a highly-opinionated selection of things happening around town, and sometimes out of town. this month's page here.
sat. may 1
no age @ eagle rock center for the arts
my man godfrey 3:45 7:30, easy living 5:40 9:25 @ new beverly theatre
back to the future 5 PM, back to the future part ii, back to the future part iii @ egyptian
petulia @ aero
the devil is a woman, the girlfriend experience @ ucla film archive
sun. may 2
the time machine, beyond the time barrier @ egyptian
lust for life @ aero
bipolar bear, foot village, lamps @ the sex (bbq show)
brazil 7 PM @ new beverly theatre
off! @ 6th st warehouse
mon. may 3
the lost reels of pancho villa 8:30, the vengeance of pancho villa @ redcat
ezra buchla @ synchronicity
music by prudence, the cove FREE @ ampas linwood dunn
brazil 9:55 PM @ new beverly theatre
tue. may 4
turkey shoot, the survivor @ grindhouse film fest @ new beverly theatre
saccharine trust @ la cita
wed. may 5
the mark of zorro, the sign of zorro @ aero theatre
the hurt locker, near dark @ new beverly theatre
thu. may 6
the company of wolves 8 PM, freeway @ silent movie theatre
effects, teenager @ egyptian theatre
l'affaire farewell FREE @ melnitz movies @ ucla james bridges
the hurt locker, near dark @ new beverly theatre
de luce 8 PM @ echo park film center
fri. may 7
earthless @ detroit bar
from the inkwell to the desktop @ ucla film archive
die nibelungen part i @ lacma
the 39 steps, the lady vanishes @ aero theatre
small change, mississippi mermaid @ new beverly theatre
sat. may 8
up in smoke @ devil's night drive-in
raw meat MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
the mighty kegsmen @ redwood
strange boys, abe vigoda, audacity @ the glasshouse
western hymn @ the smell
the last starfighter, the aviator @ ucla film archive
die nibelungen part ii @ lacma
psycho, spellbound @ aero theatre
small change 3:00 7:30, mississippi mermaid 5:05 9:35 @ new beverly theatre
philosophy of lettering: chaz bojorquez 1 PM FREE @ hammer
sun. may 9
psycho, psycho 2, psycho 3 @ silent movie theatre
back to the future the ride @ laemmle playhouse (pasadena)
shadow of a doubt, stage fright @ aero theatre
roger beebe's films for one to eight projectors 8 PM @ echo park film center
mon. may 10
the maltese falcon 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
the like @ the echo
western hymn @ two headed horse
starting to go bad 8:30 @ redcat
tue. may 11
western hymn @ club ding-a-ling
back to the future the ride @ echo curio
man bites dog 10:30 PM @ downtown independent
the court jester 1:30 PM FREE @ skirball center
wed. may 12
bipolar bear @ the smell
blast phemy! four 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
visual acoustics @ egyptian theatre
strangers on a train, lifeboat @ aero theatre
thu. may 13
black moon 8 PM, valerie and her week of wonders @ silent movie theatre
frank fairfield @ echo curio
saboteur, rebecca @ aero theatre
in celebration of nowhere: new work by evan meaney 8 PM @ echo park film center
fri. may 14
daniel clowes @ skylight books
infra-man 8 PM, godzilla vs. megalon @ silent movie theatre
the finches @ the smell
out of the past @ lacma
where danger lives 9:20 @ lacma
ran @ egyptian theatre
robocop, screamers @ aero theatre
pulp fiction MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
frank fairfield @ velaslavasay panorama
sat. may 15
strawberry festival in oxnard
the finches 1 PM @ malibu public library
val lewton: the man in the shadows 5 PM FREE @ lacma
cat people, the ghost ship @ lacma
the seven samurai @ egyptian theatre
meho plaza 7 PM FREE @ vacation vinyl
tremellow @ hyperion tavern
sun. may 16
strawberry festival in oxnard
alice in wonderland (1933), TBA @ new beverly theatre
stray dog, high and low @ egyptian theatre
batman (1966), flash gordon (1980) @ aero theatre
mon. may 17
alice in wonderland (1933), TBA @ new beverly theatre
shadow of a doubt 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
the like @ the echo
back to the future the ride @ pehrspace
hysteria @ 7 dudley cinema
tue. may 18
jonathan richman @ the smell
roky erickson @ mayan theatre
the oath 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
pauline at the beach, a tale of springtime @ new beverly theatre
wed. may 19
dodes'ka-den, i live in fear @ egyptian theatre
pauline at the beach, a tale of springtime @ new beverly theatre
thu. may 20
desperate living 8 PM, wild at heart @ silent movie theatre
kagemusha @ egyptian theatre
chinatown @ aero theatre
fri. may 21
timonium @ pehrspace
foot village @ synchronicity
stranger on the third floor @ lacma
deadline at dawn 8:45 PM @ lacma
rashomon, the hidden fortress @ egyptian theatre
zabriskie point, if... @ aero theatre
troll 2 MIDNIGHT @ nuart
jon brion @ largo
sat. may 22
night of the living dead (1968) MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
mellodrama 7 PM @ silent movie theatre
silver lake jubilee
the message @ ucla film archive
born to be bad @ lacma
the woman on pier 13 9:15 PM @ lacma
the bad seed, kathy o' @ aero theatre
the thing @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
jon brion @ largo
the shining MIDNIGHT @ academy cinema
mike watt & the missingmen FREE 8 PM @ rhino pop-up store (westwood)
sun. may 23
radar bros, etc @ silver lake jubilee
super typhoon 7 PM @ ucla film archive
blonde venus 5 PM @ egyptian theatre
yojimbo, sanjuro @ egyptian theatre
fantastic mr. fox, a town called panic @ new beverly theatre
mon. may 24
laura 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
dunes @ the smell
the like @ the echo
fantastic mr. fox, a town called panic @ new beverly theatre
tue. may 25
the asphalt jungle 1 PM @ lacma
winter's bone (preview screening) @ lacma
squirm, amin: the rise and fall @ grindhouse film fest @ new beverly theatre
wed. may 26
blast phemy five 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
the exiles 7 PM @ hammer
how to succeed in business without really trying @ last remaining seats @ los angeles theatre
bobbie jo and the outlaw, truck stop women @ egyptian theatre
sleeper, bananas @ aero theatre
thu. may 27
what? 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
spectrum @ the echo
popatopolis, the return of swamp thing @ egyptian theatre
vacation, fletch @ aero theatre
fri. may 28
pufnstuf 8 PM @ mondo krofft-o @ silent movie theatre
the spiral staircase @ lacma
bedlam 9:05 PM @ lacma
the dirty dozen, attack @ egyptian theatre
reservoir dogs MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
the loons FREE 10 PM @ rhino pop-up store (westwood)
sat. may 29
99 and 44/100% dead MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
flooding with love for the kid @ silent movie theatre
hawk jones 10:30 PM @ silent movie theatre
back to the future the ride @ the smell
dirt dress @ 2 headed horse
clash by night @ lacma
the blue gardenia 9:25 PM @ lacma
raiders of the lost ark 5 PM, indiana jones and the temple of doom, indiana jones and the last crusade @ aero theatre
north by northwest @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
sun. may 30
neil hamburger @ spaceland
adventurous cartoonists & far-out comics 5 PM @ silent movie theatre
lawrence of arabia @ aero theatre
mon. may 31
tom carter @ echo curio
the like @ the echo
foot village @ pehrspace
wed. june 2
strangers on a train @ last remaining seats @ million dollar theatre
audacity @ alex's bar
thu. june 3
dunes @ the smell
fri. june 4
mia doi todd @ mccabe's
sat. june 5
the living sickness @ mind machine @ bordello
mike watt @ the smell
sun. june 6
dunes @ the smell
mon. june 7
double indemnity 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
tue. june 8
best coast @ echoplex
the man from the diners' club 1:30 PM FREE @ skirball center
wed. june 9
american graffiti @ last remaining seats @ orpheum theatre
thu. june 10
the loons @ the echo
fri. june 11
ed wood MIDNIGHT @ nuart
mon. june 14
mildred pierce 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
nodzzz, dunes @ 2 headed horse
tue. june 15
woods, abe vigoda, nodzzz, etc @ woodsist festival @ echoplex & echo
dunes @ the smell
shadoevision 8:00 11:00 PM @ tribute to shadoe stevens @ silent movie theatre
wed. june 16
the graduate @ last remaining seats @ los angeles theatre
sun. june 20
the kid 2 PM @ silent movie theatre
bert jansch @ largo
mon. june 21
the killers 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
fri. june 25
ty segall @ spaceland
sat. june 26
sharon jones & the dap-kings @ wiltern
salome (1923) 3 PM @ getty center
cleopatra (1934) 7 PM @ getty center
sun. june 27
mata hari (1932) 3 PM @ getty center
neil hamburger @ spaceland
fuxa @ echoplex
mon. june 28
the strange love of martha ivers 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
thu. jul. 1
dum dum girls @ the echo
sat. jul. 3
foot village @ the smell
dum dum girls @ detroit bar
fri. jul. 9
magic kids @ echoplex
sat. jul. 10
movie night (TBA) @ heritage square
mon. jul. 12
the dark mirror 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
sat. jul. 17
movie night (TBA) @ heritage square
mon. jul. 19
the blue dahlia 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
1991: the year punk broke 6 PM, the reinactors @ 7 dudley cinema
fri. jul. 23
sleepy sun @ spaceland
sat. jul. 24
movie night (TBA) @ heritage square
mon. jul. 26
the stanger 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
tue. jul. 27
fungi girls @ TBA
mon. aug. 2
body and soul 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
thu. aug. 5
personal & the pizzas @ the knockout (SF)
fri. aug. 6
personal & the pizzas @ TBA (oakland)
mon. aug. 9
crossfire 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
sat. aug. 14
ema & the ghosts @ pehrspace
mon. aug. 16
a double life 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
rocaterrania 8:30 @ 7 dudley cinema
mon. aug. 23
the kiss of death 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
mon. aug. 30
white heat 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
sat. sept. 4
fyf fest
WHAT IT IS:
Adventurous Cartoonists & Far-Out Comics
(w/ live appearances by Jaime Hernandez, Johnny Ryan & others!)
