a highly-opinionated selection of things happening around town, and sometimes out of town. this month's page here.
thu. mar. 31
2001: a space odyssey (70mm) @ aero
wild pink horse (11:30) @ the airliner
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
ezra buchla @ the smell
fri. apr. 1
dead meadow, allah las @ bordello
high wall, strangers in the night @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
sonny & the sunsets, the sandwitches @ the echo
the big lebowski, kingpin @ aero
ema & the ghosts 6 PM @ margaret fowler garden at scripps college
la soufriere, lessons of darkness @ silent movie theatre
fata morgana 9:45 @ silent movie theatre
upsilon acrux, hiking, yellowthief, zevious @ the smell
in cold blood (1967), mystery street @ ucla film archive
every man for himself 7:30 9:30 PM @ lacma
fear and loathing in las vegas MIDNIGHT @ nuart
on the beach @ vidiots annex
sat. apr. 2
con artist @ sunset 5
bill frisell trio plays selected works of buster keaton 2 PM @ ucla royce hall
LA font (MID) @ lot 1
brute force, house of numbers @ film noir fest @ egyptian
retro format: april fools @ spielberg theatre @ egyptian
thee cormans @ mr. t's bowl
shesaw @ silver factory studios
even the rain 4:30 PM @ aero
young frankenstein, the producers @ aero
wodaabe: herdsmen of the sun 7 PM, bells from the deep: faith and superstition in russia @ silent movie theatre
the great ecstasy of the woodcarver steiner 9:45, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck... @ silent movie theatre
crossfire, swell guy @ ucla film archive
every man for himself 5:00 7:30 PM @ lacma
the innocence of ruth 1:30 PM, the veiled adventure, the forbidden city, a dash through the clouds, ella cinders @ silent society 25th anniversary celebration @ hollywood heritage museum
sun. apr. 3
con artist @ sunset 5
the loons @ casbah (SD)
whiplash, the hunted @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
gaining consciousness: an evening with gary kibbins @ filmforum @ spielberg @ egyptian
night control @ the echo
even the rain 4:30 PM @ aero
spaceballs, galaxy quest @ aero
land of silence and darkness 7 PM @ silent movie theatre
echoes from a somber empire 9:15 PM @ silent movie theatre
pangea, heller keller @ the smell
crisis, storm warning @ ucla film archive
mon. apr. 4
betzy bromberg's voluptuous sleep series 8:30 PM @ redcat
con artist @ sunset 5
the white ribbon 7 PM @ goethe-institut
tue. apr. 5
chronopolis 8 PM @ the phantasmagoric films of piotr kamler @ silent movie theatre
st. vitus @ house of blues
shesaw @ space 1520
they made me a criminal 1 PM @ lacma
klute 1:30 PM FREE @ skirball center
ugetsu FREE (w/ donations to benefit aid for japan) @ melnitz movies @ ucla james bridges theatre
con artist @ sunset 5
wed. apr. 6
thomas mao 8:30 PM @ redcat
the two mrs. carrolls, the dark mirror @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
con artist @ sunset 5
thu. apr. 7
winter vacation 8:30 PM @ redcat
the threat, this woman is dangerous @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
pat garrett and billy the kid, ride the high country @ aero
con artist @ sunset 5
fri. apr. 8
oxhide ii 8:30 PM @ redcat
grass widow, shannon & the clams @ the echo
the finches @ satellite
journey into fear, the bribe @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
the great gatsby, eyes of laura mars @ aero
god's angry man 7:45 PM, huie's sermon @ silent movie theatre
jag mandir: the eccentric private theater of the maharaja of udaipur 10 PM @ silent movie theatre
sat. apr. 9
six organs of admittance @ mccabe's
single man 3 PM @ redcat
disorder 7 PM @ redcat
i wish i knew 9:30 PM @ redcat
trainspotting @ devil's night drive-in
loophole, kiss tomorrow goodbye @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
the godfather @ aero
texas legends before they were legends 5:30 PM @ silent movie theatre
slacker 9 PM, suburbia @ silent movie theatre
grass widow @ scc lawn at pomona college
sun. apr. 10
linda perhacs @ mccabe's
they won't believe me, a woman's secret @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
the godfather part ii @ aero
last night at the alamo 4:30 PM @ silent movie theatre
eggshells 8 PM, texas chainsaw massacre @ silent movie theatre
the deer hunter 5 PM @ new beverly
cat on a hot tin roof 7 PM @ ucla film archive
treating @ filmforum @ spielberg @ egyptian
mon. apr. 11
heroes & heroines @ satellite
the deer hunter 8 PM @ new beverly
the silence 7 PM @ goethe-institut
tue. apr. 12
moon duo @ the echo
the deer hunter 8 PM @ new beverly
petulia 1:30 PM FREE @ skirball center
99 francs 1:30 PM @ colcoa festival @ dga truffaut theater
toscan: the french touch 5:30 PM @ colcoa festival @ dga truffaut theater
love like poison @ colcoa festival @ dga truffaut theater
wed. apr. 13
moon duo @ casbah (SD)
female on the beach, hazard @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
the gambler @ aero
the green goddess 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
faster pussycat! kill! kill!, the doll squad @ new beverly
we are a camera: films selected by mark flores 7 PM FREE @ hammer museum
the gentleman tramp @ birthday tribute to charlie chaplin @ hollywood heritage museum
lily sometimes 7:45 PM @ colcoa festival @ dga truffaut theater
our day will come 10:15 PM @ colcoa festival @ dga truffaut theater
thu. apr. 14
caught, beware my lovely @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
harry and walter go to new york, cinderella liberty @ aero
faster pussycat! kill! kill!, the doll squad @ new beverly
cold cuts 2 PM @ colcoa festival @ dga truffaut theater
into our own hands 5:30 PM @ colcoa festival @ dga truffaut theater
fri. apr. 15
the houston story, new orleans uncensored @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
thief, hide in plain sight @ aero
wild pink horse @ the echo
wild style @ silent movie theatre
red headed woman, libeled lady @ new beverly
nostalgia for the light @ ucla film archive
enter the void (uncut) MIDNIGHT @ nuart
jon brion @ largo
ema & the ghosts @ lot 1 cafe
the night clerk 5:15 PM @ colcoa festival @ dga truffaut theater
the big picture 7:45 PM @ colcoa festival @ dga truffaut theater
the long falling 10:15 PM @ colcoa festival @ dga truffaut theater
sat. apr. 16
record store day
dr. lonnie smith trio @ the mint
framed, mr. soft touch @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
grace of my heart @ an evening with allison anders @ silent movie theatre
red headed woman 3:55 7:30 PM, libeled lady 5:30 9:10 PM @ new beverly
white savage 2 PM, key largo @ ucla film archive
blackboard jungle, brute force @ ucla film archive
auto da fe @ the smell
les bonnes femmes 1 PM @ colcoa festival @ dga renoir theater
copacabana 5 PM @ colcoa festival @ dga truffaut theater
sun. apr. 17
scenes of city life FREE 2 PM @ getty center
double feature TBA @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
wendy and lucy, old joy @ aero
gas food lodging, mi vida loca @ silent movie theatre
daylong valleys of the nile, girls in trouble, eric lindley @ the smell
the intensity of the world: an evening with tomonari nishikawa @ filmforum @ spielberg @ egyptian
mon. apr. 18
russ forster films 6 PM @ 7 dudley cinema
eija-liisa ahtila: where is where? 8:30 PM @ redcat
light on surface reflection on screen: recent japanese 8mm films 8 PM @ echo park film center
tue. apr. 19
downtown 81 8:00 PM, basquiat rarities @ silent movie theatre
wed. apr. 20
films by camille billops FREE 7 PM @ hammer
gaslight, my name is julia ross @ film noir fest @ egyptian theatre
berlin: symphony of a great city 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
rabbit a la berlin 7 PM, we live in public FREE @ ampas linwood dunn
upsilon acrux @ hm157
thu. apr. 21
rtx @ the echo
mur murs 8 PM, stations of the elevated @ silent movie theatre
water and power 8 PM @ an evening with pat o'neill @ ampas linwood dunn
fri. apr. 22
woods, no joy @ eagle rock center for the arts
south bay surfers, chuckleberries, ogres @ viva cantina, burbank
last tango in paris, the passenger @ egyptian
sherlock jr., seven chances, one week @ aero
trmrs @ echoplex
global graffiti: graffiti films from around the world 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
ministry of fear, the big clock @ new beverly
jalainur @ ucla film archive
diary of a country priest 7:30 9:40 PM @ lacma
tron MIDNIGHT @ nuart
sat. apr. 23
dukes of hamburg, the ogres, swiss family skiiers, wild pink horse @ mr. t's
bugs bunny cartoons 4 PM, one week @ aero
the general, go west @ aero
cave of forgotten dreams FREE (RSVP) @ natural history museum
ministry of fear 4:00 7:30 PM, the big clock 5:40 9:20 PM @ new beverly
elmer gantry @ ucla film archive
rats, grandpire @ the smell
diary of a country priest 5:00 7:30 PM @ lacma
sun. apr. 24
steamboat bill jr. 5 PM, the navigator @ aero
audacity, king tuff, nobunny @ the echo
neil hamburger @ satellite
diary of a country priest 1:00 PM @ lacma
tue. apr. 26
when a woman ascends the stairs 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
the illusionist, the triplets of belleville @ new beverly
wed. apr. 27
silent superheroes serial sampler 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
the illusionist, the triplets of belleville @ new beverly
thu. apr. 28
spectrum @ troubadour
bell gardens @ the echo
down by law, coffee and cigarettes @ new beverly
fri. apr. 29
down by law, coffee and cigarettes @ new beverly
the battle of chile part 1, the battle of chile part 2 @ ucla film archive
sat. apr. 30
explosions in the sky (early show) @ the fairbanks lawn @ hollywood forever
the wild bunch, convoy @ aero
the battle of chile part 3, chile obstinate memory @ ucla film archive
beyond time: william turnbull @ lacma
la times festival of books @ usc
sun. may 1
straw dogs, junior bonner @ aero
vivian girls @ the echo
the happy ending 7 PM @ ucla film archive
la times festival of books @ usc
heroes & heroines (12:30 AM) FREE @ three clubs
mon. may 2
battles @ the echo
specks of existence: hartmut bitomsky's dust 8:30 PM @ redcat
tue. may 3
sea lions @ the echo
wed. may 4
charles bradley @ the echo
thu. may 5
tamaryn @ troubadour
corin tucker band @ satellite
cloudland canyon @ silverlake lounge
fri. may 6
tamaryn @ troubadour
rachel fannan @ the echo
the pinochet case, salvador allende @ ucla film archive
wed. may 11
madrid, robinson crusoe island @ ucla film archive
soundtrack for a revolution 7 PM FREE @ ampas linwood dunn
fri. may 13
celebrating orphan films (day 1, time TBA) @ ucla film archive
sat. may 14
celebrating orphan films (day 2, time TBA) @ ucla film archive
sun. may 15
black angels, sleepy sun @ el rey
mia doi todd @ mccabe's
mon. may 16
the detroit publishing story: my postcard collection 6 PM @ 7 dudley cinema
lord jim @ ucla film archive
wed. may 18
lt. watada 7 PM FREE @ ampas linwood dunn
sat. may 21
aloe blacc @ detroit bar
alice doesn't live here anymore 2 PM @ ucla film archive @ autry museum
sun. may 22
aloe blacc @ music box
krautrock night @ part time punks @ the echo
looking for mr. goodbar @ ucla film archive
wed. may 25
the professionals @ ucla film archive
woman rebel 7 PM, burma VJ FREE @ ampas linwood dunn
rear window 8 PM @ last remaining seats @ orpheum theatre
thu. may 26
heroes & heroines @ cat club
fri. may 27
an american werewolf in london MIDNIGHT @ nuart
sat. may 28
vinyl in the woods record fair FREE @ henry miller library (big sur)
allo darlin' @ the echo
sun. may 29
neil hamburger @ satellite
tue. may 31
ricky jay & david mamet 7 PM @ hammer
eternal summers @ the echo
fri. jun. 3
taxi driver MIDNIGHT @ nuart
wed. jun. 8
captain blood 8 PM @ last remaining seats @ million dollar theatre
fri. jun. 10
the goonies MIDNIGHT @ nuart
sat. jun. 11
our man in havana 3 PM FREE @ getty center
i am cuba! 6:30 PM FREE @ getty center
sun. jun. 12
memories of underdevelopment NOON @ getty center
lucia 3 PM FREE @ getty center
wed. jun. 15
king kong (1933) 8 PM @ last remaining seats @ los angeles theatre
fri. jun. 17
psycho beach party MIDNIGHT @ nuart
fri. jun. 24
andre williams @ satellite
holly golightly & the brokeoffs @ hotel cafe
valley girl MIDNIGHT @ nuart
sat. jun. 25
danton 6:30 PM FREE @ getty center
sun. jun. 26
sleep @ the wiltern
holly golightly & the brokeoffs FREE @ pappy & harriet's, pioneertown
dangerous liaisons NOON FREE @ getty center
sunset boulevard 2:00 7:00 PM @ last remaining seats @ palace theatre
wed. jun. 29
safety last! 8 PM @ last remaining seats @ orpheum theatre
WHAT IT IS:
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Ellen Burstyn shines in this portrait of a single mother with a young son in post-Vietnam America, seeking a living and following a hope westward to Monterey, California. Like an old-time California gold prospector, Alice dreams of success as a singer but marks time as a diner waitress, until she meets a good man (Kristofferson) who sets her on a new path. Tender and wise, the film presents tale of yet another pilgrim’s response to the promise of the west, but the story turns on feminine values—a surprising turn in Martin Scorsese’s first feature following Mean Streets (1972).
