailed when he finds his daughter with him. Johnny escapes to enact a brutal revenge. The cast includes Sacheen Littlefeather, most famous for refusing Marlon Brando's Oscar in 1973.


Jordan Belson: Films Sacred and Profane
1959-2005/color/16mm & digital/70 min.
Born in Chicago and raised in the Bay Area, Jordan Belson trained as a painter before turning his attention to filmmaking after discovering the abstract films of Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren and Hans Richter. Since 1947, Belson has explored consciousness, transcendence, and light in a visionary body of work that has been called "cosmic cinema": brimming with vibrant color, mandalas, liquid forms and mesmerizing rhythms. Starting in 1957, Belson collaborated with sound artist Henry Jacobs on the Vortex Concerts, multimedia events that combined new electronic music from around the world with Belson's visual effects projected on the 65-foot dome of the California Academy of Science's Morrison Planetarium. Tonight's program features rarely screened films including Caravan (1952), Séance (1959), a new preservation print of Chakra (1972), and more, including Belson's latest film, Epilogue (2005), funded by the NASA Art Program and commissioned by the Hirshhorn Museum. Presented in association with Center for Visual Music.
Introduction by: Cindy Keefer, archivist and curator, Center for Visual Music.


The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie
In what other film will you find a scene of a waitress from the famed proto-vegan L.A. restaurant The Source taking her morning break to walk next door and audition for Ben Gazzara’s bizarro stripclub/performance art venue? In John Cassavetes’ moody neo-noir take on the sleazy side of ‘70s Southland life, Gazzara is tasked with a titular bit of violence that involves knocking off a Chinese “bookie” to square a debt he’s accrued (on a gambling boat, no less!) with a sinister syndicate of low-lifes led by Cassavetes regulars Seymour Cassel and wonderfully mushy Timothy Carey. Cassavetes renders all of this with a somewhat hallucinatory eye, subverting all crime genre conventions with his unsettled, staccato rhythms and a tone that drifts freely from absurdist to contemplative, and back again. Likewise, Gazzara embodies perfectly the fractured, contradictory persona of Vitelli, a character as filled with frailty and vice as he is with ambition and integrity.
Dir. John Cassavetes, 1976, 35mm, 135 min. 


KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE
(1950) Directed by Gordon Douglas
James Cagney followed up his brilliant, ruthless performance in White Heat (1949) with his last great gangster turn in this adaptation of Horace McCoy’s 1948 crime novel. As wild hoodlum Ralph Cotter, Cagney snarls, struts, and chews up the scenery throughout a plot replete with twisted associations, heists, and blackmail schemes. Gordon Douglas’ efficient direction suits the sadistic low-budget independent production.
Screenplay: Harry Brown. Cast: James Cagney, Barbara Payton, Helena Carter. 35mm, B/W, 103 min.
In person: Rhonda Fleming; Richard Erdman; Alan K. Rode, writer, film historian.


THE LAST AMERICAN HERO
(from IMDB)
Lamont Johnson directed this critically-lauded, though under-appreciated stockcar drama (often referred to as "Hard Driver") concerning a young hellion (Jeff Bridges) in North Carolina who's into racing cars and "hot doggin' the law!" It isn't Shakespeare, though the William Roberts script (adapted from Tom Wolfe's short stories) is literate and bracing, and the film has built up a cult-following in the last thirty years. Performances by Bridges, Valerie Perrine and Gary Busey are all solid, with Bridges' powerful scene in a recording booth the emotional centerpiece of the film. The soundtrack prominently features Jim Croce's song "I Got a Name". Interesting, well-made lower-budget item marketed as a quickie B-flick but actually offering something more substantial.  1973, USA, 95 minutes.  directed by Lamont Johnson; starring Jeff Bridges, Valerie Perrine, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ned Beatty, Gary Busey, Ed Lauter, William Smith


The Last Metro
1980/color/131 min. | Scr: François Truffaut, Suzanne Schiffman; dir: François Truffaut; w/ Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu.
In occupied Paris, an actress continues to perform in a play while her Jewish husband, the play's director, hides from the Nazis in a basement room from whence he monitors his wife's growing intimacy with the lead actor. Truffaut called the Occupation "the most turbulent and romantic period of the 20th century—consequently the most fascinating and inspiring" and a period when "everything was paradoxical. We were told to be honest while surrounded by examples of the dishonesty needed to survive." By making The Last Metro, Truffaut wrote, "I satisfied three dreams: to take the camera backstage in a theatre, to evoke the climate of the Occupation, and to give Catherine Deneuve the role of a responsible woman." With its references to such Hollywood classics as To Be or Not to Be, "The Last Metro was clearly a very personal work… animated by one of the director's enduring beliefs: that the domain of art and illusion-be it that of books, of cinema, or theater-is not only more magical that any other but, in some ways, more 'real.' The dramas that take place in the theater, both onstage and off… frequently appear to have been drawn less from real life than from earlier films. The Last Metro differs, of course, from old Hollywood movies in one critical respect: it alludes to the dark zones of the French past—the presence of collaboration, of anti-Semitic legislation—that had been exposed to the light in the early 1970's."—Naomi Greene, Landscapes of Loss.


Lt. Watada: A Matter of Conscience
Directed by Freida Lee Mock
He’s called a hero, a coward; a patriot, a traitor. How does an Army officer full of promise, praised by his commanders as exemplary with unlimited potential, come to face a felony conviction, a prison term and a dishonorable discharge?
“Lt. Watada” tells the story of the first commissioned military officer to refuse to deploy to Iraq and to speak out about his belief that the war is illegal and a violation of his constitutional oath. It is a David and Goliath story as Lt. Watada demonstrates his willingness to face court-martial and eight years in prison rather than be a party to war crimes. And it is an intensely personal story as the film dramatizes what it means for a lone soldier to publicly challenge Presidential war policy in order to honor his oath to the Constitution, to fulfill his duty as an officer, and to follow the rule of law.
There will be a Q&A after the screening with the filmmaker.


LITTLE FUGITIVE, 1953, Orkin/Engel Film and Photo Archive, 80 min. Dirs. Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin. In this lovely adventure that perfectly chronicles the mood of 1950s New York, 7-year old Joey (Richie Andrusco) runs away to Coney Island after being tricked into thinking he's killed his older brother, Lennie (Rickie Brewster). What follows is a double journey - Joey's adventures and Le...nnie's search for his lost little brother - with Engel's camera never failing to register the moments that create a magical atmosphere. 


