a highly-opinionated selection of things happening around town, and sometimes out of town. this month's page here.
wed. aug. 4
ty segall, moonhearts @ the smell
thu. aug. 5
deconstructing dad: the music machines and mystery of raymond scott 8 PM, the secret animated history of raymond scott @ silent movie theatre
stand by me, the princess bride @ egyptian theatre
colin fitz lives! @ aero
dirt dress @ the smell
the cove 8 PM @ echo park film center
fri. aug. 6
mary lynn rajskub @ steve allen theatre
the bad sleep well @ ucla film archive
the long goodbye 8 PM, california split @ silent movie theatre
the oblong box, scream and scream again @ egyptian theatre
starship troopers MIDNIGHT @ nuart
amps for christ @ echo curio
pickup on south street @ lacma
the untouchables, hi mom! @ new beverly theatre
jackie brown FREE sundown @ alamo drafthouse's rolling roadshow @ the proud bird
man's favorite sport?, the black marble @ aero
music in the l.a. zoo - local scene night @ l.a. zoo
the grand moving mirror of california 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama
women in the moon 7 PM @ ampas linwood dunn
mi vida loca @ filmmobile summer screenings @ location TBA
sunset boulevard FREE 8 PM @ pershing square
polls @ grand star bar
sat. aug. 7
mary lynn rajskub @ steve allen theatre
enemy mine MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
the lower depths @ ucla film archive
for all mankind 7 PM, project apollo @ silent movie theatre
tourist trap 10 PM, the hills have eyes @ silent movie theatre
the untouchables 3:20 7:30 PM, hi mom! 5:40 9:50 PM @ new beverly theatre
all about eve @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
the mormons @ 5 stars bar
the grand moving mirror of california 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama
linda perhacs, mia doi todd @ new los angeles folk festival @ historical monument 157
sun. aug. 8
walt & el grupo 3:55 7:30 PM, the three caballeros 6:00 9:35 PM @ new beverly
films by andy warhol featuring dennis hopper @ filmforum @ spielberg theatre @ egyptian theatre
lawrence of arabia (70mm) @ egyptian theatre
racing with the moon, the last of sheila @ aero
dirt dress @ redwood bar
john wiese, kit @ the smell
mon. aug. 9
crossfire 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
walt & el grupo, the three caballeros @ new beverly
tue. aug. 10
the producers FREE 1:30 PM @ skirball center
wed. aug. 11
trail street, riffraff @ aero
thu. aug. 12
emperor of the north pole @ egyptian theatre
tremellow @ mountain bar
moment trigger @ women
fri. aug. 13
no regrets for our youth @ ucla film archive
model shop 8 PM, play it as it lays @ silent movie theatre
let the right one in MIDNIGHT @ nuart
micmacs, the city of lost children @ new beverly theatre
high school confidential MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
forty guns @ lacma
china gate 9 PM @ lacma
mary lynn rajskub @ steve allen theatre
duel, thx 1138 @ aero
the grand moving mirror of california 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama
miracle mile FREE 8 PM @ pershing square
sat. aug. 14
ema & the ghosts @ pehrspace
mary lynn rajskub @ steve allen theatre
micmacs 3:10 7:30 PM, the city of lost children 5:15 9:35 PM @ new beverly theatre
acts of violence MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
better off dead 7 PM, one crazy summer @ silent movie theatre
frank fairfield FREE 3 PM @ amoeba records
life of oharu @ lacma
hepcat @ house of blues anaheim
upsilon acrux, hiking @ the smell
venetian snares @ the sex
the sting @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
the grand moving mirror of california 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama
sun. aug. 15
mean streets, goodfellas 4:45 9:40 PM @ new beverly
red beard 7 PM @ ucla film archive
chuck & buck 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
personal & the pizzas @ spaceland
beggars of life @ silents under the stars @ paramount ranch
gammera the invincible @ b-movies and bad science @ natural history museum south lawn
mon. aug. 16
a double life 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
dunes @ the smell
frank fairfield @ redwood bar
john cage's 'one' 6:30 PM @ 7 dudley cinema
mean streets, goodfellas @ new beverly
david lynch (book signing) 7 PM @ book soup
abe vigoda, dunes, naomi punk @ the smell
tue. aug. 17
dunes, naomi punk @ echo curio
darker my love @ bootleg theater
ida, michael hurley @ largo
kit, foot village @ the smell
wed. aug. 18
drunken angel @ ucla film archive
you only live twice, billion dollar brain @ new beverly theatre
the mephisto waltz, the burglar @ egyptian theatre
gentleman jesse and his men @ five stars bar
thu. aug. 19
get out of the car 8 PM @ an evening with thom andersen @ silent movie theatre
you only live twice, billion dollar brain @ new beverly theatre
orchestra wives, washington melodrama @ aero
the mormons @ redwood bar
chain and the gang FREE @ pershing square
fri. aug. 20
mary lynn rajskub @ steve allen theatre
ikiru @ ucla film archive
dr. strangelove MIDNIGHT @ nuart
le amiche 7:30 9:30 PM @ lacma
hepcat @ henry fonda theater
dead alive, cemetery man @ egyptian theatre
the devils, altered states @ aero
chuck jones shorts @ ampas samuel goldwyn
the grand moving mirror of california 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama
killer of sheep @ filmmobile summer screening series @ location TBA
escape from LA FREE 8 PM @ pershing square
tremellow @ the black triangle
dash jacket, tinylittle @ illuminati motorcycles
sat. aug. 21
ron silva & the monarchs @ the whistle bait @ bordello
sunset junction
nothing lasts forever 7 PM @ silent movie theatre
mary lynn rajskub @ steve allen theatre
le amiche 5:00 7:30 9:30 PM @ lacma
vitaphone varieties @ ucla film archive
evil dead ii, army of darkness @ aero
willy wonka and the chocolate factory (1971) @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
woom @ the smell
the grand moving mirror of california 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama
sun. aug. 22
throne of blood 7 PM @ ucla film archive
sunset junction
harry brown 3:10 7:30 PM, get carter 5:15 9:35 PM @ new beverly theatre
night of the living dead, zombie @ egyptian theatre
agent ribbons @ bootleg theater
mon. aug. 23
the kiss of death 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
harry brown, get carter @ new beverly theatre
woom @ the echo
frank fairfield @ redwood bar
tue. aug. 24
bonossus and the gnomefly, palm reader @ the smell
rebel without a cause 1 PM @ lacma
thu. aug. 26
tremellow @ little joy
fri. aug. 27
mary lynn rajskub @ steve allen theatre
dersu uzala @ ucla film archive
cisco pike 8 PM, dusty & sweets mcgee @ silent movie theatre
clueless MIDNIGHT @ nuart
the night of the hunter, m @ new beverly theatre
