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

thu. jul. 7

lit show film fest 7 PM @ beyond baroque
clueless FREE 8 PM @ old pasadena film festival @ one colorado courtyard
bunker hill expedition (urban hike) FREE 7 PM @ moca engagement party (starts @ moca grand ave)
sunset blvd., barton fink @ new beverly
magic trash @ dark horse
italianamerican 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
the shining @ egyptian
brent weinbach 9:30 @ ucb
hot fuzz 9 PM, robocop FREE @ le spec gallery


fri. jul. 8

sonny & the sunsets @ the echo
physical forms @ the smell
wife FREE 7 PM @ vacation vinyl
ezra buchla @ the handbag factory
autolux (live set), master mystery (serial screening) @ into the night: music and magic @ skirball
pursued, blood on the moon @ ucla film archive
broadway danny rose 8 PM, zelig @ new beverly
akira kurosawa's dreams 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
alligator MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theatre
meek's cutoff 7:00 9:30 PM @ spielberg theatre @ egyptian
apocalypse now redux @ egyptian
heroes & heroines @ take off!
clueless, fast times at ridgemont high @ aero
sunrise, i know where i'm going @ lacma


sat. jul. 9

rebel without a cause FREE 8 PM @ old pasadena film festival @ one colorado courtyard
annie hall @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
broadway danny rose 4:35 8:00 PM, zelig 6:20 9:45 PM @ new beverly
the beyond MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
tabloid (sneak preview; RSVP) FREE @ silent movie theatre
dead space 6:30 @ moca geffen
airplane! MIDNIGHT @ laemmle royal
meek's cutoff 7:00 9:30 PM @ spielberg theatre @ egyptian
lifeforce (70mm), flatliners (70mm) @ egyptian
mr. hulot's holiday, mon oncle (english version) @ aero
fantastic voyage 2 PM @ lacma
the earrings of madame de... 5 PM @ lacma
l'avventura @ lacma


sun. jul. 10

if a tree falls: a story of the earth liberation front FREE 7 PM @ ucla film archive
twin peaks episodes 25-29 FREE 8:30 PM @ le spec gallery
e.t., close encounters of the third kind @ new beverly
terror island 2 PM, haldane of the secret service
meek's cutoff 7:00 9:30 PM @ spielberg theatre @ egyptian
lawrence of arabia (70mm) @ egyptian
the seventh seal, through a glass darkly @ aero
flying fish and dream portraits: short films by marie losier @ velaslavasay panorama
the dog star orchestra vol. 7: on the hill/at the house 4 PM @ the hildestate


mon. jul. 11

the covered wagon 7 PM @ photoplay award winners of the silent era @ ampas samuel goldwyn theater
kevin greenspon @ pehrspace
frank fairfield @ redwood
LA font (11:00) FREE @ silverlake lounge
pangea, cold showers FREE @ echo
e.t., close encounters of the third kind @ new beverly
between here & there/rick bahto @ a few rooms around town


tue. jul. 12

the grapes of wrath 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
rear window 1 PM @ lacma


wed. jul. 13

la jetee, chafed elbows @ the lost art of photo films 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
dive!, the gleaners & i @ aero
psychic feline @ the smell


thu. jul. 14

the soft pack (8:00) FREE @ hammer museum
edward scissorhands 8 PM, around the world in 80 days (1956) FREE @ old pasadena film festival @ one colorado courtyard
the ballad of genesis and lady jaye 8 PM @ don't knock the rock! @ silent movie theatre
barry lyndon @ egyptian
dr. phibes rises again 9:30, dr. gore @ bigfoot crest
physical forms @ satellite


fri. jul. 15

CARMAGEDDON BEGINS 10 PM
white fence, cold showers, urinals, night control @ blue star
gris gris, king khan @ the echo
kevin greenspon @ the smell
aliens 8 PM, the terminator @ new beverly
arizona dream (director's cut) 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
the fly (1986), the thing (1982) @ egyptian
car wash @ ucla film archive
sullivan's travels, to be or not to be @ lacma
abe vigoda, allah las @ music in the zoo: local scene night (6-9 PM) @ la zoo


sat. jul. 16

CARMAGEDDON CONTINUES!
the thomas crown affair (1968) FREE 8 PM @ old pasadena film festival @ one colorado courtyard
the south bay surfers, the night howls, the shag rats, thee tee pees FREE @ viva cantina, burbank
evil dead 2 @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
office space @ outdoor cinema food fest @ grand hope park
beyond the rocks @ silent & classic movie nights @ heritage square
top secret! MIDNIGHT @ laemmle royal
the terminator 5:30 PM, aliens @ new beverly
the boogeyman MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
tiki celebration 5 PM, bird of paradise @ egyptian
the thing (1951) 2 PM @ lacma
pickpocket, bay of angels @ lacma
the flytraps, tinlittle @ the smell


sun. jul. 17

CARMAGEDDON CONTINUES!
track of the cat @ ucla film archive
heroes & heroines @ satellite
bleached, dirt dress FREE 4-7 @ rvca store
safety last 8 PM @ silents under the stars @ paramount ranch


mon. jul. 18

CARMAGEDDON ENDS (sort of) 5 AM
w-h-i-t-e @ pehrspace
LA font (11:00) FREE @ silverlake lounge
frank fairfield @ redwood
allah las FREE @ echo
sea lions @ take off!
the big parade 7 PM @ photoplay award winners of the silent era @ ampas samuel goldwyn theater


tue. jul. 19

the letter 1 PM @ lacma


wed. jul. 20

the general (1927) 7 PM @ photoplay award winners of the silent era @ ampas samuel goldwyn theater
on the waterfront, a streetcar named desire @ new beverly
wow 8 PM @ fun with your head @ silent movie theatre
fancy space people (11:00), lily of the valley of the dolls (10:00) @ satellite


thu. jul. 21

no age FREE @ levitt pavillion
iceage FREE 7 PM @ amoeba
the pink panther FREE 8 PM @ old pasadena film festival @ one colorado courtyard
on the waterfront, a streetcar named desire @ new beverly
hit so hard: the life and near death of patty schemel 8 PM @ don't knock the rock! @ silent movie theatre
the jerk, little shop of horrors @ aero


fri. jul. 22

ty segall, audacity @ eagle rock center for the arts
purple noon, (co-feature TBA) @ new beverly
lucky dragons @ dem passwords
wild strawberries, the phantom of liberty 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
in a lonely place, the long goodbye (1973) @ lacma


sat. jul. 23

earth @ echoplex
white fence, audacity, ty segall, crazy band @ the smell
lucky dragons @ eagle rock center for the arts
reservoir dogs @ outdoor cinema food fest @ exposition park
the naked gun MIDNIGHT @ laemmle royal
wild pink horse, cosmonauts, tee pees @ whittier moose lodge
butch cassidy and the sundance kid FREE 8 PM @ old pasadena film festival @ one colorado courtyard
invasion of the body snatchers (1956) FREE 8 PM @ old pasadena film festival @ central park pasadena
badlands of dakota @ silent & classic movie nights @ heritage square
the african queen @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
purple noon, (co-feature TBA) @ new beverly
house of the devil MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
1991: the year punk broke 6:30 PM, dave markey shorts @ don't knock the rock! @ silent movie theatre
chinatown, the two jakes @ aero
journey to the center of the earth (1959) 2 PM @ lacma
the exterminating angel 5 PM @ lacma
mulholland dr. @ lacma
wholetrain 6:30 @ moca geffen
frank fairfield (8:00), meek's cutoff (screening) @ tree people


sun. jul. 24

the wonderful country 7 PM @ ucla film archive
frank fairfield @ mccabe's
iceage @ the echo
neil hamburger @ satellite
yojimbo 4:50 9:25 PM, 13 assassins (2010) 7 PM @ new beverly
the vintage @ aero


mon. jul. 25

LA font FREE @ silverlake lounge
lucky dragons @ 18th st arts center, santa monica
slutever FREE @ origami
the fuse FREE @ the echo
frank fairfield @ redwood
beau geste 7 PM @ photoplay award winners of the silent era @ ampas samuel goldwyn theater
13 assassins (2010), yojimbo @ new beverly


tue. jul. 26

slutever @ pehrspace
show & tell w/ miranda july 8 PM @ silent movie theatre


wed. jul. 27

ferris bueller's day off FREE @ movies on the terrace @ westfield century city
days of heaven, badlands @ new beverly
dreams that money can buy 8 PM (w/ live score) @ silent movie theatre
neonates (9:30), slutever (10:15) @ half off books, whittier


thu. jul. 28

thurston moore @ troubadour
slackers FREE 5 PM @ santa monica pier
shaolin (sneak preview) 7 PM @ bigfoot crest
gallant man @ korean cultural center
the clock: 24-hour screening (begins 5 PM) FREE @ lacma
lovedeath 9:30 @ bigfoot crest
the princess bride FREE 8 PM @ old pasadena film festival @ one colorado courtyard
upsilon acrux @ the echo
days of heaven, badlands @ new beverly
kevin 8 PM, rare music documentary shorts @ don't knock the rock! @ silent movie theatre
7 faces of dr. lao @ egyptian
watts ensemble (9:00) @ curve line space


fri. jul. 29

thurston moore @ troubadour
moab FREE @ 3 clubs
jon brion @ largo
lavender diamond 8 PM @ mccabe's
wild pink horse FREE @ mal's bar
pangea (11:00), trmrs (11:45) @ 5 stars bar
the room MIDNIGHT @ laemmle sunset 5
bleached @ blue star
the big heat 8 PM, framed (1947) @ new beverly
the kindred MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theatre
bringing up baby, his girl friday @ aero
the lady from shanghai, the conformist @ lacma