Love Streams
Cassavetes’ last (self-initiated) picture is a perfect summation of everything beguiling and maddening about its maker's unique career: a black comedy that rockets past the line of sanity to locate the humor in despair. "Love is a fantasy for little girls," says Robert (Cassavetes), an wealthy, philandering alcoholic writer filling the void with a parade of barely-legal secretaries, interviewees, and other playmates. Elsewhere, Robert’s unstable sister Sarah (Gena Rowlands) files for divorces from the beleaguered Jack (Seymour Cassel), and embarks on a vision quest mirroring the crazy person journey Cassavetes himself took in real life, culminating in Love Streams’ production after he found out he had terminal cancer. With a sprawling, freewheeling tone reminiscent of Altman’s breezier works, the film perfectly says just about everything there is to say about what could be described as "love's aftermath”. It’s also controversial amongst Cassavetes fans for featuring tripod setups, dream sequences (including a ballet number!), and a near-slapstick mode of comedy -- yet, against the odds, Love Streams is a brilliant bookend to the Cassavetes directorial legacy.
Dir. John Cassavetes, 1984, 35mm, 141 min. 


MACHINE GUN MCCAIN
John Cassavetes plays the title role in this Italian B-movie about a gangster who serves 12 years, gets paroled, gets into bed with Britt Ekland, and gets to work robbing a Las Vegas casino that's owned by the Mafia. Eventually, he has the mob, the fuzz, and his ex-lover (Gena Rowlands) on his tail. With Peter Falk, Florinda Bolkan, and an original score by Ennio Morricone. Nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes. Giuliano Montaldo---Italy---1969---96 mins.


Mala Morska Vila
The Four Seasons - Daughters of the Air: A Spring Equinox Celebration
(feat. the Czech "Little Mermaid"!)
The story of the underwater siren who trades her enchanting voice with a witch in return for becoming a human princess has, over the past century, acquired a near-universal legacy -- so it should come as no surprise that, with their strong aflliction to fairy tale heritage, the Eastern Europeans produced the most truly memorable, haunting, and brilliantly unsettling version of all. Following in the pure Czech New Wave tradition of equally fantastical films like Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Daisies, and Cassandra Cat, 1976’s Mala Morska Vila is psychedelically anima-infused, with blue-haired mermaids and mermen, vampiristic fish shoals, and icy white-webbed witches -- all sumptuously photographed on exotic ocean locations, along with simulated underwater fantasy worlds created at alien-looking Czech lime quarries. The film’s second-to-none design, costumes and cinematography are also matched by one of the most idiosyncratic and magical undiscovered musical scores in the annals of European cinematic history; composed by the vibrant Zdenek Liska, the soundtrack has all the hallmarks of a Broadcast album some twenty years before the band first committed sound to vinyl. Finders Keepers Records is excited to present Mala Morska Vila for the first time ever in all its subtitled glory! The evening also starts off with live performances by ASKA, and British acts Jane Weaver and Emma Tricca -- and after the film, get ready for female-folk DJ sets accompanied by a fairy tale video mix produced by Cinefamily’s own Tom Fitzgerald!


THE MECHANIC (1972)
1972, MGM Repertory, 100 min, Dir: Michael Winner
Ace assassin Charles Bronson takes on protege Jan-Michael Vincent, but as he teaches him the tricks of the trade, the master begins to realize he might be training his own future adversary. Twists and turns abound in this riveting action film.  Discussion between films with Michael Winner moderated by Larry Karaszewski.


Mikey & Nicky
Elaine May worshipped John Cassavetes, and Mikey and Nicky (starring the man himself and his good friend Peter Falk) ended up as the greatest Cassavetes film Cassavetes never directed. This textured 1976 drama focuses with remarkable effect on May’s obsessions —the flimsiness of trust, loyalty, and truth. The relationship of two childhood-friends-turned-smalltime-hoods is laid bare with equal parts poignancy and tension, as over the course of a single evening Cassavetes (with Falk’s reluctant assistance) tries his best to outrun mobsters who’ve put a contract out on his life. May’s genius for discovering the microscopic nuances of human behavior (previously put to use as a comedienne) here merged with Cassavetes’ intensity and willingness to push limits, resulting in one of the greatest acting workshops ever filmed.
Dir. Elaine May, 1976, 35mm, 119 min. 


Minnie & Moskowitz
With a heart as big, weird, and unwieldy as its protagonist’s Yosemite Sam moustache, Minnie and Moskowitz applies Cassavetes’ character-driven realism to the crowd-pleasing formula of the screwball rom-com with side-splitting results, showcasing all the absurdity and allure of love (OK -- maybe just the absurdity!) Cassel is a scruffy, longhaired parking attendant with no ambition, and Gena Rowlands is a reserved LACMA curator who silently judges the world from behind her octagonal shades. She thinks he’s a less-than-ideal mate, but for him, it’s love at first sight, so he does what any enamored guy would do: he attempts to mow her down with his pickup truck! Cassel’s increasingly awkward attempts to get Rowlands to love him are both heartbreaking and hilarious, and his quirky inhabitation of such a charmingly desperate man hits a deep chord with anyone who’s ever felt inexplicably drawn towards the romantically unobtainable. Though its protagonists swap more insults and punches than spit, Minnie and Moskowitz gleefully demonstrates how even the worst-matched couples can have a shot at happily-ever-after.
Dir. John Cassavetes, 1971, 35mm, 114 min. 


More
1969/color/110 min. | Scr: Barbet Schroeder, Paul Gégauff; dir: Barbet Schroeder; w/ Mimsy Farmer, Klaus Grunberg, Heinz Engelmann.
Born in Tehran and raised in Iran, Africa and Colombia, Schroder may be the most cosmopolitan filmmaker to surface from the Nouvelle Vague's wellspring of activity. Throughout his career he has switched between documentaries, Hollywood thrillers and international art films, along the way giving Mickey Rourke one of his most memorable roles (Barfly) and garnering Jeremy Irons his only Oscar win (Reversal of Fortune). In 1962 he helped launch Les Films du Losange and began producing films by Rohmer, Rivette and Fassbinder while also acting in a few of them. That the company remains in business is a testament to Schroeder's lasting commitment to stimulating and relevant cinema. Such is the case with his directorial debut: largely improvised and set to an eclectic Pink Floyd score (their first ever), More traces the volatile relationship between a German student and his American girlfriend as they commit themselves to a life of hedonism amid the craggy, sun-soaked shores of Ibiza, rendered in all of its Mediterranean splendor by Nestor Almendros, the master of "magic hour" cinematography. Rarely screened, More weaves a dream-like trance of Balearic debauchery, stoned mysticism and primal urges. "[Farmer and Grunberg are] trying to live out a bootleg Byron fantasy of metamorphosing from pasty, civilized, uptight Northerners into Mithraic Philistines ('I wanted the sun and I went after it. I didn't care if I got burned')…More establishes the story Schroeder returned to over the years: a couple conjoined by obsession, first in a kind of mentor-student relationship, later in a mutual ante-upping game. It endures better than a [typical] freakout dropout time-capsule by chronicling without buying stock in junkie romance and mind-expansion pamphleteering."—Nick Pinkerton, Moving Image Source.