Co-presented by Family
Cinefamily compatriot Family Books brings you a jam-packed afternoon of savory comic book history with an adventurous bent! In celebration of his new comic anthology Art in Time: Unknown Comic Books Adventures, 1940-1980, art director/editor Dan Nadel (leader of Picturebox, one of NYC's coolest publishing imprints) will present an afternoon of book signings and conversations with notable cartoonists about the impact of adventure comics on popular culture. First, Dan will begin with an overview of adventure comics -- from crime to cavemen, and back again! Next up, "Angry Youth"/"Prison Pit" author (and Cinefamily cover artist) Johnny Ryan interviews Lawrence Hubbard, co-creator of the raw 'n riotous comic series "Real Deal", set against the backdrop of a crime-ridden South Central. Later, join underground greats Sharon Rudahl, John Thompson and Barbara (Willy) Mendes in a panel discussion on their work, and on the milieu of 1960s subversive comics! Wrapping up the show is "Love And Rockets" co-creator Jaime Hernandez presenting a screening of the 1949 Joseph L. Mankiewicz classic A Letter To Three Wives, followed by a discussion with Jaime on the film, moderated by cartoonist Sammy Harkham. This historic event is a must for any serious comic fan -- be sure to get your tickets early!
AMIN: THE RISE AND FALL
Rise and Fall of Idi Amin, also known as Amin: The Rise and Fall, is a 1981 British bloody exploitation film and biopic released in the United Kingdom on 25 August 1981. The film was directed by Sharad Patel and stars Joseph Olita as Idi Amin.
The film details the controversial actions and atrocities of the former dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin Dada, during his violent rise to power in 1971 until his overthrow in 1979. The film was a co-production of the U.K., Kenya and Nigeria, with most of filming done in Kenya, less than a year after Amin's exiling. Despite being branded as an exploitation film, it is actually quite accurate with the facts and dates of the events depicted, including Operation Entebbe, the Uganda-Tanzania War (1979) and the capture and imprisonment of British journalist Denis Hills (who portrays himself in the film). It does, however, take certain liberties, especially with the portrayal of Amin as being over-the-top, buffoonish and erratic behavior. It also makes explicit references to Amin being a cannibal, leading many to believe that this film alone was the cause of many of the myths and rumours about the man.
The Asphalt Jungle
1950/b&w/112 min. | Scr: Ben Maddow, John Huston; dir: John Huston; w/ Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, Marilyn Monroe
A gang of small time crooks plots an elaborate jewel heist.
ATTACK, 1956, MGM Repertory, 107 min. Dir. Robert Aldrich. Cowardly captain Eddie Albert is in charge of a group of American soldiers that includes Jack Palance as the tough lieutenant who challenges Albert's "leadership." Lee Marvin costars in this riveting depiction of the Battle of the Bulge.
Bedlam
1946/b&w/80 min. | Scr: Charles Keith, Mark Robson; dir: Mark Robson; w/ Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, Jason Robards Sr.
Actress Nell Rowan is appalled by a performance given by the inmates of Saint Mary's of Bethlehem Hospital for the Insane, and resolves to campaign for asylum reform. Angered by this challenge to his authority, the cruel apothecary general Master Sims (Karloff) has Nell committed to the madhouse, but his plan backfires when she rallies the inmates to revolt. Set in London in 1762 and inspired by a William Hogarth engraving, Bedlam was Val Lewton's final and most ambitious film for RKO, a social message delivered in the guise of a horror film. "Director of photography Musuraca drenches his carefully composed canvas in dramatic lighting and the interior of Bedlam is a mass of expressionistically angled shafts of light and shadow. A truly effective shot of hands reaching out through the bars of dark cells along a corridor reveals the plight of many inmates. When Nell has her first glimpse inside the asylum, we see her startled face before the camera pulls back to gradually reveal bodies lay strewn about the place amongst filthy straw beds, chains and unidentifiable debris."—Behind the Couch.
BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER, 1960, MGM/UA, 75 min. Dir. Edgar G. Ulmer. High-testosterone pilot Robert Clarke pushes his jet past 5,000 mph -- and finds himself catapulted into a crumbling, plague-ridden Utopia of Tomorrow. Shot at a futuristic exhibit at the Texas State Fairgrounds (along with THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN), TIME BARRIER co-stars Ulmer’s daughter, Arianne Ulmer, as the villainous Markova. "The mutants were basically rubber bathing caps on these poor people’s heads!" - Arianne Ulmer.
Black Moon
Every big-name internationally adored director, after years of critical acclaim, is bound to craft an off-the cliff piece of one-for-the-ages capriciousness -- and Louis Malle’s turn came with this seldom-seen, magically insane '70s fable. Drawing inspiration from Lewis Carroll, the story follows a lost English girl through a woodland landscape of the future, where men and women have declared war with one another and people can communicate with animals. She falls in with Joe Dallesandro and his incestuous sister, which leads to even more surreal developments (and some very uncomfortable nudity) leading up to a poetic finale involving a unicorn. Beautifully shot by the great Sven Nykvist at Malle’s own French home at the time, this stream-of-consciousness reverie remains unavailable in America after an aborted U.S. theatrical release by Fox, so come experience this love-it-or-hate-it brainblaster on the big screen while you can.
Dir. Louis Malle, 1975, 35mm, 100 min.
Blast Phemy! 5
(feat. live film scores by Lucky Dragons)
Tonight, our Blast Phemy! residency draws to a dynamic close. First, experience the contemplative mastery of "visual music" maestro James Whitney’s exquisite abstract experimentations Yantra and Lapis (presented in new digital transfers supervised by the Whitney Estate and the Academy Film Archive), wedded to the award-winning percussive sounds of the legendary Gregg Johnson in a rare SoCal appearance. Then, witness the multimedia magic of local underground duo Lucky Dragons, whose song-based explorations with home-made synthesizer, vocal virtuosity and found object percussion meld seamlessly with experimental film projections. We conclude with Transvalue, the prodigious brainbaby of trombonist/composer Michael Vlatkovich, percussionist David Crigger and spoken word artist Chuck Britt, melding virtuosic musical settings for L.A.’s finest jazz musicians supporting, surrounding and interacting with Mr.Britt’s growling, hissing, warbling and verbal dances, all graced with the visual explosions of Steve Shoffner. A show never again to be replicated anywhere on the planet!
BLONDE VENUS, 1932, Universal, 93 min. Dir. Josef Von Sternberg. Marlene Dietrich is Helen, a former nightclub entertainer married to scientist Herbert Marshall. Their idyllic family life is shattered when he becomes disabled and she must return to the stage to support him and their son (Dickie Moore). Enter millionaire Cary Grant. Dietrich is luminously hypnotic here. One of the best of the Von Sternberg/Dietrich collaborations, milking every bit of charisma from its two gorgeous stars and miraculously steering the high-voltage melodramatics into poignant revelation by the last frame.
The Blue Dahlia
(96 mins.)
Novelist Raymond Chandler penned this original screenplay which reteamed Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, as a veteran accused of murder and the woman who comes to his aid.