sat. jul. 30

nodzzz, ducktails, woods, etc @ woodsist festival @ fernwood (big sur)
bleached, dunes, cold showers @ the smell
socorro! (4:00) FREE @ vroman's books
wild pink horse @ lot 1
the birds FREE 8 PM @ old pasadena film festival @ central park pasadena
kiss me deadly @ silent & classic movie nights @ heritage square
the big heat 4:25 8:00 PM, framed (1947) 6:15 9:50 PM @ new beverly
psycho ii MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
the room MIDNIGHT @ laemmle sunset 5
blazing saddles MIDNIGHT @ laemmle royal
l.a. confidential @ outdoor cinema food fest @ la state historic park
catnaps FREE @ origami vinyl
jon brion @ largo
meat market, cum stain @ half off books, whittier
the spirit in architecture: john lautner 7 PM, infinite space: the architecture of john lautner @ egyptian
the untameable @ spielberg theatre @ egyptian
dinosaurus! FREE 8:30 PM @ b-movies and bad science @ la brea tar pits
flash gordon @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
the increditble shrinking man (1957) 2 PM @ lacma
the river 5 PM @ lacma
late autumn @ lacma


sun. jul. 31

thee oh sees, woods, white fence, etc @ woodsist festival @ henry miller library (big sur)
neil hamburger @ satellite
grass widow @ the echo
secret cinema preview - a film about women in jazz 6:30 @ topanga film fest main stage


mon. aug. 1

bellflower FREE 8 PM (RSVP) @ silent movie theatre


tue. aug. 2

woods, white fence @ echoplex
allah las, bleached FREE @ the echo
bellflower FREE (RSVP) @ new beverly


wed. aug. 3

the barker 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
pee wee's big adventure FREE @ movies on the terrace @ westfield century city
smokey and the bandit, unforgiven @ new beverly
rebel without a cause @ egyptian
scott thompson & kevin mcdonald @ largo


thu. aug. 4

seven deadly sampler films too FREE 7 PM @ beyond baroque
l.a. river ramble (urban hike) FREE 7 PM @ moca engagement party (starts @ moca geffen contemporary)
bob and the monster 8 PM @ don't knock the rock! @ silent movie theatre
smokey and the bandit, unforgiven @ new beverly
the long long trailer, the dark corner @ egyptian
the indian runner @ aero
blow up FREE 7 PM @ lomography gallery store


fri. aug. 5

parenthood, the fisher king @ new beverly
je t'aime moi non plus 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
the last circus FREE (RVSP, sneak preview) MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theatre
indiana jones and the raiders of the lost ark FREE 8 PM @ friday night flicks @ pershing square
johnny guitar, in a lonely place @ aero
hell's angels (1930) @ ucla film archive
LA font (11:30) @ casey's
the color of pomegranates, man follows birds @ lacma
searching for elliot smith 9:30 PM @ bootleg theater


sat. aug. 6

jason and the argonauts 2 PM @ lacma
topkapi 5 PM @ lacma
arabian nights (1974) @ lacma
spaceballs MIDNIGHT @ laemmle royal
fargo @ outdoor cinema food fest @ exposition park
the valley of gwangi FREE 8:30 PM @ b-movies and bad science @ la brea tar pits
breakfast at tiffany's @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
the fisher king 4:20 9:30 PM, parenthood 7 PM @ new beverly
kids in the hall: brain candy MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
cold fish 10 PM @ silent movie theatre
near dark, pumpinhead @ egyptian
new los angeles folk festival @ zorthian ranch
robin hood (1922) w/ live musical accompaniment @ aero
hold your man, red-headed woman @ ucla film archive
gibbons and the sluts @ catnap


sun. aug. 7

thrones @ troubadour
ruthless people, the war of the roses @ new beverly
cold fish 6:30 9:50 PM @ silent movie theatre
bigger than life, knock on any door @ aero
art marathon by stephen keene @ smmoa
ann arbor film festival tour - digital program a @ spielberg theatre @ egyptian


mon. aug. 8

four sons 7 PM @ photoplay award winners of the silent era @ ampas samuel goldwyn theater


tue. aug. 9

allah las @ the echo


wed. aug. 10

bill cunningham new york, the cruise @ new beverly
the goonies FREE @ movies on the terrace @ westfield century city


thu. aug. 11

bill cunningham new york, the cruise @ new beverly
u.s.f. @ the smell
better than something: jay reatard 8 PM @ don't knock the rock! @ silent movie theatre


fri. aug. 12

the front 8 PM, play it again sam @ new beverly


sat. aug. 13

the front 3:50 7:30 PM, play it again sam 5:45 9:25 PM @ new beverly
young frankenstein MIDNIGHT @ laemmle royal
mothra 2 PM @ lacma


sun. aug. 14

audacity, shannon & the clams @ psycho beach party


tue. aug. 16

allah las @ the echo


wed. aug. 17

nightfall, pushover @ new beverly
pulsar @ aero


thu. aug. 18

nightfall, pushover @ new beverly
wheedle's groove 8 PM, the jim sullivan story @ don't knock the rock! @ silent movie theatre


fri. aug. 19

quadrophenia MIDNIGHT @ nuart
wooden shjips FREE (RSVP) @ echo


sat. aug. 20

this island earth 2 PM @ lacma
20 million miles to earth MIDNIGHT @ laemmle royal
wattstax 8 PM FREE @ hammer musem
wooden shjips @ casbah, SD
raiders of the lost ark @ outdoor cinema food fest @ la cienega park


sun. aug. 21

the great k&a train robbery @ silents under the stars @ paramount ranch


tue. aug. 23

allah las @ the echo


thu. aug. 25

family band: the cowsills story 8 PM @ don't knock the rock! @ silent movie theatre


sat. aug. 27

melvins, big dick, etc @ sunset junction
charles bradley FREE 6 PM @ getty center
earth vs. the flying saucers MIDNIGHT @ laemmle royal
horror of dracula 2 PM @ lacma
bill & ted's excellent adventure @ devil's night drive-in
one million years b.c. FREE 8:30 PM @ b-movies and bad science @ la brea tar pits


sun. aug. 28

dum dum girls, charles bradley, soft pack, etc @ sunset junction


tue. aug. 30

powaqqatsi (w/ live musical accompaniment by the philip glass ensemble) 8 PM @ hollywood bowl
allah las @ the echo


thu. sept. 1

atomic sublime 7 PM @ beyond baroque


sat. sept. 3

explosions in the sky, no age, olivia tremor control, strange boys, ty segall, etc @ fyf fest @ downtown
it came from beneath the sea MIDNIGHT @ laemmle royal


tue. sept. 6

sea lions @ satellite


fri. sept. 16

sleepy sun @ nomad gallery
idiocracy MIDNIGHT @ nuart


sun. sept. 18

the penalty 2 PM @ alex theatre


tue. sept. 20

low @ el rey


fri. sept. 30

wet hot american summer MIDNIGHT @ nuart


sat. oct. 1

eagle rock music festival


sun. oct. 2

dum dum girls, crocodiles @ detroit bar


mon. oct. 3

dum dum girls, crocodiles @ troubadour


tue. oct. 18

portishead @ shrine


sat. oct. 22

plan 9 from outer space 2:00 8:00 PM @ alex theatre


sun. oct. 30

the cabinet of dr. caligari (1920, w/ live organ accompaniment) @ disney hall


tue. nov. 1

wild flag @ casbah (SD)


wed. nov. 2

wild flag @ troubadour


thu. nov. 3

wild flag @ troubadour


tue. dec. 6

the sea and cake @ troubadour





WHAT IT IS:



AKIRA KUROSAWA'S DREAMS
One of the stand-out films from Akira Kurosawa’s underrated later period, 1990’s Dreams is one of the director’s most autobiographical films as well as his most fantastical. Culled from Kurosawa’s actual dreams –- from childhood through oldhood -– these eight highly-varied vignettes form a vivid memoir of the sleep life of one of last century’s most fertile and disciplined imaginations. Mount Fuji melts, dolls come to life as the sky clouds over with peach blossoms, and humanoid foxes perform secret wedding ceremonies in the rain. With George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic on visual effects, the images nearly pop off the screen. And, in a stunningly unforgettable dream, the protagonist pops into a Van Gogh canvas, wandering through closeups of the artist’s brushstrokes and live-action recreations of his landscapes to meet a Van Gogh (played by Martin Scorsese!) who, sensing his own mortality, obsesses over his craft in the little time he has left. Completed when Kurosawa was 80, the weirdly beautiful Dreams shows just how fruitful those later years of a world-class auteur can be.
Dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1990, 35mm, 119 min.


ALLIGATOR
If the animal attack genre has a Holy Trinity — then Jaws is God, Orca is Christ and Alligator is the Holy Ghost. This masterwork (scripted by John Sayles!) takes the urban myth of the “alligator flushed into the sewer” and follows it to its natural payoff — namely, a giant alligator rampaging through Chicago. But what makes this film stand tall among its peers is a central performance by Robert Forster as the down-on-his-luck-cop-obsessed-with-his-hair-loss who just so happens to be the guy to go mano-y-gator with the scaly antagonist. Director Lewis Teague shows some real ingenuity in making the real-life gator look huge; it’s the kind of clever trickery that is so sorely lacking in today’s era of crummy CGI SyFy Channel creature quickies. Best of all, Alligator’s chock full of rampaging fun — there’s a scene involving a child and a swimming pool that you won’t soon forget — and a heartfelt sincerity that elevates it to the status of timeless creature classic. Later, Alligator!
Dir. Lewis Teague, 1980, 35mm, 89 min.


ARIZONA DREAM
At the urging of his car salesman Uncle Leo (Jerry Lewis), fish-obsessed Axel (Johnny Depp) reluctantly journeys from Manhattan to Arizona, where Leo pressures him to take over the dealership. Meanwhile, Axel forges an unlikely bond with rich widow Elaine (Faye Dunaway) and her accordion-playing stepdaughter (Lili Taylor). The overlooked, absurdist comedy won the Silver Berlin Bear award at the 1993 Berlin International Film Festival.  Dir. Emir Kusturica, 1993, 35mm, 142 min.