Nathan Barley
Morris’s only narrative TV series follows The Mighty Boosh’s Julian Barratt as a frustrated journalist for Vice Magazine stand-in “sugaRAPE Magazine”, and his run-ins with the titular titan of Internet trash culture Nathan Barley, who’s the dopey “brains” behind the website www.trashbat.co.ck. Equal parts deadpan stupidity and a stark criticism of Britain’s devaluing of anything culturally relevant, Nathan Barley takes a lack of self-awareness and makes it the crux of a dark and deeply ironic program, which plays like a version of The Office for people who wouldn’t normally even be allowed to use a stapler. In the words of Nathan Barley himself: “You should come, dollsnatch. It's gonna be total fucking Mexico.” Also featuring Barratt’s Mighty Boosh compatriots Noel Fielding and Richard Ayoade.
2005, digital presentation, approx. 180 min. 


NATIVE LAND
(1942) Directed by Leo Hurwitz and Paul Strand
Paul Strand and Leo Hurwitz’s docudrama combines documentary sequences and fictional reenactments in a paean to the growth of the American labor movement. As Paul Robeson's voice booms on the soundtrack, the film develops a patriotic narrative of man struggling for freedom against political and economic interests that exploit the land and its people with striking cinematography and fluid editing that evoke Eisenstein and Pudovkin.
Screenplay: Leo Hurwitz, Paul Strand, Ben Maddow. Cast: Paul Robeson, Fred Johnson, Howard Da Silva. 35mm, B/W, 80 min. 


THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
1955, MGM Repertory, 93 min, USA, Dir: Charles Laughton
Robert Mitchum is astonishing as a sociopathic wandering preacher who uses his fire-and-brimstone fundamentalism to mask his schemes to blithely rob and murder gullible yokels - and puritanical Shelley Winters, left alone with her son and daughter and a stash of cleverly hidden loot, is a perfect target. Lillian Gish is rock-solid as the elderly matron who shelters the children when they flee from the homicidal Mitchum. Charles Laughton’s simultaneous debut and swan song as a film director.


THE NO MERCY MAN
A decorated Vietnam War vet returns home to his small southwestern town, only to find carnies and bikers are stepping all over it, prompting him to take action.  1973, USA, 90 minutes.  directed by Daniel Vance; starring Steve Sandor, Rockne Tarkington, Richard X. Slattery, Heidi Vaughn, Mike Lane, Ron Thompson


ON THE VITAPHONE
Vitaphone technology, an early method of syncing sound discs to film, left critics astounded that vocal and musical reproductions could sound so “natural,” so “real.” Developed by Warner Bros., Bell Laboratories and Western Electric, the Vitaphone system had distinct advantages over other sync sound methods and Vitaphone films were tremendously popular, particularly the shorts produced by Warner Bros. featuring top stage and musical talent of the day. From 1926-1931, Warner Bros. produced over 1000 Vitaphone shorts. Since its inception, UCLA Film & Television Archive has been committed to preserving as many of these as possible. This Festival, the Archive presents two nights of newly preserved Vitaphone shorts featuring Robert Gitt, preservation officer, in person.
The Vitaphone shorts in this program have been restored by Warner Bros., in collaboration with UCLA Film & Television Archive, the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, and The Vitaphone Project, with funding provided by Warner Bros. and Dudley Heer. Additional financial support provided by Emily Thompson and Scott Margolin.
In person: Robert Gitt, preservation officer.
TRT: approx. 104 min.


Opening Night
In a role equally as fragile and mercurial as A Woman Under The Influence’s Mabel, Gena Rowlands is Opening Night’s Myrtle, an ageing, successful actress going kind of crazy in a play about ageing crazily. After the accidental death of an overzealous young fan, Myrtle swiftly goes into a tailspin of booze, self-doubt and the kind of rich, buttery unpredictability that’s a joy to watch on the stage, but hell for Mabel’s surrogate stage family to witness off the boards. A hymn to that berserk business of performing and the beautiful, berserk people who do it, Opening Night is enhanced by its intense pedigree, as Ben Gazarra, old Hollywood stalwarts John Blondell and Paul Stewart, and even Cassavetes himself are the backing band for Rowland’s knife-edged soloing. From the very first scene, Cassavetes peppers the narrative with electric turn-on-a-dime ambiguity; with whole swathes of the action taking place “onstage” in front of a real audience watching the performances of the film’s cast in-character, the permeable membrane between “stage” and “reality” is so tangible it hurts.
Dir. John Cassavetes, 1977, 35mm, 144 min. 


OXHIDE II (NIUPI II)
Los Angeles premiere | 2009, 133 min., DigiBeta
In 2004, at 23, Liu Jiayin stunned the world by shooting Oxhide in CinemaScope in her parents’ 50-square-meter apartment. She is back at REDCAT with an even bolder “sequel.” More tightly constructed—nine shots that go around a kitchen/workshop/dining table in 45-degree increments, performing a complete 180-degree match—Oxhide II is also dryly humorous, intelligent and insightful, deconstructing the dynamics of a family in crisis.


Pitfall
1962/b&w/97 min. | Scr: Kôbô Abe; dir: Hiroshi Teshigahara; w/ Hisashi Igawa, Kunie Tanaka, Hideo Kanze
Japanese modernist Hiroshi Teshigahara made his feature debut with this hallucinogenic, sun-baked noir which he called a "documentary-fantasy." A coal miner quits his grueling job and hits the road with his young son in tow. Finding work as he goes, he stumbles from one eerily deserted landscape to another, all the while tailed by an enigmatic man in a spotless white suit. Filled with ghosts, doppelgangers and anonymous strangers, Pitfall is Teshigahara's first collaboration with novelist Kôbô Abe. Over the course of three more films—The Woman in the Dunes, The Face of Another and Man without a Map—the duo further explored Pitfall's existentialist themes of alienation, identity and escapement. Toru Takemitsu's hauntingly minimalist score—for prepared pianos and harpsichord—intensifies the film's stark and often surreal mood. "Teshigahara's visual flair, evident in his sculptural use of wastelands and remarkable superimpositions, is matched by the singular assault of Takemitsu's unorthodox score."—Jonathan Rosenbaum. 


Potiche
2010/color/103 min. | Scr/dir:  François Ozon; w/ Catherine Deneuve; Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Judith Godreche.
Based on a stage play set in a provincial French town in the 1970s, writer/director François Ozon's newest film stars Catherine Deneuve as Suzanne Pujol, a submissive and housebound 'trophy housewife' (or "potiche") who steps in to manage the umbrella factory of her wealthy husband (Fabrice Luchini) after the workers go on strike and take their tyrannical boss hostage. To everyone's surprise, Suzanne proves herself a competent and assertive woman of action, and it is only a matter of time before she runs into a former union leader and ex-beau (Gérard Depardieu) who still holds a flame for her.  But when her husband returns to the factory, rested and in top form, things get complicated. 