The Blue Gardenia
1953/b&w/90 min./16mm | Scr: Charles Hoffman; dir: Fritz Lang; w/ Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern, Raymond Burr
Shot by Musuraca in flat, high-key light that emphasizes the drab life of three single women who toil on a busy LA switchboard and share a cramped apartment, The Blue Gardenia is an odd fusion of sociology and "true crime" reportage. The drama arises when roommate Baxter, alone and depressed, agrees to have dinner with a notorious philanderer who plies her with "pearl divers" in a tiki-style restaurant, and later makes a pass that erupts into violence—vividly reflected in the shards of a shattered mirror. In the fatalistic world of Fritz Lang, impetuous decisions have lethal consequences, and Baxter, who was preyed on by one man, is now faced with new men seeking "justice" or a tabloid headline. Peter Bogdanovich described the film as "a particularly venomous picture of American life," and UCLA professor Janet Bergstrom is equally harsh when she writes: "Deception, betrayal and psychological terrorism thoroughly permeate this McCarthy-era film, not only those scenes presented in the nightmarish visual style of film noir. The Blue Gardenia is a nightmare from one end to the other, no matter how wholesome the 'women's world' featured in many scenes appears to be...."
BOBBIE JO AND THE OUTLAW, 1976, MGM Repertory, 89 min. Dir. Mark L. Lester. Bored carhop Lynda Carter goes on the lam with outlaw Marjoe Gortner, Slick (Jesse Vint), her stripper sister (Merrie Lynn Ross) and best friend Essie (Belinda Balaski from PIRANHA and THE HOWLING). NOT ON DVD
Body and Soul
(104 mins.)
John Garfield was nominated for his powerful performance as a boxer embroiled in the underworld in this drama from writer Abraham Polonsky (“Force of Evil”) and director Robert Rossen (“The Hustler”).
Born to be Bad
1950/b&w/94 min. | Scr: Edith Sommer; dir: Nicholas Ray; w/ Joan Fontaine, Robert Ryan, Zachary Scott, Joan Leslie, Mel Ferrer. | Restored by George Eastman House with funding provide by The Film Foundation.
Musuraca's glossy cinematography has never looked better than in this sparkling new Eastman House print restored with funds from the Film Foundation. The title refers to vain and venal Christobel Caine, who schemes her way into the mansion of millionaire Scott, shoves aside his fiancée, and marries the sucker for his money. But a girl with that much bread needs a little butter… and this is where Ryan comes in. "Fontaine's customary 'nice' image is undermined throughout, exposing the wiles that may underlie traditional 'feminine innocence,' and at the same time revealing that gullible men deserve what they get. A highly watchable and bitchy melodrama directed by Ray with great attention to emotional states and telling camera compositions… all those staircases!"—Time Out.
CAT PEOPLE
Val Lewton's first production for RKO was Cat People, a horror film with supernatural and psychosexual overtones, in which French actress Simon gives a sincere and restrained performance as Irena, a Serbian-born fashion illustrator living in New York who believes that, when aroused, she will turn into a panther and kill. Unfolding its tale in a series of formal, poetic, and ambiguous scenes, Cat People abounds in striking images—Irena terrifying the birds in a pet shop, Irena pacing outside the panther's cage in the Central Park Zoo—and one famous set piece: the swimming pool scene in which the cat woman stalks (or does she?) a female rival. A tour de force of oblique camera angles, nerve-tingling sound effects and shadowy lighting, this sequence derives its power from a combination of suggestion and imagination that encourages the audience to "see" the horrific elements in their own minds…which is the essence of the Lewton style. 1942/b&w/73 min. | Scr: DeWitt Bodeen; dir: Jacques Tourneur; w/ Simone Simon, Kent Smith
Clash by Night
1952/b&w/105 min. | Scr: Alfred Hayes; dir: Fritz Lang; w/ Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan, Paul Douglas, Marilyn Monroe
Opening with documentary footage of fishing boats, cannery laborers and waves crashing on rocks, this intense portrait of three people is perhaps the most American of Lang's films, atypical in the specificity of its Northern California setting and its working class milieu. Mae, disillusioned but still attractive, returns to her hometown to lick her wounds, and drifts into marriage and motherhood with Jerry, a burly fisherman who dotes on her. Enter Jerry's cynical friend, Earle, the projectionist in the local cinema and a man with a violent streak, who seduces the restless Mae and urges her to abandon hard-earned security and run away with him. Faced with the task of filming actors giving powerful emotional performances—above all Robert Ryan whose role as Earle is the film's most anguished and physical—Musuraca, in his first collaboration with Lang, uses a mobile camera that pans and tracks, unobtrusively pulling in toward the actors and then backing off again. The result is "an eternal triangle transformed by characters that are complex creations, never wholly one thing or another... situated in a naturalistic reality that supports their alienation."—Julie Kirgo, Film Noir.
The Company of Wolves
Little Red Riding Hood gets a gorgeous, horrific makeover in this dreamlike breakthrough classic from Neil Jordan. In a fantasy world imagined by young girl Rosaleen, a stern granny (Angela Lansbury) lectures her about the dangers of straying from the path and encountering hairy men harboring slavering wolves inside them. Spinning off into a series of breathtaking set pieces, this visual feast was initially lost in the ‘80s tumble when distributors tried to pass this off as another werewolf flick, sort of The Howling for the English lit crowd. The late English writer Angela Carter adapts her own stories to craft an unforgettable twilight journey through the forbidding depths of female adolescence, where a dash of lipstick is enough to unleash any number of hairy beasts hiding in the woods.
Dir. Neil Jordan, 1984, 35mm, 95 min.
Crossfire
(86 mins.)
Richard Brooks’s novel The Brick Foxhole became a powerful thriller about murder among World War II veterans, directed by Edward Dmytryk from a screenplay by John Paxton.
The Dark Mirror
(85 mins.)
Olivia de Havilland plays twin sisters suspected of murder in this 1946 romantic thriller with a screenplay by Nunnally Johnson and directed by Robert Siodmak, who was Oscar-nominated the same year for directing “The Killers.”
Deadline at Dawn
1946/b&w/85 min. | Scr: Clifford Odets; dir: Harold Clurman; w/ Susan Hayward, Paul Lukas
When a naive sailor on shore leave in New York discovers the floosie who slipped him a mickey lying dead on her apartment floor, he turns to sympathetic dance hall girl Hayward—especially appealing in a no-nonsense role—and with the help of a philosophical cabbie (Lukas), they criss-cross the city in search of the killer. As the clock ticks toward 6 am, the suspense rises as does the number of suspects and dead ends, leading to a last minute revelation. Based on a novel by legendary noir author Cornell Woolrich (Rear Window), with a screenplay by Clifford Odets (Clash by Night), who provided the colorful proletarian dialogue, Deadline at Dawn is the only film directed by Clurman, founder of the left-wing Group Theater. Populated by the kind of oddballs for whom Woolrich had such affection, the film is distinguished by beautiful nocturnal images where "the neon blinks against the black in a lonely desolate manner, and the only people awake are desperate people with secrets. The darkness has a gleam here…It is Edward Hopper time."—Sheila O'Malley.
DE LUCE
The San Francisco Art Institute has had a long tradition of fostering the development of artists working with film and video in uniquely personal ways, and who have gone on to become successful artists, educators and curators. For many who have gone through the program, Janis Crystal Lipzin has been a strong mentor and role model. As an interdisciplinary artist committed to filmmaking she has created a body of work that utilizes alternative photochemical processes, installation and performance to explore personal, political and environmental issues. This program features her newest work, a handmade Super-8/digital hybrid entitled De Luce 1: Vegetare, alongside a decade’s worth of work by alumni including Alexis Bravos, Brian Traylor, Chris Kennedy, Christina Battle, Elizabeth DiGiovanni, Jeremy Menzies, John Palmer, Kai-Ting Chuang, Karen Johannesen, Rick Bahto, Tsen-Chu Hsu, and Vanessa O’Neill. Proceeds from tonight’s program will be donated to the SFAI Faculty Union’s legal fund as they continue their struggle against the unjust layoffs of nine tenured faculty members, including Janis Crystal Lipzin.
THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN
(1935) Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg's last film with Marlene Dietrich reprises the themes of The Blue Angel (1930), but carries them deeper into visual and narrative abstraction. Dietrich plays the Spanish Concha, a sensual cipher who ensnares men in romantic webs as enthralling as Sternberg's baroque mise-en-scene. While most films made before 1950 were produced on cellulose nitrate stock, Sternberg's aesthetic sensibility seems more happily attuned than most to its luminous properties.
Based on a novel by Pierre Louys. Screenplay: John Dos Passos. Cinematographer: Josef von Sternberg. Editor: Sam Winston. Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Lionel Atwill, Cesar Romero, Edward Everett Horton. 35mm, B/W, 82 min.