ATOMIC SUBLIME
(2010, 72min)
Jesse Lerner's (in person) enlightening found footage collage essay engages the history and politics of modern art in the United States. There is a fundamental tension at the heart of this history, a tension that helps define the structure of this experimental documentary. On one hand the Abstract Expressionist painters, like many other modern artists working in the USA during the years after World War II, were often red-baited. Given that modern art originated in Europe, the critics stated, it was almost certainly (at the very least) “un-American,” if not dangerously communist and subversive. At the same time, the USSR endorsed [socialist] realist painting, and tolerated very little else. For those who sought to define the USA in opposition to the Soviet Union, the monopoly that figurative painting enjoyed on the other side of the Iron Curtain implied that abstraction out to be an ally of capitalist democracy. Perhaps for this reason, and certainly quite improbably, the U.S. State Department exported Abstract Expressionist painting (and photographic reproduction of these works) around the world. The debate over the political underpinnings of gestural abstraction rarely addressed the artworks themselves; it rather provided a forum for conflicting ideological and cultural agendas to rehearse their differences in a new arena. Found footage filmmaking struck me as a particularly appropriate way to tell this story, not simply because the great wealth of little-known material that could be enlisted to tell this history, but also as an acknowledgement of the work of some of the Abstract Expressionists’ most striking contemporaries on the West Coast (e.g. Bruce Conner, Wallace Berman) who used assemblage and collage for very different ends. Their work often brought into the foreground the political concerns (and the always looming threat of nuclear annihilation) that so-called “New York School” always left implicit. While researching this complex story of culture and politics, its contemporary resonances struck me as powerful and telling. More than a series of historical episodes--some little known, others familiar--the narrative that this documentary relates is a timely one about the relations between the state and the arts, and about the politics, fear and ideology too often exiled from the histories of modernism. "After watching any or all of Lerner's films, you are likely to have a bundle of questions stockpiled in your freshly zapped brain" -GreenCine.com 


Badlands of Dakota
(1941) A film featuring a legendary cast including Robert Stack, Ann Rutherford, Lon Chaney Jr., Frances Farmer, Addison Richards and Richard Dix.  During the blackest, boldest days of the West we find Deadwood City, “a roaring capital of an empire of lawlessness.”  Robert Stack was the great-grandson of William Hayes Perry, whose 1876 residence, the Perry Mansion, now stands at Heritage Square Museum. Special, never before seen silent shorts courtesy of Flicker Alley will be shown before the film.


THE BARKER
Based on the oft-filmed play by Kenyon Nicholson, The Barker represented the talking-picture debut of silent-screen favorite Milton Sills (the film itself is a part-talkie, containing 38 minutes' worth of dialogue). Sills is cast as Nifty Miller, veteran sideshow barker for a cheap carnival. Miller is determined that his young son Chris (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) will not follow in his footsteps but will instead attend law school. But Chris cannot help but be drawn to carnival life -- especially when he meets pretty "carney" Lou (Dorothy Mackaill). The film ran into some state-by-state censorship problems due to the scanty costumes worn by the female cast members. Herman Mankiewicz was among the screenwriters of The Barker, which received a latter-day fame of sorts when its crowded opening-credit title was reproduced in the pages of Kevin Brownlow's silent-film retrospective The Parade's Gone By.  Dir. George Fitzmaurice, 1928, 35mm, 80 min.


BARRY LYNDON
1975, Warner Brothers, 183 min, Dir: Stanely Kubrick
Winner of four Academy Awards, including one for John Alcott’s marvelous cinematography (the all-candlelit interiors must be seen to be believed), BARRY LYNDON stars Ryan O’Neal as Thackeray’s flawed 18th-century soldier of fortune, struggling to find his place in a rigidly structured social hierarchy. Kubrick re-creates a bygone romantic era with a bittersweet wistfulness and a wealth of nuance and realistic detail. With Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Kruger.


BAY OF ANGELS
If fate is a key component of the Bressonian universe, chance plays the same role in the world of Jacques Demy, and nowhere more prominently than in his second feature Bay of Angels. A platinum blonde Jeanne Moreau, in one of her most beguiling incarnations, plays Jackie, a compulsive gambler who haunts the casinos of Nice and Monte Carlo. Constantly broke and with an eye for a sucker, she picks up an unworldly office worker in search of adventure, and as the film moves into high gear, the couple spin breathlessly from exhilaration to despair in sync with the roulette wheel. Featuring Demy’s stylish, swift direction and aided by Raoul Coutard’s dazzling images of a sunny Riviera, Bay of Angels is one of the best films ever made about gambling and may be the least screened film by a major French New Wave director. 1962/b&w/90 min. Scr/dir: Jacques Demy; w/ Jeanne Moreau, Jackie Demaistre, Jean Fournier.


BEAU GESTE (1926)
Introduced by film historian Frank Thompson.
Ronald Colman and William Powell starred in this first film version of Percival Christopher Wren’s classic adventure novel about three brothers who join the French Foreign Legion to protect their family’s honor.
With live musical accompaniment by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
Preceded by Harry Langdon in SATURDAY AFTERNOON (1926).


BELLFLOWER
Easily one of the most controversial films at both this year’s Sundance and South By Southwest, Evan Glodell’s debut feature Bellflower is destined to leave you discussing, debating and deconstructing it for weeks after viewing.  This harrowing nightmare follows best friends Woodrow and Aiden, who spend all of their free time building Mad Max-inspired flamethrowers and muscle cars in preparation for a global apocalypse.  When Woodrow meets a charismatic young woman and falls hard in love, he and Aiden quickly integrate into a new group of friends, setting off on a journey of love and hate, betrayal, infidelity, and extreme violence more devastating and fiery than any of their apocalyptic fantasies. “What really matters [in Bellflower] is the emotional violence that unspools in the dark fears and fantasies we dream up when we’ve been hurt…It’s the kind of film that explores one person’s pain writ large, to the point that their hurt spells doom for the whole world. Glodell’s film will stick with you long after you leave the theater, and though you may have the comfort of remembering that it was all just a dream, just a film, you’ll still catch yourself sneaking the occasional peek towards the horizon for signs of a mushroom cloud.” — Renn Brown, CHUD


Beyond the Rocks
(1922) A classic silent move starring Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson. A story of love and duty finds Theodora, a young and penniless aristocrat, marrying a much older millionaire to make sure her family lives comfortably.  However, soon after the wedding, she finds herself falling in love with another wealthy man she encounters in the rich social circuits of the Swiss Alps, Paris, London, and the English countryside.  Special, never before seen silent shorts courtesy of Flicker Alley will be shown before the film.


THE BIG PARADE (1925)
Introduced by film historian Kevin Brownlow.
Newly restored 35mm tinted print from Warner Bros. King Vidor directed John Gilbert in this moving drama about a young soldier’s experiences in World War I, which became one of the highest-grossing silent films of all time.
With a recorded stereo orchestral score composed by Carl Davis. 


BIRD OF PARADISE
1951, 20th Century Fox/Criterion, 100 min, USA, Dir: Delmer Daves
Starring Deborah Paget (Fritz Lang's THE TIGER OF ESCHNAPUR) in all her luscious beauty as Polynesian princess Kalua, opposite Louis Jourdan (GIGI) and Jeff Chandler. Director Delmer Daves (3:10 TO YUMA) creates a wildly entertaining piece of 1950s exotica laden with gorgeous locales (Hawaii doubles for the fictional South Seas island), volcanic danger and charming depictions of daily island life.


Blood on the Moon (1948)
The plot of Blood on the Moon sounds like standard Western fare: A stranger rides into town and finds himself driven by circumstance and conscience into choosing sides in a range war. The familiarity of the tale highlights the film’s stylistic gambit. An unshaven Mitchum plays the stranger, Jim Garry, with a gritty, seedy edge, he’s a hero from hunger, that perfectly anchors the hard realism of old Val Lewton hands, director Robert Wise and cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, who suffuse the sagebrush with deep noirish shadows.
RKO. Producer: Theron Warth. Based on a novel by Luke Short. Screenwriter: Lillie Hayward. Cinematographer: Nicholas Musuraca. Editor: Samuel E. Beetley. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Preston, Walter Brennan, Phyllis Thaxter.  35mm, b/w, 88 min.


BOB AND THE MONSTER
“It’s worth sticking around just to see what happens”. Anyone who was in L.A. during the punk, post-punk and early grunge years knew, or knew of the notorious musician/mayhem maker Bob Forrest. Today, so does the rest of the world, but instead as a cool-headed empathetic counselor on “Celebrity Rehab”. In this incredibly raw and inspiring documentary, Forrest revisits his heyday as charismatic front man and lyricist for indie band Thelonious Monster, and his struggle with the ultimate rock accoutrement: heroin. Bob And The Monster is a heady mix of claymation, rare archival performance footage, home video and interviews with seminal L.A. artists like the Circle Jerks, Fishbone, Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns N’ Roses and Courtney Love. After the film, join us for a Q&A with director Keirda Bahruth, producer Rick Ballard, Thelonious Monster drummer Pete Weiss — and Bob Forrest, who will also perform a solo set following the Q&A!
Dir. Keirda Bahruth, 2011, HDCAM, 85 min.