gone with the pope MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
jon brion @ largo
heathers @ aero
moment trigger @ the smell
intolerance @ filmmobile summer screening series @ location TBA
sat. aug. 28
mary lynn rajskub @ steve allen theatre
the cross revolves at sunset: recent restorations of experimental film from the academy film archive @ ucla film archive
oneida @ spaceland
jon brion and nels cline @ largo
the night of the hunter 3:35 7:30 PM, m 5:30 9:25 PM @ new beverly theatre
goodfellas @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
sun. aug. 29
the idiot 7 PM @ ucla film archive
bill & ted's excellent adventure 3:45 7:30 PM, bill & ted's bogus journey 5:35 9:20 PM @ new beverly theatre
wild style @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
mon. aug. 30
white heat 7 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn
bill & ted's excellent adventure, bill & ted's bogus journey @ new beverly theatre
tue. aug. 31
ciao manhattan 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
wed. sept. 1
upstream @ ampas samuel goldwyn
ty segall @ spaceland
fri. sept. 3
the pope, foot village, arab on radar @ the sex
american psycho MIDNIGHT @ nuart
sat. sept. 4
sleep, etc @ fyf fest @ la historic state park
sun. sept. 5
boom chick @ echo curio
arab on radar @ the smell
the gories @ spaceland
mon. sept. 6
okie dokie @ pehrspace
wed. sept. 8
the gories @ the echo
thu. sept. 9
camper van beethoven @ echoplex
fri. sept. 10
terminator 2 MIDNIGHT @ nuart
vehicle blues @ echo curio
sat. sept. 11
the clientele @ echoplex
raiders of the lost ark @ devil's night drive in
sun. sept. 12
dunes @ the smell
mon. sept. 13
vehicle blues @ pehrspace
tue. sept. 14
tremellow @ silverlake lounge
wed. sept. 15
melvins @ troubadour
thu. sept. 16
up died sound @ echo curio
fri. sept. 17
cheech & chong's nice dreams MIDNIGHT @ nuart
dead meadow @ clean air clean stars fest @ pappy & harriet's (pioneertown)
sat. sept. 18
autolux @ el rey
sun. sept. 19
tamaryn @ the echo
mon. sept. 20
richard leacock - documentary pioneer 6 PM @ 7 dudley cinema
fri. sept. 24
enter the void MIDNIGHT @ nuart
jon brion @ largo
earthless @ spaceland
sat. sept. 25
enter the void MIDNIGHT @ nuart
the woggles @ bordello
burma VJ 7 PM FREE @ getty center
patton oswalt @ largo
frankie rose and the outs @ the smell
sun. sept. 26
streetwise 3 PM @ getty center
frankie rose @ the echo
mon. sept. 27
francoiz breut @ soda bar (SD)
tue. sept. 28
francoiz breut @ steynberg gallery (SLO)
thu. sept. 30
sonic youth, no age @ hollywood bowl
john cale @ ucla royce hall
fri. oct. 1
audacity @ the smell
sat. oct. 2
eagle rock music festival
sun. oct. 3
dum dum girls, belle & sebastian @ palladium
mon. oct. 4
guided by voices @ wiltern
tue. oct. 5
francoiz breut @ echo curio
fri. oct. 8
chapterhouse @ troubadour
back to the future the ride @ the smell
thu. oct. 14
the yes men @ ucla royce hall
sat. oct. 23
abbott and costello's hold that ghost 2:00 8:00 PM @ alex theatre
halloween and mourning movie night (TBA) @ heritage square
sat. oct. 30
phantom of the opera @ royce hall organ & silent film @ ucla royce hall
sun. oct. 31
dr. jekyll and mr. hyde (w/ live organ accompaniment) @ walt disney concert hall
wed. nov. 3
ornette coleman @ ucla royce hall
sun. nov. 7
expo '70 @ echo curio
thu. nov. 11
dean wareham plays galaxie 500 @ troubadour
sat. nov. 20
clinic @ troubadour
wed. nov. 24
black angels @ el rey
sat. nov. 27
three stooges films 2:00 8:00 PM @ alex theatre
sun. dec. 5
pharoah sanders, nels cline, han bennink, etc @ ucla royce hall
WHAT IT IS:
ACTS OF VIOLENCE
A man named Flyn (Il Lim) is on a mission on killing the men who raped his wife Olivia (Leelee Sobieski). He finds himself living a double life as a killer and a husband. He finds an unexpected friend, a priest (Ron Perlman), as he deals with the gravity of his acts. Dir.
Il Lim, 2010.
THE BAD SLEEP WELL
(Tengoku to jigoku)
(1963) Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Fifty years after its initial release, The Bad Sleep Well still proves amazingly prescient in its dissection of corporate corruption. A brilliant, and highly filmic, drama set against a political background of intrigue, it has been described as Kurosawa's Hamlet, "a black, twisted story of revenge in which a grieving son takes on powerful business and political figures." (Stuart Rosenthal)
Producer: Akira Kurosawa, Tomoyuki Tanaka. Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Eijiro Hisait, Kikushima Ryuzo, Shinobu Hashimoto. Cinematographer: Yuzuru Aizawa. Editor: Akira Kurosawa. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kagawa Kyoko, Tatsuya Mihashi, Takashi Shimura. 35mm, B/W, 151 min.
BEGGARS OF LIFE (1928) Directed by William Wellman
Starring Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen, Wallace Beery
Louise Brooks is on the run from an abusive father and rides the rails dressed as a man with the help of Richard Arlen.
Better Off Dead
Fusing Bananas-era Woody Allen to a bizarro netherworld John Hughes landscape, Better Off Dead finds death-obsessed protagonist Lane Meyer (John Cusack, in one of his funniest roles) battling heartbreak with the help of substance-obsessed pal Charles (Curtis Armstrong aka Revenge Of The Nerds' Booger), a lovingly deranged family, and an endless depository of demented, oft-quoted gags ("I want my two dollars!!!!"). Underseen at the time of its original release, Better Off Dead is rightly appreciated now as a cult standard; Savage Steve's plan of taking the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker template of a thousand jokes a hour and lovingly crafting around it a sweetly told tale of teenage ennui is a brilliant move, resulting in a unique and sparkling classic. Savage Steve will be joined by Curtis Armstrong, E.G. Daily, Dan Schneider and Diane Franklin for a Q&A after the film!
Dir. Savage Steve Holland, 1985, 35mm, 97 min.
THE BLACK MARBLE, 1980, Stuart Lisell, 113 min. Dir. Harold Becker. Paula Prentiss is a cop who falls in love with her new partner (Robert Foxworth), but his alcoholic struggle to deal with the realities of his work creates a major obstacle. Adapted from a novel by Joseph Wambaugh. With James Woods, Harry Dean Stanton and Christopher Lloyd. Discussion between films with actress Paula Prentiss.
THE BURGLAR, 1957, Sony Repertory, 90 min. Dir. Paul Wendkos. Writer David Goodis' guilt-laden caper yarn is given a fully-stylized visual workout by whiz-kid director Wendkos in one of the last films of the 1950s to capture the fatalistic feel of classic noir. With Dan Duryea, Jayne Mansfield, Martha Vickers. Introduction by Paul Wendkos’ son, Jordan Wendkos, plus a short film celebrating the late Paul Wendkos' 50 years in film and television.