Producer: David Susskind, Audrey Maas. Screenwriter: Robert Getchell. Cinematographer: Kent L. Wakeford. Editor: Marcia Lucas. Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson, Diane Ladd,Valerie Curtin, Jodie Foster. Presented in English dialogue. 35mm, Color, 112 min.
BASQUIAT RARITIES
(feat. live panel with Jeffrey Deitch, Maripol and other special guests!)
Jean-Michel Basquiat, the artist who preceded his career in the ‘80s art world with a legendary adolesence spent in graffiti, was captured in his prime by director Edo Bertoglio in Downtown 81, a bleeding-edge peek into the early-’80s New York bohemian subculture. The evening’s second half contains more footage of Basquiat in action, plus a live panel on the subject of Basquiat’s work featuring MOCA creative director/Deitch Projects founder Jeffrey Deitch, artist/Downtown 81 producer Maripol, and other special guests!
The Battle of Chile, Part 1: The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie (La batalla de Chile: La insurrección de la Burguesía) (1975)
Directed by Patricio Guzmán
Patricio Guzmán’s three-part, cinema verite tour de force about the final year of Salvadore Allende’s government opens with footage of bombs from Chilean jets slamming into the presidential palace in Santiago on September 11, 1973. Part One: The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie ends, famously, with the final images captured by an Argentine cameraman just moments before he is killed in June, shot by a Chilean soldier. Between these emblematic images of shocking violence, Guzmán documents the rise of the right-wing forces that endorsed them. Initially setting out, with film stock provided by Chris Marker, to record the historic program of economic and social reforms being instituted by Allende, Guzmán and his team of cameramen were on the streets as the country’s moneyed classes mobilized to fight back. As urgent now as it was when it premiered at Cannes in 1973, The Battle of Chile speaks across decades and borders.
Producer: Chris Marker. Screenwriter: Patricio Guzmán. Cinematographer: Jorge Müller. Editor: Pedro Chaskell. Presented in Spanish dialogue with English subtitles. DigiBeta, Black and White, 96 min.
The Battle of Chile, Part 2: The Coup d'Etat (La batalla de Chile: El golpe de estado) (1977)
Directed by Patricio Guzmán
The Battle of Chile, Part Two: The Coup d’Etat zeroes in on the tumultuous events immediately before the overthrow Allende’s government and culminates in the chaos and aftermath of the coup itself. Beginning with the aborted coup attempt in June 1973 that left Argentine cameraman, Leonardo Henrichsen dead, Guzmán then backtracks to expose the CIA-supported efforts of Chile’s right-wing parties to undermine Allende—including the instigation of a nationwide trucking strike and the increasingly brazen actions of the Chilean military against leftist groups—as well the growing fissures in Allende’s own coalition. The eroding confidence, on both sides, that a democratic compromise can be found and the fatalistic acceptance of the inevitability of violence makes Guzmán’s incisive account of a country coming apart at the seams all the more chilling.
Producer: Chris Marker. Screenwriter: Patricio Guzmán. Cinematographer: Jorge Müller. Editor: Pedro Chaskell. Presented in Spanish dialogue with English subtitles. DigiBeta, Black and White, 88 min.
The Battle of Chile, Part 3: The Power of the People (La batalla de Chile: El poder popular) (1979)
Directed by Patricio Guzmán
The final part of Guzmán’s verite triptych may also be its most essential. Completed a year after the first two segments, Part Three: The Power of the People shifts focus from the forces working against Allende to the people who supported his vision for a new Chile. Guzmán captures the faith and commitment of students, farmers and the working classes to defend Allende’s social and economic reforms as they rally in the streets and organize neighborhood militias to counter rightist thugs. Though their efforts were ultimately doomed, Guzmán never surrenders to cynicism or despair, choosing instead to celebrate the spirit of justice that motivated Allende’s supporters regardless of the cost.
Producer: Chris Marker. Screenwriter: Patricio Guzmán. Cinematographer: Jorge Müller. Editor: Pedro Chaskell. Presented in Spanish dialogue with English subtitles. DigiBeta, Black and White, 78 min.
Bells From The Deep: Faith And Superstition In Russia
A bit like a gentle Herzog take on the concept of a mondo film, Bells From The Deep is a catalogue of highly unusual religious practitioners and mystics throughout the Russian world, from bizarrely cocky Jesus impersonators to mass exorcisms, all the way through to meditating hordes that emit animal-like croaks to achieve a higher plane. Some highlighted personalities are truly off the wall, yet some are grounded in a startling reality, such as the Tuvan throat-singing plainsmen set against a backdrop of ice flows, or the humble servant of God who makes his meager living playing his church's epic network of tower bells like a concert pianist (providing the film's most haunting sequence.) As Herzog provides no narration or overt editorializing, the film's primary objective becomes clear as its strange subjects speak for themselves: it's not about the faith in question, but rather how unique of a road it takes to clarify it.
Dir. Werner Herzog, 1993, DigiBeta, 60 min.
Berlin: Symphony Of A Great City
(w/ live scores by Brian LeBarton!)
Multi-instrumentalist and electronic music whiz Brian LeBarton, who for years has been the close collaborative partner of Beck Hansen, returns to the Cinefamily to bring his unique aural vision to classic films from the silent era! For April's visit, Brian scores a whirlwind tour of the 1920s "city symphony", that poetic avant-garde genre focusing on the excitement and head-spinning newness of modern urban living. After a program of excerpts from rare and obscure examples of the form, the evening's main attraction is the greatest city symphony of all: Walter Ruttman's 1927 masterpiece Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, a vast, restless celebration of the Weimar Republic's thriving epicenter. Unfolding in five acts, Berlin's documentary depictions of work, transportation, relaxation, and nightlife teem with energy and photographic creativity. Ruttman's graceful editing -- which feels like it was accomplished with a glass of wine and a notebook, rather than a flatbed and a pair of scissors -- reveals endless layers of wide-eyed passion for what was its decade's most fascinating hubs of human activity. It's as much as a love song as a symphony.
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
BEWARE, MY LOVELY
1952, RKO [Warner Bros.], 77 min. Dir. Harry Horner. NOT ON DVD!
The incredible Ida Lupino plays a lonely war widow who employs a penniless drifter (Robert Ryan) as a household handyman, only to learn - too late - precisely why he has no references on his résumé. As the film’s original tagline puts it: “Trapped by a man beyond control!” Lupino and Ryan, a pair of noir heavyweights, battle through a “day without end” (the film’s original title) to an unexpected climax. Mel Dinelli’s suspenseful script is adapted from his hit stage play “The Man.”
Beyond Time: William Turnbull
Premiere
William Turnbull is a celebrated British sculptor and painter whose artwork over the past sixty years has helped define modern and contemporary art. In conjunction with BritWeek and as part of an ongoing series of events celebrating the important artistic contributions of Turnbull, LACMA will premiere this fascinating documentary by Alex Turnbull and Pete Stern, narrated by Jude Law. A Q&A with the filmmakers will follow the screening
THE BIG CLOCK
Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan and George Macready star in this classic thriller. Laughton is the publisher of a crime magazine where Milland works as an editor. In a new story assigned by Laughton, the more Milland digs, the more he finds himself implicated in murder. Remade as No Way Out (1987). 1948, USA, 95 minutes. directed by John Farrow; screenplay by Jonathan Latimer based on a novel by Kenneth Fearing; starring Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan, George Macready, Rita Johnson
THE BIG PICTURE
(L’Homme qui voulait vivre sa vie)
Based on a novel by Douglas Kennedy, THE BIG PICTURE is a multi-layered drama about the search for identity, starring Romain Duris and a splendid cast of supporting actors including Catherine Deneuve, Branka Katic and Niels Arestrup (César Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance). Paul Exben (Duris) is a successful lawyer who seems to lead an enviable life, although, not the life of his dreams. When his wife reveals she is having an affair, Paul loses his self-control. In a heated argument, he accidentally kills her lover. His orderly life now in ruins, Paul assumes the dead man’s identity and flees to the former Yugoslavia. France, 2010, Runtime: 115 min. Directed by: Eric Lartigau
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.
Blackboard Jungle (1955)
Directed by Richard Brooks
Well-meaning teacher Glenn Ford begins his first assignment at a tough inner-city school, and discovers he’s ill prepared for the challenges he meets, especially to his faith in human nature and himself. Facing down the cynicism of jaded older teachers and rebellious students, he faces heightening alienation and jeopardy from both sides. A sobering look at a system futilely trying to fix itself from within, Brooks’ film presents a disenchanted postwar America in microcosm–and jolted by a rock-n-roll soundtrack, one of the first in American film.
MGM. Producer: Pandro S. Berman. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: Russell Harlan. Editor: Ferris Webster. Cast: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Sidney Poitier, Louis Calhern, Margaret Hayes. 35mm, Black and White, 101 min.
THE BRIBE
1949, MGM [Warner Bros.], 98 min.
Less a coherent drama than a sweaty fever-dream of ’40s film noir, THE BRIBE features an all-star cast (Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, Vincent Price, John Hodiak) trapped on the steamy Caribbean isle of “Carlota” (as only M-G-M’s art department could render it), perspiring through a convoluted tale of romance, disease and WWII contraband. Skip the logic and wallow in the exotic artifice of this sublime noir fantasia, directed by Robert Z. Leonard, photographed by the great Joe Ruttenberg and scored by the magnificent Miklos Rozsa!
BRUTE FORCE
1947, Universal [Upcoast Film Consultants], 98 min. Dir. Jules Dassin.
Intense, violent and nihilistic in the extreme, this Mark Hellinger-produced prison drama may well be the bleakest, most despairing film noir of them all. Burt Lancaster plots a breakout for the inmates of Cell R-17 so they can escape the sadism of fascistic bully Hume Cronyn. The climactic bust-out remains a shocker, as the escape erupts into full-throttle warfare. Still the most unforgettable men-behind-bars movie ever made! “Men caged on the inside… Driven by the thought of their women on the loose!”
Burma VJ
Directed by Anders Østergaard
Produced by Lise Lense-Møller
Inside Burma, hidden from the repressive military regime that has ruled the country for many decades, courageous journalists secretly videotape events around them and smuggle the tapes out of the country to foreign news agencies. Digital. 89 mins.
Academy Award nominee: Documentary Feature
CAUGHT
1949, MGM [Warner Bros.], 88 min. Dir. Max Ophuls. NOT ON DVD!
Robert Ryan is psychotic billionaire Smith Ohlrig, who gives impressionable young Leonora Eames (Barbara Bel Geddes) everything she ever wanted. Leonora suffocates from the security, and soon falls for an altruistic doctor (James Mason), leading her husband to devise a scheme to permanently lock the bonds of matrimony. Superbly directed by Max Ophuls, with cinematography by the great Lee Garmes. Preservation by UCLA Film & Television Archive, funded by The Film Foundation.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
(Werner Herzog in person, free screening at the Natural History Museum!)
Join us for the closing night party of our "Art In The Streets" series at the Natural History Museum, by celebrating the oldest form of street art ever recorded! Werner Herzog's brand-new documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams gives you exclusive access inside the Chauvet caves of southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting. Putting modern 3-D technology to a profound use, Cave transports you back in time over 30,000 years! And, after the film, join us for sets of live music from special guests TBA!