THE PRIDE OF PIKEVILLE
The evening starts with the riotous short The Pride of Pikeville, starring our favorite silent cross-eyed clown, Ben Turpin!  Dir. Alfred J. Goulding, 1927, 35mm. (Archival 35mm print courtesy of the Library of Congress Motion Picture Collection) 


REDNECK MILLER
(from IMDB)
DJ Miller is a Schlitz-swilling, hard-living early morning country music disc jockey in the Southern U.S. His motorcycle, a one-of-a-kind "chopper," is stolen by someone and used to steal a shipment of drugs from Supermac, a blaxploitation refugee usually aided by a hapless duo of criminals, including Preacher. Supermac sends his thugs to follow Miller, and Miller has a few run-ins with Preacher and his nameless sidekick. At first, Miller doesn't seem to take the threat seriously, although Miller's aggravation grows and he refuses to talk about what is happening with his live-in girlfriend (to her chagrin)...  Dir. John Clayton, 1977; starring Geoffrey Land, Paul Walsh, Paulette Gibson, Sydney Rubin, Steve Jones


Regarde les hommes tomber
1994/color/90 min. | Scr: Jacques Audiard, Alain Le Henry; dir: de Jacques Audiard; w/ Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean Yanne, Mathieu Kassovitz, Bulle Ogier.
In Jacques Audiard's directorial debut, parallel stories unfold, on course for a fateful collision: Trintignant plays a scruffy, small-time crook mentoring young Kassovitz as they hitchhike through France; straight-laced Yanne seeks to avenge the shocking murder of a friend. Foreshadowing his award-winning 2009 film A Prophet, Regarde les hommes tomber sharply renders both the explosive relationship of teacher and pupil in the dog-eat-dog world of organized crime and revenge's slow, calculated boil. Audiard's screenwriting background, honed over a decade prior to stepping behind the camera, shines through in the film's ambitious structure and gritty dialogue. Winner of three Cesars, including Best First Work, Regarde les hommes tomber has never been released in the United States. "[Audiard's films are] characterized by an unusual ability to create tension within the bounds of traditional genre plotting while focusing on mature examinations of the complexities of human behavior. Above all else, Audiard, who has a novelist's gift for creating personalities, is an intensely curious investigator of psychological states. He's fascinated with character, with who people are versus who they imagine themselves to be in the private corners of their minds."—Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times. 


RENDEZVOUS WITH ANNIE
(1946) Directed by Allan Dwan
Corporal Jeffrey Dolan, stationed in London, misses his stateside wife so bad that two buddies fly him, AWOL, back home for a secret anniversary visit. After the war, Jeffrey returns home legitimately to discover he’s a father, only he and his wife can’t tell anyone the truth about how it happened. Complications ensue and are then compounded in this post-war comedy of errors.
Screenplay: Mary Loos, Richard Sale. Cast: Eddie Albert, Faye Marlowe, C. Aubrey Smith. 35mm, B/W, 80 min. 


Repulsion
1965/b&w/105 min | Scr: Roman Polanski, Gerard Brach; dir: Roman Polanski; w/ Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, Yvonne Furneaux
At the center of many of Roman Polanski's films are characters grappling with sexual or psychological afflictions (he has an avowed affinity with such modernist writers of the "absurd' as Kafka, Ionesco and Beckett) whose sufferings he makes painfully real, however gothic the context or paranoid the character. Repulsion, his second film and his first in English, is a textbook example of his style with only hints of the parody and irony he was to bring to later films like Cul-de-sac and Rosemary's Baby. Deneuve, in a tour-de-force performance—she is virtually alone onscreen for an hour—plays Carole, a pretty but shy Belgian girl who shares a gloomy apartment with her sister, works as a manicurist in a busy salon surrounded by chattering women, and panics whenever a man tries to befriend her; though she spends evenings alone at the movies, her nights are sleepless thanks to the noisy lovemaking of her sister and her fiancé whom she despises. When her sister leaves on holiday and Carole closes herself into the apartment, Polanski reaches for his bag of Expressionist tricks, revealing his true genius for the macabre. The film becomes a harrowing journey into the subconscious during which the apartment itself comes alive with Carole's fantasies and fears: ceilings crack open, potatoes grow monstrous tentacles, a dead rabbit with one baleful eye watches her, arms reach out from the walls to grope her... and then the doorbell rings. "Polanski makes his fair heroine—played with exquisite deadly grace by Catherine Deneuve—seem authentically tragic, herself the most pitiable victim of the evil she does…Repulsion more than lives up to its title and in the long tradition of cinematic shockers, looms as a work of monstrous art."—Bruce Williamson, Time. 


Requiem
German w. engl. subtitles
Dir. Hans-Christian Schmid, 2006, 92 min. digital proj. starring Burghart Klaussner, Sandra Hueller, Imogen Kogge
Inspired by actual events, this film tells the story of a young woman named Michaela Klinger who, torn between faith and sickness at the beginning of the 1970s, became the victim of an exorcism. Brought up by her parents in a strict Catholic household, Michaela moved to Tübingen at the age of 21 to take up studies in teaching. Although her father (played by Burghart Klaussner) , always her ally, is fully supportive of the move, her anxious mother, who tries to keep her epileptic daughter bound up in a cocoon of bans and preventative measures, has conflicted feelings about Michaela becoming a student.


ROAD GAMES
Stacy Keach stars in this Australian thriller as a truck driver out to stop a serial killer traveling the highways murdering helpless hitchhikers. Nominated for four Australian Film Institute Awards, this suspenseful shocker takes many cues from Hitchcock with its many twists and turns. Also stars Jamie Lee Curtis. "A clever, eccentric thriller" (Creature Features Movie Guide). Richard Franklin---Australia---1981---101 mins. 


RUSS FORSTER FILMS: TRIBUTARY ('01, 72m) at 6pm. Forster's (in person) engaging “tribute” bands documentary -- bar bands that imitate famous groups down to the costumes and stage sets. Featuring interviews and live footage of  GIANT BUG VILLAGE (evangelizing for GUIDED BY VOICES), MORONIC REDUCER (raping the memory of the DEAD BOYS), MONGOLOID (preaching the gospel of DEVO) & more. TRIBUTARY is a study of pop music as an art form in flux, looking back to where it has gone before to seek clues about where it should go next. "Compulsively watchable" -- The Stranger, Seattle. Plus: SLUMBER PARTY VIDEO ('99, 3m) marks Forster's sole foray into the murky waters of music video to create a lovingly off-kilter portrait of Detroit, MI. SPRINGTIME FOR EVA ('04, 4m) finds director Forster obsessively matching the teutonic talents of gymnast EVA BRAUN and chanteuse NICO with unpredictable results. SO WRONG THEY'RE RIGHT ('95, 92m) at 8:00. FORSTER and DAN SUTHERLAND encapsulate a 10,000 mile journey around the U.S. in search of a group of 8-track tape fanatics that netted over 20 interviews delving into reminiscences, rants, political diatribes, fantasies, fix-it tips, sales pitches, and everything else that defined the skeptical yet inquisitive mind of the ’90s 8-track enthusiast.  Plus: HOME EXORCISE ('10, 3m) pits the video workout talents of SUSAN POWTER, TONY LITTLE, and SID CAESAR against the relentless satanic skronk of THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS, and represents director RUSS FORSTER’s latest ridiculous obsessions.