BURMA VJ
Directed by Anders Ostergaard
(2009, 84 min., Digibeta, not rated)
The military junta rules Burma, and undercover video journalists must undertake a dangerous reportage: to document events and smuggle out images for the rest of the world to see, risking torture and life imprisonment. Equipped with hidden handicams and a compulsive instinct to shoot what they witness, in 2007 the VJs filmed the dramatic protests by Buddhist monks in Rangoon. The Burma VJ is an everyman, but he is also an accidental hero - a freedom fighter armed with a camera. Oscar nominated, 2010
California Split
Elliot Gould and George Segal bounce wildly off one another in the loose and engaging California Split, Robert Altman's exploration of compulsive gambling that ranks right among Nashville and McCabe & Mrs. Miller as one of his very finest works. Gould is the devil-may-care wild man, living on couches and a diet of cereal; Segal is a successful magazine publisher, the man with something to lose. Together, they wander in and out of old man bars, poker clubs, racetracks, and ultimately big-time casinos, their deeply touching yet tenuous friendship taking repeated blows as they come face-to-face with their own addictive natures. Working with one of his most finely-tuned acting ensembles (including Bert Remsen, Gwen Welles and a very young Jeff Goldblum), Altman captures the sumptuously seedy side of the Southland without ever sacrificing the grace and dignity that these pool souls deserve. A feast of detail and subtle characterization, California Split is best experienced in the theater, where, like the gaming floor, you never really know what time of day it is.
Dir. Robert Altman, 1974, 35mm, 108 min.
China Gate
1957/b&w/97 min./Scope | Scr/dir: Samuel Fuller; w/ Gene Barry, Angie Dickinson, Nat "King" Cole
In the waning stages of the French war in Vietnam, an international band of hired guns are recruited to travel through enemy territory in order to destroy a cache of weapons belonging to a guerilla army. They're smuggled to the Chinese border by Eurasian beauty Lucky Legs (Dickinson), a tavern boss with a bastard child and regular jungle routes selling cognac to soldiers. The motley crew—bombs expert Brock (Gene Barry) and fellow Korean War vet Goldie (Nat "King" Cole, also the voice on the film's theme tune), plus French legionnaires, a Czech soldier, and a Greek private—make their way through a dense forest swarming with snares, snipers, and mines. "Enormously entertaining pulp, delivered with Fullerian formalist brio, and totally, productively crazy"—J. Hoberman, The Village Voice.
Chuck & Buck
(10th Anniversary screening, w/ Miguel Arteta & Mike White in person!)
We're all friends here -- so join us in celebrating the tenth anniversary of Chuck, Buck, and their curious friendship. One of the most frank and powerful coming-of-age indies to bust out of Gen-X's shackles, Chuck & Buck is an intelligent, multi-layered treatise on obsession and longing for things past -- as well as being what David Edelstein of Slate.com calls "the most perversely agreeable stalker picture ever made". Buck (screenwriter and "Freaks & Geeks" alum Mike White) is an emotionally fragile, detached 27-year-old man-child who packs his life up in order to reunite with his one close childhood friend, Chuck, in Los Angeles. The purpose? Let’s just say that once they're both in the same room, Buck doesn't mince words. Directed by Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl, Star Maps) and employing lo-fi DV imagery to its righteous fullest, Chuck & Buck is an enthralling human dichotomy that imbues Cassavetes-styled invasiveness and Rushmore-esque whimsy with several coats of creepiness and a swathe of universal empathy. And it's even more captivating today than it was ten short years ago. Miguel Arteta & Mike White will be here in person for a Q&A after the show!
CHUCK JONES SHORTS
Creator of the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote and Pepé Le Pew, Chuck Jones also helped shape the beloved characters of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd. Films directed by Jones have earned three Oscars from a total of nine nominations. He received the Academy’s Honorary Award in 1995, and three of his films – “Duck Amuck” (1953), “One Froggy Evening” (1955) and “What’s Opera, Doc?” (1957) – have been named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
In conjunction with the current exhibition “Chuck Jones: An Animator’s Life from A to Z-Z-Z-Z,” which celebrates his prolific career as an animator, the Academy showcases Jones’s magnificent cartoon oeuvre with this presentation of shorts made in quite diverse animation styles, including the three Oscar winners directed by Jones: “For Scent-Imental Reasons” (1949), the documentary short “So Much for So Little” (1949) and “The Dot and the Line” (1965); and the six Oscar-nominated shorts he directed: “Mouse Wreckers” (1948), “From A to Z-Z-Z-Z” (1953), “High Note” (1960), “Beep Prepared” (1961), “Nelly’s Folly” (1961) and “Now Hear This” (1962).
35mm prints courtesy of Warner Bros. and the Academy Film Archive. Program running time: 66 mins.
Ciao Manhattan
Both Bob Dylan and Lou Reed wrote songs about her, and Andy Warhol dubbed her a Superstar, making film after film with her at the center. Edie Sedgwick was the "it" girl of the Factory, the tragic beauty of the '60s -- and there is no more perfect entry into Edie's world (and by association, Warhol's Factory) than David Weisman and John Palmer's experimental fiction/documentary fusion Ciao Manhattan. In this unusual take on the biographical film, Edie plays a thinly-veiled version of herself, Suzie Superstar, whose mod Manhattan exploits are recounted from her mother's Malibu swimming pool, where Suzie now lives in a makeshift tent. The NYC flashbacks are made up of gorgeous 1967 footage Weisman and Palmer shot for an unfinished film, paired with audio of candid true memories Edie recorded years later in a more dissipated state. Co-director David Weisman will be in person, along with co-stars Wesley Hayes and Jeff Briggs to share their memories -- and this special screening will be accompanied by the monstrously cool, very rare 30-minute documentary Edie: Girl On Fire, made up of outtakes, rare audio recordings, photographs, and more!
Cisco Pike
Kris Kristofferson makes his leading man debut in this heavenly slice of dark, laid-back '70s storytelling that effortlessly captures the pulse of Venice Beach in the post-Summer Of Love "what do we do now?" era. Faded rock star and ex-con Cisco Pike (a sexily dejected Kristofferson, armed with squint, stagger, boots and perfectly tousled locks) dreams of a better life with his girl (Karen Black), but his hopes are dashed when his contacts are more interested in his dope connections than his new songs -- and when Cisco agrees to deal a trunkload of skunk for a blackmailing crooked cop (a brilliantly nervous Gene Hackman), his unsteady world crumbles further. The plot is mostly secondary to the film's glorious, casual unveiling of all manner of flaky Venice chicks and scene-stealing counterculture denizens, who include Tex-Mex musician Doug Sahm, Joy Bang, Antonio “Huggy Bear” Fargas, Warhol superstar Viva, and Harry Dean Stanton in a role so perfect that we wished a spin-off film could've been created just for him.
Dir. Bill L. Norton, 1971, 35mm, 95 min.
COLIN FITZ LIVES!, 2010, Baby Shark Inc., 91 min. Dir. Robert Bella. Every year on the anniversary of rock idol Colin Fitz's death, something bizarre happens at his gravesite. Hired to stand sentinel by the grave, two bizarro, mismatched guards watch as an odditorium of fans come and go, including awesome supporting performances by William H. Macy, Martha Plimpton and John C. McGinley. One of the greatest films you’ve never seen, this film event is not to be missed! Discussion following with director Robert Bella and actor William H. Macy.