Celebrating Orphan Films
In-person: Dan Streible, founder, Orphan Film Symposium.
UCLA Film & Television Archive is pleased to partner with Los Angeles Filmforum and New York University's Orphan Film Symposium to present an eclectic mix of screenings and discussions at the Billy Wilder Theater. Join archivists, film historians, artists, technical experts and scholars as they discuss their efforts in finding, researching and presenting these rare gems.
The Orphan Film Project consists of ongoing collaborations among archivists, scholars, filmmakers, curators and collectors with a shared passion for saving and screening neglected films from outside the commercial mainstream: home movies, outtakes, news film, sponsored works, silent-era cinema, fragments and experimental films.
Program:
Newly preserved Super 8 films by animator Helen Hill, shot around New Orleans before and after Katrina (2004-05), presented by Center for Home Movies.
The missing reel from The Passaic Textile Strike (1926), rediscovered in NYU Tamiment Library's Communist Party USA Collection.
Selections from the University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collections, including Fox Movietone newsreel outtakes and Light Cavalry Girl, a Chinese propaganda film featuring a troupe of young women on motorcycles.
A presentation on Saul Bass by Jan-Christopher Horak (Director, UCLA Film & Television Archive).
Heidi Rae Cooley (University of South Carolina) presents The Augustus (ca. 1930s-'50s), a remarkable compilation from Augusta, Georgia by amateur filmmaker and traveling salesman Scott Nixon.
An overview of 1960s newsreels from private collections, including a screening of the last theatrically released Hearst Metrotone Newsreel. Presented by Blaine Bartell (UCLA Film & Television Archive).
A panel featuring preservationists Bill Brand (BB Optics), Ross Lipman (UCLA Film & Television Archive), and Mark Toscano (Academy Film Archive) and a screening of the David Wojnarowicz’s A Fire in My Belly (1987) from NYU Fales Library.
Experimental films preserved by BB Optics and NYU Moving Image Archiving and Preservation students, including works by pioneering computer artist Lillian Schwartz.
The Unshod Maiden (1932), a butchered reduction of Lois Weber’s Shoes (1916), presented by Shelley Stamp (UC Santa Cruz).
New York Street Scenes (Hearst Metrotone News, 1960) preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive, presented by Roger L. Brown (UCLA Moving Image Archive Studies), with NYC Street Scenes and Noises (Fox Movietone News, 1929).
Color (1958) by Lidia García Millán, the first color experimental film made in Uruguay.
And Then They Forgot God (1971), an outré religious telefilm featuring Joseph Campanella, Beverly Garland and Adam West, presented by journalist Paul Cullum.
Home movies shot in Hawaii in the 1940s and '50s by African American aviator and entertainer Marie Dickerson Coker. Presented by Leah M. Kerr (Director of Collections, Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum) and Trisha Lendo (UCLA Film & Television Archive).
Ron and Chuck in Disneyland Discovery (1969), a queer courtship narrative covertly filmed in Disneyland, guerilla-style, by pioneer filmmaker Pat Rocco. From the Outfest Legacy Collection at UCLA Film & Television Archive.
A rare presentation of 28mm films: home movies, circa 1920, found in New Hampshire, and projected on an authentic 1918 motor-driven Pathéscope New Premier 28mm projector. Presented by Dino Everett (Archivist, Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive, University of Southern California).
Muzak (1972), a sponsored film featuring interviews with executives of America's "efficiency through music" corporation. Courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Rare local television screenings presented by the panel of Dan Einstein (UCLA Film & Television Archive), Stephanie Sapienza (CPB), and Mark J. Williams (Dartmouth).
Much more to be announced!
Chile, Obstinate Memory (Chile, la memoria obstinada) (1997)
Directed by Patricio Guzmán
Guzmán has spent his career capturing powerful images but in Chile, Obstinate Memory he also steps back to explore the complex and contradictory power of images. One of his most thematically significant films, it is also a deeply personal account of Guzmán’s return to his native country in 1997, after the official government ban on The Battle of Chile was lifted. In living rooms and classrooms, Guzmán screens the film for those who lived through the 1973 coup and those too young at the time to remember it. As they watch, we witness the flood of recollections and emotions it triggers in young and old alike, every frame validating a long suppressed truth and intensifying the loss of a history denied.
Producer: Yves Jeanneau, Éric Michel. Editor: Eric Pittard, Hélène Girard. Presented in Spanish dialogue with English subtitles. DigiBeta, Color, 58 min.
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.
CINDERELLA LIBERTY
1973, 20th Century Fox, 117 min, USA, Dir: Mark Rydell
Sailor James Caan finds himself at liberty in Seattle with no money and no assignment thanks to a bureaucratic error. He finds companionship with a prostitute (and skilled pool shark) played by Marsha Mason, and quickly forms a bond with her and her illegitimate son. Superb performances by Caan and Mason form the core of this touching romance, which also features Eli Wallach and Dabney Coleman.
COLD CUTS
(Buffet froid)
Described as "a cheerful nightmare" by daily newspaper Le Monde when it opened in 1979, COLD CUTS is set in a surreal world of urban alienation, senseless violence and black humor not unlike Kubrick’s "A Clockwork Orange." Beginning with a random stabbing in a deserted subway station, the story moves from one killing to the next, bringing together young unemployed Alphonse (Gérard Depardieu), his wife’s queasy murderer (Jean Carmet) and a police inspector with an impulse to kill every time he hears a Brahms quintet, played by the filmmaker’s father - iconic character actor Bernard Blier. France, 1979, Runtime: 89 min. Written and Directed by: Bertrand Blier
COPACABANA
Isabelle Huppert shows her playful side as the exuberant Babou, a proud non-conformist who struggles to communicate with her conservative daughter Esméralda (Huppert’s real-life daughter Lolita Chammah, winner of Most Promising Actress Lumière Award for her performance). When Esméralda announces her engagement and asks her mother not to attend the wedding, Babou is crushed and vows to straighten up. She finds a job selling time-shares and relocates to a bleak Belgian resort town. Working hard to stay in line, she can’t suppress her maverick nature for long and has to find her own way to regain her daughter’s respect. Music connoisseurs will appreciate the original score written by Tim Gane of Stereolab and Sean O'Hagan of the High Llamas. France, 2010, Runtime: 107 min. Written and Directed by: Marc Fitoussi
Crisis (1950)
Directed by Richard Brooks
Dr. Eugene Ferguson, vacationing in a Latin American country, faces a moral and tactical dilemma when the nation’s dictator is injured in an assassination attempt, and Ferguson is apprehended to perform surgery. Weighing his own safety with his principles, Ferguson becomes caught in a widening web of intrigue. Brooks graduated to directing with this study of conscience thanks to the support of Cary Grant, who recognized the accomplished writer’s promise.
MGM. Producer: Arthur Freed. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: Ray June. Editor: Robert J. Kern. Cast: Cary Grant, Jose Ferrer, Signe Hasso, Paula Raymond, Ramon Navarro. 35mm, Black and White, 96 min.
Crossfire (1947)
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Brook’s source novel The Brick Foxhole, about stateside servicemen in wartime waiting to be deployed (he had been one), underwent changes in John Paxton’s screen adaptation which replaced the novel’s homophobic violence with anti-Semitism, as a detective and an officer ferret out a bad-apple enlisted man. The change softens Brooks’ astute observation of masculinity straining without a proper proving ground, but the result is still a terrific thriller. Bad girl Gloria Grahame shines in a supporting role as a key witness who helps get an innocent man off the hook.
RKO. Based on the novel The Brick Foxhole by Richard Brooks. Producer: Adrian Scott. Screenwriter: John Paxton. Cinematographer: J. Roy Hunt. Editor: Harry Gerstad. Cast: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Sam Levene. 35mm, Black and White, 86 min.
Danton (1982)
Acting as a metaphor for revolutionary events unfolding in Poland in the early 1980s, this powerful historical drama from filmmaker Andrzej Wajda follows Georges Jacques/Danton and Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre, allies in the French Revolution.
THE DARK MIRROR
1948, Universal, 85 min. NOT ON DVD!
Witnesses place Ruth Collins (Olivia de Havilland) at the scene of a grisly murder. When it’s discovered she has a twin, Dr. Elliot (Lew Ayres) is brought in to psychologically evaluate them both. When the doc falls for one of them, the other becomes murderously jealous. Noir master Robert Siodmak deftly directs this Oscar-nominated original story, guiding the great de Havilland through two sensational performances, as the sisters both sweet and sinister. Preservation by UCLA Film & Television Archive, funded by The Film Foundation.
A DASH THROUGH THE CLOUDS (1912) – starring Mabel Normand and directed by Mack Sennett, this one-reel Biograph film served as a blue print for the films they would later make at Keystone. Mabel is an aviation enthusiast who rescues her suitor from an angry mob with the help of an airplane.
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.
THE DOLL SQUAD
"An elite army of female assassins in a race against time and death to save the world from a hideously diabolical mass destruction at the hands of a madman no one has ever seen!" That's how the ads hyped this no-budget bit of schlock from grade Z exploitation filmmaker Ted. V. Mikels. Sexy commandos try and stop a plot to infect the world with bubonic plague, and the only thing more frightening is the acting attempted by the lovely leading ladies. 1973, USA, 101 minutes. directed by Ted V. Mikels; starring Francine York, Michael Ansara, Anthony Eisley, Leigh Christian, Sherri Vernon, Tura Satana
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.
Echoes From a Somber Empire
Echoes is Herzog's captivating Capturing The Friedmans-style jigsaw puzzle concerning Jean-Bédel Bokassa, former dictator of the Central African Republic, and Michael Goldsmith, (the film’s atypical “host”, rather than Herzog himself), a European journalist captured and tortured by Bokassa's regime. At first, only momentary scraps of information are revealed: testimony by Bokassa’s current wife, casual reminiscences from his many, many children, and file footage from his exile in France -- deliberately giving you the impression that Bokassa could be simply an upstanding puppet of colonialism. But, as Herzog criss-crosses the historical narrative, he delicately peels back layer after layer of the Bokassa onion (arbitrary executions -- impostor daughters -- casual cannibalism?!?!), letting a wildly complex, unforgettable portrait of a despotic madman bubble to the surface. Deeply unsettling from its opening “dream sequence” (a tableaux of migrating Christmas Island crabs, later re-used by Herzog in Invincible) right down to its impossible-to-forget final image, Echoes is possibly the greatest discovery of this entire series.
Dir. Werner Herzog, 1990, DigiBeta, 93 min.
Eggshells
“I've always described it as being a mixture of Andy Warhol's Trash and Walt Disney's Fantasia." -- Tobe Hooper
When you hear the phrase “Keep Austin Weird”, the words imply that the city had a high point of weirdness that must be maintained. Therefore, can you imagine the flurry of furry-haired freaks that were chillin’, trippin’, and freakin’ in the summer of ‘68?!?! Let us take you there with this long-lost debut gem from a talented young Tobe Hooper, who would later take many members of this film’s cast and crew and produce The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Overflowing with creativity and positivity, full of Godard-like film trickery and playful pop art inflections, populated not only with nubile nudes but a “crypto-embryonic hyper-electric presence”, and scored with the music of Austin psych folk legends Shiva’s Headband, Eggshells is the headiest “head” film you’ve never heard of.
Dir. Tobe Hooper, 1969, 90 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
ELLA CINDERS (1926) – starring Colleen Moore and Lloyd Hughes, directed by Alfred E. Green and produced for First National Pictures. Moore stars as a young Hollywood hopeful who tries to become a movie star in an attempt to win her boyfriends attention in this comedy based on the comic strip, “Ella Cinders.”
ELMER GANTRY
Directed by Richard Brooks
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, this portrait of religious hucksterism also brought Oscars to Burt Lancaster (Best Actor) and Shirley Jones (Best Supporting Actress). The story of two self-styled evangelists (Lancaster and Simmons) barnstorming through rural America is a study in cynicism, culminating in hellfire. Tonight’s program will be introduced by author Douglass K. Daniel, who will sign copies of his new book Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks before the screening.
United Artists. Producer: Bernard Smith. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: John Alton. Editor: Marjorie Fowler. Cast: Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Shirley Jones, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger. 35mm, Color, 146 min.