Saint Jack
After decades of portraying stern fathers, captains of industry and denziens of the underworld, Ben Gazzara gave one of his most happy-go-lucky turns in Saint Jack, the tale of an American hustler whose chaotic business it is to “satisfy the needs” of visiting businessmen in Vietnam War-era Singapore. “Saint Jack” Flowers’ philosophy is “people make love for so many crazy reasons, why shouldn’t money be one of them,” and, indeed, Gazzara plays Flowers as a breezy Fitzcarraldo type, a man preternaturally driven towards delivering the classiest brothel and the absolute best in carnal pleasures to the GIs, ex-pats and generally wayward souls lost amongst the luscious backdrop of southeast Asia. Based upon the Paul Theroux novel, the film marked a considerable critical comeback for director Peter Bogdanovich, after a previous trio of mid-to-late ‘70 pictures failed to land any success. In a humanist return to form that matches the subtle heights of The Last Picture Show, Bogdanovich exercises the precious instinct that gives Gazzara the room to ride the breathtaking line between savvy, charismatic huckster and moralistic citizen of the world.
Dir. Peter Bogdanovich, 1979, digital presentation, 112 min. 


SAMUEL BECKETT'S FILM
(1965) Directed by Samuel Beckett
Preserved through the Avant-Garde Masters program funded by The Film Foundation and administered by the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Samuel Beckett’s lone work for projected cinema is in essence a chase film—one that locates the existential crisis of modernity in the very fabric of the movies themselves. The link to cinema’s essence is evident in the casting of an aged Buster Keaton and the exquisite cinematography of Boris Kaufman. Film is a now-legendary cinematic conundrum that asks as many questions as it answers.
Screenplay: Samuel Beckett. Cast: Buster Keaton, Nell Harrison, James Karen. 35mm, B/W, 20 min.
In person: James Karen.


Scenes of City Life
(1935, 92 min., digital print of 35 mm original)
Directed by Yuan Muzhi
Never before shown outside China, director Yuan Muzhi's innovative fantasy uses live action, still photographs, animation, and even a peep show to depict the love triangle between a pawnshop owner's daughter and two young men in the bustling metropolis of 1930s Shanghai. China's first musical comedy, this landmark film features Chairman Mao's last wife, who went by the screen name of Lan Ping, in one of her earliest screen roles.
Subtitled in English, this presentation is made possible through the assistance of the China Film Archive. Free; reservations required. Subtitled in English, this presentation is made possible through the assistance of the China Film Archive.


SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON
1964, Janus Films, 115 min, Dir: Bryan Forbes
Mira (Kim Stanley), an opportunistic psychic, and her pushover husband, Bill (Richard Attenborough), concoct a scheme to kidnap a rich couple’s child, and then gain celebrity by pretending to have clairvoyant hunches about the child’s whereabouts. When the police begin to question Mira and Bill - and when Bill becomes paranoid that Mira doesn’t want the child to be found alive - an eerie, spine-tingling thriller unfolds.


Semper Fi: Always Faithful
Sundance Institute presents a Work-In-Progress Screening of the documentary Semper Fi: Always Faithful. Marine Corps Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger was a devoted Marine for nearly twenty-five years, indoctrinating thousands of new recruits in his role as drill instructor. When Jerry’s nine-year-old daughter dies of a rare type of leukemia, the grief-stricken father struggles to make sense of what happened. In his search for answers he discovers a Marine Corps cover-up of one of the largest water contamination incidents in U.S. history. A Q&A with filmmakers Rachel Libert and Tony Hardmon will follow the screening. (2011, 75 min. Dirs. Rachel Libert and Tony Hardmon)


SHADOWS
Shadows isn’t America’s first independent feature film, but it may be its first mature one -- the first to put everything on the line for its uncompromising new approach to style and subject matter. In his directorial debut, Cassavetes tells a risky, elliptical story about love, money, sex and blackness in beat-era New York, using the rough-hewn, handheld verite style that helped redefine American filmmaking in the 60’s and 70’s. The off-the-cuff narrative and staccato editing share a clear affinity with bop: the wall-to-wall improvisation by a cast of then-unknowns takes flight in extended riffs on sculpture or the telling of a good joke, only to cohere with explosive clarity in scenes of racial and romantic confrontation. As he follows the experiences of three black Manhattanite siblings, Cassavetes gives room for each actor to shape their character, like a bandleader calling out solos. The filmmaker would refine this style in later pictures, but one doesn’t look to Shadows for refinement; the film is as raw, direct and original as the day it first hit the screen. Co-star Lelia Goldoni will be here for a Q&A after the film!
Dir. John Cassavetes, 1959, 35mm, 87 min. 


THE SID SAGA, PARTS 1-3 1985-1989
(1989) Directed by Sid Laverents
Sid Laverents burst into national attention in 2000 at age 92, when his short film Multiple Sidosis (1970) was voted into the National Film Registry. The Sid Saga is his magnum opus and an undiscovered masterpiece. It chronicles his 100 year odyssey, from barnstorming vaudevillian, to dishwasher, to rocket scientist, to filmmaker. The Sid Saga is the story of one life and an American century.
Screenplay: Sid Laverents. Cast: Sid Laverents. 35mm, Color, 106 min.
In person: Ross Lipman, senior film preservationist.


SINGLE MAN (GUANGYUN)
U.S. premiere | 2010, 95 min., HDCAM
“This is a strange and delightful thing from China: a sex comedy, bawdy and a little raunchy, about four elderly farmers . . . all non-professional actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves. New director Hao Jie, with a bit of Boccaccio and a dollop of Rabelais, reveals a side of rural China you’ve probably never seen before . . . Chinese indie cinema at its most wryly entertaining.” —Vancouver International Film Festival


SISTERS
One of Brian De Palma's earliest and best Hitchcockian thrillers, Sisters stars Margot Kidder as separated Siamese twins. One sister seems to be leading a normal, healthy life until her boyfriend winds up dead. Could it be that her evil sibling is out to destroy her happiness? Charles Durning and Barnard Hughes co-star in this suspenseful horror picture, with a chilling Bernard Herrmann score.
Brian De Palma---USA---1973---92 mins. 