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 CROSS REVOLVES AT SUNSET: RECENT RESTORATIONS OF EXPERIMENTAL FILM FROM THE ACADEMY FILM ARCHIVE
Since 1992, the Academy Film Archive has conserved and restored countless works of avant-garde cinema. This program features a mix of both acknowledged masterworks and utter obscurities, drawn primarily from the Academy's most recent restoration output.
The title of the program was inspired by Keewatin Dewdney's very rarely screened 1967 masterpiece, The Maltese Cross Movement. Dewdney's unforgettable film vividly and playfully explores many elemental and metaphorical qualities of celluloid cinema, themes variously touched upon by other works in the show. Included among the evening's additional highlights is a 35mm print from the digital restoration of Daina Krumins' utterly unique and bizarre The Divine Miracle (1973) along with newly restored and rarely seen films by Robert Nelson, Scott Stark, J.J. Murphy, Gary Beydler, Diana Wilson and others.
Program curated by Academy Film Archive preservationist Mark Toscano. All films shown in restored prints from the Academy Film Archive, and courtesy of the filmmakers.
IN PERSON: Mark Toscano, Preservationist, Academy Film Archive.
Deconstructing Dad: The Music, Machines and Mystery of Raymond Scott
One of the true enigmas of 20th-century music, Harry Warnow -- better known to the world of jazz aficionados, record collectors, exotica fiends and electronic music tinkerers as Raymond Scott -- was a highly prolific figure with a career that began in the 1930s swing/big-band era, and continued on through the experimental music age of the 1970s. Practically everyone on Earth can instantly recognize Scott's off-kilter melodies as heard in many of Warner Brothers' cartoons, but few also know that he also invented his own dazzling array of gadget-based musical instruments (as well as other devices like an early fax machine), played a part in busting racism on network radio -- and was the Director of Electronic Music Research and Development for Motown! Stan Warnow, Scott's son and renowned film editor (Woodstock, Hair, and many collaborations with Robert Downey Sr.), leads us on a thorough and revealing tour of Scott's multi-faceted life, while attempting to reconcile the myth of the man with the reality of a father he never fully knew. DJ Skip Heller will be here to spin Raymond Scott tunes before and after the show!
Dir. Stanley Warnow, 2010, digital presentation, 70 min.
DERSU UZALA
(1975, USSR/Japan) Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Directed by Kurosawa at the invitation of the Soviet Union, Dersu Uzala went on to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Based on a true story, it centers on the friendship between a Russian surveyor in Siberia and a native guide, Dersu Uzala, whose quiet presence hides a powerful grace and an even more powerful connection to the world around him.
Based on a novel by Vladimir Arsenyev. Producer: Yoichi Matsue, Nikolai Sizov. Screenplay: Yuri Nagibin, Akira Kurosawa. Cast: Maksim Munzuk, Yuri Solomin, Svetlana Danilchenko, Dmitri Korshikov. Presented in Russian and Chinese dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 144 min.
THE DEVILS, 1971, Warner Bros., 111 min. Director Ken Russell’s adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun remains one of the most disturbingly memorable films from the early 1970s. In 17th century France, Cardinal Richelieu’s minions use the womanizing of activist priest Urban Grandier (Oliver Reed) as an excuse to investigate his "diabolic possession" of the local nuns, including the demented, hunchbacked Mother Superior Sister Jeanne (an unforgettable Vanessa Redgrave). Discussion between films with director Ken Russell.
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.
DRUNKEN ANGEL
(Yoidore tenshi)
(1948) Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Drunken Angel is a masterful gangster film, evoking the sinister shadows of American film noir and depicting with compassion the devalued life of underworld characters. It is, moreover, a perfect, poetic allegory of postwar Japan as a good Samaritan, Dr. Sanada (Shimura), clashes with an arrogant hoodlum (Mifune), discovered to be tubercular, in a struggle of mutual loathing and grudging respect. (Judy Bloch)
Producer: Sojiro Motoki. Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa, Keinosuke Uekasa. Cinematographer: Takeo Ito. Cast: Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, Reisaburo Yamamoto. 35mm, B/W, 98 min.
DUEL, 1971, Universal, 88 min. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Originally broadcast as a television film (and later expanded for theatrical release), DUEL stars Dennis Weaver as a businessman crossing a stretch of deserted highway, who finds himself terrorized by a malevolent, unseen truck driver. Nerve-wracking suspense and superb, turbo-charged action in the best MAD MAX vein, from 25-year old gunslinger Steven Spielberg!
Dusty & Sweets McGee
Maverick auteur Floyd Mutrux made his feature debut with this extremely stark quasi-documentary look at the L.A. drug scene, constructed around a series of hazy, interlocking vignettes featuring real-life junkies playing themselves, and a supporting cast comprised of "real" actors -- meaning the pushers didn’t want to be seen on camera. Mutrux and his crew follow this motley assortment of users and hustlers as they go through semi-scripted daily routines of scoring and wasting away the hours until their next fix: Dusty and Sweets are a thirty-something couple whose strained relationship is defined by their shared dependence on heroin; Kit turns tricks to support his habit; Tip is a self-proclaimed "everyday card-carrying dope fiend"; and, a vacant teenage couple are seen spending their days shooting up, nodding off, or wondering where to get more smack. The rawness and grit is well-captured by cameraman William Fraker (who also plays one of the upper-ech suppliers), and though it features enough on-screen vein-popping to make any audience wince, the film's languid, melancholy mood captures the narcotic allure of Los Angeles in an utterly convincing and compelling way.
Dir. Floyd Mutrux, 1971, 35mm, 92 min.
EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE, 1973, 20th Century Fox, 118 min. Ernest Borgnine reunites with his "Dirty Dozen" co-star Lee Marvin and director Robert Aldrich for this Depression-era drama. Borgnine is a sadistic railroad conductor determined to keep hobos off of his train; Marvin is an outcast who strives to become a legend by battling and besting Borgnine. Highlighted by a young Keith Carradine as the rascal Cigaret, and a taut script by Christopher Knopf (A COLD NIGHT’S DEATH). Discussion following with screenwriter Christopher Knopf moderated by screenwriter Josh Olson.
ENTER THE VOID
Gaspar Noe is a visually trippy director, and “Enter the Void” shows why. The son of famed Argentine painter Luis Felipe Noe, his movies play out like color-draped dreams, sometimes with out-of-sequence scenes, sometimes with flashbacks and flashforwards.
“Enter the Void” plays with experimental storytelling by centering its narrative in the head of a young man, Oscar, who has been killed during a petty drug deal. Oscar’s spirit isn’t free to move on because he promised his sister Linda, a nightclub stripper, that he would never leave her. So he watches from above and prowls the neon-filled city of Tokyo, where they live.