EVEN THE RAIN
Tambien La Lluvia
2010, Vitagraph Films, 104 min, Spain, Mexico, France, Bolivia, Dir: Iciar Bollain
A Spanish film crew helmed by idealistic director Sebastian (Gael García Bernal) and his cynical producer Costa (Luis Tosar) come to Bolivia to make a revisionist epic about the conquest of Latin America - on the cheap. Carlos Aduviri is dynamic as “Daniel,” a local cast as a 16th century native in the film within a film. When the make-up and loin cloth come off, Daniel sails into action protesting his community’s deprivation of water at the hands of multi-national corporations.
When riots break out in Cochabamba, protesting excessive fees for water, production is interrupted and the convictions of the crew members are challenged. Sebastian and Costa are forced to make an unexpected emotional journey in opposite directions.
With ample irony, Even the Rain (También la Lluvia) explores the effects of Spanish imperialism, still resonating some 500 years later in the continued struggle against oppression by indigenous people.
This fictional Fitzcarraldo-like quest to make a film against all odds, is set against the back drop of the real life “Water Wars,” fought against the privatization of Bolivia’s water supply in the year 2000 and is anchored in the philosophies of historian Howard Zinn, as well as the stories of 16th century priests, Fathers Bartolome de las Casas and Antonio Montesinos, the first radical voices of conscience against an Empire.
Every Man for Himself
1980/color/87 min. | Scr/dir: Jean-Luc Godard; w/ Jacques Dutronc, Isabelle Huppert, Nathalie Baye. | A Film Desk release.
After a decade of radical politics, video experimentation and activist filmmaking as part of the Dziga Vertov Group, Jean-Luc Godard made a triumphant return to international screens with this 1980 feature. Proclaimed by Godard himself as his "second first film", Every Man for Himself was released in the US by Francis Ford Coppola to great acclaim. Iconic chanteur Jacques Dutronc stars as a filmmaker estranged from his job, his ex-wife and their prepubescent daughter. Frustrated in his relationship with television producer Nathalie Baye, he winds up with a call-girl (Isabelle Huppert in a break-out performance) whose other clients range from eccentric tycoons to crime bosses. Split between the serene Swiss countryside and Geneva's bustling streets, Every Man for Himself is a poetic, comical, and incisive portrait of sex and work in the modern world. It's also one of cinema's greatest comebacks. "Brilliant… by the end of the film, one's perceptions have been so enriched, so sharpened, that one comes out of it invigorated. Every Man for Himself leaves you with a renewed awareness of how a fine movie can clear away the detritus that collects in a mind subjected to endless invasions by clichés and platitudes and movies that fearlessly champion the safe or obvious position. It's a tonic."—Vincent Canby, The New York Times.
New 35mm print!
EYES OF LAURA MARS
1978, Sony Repertory, 104 min, USA, Dir: Irvin Kershner
Fashion photographer Laura Mars (Faye Dunaway) can see through the eyes of a wanted serial killer as he commits crimes. When she proves her unbelievable ability to Detective John Neville (Tommy Lee Jones), the two join forces to find the murderer - before the murderer finds Laura. A fascinating thriller from director Irvin Kershner. Theoni V. Aldredge’s late 1970s glamour costumes have become legendary, with designer Marios Schwab citing the designs as an influence for his fall 2010 collection for Halston.
Fata Morgana
Herzog journeys to the Sahara to film mirages, goes home with some wonderously trippy footage, and has charming film critic Lotte Eisner narrate the Popol Vuh creation myth over the top. One of Herzog’s earliest features, Fata Morgana begins with a audacious zoned-out opening, and hits transcendent straight off before getting even stranger as its chimerical imaginary civilization passes from Golden Age to Decline. As well, the film crew shoots like tourists to a different planet where the presence of life is largely manifest through detritus and death: a car turns endlessly in circles, and a bearded man in welding goggles flourishes a monitor lizard at the camera. The onscreen subjects of Herzog and frequent collaborator Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein (who lensed 17 of Herzog’s films) are frequently enhanced by the mythic, mirrored properties of the heat haze, and an eclectic soundtrack that switches from Handel organ music to Leonard Cohen, and onto a weird local drum/piano duo. An absolutely stunning Herzog head film!
Dir. Werner Herzog, 1971, DigiBeta, 79 min.
FEMALE ON THE BEACH
1955, Universal, 100 min, Dir. Joseph Pevney. NOT ON DVD!
Moving into her late husband’s beach house after the previous tenant committed suicide, Joan Crawford finds her neighbors incredibly accommodating - especially the hunky beachcomber (Jeff Chandler) who becomes her lover. Sexual obsession, blackmail and murder are folded into a froth of suspicious neighbors (Jan Sterling), hurled martini glasses, secret diaries and plenty of crashing surf. Perhaps the most perverse film of Crawford’s 1950s diva phase!
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.
THE FORBIDDEN CITY (1918) – starring Norma Talmadge and Thomas Meighan, directed by Sidney Franklin and produced for Select Pictures Corp. Talmadge stars in a duel role, as the daughter of a Chinese Mandarin who secretly marries an American and their daughter who is later raised in the Emperor’s harem.
FRAMED
1947, Columbia [Sony Repertory], 82 min. NOT ON DVD!
In this rarely seen piece of prime-grade pulp, taciturn Glenn Ford barrels his broken-down truck into a rural California town and is quickly engulfed in adultery, embezzlement and murder. Janis Carter is the long, tall drink of delicious poison he can’t resist, and Barry Sullivan is his usual sly self as the not-so-unwilling cuckold. The script by Ben Maddow (THE ASPHALT JUNGLE) hits all the notes originated by James M. Cain, and director Richard Wallace has a good time playing them.
Gaining Consciousness: An Evening with Gary Kibbins
Los Angeles premieres! Gary Kibbins in person!
In January 2007 Filmforum hosted Gary Kibbins with a variety of new work described at that time as “rich, deep, pleasurable nuggets of filmmaking.” Continuing our informal series of shows with work from Canada, Gary is visiting us again from Ontario, with his most recent films in their Los Angeles premieres. Expanding his ongoing explorations with new and found footage and his remarkable, dry, and witty texts, Kibbins’s new films raise profound questions about the languages used to construct and deconstruct the world, while at the same time having that rare quality of being uniquely, laugh-out-loud funny. A must for fans of found footage and for wordplay.
THE GAMBLER
1974, Paramount, 111 min, USA, Dir: Karel Reisz
James Caan plays Axel Freed, a college professor precariously juggling his academic life with a severe gambling addiction in this riveting character study. James Toback's acclaimed script melds Dostoyevsky's 1866 novel with the screenwriter's own preoccupations and obsessions to create a triumph of personal filmmaking, expertly anchored by Caan's dynamic performance, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination.
Screening format: HD Tape
GASLIGHT
1944, MGM [Warner Bros.], 114 min. Dir. George Cukor.
Ingrid Bergman’s Oscar-winning performance dominates this Victorian-era thriller, one of the greatest suspense films ever made. After 10 years abroad, Paula Alquist (Bergman) returns with her groom (Charles Boyer) to the house where her aunt was murdered. The unsolved crime haunts her to the edge of madness. Nominated for all the major Oscars, including Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress and Screenplay, it remains a timeless touchstone of 1940s cinema.
Global Graffiti:
Graffiti Films From Around The World
(feat. Dreams Don't Die)
A shorts program curated by Cinefamily, including Andre The Giant Has A Posse, the 1997 look at Shepard Fairey's infamous "Andre The Giant" guerilla sticker campaign, and The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal, Matt McCormick's riveting minimalist look at the accidental art created when indiscriminate blotches of paint cover where graffiti used to stand. Closing out the show is the amazing and rare Dreams Don't Die, the 1982 feature-length network TV movie about an inner-city graffiti writer. Starring Disney/Afterschool Special star Ike Eisenmann (Escape To Witch Mountain) and with graffiti art by Dondi (billed here as "Technical Advisor")!
GOD'S ANGRY MAN
(from wikipedia)
God's Angry Man is a 1980 documentary film about Gene Scott, directed by Werner Herzog. The film was produced for television.
The film consists of footage of Scott on the set of his television program Festival of Faith and interviews with Scott and Scott's parents conducted by Herzog. The footage from Scott's television program focuses almost exclusively on his fundraising efforts and an elaborate rant against the FCC. Scott at one point refuses to speak until his viewers pledge an additional $600. After a minute's silence, he yells angrily at the camera until a production assistant informs him that they had already received $700. Scott represents the FCC on his show by a cymbal-banging monkey toy. Dir. Werner Herzog, 1983, 46 mins.
GRACE OF MY HEART
In the world of American cinema, few voices are as heartfelt and singular as Allison Anders. She has an absolute need to tell stories in a character-driven way; her films seem genuinely felt and real, due in no small part to a list of her life experiences that are as rich and fascinating as her films. Raised in rural Kentucky, Allison spent her teens hitch-hiking across America, and going on adventures that landed her in jails, foster homes, London, and eventually UCLA Film School -- after which she went on to make her first feature at the age of 33, and as a single mother. Her knowledge of film is perhaps only exceeded by her knowledge of music, so expect a fun, nerdy and lively conversation with this powerhouse of indie film! After the Q&A, the second half of the program features 1996’s Grace of My Heart, Allison’s love letter to the pop sounds of yesteryear, starring Illeana Douglas and Matt Dillon!
The daughter of a Philadelphia steel tycoon, Edna Buxton (Illeana Douglas) wants nothing more than to be a singer. She's thrilled when she wins a contract at a talent show and moves to New York City to record an album. But Edna soon finds her career -- and her relationships -- hitting one dead end after another. Matt Dillon and Eric Stoltz co-star in this poignant and intimate portrayal of the 1960s music scene. Dir. Allison Anders, 1996, 116 mins.
The Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner
Woodcarver Steiner’s indelible minutes contain a perfect Herzogian subject: the “ski flier” who sails super-human distances -- a serene young man who is portrayed to exist on a more transcendent plane. Walter Steiner is a medal-winning, record-breaking Swiss ski-jumper whom Werner’s ultra-slo-mo camera routinely captures soaring impossibly, and with an eerie calm usually reserved for monks or yogis. When rendered in hundreds of frames per second, Steiner’s feats dissolve the notion of the act as mere sport, launching it to the level of unearthly art bathed in death-defying ecstasy -- a blissful state that Herzog (a former ski jumper as well) finds himself in whilst doing live color commentary throughout the film. Also featuring an unforgettable, ethereal score by regular collaborator Florian Fricke (aka Popol Vuh), Steiner is easily one of the most visually breathtaking of all Herzog’s films, documentary or otherwise -- so relish this opportunity to see it on the big screen!
Dir. Werner Herzog, 1974, DigiBeta, 45 min.
The Green Goddess
One of silent cinema’s most stately personages, George Arliss is best known for his portrayals of noblemen, millionaires and prime ministers (such as the titular role of Disraeli) -- but his turn as the sinister Rajah of Rukh in The Green Goddess is a juicy, highly-entertaining 180-degree variation on his usual “upstanding citizen”. Amongst a background set-up containing touches eerily reminiscent of today (tensions between East and West, protests and civil strife), Arliss plays the despotic head of a fictional kingdom, eager to exploit the situation when a trio of British travellers are forced to land their airplane on his turf. Taking them prisoner, Arliss intends to use the unlucky folks in a hostage trade with the British government -- but will the three manage to escape on their own to safety? The Green Goddess provided Arliss with one of his signature roles, as he not only portrayed the Rajah in the 1921 stage production, but also in this film, and a 1929 talkie version. This also might be the only feature film in history to claim a namesake salad dressing, as the tasty condiment was created in honor of Arliss’ tangy stage performance by a San Francisco chef in 1922!
Dir. Sidney Olcott, 1923, 35mm, 106 min. (Restored 35mm print courtesy of UCLA Film And Television Archive)
The Happy Ending (1969)
Directed by Richard Brooks
Brooks’ personal ode to then-wife Jean Simmons casts her as a dashingly gorgeous, alcoholic Denver housewife fleeing a mid-life identity crisis. With unapologetically goofy romanticism and hyper-dated (yet still relevant) nods to suburban consumerism, The Happy Ending’s well-paced multiple-flashback structure unfolds as a surprisingly dark and languid treatise on the nature of love. Conrad Hall’s sumptuous imagery, a delightfully quirky Michel Legrand score, and an all-star cast (including excellent support from Shirley Jones and Nannette Fabray, as well as Tina Louise, Dick Shawn and Bobby Darin) make this top-notch and underappreciated work of cinema worthy of new attention.