DIE NIBELUNGEN
One of the greatest artistic and technical achievements of German silent cinema, Fritz Lang’s two-part epic is presented at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater by LACMA, the Goethe-Institut and the Academy as part of the citywide “Ring Festival LA” related to the LA Opera’s presentation of Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen.”
Featuring a newly recorded version of the original score by Gottfried Huppertz, conducted by Berndt Heller, the film stars Paul Richter, Gertrud Arnold, Margarethe Schön and Rudolf Klein-Rogge and was scripted by Thea von Harbou.
Based on the 12th century German epic poem “The Song of the Nibelungs,” the film’s story varies greatly from the 1876 operatic version that Wagner created. Nevertheless, it is immensely satisfying and a masterful achievement in its own right, with stunning cinematography, special effects that are still impressive despite modern technological advancements, and lush production design.
DODES’KA-DEN, 1970, Janus Films, 140 min. Kurosawa’s fascination with slum-life (as seen in THE LOWER DEPTHS) reemerges here in a swirling episodic portrait of various individuals, many of them children, living in destitution in a garbage dump in Tokyo. In Japanese with English subtitles.
A Double Life
(104 mins.)
Ronald Colman won the Best Actor Oscar for his change-of-pace role as an actor whose performance as Othello starts to affect his personal life in this psychological drama from director George Cukor and writers Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin.
EASY LIVING
When a sable coat lands on secretary Jean Arthur's head, it kicks off a series of madcap misadventures in this stylish, screwball, romantic comedy written by Preston Sturges. With Edward Arnold and Ray Milland. Mitchell Leisen---USA---1937---88 mins.
EFFECTS, 1980, John Harrison, 84 min. Dir. Dusty Nelson. Cameraman Dominic (Joe Pilato from DAY OF THE DEAD) starts to wonder if his sleazy director (John Harrison) is making a horror film or a snuff film. This mind-bending meditation on the very nature of film and reality features great support work from Tom Savini, Charles Hoyes and Bernard McKenna.
Flooding With Love For The Kid
Rambo fetishists, a new day of rejoicing has come! Flooding With Love for the Kid, the new adaptation of David Morell's 1972 source material novel "First Blood", was just completed by actor/writer/director/cameraman/stylist/caterer Zachary Oberzan -- with one video camera in one 220-square-foot NYC apartment for $96, all by his lonesome. Eschewing Stallone-style spectacle for a YouTube-esque zen, this feature-length no-fi epic ambitiously re-imagines the novel as a ludicrous, exhibitionist fever dream. Imagine if a Max Fischer play from Rushmore was imbued with Jean-Luc Godard’s penchant for sardonic realism, only to be filtered through a grade-schooler’s "Let’s build a fort!" sincerity. Sound crazy? It is -- wonderfully so. Yet, the impressive, good-humored gusto with which Oberzan presents himself (playing every single part, including, but not limited to Rambo, an elderly woman, and three bloodhounds) surprisingly makes the film gel into an affecting, emotional whole. Either that, or a demented peek into the mind of a part-time nut. After witnessing Oberzan urinate on himself via the magic of jump cuts, you can be the judge. Zachary Oberzan will be here in-person after the screening for a Q&A session!
Dir. Zachary Oberzan, 2009, digital presentation, 90 min.
Freeway
"Mix together one cup of Natural Born Killers with a half-cup of Los Olvidados, sprinkle liberally with freeze-dried bile and bake for 98 minutes...[Matthew] Bright, mercifully, is an allegorist who consistently prefers projectiles to platitudes." - Allan Ulrich, San Francisco Chronicle.
Reese Witherspoon struts her stuff in what is easily one of her best performances, as a jailbait Red Riding Hood named Vanessa tearing down the I-5 to see her granny, all the while being stalked by cunning, murderous pervert/child shrink Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland). This clever, hilarious genre mishmash marked the directorial debut for former Oingo Boingo member Matthew Bright (who co-wrote Forbidden Zone) and is just as wild as you’d expect, in addition to offering a surprisingly effective parable about the corrosion of the American justice system! Don’t miss this rare opportunity to experience this disturbing and weirdly uplifting gem in a theater the way the movie gods intended.
Dir. Matthew Bright, 1996, 35mm, 110 min.
FROM THE INKWELL TO THE DESKTOP--A SELECTION OF EARLY HAND-DRAWN AND DIGITAL ANIMATION
This program surveys 90 years of animation history with a selection of early hand-drawn and digitally-animated shorts produced between 1900–1990. The first half highlights recent UCLA Film & Television Archive restorations of silent animated shorts (soon to be available online as part of a special digital initiative headed by the Archive's Research and Study Center), while the second half features pioneering digital shorts, such as Peter Foldès Hunger (1974) and John Lasseter's first Academy Award–winning work at Pixar. IN PERSON: Jerry Beck, animation historian and author; Bill Kroyer, filmmaker. Total Running Time: approx. 110 min.
THE GHOST SHIP
The Ghost Ship's scenario was written to take advantage of an unusually large set from a previous RKO production—an impressive ship—presenting Musuraca with the opportunity to incorporate long tracking shots and elaborate mist and steam compositions into a moody, cat-and-mouse thriller. Another of Lewton's penetrating studies of psychological impairment, the film focuses on the plight of Tom Merriman, a young seaman who gradually suspects that the authoritarian captain is responsible for the deadly accidents that plague the ship; scoffed at by his skeptical shipmates, Merriman is left alone to fight off a sadistic madman. 1943/b&w/69 min. | Scr: Donald Henderson Clarke; dir: Mark Robson; w/ Richard Dix, Russell Wade.
THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE
(2009) Directed by Steven Soderbergh
In The Girlfriend Experience, Steven Soderbergh, an early adopter and champion of digital cinema, explores the world of appearance and deception constructed by Chelsea (Sasha Grey), a high-class call girl who offers her clients the illusion of a real relationship.
Shooting with the Red One digital camera, Soderbergh crafts a prismatic work that raises intriguing questions about the nature and allure of image and images, a timely line of inquiry in the post-film era.
Producer: Gregory Jacobs. Screenplay: David Levien, Brian Koppelman. Cinematographer: Peter Andrews. Cast: Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, Philip Eytan. HDcam, 77 min.
IN PERSON: Steven Soderbergh and Curtis Hanson (host).
Godzilla vs. Megalon
"It's been a remarkable transformation of character...the dragon has become St. George." -- Vincent Canby, New York Times.
Godzilla vs. Megalon, the thirteenth Toho Studios film to feature Godzilla, is the Superman III of this big goofy monster franchise -- it's about as far afield as you can get from the original Godzilla, yet still proudly stands tall as a wacky, entertaining treat with moves to spare. Originally intended as a vehicle for the new size-shifting good guy robot character "Jet Jaguar", Toho decided to retool the enterprise and throw in a few Godzilla appearances for good measure, resulting in the Big Green Dude batting for the human team(!) as he squares off against Megalon, the god beast of the Atlantis-like kingdom Seatopia (plus a few other behemoth critters for good measure.) Strap yourself in for caucasian undersea villians, monsters "talking" to each other in sign language, and a legendary Godzilla wrestling move never attempted since.
Dir. Jun Fukuda, 1973, 35mm, 78 min.
Hawk Jones
Bugsy Malone may have won the Golden Palm in 1976, but the real deal, the true gem in kids-masquerading-in-adult-clothes-and-shooting-each-other films is Hawk Jones -- think Serpico on training wheels! When a local gangster turns our fair city into one of blood feuds and despicable violence, the only shred of light in the darkness is not unlike Shaft, John McClane and the kid from Cop And A Half all rolled into one tough nine-year-old package, one who won't stop until the mobster's head is served to him on a cafeteria tray, with a Capri Sun to wash it down. To make matters worse, he's teamed up with the most vile of creatures -- a cootie-coated dame! This unlikely pair have no choice but to sweep through this rat cage of spoiled brats, young ruffians and floozies (acting just a little too sexy for comfort) until it's left spotless, so be prepared to watch a whole bunch of kid gangsters die graphic, yet adorable deaths. Whether you're a fan of cop movies, kids' films, or just young at heart, Hawk Jones will leave you crying for your mommy, begging for a Dum-Dum. Director Richard Lowry will be at the Cinefamily in-person for a Q&A after the screening!
Dir. Richard Lowry, 1986, digital presentation, 88 min.
HIGH AND LOW (TENGOKU TO JIGOKU), 1963, Janus Films, 142 min. Kurosawa examines social class barriers and the harsh realities of unprincipled capitalism when a shoe magnate (Toshiro Mifune) is challenged with a life-changing decision. Will he or won’t he pay the ransom when a psycho accidentally kidnaps the son of Mifune’s chauffeur instead of Mifune’s own child? In Japanese with English subtitles.