FOR ALL MANKIND
Anyone expecting another by-the-numbers space program overview will be overjoyed by Al Reinert's immaculately composed For All Mankind, an unusual chronicle of humanity’s conquest of the moon. Less a history lesson than a philosophical inquiry, Reinert lets the truly awesome sounds and images -- all culled from contemporary NASA recordings and presented with a beauty and clarity never before seen -- do most of the talking, resulting in a profoundly immersive cinematic experience of space travel. As dazzling as the images are the observations and remembrances of the crews; the astronauts themselves provide the only commentary, presented anonymously, the reverential voices forming a chorus of incredible shared experience and insight. While it's sublime in its contemplation of mankind's great endeavor, the film is also full of warmth and humor -- perhaps no other documentary features zero-G montages scored to Merle Haggard, or extended sequences of giggling moonwalkers falling on their face. A rich and remarkable fusion of focus, concision and wonder, For All Mankind aspires, like all the best visions of science, to the level of poetry. Dir. Al Reinert, 1989, 35mm, 80 min. (35mm print courtesy of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences)
Forty Guns
1957/b&w/80 min./Scope | Scr/dir: Samuel Fuller; w/ Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Dean Jagger
Fuller's sagebrush opera is baroque to the point of being hallucinatory and it has garnered a much-deserved cult following. Cochise County is under the heavily-armed control of ruthless cattle baroness Stanwyck and her punk brother. But when a black-clad US Marshall (Sullivan) rides into town, she meets her match. With verve and a cracking whip, Stanwyck completes a trinity of strong-willed belles of the West that includes Joan Crawford's frenzied saloon proprietor in Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954) and Marlene Dietrich's sultry bordello maven in Lang's Rancho Notorious (1952). "Outrageously lively… pushes all four corners of the black-and-white widescreen to the extreme."—Andrew Sarris.
Get Out Of The Car!
An Evening With Thom Andersen (director of Los Angeles Plays Itself),
feat. U.S. premiere of Get Out Of The Car!
You might be familiar with Los Angeles Plays Itself, Thom Andersen's moving, mesmerizing epic study of the history of L.A. as told through the history of film, but did you know Andersen has been documenting the soul of L.A. since the mid-'60s, tracking what is now gone and what is left of the city we love? Andersen doesn't just see this history -- he hears it as well. Don't Knock The Rock and Cinefamily are thrilled to present three of Andersen's L.A.-centric, music-rich films, including the U.S. premiere of Get Out Of The Car, a city symphony in 16mm composed of advertising signs, building facades, fragments of music and conversation, and unmarked sites of vanished cultural landmarks (including El Monte Legion Stadium and Watts' famous Barrelhouse). The film's musical fragments compose an impressionistic survey of popular music made here in Los Angeles across the 20th century, with an emphasis on '50s jazz/R&B and '90s corridos! Also showing is the unusually-named and rarely-screened "-- -------", Andersen's rock 'n roll doc from the mid-'60s, shot on location on the legendary Sunset Strip -- and Olivia's Place, a survey of the bar on Santa Monica's Main Street that inspired The Doors' "Soul Kitchen" (featuring the music of L.A.'s own Big Jay McNeely)! Thom Andersen will both appear at the Cinefamily to intro the films, and to also present a personally-curated collection of other rare music-filled films after the screenings of his own works!
GONE WITH THE POPE, 1976, Grindhouse Releasing, 83 min. Writer-director-producer Duke Mitchell stars as Paul, a criminal with an unholy scheme: to kidnap the pope and charge "a dollar from every Catholic in the world" as ransom. This deliriously entertaining saga was shot in 1976 but remained unfinished until 2009. Now fully realized in 35mm!
THE GRAND MOVING MIRROR OF CALIFORNIA
A moving panorama production for the stage, The Grand Moving Mirror of California is comprised of a series of painted scenes which describe the tempestuous journeys undertaken both 'round Cape Horn and over land in the effort to reach California during the Gold Rush of 1849. Taken from an original 1850s script and performed on the stage with live narration, musical accompaniment and thrilling sound stimulation, this is a beautiful mechanical entertainment the likes of which has not been seen in over 130 years!
The Grand Moving Panorama of California is inspired by a hybrid of 19th century visual and performance traditions – the moving panorama. A wildly popular entertainment that flourished throughout America and Europe in the 1800s, this form of entertainment was literally the first type of "motion picture." Using this colorful history as a foundation, our Grand Moving Panorama of California is a two-hundred-and-seventy-foot-long painted landscape, depicting the early history of California and referencing elements of the landscape and culture as it exists today. On the voyage we encounter the rough seas at Cape Horn, early versions of today's California cities and famous natural treasures, and the people, landscapes and ports-of-call the original '49ers encountered on their journey to find their fortunes.
HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL!
The incomparable Mamie van Doren stars in one of the truly great camp American films of the 1950's in which a tough-talking gang leader comes in contact with a drug ring and its leader--all in the surroundings of the all-American high school. A great rock musical score. Jack Arnold---USA---1958---85 mins.
THE HILLS HAVE EYES
Horror master Wes Craven's cult classic finds a white-bread suburban family fighting for their lives against an inbred family of cannibals. Stuck in the remote southwestern desert after their car breaks down, the Carter family become play-things for the bloodthirsty clan and must resort to savagery themselves to avoid becoming dinner. A wonderful combination of brash social criticism and brutality. "Harrowing and nasty" (Entertainment Weekly). Wes Craven---USA---1977---89 mins.
HI, MOM!
Robert De Niro returns as Vietnam vet John Rubin, in this award-winning sequel to Greetings. Once again under the direction of a young Brian De Palma, De Niro continues his adventures as an amateur filmmaker in Greenwich Village--this time as "Peeping John", an erotic artist who focuses his camera on four windows in a local high-rise apartment building: three gorgeous secretaries, a hippie couple, a playboy, and a housewife. This film laid the foundation for Body Double. Brian De Palma---USA---1970---87 mins.
THE IDIOT
(Hakuchi)
(1951) Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Kurosawa obviously poured his soul into his adaptation of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. The visuals are stunning and Kurosawa's fidelity to the characterizations and themes of his "favorite author" is almost fanatic. An ingenious scenario finds Myshkin personified as Kameda, an ex-soldier who narrowly escapes death, whose vow to practice total selflessness in his relationships still cannot stave off tragedy. (Judy Bloch)
Based on the novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Producer: Takashi Koide. Screenplay: Eijiro Hisaita, Akira Kurosawa. Cinematographer: Toshio Ubukata. Editor: Akira Kurosawa. Cast: Setsuko Hara, Masayuki Mori, Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura. 35mm, 166 min.
IKIRU
(1952) Directed by Akira Kurosawa
When government functionary Mr. Watanabe learns he has terminal cancer, his metamorphosis from a drone entombed in paperwork (his co-workers call him "Mummy") to a conscious being actively engaged with and by the world is one of the great spiritual transformations in cinema. Ikiru is a tour de force, a searing portrait of modern society in which individual will is pit against an impotent bureaucracy. (Judy Bloch)
Producer: Sojiro Motoki. Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni. Cinematographer: Asakazu Nakai. Cast: Takashi Shimura, Shinichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka, Minoru Chiaki. 35mm, B/W, 143 min.