United Artists. Producer: Richard Brooks. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: Conrad Hall. Editor: Murray Jordan. Cast: Jean Simmons, John Forsythe, Shirley Jones, Lloyd Bridges, Teresa Wright, Nanette Fabray. 35mm, Color, 112 min.
HAZARD
New 35mm Print!
1948, Paramount [Universal], 95 min, Dir. George Marshall. NOT ON DVD!
More a comedy-adventure than a straight noir, but we welcome any chance to see Paulette Goddard in her prime! She plays a gambler who antes herself up as the prize in a game against a professional card shark (Fred Clark). Upon losing, she takes it on the lam, pursued cross-country by a private dick (Macdonald Carey) hired to haul her back to the altar. Surrounded by a wonderful cast (Stanley Clements, Percy Helton, Frank Faylen, Taylor Holmes, Charles McGraw), Goddard shows - in a pristine new 35mm print - why she was one of the most luminous and charismatic stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT
1980, Warner Bros., 92 min, USA, Dir: James Caan
In his directorial debut, James Caan plays a father whose kids vanish when their new stepfather is placed in the witness relocation program. Running up against obstacles from both the government and the mob, Caan sets out on an obsessive quest to find his family in this thriller based on a fascinating true story. Discussion between films with James Caan.
HIGH WALL
New 35mm Print!
1947, MGM [Warner Bros.], 99 min. Dir. Curtis Bernhardt.
“So tense! So taut! It closes in on you like a high wall!” Quintessential postwar noir, resurrected in a new 35mm print by the Film Noir Foundation! Brain-damaged vet Robert Taylor confesses to murdering his unfaithful wife and is sentenced to a sanitarium. His doctor (sexy Audrey Totter) gradually realizes he might not be guilty. Taylor gives his best performance ever in this neglected gem, which combines a classic “wrong man” scenario with an intriguing take on the psychic scars suffered by wounded WWII veterans. Thanks to Warner Bros. and UCLA Film & Television Archive.
HOUSE OF NUMBERS
1957, MGM [Warner Bros.], 92 min, Dir. Russell Rouse. NOT ON DVD!
What’s more ominous than a jugged Jack Palance doing hard time? How about Jack in a dual role as look-alike brothers … with Timothy Carey as a cellmate! In a clever twist, the Palance on the outside schemes to free his twin by breaking into maximum security! Ultra-rare noir directed on location at San Quentin by the always original Russell Rouse (DOA, NEW YORK CONFIDENTIAL, THE WELL). Not to be missed!
THE HOUSTON STORY
1956, Columbia [Sony Repertory], 79 min. NOT ON DVD!
Gene Barry stars as an amoral and ambitious wildcatter who presents Midwest gangster Edward Arnold with a plan for siphoning off millions of dollars worth of Gulf oil and selling it at a huge profit on the black market. Will Barry survive to see the spoils of his pre-Enron scheme? Spicing things up is Barry’s affair with Arnold’s chanteuse moll, played by a platinum-tressed Barbara Hale, pre-“Perry Mason.” Director William Castle brings visual virtuosity to the cut-rate Sam Katzman production.
How Much Wood Would A Woodchuck Chuck...
Herzog's yen for discovering the bizarre amongst the mundane here extends to his discovery of an alien language, in this mid-’70s paean to the blindingly fast private code of the Cattle Auctioneer. Planted in the Middle American milieu Herzog would soon return to for 1977’s Stroszek, How Much Wood... is less concerned with the business of auctioneering as it is with the thrill of the “call” itself: how it arose as a language due to capitalism, how the winners at the Cattle Auctioneering World Championships grew to develop their skills, and the purely rapturous sensation of endless cascading machine-gun syllables.
Dir. Werner Herzog, 1976, DigiBeta, 44 min.
HUIE'S SERMON
(from wikipedia)
Huie's Sermon is a 1981 documentary film made for television by Werner Herzog. It consists almost entirely of a sermon delivered by Huie Rogers of the Bible Way Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Brooklyn. Dir. Werner Herzog, 1981, 40 mins.
THE HUNTED
New 35mm Print!
1948, Allied Artists [Warner Bros.], 88 min. NOT ON DVD!
Steve Fisher’s original screenplay for this bargain-basement B offers a clever twist on the typical femme fatale. Laura Mead (Belita) has served her time for robbery and still claims her innocence. She returns to the city where her former cop lover (Preston Foster) sent her up. Is she back for a fresh start - or revenge? A strange, hypnotic noir from Poverty Row director Jack Bernhard (DECOY). Thanks to Warner Bros. and UCLA Film & Television Archive.
In Cold Blood (1967)
Directed by Richard Brooks
Oblique and stylish, this true-crime saga pits Robert Blake and Scott Wilson, as small-time crooks turned heinous murderers, against John Forsythe as the detective on their trail. Brooks’ cool emotional distance from his characters is a worthy match for Truman Capote’s book. Exquisite technical credits, and a sizzling music score by Quincy Jones, underline Brooks’ keen appreciation for the lurid, though the film still finds space to show disdain for the American penal system (as Brooks had already done in his screenplay for Brute Force).
Columbia Pictures. Based on the book by Truman Capote. Producer: Richard Brooks. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: Conrad Hall. Editor: Peter Zinner. Cast: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart, Gerald S. O'Loughlin. 35mm, Black and White, 134 min.
THE INNOCENCE OF RUTH (1916) starring Viola Dana and Edward Earle, directed by John H. Collins and produced for the Edison Company. Dana stars as an orphan who ends up torn between the man she loves and an unscrupulous businessman. Print courtesy of the Library of Congress.
The Intensity of the World: An Evening with Tomonari Nishikawa
Tomonari Nishikawa in person! Los Angeles premieres!
Tomonari Nishikawa is one of the leading practitioners of hand-crafted films (usually with celluloid, but sometimes with digital means). The precision of his craft, combined with his consistently roving eye and masterful use of light, tone, and movement leads to works that never cease to marvel with their beauty and intensity. A short show in duration, but these films may overwhelm you with their creativity.
INTO OUR OWN HANDS
(Entre nos mains)
Nominated for a 2011 César Award for Best Documentary and presented at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival as part of the ACID selection (Association for the distribution of independent cinema), INTO OUR OWN HANDS is a rare insider’s look at the daily life of a small company in crisis. To prevent bankruptcy and potential layoffs, several executives of Starissima, a boutique lingerie maker, consider forming a co-op. This fundamental change raises many practical questions for these manual workers. They try to grasp the concept of profit-sharing and while sewing bras and underwear, they discuss fundamental economic and social issues. As the project takes shape, they have to confront a CEO who is not ready to hand the company over, facing the harsh reality of the marketplace. France, 2010, Runtime: 88 min. Written and Directed by: Mariana Otéro
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.
JAG MANDIR
(from wikipedia)
Jag Mandir is a 1991 documentary film directed for television by Werner Herzog. The bulk of the film consists of footage of an elaborate theatrical performance for the Maharana Arvind Singh Mewar at the City Palace of Udaipur, Rajasthan staged by André Heller. The film was made at Heller's request. Heller explains in the film that he sent several colleagues throughout India to find performers for the show, including dancers, musicians, contortionists, and magicians. About 10,000 performers were located, and of these about 2,000 were chosen to appear in the show, which lasted several hours on a single day. Herzog's footage was filmed at the actual show, with some segments filmed in the rehearsals in the previous days.
Herzog's narration explains that the event was requested of the Maharana by a local wise man who saw the sinking of the city's palaces into the river as a sign that the local culture was deteriorating, and that the Maharana needed to stage the performance to reinvigorate interest in the various cultures represented. This story was invented by Herzog for the film, to "put it all into some context." Dir. Werner Herzog, 1991.
Jalainur (Zha lai nuo er) (China, 2008)
Directed by Zhao Ye
Inspired by an old Chinese saying—“Even if I can accompany you for one thousand miles, finally we must bid farewell”—writer-director Zhao Ye films the parting of two friends working on the last Chinese steam engine trains, in the Jalainur coal mine in remote Inner Mongolia. Old Zhu, a train conductor, has decided to retire a few weeks early, to be with his daughter, who lives miles away. His young apprentice and close friend, Li Zhizhong, boards the train to be with him until the last minute. Zhao directs his non-professional actors documentary-style, capturing intimate details in rapturous visuals that express emotions more powerfully than words.
Producer: Helen Cui, Zhao Ye. Screenwriter: Zhao Ye. Cinematographer: Zhang Yi. Editor: Zhao Ye. Cast: Liu Yuansheng, Li Zhizhong. Presented in Putonghua dialogue with English subtitles. HDcam, Color, 92 min.
JOURNEY INTO FEAR
1943, RKO [Warner Bros.], 68 min. Dirs. Orson Welles and Norman Foster. NOT ON DVD!
Shadowy and stylish adaptation of Eric Ambler’s tale of wartime intrigue. Joseph Cotten - who wrote the screenplay - plays an engineer pursued by a murderous Nazi agent, for reasons unknown, throughout the Near East. Drastically cut prior to release (with new scenes shot by Foster) the film remains a uniquely Wellesian exercise in cinematic style, outfitted with an array of colorful characters, including delicious Dolores Del Rio as a femme fatale chanteuse.
KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE
1950, Warner Bros., 102 min. NOT ON DVD!
While not as famous as Jimmy Cagney’s huge hit WHITE HEAT (made the previous year), this brutal, hard-as-nails adaptation of Horace McCoy’s superb novel is one of the best crime films of the noir era. A handful of battered survivors recount in court the violent saga of criminal Ralph Cotter, from his prison breakout to his fateful double-dealings with women (Barbara Payton and Helena Carter, both terrific). Tremendously tough direction by Gordon Douglas, featuring an amazing crew of noir tough guys. “The whole blistering story of the crimson-stained career of Ralph Cotter, thug with a heart… of ice!”
Land of Silence and Darkness
One of Herzog’s most deeply felt and compassionate documentaries, Land of Silence and Darkness profiles the extraordinary Fini Straubinger, who, after becoming deaf and blind as an adolescent, spent thirty bedridden years in near-isolation. Upon learning hand-to-hand communication, Straubinger found herself awakened, charged with the purpose of sharing this gift. Herzog follows his loquacious subject as she interacts with other deaf-blind pupils, revealing both profound loneliness and true intimacy; one exquisite sequence lingers on expressions of joy and anxiety as the 56-year-old educator and her friends take their first airplane ride, as another reveals disappointment when Straubinger is unable to break through to a withdrawn patient. Though Herzog surprisingly shot only three hours of footage during the making of the film, Land of Silence and Darkness explores its subject masterfully and methodically, culminating in a poignant final shot which Herzog himself called “absolutely unforgettable, a human drama played out in two minutes.”
Dir. Werner Herzog, 1971, DigiBeta, 85 min.
La Soufriere
Before going to hell and back to film the near-impossible images of burning oil fields in Lessons of Darkness, Herzog first covered a different eruption: that of the looming, belching volcano ready to pop on the Carribean island of Guadaloupe. Scratching their collective death wish itch, Herzog and his camera crew arrive at the island’s deserted ghost-town village at a moment when the volcano could erupt at any time, and interview a couple of primo Herzogovian outsiders left behind, who await death-by-lava with a semi-insane equanimity. Our man’s in great form, evading toxic sulfur gas and filming gorgeous smoke clouds, demonstrating with this film more than any other his willingness to capture his visual poetry at all costs.
Dir. Werner Herzog, 1977, DigiBeta, 30 min.
Last Night At The Alamo
Eagle Pennell, in just a handful of films – Hell of a Note, The Whole Shootin’ Match and Last Night at the Alamo –- lionized those laconic dreamers improbably balanced between ambition and nostalgia that have become Austin’s civic identity, the kind of epic underachieverdom that Slacker later turned into an anthropological treatise. In Alamo, a shaggy dog buddy comedy about a Houston bar scheduled for demolition come sunrise, Lou Perry and Sonny Carl Davis star as a homegrown Mutt and Jeff -- Perry as the lanky Claude, who spends most of his time feeding excuses to his wife into the payphone, and Davis as the sawed-off Cowboy, the local hero who, in an allegory of the real Alamo, defends the bar’s honor against the proprietor of the Mexican restaurant next door in a tequila-drinking contest. Working from a script by Kim Henkel (co-writer of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and shot in a gauzy black-and-white by Gus Van Sant’s cinematographer Eric Alan Edwards (My Own Private Idaho), Eagle’s woozy testament to the comically disenfranchised is part stationary western, part self-medicating rodeo, where the heroes ride barstools and pray they can hang on until last call. Schedule permitting, the afternoon's screening will be introduced by Richard Linklater!