THE BOOGEYMAN
One of the more darkly atmospheric horror films of the 1980's, the evocatively chilling thriller Boogeyman (Ulli Lommel, 1980, 82 mins.) stars Suzanna Love as a fragile young woman who's haunted by a traumatic incident. When she was a child, Lacey (Love) watched as her mother's boyfriend's murder was reflected in a mirror. When the mirror shatters decades later, the man's evil spirit is released, and he immediately sets to work avenging his death. Fassbinder protege Ulli Lommel (Cocaine Cowboys) directs a cast that includes John Carradine, Ron James, and a young Jane Pratt (of Sassy). 1980, USA, 35mm, 82 minutes.  directed by Ulli Lommel; screenplay by David Herschel, Ulli Lommel and Suzanna Love; starring Suzanna Love, Ron James, John Carradine, Nicholas Love


BRINGING UP BABY
1938, 20th Century Fox, 102 min, USA, Dir: Howard Hawks
Perhaps the greatest and most influential screwball comedy of all time, with Katharine Hepburn letting her hair down as a madcap heiress and Cary Grant putting his up as the absent-minded zoologist she’s decided she’s in love with. It just doesn’t get any funnier - or more frantic - than this. With Charlie Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson, Walter Catlett, Fritz Feld and screwball mascot Asta as George the dog.


CHAFED ELBOWS
This New York art film is almost totally comprised of still photographs. It chronicles the hip and colorful life in SoHo during the 1960s. The filmmaker also comments and makes observations about the issues and cultural icons of the day; included are his insights concerning the underground film movement.  Dir. Robert Downey, Sr., 1966, 35mm, 63 min.


The Clock: 24-Hour Screening
Thursday, July 28 | 5:00 pm through Friday, July 29 | 5:00 pm
LACMA is excited to present another free 24-hour screening of The Clock starting on Thursday July 28 at 5pm.  Artist Christian Marclay's The Clock is a 24-hour single-channel montage constructed from thousands of moments of cinema and television history depicting the passage of time. Marclay has excerpted each of these moments from their original contexts and edited them together to create a functioning timepiece synchronized to local time wherever it is viewed - marking the exact time in real time for the viewer for 24 consecutive hours. The sampled clips come from films of all genres, time periods, and cultures, some lasting only seconds, others minutes, and have been culled from hundreds of films, famous and obscure, into a seamless whole. The result, a melding of video and reality, unfolds with a seemingly endless cast of cameos. This free screening will allow The Clock to be seen in the way Marclay intended, by making it available in its entirety.


THE COVERED WAGON (1923)
35mm print courtesy of the Paramount Pictures Collection at UCLA. This epic adventure of pioneers on a dangerous journey along the Oregon Trail is considered one of the first great Western films and features scenes filmed on location in Nevada and Utah.
With live musical accompaniment provided by Will Ryan and the Cactus County Cowboys.
Preceded by surviving fragments of 1924’s Photoplay Medal recipient ABRAHAM LINCOLN, and images from THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923) projected in 3D. 


THE CRUISE
This popular and critically acclaimed documentary profiles Manhattan bus tour guide Timothy "Speed" Levitch, whose fascinating city narratives are more about poetry and philosophy than the standard tourist trade. Levitch, who says his mission is to "rewrite the souls" of his customers, is also a playwright, and he treats his seemingly trite guide position as an extension of his creativity. The film debut of director Bennett Miller (Capote). "One of the most outrageously entertaining performance documentaries I've ever seen" (J. Hoberman, The Village Voice).   1998, USA, 35mm, 76 minutes


DEAD SPACE
In conjunction with Art in the Streets, join us for a screening of Dead Space (2005), Jean Labourdette and Marielle Quesney's documentary of Parisian graffiti writer Psyckoze and his experience in the Catacombs over the last 22 years. 


Dinosaurus! (1960)
Prehistoric creatures are unleashed on the the residents of an island after a few undersea explosions. Also freed from the apocalyptic events is a Neanderthal man who faces off with an angry dinosaur!


DIVE!
2010, 45 min, USA, Dir: Jeremy Seifert
By turns amusing and infuriating, this multi-award-winning documentary looks at the staggering amount of perfectly good food - more than 250 million pounds a day - that goes to waste in this country. Director Jeremy Seifert and friends bring the point home by dumpster-diving behind Los Angeles supermarkets and salvaging thousands of dollars’ worth of groceries that would otherwise go straight into a landfill. While store owners seem indifferent about the issue when confronted by these guerilla filmmakers, DIVE! is sure to inspire viewers to action, both within their communities and at their own dinner tables.


DR. GORE
(2010, Metaluna Productions, 52 min.)
To coincide with Bastille Day – July 14th, we’re thrilled to premiere French director Pauline Pallier’s wonderful new documentary, a wryly comic and strangely heartfelt portrait of a marvelous, Ed Wood-like character: a small-town French physician (and independent filmmaker) named Antoine Pellissier aka “Dr. Gore.”
When he’s not treating patients, Pellissier indulges in his true passion, making unbelievably primitive, blood-soaked vampire/zombie/occult flicks such as 1998’s MALEFICIA, which make Herschell Gordon Lewis look like Orson Welles. Struggling for seven years to finish the next part of his trilogy, the aptly titled HORRIFICIA, the hilariously deadpan Pellissier tries to scrounge together money, enlists the acting help of patients who wander into his office with medical complaints, and rages – like all filmmakers everywhere – against indifference and the dying of the light. What emerges is a moving portrait of a man pursuing his cinematic dream at all costs – even if it’s a demented, gore-drenched dream at that.
A treat for indie horror fans everywhere. (In French with English subtitles.)


DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN
(1972, MGM/UA, 89 min.)
Horror legend Vincent Price stars as the diabolical Doctor in the second of the two wonderful, macabre Phibes films, opposite the great Robert Quarry (COUNT YORGA) and the equally legendary Peter Cushing. Here, Phibes returns from suspended animation to find his treasured papyrus scrolls missing – and so he embarks on a gleefully murderous spree as he races to find the eternal River of Life in Egypt. Stylishly directed by the under-rated Robert Fuest (AND SOON THE DARKNESS).
Introduction to the film by Dr. Phibes creator & screenwriter William Goldstein, accompanied by “Sophie” the newest Clockwork Wizard.


DREAMS THAT MONEY CAN BUY
A panopoly of bright, exciting and colorful dream-state visions, executed by some of the 20th century’s greatest Surrealists — all in one feature! Dreams That Money Can Buy, the 1947 omnibus film with contributions by Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Alexander Calder and project ringleader Hans Richter (one of European cinema’s very first avant-garde artists) tells the story of a down-on-his-luck New York everyman who hatches a crazy get-rich-quick scheme: he’ll set up shop selling custom-made dreams to a host of quirky, frazzled customers. Ranging from Gothic reveries to showroom dummy soap operas, all the way to abstracted geometric universes, the film’s captivating, humorous and affecting fantasies — shot by the featured artists, with whimsical wraparounds by Richter — collide together to produce a totally unique, yet accessible experience that’s equal parts Bunuelian symbolism, modernist abstraction and Jack Smith-esque bedroom camp. Our screening’s dream sequences will be scored live by Aska Matsumiya, whose ethereal contributions to Moonrats, The Sads and her own solo works make the perfect complement to the film’s many mysterious moods!
Dir. Hans Richter, 1947, digital presentation, 99 min.


THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL
The Spanish-born Surrealist Luis Buñuel—like fellow filmmakers Fellini, Hitchcock and Bergman—was possessed of a vision so unique that his surname has become an adjective not just for his cinematic style but as shorthand for a particular world-view. In Buñuel’s large canon, made on different continents between 1928 and 1978, there are no films without interest and a handful that represent the perfect flowering of his art: El, Illusion Travels by Streetcar, Viridiana, Belle de Jour, and The Exterminating Angel, his final Mexican film which, like The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, revolves around a dinner party. What ensues is typically black Buñuelian comedy: a group of upper-class friends gather in a baroque villa for a post-theater supper, but a mysterious force prevents them from leaving the premises. As hours and then days pass, the media—unable to enter—gather outside the gates while inside civilization vanishes as the captives drink water from the pipes, kill and eat a sheep, dabble in witchcraft, commit adultery, and burn the furniture. Buñuel decorates this vision of hell with hallucinations, scenes that repeat, and characters that say and do the most inexplicable things in the most normal way. Though The Exterminationg Angel is a phrase that appears in the book of the Apocalypse, Buñuel chose it as a title because, he writes, “if I saw The Exterminating Angel on a marquee, I would go in and see it on the spot.” 1962/b&w/95 min. Scr: Luis Buñue/dir: Luis Buñuel; w/ Silvia Pinal.


FANTASTIC VOYAGE
When a top scientist is nearly assassinated, a team of doctors and a submarine are miniaturized and injected into his bloodstream… but one of them is a traitor. 1966/color/100 min./Scope. Scr: Harry Kleiner; dir: Richard Fleischer; w/ Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Edmond O'Brien


FLYING FISH AND DREAM PORTRAITS: SHORT FILMS BY MARIE LOSIER
The Velaslavasay Panorama welcomes Los Angeles Filmforum and filmmaker Marie Losier for a program of selected shorts. Filled with color, humor, and cinematic delights, Losier has made films with collaborators including Guy Maddin, Mike and George Kuchar, and Richard Foreman. 


FOUR SONS (1928)
Four-time Best Director winner John Ford helmed this drama about four brothers in World War I, one of the few of Ford’s silent films that still exists.
Preceded by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in TWO TARS (1928) and a fragment from the 1928 lost film THE CASE OF LENA SMITH, directed by Josef von Sternberg, courtesy of the Austrian Film Museum, Vienna. 