SLEEP MY LOVE
(1948) Directed by Douglas Sirk
Before achieving real critical and box office success, director Douglas Sirk turned in this surprisingly effective terrorized-wife drama. Produced by Mary Pickford, the plot centers around a socialite, played by the earnest and lovely Claudette Colbert, being driven mad by her faithless husband, Don Ameche playing against type. Joseph Valentine’s cinematography contributes mightily to the film’s noirish atmosphere.
Screenplay: St. Clair McKelway, Leo Rosten. Cast: Claudette Colbert, Robert Cummings, Don Ameche. 35mm, B/W, 96 min. 


THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (EL ESPIRITU DE LA COLMENA), 1973, Janus Films, 95 min. Dir. Victor Erice. A film of sublime silence and mystery, starring Ana Torrent as an intense, imaginative young girl searching the barren fields outside her town, looking for the disembodied spirit of Frankenstein's monster. Erice's first feature film was widely hailed as a masterpiece upon its release. In Spanish with English subtitles.


Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Equipped with a finale Buster Keaton originally felt was shoehorned in by his producer, Steamboat Bill, Jr. provides the most memorable, thrilling climax of any of his pictures. Buster plays a city boy moving back to the country to become a steamboat captain -- and as he fumbles his way through the job, he catches the eye of the daughter of his father's business rival. The original planned ending had Keaton piloting his way through a Mississippi River flood, but due to a real-life flood tragedy that year, Keaton was forced to change it to a cyclone finale. Using the sudden shift as divine inspiration, Keaton concocted a barrage of inspired bits involving a town getting ripped in half, and the single most dangerous of his stunts: a building's facade falling down perfectly around him, as he emerges unscathed through a open window. As Mark Bourne of DVDJournal.com says, it's "Keaton's signature image -- a man alone, making the most of whatever the hell's going on around him". The Club Foot Orchestra's Neo Jazz-Age score by Richard Marriott features the virtuoso chromatic harmonica of Bill Barrett, and hand-cranked weather machines for the outrageous storm sequences!
Dirs. Charles Reisner & Buster Keaton, 1928, 71 min. 


STONE
Sandy Harbutt produced, directed, co-wrote, and stars in this gritty Aussie biker classic about an undercover cop, Stone, who infiltrates a gang of violent bikers. Though it became somewhat of a cult hit after the success of Mad Max, Stone was never huge in the States, which explains why the makers of the 1991 C-movie ripoff, Stone Cold, didn't bother to cite their infraction. Co-starring Helen Morse, Bill Hunter, and Reg Evans. Sandy Harbutt---Australia---1974---103 mins. 


STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT
(1944) Directed by Anthony Mann
The inky noir style and fatalist themes that would later emerge full force in T-Men (1948) and Border Incident (1949) take shape in Anthony Mann’s sixth feature, an early gothic thriller about a veteran lured into a deadly psychological nightmare by the promise of love. Strangers in the Night displays Mann’s deft facility for squeezing the most from a tight budget.
Screenplay: Bryant Ford, Paul Gangelin. Cast: William Terry, Virginia Grey, Helene Thimig. 35mm, B/W, 56 min.
In person: Nancy Mysel, film preservationist.


SUMMERTIME KILLER
(from IMDB)
A six-year-old boy witnesses mobsters beat his father to death. Twenty years later, the now-grown boy begins to track down and eliminate the men who did it, determined to wipe out the entire gang. A police detective investigating the killings, and the Mafia boss who heads the gang, are just as determined to stop him. 
1973, Spain / France / Italy, 110 minutes. Not Available On DVD! directed by Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi, starring Christopher Mitchum, Karl Malden, Olivia Hussey, Claudine Auger


Thomas Lennon & Ben Garant: Never Before Seen!!
In a creative partnership that’s lasted almost twenty rib-ticklin’ years, Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant have wowed us, zowed us and plowed us with their charmingly earnest characterizations of goofballs and dim bulbs across stage, screen and record. Best known for co-creating and starring in TV shows like MTV’s “The State” and Comedy Central’s “Reno 911!”, Tom and Ben also have co-written guffaw-fests like Balls of Fury and the Bob Odenkirk-directed Let’s Go To Prison, and are also regulars on the UCB Theater stage. Tonight, they both join us for a presentation of rare, lost, and never-before-seen footage from their award-winning* career in television! NOTE: No refunds. Brief, tasteful nudity.
* Lennon and Garant have won NO awards in their twenty years in television. 


THOMAS MAO (XIAO DONGXI)
Los Angeles premiere | 2010, 80 min., DigiBeta
One of the most original voices of post-socialist China, novelist/filmmaker Zhu Wen has crafted, for his third feature, a droll, surreal and ironic tale in which East meets West . . . or does it? Thomas is a painter trekking through the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, and Mao the scruffy “innkeeper” who lodges him. Gradually, what appears to be “reality” shifts. Who is the butterfly, who is the philosopher?


Too Late Blues
“Too Late Blues is less about the workings of the music industry than about people so caught up in testing the limits of their self-delusions that they can’t see the human wreckage floating in their wake.” -- Dean Brierly, Cinema Retro
Shadows was such a mindblowing act of insurrection for American filmgoers in the late ‘50s to process that it was no surprise a glossier studio version of Cassavetes’ aesthetic for mainstream audiences found little support -- but J.C. certainly gave it the ol’ college try with Too Late Blues, the Shadows follow-up featuring famed crooner Bobby Darin as a jazz musician who must choose between the music he loves to play and the music that will get him paid. In a magical feat, Cassavetes managed to elicit the same performative intensity from his cast while working within the confines of tight studio schedules, resulting in “one of the more impressive Hollywood movies to be set in the hip, flip jazz world.” (Time Out Film Guide)
Dir. John Cassavetes, 1961, 16mm, 96 min. (Archival 16mm print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive)


Trash
1970/color/110 min. | Scr/dir: Paul Morrissey; w/ Joe Dallesandro, Holly Woodlaw, Geri Miller.
Paul Morrissey became and still remains famous for a trilogy of films—Flesh, Trash and Heat—made and released under the banner "Andy Warhol Presents" that feature the iconic Joe Dallesandro as the passive center of a swirling, loquacious society of junkies, prostitutes, and transvestites. Morrissey became a member of Warhol's circle in the mid-sixties when the Factory was already infamous as the production center for Warhol's static camera real time films, and the clubhouse of the Superstars, Warhol's colorful and uninhibited entourage. Gradually introducing editing and narrative into the Warhol films, Morrissey fundamentally changed their aesthetic: rather than observant documents, the films became a medium for the performers and their real and constructed personas. Taking the idea "that drug people are trash," to its illogical extreme, Morrissey created a seminal work of cinema, a topical black comedy that is as relevant today as it was in the sixties. Like a Beckett play, the action is situated in an unheated basement apartment furnished with trash scrounged from the street, where Holly, determined to salvage her dignity, vainly tries to arouse her drug addicted boyfriend Joe while scheming to get back on welfare and "be respectable" again. Infused with transvestite Holly Woodlawn's irrepressible charm and deadpan nonsequetors, Trash became Morrissey's richest work, "a brilliant, funny, tragic, moving film." (Rolling Stone) 


TRIBUTE TO TOM CHOMONT
Tom Chomont's exquisite shoort experimental works, a treasure among the
holdings of the Outfest Legacy Collection at UCLA, exist at the intersection
of eroticism, mysticism, and the everyday. Infusing his work is a palpably human longing for love, in which the boundaries that limit us are in fact gateways, be they door, window, skin, or spirit.  This program of short works includes the sensuously provocative Love Objects (1971), as well as his lyrical portraits. In person: Jim Hubbard, filmmaker/curator/activist; Ross Lipman, senior film preservationist.