HYSTERIA ('02, 83m) at 7pm - Antero Ali & Jakob Bokulich's suspense thriller made right after 9/11 WTC. After mistakenly drinking hallucinogenic datura tea, Ikar, a Croatian Catholic soldier is haunted by visions of what he believes is the Virgin Mary who gives him a life mission. Ten years later, Ikar migrates to Oakland California to fulfill this questionable religious mission in this cautionary tale lining fundamentalism and violence.
I LIVE IN FEAR (IKIMONO NO KIROKU), 1955, Janus Films, 103 min. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. An aging foundry owner becomes so obsessed with the fear of nuclear extermination and the wish to flee to South America that his family has him deemed legally incompetent. In Japanese with English subtitles.
IN CELEBRATION OF NOWHERE: NEW WORK BY EVAN MEANEY
This program will feature individual works from The Ceibas Cycle (2007 - present), a series of experimental videos constructed through a glitching process, wherein their codes have been rewritten and their codecs, forced into crisis. This work sings a celebration for the digitally dead, while asking us to rethink how useful a ghost might be. Following this will be the 2010 film Centralia, a piece concerned with the archive of documents and generational trauma surrounding a Pennsylvania town that has been on fire since 1962.
FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!
Infra-Man
"Within the first four mintues of Infra-Man, (a) a giant flying lizard attacks a school bus, (b) the Earth cracks open, (c) Hong Kong is destroyed by flames, (d) mountains disintegrate to reveal the forms of reptilian monsters with blinking yellow eyes, (e) the Professor announces that a twenty-million-year-old woman is unleashing the hibernating monsters upon civilization, (f) the Science Headquarters is shaken by a second quake, (g) the Mutants awake, and (h) the Professor, obviously shaken, informs a secret meeting of world leaders, 'This situation is so bad that it is the worst that ever has been!'" - Roger Ebert
Japan's hugely successful live-action superhero franchises (Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and its "henshin" ilk) inspired both "Yo Gabba Gabba!" and this blatant but beautiful tribute from Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers studio. This isn't a cheap Turkish-style rip-off -- this is a seriously ass-kicking, giant-robots-and-monsters-battling, bionic superman kung-fu-fighting, slickly-produced action-packed rip-off! Come prepared for the kind of mad, over-the-top genius that will leave you breathless.
Dir. Shan Hua, 1975, 35mm, 88 min.
THE KID
"But it was in The Kid that Chaplin seemed to realize, at last, precisely what was required." - Walter Kerr, "The Silent Clowns"
In celebration of Father’s Day, The Cinefamily presents one of Chaplin’s most moving and beloved films. The Tramp adopts an abandoned toddler (Jackie Coogan) whom he discovers in an alley, and raises him to become his sidekick in a variety of schemes and cons. Chaplin's first feature-length directorial effort, The Kid is a moving and hilarious portrait of paternal love, or as the film's first intertitle says, "A picture with a smile, and perhaps a tear..." As well, it's the landmark work of genius in which Charlie the jester metamorphasized into Charlie the full-blooded actor, whose iconic dignity in the face of comic adversity has continued to make him one of our greatest cinematic treasures. Children under 18 get in half-price to this special "kiddie" matinee!
The Killers
(103 mins.)
Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner gave breakthrough performances in this gripping drama from a screenplay by Anthony Veiller that expanded Ernest Hemingway’s classic short story about a man who makes no effort to escape from the men hired to kill him.
The Kiss of Death
(98 mins.)
Richard Widmark made a memorable screen debut as Tommy Udo, one of the all-time great villains of film noir, in this tense drama starring Victor Mature and Brian Donlevy, directed by Henry Hathaway from a screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer.
L'affaire Farewell
Actor-directors Emir Kusturica and Guillaume Canet co-star in this remarkable Cold War thriller about a key event in the downfall of the Soviet Union. In the early 1980s, a disillusioned KGB colonel (Kusturica) hands over top-secret documents to an ordinary French engineer (Canet) working for the Thomson news service in Moscow, inciting an international intelligence incident that reaches all the way to the desk of then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan (Fred Ward). Cloak-and-dagger skullduggery abounds, but writer-director Christian Carion keeps the focus of this little-known true story on the richly human friendship between two unlikely comrades. -Film Society of Lincoln Center Opening Night selection, 2010 Rendez-vous with French Cinema "An extraordinary but little-known episode in international espionage...juicy, fascinating stuff" -Todd McCarthy, VARIETY "a harrowing, richly human and well-acted espionage tale" -Lisa Nesselson, SCREEN DAILY DIRECTOR: Christian Carion CAST: Emir Kusturica, Guillaume Canet, Willem Dafoe, Fred Ward In French, Russian, and English with English subtitles 35mm, 113 min
Lost Reels of Pancho Villa
“Movie-history enthusiasts, among others, will be intrigued by Lost Reels’ quest for a cinematic ‘Holy Grail.’” Variety
Gregorio Rocha’s award-winning documentary Los rollos perdidos de Pancho Villa (Mexico/Canada/USA, 2003, 49 min., b/w and color) recounts his painstaking intercontinental search for one of film history’s most intriguing lost works: Raoul Walsh’s The Life of General Villa, a quasi-factual 1914 biography commissioned by the Mexican revolutionary strongman (in which Villa allowed cameramen to follow him into actual combat). While sleuthing in countless archives, vaults and institutional back rooms, the Mexico City-based filmmaker and media archivist uncovers a wider, decidedly conflicted legacy of how the general was depicted in the newsreels and movies of the silent film era—and locates in the process the heretofore little-known origins of border cinema. In person: Gregorio Rocha
LUST FOR LIFE, 1956, MGM, 122 min. Director Vincente Minnelli, screenwriter Norman Corwin, and star Kirk Douglas team up for one of the greatest bio-pics ever made in this story of the life and work of Vincent Van Gogh. Using a color scheme based on Van Gogh's own work, the filmmakers create a delirious, deeply subjective portrait of an artist. Discussion with Norman Corwin following the film.
The Maltese Falcon
(100 mins.)
The third film version of Dashiell Hammett’s novel became iconic in the hands of writer-director John Huston with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre creating indelible portraits of film noir characters. Huston’s screenplay received an Oscar nomination. Introduced by Lawrence Kasdan (“Body Heat,” “The Bodyguard”).
MAN BITES DOG
dir. Remy Belvaux
Belguim, 1992, 95 min, 35mm
Documentary filmmakers André and Rémy have found an ideal subject in Ben. He is witty, sophisticated, intelligent, well liked—and a serial killer. As André and Rémy document Ben’s routines, they become increasingly entwined in his vicious program, sacrificing their objectivity and their morality. Controversial winner of the International Critics’ Prize at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, Man Bites Dog stunned audiences worldwide with its unflinching imagery and biting satire of media violence.
THE MAN FROM THE DINERS’ CLUB
In this send-up of the American business world, Danny Kaye plays a hapless Diners' Club employee who must retrieve a card accidentally issued to a mobster (Telly Savalas). Also featuring Harry Dean Stanton as a beatnik. Directed by Frank Tashlin. (1963, 96 min. No MPAA rating.)
Mellodrama
A synth fetishist's utter delight! From a California workshop to Royal Albert Hall, Mellodrama tells the story of the first sampling keyboards -- the Chamberlin (U.S.) and the Mellotron (U.K.) -- and how their haunting sound changed the production and texture of popular music — from the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" and the Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" to Radiohead's album "OK Computer" and Kanye West's "Gold Digger." These two sister instruments' storied history is told through a wealth of select rare footage from the past several decades, plus heartfelt tributes from Brian Wilson, Italian film composer Fabio Frizzi, Goblin member Claudio Simonetti, Yes keyboardist Patrick Moraz (duetting with a glowing Stormtrooper helmet!), Brian Kehew of the legendary vintage synth tribute The Moog Cookbook, members of Genesis and King Crimson, and more! The screening is followed by a Q&A with director Dianna Dilworth, and a live Mellotron performance by Brian Kehew of The Moog Cookbook!
Dir. Dianna Dilworth, 2008, digital presentation, 75 min.
THE MESSAGE
(Feng Sheng)
(2009, China) Directed by Chen Kuo-fu and Gao Qunshu
In Japanese-occupied China, the powerful Colonel Takeda learns of a double-agent in his own counterinsurgency unit, so he invites his group to a remote seaside mansion to discover which of them is "The Phantom." Accusing fingers point this way and that as the agents are eliminated one by one in this tightly-wound and handsomely produced "whodunit" mystery.