FRAMED
(from IMDB)
Mike Lambert, unemployed mining engineer, arrives in a small town with a bang when the brakes fail on the truck he's driving. After meeting seductive Paula at the La Paloma Cafe, he finds himself in trouble with the law. On the basis of a few burning glances, Paula pays his fine and finds him a room, but her motives are not what they seem. Mike lucks into a job with miner Jeff Cunningham, but against his will he's drawn ever deeper into Paula's schemes.  1947, USA, 35mm, 82 minutes.  Directed by Richard Wallace; story by John Patrick; screenplay by Ben Maddow; starring Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, Barry Sullivan, Edgar Buchanan


THE FRONT
Woody Allen, in a non-Allen vehicle, stars as Howard Prince, a cashier who is persuaded to "front" for a writer friend who has been blacklisted during the  McCarthy-era witch-hunts. 1976, USA, 35mm, 95 minutes.  directed by Martin Ritt; screenplay by Walter Bernstein; starring Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, Michael Murphy, Andrea Marcovicci, Remak Ramsay, Lloyd Gough


GALLANT MAN
1969, Kim Hyo-cheon, 95 minutes
"Gallant Man" is about an orphan who grew up to become a leader in the fight against the injustice brought on by the Japanese military police and yakuza. Korea's first action star Jang Dong Whee (The Unforgiven, 1960) stars as the hero in a role reminiscent of Kim Doo Han, Korea's most infamous gangster-turned-politician during the Japanese occupation period. In the film, Jang recruits a good number of muscles across the nation to head up a team of freedom fighters. Together they become a major force in all of Jong Ro's back alleys, committed in their battle to protect helpless Korean citizens. 


THE GENERAL (1927)
Introduced by film historian Kevin Brownlow.
35mm print from the original negative from Photoplay Productions. Actor-director Buster Keaton’s Civil War comedy about a Confederate train engineer is considered one of the star’s masterpieces, mixing classic slapstick with spectacular action sequences.
With a recorded stereo orchestral score composed by Carl Davis.
Preceded by a “then-and-now” presentation by John Bengtson outlining the filming locations for silent era comedies by Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd. 


THE GLEANERS & I
2001, Zeitgeist, 82 min, France, Dir: Agnes Varda
French New Wave pioneer Agnes Varda’s marvelous "wandering road documentary" focuses on the centuries-old tradition of "gleaning" in France - literally, picking up the cast-offs of others. Varda follows rural scavengers who gather leftover vegetables after the harvest, and urban scavengers who collect discarded food and appliances from the streets of Paris. Varda interweaves these scenes with her own intimate thoughts on aging, humorous interviews with judges and attorneys who debate - Monty Python-style - the legality of gleaning while standing in potato fields, and a host of other spontaneous musings on French art and culture. Through it all, the director’s patient sense of social obligation shines through, as she asks again and again, "How can one live on the leftovers of others?" Winner, Best Non-Fiction Film - National Society Of Film Critics. In French with English subtitles.  Discussion following with guest panelists TBA, who will elaborate on several of the issues raised in the films to present a local perspective. Q&A moderated by Lisa Lucas Talbot, co-leader of Slow Food Los Angeles and Slow Food USA regional governor for Southern California.


THE GRAPES OF WRATH
Following a family of farmers who, like many others in the 1930s, were forced to flee their lifelong lands in search of a better life in California, John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath is a Depression-era story that’s as American as apple pie or jet skis. But like Mount Rushmore or the Statue of Liberty, Ford’s monument to the indefatigable spirit of the American underclass needs to be seen in person to have its true enormity felt. Released a mere year after the novel it so masterfully adapts (and which won John Steinbeck the Nobel Prize), the film — for all its craftsmanship — has a veiled urgency in every frame, mirroring the hunger and anger its proud protagonists hide behind their sunken cheeks and restless eyes (Henry Fonda, especially). The injustices they face are tearjerkers, but Ford appeals to our smarts as well as our hearts, meticulously detailing a system of economic exploitation that’s as timely as it is terrifying. Tara Kolla of Silverlake Farms will be here in person to introduce the screening!
Dir. John Ford, 1940, 35mm, 129 min.


HALDANE OF THE SECRET SERVICE
In Haldane of the Secret Service, Heath Haldane (Houdini) hunts a gang of counterfeiters and uses his physical prowess to escape death and save his lady love. Directed and produced by Harry Houdini. (1923, 84 min. Screened from DVD. No MPAA rating.)


HIS GIRL FRIDAY
1940, Sony Repertory, 92 min, Dir: Howard Hawks
This frenzied remake of Hecht and MacArthur’s THE FRONT PAGE switches ace newsman Hildy Johnson to a woman (Rosalind Russell at her peak), while Cary Grant does a complete 180 from BRINGING UP BABY as cynical editor Walter Burns. The unparalleled cast includes Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Porter Hall, Ernest Truex, Roscoe Karns, Cliff Edwards, John Qualen, Billy Gilbert and tons more. Featuring some of the most rapid-fire dialogue ever, by screenwriters Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles McArthur.


HIT SO HARD: THE LIFE AND NEAR DEATH OF PATTY SCHEMEL
A beautiful, gritty portrait of the to-hell-and-back journey of Patty Schemel (drummer for Courtney Love’s band Hole), who narrowly escaped becoming a rock-and-roll casualty and emerged a survivor. Hit So Hard takes an unprecedented inside look from Patty’s point-of-view at one of the most crucial and controversial groups of the 1990s, with up-close-and-personal home video footage of life offstage with Courtney, Kurt Cobain, and the band. Candid interviews with band mates Eric Erlandson, Melissa Auf Der Maur, and Courtney Love provide unflinching accounts of both the personal tragedies that plagued the band in its heyday, and hardball music-industry politics during the recording of Hole’s 1997 record “Celebrity Skin”. As well, fellow female drummers Debbi Peterson of The Bangles, Luscious Jackson’s Kate Schellenbach, Gina Shock of The Go-Gos and Alice De Buhr (from legendary ‘70s all-girl band Fanny) provide a look at the struggles of women who dared to beat the skins in a boy-drummer world. The screening is followed by a Q&A with director P. David Ebersole, producer Todd Hughes, Patty Schemel, Eric Erlandson and other special guests!
Dir. P. David Ebersole, 2011, HDCAM, 103 min.


IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT
Marshall Curry, Oscar-nominated director of Street Fight (2005) paints a surprising portrait of political activism caught in a legal vortex. Reconstructing the recent history of the Earth Liberation Front, and the case of Oregon-based activist Daniel McGowan, Curry depicts both the economic sabotage performed by “ELF” sleeper cells, disenchanted with ineffectual public protests and the police brutality that often follows, and the legal maneuvers of a system which today often brands activists as terrorists. Digital video, color, 85 min.


I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING!
Among the jewels in the crown of post-war British cinema are the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger whose rhapsodic melodramas The Red Shoes and Black Narcissisus were rediscovered by cinephiles in the 1970s, in large part due to their hallucinatory use of saturated color. Last screened at LACMA in the 1977 Powell-Pressburger retrospective, this ironically titled, early black and white masterpiece stars brilliant stage actress Wendy Hiller (in one of her rare screen performances) as sophisticated career gal Joan Webster who loses her way, her resolve, and her heart while stranded by a storm en route to the Isle of Kiloran where she is to marry “the richest man in the England.” The journey, the British landscape, and the afterlife figure prominently in the Powell-Pressburger oeuvre but the misty Scottish coastline, with its gothic castles and ancient legends, provides a perfect setting for this romantic tale that is permeated with a sense of the supernatural. “Despite its wartime setting, I Know Where I'm Going! is a not a period piece: it is a modern folktale, complete with hero, maiden, a curse, and a difficult trial that pits them against death. By daring to mix a love story with fantasy elements, the film argues for intuition and destiny rather than planning and strategy, and for not being too certain of anything.”—Bright Lights Film Journal. 1945/b&w/91 min.  Dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger; w/ Wendy Hiller, Robert Livesey, Finlay Currie


IN A LONELY PLACE
One of the great films of the American cinema and one of Ray’s most poignant studies of a social outcast, In a Lonely Place tells the story of two characters that briefly trade pain for love. When Dixon Steele (Bogart), a Hollywood screenwriter suffering from creative burnout, is implicated in the murder of a hatcheck girl, the glamorous new tenant (Grahame) across the courtyard provides an alibi, a warm bed and domestic bliss until she begins to doubt the innocence of the man she saved and loves. Contemporary in its heady mixture of sex and fear, In a Lonely Place is a visually seductive depiction of a love affair that is doomed, and a sardonic portrait of life in a company town. As critic Richard Schickel wrote in Time, “Steele is a modern archetype—a talented, disappointed man surrendering to an anger he cannot govern, an existential blackness he cannot understand.”  1950/b&w/94 min. Scr: Andrew Solt; dir: Nicholas Ray; w/ Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy.


INFINITE SPACE: THE ARCHITECTURE OF JOHN LAUTNER
2008, 90 min, USA, Dir: Murray Grigor
The lifelong quest of visionary genius John Lautner to create “architecture that has no beginning and no end” is traced in this fascinating documentary telling the story of his brilliant and complicated life - and the most sensual architecture of the 20th century. As a young man, Lautner broke from his mentor, Frank Lloyd Wright, and went west to California to forge his own architecture. His life was marked by innovation and inspiration, endless battles with building codes, an accidental leap into the epicenter of pop culture, bitterness at lost opportunities and finally, monumental achievement.


ITALIANAMERICAN
Martin Scorsese clearly loves and adores his parents; his mother, Catherine, appeared in several of his films, almost always as an Italian mother! But perhaps Catherine’s greatest role was as hersef, in her son’s touching, loving 1974 documentary portrait Italianamerican. “Made after Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, [the film] explores [Scorsese’s] heritage through his parents’ homespun stories. The setting is casual, right in his parent’s apartment on Elizabeth Street in Little Italy... Food in Italian-American families is important and there is plenty of talk, especially from Catherine, on the making of her pasta sauce and meatballs which Marty allows her to go into great detail about, the camera even following her into the small kitchen as she prepares, and gives instructions, on the making of a meal. Like most families, they are recipes handed down from generation to generation. In case you miss an ingredient by the way, the recipe is included in the end credits. And what would an Italian family dinner be without wine? We listen to both parents talk about how their families made their own homemade wine with a discussion on whom, when, and if feet were used to squeeze the grapes... Though the film is basically a question and answer, out of it emerges a family’s history filled with humor, and love; a family scrapbook.” (John Greco, Twenty Four Frames) The evening’s show will be introduced by Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo of Animal Restaurant — with a themed reception to follow on Cinefamily’s backyard patio!