LES BONNES FEMMES
One of the earliest films of the French New Wave, LES BONNES FEMMES is one of Chabrol’s most Hitchcockian films and widely considered to be his masterpiece. Dark and erotic, the film centers on shop-keeping girls Ginette (Stéphane Audran, "Babette’s Feast,” "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie”), Rita (Lucile Saint-Simon), Jacqueline (Clotilde Joano), and Jane (Bernadette Lafont, "The Mother and the Whore”). Obsessed with finding love in order to escape their bleak existence, they are unaware that love can sometimes rhyme with danger. France/Italy, 1960, Runtime: 100 min. Directed by: Claude Chabrol
Lessons Of Darkness
A work of catastrophic beauty and sublime horror, Lessons of Darkness finds Herzog fighting fire with fire, confronting devastation with an ironic grace. Filming the unfathomable destruction caused by the Kuwaiti oil fires of the first Gulf War as a series of breathtaking aerial tableaux, Herzog transforms a landscape ravaged by war into an image of an alien world. Herzog scores these infernal panoramas to the soaring arias of Mahler, Schubert, Verdi, and Wagner, punctuated by brief aphoristic voiceovers and titles designed more to provoke and overwhelm than to inform. As in his later nature documentaries, Herzog here confounds that humanistic view of our world which stands mute and uncomprehending in the face of disaster and savagery, for the brutish nature on display in these chilling Lessons is that of man himself.
Dir. Werner Herzog, 1992, DigiBeta, 50 min.
LIBELED LADY
A crackerjack comedy starring four of Hollywood's finest. Spencer Tracy is a newspaper editor without scruples. Myrna Loy is the society dame he'd like to keep in the headlines. Add in William Powell and Jean Harlow as Tracy's somewhat reluctant accomplices and wait for the fun to begin. A delight in black and white; remade in 1946 as Easy to Wed. 1936, USA, 98 minutes. directed by Jack Conway; starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy
Lt. Watada
Directed and produced by Freida Mock
Driven by his strong belief in the illegality of the Iraq War, United States Army lieutenant Ehren Watada made the difficult decision to refuse deployment to Iraq. Digital. 39 mins.
Light on Surface, Reflection on Screen: Recent Japanese 8mm Films.
Light on Surface, Reflection on Screen is a survey of contemporary Japanese 8mm works, ranging from personal documentary to experimental film, showing artists’ interests in materiality, medium, and filmmaking techniques, while exploring the aesthetics of moving images with this small format. The screening features emerging and established Japanese filmmakers, including Rei Hayama, Idei Hiroumi, Mie Kurihara, and Takehiro Nakamura. Curator Tomonari Nishikawa in person!
LILY SOMETIMES
(Pieds nus sur les limaces)
Ludivine Sagnier and Diane Kruger are inseparable sisters in LILY SOMETIMES, Art Cinema Award-winner at the 2010 Cannes Directors' Fortnight. Ludivine Sagnier - who won a Lumière Award for her performance - is Lily, an eccentric young girl who lives with her mother in the countryside. A free-spirit who defiantly ignores all social conventions, she is determined to live according to her every whim. When her mother suddenly dies, Lily’s quirkiness veers to uncontrollable behavior and her older sister Clara (Diane Kruger) feels compelled to move in with her. Serious and conservative, Clara claims to be happy, working in her husband’s Parisian law office. But once she moves in with Lily, Clara begins to question her own life.
THE LONG FALLING
(Où va la nuit)
Based on the eponymous novel by Keith Ridgway, THE LONG FALLING stars award-winning actress Yolande Moreau as Rose, a battered woman turned murderer. A woman in her fifties, Rose has been married to an alcoholic, abusive husband for thirty long years. One day, she decides that enough is enough and kills him. Both relieved and disoriented, Rose goes to visit her estranged son Thomas in Brussels, hoping to find some affection. Unaware of what his mother has done and still scarred by a childhood spent with an abusive father, Thomas is unable to give her the comfort that she needs. When the police start suspecting Rose, Thomas is conflicted and asks his mother to leave. Alone and with no place to go, Rose finds herself on the run from the law. France, 2011, Runtime: 105 min. Directed by: Martin Provost
LOOPHOLE New 35mm Print!
1954, Allied Artists [Warner Bros.], 80 min. Dir. Harold Shuster. NOT ON DVD!
The Film Noir Foundation is proud to resurrect one of the rarest films of the original noir era, a tidy tale of unjust persecution that plays like a B-movie version of Les Miserables. An innocent bank clerk (Barry Sullivan), made the fall guy in an embezzlement scheme, is pursued to the brink of insanity by a scarily righteous insurance investigator (merciless Charles McGraw, in a signature performance). “On the hot spot! … With a lethal blonde and a cold-blooded cop!” Presented in a brand new 35mm print funded by The Film Noir Foundation! Thanks to Warner Bros. and UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Lord Jim (1965)
Directed by Richard Brooks
Marked by a scandal in which he and others abandoned a ship thought to be sinking, merchant seaman “Jim” seeks and finds a second chance at heroism in the South Seas outpost of Patusan, leading the natives by courage and example in facing down corrupt leaders and marauding invaders. Handsomely produced, and one of Brooks’ most penetrating literary adaptations, the film finds its perfect Jim in ethereal Peter O’Toole, a spirit adrift, seeking moral bearings.
Columbia Pictures. Based on the novel by Joseph Conrad. Producer: Richard Brooks. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: Freddie Young. Editor: Alan Obiston. Cast: Peter O'Toole, James Mason, Eli Wallach, Curt Jurgens, Paul Lukas. 70mm, Color, 143 min.
LOVE LIKE POISON
(Un Poison violent)
Named after a Serge Gainsbourg song, LOVE LIKE POISON is a coming of age story exploring religion and sexuality through the eyes of 15 year-old Anna (newcomer Clara Augarde). Coming home from her boarding school for the holidays, Anna finds her father gone and her pious mother (singer/actress Lio, "The Last Mistress," "Itinéraire d'un enfant gâté") overwhelmed with grief and doubt. She also has to take care of her aging, blasphemous grand-father, played by the incomparable Michel Galabru ("Welcome to the Sticks," "Subway," "The Judge and the Assassin"). Clara feels conflicted between her Catholic faith and a newfound desire to be close to Pierre, a young teenage boy who flirts with her and cares little about God.
Lucia (1969)
Directed by Humberto Solas, Lucia tells three stories of three periods of Cuban history from the vantage point of three women, each Lucia.
Madrid (2002)
Directed by Patricio Guzmán
Guzmán, who studied cinema in Madrid, where he also fled in 1973 after the coup, sets aside politics (sort of) to compose this charming, playful, savory ode to his second home. Eschewing the obvious tourist attractions, Guzmán guides us through the city’s maze of streets, sharing personal anecdotes that resonate with the rich history and rhythms of the neighborhoods he visits. His affection for the city and Madrileños themselves shine through in every shot.
Screenwriter: Patricio Guzmán. Presented in Spanish dialogue with English subtitles. DigiBeta, Color, 41 min.
Memories of Underdevelopment (1968)
Combining drama with documentary footage, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's Memories of Underdevelopment tells the story of Sergio, a wealthy, introspective author who decides to remain in Cuba.
MINISTRY OF FEAR
Stephen Neale is released into WWII England after two years in an asylum, but it doesn't seem so sane outside either. On his way back to London to rejoin civilization, he stumbles across a murderous spy ring and doesn't quite know who to turn to. 1944, USA, 86 minutes. Not available on DVD! directed by Fritz Lang; screenplay by Seton I. Miller based on a novel by Graham Greene; starring Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Percy Waram
MR. SOFT TOUCH
1949, Columbia [Sony Repertory], 93 min. NOT ON DVD!
This ultra-rare comedy-noir hybrid features Glenn Ford as a returning WWII vet who knocks over the Frisco nightclub he used to own. When the gangster owners come gunning for him, Ford finds sanctuary by getting arrested for a misdemeanor - only to find himself back in hot water when he’s sprung by a do-gooder social worker (Evelyn Keyes) for the holidays. Directed by Henry Levin and Gordon Douglas, this is one of the oddest combinations we’ve ever seen: romantic comedy, schmaltzy sentiment and hardboiled noir.
Discussion between films with Peter Ford
MUR MURS
Mur Murs is Agnès Varda’s love letter to our city’s ephemeral, idiosyncratic and startling street murals that give freeways, airports, and other communal spaces unexpected vibrancy and life. Shot simultaneously in Los Angeles alongside Varda’s 1981 fiction film Documenteur (in which her protagonist wanders some of the streets containing these same artworks), Mur Murs not only captures the good, the bad and the sublime in the realm of our public canvases, but also lets the artists speak for themselves in interludes that show off enough local color to please even the most jaded Angeleno. Mur Murs lovingly lingers on the mural images in a prescient way that suggests Varda knows full well how fleeting the works can be; in a city like L.A., where practically no building or coat of paint stands for too long, these images are one of the few documents of mural styles rarely practiced today. Dir. Agnès Varda, 1981, digital presentation, 80 min.
MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS
1945, Columbia [Sony Repertory], 65 min. NOT ON DVD!
Unemployed Julia (Nina Foch) gets a dream job working for a wealthy widower, only to awaken in a nightmare - living with a schizo husband and a scheming mother-in-law (George Macready and Dame May Whitty), neither of whom she’s ever seen before! Director Joseph H. Lewis (GUN CRAZY, THE BIG COMBO) made his mark in Hollywood with this incredibly tense and well-acted mystery thriller, one of the best B films of the era. “She went to sleep as a secretary… and woke up as a madman’s bride!”
Mystery Street (1950)
Directed by John Sturges
This alarming crime drama tells of an unlucky taxi dancer (Sterling) who leaves a bar one night, never to be seen again… until her remains are discovered, and an unfortunate young man is implicated in her death. Police Lieutenant Peter Moralas (Montalban) reconstructs the victim’s backstory and engages in eerie forensic research on the way to solving the crime. Elsa Lanchester plays the victim’s money-grubbing landlady, who knows much more than she tells—except to those she blackmails. The innocent are vindicated, but human nature comes in for a harsh judgment in this taut film noir.
MGM. Producer: Frank E. Taylor. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: John Alton. Editor: Ferris Webster. Cast: Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Elsa Lanchester, Marshall Thompson, Jan Sterling. 35mm, Black and White, 93 min.
THE NAVIGATOR
1924, Douris Corp., 59 min, USA, Dir: Buster Keaton
Wealthy Rollo Treadway (Keaton) and Betsy, who has rejected his proposal of marriage, find themselves on the Navigator, a ship that Betsy's rich father has recently sold to a tiny country at war. When the Navigator drifts out to sea and grounds itself near a tropical island, Rollo and Betsy must not only learn to play house on the gigantic boat but fend off unhappy island natives who attack the vessel! One of the best of Keaton's career, THE NAVIGATOR is filled with unbeatable sight gags, including Buster's scuba-diving excursion with a giant squid, and a submarine that emerges at the perfect moment!
NEW ORLEANS UNCENSORED
1955, Columbia [Sony Repertory], 76 min. NOT ON DVD!
William Castle takes his crew on location to the Big Easy for this entry in the 1950s exposé sweepstakes. Discharged Navy vet Arthur Franz (THE SNIPER) catches on as a longshoreman and quickly learns things on the docks are crooked as hell. When his buddy is killed in a suspicious accident, Franz decides to go undercover for the cops to take down local crime boss Michael Ansara. Of course, this means tussling as well with “Big Easies” Beverly Garland and Helene Stanton.
Discussion between films with actress Barbara Hale! (schedule permitting)
THE NIGHT CLERK
(Avant l’aube)
Frédéric Boissier is THE NIGHT CLERK, a young man coming out of prison, played by the magnetic Vincent Rottiers. Trying to return to society, he finds an internship in an isolated mountain hotel, owned by the bad-tempered Jacques Couvreur (Jean-Pierre Bacri). When a client of the hotel disappears, Frédéric becomes suspicious of his boss but remains silent, as Jacques has taken him under his wing and treats him like a son. The tension intensifies with the arrival of a sharp young woman investigating the disappearance, police inspector Sylvie Poncet - played by award-winning actress Sylvie Testud. Manipulated by Jacques, Frédéric continues to protect his boss, but finds himself in an increasingly dangerous situation. France, 2011, Runtime: 105 min. Directed by: Raphaël Jacoulot
99 FRANCS
Based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Frédéric Beigbeder, 99 FRANCS is a fast-paced and hallucinatory pastiche about the ruthless world of advertising. Decidedly cynical and hedonistic, Octave (Jean Dujardin) is the star of his advertising agency. But a failed romance with the beautiful Sophie (Vahina Giocante) shatters his self-confidence and throws him into a deep depression. In a drug-induced stupor during a meeting with food giant Madone, he has a “revelation” and takes a radical turn. With the help of his partner in crime Charlie (Jocelyn Quivrin), he embarks on a mission to sabotage what should have been the biggest ad campaign of his career.