Based on the novel "Feng Sheng" by Mai Jia. Producer: Wang Zhongjun, Ren Zhongjun, Wan Ke. Screenplay: Chen Kuo-fu. Cinematographer: Jake Pollock. Cast: Zhou Xun, Li Bingbing, Zhang Hanyu, Huang Xiaoming. 35mm, 114 min.
Mildred Pierce
(109 mins.)
Joan Crawford earned her only Academy Award for her memorable portrayal of a businesswoman coping with a conniving daughter and an unfaithful lover in this film version of the James M. Cain novel with a screenplay by Ranald MacDougall, directed by Michael Curtiz.
MISSISSIPPI MERMAID
Jean-Paul Belmondo plays a wealthy industrialist living on the island of La Reunion, who orders a bride by mail and receives, in place of his intended, the beautiful Catherine Deneuve and a flimsy (but apparently acceptable) explanation. The imposter soon absconds with his bank account and leads him into a murky drama of missing persons and murder. What comes out of this strange mix is a surprisingly powerful adult love story. Francois Truffaut---France---1969---123 mins.
MY MAN GODFREY
One of the most enduring and popular American film comedies of all time, a masterpiece of sophisticated wit and screwball antics. Carole Lombard is the madcap heiress who finds a gentleman-bum (William Powell) on a garbage heap and brings him home to become the butler. The result is a wonderful, eccentric satire of the idle rich as Godfrey tries to bring sanity into their lives. Selected for the National Film Registry in 1999. Gregory La Cava---USA---1936---93 mins.
NEAR DARK
Kathryn Bigelow's vampire western is set in the farm country of middle America, where a young man gets more than he bargained for when he meets a dreamy blonde girl with a thirst for blood. The real danger, however, comes from the roving pack of bad-ass bloodsuckers she travels with. Bigelow expertly juggles suspense, violent action scenes, horror iconography, and some unexpectedly serene images to create something truly fresh and memorable. With Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Tim Thomerson, and young Joshua John Miller in a great performance as a vampire with adult desires, stuck in the body of child.
Kathryn Bigelow---USA---1987---95 mins.
1991 - THE YEAR PUNK BROKE ('92, 99m) at 6pm - With Sonic Youth and Nirvana as they stumble thought their 1991 European club festival tour! Let filmmaker Dave Markey put you on stage, off stage and backstage! Witness the boredom! The cynicism! And rock harder than you may have ever rocked before! Featuring Dinosaur Jr., Babes In Toyland, Gumball, The Ramones and a surging wave of punk rock fanatics! See You In The Pit! "Markey strives for a kind of cinema verite-meets-homemade-fanzine appeal and succeeds almost too well."-Entertainment Weekly
99 AND 44/100% DEAD
(from IMDB)
Uncle Frank Kelly calls on Harry Crown to help him in a gang war. The war becomes personal when Harry's new girlfriend is kidnapped by Uncle Frank's enemy, Big Eddie. Sociological Gangster satire for the pop-art age. Dir. John Frankenheimer, 1974, 98 mins.
The Oath
A spectacularly gripping documentary that unspools like a great political thriller, The Oath, from Oscar-nominated director Laura Poitras (My Country, My Country) is the cross-cut tale of two men whose fateful meeting propelled them on divergent courses with Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo Bay Prison and the U.S. Supreme Court. Abu Jandal is a taxi driver in Sana’a, Yemen; his brother-in-law Salim Hamdan is a Guantanamo prisoner and the first man to face the controversial military tribunals. Their intertwined personal trajectories — how they became bin Laden’s bodyguard and driver, respectively —act as prisms that serve to explore and contextualize a world which has confounded Western media. Winner of Best Documentary Cinematography at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, The Oath offers a rare window into a realm too long misunderstood — and the international impact of the U.S. "war on terror."
OUT OF THE PAST
1947/b&w/97 min. | Scr: Geoffrey Homes; dir: Jacques Tourneur; w/ Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
Jeff, a former private detective who has started a new life in a small California town, is apprehensive when he is summoned to the home of a rich and powerful gambler, who, years earlier, had hired him to locate his runaway girlfriend, an amoral beauty who seduced Jeff and embroiled him in a murder. In this archetypal tale of betrayal and revenge that unfolds in flashback, a laconic Robert Mitchum represents all the noir men who have been beset by inner demons and faced with impossible obstacles, and silky Jane Greer is every duplicitous woman who has offered up her wounded heart with one hand while holding a revolver in the other. Andrew Sarris called it "an annihilating melodrama and Tourneur's masterpiece," while the BFI Screen Guide notes that Tourneur and Musuraca are "especially good at creating a lyrical and sensual play of shadow. They strikingly evoke the romantic and erotic, but essentially illusory, attractions of both Acapulco (where the lovers tryst amid hanging nets on a moonlit beach) and a femme fatale who stage manages her entrances to ensnare the willing hero."
PAULINE AT THE BEACH
Another treat from one of French cinema's most subtle and greatest artists. Rohmer explores the complicated romantic and sexual entanglements of six people on summer holiday. The coincidences, misunderstandings and passionate antics of the adults are observed by teenage Pauline and her first boyfriend. A "bewitchingly funny yet profoundly wise comedy" (Vogue). Eric Rohmer---France---1983---94 mins.
PETULIA, 1968, Warner Bros., 105 min. Dir. Richard Lester. George C. Scott is a middle-aged physician who finds himself drawn into the mad, idealistic and desperately sad whirlwind life of Julie Christie, who is unhappily married to Richard Chamberlain (in one of his best early performances), at the height of San Francisco's Summer of Love. Beautifully photographed by Nicolas Roeg, and featuring brief, ultra-rare appearances in their prime by Janis Joplin (with Big Brother & The Holding Company) and The Grateful Dead. Discussion in between films with actor Richard Chamberlain, moderated by Neil LaBute.
Philosophy of Lettering: Chaz Bojorquez
Artist Chaz Bojorquez has been immersed in the graffiti tradition of East Los Angeles Mexican Americans since the 1950s. He has combined graffiti, his formal fine art education, and extensive Asian calligraphy studies, becoming one of the best-known and most original graffiti artists from Los Angeles. Bojorquez will demonstrate how art and culture define his experience as well as his philosophy about the value and execution of letters. This program is presented by the Hammer Student Association (HSA) in collaboration with the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.
POPATOPOLIS, 2009, Imaginaut Entertainment, 75 min. This hilarious and compelling documentary follows low-budget auteur Jim Wynorski as he attempts to shoot a feature film in three days. As the frustrations and obstacles pile up, documentary director Clay Westervelt chronicles Wynorski's passion in the face of extreme financial limitations.
Pufnstuf
Mondo Kroftt-O
(feat. Pufnstuf)
"Land of The Lost". "Lidsville". "The Bugaloos" and more! With their day-glo landscapes, cardboard set pieces, and colorful cavalry of life-size puppet creatures, the loveably warped works of Sid and Marty Krofft are a picture window onto a bygone era of adventurous American children's programming. From a land lost in time to a land inhabited by walking, talking hats, to a kiddy show starring (yes, really) Richard Pryor and his foam-formed friends, part of the joy of revisiting the Kroffts' wacky high-concept, low-budget universe is marveling at a time when shows like these were not only green-lit but widely successful. Armed with a contagious sense of childlike make-believe, these shows never fail to warm the most hardened heart -- so take a trip with us, as we guide you to our favorite locales in the Krofft cornucopia, capped off by a 35mm show of Pufnstuf, the rarely-screened 1970 feature version of perhaps their most influential and mind-blowing creation, "H.R. Pufnstuf".
Pufnstuf Dir. Hollingsworth Morse, 1970, 35mm, 98 min.
RAW MEAT
This long-forgotten, low-budget British horror film counts amongst its many fans director Guillermo del Toro (Chronos), who championed the film at a 2002 Lincoln Center screening. A young couple has a deadly run-in with the descendent of tunnel workers who were trapped and abandoned in the London Underground at the turn of the century. Deranged after years of isolation and cannibalism, he ventures into the subway to prey upon humans for food. Very creepy and gory. Stars Sharon Gurney, David Ladd, Donald Pleasence and Christopher Lee in a brief cameo. Originally released as Deathline. Gary Sherman---Great Britain---1973---87 mins.
THE REINACTORS ('09, 96m) at 8pm - Dave Markey's (in-person) hilarious documentary interweaves the disparate lives of street performers and celebrity look-a-likes on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame. "A bittersweet look at a tribe of desperate dreamers. David Markey dives deep into the subterranean nooks and crannies of this bizarre subculture and surfaces with cinematic gold." - Ann Magnuson, The Paper.