The Jim Sullivan Story
In March 1975, notable folk troubador Jim Sullivan mysteriously disappeared outside Santa Rosa, New Mexico. His VW bug was found abandoned, his motel room untouched. Some think he got lost in the desert. Some think he fell foul of a local family with alleged mafia ties. Some think he was abducted by aliens. Tracking down the truth behind Jim’s mystery became an obsession of Light In The Attic’s Matt Sullivan (no relation) when he happened upon a copy of the album and fell in love. He took on a cross country pilgrimage in search of master tapes and truth, and came back with neither, despite hundreds of phone calls, e-mails, letters, faxes, private detectives, telepathy, palm readings and meetings with Jim’s wife, son and producer. Alongside Light In The Attic’s reissue of Sullivan’s 1969 album “U.F.O.”, The Jim Sullivan Story is a compact portrait of label head Matt Sullivan and film director Jennifer Maas’s unending obsession with the enigma that is Jim Sullivan.
Dir. Jennifer Maas, 2010, digital presentation, 5 min.


KEVIN
In the early ‘90s in Austin, Texas, musician Kevin Gant was the de facto hero of Mark and Jay Duplass, the filmmaking brothers who later went on to direct indie favorites like The Puffy Chair and Baghead. The Duplasses reveled in Kevin’s exploratory musical style and playful spirituality, which strikes one as part folk, part alternative, and a tad New Age — all in all, uniquely “Kevin”. But in 1995, Kevin mysteriously disappeared. Jay Duplass’ documentary debut explores who Kevin is, how he lost his inspiration and his journey back to his creative source. The film is followed by a Q&A with director Jay Duplass, producer Josh Polon; as well, Kevin Gant will be in attendance to perform a short set! After the intermission, stick around for a selection of rare music documentary shorts curated by Don’t Knock The Rock!  Dir. Jay Duplass, 2010, HDCAM, 36 min.


THE KINDRED
The golden age of practical horror movie FX had a relatively brief but gloriously bladder-pulsating run starting in the late ‘70s until the early ‘90s, when the CGI revolution quickly transformed the entire cinema landscape. Produced during the heart of this era, the vastly underseen The Kindred deserves a second life, for not only does its shocking transformation effects match those of An American Werewolf In London, The Thing and The Howling — but its crazed original plot is a rarity for a film produced during the endless ‘80s slasher sequel goldrush. The story concerns John, whose mother is a renowned scientist. On her deathbed, John’s mother instructs him to destroy all her lab notes, before accidentally blurting out that he has a brother. Naturally, John and some friends venture to his mother’s lab, wholly unprepared for what they’ll find. In addition to its fantastic grisly grue, The Kindred also features two Oscar-winning actors: A Streetcar Named Desire‘s Kim Hunter and that great chewer of scenery, Rod Steiger! Schedule permitting, co-director Jeffrey Obrow will be here for a Q&A after the film!
Dirs. Jeffrey Obrow & Stephen Carpenter, 1987, 35mm, 91 min.


LATE AUTUMN
Like The River, Ozu’s late color masterpiece is steeped in nostalgia and the acceptance of life’s disappointments; and its tale of a widow who urges her single daughter to marry and leave home marks the passage of time. No plot summary can convey the harmonious achievement of Ozu’s unique style of filmmaking: the geometric framing of the shots, the musical rhythm and repetition of the scenes, the muted color palette, and the restrained performances of actors like Setsuko Hara as the mother and Chishu Ryu as a family friend all magically combine to produce a work of profound insight and compassion. Ozu defined his approach when he wrote: “In art I follow myself… A director can really show what he wants without appealing to the emotions. I want to make people feel without resorting to drama. People sometimes complicate the simplest things. Life, which seems complex, suddenly reveals itself as very simple—and I wanted to show that in Late Autumn.” 1962/color/126 min. Scr: Kogo Noda, Yasujiro Ozu; dir: Yasujiro Ozu; w/ Setsuko Hara, Yoko Tsukasa, Chishu Ryu.


THE LETTER
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence. 1940/b&w/95 min. Scr: Howard Koch; dir: William Wyler; w/ Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort.


LIFEFORCE
1985, MGM Repertory, 101 min, UK, Dir: Tobe Hooper
Sex-starved space vampire Mathilda May terrorizes the world while looking for something to wear, in director Tobe Hooper’s gleeful, over-the-top sci-fi flick - one of the great pulp movies of the 1980s. Steve Railsback co-stars as the lovestruck astronaut dazzled by May’s charms, with help from Peter Firth as a government agent and “Star Trek”’s Patrick Stewart as the head of an asylum. Co-starring Frank Finlay, Michael Gothard (THE DEVILS).


LIT SHOW FILM FEST
Cinematic preview for Suzy WIlliams' LIT SHOW - rare film clips with/about Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Marlon Brando singing Tennessee Williams lyrics.  


LOVEDEATH
(2006, Bogeydom Licensing, 158 min.)
On the wish-list of most hardcore Japanese genre buffs, LOVEDEATH finally makes its L.A. debut at the Crest Theater. Kitamura’s gloriously romantic and deliriously over-the-top, 2-1/2 hour yakuza epic revolves around the explosive, Bonnie-and-Clyde style love affair between the moody Sai (Shinji Takeda) and the impossibly gorgeous Sheila (NorA) – who just happens to be the ex-girlfriend of a bad-tempered yakuza boss. With nods to pop-culture crime epics like PULP FICTION and TRUE ROMANCE, LOVEDEATH has a unique, almost-indescribable comic book style all its own, mixing intense romanticism, ultra-violent action and even broad slapstick comedy. Look for mixed martial arts superstar Masakatsu Funaki and pop singer Izam in supporting roles.
“Here we combine a very simple love story, with mayhem – a fact of life for most of us.” – Ryuhei Kitamura. (In Japanese with English subtitles.)
Discussion before screening with director Ryuhei Kitamura, moderated by Japanese film scholar Steve Ryfle. 


MASTER MYSTERY
(from IMDB)
Justice Department agent Quentin Locke must investigate a powerful cartel protected by a robot (here referred to as "The Automaton") and using a gas weapon "The Madagascar Madness".  Dir. Harry Grossman, Burton L. King; 1920; 15 episodes @ ~ 4 hours.  Starring: Harry Houdini, Marguerite Marsh and Ruth Stonehouse.


MEEK'S CUTOFF
2010, Oscilloscope Pictures, 104 min, USA, Dir: Kelly Reichardt
Shot in the Academy ratio with stark, spare elegance, director Kelly Reichardt's slow-burn tone poem following a group of lost pioneers in the barren desert of 1845 Oregon is enigmatic frontier cinema at its best. The stellar cast includes Michelle Williams as bonneted, tough-as-nails wagoner Emily Tetherow, Rod Rondeaux as the silently impassive native man encountered and then captured by the group, and Bruce Greenwood as scruffy, McCabe-like blowhard Stephen Meek, whose disastrous trail misguiding is either plainly incompetent or purely malicious. With Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson and Will Patton. "A bracingly original foray into territory that remains, in every sense, unsettled." - A.O. Scott, The New York Times.


NIGHTFALL
Commercial artist James Vanning (Aldo Ray) and his friend, Dr. Edward Gurston (Frank Albertson), are on a hunting and fishing trip in Wyoming when they stop to help two men whose car has crashed. The pair, John (Brian Keith) and Red (Rudy Bond), turn out to be escaped bank robbers, on the run with 350,000 dollars in stolen cash after a clean getaway, and they don't plan on leaving any witnesses -- Gurston is shot dead by Red, using Vanning's hunting rifle, but Vanning survives by accident, knocked cold but alive. He awakens to discover the stolen money, accidentally left behind, and runs with it from the returning killers... 1957, USA, 35mm, 78 minutes. directed by Jacques Tourneur; story by David Goodis; screenplay by Stirling Silliphant; starring Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, Anne Bancroft, Jocelyn Brando


THE PENALTY
Lon Chaney stars in The Penalty, a psychological thriller filled with violence, sadism and a touch of nudity. Not your typical silent film!
The movie will be accompanied by a live musical score and a special display of Lon Chaney makeup, props and costume. 1920/Eminent Authors Pictures Inc.


THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY
One of Bunuel's masterpieces of surrealism, this loosely structured series of anecdotes deals with the concept of freedom. A daisy-chain of characters move through this cinema of dreams and absurdity, demonstrating the cosmic comedy of humans who constantly enslave themselves in order to be free. The lightest and liveliest of Bunuel's films filled with riddles, jokes and outrageous associations ridiculing the power to reason. Luis Bunuel---France---1974---102 mins. 