Jackie Brown
Austin TX's legendary Alamo Drafthouse comes to Los Angeles, as part of their touring Rolling Roadshow extravaganza! This year, the Rolling Roadshow's L.A. leg takes place at Torrence's Del Amo Fashion Mall, and features an outdoor screening of Jackie Brown!
A down-on-his-luck bail bondsman (Robert Forester) finds himself wrapped up in a crime plot likely to break his heart and/or end his life. But after falling head-over-heels for gorgeous flight attendant Jackie Brown (Pam Grier), there’s nowhere to go but straight through the wringer. Quentin Tarantino’s late ’90s masterpiece is a mountain of incredible parts: a crime story, a love story, a tribute to the most sincere cinema of the ’70s, and an unbelievable showcase for the talents of some of Hollywood’s very finest.
To properly celebrate Jackie Brown, we’ll be joining the director and stars (schedules permitting) at its original shooting location of The Del Amo Mall in Torrance, CA!
Screening begins at sunset. Please bring your own chair or blanket.
JOHN CAGE's ONE ('07, 90m)
Maverick composer John Cage's black-and-white meditation on the waxing and waning of light: Candle-like apertures appear, expand, then recede from view while Cage's orchestral work 103 simmers with sustained strings and occasional punctuations from oboe, trumpet, tympani, and other instruments. One11 is a visual counterpart to Cage's 'silent' composition 4:33, questioning our concepts of emptiness. 'No space is empty,' he said. 'Light will show what is in it. The result, aided by the distinguished cameraman Van Theodore Carlson, is a film entirely without plot or actors, which Cage hopes will enable viewers to find themselves. FOLLOWED BY: The Making of One11 ('06, 43m) at 8pm - Henning Lohner's documentary on the creative process and realization of the film, with Joan LaBarbara and more. Interview with Van Carlson & Henning Lohner ('06, 33m) at 9:30- The filmmakers discuss their work with Cage and the film, the technical challenges, and more.
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.
THE LAST OF SHEILA, 1973, Warner Bros., 120 min. Herbert Ross directs the ultimate puzzle movie! Producer James Coburn throws a party on his yacht for his friends and enemies: a struggling screenwriter (Richard Benjamin) and his rich wife (Joan Hackett), a down-at-his-heels former A-list director (James Mason), a fading starlet (Raquel Welch), her gigolo boyfriend (Ian McShane) and an acid-tongued agent (Dyan Cannon). But murder is afoot. Discussion between films with Richard Benjamin.
Le Amiche
1955/b&w/104 min. | Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni; w/ Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele Ferzetti. | A Film Desk Release; restored by Cineteca di Bologna at L'Immagine Ritrovata with funding provided by Gucci and The Film Foundation.
A young woman returns to her native Turin to open a fashion salon, and there she falls in with a "smart set" that includes the suicidal daughter of an eminent family, a painter who is jealous of his wife's success, and a woman who vents her despair by attacking her closest friends. With its theme of the spiritual and moral malaise of the wealthy and its succession of strikingly composed images, this important early work from Michelangelo Antonioni, adapted from a novel by Cesare Pavese, looks forward to the director's groundbreaking L'Avventura. "Impossible to stop watching. The expressive elegance of Antonioni's camera movements—the way he glides around a scene, composing and recomposing the human figures within it to suggest psychological patterns and unacknowledged erotic connections—still has the power to amaze… What makes Le Amiche so bracing—so sad and, sometimes, so funny—is that its heroines are fallible, flawed, vain and powerful, each in her own way. They often make one another miserable, but their company is always a pleasure."—A.O. Scott, The New York Times.
New 35mm print!
Life of Oharu
1952/b&w/136 min | Scr: Kenji Mizoguchi, Yoshikata Yoda; dir: Kenji Mizoguchi; w/ Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune
Kenji Mizoguchi considered this staggering period drama to be his masterpiece, and many critics agree. Tanaka—whose career was synonymous with Mizoguchi's for many years—plays Oharu, an imperious court lady of the Edo period. Banished for loving a lowly samurai (Mifune), she embarks on a heartbreaking downward saga. Though a succession of betrayals and tragedies plague her, Oharu is never defeated. Told through interlocking flashbacks and indelible compositions, Mizoguchi's Shakespearean epic immediately precedes his late masterpieces Ugetsu and Sansho, the Bailiff. "Stately, controlled, and impeccably constructed. [Mizoguchi's] fascination with the social roles of women leads him, in this film as in many others, to a profound discovery of elevated emotional states. A near-perfect work."—Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader.
THE LOWER DEPTHS
(Donzoko)
(1957) Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Kurosawa's faithful adaptation of Gorky's play avoids staginess at every turn despite being largely confined to a single setting: the disheveled common room of a flophouse. Kurosawa's camera penetrates the space and the hearts of its denizens—a thief, the landlady, a gambler, a prostitute, an actor—as they struggle with one another and with themselves in denial of the pitiable fate they all share.
Based on the play by Maxim Gorky. Producer: Akira Kurosawa. Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni. Cinematographer: Kazuo Yamasaki. Editor: Akira Kurosawa. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Kyoko Kagawa, Ganjiro Nakamura. 35mm, B/W, 137 min.
THE MEPHISTO WALTZ, 1971, 20th Century Fox, 109 min. Dir. Paul Wendkos. One of the most stylish horror films ever made. Music journalist Alan Alda finds himself in the clutches of a satanic cult after interviewing an unnaturally gifted concert pianist (Curt Jurgens). Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Parkins and Bradford Dillman co-star in this truly chilling drug-induced nightmare of a movie featuring composer Jerry Goldsmith's frightening adaptation of Liszt’s "Mephisto Waltz."
Model Shop
It was only a matter of time before the call of Hollywood's dream factory ensnared French director Jacques Demy, that lover of old musicals and stylized fantasies, whose only film for the American studio system, Model Shop, was made in 1969 for Columbia Pictures. Turning his camera on the sun-bleached, pop culture-drenched L.A. landscape and playing down his usual style, Demy gives us a 24-hour period as experienced by George (2001: A Space Odyssey's Gary Lockwood), a layabout Vietnam draftee who doesn't seem to mind much that his girl, his car and his pad are about to become a memory. Enter Lola (Anouk Aimée) , a mysterious French woman that poses for pin-up pics at a skeezy "photographer's club" -- entranced, he trails her from Malibu to Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and back again, in the blind hope of some kind of real human connection. Long considered a "lost" Demy project, Model Shop's camerawork and art direction are never less than faultless, its soundtrack (courtesy of local band Spirit) is a total jewel of the period -- and its generous footage of L.A. circa '69 is now a treasure trove unto itself.
Dir. Jacques Demy, 1969, 35mm, 97 min.