The Unseen
A veritable Terrence Malick of schlock, the elusive Danny Steinmann has helmed only a handful of brilliant, crunchy exploitationers in the last few decades: the filthy girl vigilante vehicle Savage Streets, the notorious ‘70s porno High Rise, the strangest Friday the 13th sequel of them all (Part V, the one without Jason in it) and the mighty The Unseen, which contains a hidden secret so whacked that once it’s uncovered, it can never be...well, unseen! A sexy three-woman news crew is forced to spend the night in a spooky old farmhouse owned by an unsavory effeminate innkeeper (the late, so very great Sydney Lassick). Unbeknownst to the ladies, another visitor is lurking in the basement, just itching to say hello! With all the makings of what could’ve been just a routine gutmuncher, this bugged-out cult classic finds ways to deliver much more than genre trappings; forgoing cheap sex and gore, Steinmann instead seeks to delight you with pure old-school frights, before finally rattling your moral core with a taboo-twisting climax as iconic as that of Sleepaway Camp.
Dir. Danny Steinmann, 1980, 35mm, 80 min. 


The Upsetter: The Life & Music of Lee Scratch Perry
The Upsetter: The Life & Music of Lee Scratch Perry is a feature length documentary about one of the most fascinating and influential artists of our times.
The film begins in rural Jamaica, probing into Perry's mysterious youth as well as the notorious events of his peak production years in Kingston, in which Scratch mentored a young Bob Marley, created the sound of Reggae as we now know it, pioneered a new genre of music he called Dub, invented what was to become the remix and produced international hit songs for artists from Junior Murvin to The Congos to Paul McCartney to The Clash all while working out of the infamous Black Ark Studio, a shack that he built with his hands then later burned to the ground in a fit of drug addled rage.
Equally a documentation of a musical culture and a fascinating character study of genius and madness, The Upsetter is a sight and sound clash of visual and aural styles, utilizing ancient stock footage, photographs, concert video, audio clips, music video clips both old and new, and an exclusive, candid interview with the mastermind himself at his home in Switzerland. Filmed in Jamaica, London, Switzerland, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Colorado, the Upsetter charts Perry's influence on all reaches of the globe.


Victory Over The Sun: Films and Videos by Michael Robinson
“Robinson parses familiarity down to its component parts then summarily turns them inside out.“ —Idiom
Over the past decade, Michael Robinson has created a singular body of work in film and video that explores the poetics of loss and the dangers of mediated experience. His idea of “narrative” and “experimental” film often includes among its strange and beautiful effects the emotive power of a pop ballad or the crusty images yielded by thrift store VHS tapes. Robinson was recently listed as one of the top ten avant-garde filmmakers of the 2000s by Film Comment, and his work has been screened in venues such as the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the New York Film Festival, the Wexner Center for the Arts, Anthology Film Archives, and the Tate Modern, among others. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Cinema at Binghamton University. The program includes Victory Over the Sun, Hold Me Now, If There Be Thorns, and the West Coast premiere of These Hammers Don’t Hurt Us, among others.  In person: Michael Robinson


WAITING FOR GODOT
PLAY OF THE WEEK: “WAITING FOR GODOT” WNTA-TV 4/3/1961
(1961) Directed by Alan Schneider
Premiering in 1959, the ambitious television experiment Play of the Week presented an eclectic mix of plays that "no one else would touch,” including Samuel Beckett's absurdist masterpiece, Waiting for Godot (1961), starring blacklisted stage and screen actor Zero Mostel. In reference to the direction of Godot by Beckett collaborator and confident Alan Schneider, Mostel reportedly quipped that he "wished to be re-blacklisted."
Screenplay: Samuel Beckett. Cast: Burgess Meredith, Zero Mostel, Kurt Kasznar. DigiBeta, B/W, 102 min. 


WANDA
(1970) Directed by Barbara Loden
Barbara Loden’s neo-realist gem depicts a rural Pennsylvanian housewife’s lost flight to nowhere. Dragged seemingly by the wind into a relationship with small-time crook Michael Higgins, Loden floats through her own life as if a witness to it; a view of desperation filtered through a tinted windshield. One of the most authentic visions of Middle America ever committed to screen.
Screenplay: Barbara Loden. Cast: Barbara Loden, Michael Higgins, Dorothy Shupenes. 35mm, Color, 105 min.
In person: Ross Lipman, senior film preservationist.


The Wedding March
“The public claim that they were sickened by the stark reality of Greed...They want fairy tales...This time I am going to give them illusion with all the pretty trimmings, a fragile play of love.”-- Erich von Stroheim
In an art form celebrated for its larger-than-life personalities, the iron-willed Eric von Stroheim still remains one of filmmaking’s most mythical iconoclasts. Even though almost every one of his features was recut or otherwise mangled by the powers that be, his filmography is still more wildly vibrant and emotionally gripping than almost any of his contemporaries. 1928’s The Wedding March finds Fay Wray and von Stroheim as a commoner and an Austrian prince who fall madly in love after meeting by chance. The couple’s path to happiness is (of course) destined to become a deeply pothole-ridden road, however, if their respective arranged fiancé and fiancée have anything to say about it! Taken out of von Stroheim’s hands and reduced from an epic nearly-five-hour two-parter into a single two-hour film, The Wedding March magically still retains every bit of both the lyrical beauty and biting cultural critique its creator originally intended. Tonight’s presentation is screened from a restored Library of Congress 35mm print, which includes the film’s original Technicolor sequences!  Dir. Erich von Stroheim, 1928, 35mm, 113 min. (Archival 35mm print courtesy of the Library of Congress Motion Picture Collection)


WE HATE EVERYTHING INCLUDING THIS FILM SERIES
Disco sucks, punk rock is stupid, and nihilism is cool. A series showcasing a punk rock past that was never supposed to last. Some classics, some trash, all provocative. Begins with Blitzkrieg Bop (1978) a 50-minute music doc shot on early video cameras, and projected for you on a rare 16mm film print.
Plus Red Italy (1979) Eric Mitchell's Super 8 film starring Jennifer Miro (of the SF punk band The NUNS) projected on video, plus never before seen 1975 footage from an unfinished Tish and Snooky film long before they were the Manic Panic hair color moguls. 