THE RETURN OF SWAMP THING, 1989, Light Year Entertainment, 88 min. Wynorski’s cult classic has Swamp Thing back and ready to battle Doctor Arcane, the nefarious and insane chemist who oversees a lab full of genetically mutated creatures. Discussion between films with Jim Wynorski, Monique Parent, Clay Westervelt, Brooks Larson, and Lee Sanders.
ROCATERRANIA ('09, 74m) at 8:30pm Brett Ingram's fascinating documentary explores the secret world of scientific illustrator and visionary artist Renaldo Kuhler. In the last four decades, seventy-six-year-old Renaldo Kuhler has created hundreds of plates for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, illustrating diverse flora and fauna for obscure scientific journals and reference books. Before the making of this documentary, no one knew that Kuhler is also a prolific visionary artist, and one of the most important discoveries of outsider art since Henry Darger. Kuhler also worked with Stan Brakhage.
ROGER BEEBE’S FILMS FOR ONE TO EIGHT PROJECTORS
Renowned experimental filmmaker Roger Beebe, whose films have shown around the globe from Sundance to the Museum of Modern Art and from McMurdo Station in Antarctica to the CBS Jumbotron in Times Square makes a rare stop in Los Angeles to present a program of his recent mutli-projector films. Beebe explores the possibilities of using multiple projectors—running as many as 8 projectors simultaneously—not for a free-form VJ-type experience, but for the creation of discrete works of“expanded cinema.” The show builds from the relatively straightforward two-projector films “The Strip Mall Trilogy” and “TB TX DANCE” to the more elaborate three-projector meditation on Las Vegas, “Money Changes Everything,” and on finally to the eight-projector meditation on the mysteries of space “Last Light of a Dying Star.” These films are simultaneously performance films (as they can only be screened with Beebe actually running the projectors—and running from projector to projector), technological demonstrations (with a parade of different modes of image making and presentation—16mm and super 8mm film alongside video and digital formats), and significant aesthetic works in their own right.
FILMMAKER ROGER BEEBE IN ATTENDANCE!
SHADOEVISION
TV Tuesday:
A Tribute To Shadoe Stevens
(feat. "Federated Group" Commercials Best-Of & Shadoevision!)
Co-presented by Hidden Los Angeles
Who knew that commercials could be this much fun?! One of the most berserk, outrageous and unforgettable TV comedies of the 1980s, doled out thirty seconds at a time, was the unending series of wacky, ultra-fast-paced commercial spots for the So Cal electronics chain The Federated Group that starred "Fred Rated", the half-insane "Bass-O-Matic"-style spokesman with a smooth baritone and a suave smile (played by broadcasting legend Shadoe Stevens). Before he was the voice of "Hollywood Squares", Stevens and his round-the-clock gung-ho skeleton crew tirelessly cranked out highly memorable, frenetic nuggets of dadaist Monty Python-esque video art disguised in the form of VCR and car stereo ads -- amassing the astounding figure of over 1000 genius commercials in the span of just a few years, and leaving an indelible mark on the psyche of every L.A. TV-watcher. Join us as we pay tribute to Shadoe and his "Fred Rated" team by screening the definitive "best of Fred" reel, followed by Shadoevision, the even-more-bonkers 1986 sci-fi comedy cable special that, in the words of Shadoe, "pioneered new experiences in psychological entertaiment!" Shadoe Stevens, director Chuck Cirino and the rest of the "Fred Rated"/Shadoevision brain trust will all be here at the Cinefamily for a Q&A after the screening!
SMALL CHANGE
Small Change presents the viewer with ten boys and girls whose adventures illustrate the different stages of passage from early childhood to adolescence. Some episodes are funny, some serious, some sheer fantasy. Together they animate the notion that childhood is often perilous but also full of grace. Francois Truffaut---France---1976---106 mins.
The Spiral Staircase
1946/b&w/83 min. | Scr: Mel Dinelli; dir: Robert Siodmak; w/ Dorothy McGuire, Ethel Barrymore, George Brent, Kent Smith, Rhonda Fleming, Elsa Lanchester
McGuire and Barrymore, who was nominated for an Oscar, give brilliant performances as a mute live-in companion and her demanding mistress, a rich, bedridden old woman who tyrannizes her two sons, their secretary, a nurse and a cook, all of whom live on various floors of a turn-of-the-century mansion connected by a vertiginous staircase. Into this stifling world of gas lamps, looming shadows, and things that go bump in the night comes a killer who is intent on ridding the world of maimed or disfigured young women. With its overstuffed Victorian furniture and ornate décor, Siodmak's most richly styled film is an exercise in Gothic suspense, and his swift, skillful direction makes the terror convincing. "The Spiral Staircase contains a unique vision of entrapment that derives from the noir universe. Unable to communicate adequately her fear and knowledge, the mute servant who thinks she has witnessed a murder finds herself trapped in her own body. She becomes a victim of paranoia, her problems compounded by fantasies such as the film's mock marriage ceremony."—Film Noir, An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style.
Starting to Go Bad: Recent Narratives by Pat O’Neill
“Los Angeles has also long been home to artists for whom film is neither a blood sport nor the means to a very lucrative end, but a deeply personal expression. One such artist is Pat O’Neill.” Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Pat O’Neill, one of Los Angeles’ most eminent independent filmmakers, makes his REDCAT debut with three new videos that continue a discourse between the visible world and language, and a striking 35mm film, Horizontal Boundaries (2008, 23 min.), whose systematic reconfiguration of landscape into a moving frieze is more akin to memory than description. Best known for his densely layered, virtuosic abstract films that create magical, evocatively incongruous visual landscapes, O’Neill carries these and other concerns into a new terrain of digital video. He has titled two of his debut videos after sentences taken from a 1921 phrasebook for aspiring American citizens: I Open the Window (2009, 18 min.) and I Put Out My Hands (2009, 10 min.). The first is based upon episodic encounters between wooden and marble objects and the earth’s surface, as seen from an airliner’s window; the second examines a bridge over a Parisian cemetery and introduces some local cats. The third video, Starting to Go Bad (2009, 30 min.), is a diaristic journey in which “storytelling and pictorial development proceed along separate paths,” says O’Neill, “inviting the viewer to find, or invent, connectivity.”
Curated by Steve Anker and Bérénice Reynaud.
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
(117 mins.)
Kirk Douglas made his film debut as an ambitious D.A. and Robert Rossen wrote the screenplay for this romantic thriller starring Barbara Stanwyck in the title role of a woman made wealthy by a murder she committed in her youth.
The Stranger
(95 mins.)
Orson Welles directed and played the villain in this topical thriller about the hunt for a Nazi war criminal in suburban America, from a screenplay by Anthony Veiller.
Stranger on the Third Floor
1940/b&w/67 min. | Scr: Frank Partos; dir: Boris Ingster; w/ Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Elisha Cook Jr.
Heavily influenced by German expressionist films of the 1920s, this astonishing B film made a year before Citizen Kane is a compendium of noir elements both visual and thematic: an urban landscape of seedy boarding houses and cheap diners; a hero tortured by guilt and paranoia; a mentally disturbed killer; a plucky girlfriend who identifies the murderer; the blurring of dreams and reality; low camera angles, menacing shadows, and an aura of perpetual night. A reporter, traumatized by the knowledge that his testimony in a murder trial helped convict an innocent man, falls into a deep sleep and dreams that he is trapped in a frightening, claustrophobic world ruled by indifference, injustice, and moral corruption. On waking, his nightmare becomes reality when he is charged with the murder of the tenant in the adjoining room. "A strange interior odyssey… a remarkable movie."—Time Out.
SUPER TYPHOON
(Chao Qiang Tai Feng)
(2008, China) Directed by Feng Xiaoning
Director Feng Xiaoning's action-packed eco-thriller pits the leaders of a coastal Chinese community against one another as a typhoon, brought on by global warming, draws ever closer. Mayor Xu (Wu Gang) calls for a citywide evacuation while other officials would rather avoid the cost. Lives hang in the balance as Mayor Xu turns to his childhood science teacher for advice in this delirious disaster epic.
Producer: Zhao Yuqiang, Ni Zhengwei. Screenplay: Feng Xiaoning, Su Xiaowei, Xu Haiban. Cinematographer: Feng Xiaoning, Zheng Jie. Cast: Wu Gang, Song Xiaoying, Liu Xiaowei. Presented in Mandarin and English dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 92 min.
IN PERSON: Director Feng Xiaoning and actor Liu Xiaowei.
THE SURVIVOR
(from IMDB)
After a catastrophic plane crash, rescuers are surprised to see the pilot walking unhurt from the twisted, burning wreckage. The pilot (Robert Powell) can offer no explanation as to how he survived the explosion that killed every other person on the plane. The tension mounts when the investigation proves that the crash was so severe that the pilot could not have POSSIBLY survived no matter where he was on the plane, and yet there he is. Dir. David Hemmings, 1981, 87 mins.