Nothing Lasts Forever
(w/ director Tom Schiller in person!)
shown with "Schiller's Reel"
Take the whimsical social satire of Frank Capra, filter it through the startling future dream of Terry Gilliam's Brazil and add a few drops of the gentle madness of both Forbidden Zone and The Hudsucker Proxy -- and you've got Nothing Lasts Forever, the vastly underseen early '80s gem from Tom Schiller, director of some of SNL's most ingenious early film shorts. Zach Galligan (Gremlins) plays Adam, an upstanding wannabe artist trapped in a discreetly ever-mutating retro future dystopia (is it '30s? '50s? '80s?), where the Port Authority has assumed control of Manhattan's government, and has denied him an "artist's license." A secret cabal of hobos, however, sees Adam's worth and sends him packing on a shuttle bus to the Moon! Shelved by MGM after its completion and never released theatrically or on video, this subtle and charming B&W curio -- even with the added presence of its co-stars Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd -- was too "outside the box" and ahead of its time in the boom era of teen sex romps, slasher films and buddy action flicks. Lucky for us, however, Nothing Lasts Forever remains as one of the most truly unique film works of its time. Director Tom Schiller will be here in person to introduce "Schiller's Reel", a half-hour compendium of his early short films -- and for a Q&A after the screening! Plus, special guests TBA!
Dir. Tom Schiller, 1984, 35mm, 82 min.
THE OBLONG BOX, 1969, MGM Repertory, 91 min. Dir. Gordon Hessler. Loosely adapting an Edgar Allan Poe story aided by the sumptuously atmospheric cinematography of John Coquillon, Hessler spins a tale of the consequences of colonialism. In 1860s England, callous Sir Julian (Vincent Price) hides his disfigured brother, Sir Edward (Alistair Williamson) in the attic after his sibling is victimized by a voodoo curse meant for him. With Christopher Lee, Hilary Dwyer.
One Crazy Summer
Upping the outrageousness quotient by several degrees, this sequel-in-spirit to Better Off Dead is the screwy story of frustrated young cartoonist Hoops McCann (a returning John Cusack), his wise-ass best friend George Calamari (Bill Murray’s gene-channeling brother, Joel), and would-be rock star Cassandra (a tomboyish Demi Moore), as they cavort with a manic, Godzilla-suited Bobcat Goldthwait and a priceless, twitchy, scene-stealing Bruce Wagner on an island in Nantucket during summer break. If all of this sounds wonderfully nuts, you're absolutely right; irreverent, charming and witty, One Crazy Summer is on its own a helluva good time, but when paired with Better Off Dead, it's sublime. Holy crap -- Savage Steve will be joined by Bobcat Goldthwait, Curtis Armstrong and Joel Murray for the Q&A after the film!
Dir. Savage Steve Holland, 1986, 35mm, 97 min.
Pickup on South Street
1953/b&w/83 min. | Scr/dir: Samuel Fuller; w/ Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter
Weaselly Widmark gets more than he bargains for when he grifts top-secret microfilm from the purse of a Communist spy (steamy Jean Peters, future wife of Howard Hughes) and goes on the lam as both the Feds and the Reds try to track him down. A breathless cat-and-mouse game infused with virtuoso mise-en-scène and punchy slang, the film is rich in New York details and ambience—from Widmark's shack under the Brooklyn Bridge to grimy noodle joints and ramshackle Bowery bedrooms—though it was largely shot in a studio with some exterior work done in downtown Los Angeles. Awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival by a jury headed by Luchino Visconti, the film also garnered an Oscar nomination for Thelma Ritter as a hard-bitten snitch who sells neckties for a buck. "Fuller's great love story…a masterpiece of low-key lyricism… [Fuller is] our skid row Eisenstein, our 42nd Street Brecht, Hollywood's greatest abstract sensationalist"—J. Hoberman.
PLAY IT AS IT LAYS, 1972, Universal, 99 min. Director Frank Perry (DAVID AND LISA) delivered many edgy psychological classics, and none is more deserving of rediscovery than this rarely-screened adaptation of Joan Didion's bestseller, with a screenplay by Didion and her late husband, John Gregory Dunne. Tuesday Weld is at her best as fiercely intelligent Maria, an ex-model on the verge of a nervous breakdown. In-the-closet producer Anthony Perkins is her only friend and Adam Roarke her estranged, director husband trying to jumpstart his career out of the biker-film ghetto. A scathing portrait of Hollywood in the early 1970's. NOT ON VIDEO!
Project Apollo
Also showing before the feature is Project Apollo, the half-hour experimental educational film (directed by Ed Emshwiller for the United States Information Agency) that gives a fascinating portrait of NASA's Apollo project a full year before the actual moon landing! Dir. Ed Emshwiller, 1968, digital presentation, 30 min.
RACING WITH THE MOON, 1984, Paramount, 108 min. Dir. Richard Benjamin. The lives of friends Sean Penn, Elizabeth McGovern and Nicolas Cage are about to be changed forever by World War II in this elegiac gem from director Richard Benjamin. Astonishing 1940s period detail and a knockout cast (Michael Madsen, Crispin Glover and Dana Carvey are just a few of the supporting players) make this a must-see.
RED BEARD
(Akahige)
(1965) Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Kurosawa's last film with Toshiro Mifune traces the education of an arrogant young doctor after he is assigned to a medical clinic for the poor where he falls under the influence of its stern director. "Red Beard" (Mifune) struggles to cure the physical ailments of his patients and the poverty that begets them in one of Kurosawa's most moving appeals for social and economic justice.
Based on a novel by Shugoro Yamamoto. Producer: Kikushima Ryuzo, Tomoyuki Tanaka. Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa, Masato Ide, Hideo Oguni, Kikushima Ryuzo. Cinematographer: Asakazu Nakai, Takao Saito. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki. 35mm, B/W, 185 min.
RIFFRAFF, 1947, Warner Bros., 80 min. Dir. Ted Tetzlaff. When Pat O'Brien learns of a map leading the way to rich oil fields, he has to keep one step ahead of the thieves who want to get their hands on it. Luckily, he's got resourceful nightclub singer Maxine (Anne Jeffreys) to help him out. Discussion between films with actress Anne Jeffreys.
NO REGRETS FOR OUR YOUTH
(Waga seishun ni kuinashi)
(1946) Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Made immediately after WWII, No Regrets for Our Youth is based on a true story of political repression in which a university professor was dismissed for "Communist thinking" and one of his students, a leader of an antiwar movement, was subsequently executed as a spy. Kurosawa approaches the story's incendiary politics indirectly, through the repercussions it has on the professor's idealistic daughter.
Producer: Keiji Matsuzaki. Screenplay: Eijiro Hisaita, Akira Kurosawa. Cinematographer: Asakazu Nakai. Editor: Akira Kurosawa. Cast: Setsuko Hara, Susumu Fujita, Denjiro Okochi, Haruko Sugimura. 35mm, B/W, 110 min.
RICHARD LEACOCK - DOCUMENTARY PIONEER
Ishan Shapiro & Marija Coneva (in person) screen rare films by Ricky Leacock, who spawned Direct Cinema & Cinema Verite, and worked with Robert Flaherty, DA Pennebaker, Shirley Clarke, Jean-Luc Godard, Bob Dylan, Igor Starvinsky and many more. He was the head of MIT's Film School for 20 years. His JFK doc Primary was praised as a revolutionary step and breaking point in the recording of reality in cinema having caught the scenes of real life with unprecedented authenticity, immediacy and truth. Henri Langlois called it "the most important documentary since the brothers Lumiere." Ishan & Marija mentored under Leacock for several months in Paris recently and will share some of their understandings on the importance of his work. They will discus Leacock's essays on our relationship as creators of media and his point of view on the democratization of the tools to create media - a lifelong struggle for him. They are helping him publish his autobiography currently.