When A Woman Ascends The Stairs
When a woman runs her own business, and when a woman must wager her need for security, the demands of her family weigh the heaviest against her soul. Overlooked Japanese master Mikio Naruse (considered in his homeland an equal of Ozu and Mizoguchi, but relatively unknown on these shores) here gives us a clean-lined, jazz-fueled flipside version of the kind of “women’s picture” Douglas Sirk fans sink into a chair and bury their faces in a handkerchief over. Shot in gorgeous Tohoscope, Naruse’s tale of “Mama” (Hideko Takamine), a Ginza district bar hostess constantly caught between her integrity and survival, brings us performances from The Seven Samurai’s Daisuke Kato, and a young Tatsuya Nakadai, who would soon catch the world’s attention in Yojimbo. We’re privileged to have as the evening’s guest of honor actress Yoko Sugi, who will discuss her experiences working with both Naruse and Takamine in the Japanese film industry!
Dir. Mikio Naruse, 1960, 35mm, 111 min. (Archival 35mm print courtesy of the Japan Foundation)


THE WHISPERERS
1967, MGM Repertory, 105 min, Dir: Bryan Forbes
Elderly Margaret Ross (Edith Evans) hears unearthly whispers in the solitude of her home. When her thieving son and woebegone husband turn up suddenly, Margaret’s unsettling fantasy life turns into a nightmare. With a haunting score by composer John Barry.


WHITE LIGHTNING
Burt Reynolds is Gator McKlusky this 1973 cult auto-action pic. Gator's running moonshine when he gets nabbed by the feds. In exchange for his freedom, he'll have to help them crack the booze smuggling ring. Luckily, this won't conflict with Gator's code of ethics. See, the ringleader is the same corrupt sheriff who murdered his brother. Besides all the booze, broads, and revenge at had, you get some incredible car chase stunts out of Buddy Joe Hooker and Hal Needham (Smokey and the Bandit). Costars Ned Beatty, Diane Ladd, and Laura Dern in her screen debut. Joseph Sargent---USA---1973---101 mins.


Willy McBean And His Magic Machine
The Mad, Mad World of Rankin/Bass
(feat. Willy McBean And His Magic Machine)
Cherished by many with a fondness often reserved for a love-worn toy, the iconic productions of Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass have become embedded in our collective cultural memory; a holiday spent without one of their beloved stop-motion TV specials feels like a holiday spent without mashed potatoes! And while we all recall the most famous reindeer of all, what about their monster movies, historical dramas, and even Jackson Five adventures? Tonight, join our host Jerry Beck and special guest curators Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh of Screen Novelties as they spotlight rare Rankin-Bass goodies from their collections (with a few favorites as well!), as well as highlight work from the studio’s unsung heroes: the Japanese animators who were responsible for much of their aesthetic. Capping off the evening is an incredibly rare screening of the studio’s first AniMagic feature Willy McBean and his Magic Machine, which follows the rollicking adventures through time of a boy and his monkey pal. Join us as we pay much-due tribute to these godfathers of pop-culture!
Willy McBean And His Magic Machine   Arthur Rankin, Jr., 1965, 16mm, 94 min. 


WINTER VACATION (HANJIA)
Los Angeles premiere | 2010, 91 min., HDCAM
Slackers in Inner Mongolia meet the poetry of the absurd. In a dreary little northern town, kids have nothing to do . . . while the adults are wily or apathetic. For his third feature, poet/filmmaker Li Hongqi effortlessly leads the viewer through a series of breathtaking tableaux in which tension accumulates and then releases in unexpected, and often wickedly funny, ways.


Witchfinder General
A nasty, tasty little bit of late ‘60s Inquisition-sploitation, Witchfinder General mixes the period horror film and revenge picture to devastating effect. Vincent Price headlines as the titular witch finder and persecutor who roams across medieval England to purge small villages of their possessed. It quickly becomes all too clear what he really is: a total bastard less concerned with battling demonic forces than with profiting off of specious claims of witchcraft -- and when he callously violates the fianceé of a British soldier, the real drama kicks in. Price, never one to be associated with “light and frothy”, brings a potent, camp-free villany as he exploits, threatens, and murders his way through what is arguably the darkest ninety minutes American International Pictures ever foisted on a unsuspecting movie watching public. Piled on top are authentic English countryside locations and a supremely grimy Dark Ages vibe, which all tie Witchfinder General together into an indelible slice of humanistic medieval evil.
Dir. Michael Reeves, 1968, 35mm, 86 min.


WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION
1957, MGM Repertory, 114 min, USA, Dir: Billy Wilder
Accused murderer Tyrone Power (in his final film) is defended by ailing barrister Charles Laughton in Billy Wilder's dark, delightful courtroom nailbiter. Marlene Dietrich as Power's duplicitous spouse helps supply one of the most insane, out-of-left-field twists in any mystery.


A Woman Under The Influence
“Woman is the perfect movie for Cassavetes’ methods. The fog of madness is well served by mean realism.” -- Bright Lights Film Journal
“The most incredible, disturbing, scary, brilliant, dark, sad, depressing movie…I went crazy. I went home and vomited." -- Richard Dreyfuss
Charting Cassavetes’ real-life spouse Gena Rowlands’ possessed transformation from endearingly kooky wife Mabel to a bleakly incoherent madwoman, A Woman Under The Influence displays one of the greatest mental breakdowns ever captured onscreen. Like a pool champ calculating shots that never miss, Cassavetes also observes the ricochets from Mabel’s illness on her entire family with laser-like focus, especially her thick-headed constuction worker husband (an equally amazing Peter Falk) who struggles in vain to pull her out of her ever-worsening decline. Both tough-as-bricks and delicate as a lace doily in its unforgettably nuanced depiction of a family in turmoil, Woman goes straight for the throat, with its every nuance and inflection never a hair out of place. It is as rewarding as it is frustrating, and it remains its director’s most harrowing emotional journey.
Dir. John Cassavetes, 1974, 35mm, 155 min. 


YOU WON'T MISS ME
After a brief stint at a psychiatric hospital, emotionally intense Shelly Brown (Stella Schnabel), a 23-year-old aspiring actress, struggles to find her own path in the world while auditioning for roles, hooking up with the wrong guys and clashing with friends. Blending footage shot on multiple film and video formats, writer-director Ry Russo-Young's evocative character portrait also stars Carlen Altman, Borden Capalino and Simon O'Connor. 2009, 81 mins.