Nostalgia for the Light (Nostalgia de la luz) (2010)
Directed by Patricio Guzmán
The uniquely arid conditions of Chile’s Atacama Desert make it an ideal location for both viewing the night sky through its crystal clear atmosphere and hunting for indigenous artifacts, perfectly preserved inits dry earth. But the astronomers and archeologists are not the only ones at work in the Atacama, which has become a pilgrimage site, of sorts, for the relatives of political prisoners who sift the sands for remains that were dumped in the dessert by the Pinochet regime, which operated a death camp in the region. Through interviews and images, illuminating and haunting, Guzmán builds subtle, surprising links between these seekers in the stars and sands. The result is an emotionally compelling and intellectually dazzlingly meditation on our constantly shifting relationship with the past.
Producer: Meike Martens, Renate Sachse. Screenplay: Patricio Guzmán. Cinematographer: Katell Djian. Editor: Patricio Guzmán. Presented in Spanish dialogue with English subtitles. HDcam, Color, 90 min.
One Week" (1920, 19 min.) Buster and his new bride Sybil receive a portable house (Easy to assemble! Construction takes only one week!) as a wedding gift. Things get complicated when Buster's rival - who's vying for Sybil's affections - swaps the numbers on the crates containing the house parts. This hilarious short is sure to have the kids rolling in the aisles!
OUR DAY WILL COME
(Notre jour viendra)
Deliberately blurring the line between good and evil, OUR DAY WILL COME is a surreal, provocative road movie starring Vincent Cassel ("Black Swan," "Mesrine" [COLCOA 2009], "Ocean’s Thirteen") and Eric Barthélémy ("The Burma Conspiracy," "Sheitan"). Bullied by his family and his classmates, Rémy (Barthélémy) is an awkward youth, who believes he is persecuted for his red hair. He runs away from home and meets Patrick (Cassel), a cynical psychotherapist whom he identifies as a fellow redhead. Patrick’s nihilism and taste for the extreme unlocks Rémy’s contained rage and, from insecure social outcast, Rémy turns into a violent fanatic. Like a modern Don Quixote, Rémy convinces Patrick that they will only find peace in the redheads’ motherland, and together they embark on a frenetic quest for their El Dorado. France, 2010, Runtime: 87 min. Directed by: Romain Gavras
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.
The Pinochet Case (El caso Pinochet) (2001)
Directed by Patricio Guzmán
In 1998 at the request of a Spanish magistrate with the initial support of the British government, Augusto Pinochet became the first head of state to be charged with crimes against humanity under the concept of universal jurisdiction. For Guzmán these events offered not only a chance to document the unprecedented international judicial proceedings against Pinochet, but to examine the concept of justice itself. Intercutting interviews with lawyers and Pinochet’s victims, Guzmán follows the process through which painful memories are translated into dry legalese in pursuit of an ambiguous, uncertain closure.
Screenwriter: Patricio Guzmán. Adaptation: Yves Jeanneau. Cinematographer: Jacques Bouquin. Editor: Claudio Martinez. Presented in Spanish and English dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, Color, 109 min.
The Professionals (1966)
Directed by Richard Brooks
A group of mercenaries (Marvin, Ryan, Strode and Lancaster, as explosives expert Bill Dolworth) accept a lucrative assignment to recover a Texas millionaire’s wife (Cardinale) from a Mexican bandit (Palance). But the mission doesn’t go as expected, and little about the setup is at it initially seems. A superbly written story of honor and adventure, set in the furor of the Mexican Revolution, the film features some of Brooks’ best dialogue. “Go to hell,” instructs Mrs. Grant when she is “rescued.” “Yes ma’am,” replies Dolworth, “I’m on my way.”
Columbia Pictures. Producer: Richard Brooks. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: Conrad Hall. Editor: Peter Zinner. Cast: Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Claudia Cardinale. 35mm, Color, 117 min.
Rabbit à la Berlin
Directed by Bartek Konopka
Produced by Anna Wydra
During the decades before the fall of the Berlin Wall, an enormous colony of wild rabbits took up residence in its shadow. Digital. 40 mins.
Academy Award nominee: Documentary Short Subject
RED HEADED WOMAN
The women are wicked and the stories steamy in this pre-Production Code Hollywood drama. Jean Harlow is the gold-digging Red-Headed Woman who snags her married boss (Chester Morris) while carrying on another affair with a chauffeur (Charles Boyer). 1932, USA, 79 minutes. Pre-Code Hollywood! directed by Jack Conway; starring Jean Harlow, Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, Leila Hyams, Una Merkel
Retro Format: April Fools
(120 min.) Rare historic films on vintage 8mm prints about funny fools, romantic fools and wacky slapstick fools! With stars iconic and obscure: John Bunny in “A Cure for Pokeritis” (1912); Fatty Arbuckle in “Peeping Pete” (1913) with Ford Sterling; Mabel Normand in “Mabel’s Blunder” (1914) with Charlie Chase; Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew in “Auntie’s Portrait” (1915); Buster Keaton in “One Week” (1920) and quintessential Charlie Chaplin in “The Tramp” (1915)!
Screening format: 8mm
Robinson Crusoe Island (La isla de Robinson Crusoe) (1999)
Directed by Patricio Guzmán
Guzmán was 13-years-old and living in Valparaiso, Chile when he discovered Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe. In 1999, he made Robinson Crusoe Island on the real Robinson Island off the coast of Chile, which he had long believed fictitious. A meditation on the legend and odyssey of Crusoe as contrasted with the actual island, the film is also a travelogue of Guzman's adventures there.
Screenwriter: Patricio Guzmán. Presented in Spanish and English dialogue. DigiBeta, Color, 45 min.
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 (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.
Salvador Allende (2004)
Directed by Patricio Guzmán
Guzmán himself narrates this portrait of the political leader whose life and work have had such a profound influence on his own life and career. Through rare archival footage and contemporary interviews with supporters and enemies alike, Guzmán cuts through the popular mythology surrounding Allende to craft a multi-layered biography of the doctor-turned-socialist-activist-turned-reformist-president who remains a powerful figure of hope for many around the world.
Screenwriter: Patricio Guzmán. Cinematographer: Julia Munez. Editor: Claudio Martinez. Presented in Spanish, French, and English dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, Color, 100 min.
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.
SEVEN CHANCES
1925, Douris Corp., 56 min, USA, Dir: Buster Keaton
Keaton plays James "Jimmie" Shannon, a man confronted with a proposition both very lucky and very unlucky: He can inherit a massive fortune if he marries. The catch? The marriage must occur by 7:00 PM that day.
The Silence
Dir. Baran Bo Odar, Germany 2010, 122 min, digital proj.
When a child's bicycle is discovered in a wheat field - in the exact location of a heinous crime committed 23 years earlier - and when it is later discovered that local girl Sinikka is mysteriously missing, a town is thrown into a haze of anxious uncertainty. At once a tense police procedural and a subtle yet devastating portrayal of a family's struggle to come to terms with the unthinkable. In this thriller Burkhardt Klaussner plays a retired detective, who relives the horror of a case, he was unable to solve.
Silent Superheroes Serial Sampler
(feat. live scores by Cabeza de Vaca Arcestra!)
Long before the first filmic superheroes (as we now know them) crawled out of the sea -- when they were not yet even embryonic notions in the minds of proto-fanboys -- there were the adventurers, daredevils and other headliners of the “serials”: the pulpy, episodic tales of derring-do and rescuing of damsels in distress, doled out in weekly “chapter” installments. These century-old silents, while short on feats of superhuman strength and lasers eminating from eyeballs, contain virtually all of the archetypal building blocks of the modern superhero story: masked mystery men, gadgets, secret identities, arch villains and more! Join us on a journey through the stupendous narrative arcs of yesteryear, all scored live by L.A.’s own Cabeza De Vaca Arkestra! Over the course of several special Cinefamily shows, the Arcestra, which features members of Dios Malos, has established itself as one of the city’s premier ensembles for film score interpretation -- so get ready for a night of stirring, soaring musical accompaniment!
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.
Soundtrack for a Revolution
Directed by Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman
Produced by Joslyn Barnes, Jim Czarnecki, Guttentag, Sturman, Dylan Nelson
The story of the civil rights movement is told through the music that informed and inspired its participants. As current singers perform songs from the era, interviews and archival footage evoke the movement’s passionate and dramatic history. Digital. 82 mins.
Specks of Existence: Hartmut Bitomsky’s Dust
"A thought-provoking micro-lens through which to view the world... Part philosophy, part science, Dust amounts to a kind of contemplative poetry." —Film Comment
Through a web of interviews, poetic ruminations and cinematic investigations, Hartmut Bitomsky’s Dust (2007) serves as a philosophical, factual and fanciful examination of the smallest objects that can be perceived, particles that permeate every aspect of life. Of the titular subject of this work Bitomsky notes, “Wherever we go, it has already beaten us; wherever we turn it follows us. It is our past, our present and our future . . . It gets inside us, we shed it . . . It nestles right into the despair of its own existence.” Known for his theoretical depth and originality, Bitomsky has produced a major body of documentary essay films and critical writing on cinema for 40 years, is an influential teacher and served as the Dean of CalArts’ School of Film/Video from 1993 to 2002. Dust and his earlier films have been shown at festivals throughout the world.
In person: Hartmut Bitomsky
STATIONS OF THE ELEVATED
Playing after the intermission is Stations of the Elevated, a wordless tone poem by German filmmaker Manfred Kirchheimer on the breathtaking tagging found on highly elevated trains creakin’ on by in ‘80s NYC. Featuring music by Charles Mingus! Dir. Manfred Kirchheimer, 1981, digital presentation, 46 min.
Storm Warning (1951)
Directed by Stuart Heisler
Marsha Mitchell (Rogers) decides to pay a surprise call on her small-town sister (Day). Soon after arriving she witnesses a murder by robed members of the Ku Klux Klan and becomes a key witness for the county prosecutor (Ronald Reagan). Wanting only to leave town, Marsha is instead caught up in a drama that turns on courage and conscience.
Warner Bros. Producer: Jerry Wald. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: Carl Guthrie. Editor: Clarence Kolster. Cast: Ginger Rogers, Ronald Reagan, Doris Day, Steve Cochran, Hugh Sanders. 35mm, Black and White, 93 min.
STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT
New, Restored 35mm Print!
1944, Republic [Paramount], 56 min. Dir. Anthony Mann. NOT ON DVD!
Brand new 35mm print restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive! A WWII veteran comes to a California town to meet the woman who was his cherished wartime pen pal. The girl’s peculiar mother claims she’s away - perhaps far, far away. This highly atmospheric, slightly daft B was the sixth low-budget wonder on the growing résumé of esteemed noir director Anthony Mann (T-MEN, RAW DEAL), featuring a jaw-dropping performance by Austrian actress Helen Thimig.
Swell Guy (1946)
Directed by Frank Tuttle
Returning war correspondent Jim Duncan is revered by all the folks in his small hometown. His mother knows he’s actually a liar and a swindler whose worst traits are intractable…as does Jim himself, forever making and breaking promises. The uncommon story, which dispenses with the redemptive power of “love,” was actually ahead of its time, featuring a fractured antihero better suited to the disaffected 1970s. The same template was finally given magnificent expression in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977).
Universal Pictures. Producer: Mark Hellinger. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: Tony Gaudio. Editor: Edward Curtiss. Cast: Sonny Tufts, Ann Blyth, Ruth Warrick, William Gargan, Mary Nash. 16mm, Black and White, 86 min.