PICKPOCKET
Robert Bresson was the subject of a major touring retrospective organized by the Cinematheque Ontario in 1999; virtually all the LACMA screenings were sold out which made LACMA the best attended venue out of a dozen US stops, which pleased Bresson when he was informed of this fact by curator James Quandt! Pickpocket, made three years after the classic A Man Escaped, was the shortest, most concentrated film that Bresson had directed up to that time, and it exerted a profound influence on directors worldwide. A chronicle of the day to day activities of Michel, an introverted academic who picks pockets not for the money but as a route to human contact, Pickpocket intercuts close-ups of Michel’s impassive face with extended sequences of professionals at the top of their game: on the Paris metro, at the racetrack, in a ticket line, crossing a busy street. As billfolds slip from pocket to hand to newspaper to sewer grate at lightning speed, Bresson’s flights of virtuosic editing generate an adrenalin rush and an edge-of-the-seat-tension equal to the best action cinema. 1959/b&w/75 min. Scr/dir: Robert Bresson; w/ Martin Lasalle, Marika Green, Pierre Etaix


PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM
Woody Allen's first film with Diane Keaton. Allen plays Allen, a fanatical movie buff with an outrageous recurring hallucination: Humphrey Bogart offering tips on how to make it with the ladies. Eventually Allen discovers that there is one woman with whom he can be himself: his best friend's wife. The final scene is a terrific take-off on Casablanca, with roaring plane propellers, heavy fog, and Bogart-style trench coats. 1972, USA, 35mm, 85 minutes.  directed by Herbert Ross; screenplay by Woody Allen; starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Susan Anspach


Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation 	  	 
While Godfrey Reggio’s groundbreaking documentary Koyaanisqatsi focused on modern life, its sequel Powaqqatsi focuses on the conflict between traditional ways and industrialization in the third world. As with Koyaanisqatsi, the film is strongly related to its Glass soundtrack, which this time uses children’s voices, in harmony with the film’s message and images. Following the Bowl’s hugely successful 2009 performance of Koyaanisqatsi, Philip Glass and his ensemble return to accompany the sequel.


Pulsar
2010, Corridor, 91 min, Belguin, Dir: Alex Stockman
When Samuel's girlfriend Mireille heads off to New York for a prestigious internship and he stays behind to work in Brussels, his life starts to unravel. His computer is hacked, a series of dodgy IT guys fail to protect his wireless network and a mysterious hacker seems intent on ruining his now long-distance relationship with Mireille. Paranoia meets flailing romance meets darkly tinged mystery in director Alex Stockman's fascinating look at the way online technology dictates our lives, relationships and even mental stability. In Dutch and French with English subtitles.
"Tapping into contempo paranoia about computer hackers and privacy in the Internet age with a romantic twist, Belgian drama PULSAR is a taut little thriller that's big on atmosphere." - Variety.  Followed by a Belgian beer reception in the lobby open to all ticket buyers.


Pursued (1947)
Working from a script by Niven Busch (author of Duel in the Sun who co-scripted The Postman Always Rings Twice) with legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe behind the lens, director Raoul Walsh reimagines the Western for the age of noir with actor Robert Mitchum at its dark, fatalistic heart. As Jeb Rand, an orphan taken in by the matriarch of a ranching family and haunted by barely repressed memories of violence, Mitchum exudes a brooding, rough-hewn sensuality as a man unable to shake free from the grip of his past. Walsh and Howe transform the iconic Western landscape from one of expansive vistas into a claustrophobic web of shadows, shot through with dread, paranoia and Freudian anxieties. Pursued not only set the stage for the darker, eccentric Westerns of the 1950s, such as Johnny Guitar and Forty Guns, it established the versatility of Mitchum’s screen presence for other directors, such as William A. Wellman, looking to push the Western genre into more deeply psychological terrain.
Warner Bros. Producer: Milton Sperling. Screenwriter: Niven Busch. Cinematographer: James Wong Howe. Editor: Christian Nyby. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Teresa Wright, Judith Anderson, Dean Jagger, Alan Hale. 35mm, b/w, 101 min.


PUSHOVER
Two bank robbers get away with 250,000 dollars in unmarked, unrecorded bills, murdering a guard in the process. The police know the leader was Harry Wheeler (Paul E. Richards) and turn their attention to his girlfriend, Leona McLane (Kim Novak), detective Paul Sheridan (Fred MacMurray) arranging to pick her up in a "chance" meeting at a movie and spend some time with her. After one day, he knows what he needs to -- that she's not in touch with Wheeler, but expects to be -- but he keeps things going between them for three more days. By the time the department has a full surveillance team in place, he can't get her off his mind...  1954, USA, 35mm, 88 minutes. directed by Richard Quine; story by Bill S. Ballinger and Thomas Walsh; screenplay by Roy Huggins; starring Fred MacMurray, Philip Carey, Kim Novak, Dorothy Malone, E.G. Marshall


THE RIVER
Adapted from a novel by Rumer Godden, who was raised in India, Renoir’s first color film was a daunting task: it involved heavy equipment and long delays in printing the dailies; the cast was almost entirely non-professional locals; festivities and superstitions interfered with the shooting schedule; and sets and locations needed to be designed to reflect a year of seasons. As seen through the eyes of Harriet, the 15 year old daughter in a colonial British family, whose constant companions are her impetuous little brother and her teenage friends Melanie and Valerie, the film explores the mysteries of life in a foreign culture and captures the pain and joy of first love. Like the flow of the ever-present river, the film has a measured pace that chronicles day to day life with its sudden bursts of tragedy, pleasure and pain. As Valerie exclaims toward the end of the film: “This being together... in the garden. All of us happy. I didn't want it to change... and it's changed. I didn't want it to end... and it's gone. It was like something in a dream. Now you've made it real. I didn't want it to be real.” 1951/color/99 min. Scr: Rumer Godden, Jean Renoir; dir: Jean Renoir; w/ Nora Swinburne, Patricia Walters, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields.


SEVEN DEADLY SAMPLER FILMS TOO
Experimental films to political activist cinema to lit, art, music, poetry flix to avant garde documentaries, this series provokes new questions and features fiery discussions. 


7 FACES OF DR. LAO
1964, MGM, 100 min, USA, Dir: George Pal
When the mysterious Dr. Lao (Tony Randall) arrives in tiny Abalone, Arizona, with his traveling circus in tow, the locals soon discover that this is no ordinary sideshow. The circus performers offer reflections of the townspeople that aren’t always flattering; a rapacious rancher (Arthur O’Connell) sees a great serpent, and a bitter woman is even turned (briefly) to stone. But Lao’s changing faces and cryptic pronouncements can also enlighten, bringing a grieving widow (Barbara Eden) out of her shell and teaching her young son to embrace the wonders of the world. One of noted fantasy filmmaker George Pal’s most distinctive creations, 7 FACES OF DR. LAO earned an Academy Award nomination for its special effects, and an honorary Oscar for William Tuttle’s makeup work.


SHAOLIN
(2011, Well Go USA/Variance Films, 130 min.)
Dir. Benny Chan.
Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau (HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, INFERNAL AFFAIRS) returns in this high-octane martial arts spectacular set in the chaos following the fall of the Qing Dynasty circa 1912. Lau stars as callous, cold-hearted warlord General Hou Chieh, whose troops desecrate a Shaolin temple – an act that will come back to haunt him when Hou’s fortunes change, and he’s forced to seek spiritual guidance and redemption at the very same Shaolin monastery. Look for the legendary Jackie Chan in a delightful comic supporting role as the temple’s humble cook. (In Mandarin with English subtitles.)


THE SPIRIT IN ARCHITECTURE: JOHN LAUTNER
1991, 60 min, USA, Dir: Bette Jane Cohen
This illuminating journey into visionary architect John Lautner’s world features never-before-seen footage from his apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin; extensive documentation of his extraordinary buildings; and interviews with historians, critics and Lautner himself, which put his achievements in perspective. In particular, use of his buildings in countless feature films and his Googie coffee shop design demonstrate his important contributions to popular culture.


SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS
As a lover of American screwball and sophisticated comedies, I struggled to choose among a dozen favorites, my solution being to narrow the field by highlighting a theme common to screen and stage—the relationship between art and life—hence, the pairing of these Pirandellian, and very personal, films by two of cinema’s greatest comedy directors. The medium is definitely the message in Sullivan’s Travels, Sturges’s satire of Hollywood hubris in which a successful director (McCrea), disdainful of his own hit comedy ‘Hey, Hey in the Hayloft’, vows that his next film, O Brother Where Art Thou?, will deal with the plight of the working man. Despite several unsuccessful attempts to escape the studio’s publicity machine, Sullivan naively hits the road dressed as a hobo; but neither the love of waif-like Lake (disguised as a boy) nor a phone number hidden in his shoe can protect him from the brutal reality of Depression America. By turns light, dark, sweet, sad, satiric, sentimental and laugh-out-loud funny, Sturges’s artistic testament affirms the healing powers of laughter in both life and the movies. 1941/b&w/90 min.  Scr/dir: Preston Sturges; w/Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake


SUNRISE
Our opening double bill deals with one of the greatest themes in cinema: how the destructive and chaotic elements in human nature are mirrored in the violence of nature and transcended thanks to mystical and unseen forces. Sunrise, Murnau’s first American film, is an intense and emotional parable of seduction, betrayal, and redemption that revolves around three characters—a farmer, his childlike wife, and "the woman from the city." One of the most technically innovative and visually stunning films ever made, with its symphonic structure and flowing, lyrical camera movements, the film needs no spoken dialogue and represents the apex of the silent film as a narrative and pictorial art form. The famous ‘trolley car sequence’ is the film’s adagio: the husband and his wife, recovering from their brush with death, stand frozen in anguish on a city-bound tram as a lyrical landscape glides by. 1927/b&w/94 min. Dir. F.W. Murnau; w/ George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston.


TABLOID
Equal parts love story, film noir, brainy B-movie and demented fairy tale, the brand-new feature from Academy Award-winner Errol Morris (The Fog of War, Gates of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line) is a delirious meditation on hysteria — both public and personal — from a filmmaker who continues to break down and blow open the documentary genre with his penetrating portraits of eccentric and profoundly complex characters. In Tabloid, Morris concocts another jaw-dropping portrayal, this time of phenomenally driven former “beauty queen” Joyce McKinney, whose romantic single-minded devotion to the man of her dreams leads her across the globe, and directly onto the front pages of the ruthless British tabloid newspapers. Morris effortlessly pilots you through Joyce’s much-stranger-than-fiction journey, as he weaves a web of gunpoint abduction, manacled Mormons, oddball accomplices, bondage modeling, magic underwear and dreams of celestial unions! Errol Morris will be here in person for a Q&A after the screening!
Dir. Errol Morris, 2010, 35mm, 87 min.