TALE OF SPRINGTIME
Eric Rohmer initiates a new cycle, Tales of the Four Seasons, with this film about the romantic entanglements between Jeanne, a beautiful philosophy teacher, and Natacha, a younger woman who invites Jeanne to stay at her father's apartment. Natacha tries to manipulate an affair between Jeanne and her father, to get rid of her father's young lover, whom she despises. With Anne Teyssedre, Hugues Quester and Florence Darel. Eric Rohmer---France---1989---107 mins.
TEENAGER, 1974, Jack H. Harris, 87 min. Dir. Gerald Seth Sindell. A deranged filmmaker arrives in a small town to shoot a biker movie and encourages his actors to fully live out their parts. Unfortunately, they take method acting to an extreme, turning the production into a snuff film! Great performances by Joe Warfield and Sue Bernard (FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!) NOT ON DVD. Discussion between films with Dusty Nelson, John Harrison, Joseph Pilato, Pasquale Buba, Charles Hoyes, Gerald Sindell, and Sue Bernard!
A TOWN CALLED PANIC
Hilarious and frequently surreal, the stop-motion extravaganza A TOWN CALLED PANIC has endless charms and raucous laughs for children from eight to eighty. Based on the Belgian animated cult TV series (which was released by Wallace & Gromit’s Aardman Studios), Panic stars three plastic toys named Cowboy, Indian and Horse who share a rambling house in a rural town that never fails to attract the weirdest events. 75 Minutes, French. Belgium, 2009
TRUCK STOP WOMEN, 1974, American World Pictures, 88 min. Dir. Mark L. Lester. Claudia Jennings brings her Playboy playmate good looks and in-your-face spirit to this feminist (?!) drive-in exploitation gem. The Mafia tries to move in on the thriving truck stop brothel/smuggling operation run by Claudia and her mom - big mistake. NOT ON DVD. Discussion between films with Mark Lester, Belinda Balaski, Merrie Lynn Ross and Peggy Stewart.
TURKEY SHOOT
(from IMDB)
In the near future, after an unspecified holocaust, survivors are herded into prison camps. There, they are hunted for sport by the leaders of the camp. Paul, one of the newest prisoners, is determined not to go down as quietly as the others. Dir. Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1982, 93 mins.
Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders
As joyful as it is impossible to pin down, Valerie is a haunting, psychoactive period piece which plunges the beautiful heroine Valerie into a phantasmagorical world of thirsty vampires, the dark arts and dreamy free love -- all set to one of the great film scores of the era, a cocktail of psych-folk and avant-garde classical by the great Luboš Fišer. The film opens with 13-year-old Valerie's first menstruation and subsequent sexual awakening, her unsteady discovery of which lets loose a torrent of quixotic, hallucinatory experiences both terrifying and beautiful; amongst a haze of shifting tones and a flurry of role reversals and Gothic nightmares in broad daylight, Valerie floats along, buoyed by the fears and fantasies that come with nascent sexuality and teenage fantasy. This bewitching brew is a must to behold on 35mm -- do not miss it.
Dir. Jaromil Jires, 1970, 35mm, 77 min.
Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows
2007/color/77 min./digital | Scr/dir: Kent Jones; narrator: Martin Scorsese; w/ Roger Corman, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Ann Carter, Jacques Tourneur, Robert Wise
Critic Kent Jones (co-writer of Martin Scorsese's My Voyage to Italy) has constructed—in the style of a Val Lewton film—a fascinating portrait of Lewton who ran a low-budget production unit for the struggling RKO studios in the 1940s and was one of Hollywood's strangest, most important, and least-appreciated talents. A man steeped in high culture who struggled to express himself artistically, Lewton worked with microscopic budgets, hired fledgling directors, and often rewrote the scripts himself. Through the force of his vision as a producer, he managed to bring seriousness to a pop-culture genre, and his influence is acknowledged today by no less a filmmaker than Martin Scorsese, who executive-produced and narrates this film.
The Vengeance of Pancho Villa
Los rollos perdidos screens with a newly restored 35mm print of Rocha’s most remarkable discovery, Edmundo and Felix Padilla’s La venganza de Pancho Villa (Mexico/USA, 1930–34, 50 min., b/w), which is receiving its Los Angeles premiere. Mixing found footage of the real Villa and his army with re-enactments, this anarchic collage by the father-and-son duo freely crosses the borders separating north from south and fiction from documentary.
VISUAL ACOUSTICS, 2008, 84 min. Dir. Eric Bricker. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, this unique film celebrates the life and career of photographer Julius Shulman. Shulman, who died in 2009, captured the work of nearly every major modern and progressive architect since the 1930s, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Gehry. Both a testament to the evolution of modern architecture and a joyful portrait of the gentleman who chronicled it with his unforgettable images. Discussion after the film with director Eric Bricker
What?
The rarest (and possibly strangest) Polanski of them all, slammed by Roger Ebert as “the work of a madman, of a crazed cinematic genius off the deep end!” After losing his wife Sharon Tate to the Manson clan in the late '60s, Roman took a weird career detour that reached its insane climax with this nudity-packed dark comedy variation on Alice in Wonderland about a naïve, American tourist (Sydne Rome) who falls afoul of a carload of would-be rapists and ends up roaming around mostly topless in an Italian villa filled with weirdos and and other lecherous characters, including Marcello Mastroianni as an ex-pimp and Polanski himself as the gun-toting handyman “Mosquito” who’s obsessed with ping-pong. If you love far-out Polanski concoctions like Cul-de-Sac or The Fearless Vampire Killers, this madcap Mediterranean cocktail is a must-see, in glorious 'scope and not available on DVD!
Dir. Roman Polanski, 1972, DigiBeta, 110 min.
Where Danger Lives
1950/b&w/84 min. | Scr: Charles Bennett; dir: John Farrow; w/ Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue, Claude Rains, Maureen O'Sullivan.
In this bleak but compelling film scripted by Charles Bennett, author of six Hitchcock films including The 39 Steps and Sabotage, Mitchum again plays Jeff, a stolid doctor who becomes infatuated with the exotic Margo, his mentally unstable patient and the wife of rich, old Claude Rains; but the affair takes a nasty turn when Rains croaks after a fistfight, sending the lovers fleeing toward Mexico as they contemplate a bleak future together. Faith Domergue, Howard Hughes's discovery once touted as "the next Jane Russell," endows the increasingly psychotic Margo with a "pouting sexuality (that is) unrelenting even as she is gunned down in a spotlight at the border fence.... Once again the sloe-eyed Mitchum exhibits his passive vulnerability as he is taken on a nightmare journey from the manors of Northern California and a prestigious medical practice to a dingy border town and the life of a fugitive. Farrow and Musuraca imbued the film with a typically dark visual style that isolates details of an imaginative mise-en-scene." —Alain Silver, Film Noir.
Winter's Bone
2010/color/100 min. | Scr: Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini; dir: Debra Granik; w/ Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Kevin Breznahan, Dale Dickey, Sheryl Lee
Grand Jury Prize Winner at the Sundance Film Festival, Debra Granik's film follows a fiercely independent 17-year-old girl who, faced with her family's imminent eviction, desperately searches the Ozark backwoods for her missing father. With its commanding performances and its harrowing portrayal of a rural community marked by crime and addiction, Winter's Bone is one of this year's most powerful new films. Director Granik and cast members will be present for a Q&A following the screening. A co-presentation of LACMA and Film Independent.
The Woman on Pier 13
1950/b&w/73 min. | Scr: Charles Grayson, Robert Hardy Andrews; dir: Robert Stevenson; w/ Laraine Day, Robert Ryan, Thomas Gomez
Howard Hughes, the eccentric head of RKO, was a virulent anti-Communist who set out to produce a film devoted to the premise that once a Communist always a Communist. Originally titled (what else?) "I Married a Communist," this lurid, gangster-style film features Ryan as a shipping company executive and former party member who is strong-armed by robotic commie thug Gomez into sabotaging labor negotiations on the San Francisco waterfront. Plagued by delays and personnel changes—among the famous names courted by Hughes were Joseph Losey, John Cromwell, Nicholas Ray, Jane Greer, Paul Lukas, Barbara Bel Geddes, Glen Ford, Robert Young and Merle Oberon—the newly retitled film was released to critical cries of "sensationalism" and "propaganda," and it died at the boxoffice. Today, the film can be appreciated as a time capsule of the hysteria and hyperbole that gripped America during McCarthyism, and as "a rather good film noir… with a good noir look, provided by the great Nicholas Musuraca. Those night exteriors on the docks are very expressive..."—Hal Erikson.