TEXAS LEGENDS, BEFORE THEY WERE LEGENDS
In a program originally screened at the Austin Film Society, it’s an evening of super-rare first short films from Texas cinematic royalty! From Tobe Hooper to Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson and Robert Rodriguez (to name but a few), Texas has a rich legacy of filmmaking -- but even the masters had to start somewhere! The show includes: Bottle Rocket, Wes Anderson’s ‘92 short that not only formed the basis of the later feature-length version, but was also the screen debut of Owen & Luke Wilson; Woodshock, Richard Linklater’s Texan take on Heavy Metal Parking Lot that captures the mayhem and debauchery of the ‘85 Woodshock Music Festival held in Dripping Springs; The Heisters, Tobe Hooper’s “Gothic mod comedy” made a full decade before The Texas Chainsaw Massacre would change the landscape of independent film; Bedhead, Robert Rodriguez’s ‘91 student film which won enough cash prizes at festivals to fund the legendary guerrilla production of his debut feature El Mariachi; and much, much more!
They Made Me a Criminal
1939/b&w/92 min. | Scr: Sig Herzig; dir: Busby Berkeley; w/ John Garfield, Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Ann Sheridan.
A young boxer flees to farming country when he thinks he's killed an opponent in the ring.
THEY WON’T BELIEVE ME
1947, RKO [Warner Bros.], 95 min. NOT ON DVD!
Robert Young is brilliantly cast against type as a married Lothario whose sexual antics lead to tragedy. Director Irving Pichel elicits superb, nuanced performances from Susan Hayward (his latest lover), Jane Greer (his former lover) and Rita Johnson (his beleaguered wife), all full-blooded characters in Jonathan Latimer’s sharp-edged screenplay. Produced by Hitchcock protégé Joan Harrison, this sophisticated “adult” film is one of the most unjustly obscure titles of the original noir era.
THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS
1952, Warner Bros., 100 min.
Joan Crawford called this her “worst” film; we respectfully contend that Joan was a poor judge of her own work. In her last film for Warner Bros. (could that have something to do with her bitterness?), Crawford plays a hardened gangster going blind, who desperately needs an operation to save her sight. Essentially a sequel to Crawford’s great THE DAMNED DON’T CRY, director Feist brings punch and panache to Daniel Mainwaring’s melodramatic script. It’s Joan at her “Joaniest,” and few things are more enjoyable. “Every inch a lady…’til you look at the record!”
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?
THE THREAT
1949, RKO [Warner Bros.], 66 min. NOT ON DVD!
Ruthless killer Red Kluger (Charles McGraw) escapes from prison, vowing vengeance on the cop and D.A. who sent him up. His kidnapping plot culminates in a Mojave hideout - call it “The Petrified Desert” - where the gang waits for a plane to take them to freedom. Director Felix Feist steers the action at a breakneck pace, turning the proceedings into a veritable highlight reel of malicious mayhem courtesy of McGraw, the ultimate noir tough guy. With Michael O'Shea, Virginia Grey, Anthony Caruso, and Frank Conroy.
TOSCAN: THE FRENCH TOUCH
A bon vivant, erudite and man of the arts, Daniel Toscan du Plantier produced over 50 films over the course of his career. He started in advertising and became Deputy Director of Gaumont in 1975, at the age of 35. During his ten-year tenure at Gaumont, he produced legendary filmmakers Werner Herzog ("Nosferatu the Vampyre"), Federico Fellini ("The City of Women"), Ingmar Bergman ("Fanny and Alexander") and Andrei Tarkovsky ("Nostalghia"). After 1985, he became an independent producer and fierce advocate of the Seventh Art, willing to take risks with controversial films like "Under the Sun of Satan" or "The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover." He was also President of Unifrance at the time of his death and president of the highly praised Cinémathèque of Toulouse. A collection of interviews and rare footage of Daniel Toscan du Plantier, TOSCAN, THE FRENCH TOUCH screened at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and will have its U.S. Premiere at COLCOA.
TREATING
Treating (Zhi Liao) by Wu Wenguang
with Beyond-ism by Sun Xun
US premiere!
As part of the series Between Disorder and Unexpected Pleasures: Tales from the New Chinese Cinema, curated by Cheng-Sim Lim and Bérénice Reynaud, Filmforum is proud to host the United States premiere of the Chinese film Treating (Zhi Liao) by Wu Wenguang. It will be playing with the new animated film by Sun Xun: Beyond-ism.
In recent years, independent Chinese cinema has experienced a virtual explosion. Digital media have allowed filmmakers to be bolder, more daring and to explore hybrid forms of documentary and fiction, or mix found and live footage while playing with novel formal strategies. Independent Chinese cinema has also come of age. Reaching beyond nostalgia and social protest, it plumbs surprising corners of Chinese reality with humor that is at times light, dark, saucy, dry, raunchy or conceptual. Expect the unexpected.
THE TWO MRS. CARROLLS
1947, Warner Bros., 99 min. Dir. Peter Godfrey.
Humphrey Bogart gives one of his strongest performances as a mentally disturbed painter whose second wife (Barbara Stanwyck) gradually realizes her husband’s preferred medium is murder. Released at the height of public fascination with the Bogart-Bacall romance, the film flopped and has rarely been revived in recent decades. Here’s a chance to see Bogart at his most deliciously villainous, opposite one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history, and a wicked and witty Alexis Smith.
UGETSU
Hailed by critics as one of the greatest films ever made, Kenji Mizoguchi's UGETSU is an undisputed masterpiece of Japanese cinema, revealing greater depths of meaning and emotion with each successive viewing. Mizogu...chi's exquisite "gender tragedy" is set during Japan's violent 16th-century civil wars, a historical context well-suited to the director's compassionate perspective on the plight of women and the foibles of men. The story focuses on two brothers, Genjuro (Masayuki Mori) and Tobei (Sakae Ozawa), whose dreams of glory (one as a wealthy potter, the other a would-be samurai) cause them to leave their wives for the promise of success in Kyoto. Both are led astray by their blind ambitions, and their wives suffer tragic fates in their absence, as UGETSU evolves into a masterful mixture of brutal wartime realism and haunting ghost story. The way Mizoguchi weaves these elements so seamlessly together is what makes UGETSU (masterfully derived from short stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant) so challenging and yet deeply rewarding as a timeless work of art. Featuring flawless performances by some of Japan's greatest actors (including Machiko Kyo, from Kurosawa's RASHOMON), UGETSU is essential viewing for any serious lover of film.
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.
THE VEILED ADVENTURE (1919) – starring Constance Talmadge and Harrison Ford, directed by Walter Edwards and produced for the Select Pictures Corp. Talmadge and Ford star as a young couple whose attempts to get married are thwarted when she finds a gray veil in his overcoat setting off a series of misadventures.
WATER AND POWER
Optical Architect: An Evening with Pat O'Neill
Hosted by Academy Film Scholar David E. James
Featuring an onstage conversation with Pat O'Neill, followed by the premiere of a newly preserved print of "Water and Power" (1989) from the Academy Film Archive.
Since the early 1960s, experimental filmmaker and optical effects artist Pat O'Neill has
applied a unique artistic perspective to the techniques of commercial special effects to create a varied, often startling body of work.
O'Neill began making films while studying design and photography in graduate school at UCLA. As he continually refined his technical abilities, O'Neill expanded the boundaries of avant garde film by creating highly graphic, layered and reflexive assemblages that frequently combine found footage, abstract material and his own cinematography. Making extensive use of the optical printer, time lapse, motion control and other techniques, O'Neill interweaves these materials into montages of unusual complexity.
At the same time, O'Neill has worked extensively in the mainstream feature film industry, contributing to the optical effects on such films as "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980), "Dragonslayer" (1981), "Return of the Jedi" (1983), "RoboCop" (1987), "Dances With Wolves" (1990), "Tank Girl" (1995) and "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" (1997).
O'Neill's first 35mm feature, "Water and Power," won a Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in 1990 and was selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2008. By using a series of visually and aurally dense tableaux created with advanced motion control, optical printing and animation techniques, the film explores the complex battle for natural resources waged between Los Angeles and the Owens Valley. The soundtrack was originally designed for stereo but mixed to mono due to cost and technical restrictions; this presentation will be the first to feature the restored digital remaster in stereo.
Host David E. James is an Academy Film Scholar, author and professor in the School of Cinematic Arts at USC.
WATER AND POWER
Directed and produced by Pat O'Neill. Cinematography and Film Editing, O'Neill. Motion Control Software Design by Mark Madel. Optical Printer Operator Beth Block. Sound Design and Music Design by George Lockwood. 1989. 35mm. 54 minutes.
We Are A Camera: Films Selected by Mark Flores
Hammer Projects artist Mark Flores presents an evening of experimental films:
Malfleur (Monty)
Combines text from Joris-Karl Huysmans and stills of Montgomery Clift, offering a return to the fin de siècle. (1998, Mark Flores, 6 min.)
Finished
A filmmaker investigates why a gay porn star destroys himself. (1997, William E. Jones, 75 min.)
--- ------
An exploration of L.A.’s 1960s music scene. (1967, Thom Andersen, 11 min.)
Homage to the Great Emitter
Derived from a walk through Griffith Park, this film suggests new ways of looking and navigating the space around us. (2010, Joe Merrell, 4 min.)
Going Down Slow
Take a trip up and down the escalators of the Los Angeles subway system. (2000, Mark Flores, 6 min.)
We Live in Public
Directed by Ondi Timoner
Produced by Timoner, Keirda Bahruth
Created over ten years and culled from 5,000 hours of footage, “We Live in Public” documents the surveillance-heavy social experiments of Internet pioneer Josh Harris. 35mm. 89 mins.
When A Woman Ascends The Stairs
Starting her career as one of the cutie chorus girls in Kurosawa’s Drunken Angel, Yoko Sugi was a beautiful starlet in the ‘50s Japanese studio system, lighting up the screen for directing lumiaries Kon Ichikawa and Mikio Naruse. Lucky for us, Yoko lives here in L.A., and loves to share tales about the heydey of the Japanese film world. Join us for a live Q&A with Yoko after the film! 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 weepy “women’s pictures” that Douglas Sirk made here in America, soaking handkerchieves aplenty in orgasmic grief. 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.
Dir. Mikio Naruse, 1960, 35mm, 111 min. (Archival 35mm print courtesy of the Japan Foundation)
WHIPLASH
1948, Warner Bros., 91 min. Dir. Lewis Seiler. NOT ON DVD!
Mix OUT OF THE PAST with BODY AND SOUL and what do you get? An artist who falls for a mystery woman, pursues her to the Big Apple, and ends up fighting for the middleweight championship! Pugnacious Dane Clark is artist/boxer Mike Angelo (get it?), Alexis Smith is his sexy siren, Eve Arden the sassy girlfriend, Douglas Kennedy the scar-faced gunsel and, best of all, Zachary Scott is a sadistic, wheelchair-bound fight manager! "Whiplash" is what you'll get keeping up with the careening plot, which climaxes in a smashing finale!
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.
Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun
A rare example of Herzog tackling the "ethnographic" corner of the documentary genre, with wonderfully mystical results! Herdsmen of the Sun tells of the Wodaabe tribe, a nomadic African community (self-described as “the most beautiful people on earth”) who annually practices a festival called Gerewol, in which females choose their mates from a lineup of super-elaborately adorned men with wild makeup, feathers and kaledoscopic robes draping their seven-foot frames. Starting with the first scene, Herzog accentuates the ethereal nature of this rite further by layering early 20th-century recordings of opera on the soundtrack; the film’s dreamlike depiction of a foreign people, very much at odds with the purist cinema vérité tradition of ethnography without adornment, is the embodiment of Herzog’s own “Minnesota Declaration”: that through “imagination and stylization”, there can be such a thing as a poetic, ecstatic truth. Riverting, singular and totally heartfelt.
Dir. Werner Herzog, 1989, DigiBeta, 52 min.
Woman Rebel
Directed and produced by Kiran Deol
During the decade-long civil war in Nepal, many women joined the ranks of the Maoist guerrilla fighters. Digital. 36 mins.
A WOMAN’S SECRET
1949, RKO [Warner Bros.], 88 min. Dir. Nicholas Ray. NOT ON DVD!
Consider it a film noir version of ALL ABOUT EVE. A famous singer (Maureen O’Hara) who’s lost her voice shoots her protégé (Gloria Grahame) in a fit of rage. As the young woman lies dying, flashbacks recount the tawdry saga of their backstage relationship. The Herman Mankiewicz script is no CITIZEN KANE, but he brings nasty wit to this adaptation of Vicki Baum’s novel. The terrific supporting cast features Melvyn Douglas, Victor Jory, Bill Williams and J.C. Flippen.