The Secret Animated History of Raymond Scott!
Raymond Scott's musical legacy is felt not only throughout the classic age of Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes, but also across the animation spectrum. Tonight, after our screening of Deconstructing Dad, join animation historian Jerry Beck as he takes you on a guided tour of Scott's work as heard in such shows as Ren & Stimpy, The Simpsons, Duckman, Animaniacs and more!
Streetwise
Directed by Martin Bell
(1984, 91 min., HDCAM, not rated)
This unflinching vérité documentary tracks nine teenagers living on the streets of Seattle in the 1980s, and was produced in conjunction with Mary Ellen Mark's photographic project of the same name.
THE THREE CABALLEROS
Starring Donald Duck, Jose Carioca and Panchito, this combination of live action and animation was made as a companion piece to Saludos Amigos, a goodwill gesture by Disney toward our South American allies. Donald celebrates his birthday down south, opening a wondrous collection of gifts that evolve into musical journeys with a Latin beat. Norman Ferguson---USA---1945---71 mins.
THRONE OF BLOOD
(Kumonsu-jo)
(1957) Directed by Akira Kurosawa
In his audacious adaptation of Macbeth, Kurosawa relies on the aesthetics of Noh theater and his own visual and cinematic invention to brilliantly capture the emotional grandeur of the original and to evoke the Bard's timeless themes. Toshiro Mifune brings his Macbeth to life with a concentrated physicality, using every gesture and glance to become a man possessed, then destroyed, by a dream of power.
Based on a play by William Shakespeare. Producer: Akira Kurosawa, Sojiro Motoki. Screenplay: Shinobu Hashimoto, Kikushima Ryuzo, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni. Cinematographer: Asakazu Nakai. Editor: Akira Kurosawa. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura, Akira Kubo. 35mm, B/W, 110 min.
Tourist Trap
As sensory-charged as an experimental film and as graphic as a PG rating of its time allowed, Tourist Trap, one of the great archetypal drive-in horror films, initially unfolds in the classic horror tradition, but quickly swerves right off the highway into total blissful mindwarp territory. A quartet of hapless youths take a backroads vacation journey up to a desolate tourist trap run by the suspiciously hospitable Mr. Slausen (Chuck Connors); inbetween skinny dipping and exploring creepy resort attractions, the victims-to-be encounter Slausen's mannequins, which have a nasty habit of coming to life and offing folks. Thanks to its startling music score by Italian legend Pino Donaggio, its weird lyrical romantic qualities and sharp direction by David Schmoeller (Crawlspace), this oddity seemingly evokes many wonderful elements of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, including its chilling rural setting and Connors' truly crazed performance as one of the more memorable down-home psychopaths in horror film. Director David Schmoeller will be here in person for a Q&A after the film!
Dir. David Schmoeller, 1979, 35mm, 90 min.
UPSTREAM
“Upstream” (1927) is one of 75 American films recently found in the New Zealand Film Archive that no longer existed in the United States. The films were discovered when Brian Meacham, an archivist for the Academy, dropped in on colleagues at the New Zealand Archive while on vacation. These “lost” films will be preserved over the next three years at five major American archives, including the Academy’s, in collaboration with the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Although Ford was already known in 1927 for his direction of westerns, “Upstream” is a backstage drama that focuses on a love triangle involving an egotistical actor and a young couple who partner in a vaudeville knife-throwing act. The film is from an interesting chapter in the career of Ford, as he admitted that during this time he was strongly influenced and impressed by the work of German director F.W. Murnau, who had immigrated to the United States to make films for the Fox studios, enabling Ford to study his working methods first hand.
The evening’s presentation will include live musical accompaniment by Michael Mortilla, as well as an advertising trailer which contains the only known surviving footage of the John Ford film “Strong Boy” (1929).
VITAPHONE VARIETIES
For this special edition of Archive Treasures, we're pleased to present a selection of newly restored Vitaphone shorts, those wildly entertaining heralds of the sound film era produced between 1926 and 1931. Established by Warner Bros., the Vitaphone Corporation made thousands of short films with its sound-on-disc system featuring musicians, vaudeville acts, dramatists and radio stars. Though sound-on-disc technology was soon made obsolete, Vitaphone shorts remain a dazzling record of pop culture and entertainment at the height of the Jazz Age.
All the Vitaphone shorts in this program have been restored by Warner Bros., in collaboration with UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Library of Congress, with funding provided by Warner Bros. and Dudley Heer.
IN PERSON: Robert Gitt, Preservation Officer, UCLA Film & Television Archive.
WALT & EL GRUPO chronicles the amazing ten-week trip that Walt Disney and his hand-picked group of artists and filmmaking talent (later known as “El Grupo”) took to South America in 1941 at the behest of the U.S. Government as part of the Good Neighbor Policy. Within just three short years after the phenomenal success of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” the Walt Disney Studios experienced a chain of financial challenges that ultimately led to the infamous animators strike. Also during this time, the Roosevelt administration had growing concerns about Nazi and Fascist influence in Latin America, and the rest of the world was slipping further into war. In stark contrast to these trying times, Disney and his colorful group of artists found themselves on a lively trip full of hope and discovery as they explored various South American cities, spending the majority of their time in the countries of Argentina, Brazil and Chile. The group was saddled with an unusual assignment – while gathering story material, immersing themselves in the culture, befriending local artists, meeting political leaders and attending countless functions, their journey was also a de facto diplomatic mission, and as a result, the studio produced the classic films “Saludos Amigos” and “The Three Caballeros.” Shot on film in five countries, WALT & EL GRUPO is a tale that still resonates on both sides of the equator. The film time travels in Walt Disney’s footsteps through the use of personal letters and stunning artwork from the trip, remembrances by descendants and survivors, and extraordinary never-before-seen footage. WALT & EL GRUPO brings together an intertwined story of art and politics, the poignancy of a bygone age, and a legendary artist during one of his most trying times. Dir. Theodore Thomas, 2008, 106 mins.
WASHINGTON MELODRAMA, 1941, Warner Bros., 80 min. Dir. S. Sylvan Simon. Philanthropic industrialist Calvin Claymore (Frank Morgan) takes a lobbying trip to Washington and finds himself implicated in a murder. The intrigue and politics get more and more complex as Calvin works to solve the crime and get his bill passed. Ann Rutherford shines as Claymore’s daughter, who gets involved with a reporter on the story. Discussion between films with actress Ann Rutherford.
WOMEN IN THE MOON
Considered by many to be one of the most influential science fiction films of its time, this Fritz Lang classic, based on Thea von Harbou’s novel “Frau im Mond,” tells the story of a group of scientists and adventurers who take a rocket trip to the moon. With Klaus Pohl, Willy Fritsch, Fritz Rasp, Gerda Maurus. Directed and produced by Lang, written by von Harbou. Silent with English intertitles. In digital projection. 169 mins.