TERROR ISLAND
Terror Island features Houdini’s daring escapes set against an over-the-top plot involving sunken treasure ships in the South Seas, a stolen idol's eye, human sacrifice, and more! Directed by James Kruze. (1920, 55 min. Screened from DVD. No MPAA rating.)


THE THING
The crew of a remote Arctic base fights off a murderous monster from outer space. 1951/b&w/89 min. Scr: Charles Lederer; dir: Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks; w/ Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite


THIS ISLAND EARTH
Scientists at a mysterious research station are really visitors from planet Metaluna, to which they kidnap brilliant minds who they hope can help them. 1955/color/87 min. Scr: Franklin Coen, Edward G. O'Callaghan; dir: Joseph M. Newman; w/ Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Rex Reason.


THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
1961, Janus Films, 89 min, Sweden, Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Winner of the 1962 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and featuring an astonishing lead performance by Harriet Andersson, Ingmar Bergman’s film presents an unflinching vision of a family’s near disintegration. While vacationing on a remote island retreat, a family’s already fragile ties are tested when daughter Karin (Andersson) discovers her father has been using her schizophrenia for his own literary means. As she drifts in and out of lucidity, Karin’s father (Gunnar Björnstrand), husband (Max von Sydow) and younger brother (Lars Passgård) are unable to prevent her harrowing descent into the abyss of mental illness. In Swedish with English subtitles.


TIKI CELEBRATION
The allure of the South Seas come to Hollywood with our annual Tiki celebration! King Kukulele and his Friki Tikis will perform in the Egyptian Courtyard from 5:00 - 7:00 PM along with the Polynesian Paradise Dancers, plus a Tiki fashion show. Vendors include Tikis by Big Mike, Hawaiian Lei Body Products, Tiki Tony Carvings. Polynesian Paradise and Tiki Art by Eric October. You may also purchase BBQ and Polynesian-style cocktails from Maui & Sons in the courtyard. At 7:30PM, join us in the theatre for a Tiki clip show featuring Richard Sherman, composer of the Enchanted Tiki Room theme at Disneyland (approx. 60 min., compiled by Denny Moynahan) followed by the feature presentation, 1951's BIRD OF PARADISE.  Richard Sherman in person!


TO BE OR NOT TO BE
In Sullivan’s Travel’s Joel McCrea tries to impress down-on-her-luck starlet Veronica Lake by promising to introduce her to ‘Lubitsch’, a name synonymous with power and artistry in 30s and 40s Hollywood. Following on a string of pre-war comedies that emphasized sexual innuendo and witty sophistication over ‘gags’, To Be or Not to Be came as a shock to audiences: Lubitsch’s audacious mix of farce, thriller and biting sarcasm was condemned for its “tasteless” humor and quickly disappeared from screens. Set in occupied Warsaw in 1939, the story concerns a Shakespearean troupe, headed by sexy Maria Tura (Lombard) and her ham actor husband Joseph (Benny), who become Nazi impersonators in a daring ruse to foil a political assassination. As the wall between play acting and reality crumbles, Lubitsch directs his performers through a dizzying array of entrances, exits, and costume changes, while unleashing a string of blistering one-liners, none more controversial than that of Sig Ruman’s backslapping Nazi commandant who says to Benny: “What you did to Shakespeare, we are now doing to Poland.” Critic James Harvey observed that To Be is “Lubitsch’s most modernist film (and) one of the least cynical comedies ever made… Evil is clearly named, but it is also brought closer to familiar feelings and situations than audiences expected.”


TRACK OF THE CAT
Like the pursuit of the mysterious, metaphorical black panther that leads actor Robert Mitchum’s Curt Bridges deeper and deeper into the snow packed Rockies in Track of the Cat, William A. Wellman’s obsession with an aesthetic experiment—shooting a color film with a black-and-white palette—carries the director to the edge of a cinematic abyss. By turns brilliant and confounding, Track of the Cat, with its story of a corrupted ranching family tearing itself apart in wintry isolation, remains a fascinating balancing act between visual minimalism and overwrought melodrama. Mitchum, again, proves the fulcrum for a director’s vision as a fascistic brute who cruelly dominates his family until he’s lead into the hunt for a panther carries him into the wilderness and a confrontation with himself.
Warner Bros. Producer: John Wayne, Robert Fallows. Based on a novel by Walter Van Tilburg. Screenwriter: A.I. Bezzerides. Cinematographer: William H. Clothier. Editor: Fred MacDowell. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Teresa Wright, Diana Lynn, Tab Hunter, Beulah Bondi. 35mm, color, 103 min.


THE UNTAMEABLE
1923, Universal, 65 min, USA, Dir: Herbert Blaché
A bizarre tale of dual personality directed by Herbert Blaché, this risqué gem stars Gladys Walton as the virtuous Joy and her alter-ego Edna, a leopard-skin-clad, whip-carrying sadist; Etta Lee as Ah Moy, her devoted lesbian maid; and Malcolm McGregor as the man who loves Joy. Never released on video or DVD!  Shorts featuring Méliès, Larry Semon and Felix the Cat will also be screened for this evening's Retro Format presentation.


THE VINTAGE
1957, Warner Bros., 92 min, USA, Dir: Jeffrey Hayden
Adapted by screenwriter Michael Blankfort from a novel by Ursula Keir, this intoxicating crime drama follows two Italian brothers - one of them on the run from a murder charge - who seek refuge in the wine country of southern France. The criminal Ernesto (John Kerr) is drawn to a married woman (Michele Morgan) while his sibling Giancarlo (Mel Ferrer) attracts the affection of the young Lucienne (Pier Angeli). With the police and an angry husband (Leif Erickson) to contend with, will the brothers choose love or life on the lam? Features sweeping vistas of the French countryside as well as a pulsating score by David Raksin (which includes guitar work by costar Theodore Bikel). Screening format: DVD.  Discussion following with director Jeffrey Hayden, Theodore Bikel (schedule permitting) and John Kerr.


Wheedle’s Groove
“Wheedle’s Groove not only paints a vibrant picture of Soul in Seattle and the many people who made it happen, but it also stands as a testament to the potential for individual collectors to rediscover and recover important landmarks in music history for us all.” — Seattle International Film Festival
Thirty years before grunge music put Seattle on the map, late ‘60s groups like Black On White Affair, The Soul Swingers, and Cold, Bold & Together filled airwaves and packed clubs every night of the week. Just as many of the groups were on the verge of breaking out, the fickle public turned its ear to disco, and Seattle’s soul scene slipped into obscurity. Ten years ago, local collector DJ Mr. Supreme uncovered Seattle’s soulful past after finding a dusty Black on White Affair 45 called ‘Bold Soul Sister’ in a 99-cent bin at a Seattle Center record show. A few years later, he’d built a rough impression of a once-thriving scene — and a hefty collection of 45s. With commentary by notable Seattle music figures like Quincy Jones, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Mark Arm (Mudhoney), Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), Ben Shepherd (Soundgarden), Kim Warnick (The Fastbacks) and Kenny G — and using interview footage, archival materials, original music, and live performances — Wheedle’s Groove paints the definitive documentary picture of this thriving and vibrant music scene documented in those precious records!
Dir. Jennifer Maas, 2009, DigiBeta, 95 min.


WHOLETRAIN
In conjunction with Art in the Streets, join us for a screening of Wholetrain (2006), a film written and directed by Florian Gaag, which tells the story of a crew of four graffiti writers who observe the hierarchies, values, rules and codes of the graffiti scene. 


THE WONDERFUL COUNTRY
Actor Robert Mitchum executive produced and stars in this surprisingly unsung border Western about a gun running ex-pat American, Martin Brady, who’s buried himself so deep in Mexico on the run from his past that he’s picked up a Mexican accent. When his boss, a corrupt state governor played by Pedro Armendáriz, calls him a “gringo,” Brady winces from the shame. When a job north of the border goes south, Brady finds himself stranded, caught between two countries, two identities. As war and violence push him back and forth across the Rio Grande, Brady emerges as a man tossed about by action, instead of driving it. Mitchum beautifully captures the drifters’ quiet longing for a place to call home, as others decide his fate, in a performance that Lee Server described as “certainly the most poetic and tender of Mitchum’s assorted portrayals of alienated adventurers.”
United Artists. Producer: Chester Erskine. Screenwriter: Robert Ardrey. Cinematographer: Alex Phillips. Editor: Michael Luciano. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Julie London, Gary Merrill, Albert Dekker, Jack Oakie.  35mm, Technicolor, 98 min.  In-person: Alan K. Rode, author and film historian. 


WOW
A debut monthly excursion down the rabbit hole and into the hyper-saturated, hitherto-unexplored furthest reaches of the collective cinematic mind — led by your tour guide John Wyatt (of L.A. filmic institution Cinespia!) Kaleidoscopic cityscapes, the geometry of language, inner trips and prismatic visions of the human soul collide in a session of electric viewing never to be duplicated. John’s specially curated programs of experimental rarities, culled from the archives of like-minded intrepid collectors, will alight your senses while also growing your ganglia.
For Fun With Your Head’s debut presentation, we have one of the rarest and coolest vintage psychedelic movie experiences you’ve never seen: Wow, directed by Claude Jutra (Mon Oncle Antoine), one of Quebec’s most celebrated filmmakers! This French-Canadian filmic phantasmagoria from 1970 — which has gone almost completely unseen in the U.S. — is the story of nine young adults who act out their dreams in a series of swirling tableaux that encompass not only incredible visual effects, but also the most explosive subjects of its era: authority, drugs, social conflict and sex. So bring some adventurous friends, settle in and kick-start yourself into seeing the plane beyond the brain!
Dir. Claude Jutra, 1970, DigiBeta, 94 min. (Archival print source courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada)