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

fri. aug. 29

ratcatcher @ silent movie theatre
the shanghai gesture 10 PM @ silent movie theatre
the warriors MIDNIGHT @ nuart theatre
three films of guy debord @ the public school @ telic arts exchange
the killers, the last picture show @ new beverly theatre
cinecon @ egyptian theatre
jon brion @ largo
mae shi @ the smell
from beyond 9 PM @ steve allen theatre drive-in series
urban conference @ echoplex


sat. aug. 30

sword of doom 7 PM @ silent movie theatre
day of the animals 10 PM @ silent movie theatre
mata hari 7 PM @ starlight studios
strange boys, no age, negative approach, mika miko, mae shi, bob odenkirk, etc, @ f yeah fest @ the echo, echoplex
the killers, the last picture show @ new beverly theatre
little darlings MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
close encounters of the third kind @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
three films of guy debord @ the public school @ telic arts exchange
cinecon @ egyptian theatre
love as laughter @ spaceland


sun. aug. 31

cinecon @ egyptian theatre
polvo, trans am @ the echo
neil hamburger @ spaceland
peter kolovos @ pehrspace
don't look now @ cinespia @ hollywood forever


mon. sept. 1

cinecon @ egyptian theatre


tue. sept. 2

love me or leave me 1 PM @ lacma


wed. sept. 3

lee "scratch" perry, abe vigoda @ el rey
the fly 8 PM (w/ david cronenberg q&a) @ cinerama dome
wreckless eric FREE @ cinema bar


thu. sept. 4

the holograms @ valley of the dolls
wild style 8 PM, bongo barbership @ silent movie theatre


fri. sept. 5

jon brion @ largo
the professional MIDNIGHT @ fairfax regency theatre
return to normandy, i pierre riviere @ ucla film archive
2001 a space odyssey 8 PM, 11:40 PM @ cinerama dome
casablanca @ santa monica pier
demon seed 9 PM @ steve allen theatre drive-in series
splendor in the grass @ silent movie theatre
class 10:15 PM, weird science @ silent movie theatre


sat. sept. 6

a free soul 7 PM, the guardsman @ starlight studios
the sicilian clan, moontide @ egyptian theatre
duck soup @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
dynotones @ satisfaction @ bordello
talk to her 5 PM, bad education @ silent movie theatre
mondo christploitation 10 PM @ silent movie theatre
saccharine trust FREE @ jawbone canyon


sun. sept. 7

house on the waterfront, grisbi @ egyptian theatre
ladies and gentlemen the fabulous stains 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
young sherlock holmes, TBA @ new beverly theatre
earthless, witch, the warlocks, assemble head in sunburst sound, etc @ echoplex


mon. sept. 8

young sherlock holmes, TBA @ new beverly theatre
radar bros. FREE @ spaceland


tue. sept. 9

treasure island 1 PM @ lacma
young sherlock holmes, TBA @ new beverly theatre


wed. sept. 10

built to spill, quasi @ the troubadour
three o'clock high, state of grace @ new beverly theatre
burn after reading (sneak preview), fargo @ aero theatre
blade runner the final cut 8 PM @ cinerama dome
die nibelungen 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
nels cline & jon brion @ largo


thu. sept. 11

built to spill, quasi @ the troubadour
three o'clock high, state of grace @ new beverly theatre
the yes men, american movie @ egyptian theatre
los angeles plays itself @ aero theatre
80 blocks from tiffany's 8 PM, the deadly art of survival @ silent movie theatre


fri. sept. 12

mystery science theatre 3000 the movie MIDNIGHT @ nuart theatre
mirah @ the troubadour
young frankenstein MIDNIGHT @ fairfax regency theatre
close encounters of the third kind @ santa monica pier
god told me to 9 PM @ steve allen theatre drive-in series
jon brion @ largo
modern shorts selected by terence gower @ ucla film archive
true confession, the fleet's in @ egyptian theatre
los angeles plays itself @ aero theatre
my night at maud's @ lacma
a good marriage 9:30 PM @ lacma
lilith @ silent movie theatre


sat. sept. 13

the conformist, eva @ ucla film archive
los angeles plays itself @ aero theatre
claire's knee @ lacma
the marquise of o... 9:30 PM @ lacma
the flower of my secret 5 PM, all about my mother @ silent movie theatre
a thief in the night 10 PM @ silent movie theatre
red dust 7 PM, blondie of the follies @ starlight studios
inara george, van dyke parks @ largo
pee wee's big adventure @ cinespia @ hollywood forever cemetery


sun. sept. 14

contempt 7 PM, les mysteres du chateau de de @ ucla film archive
blue thunder, wargames @ aero theatre
beat street 8 PM, breakin' @ silent movie theatre
todd glass @ largo little room


tue. sept. 16

thee oh sees, sic alps @ the smell
guerrilla television 1969-1972 8 PM @ silent movie theatre


wed. sept. 17

spiritualized @ hollywood bowl
encounters at the end of the world, in the shadow of the moon @ new beverly theatre
punch-drunk love, a clockwork orange @ ucla film archive
wild boys of the road @ aero theatre
the lost world 8 PM @ silent movie theatre


thu. sept. 18

encounters at the end of the world, in the shadow of the moon @ new beverly theatre
rashomon 8 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn theater
style wars 8 PM, stations of the elevated, all city @ silent movie theatre
infinite space: the architecture of john lautner 7 PM @ hammer museum


fri. sept. 19

street scene (SD)
fright night MIDNIGHT @ nuart theatre
jon brion @ largo
kagemusha 8 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn theater
koyaanisqatsi @ aero theatre
brick MIDNIGHT @ fairfax regency theatre
judd apatow presents an evening of comedy @ ucb theatre
wait until dark 9 PM @ steve allen theatre drive-in series
la collectionneuse @ lacma
pauline at the beach 9:10 PM @ lacma
mickey one @ silent movie theatre
my tutor 10 PM @ silent movie theatre


sat. sept. 20

stereolab @ detroit bar
spiritualized @ street scene (SD)
arsene lupin 7 PM, faithless @ starlight studios
the keep MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
his girl friday @ ucla james bridges theater
rosemary's baby, chinatown @ egyptian theatre
powaqqatsi, naqoyqatsi @ aero theatre
full moon in paris @ lacma
a summer's tale 9:20 PM @ lacma
matador 5 PM, live flesh @ silent movie theatre
geronimo 10 PM, ordinary guy @ silent movie theatre
alien @ cinespia @ hollywood forever cemetery
saccharine trust @ highland park american legion hall


sun. sept. 21

decision at sundown 4:10 7:30, buchanan rides alone 5:50 @ new beverly theatre
five 7 PM, the trial @ ucla film archive
the adventures of tom sawyer 5:30 PM @ egyptian theatre


mon. sept. 22

decision at sundown, buchanan rides alone @ new beverly theatre


tue. sept. 23

decision at sundown, buchanan rides alone @ new beverly theatre
delicious vinyl presents: l.a. old-skool, 1982-1989 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
bart davenport @ largo


wed. sept. 24

repulsion, macbeth @ new beverly theatre
red heroine 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
bart davenport @ largo


thu. sept. 25

repulsion, macbeth @ new beverly theatre
beat this! hip-hop rarities 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
mission of burma @ echoplex


fri. sept. 26

jon brion @ largo
last year at marienbad, the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie @ new beverly theatre
the glass wall, human desire @ ucla film archive
village of the damned (1960) 9 PM @ steve allen theatre drive-in series
seven samurai @ ampas linwood dunn theater
summer @ lacma
autumn tale 9:20 PM @ lacma
bonnie and clyde @ silent movie theatre


sat. sept. 27

the mask of fu manchu 7 PM, as you desire me @ starlight studios
last year at marienbad, the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie @ new beverly theatre
ran @ ampas linwood dunn theater
judd apatow presents an evening of comedy @ ucb theatre
the lady and the duke @ lacma
women on the verge of a nervous breakdown 5 PM, law of desire @ silent movie theatre
the cross and the switchblade 10 PM @ silent movie theatre
caldera lakes, gowns @ the smell
between architecture and cinema 10 AM @ hammer museum


sun. sept. 28

louis ck @ largo
two of a kind 7 PM, bad for each other @ ucla film archive
neil hamburger @ spaceland
slogan 8 PM @ silent movie theatre


mon. sept. 29

patton oswalt @ largo


tue. sept. 30

cornered 1 PM @ lacma
spirit of '68 8 PM @ silent movie theatre


wed. oct. 1

my bloody valentine @ santa monica civic center
wait until dark, experiment in terror @ new beverly theatre


thu. oct. 2

my bloody valentine @ santa monica civic center
wait until dark, experiment in terror @ new beverly theatre
return of the living dead 8 PM, night of the creeps @ silent movie theatre


fri. oct. 3

black lips, miko mika @ detroit bar
the shining MIDNIGHT @ nuart theatre
yojimbo @ ampas linwood dunn theater
black sabbath 9 PM @ steve allen theatre drive-in series
happy-go-lucky (preview screening) @ lacma
ugetsu @ silent movie theatre
night of the living dead 10 PM, day of the dead @ silent movie theatre


sat. oct. 4

dersu uzala @ ampas linwood dunn theater
cat people @ silent movie theatre
eagle rock music festival
mondo kinder-carnage 10 PM @ silent movie theatre
rasputin and the empress 7 PM @ starlight studios


sun. oct. 5

the masque of the red death 8 PM, the premature burial @ silent movie theatre


tue. oct. 7

ashes of time redux @ lacma
evilspeak 8 PM @ silent movie theatre


wed. oct. 8

my name is julia ross, dark past @ ucla film archive
the unholy three 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
the plastic people of the universe @ safari sam's


thu. oct. 9

messiah of evil 8 PM, shock waves @ silent movie theatre


fri. oct. 10

sunn O))) @ safari sam's
altered states 9 PM @ steve allen theatre drive-in series
kuroneko @ silent movie theatre
season of the witch 10 PM, the crazies @ silent movie theatre
quintron & miss pussycat @ echoplex


sat. oct. 11

taipei story @ lacma
earthless, wooden shjips, greg ashley, etc @ thee parkside (SF)
the ghost ship 7 PM, i walked with a zombie @ silent movie theatre
the brood 10:15 PM @ silent movie theatre
grand hotel 7 PM @ starlight studios


sun. oct. 12

one girl's confession 7 PM, over-exposed @ ucla film archive
freaks 2 PM @ silent movie theatre
the deadly spawn 8 PM, the blob @ silent movie theatre


tue. oct. 14

once a thief 1 PM @ lacma
the fine art of fear 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
wire @ echoplex
nova-kino: the history of cinematic agit-prop 7 PM @ hammer museum


wed. oct. 15

the unknown 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
chrome @ knitting factory


thu. oct. 16

versus 8 PM, we're going to eat you @ silent movie theatre
chinese stars, bad dudes @ the smell


fri. oct. 17

dangerous blondes, the killer that stalked new york @ ucla film archive
the devil rides out 9 PM @ steve allen theatre drive-in series
the round up @ lacma
silence and cry 9:15 @ lacma
retribution @ silent movie theatre
monkey shines 10 PM, the dark half @ silent movie theatre


sat. oct. 18

all night horror show TBA @ new beverly theatre
brightblack morning light @ brookdale lodge, santa cruz
girls under 21, island of doomed men @ ucla film archive
a brighter summer day @ lacma
the body snatcher 6:30 PM, isle of the dead @ silent movie theatre
devil times five 10 PM @ silent movie theatre
the barretts of wimpole street 7 PM @ starlight studios


sun. oct. 19

the hidden 8 PM, alone in the dark @ silent movie theatre


tue. oct. 21

brightblack morning light @ detroit bar
choke (sneak preview) @ aero theatre
jerry beck's animated spooktacular 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
an evening with michel gondry 7 PM @ hammer museum


wed. oct. 22

the hunchback of notre dame 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
i'm a stranger here myself 8 PM @ 7 dudley cinema


thu. oct. 23

stereolab, monade @ henry fonda
the etruscan kills again 8 PM, tombs of the blind dead @ silent movie theatre


fri. oct. 24

the red and the white @ lacma
red psalm 9:15 PM @ lacma
nosferatu MIDNIGHT @ fairfax regency theatre
suspiria 9 PM @ steve allen theatre drive-in series
kwaidan @ silent movie theatre
martin 10:30 PM @ silent movie theatre


sat. oct. 25

curse of the cat people 7 PM, the leopard man @ silent movie theatre
the children 10:15 PM @ silent movie theatre
the mountain goats @ the troubadour
king kong (1933) 2 PM, 8 PM @ historic alex theatre


sun. oct. 26

the mountain goats @ the troubadour


mon. oct. 27

the people under the stairs 8 PM, the serpent and the rainbow @ silent movie theatre


tue. oct. 28

the picture of dorian gray 1 PM @ lacma
tv tuesday halloween edition 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
larry ochs sax & drumming core 7 PM @ hammer museum


wed. oct. 29

the phantom of the opera 8 PM @ silent movie theatre


thu. oct. 30

lucio fulci triple feature: zombie, gates of hell, the beyond @ silent movie theatre


fri. oct. 31

roky erickson, the black angels @ el rey theatre
blood sucking freaks 9 PM, alien @ steve allen theatre drive-in series
the tingler 8 PM, cinefamily halloween party @ silent movie theatre


sat. nov. 1

mutiny on the bounty 7 PM @ starlight studios


fri. nov. 7

harold & maude MIDNIGHT @ fairfax regency theatre


sat. nov. 8

china seas 7 PM @ starlight studios


tue. nov. 18

lynda barry & matt groening 7 PM @ hammer museum



WHAT IT IS:


A Brighter Summer Day (Gulingjie Shaonian Sharen Shijian)
1991/color/240 min. / Scr/dir: Edward Yang; w/ Lisa Yang, Zhang Zhen
With more than one hundred speaking parts and a cast rehearsed over half a decade, Yang's ambitious third feature will be screened in its full, four-hour director's cut. Western rock 'n' roll scores Yang's tale of street gangs and teen romance set against 1949's mass immigration from mainland China as the Communists take power. "Triumph… something like a Michelangelo Antonioni remake of West Side Story." -J. Hoberman, Village Voice.


THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, 1938, Disney, 77 min. Dir. Norman Taurog. Writer Ben Hecht once told David O. Selznick, "The trouble with you, David, is that you did all your reading before you were twelve." And lucky for us he did! This picture represents a milestone in motion picture art direction as it brought together, for the first time as collaborators, art directors Lyle Wheeler and William Cameron Menzies. They would go on to design a series of pictures together for Selznick International, culminating in their historic collaboration on GONE WITH THE WIND. This was the fourth attempt and is regarded by many as the best adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic novel about the world of his childhood, growing up along the Mississippi in rural Missouri. The climactic cave sequence with Injun Joe (Victor Jory) is unforgettable, and it was described at the time as "too horrible for children." Shot in Technicolor by James Wong Howe, ASC, whose work and subdued color capture so angered Technicolor that he was barred from using their system for more than 10 years after. With Tommy Kelly, Jackie Moran, Walter Brennan


A FREE SOUL
Lionel Barrymore won an Oscar for his famous courtroom scene in this story of a hard-drinking lawyer who successfully defends gangster Clark Gable on a murder rap and then discovers that his daughter has fallen in love with him. With Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard. (1931 M-G-M)


A Good Marriage (Le Beau Mariage)
1982/color/97 min. | Scr/dir: Eric Rohmer; w/ Béatrice Romand André Dussolier
A headstrong art student living in Le Mans decides that marriage is the solution to her romantic problems with married men, but the bachelor she chooses to pursue responds with a bewildered disinterest. "A beautifully acted comedy of humiliation."-Roger Ebert.


ALL CITY
Chalfant’s later hip-hop short film. Dir. Henry Chalfant, 1985, DVCam, 28 min.


Alone in the Dark
Sholder's debut film which overflows with character actor nuttiness. The plot has escaped mental patients tracking down the psychiatrists who done them wrong during a city-wide blackout, but the real reason d'etre here is perfectly summed up by one reviewer on DVDTalk.com: "C'mon, how often will you get to see Martin Landau and Jack Palance as murderous psychos--and Donald Pleasence as the normal person?" Dir. Jack Sholder, 1982, 35mm, 92 min.


ALTERED STATES
"Paddy Chayevsky's magic mushroom movie," as director Ken Russell describes it. William Hurt makes a dazzling debut as a research scientist on an incredible journey into the inner space of the mind. With Blair Brown and spectacular special effects by Bran Ferren.


ARSENE LUPIN
Jack Conway detective story w/ Lionel Barrymore, John Barrymore (1932-M-G-M)


Ashes of Time Redux
1994/2008/color and b&w/93 min. | Scr/dir: Wong Kar Wai; w/ Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Waui, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Brigitte Lin, Carina Lau.
Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai has digitally restored and recut his all-star 1994 martial arts epic, long unavailable, adding a new score with cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma. A highlight of this year's Cannes, this dreamlike adventure of lone swordsmen and unrequited love is set in the Gobi desert. "Drenched in shocking color-the desert shifts from egg-yolk yellow to burnt orange under a cerulean sky-the film is Wong's most abstract endeavor, a bold excursion into the realm of pure cinema. It also now seems like one of his most important." -Manohla Dargis, The New York Times.


A Summer's Tale (Conte d'été)
1996/color/113 min. | Scr/dir: Eric Rohmer; w/ Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet, Aurélia Nolin.
Rohmer's fascination with the sentimental education of young people deepened with age and the second of his Moral Tales is a comic masterpiece about a college student on vacation in Brittany who, through a series of chance encounters and misunderstandings, becomes involved with three women. "Plotting as suspenseful and manipulative as classical farce… Rohmer provides insights into matters of love, friendship, fidelity, loneliness, luck, destiny, and desire." -Time Out.


AS YOU DESIRE ME
George Fitzmaurice drama w/ Greta Garbo, Erich von Stroheim, Melvyn Douglas (1932 M-G-M)


Autumn Tale (Conte d'automne)
1998/color/112 min. | Scr/dir: Eric Rohmer; w/ Béatrice Romand, Marie Rivière, Didier Sandre.
The final entry in the Seasons cycle is set in the Rhône Valley during the wine harvest and concerns the complications that arise when a fortyish widow named Magali learns that her best friends are trying to find her a new husband by placing ads in the personals in her name. Rohmer favorite Béatrice Romand is brilliant as the earthy, high-strung loner who prefers to tend her vines in peace but comes to accept the bounty life offers. In the spirit of the season, the film "evokes such a sensuous atmosphere that you are all but transported into Magali's fields. A rich, emotionally satisfying experience." -New York Times.


BAD EDUCATION
The coming-of-age noir Bad Education, a structurally mind-blowing meta-narrative that couches its compassionate core in Hitchcockian delirium. In a daring portrayal no American movie star of his caliber would touch, Gael García Bernal shines as a sexually and morally conflicted lead in what Almodóvar calls his most autobiographical film. Dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 2004, 35mm, 106 min.


BAD FOR EACH OTHER
(1953) Directed by Irving Rapper
By the end of the 1940s, Lizabeth Scott's femme fatale image was firmly fixed. Indeed, promoted as "The Threat," she starred in more film noirs than any other actress in the decade. Bad for Each Other continued the trend with Scott starring as a spoiled, twice-divorced, wealthy socialite with her eyes on an idealistic doctor. Director Irving Rapper combines the intensity of a hard-boiled film noir with Sirkian melodramatic themes of class-conflict to fully utilize Scott's intimidating image. When doctor and Korean War vet Tom Owen, played by a robust Charlton Heston, finds himself saddled with his deceased brother's debts, he falls easy prey to Helen who lures the young man from his Pennsylvania small mining town to the swanky, high class life in Pittsburgh. Despite the warnings of friends and family, Owen forsakes his ethics to bilk rich, hypochondriac matrons in a private clinic before Helen's corrupting influence drives the two of them an action-packed, climatic confrontation.
Producer: William Fadiman. Screenplay: Irving Wallace. Cast: Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, Dianne Foster, Mildred Durnock, Arthur Franz. 35mm, 83 min.


THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET
Sidney Franklin drama w/ Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Charles Laughton (1934 M-G-M)


Beat Street
Hip-hop kitsch at its finest. Beat Street, produced by Harry Belafonte, was an early Hollywood foray into “The Music and Break Dance Explosion!”. Setting aside its ridiculous story of bringing “street” to the upper-crust, it's got a hard-as-nails soundtrack and a bona fide who’s-who cast, including Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Soul Sonic Force, Grand Master Melle Mel and the Rock Steady Crew. Dir. Stan Lathan, 1984, 35mm, 105 min.


Beat This! Hip-Hop Rarities
We've dug even deeper for our closeout night, and we're bringing you some of the rarest cuts in a fantastic mix of rarities from the old-school hip-hop era. Watch them one after the other, obscure odds and ends from the Golden Age, ending with Beat This! A Hip-Hop History! Yup! It’s the history of hip-hop! And it was made in 1984! And it’s all in rhyme! And it’s vocoderized by Afrika Bambaataa! And it’s sci-fi! And it stars BS-ing punk-impresario-turned-double-dutch-promoter Malcolm McLaren in all his patronizing glory! And it was made for Granada TV! And they forced director Dick Fontaine to slip in McLaren against his will, but he couldn’t do anything about it! Seriously though, this one’s a doozie and a must-see for its sheer audacity alone.


Between Architecture and Cinema
Co-presented with the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design
Taught by Jon Yoder, Assistant Professor at the Syracuse University School of Architecture and PhD candidate in the UCLA Department of Architecture + Urban Design. Yoder’s doctoral dissertation, “Widescreen Architecture: The Immersive Visuality of John Lautner,” takes Lautner’s projects as lenses through which to focus on issues of experiential and projective vision.


BLACK SABBATH
Boris Karloff serves as host of Mario Bava's great horror anthology and stars in the last of the three segments as a vampire who feeds on the blood of his loved ones. In the other segments, a woman is terrorized by a former lover who breaks out of prison and telephones her with death threats, and a nurse is haunted after she steals a ring from the finger of a corpse.


The Blob
1988's remake of The Blob transforms the slow, harmless-looking puddle from the original '50s camp classic into a fleshy and fast-moving force of pure appetite that’s impossible to escape from—even pulling a victim through a kitchen sink in one of the film’s best-remembered moments. Grisly, witty, and incredibly fast-paced, this is one of the great unsung B-movie gems of its time. Dir. Chuck Russell, 1988, 35mm, 95 min.


BLONDIE OF THE FOLLIES
Edmund Goulding drama w/ Marion Davies, Billie Dove, Robert Montgomery (1932 M-G-M)


BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS
One of the most notorious gore films of all time, Bloodsucking Freaks is excessive to either the point of comedy or merely to the point of repulsion, depending on your sensibility. Sadomasochistic necrophiles try to put on a ballet...now that's a plot synopsis! Along the way, midgets attack with hacksaws, someone's brain is sucked out, and there are more kinds of torture than you'd like to think a person could imagine.


BLUE THUNDER, 1983, Sony Pictures, 109 min. Deja vu 1983! The government has unleashed its newest weapon: a heavily armed helicopter that can spy on you from 1,000 feet and incinerate entire city blocks. The only ones who can stop Big Brother (in the form of Malcolm McDowell’s fascist cop) from using it against us are Vietnam vet-turned-police chopper pilot Roy Scheider and his tech-savvy partner, Daniel Stern. Director John Badham's paranoid actioner flies high with stunning cinematography by John Alonzo and dazzling dogfights over downtown L.A.


The Body Snatcher
At the end of his RKO career, Lewton teamed up with Boris Karloff and made these two excellent period pieces. In The Body Snatcher, Karloff is a conniving graverobber who enters into a Faustian deal with a med school anatomy professor who needs fresh lab materials. Karloff shines supreme as an unscrupulous, sadistic leech in a Lewton film uncharacteristically driven more by plot than by atmospherics. Dir. Robert Wise, 1945, 35mm, 73 min.


BONGO BARBERSHIP
In Bongo Barbershop, Charlie Ahearn revisits the Boogie Down two decades later with Tanzanian rapper Balozi Dola in tow for a bilingual MC battle. Charlie Ahearn will be in person for a Q & A, and DJ Cut Chemist will spin before and after the show. Dir. Charlie Ahearn, 2005, DVCam, 8 min.


Bonnie and Clyde
Post-WWII Hollywood had two periods: before Bonnie and Clyde and after, and the same might be said of Beatty's career. Shedding his pretty-boy image, Beatty was both star and producer for the first time, the charismatic and creative center of this epochal film. Its juxtaposition of graphic, realistic onscreen violence and ribald comedy, unique acting style, French New Wave energy (both Truffaut and Godard were originally offered to direct), and timeless retro-chic made the film a massive hit and an international cause célèbre. Beatty assembled an ideal “gang” of then-unknowns: Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard and Estelle Parsons—all of whom were Oscar-nominated for their roles (with Parsons actually winning)--and with this rule-breaking, freewheeling, ultra-awesome cinematic wake-up call, Beatty showed audiences how much fun being bad can be.
Dir. Arthur Penn, 1967, 35mm, 112 min.


Breakin'
Breakin’ fictionalized the West Coast b-boy doc Breakin’ ’n’ Enterin’ with all the same folks and locations, starring breakers/ choreographers Boogaloo Shrimp and Shabba Doo. Highlights: a half-pint popper in a Nike jumpsuit, a dance rehearsal to Rufus & Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody” with endless costume changes, and Booglaoo Shrimp sweep-locking to Kraftwerk’s “Tour de France”! Arabian Prince will be here to DJ before and after the films. Dir. Joel Silberg, 1984, 35mm, 90 min.


The Brood
The hooded gaggle running amok in The Brood are the physical result of "psychoplasmics", a ficitious blend of anger management and hypnotism that could only come from the mind of David Cronenberg. Frank has placed his unstable wife Nola into the confinement and care of Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed), a psychiatrist whose progressive techniques enable his patients to expunge their hang-ups through a physical manifestation of pent-up rage. When Frank's small daughter comes home with bruises and welts after visiting mom, and when Nola's parents are murdered by a deformed child-like creature, Frank begins to suspect that there's a connection between it all and Raglan's unorthodox methods. Leonard Maltin panned the film with only two lines, but it sounds like heaven to us: "[Samantha] Eggar eats her own afterbirth while midget clones beat grandparents and lovely young schoolteachers to death with mallets. It's a big, wide, wonderful world we live in!"
Dir. David Cronenberg, 1979, 35mm, 92 min.


BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE, 1958, Columbia, 78 min. Dir. Budd Boetticher. Scott stars as a former mercenary, carrying $2,000 in blood money, trapped in a border town by a corrupt family. Everyone is willing to trade a dead man’s honor for hard cash in this almost comically remorseless Western. With Craig Stevens, L.Q. Jones.


BURN AFTER READING, 2008, Focus Features, 92 min. A comedy thriller, the latest from directors Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. CIA Headquarters, Arlington, Va.: Hard-drinking ex-veteran analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) polishes off his memoirs and another bottle, as his wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton), runs-off with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a married federal marshal. When a computer disc containing Cox's memoirs falls into the hands of internet-dating, cosmetic-surgery-obsessed Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and her fitness hardbody collegues, Chad Feldhimer (Brad Pitt) and unrequited admirer Ted Treffon (Richard Jenkins), "No good can come of this," and a series of darkly hilarious encounters is sent spiraling out of control.


Cat People
Lewton's first film for RKO, and the first to set his signature "less is more" tone (a solution to his problem of meager budgets) was the wildly successful Cat People. The ravishing Simone Simon plays Irena, a young artist infatuated with drawing panthers at the local zoo, who by chance meets naval architect Oliver (Kent Smith). The two form a fast enraptured bond, then marry. He quickly casts doubts on the whole affair, though, when Irena reveals she's descended from an ancient devil-worshipping tribe, and might transform into a deadly panther when sexually awakened-- threatening the future of their amorous efforts. Whether Irena is mentally disturbed or is in fact a cat woman is in constant question, as the film's murderous attacks happen in luxurious shadow, and we never see the cat or a transformation. An amazing milestone in film horror, Cat People was only the beginning of Lewton's legacy.
Dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1942, 35mm, 73 min.


The Children
On the trails of the Village of The Damned and The China Syndrome came this nuke panic/killer kid hybrid in which the children of the town of Ravensback are exposed to deadly gas an turned into toxic tykes with black fingernails who vaporize their victims with one harmful hug ("Mommy! Mommy!")--and the only way to kill them is by hacking off both their cute little hands. While this sounds too convoluted to cohere, director Max Kalmanowicz holds it together, and keeps the train rolling with some clever surprises, like normal kids turning deadly without warning, some truly creepy children-lurking-in-the-dark scenes, and best of all, having the adults realize it's their own children they have to kill to survive! If you got too scared to go back into the ocean after Jaws, this one might make you think twice about touching a child ever again--much less having one.
Dir. Max Kalmanowicz, 1980 35mm, 93 min.


CHINA SEAS
Tay Garnett adventure w/ Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Wallace Beery (1935 M-G-M)


CHOKE, 2008, Fox Searchlight Pictures, 89 min. Based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel, Clark Gregg's directorial debut is a dark comedy of sexual compulsion, filial bonds and the sordid underbelly of Colonial theme parks. Sam Rockwell is a dropout, struggling to afford special care for his deranged mother, Anjelica Huston. A historical re-enactor by day, at night he scams upscale restaurant patrons by feigning choking in order to bond with his wealthy "saviors." When his father’s identity surfaces, he must act or lose his divine parentage forever. Discussion following with actor/director Clark Gregg.


Claire's Knee (Le Genou de Claire)
1970/color/105 min. | Scr/dir: Eric Rohmer; w/ Jean-Claude Brialy, Aurora Cornu, Béatrice Romand.
Set in the Alpine city of Annecy and photographed by the great Nestor Almendros, this seductive film focuses on a soon-to-be-married diplomat (Brialy) vacationing in the French Alps who develops an obsession with the beautiful sixteen-year old friend of a friend, in particular her knee. Like Jane Austen, Rohmer diverts the audience with witty narration and clever characters, but the real subjects of his fifth Moral Tale are male mid-life crises and adolescent sexuality. Will Brialy caress Claire's knee by summer's end, as he has vowed to do, or remain faithful to a fiancée we never meet?


Class
In Class, Andrew McCarthy transforms from a wide-eyed schoolboy into an awkward heartthrob whose charm inspires bombshell Jacqueline Bisset to deflower him in a glass elevator. The film co-stars nascent hotties John Cusack, and a believably smarmy Rob Lowe as McCarthy's prep-school roommate who eggs McCarthy into "planting his seed," which he does by heading for the city and hooking up with...his roommate's mom?! Dir. Lewis Carlino, 1983, 35mm, 98 min.


THE CONFORMIST
(1970, Italy/France/Germany) Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
Director Bernardo Bertolucci and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, shot their masterpiece of sexual repression and political cowardice almost entirely on location in Rome and Paris. Through Storaro's expressionist lens, the monumental Fascism of Mussolini's E.U.R. project--a travertine white elephant of urban planning--is re-written as a subjective prison with biting effect as when Rationalist architect Adalberto Libera's Palazzo dei Congress appears re-cast as an insane asylum.
Producer: Maurizio Lodi-Fe. Screenplay: Bernardo Bertolucci, Franco Arcalli. Cinematographer: Vittorio Storaro. Editor: Franco Arcalli. Cast: Jean-Luis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio, Fosco Giachetti. Presented in Italian and French dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 110 min.


CONTEMPT
(Le Mépris)
(1963, France/Italy) Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Photographed by Raoul Coutard in sumptuous CinemaScope, Godard's attempt at a big-budget, star-fueled international co-production moves through a series of iconic locales, from the Cinecittà studios to architect Adalberto Libera's breathtaking cliff top Villa Malaparte overlooking the Mediterranean. Along the way, Godard transforms Moravia's pulpy source novel into a mercilessly self-conscious study of artistic compromise and marital meltdown.
Producer: Carlo Ponti, Georges de Beauregard. Cinematographer: Raoul Coutard. Cast: Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Michel Piccoli, Giorgia Moll, Fritz Lang. Presented in French dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 103 min.


Cornered
1945/b&w/103 min. | Scr: John Paxton; dir: Edward Dmytryk; w/ Dick Powell, Luther Adler, Walter Slezak, Morris Carnovsky.
A World War II veteran hunts down the Nazi collaborators who killed his wife.


The Crazies
Romero turns his eye towards mass hysteria as a government-engineered virus called Trixie accidentally turns a small Pennsylvania town into The Crazies, with society itself breaking down in the process. Even more unnerving in today's political and economic climate, this sweat-inducing look at the miltiary's capacity to demolish everyday life is the perfect movie to watch in a Presidential campaign year. Don't miss your chance to catch these two ultra-rare slices of Romero in bona fide 35mm prints. Dir. George Romero, 1973, 35mm, 103 min.


The Cross and the Switchblade
The Cross and the Switchblade is the rare evangelical film that played in real grindhouses and drive-ins (where the Word of God was needed most), turning the true story of preacher David Wilkerson's crusade in the Bronx gang scene into a rockin' juvenile delinquent flick, starring recognizable name actors like Erik Estrada and Pat Boone--and by extension, the closest this series gets to Hollywood fare. Boone walks among the mean streets and gangbangers like he's got stones of Bethlehem, standing up to every violent cynical challenge with patient love and hardy faith--and, for a good fifteen minutes, there's a rousing heavy duty gang fight and escape run that will leave you astounded at its complex staging. Like its original 1970 audience, you'll be sucked in, cheering the destruction, only to realize it's a bait-and-switch when you're staring at Boone in the pulpit, preaching his pants off.
Dir. Don Murray, 1970, 35mm, 106 min.


Curse of the Cat People
When assigned a quickie Cat People sequel, Lewton characteristically sidestepped RKO's intentions and crafted a continuation of the story in name only, instead crafting a satisfying and charming melodrama centered around the ambitious imagination of a lonely six-year-old girl. First-time director Robert Wise's delicate fairy tale touches perfectly suit the child's visions of her imaginary friend, making Curse of the Cat People a miniature, dreamy classic. Dir. Robert Wise, 1944, 35mm, 70 min.


DANGEROUS BLONDES
(1943) Directed by Leigh Jason
Though best remembered as Scarlett O'Hara's sister in Gone With the Wind, Evelyn Keyes enjoyed a brief period of popularity while under contract to Columbia Pictures. Dangerous Blondes was made midway between two of her (and Columbia's) biggest hits of the 1940s --Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) and The Jolson Story (1946). A lightly comic murder mystery, the film strives to be its own version of The Thin Man. Though they never quite match Nick and Nora's sparkle and polish, sleuthing couple, Harry (Allyn Joslyn) and Jane Craig (Keyes), hold their own with style and wit.
Producer: Samuel Bischoff. Screenplay: Richard Flournoy, Jack Henley. Cinematographer: Philip Tannura, John Stumar. Editor: Jerome Thoms. Cast: Allyn Joslyn, Evelyn Keyes, Edmund Lowe, John Hubbard, Anita Louise. 35mm, 81 min.


The Dark Half
In another film about a man's id manifesting itself physically, we're showing The Dark Half. Romero's second Stephen King adaptation (his first being Creepshow), The Dark Half is one of Romero's personal favorites. Tim Hutton is fantastic in the dual roles of a novelist who "kills off" his pseudonymn in a mock ceremony, and the vengeful incarnation of this "dark half" hellbent on revenge. Don't miss the photographer character being killed with his own artificial leg! Dir. George Romero, 1993, 35mm, 122 min.


DARK PAST
(1949) Directed by Rudolph Maté
After garnering a Columbia contract at the age of 19, Nina Foch was more or less under utilized by the studio who cast her in relatively modest fare. The film noir Dark Past was one of many B-movies in which the Dutch-born Foch furnished a striking performance in spite of the film's low production values. As Betty, the girlfriend of escaped killer Al Walker (Holden), Foch provides crucial insight into her lover's troubled childhood to one of his hostages, psychiatrist Dr. Collins (Cobb), who seeks to treat the criminal instead of sending him back to jail. By doing so, Betty and the doctor advocate the use of psychoanalysis to unlock the secrets of Walker's past, believing that his self-discovery and understanding of his mental afflictions will prevent him from future killings. A replacement for Veronica Lake, Foch made the most of her gangster moll supporting role and steals many scenes from Holden and Cobb.
Producer: Buddy Adler. Screenplay: Michael Blankford. Cast: William Holden, Nina Foch, Lee J. Cobb, Adele Jergens, Stephen Dunner. 35mm, 75 min.


Day of the Animals
In the grand tradition of stage musicals, we're ending this festival with a big production number, one in which the whole zoo crew comes out to rip mankind a bunch of new orifices. Of all the critter flicks, Day Of The Animals makes the most hamhanded connection between environmentalist fears and nature's vengeance. The animals are literally driven crazy as a result of man's depletion of the ozone layer, and in the furry free-for-all, a B-movie all-star cast (Leslie Nielsen, Richard Jaeckel, Christopher George, Lynda Day George) are picked off one by one by various woodland creatures -- all ticked off because it's so damn hot. Best of all, Nielsen gets a bit of the ozone-born madness himself, transforming into a raging shirtless maniac ready to take on all comers, including a full-sized grizzly bear (cue thunderstorm!).
Dir. William Girdler, 1977, 35mm, 97 min.


Day of the Dead
1985's Day Of The Dead, whose real star is arguably makeup effects wizard Tom Savini's showstopping gore taking a front seat, as zombie hordes attack the few remaining humans holed up in a military bunker. The way that they claw their way through living flesh is a crimson marvel, so visceral and spectacular that you'll stand up and cheer for the undead to cannibalize every last living character pronto! Dir. George Romero, 1985, 35mm, 102 min.


DECISION AT SUNDOWN, 1957, Columbia, 77 min. Dir. Budd Boetticher. The most atypical of the Ranown Westerns, the morally complex DECISION finds Randolph Scott hunting for the man responsible for his wife’s suicide, but realizing he himself may be at fault. Co-starring Karen Steele, Noah Beery.


The Deadly Art of Survival
The Deadly Art of Survival is Charlie Ahearn's Super-8 ghetto disco chopsocky time capsule of a now-totally vanished Lower East Side. Shot on weekends over a year-and-a-half in the Smith projects, with most of the film’s budget going to “buying pizza for the kids," the film's got an eeeeevil karate school called Handsome Harry’s Disco Dojo, two ninjas crawling around at a house party, a freshly-painted Howard The Duck graf mural by LEE, and the zaniest sex scene of any film—in any gauge! Dir. Charlie Ahearn, 1979, DVCam, 61 min.


The Deadly Spawn
The Deadly Spawn, a rare case where the monster in the movie is actually as amazing as the one depicted in its VHS cover art. This low-budget wonder easily delivers the goods, giving us an unforgettable horde of slimy man-chomping menaces (with entire heads made of super-sharp teeth) who land near a farmhouse and proceed to shred everyone in sight. Made by and for true gorehounds, The Deadly Spawn is amateur splatter at its best. Dir. Douglas McKeown, 1983, 35mm, 78 min.


Delicious Vinyl presents: L.A. Old-Skool, 1982-1989
Get ready to "set it off" Strafe-style with some rare footage from the Delicious Vinyl Vaults, giving you a tour of early hip-hop in Los Angeles. You'll catch ultra-rare footage of Ramellzee and graffiti artist Jean Michel Basquiat at the Rhythm Lounge on Melrose--a rare pocket in the advent of L.A. hip hop culture. Also, Soul Brother "Legendary" will present highlights from 1982-1989 (from the Freak Beat to the Golden Era), from his upcoming Suns of James Brown documentary, which features footage of Uncle Jam's Army, Jam City, Ultrawave, and underground dance crews including early moves from members of The Pharcyde. Next, Delicious Vinyl artists (Tone Loc, Young MC, Def Jef, and Body And Soul) appear in a 1988 Electronic Press Kit made for the label by director Tamra Davis. Plus music videos, a live dance performance by the Soul Brothers, DJ set by KDAY Grand Mixer M-Walk, and some other very special guests!


DEMON SEED
Director Donald Cammell ("Performance") directs one of the most unusual and disturbing sci-fi films ever. Julie Christie plays a woman trapped by an intruding computer hell-bent on producing a child to dominate mankind.


DERSU UZALA (1975)
Premiering a new print
Dersu Uzala, a hunter living alone in the taiga forests of Eastern Siberia, becomes a friend and mentor to a Russian Army engineer. 35mm. 144 mins.
Academy Award winner: Foreign Language Film (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)


THE DEVIL RIDES OUT
Based on the classic novel by Dennis Wheatley. The Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee) discovers a devil cult that is taking control of innocent people through hypnotic spells and demonic ceremonies. Good Hammer horror offering with a great climax. With Charles Gray and Sarah Lawson.


Devil Times Five
On their way to being hauled off to the asylum, five psychotic children (including a pint-sized Leif Garrett) escape into the winter wilderness when their bus skids out and flips over. After seeking refuge in a remote ski lodge, the murderous moppets devise plenty of kickass ways to dispatch with the skeezy mustachioed adults who've let them wander in. Each of the five tykes has their own peccadilloes, and uses their obsessions (army men, fish, even nunnery!) to fuel their kills. We're not given much of a reason for the kids' killing urge--all the better, for would you really care about their motivations anyway? Like BlackHorrorMovies.com sez: "Any one of these kids could grow up to star in their own slasher movie, but that would remove the perverse joy of seeing 10-year-olds drag a naked, bloody woman through the snow."
Dir. Sean MacGregor & David Sheldon, 1974, DigiBeta, 88 min.


Die Nibelungen
Based upon an epic Nordic poem full of heroic swordplay and mythological intrigue, Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen saga was the most important German cultural event in 1924. Lang intended it to have the same breadth and feeling as Wagner's "Ring Cycle" operas, and the film is filled with incredible sets, visual design and special effects--including the incredible achievement of a puppeteered dragon controlled by seventeen on-set technicians! The saga's first of two films, Siegfried, focuses on the adventures of it's titular hero, in a world of captivating magic, dwarfs, and dragons. In part two, Kriemhild's Revenge, the story takes a darker, bloodier turn, with Siegfried's wife taking up his sword and avenging him in a bloody, satisfying climax. The Lord Of The Rings of its time, Die Nibelungen commanded the entire resources of Germany's UFA Studios, and the results remains astounding to this day.
Dir. Fritz Lang, 1924, 16mm, 240 min.


DON'T LOOK NOW
nick roeg’s stylized and elegant ghost story is still one of the scariest movies ever made. donald sutherland and julie christie star as a couple who move to Venice, italy after the accidental drowning of their child. Sutherland begins to catch glimpses of an apparition of the dead girl in the mysterious alleys and tunnels of the city and he tries to catch the spirit. moody, hallucinatory cinematography of the spooky streets of venice, combined with roeg’s adventurous direction and editing, make this an indisputable classic.
djs wyatt wilson rendina spin before and after the screening. (1974, 110 mins)


80 Blocks From Tiffany's
Made for NBC, the pre-hip-hop doc 80 Blocks From Tiffany's is an incisive portrait of the last two surviving Bronx gangs, the hippied-out Savage Nomads and the panzer-helmeted Savage Skulls. The film features interviews with ex-club owner “Heavy” in a silk button-down while petting his python, gang members negotiating their next rumble, reenactments of petty crimes, and one unforgettable block party. 80 Blocks director Gary Weis will be in person for a post-screening Q&A. Dir. Gary Weis, 1979, DigiBeta, 70 min.


ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
Filmmaker Werner Herzog travels to Antarctica to capture its landscape's rarely seen beauty on film.


The Etruscan Kills Again
The giallo-like The Etruscan Kills Again has amateur archaeologists Samantha Eggar and Alex Cord investigating the appearance of the god Tuchulcha, whose victims' bodies are arranged in the traditions of ancient rites. The film's labyrinthine plot frequently rises to the level of pure hysteria, matched by an unglued performance by John Marley (The Godfather's horse's head victim), who chews the scenery into tiny shreds. Dir. Armando Crispino, 1972, 35mm.


EVA
(a.k.a. EVE)
(1962, Italy/France) Directed by Joseph Losey
Though its producers infamously excised over an hour from the film, Jospeh Losey's Eva remains a spellbinding example of the director's ever-attentive eye to the relationship between architecture and character. Here, the classical backdrops of Rome and Venice provide chilly counterpoint as Stanley Baker's dissolute writer is lured ever deeper into obsession and self-destruction by Jeanne Moreau's seductive call girl.
Producer: Robert Hakim, Raymond Hakim. Screenplay: Hugo Butler, Evan Jones. Cinematographer: Gianni Di Venanzo. Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, Virna Lisi, Giorgio Albertazzi, James Villiers. Presented in English and Italian dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 103 min.


An Evening with Michel Gondry
Creator of influential music videos and feature films, French Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michel Gondry discusses his own technical and conceptual process and his new book, You’ll Like This Film Because You’re In It: The Be Kind Rewind Protocol. He presents clips from his own films and homemade films from visitors to his DIY interactive installation Be Kind Rewind at Deitch Projects. Gondry has collaborated with such luminaries as Björk, The Chemical Brothers, and The White Stripes. His feature films include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, and Be Kind Rewind.


Evilspeak
Horror movies about teens with supernatural powers have been with us for a long time, but Evilspeak adds juicy novelty, thanks to: a) the Wargames-era presence of a bulky home computer as a gateway to Satan; b) a military school setting where sadism is already encouraged; and, c) rampaging, bloodthirsty devil pigs. All of this mayhem is orchestrated by put-upon cadet Stanley (Clint Howard), a kid so unbearably schlubby even the teachers don't like him. When they finally push him too far, the ruling elite get theirs thanks to a flying, demon-eyed Howard (who's discovered the school was founded by a lord of darkness) and some of the decade's tastiest gore scenes, including a show-stopping sword impalement. Complete with that unmistakable early '80s aura and the nastiest treatment of a cute puppy in cinema history, this is the kind of tasteless, utterly watchable celluloid gold they just don't make anymore. Director Eric Weston and star Clint Howard will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A!
Dir. Eric Weston, 1981, 35mm, 89 min.


EXPERIMENT IN TERROR
In this thriller from Blake Edwards (Breakfast at Tiffany's), Glenn Ford plays an F.B.I. agent assigned to protect two sisters (Lee Remick and Stephanie Powers) menaced by an asthmatic psychopath, creepily played by Ross Martin. Ford plans an elaborate set-up to capture the heavy-breathing fiend, but it goes awry, resulting in the film's memorable climax in San Francisco's crowded Candlestick Park.


FAITHLESS
Harry Beaumont drama w/ Tallulah Bankhead, Robert Montgomery (1932 M-G-M)


The Fine Art of Fear
Co-presented by Provocateur Pictures
As if by some irresistible compulsion to witness the mortification of the flesh, "The Fine Art of Fear" perversely unearths a celluloid sarcophagus of horrible, horrible beauty...a phantasmagoria of the uncanny, the dreadful, and the macabre...a pathological delirium of witchcraft, phantoms, and the undead. Using visionary cinematography and a masterful montage of rare film artifacts, these amoral auteurs probe every dark corner of the human psyche, with morbid curiousity and in lurid detail! This shocking program of experimental films explodes the genre of the horror film, profoundly expanding the cinematic language of fear. Including the legendary Outer Space by Peter Tscherkassky on 35mm, Stan Brakhage's Wedlock House, Takeshi Murata's Monster Movie, and more!


FIVE
(1951, United States) Directed by Arch Oboler
Director Arch Oboler shot this ultra-low budget, post-apocalyptic melodrama at his own retreat, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. After a nuclear holocaust, five survivors converge on the isolated wood and rubble stone structure perched atop a peak in the Santa Monica Mountains. As the stratified group struggles to survive, Oboler dramatically frames Lloyd's organic architecture as the last bastion for a new civilization.
Producer: Arch Oboler. Screenwriter: Arch Oboler. Cinematographer: Louis Clyde Stoumen. Editor: John Hoffman. Cast: William Phipps, Susan Douglas, James Anderson, Charles Lampkin, Earl Lee. 35mm, 93 min.


THE FLEET’S IN, 1942, Universal, 93 min. Director Victor Schertzinger’s last film was this charming wartime musical comedy. William Holden is a bashful sailor who is accidentally photographed with a famous actress. His shipmate buddies, including impetuous Eddie Bracken, engineer a bet that Holden can thaw the icy exterior of a glamorous nightclub singer (Dorothy Lamour) known as the Countess of Swingland. Betty Hutton nearly steals the film as Lamour’s capricious roommate. Originally premiered at the Egyptian. NOT ON DVD


Freaks
A whole generation of midnight moviegoers and cult film fans were weaned on this most disturbing of visions, and the true feather in the horror hat of Tod Browning (director of Dracula). Browning employed real "sideshow professionals" to tell this tale of betrayal and murder in the world of carnival freakshows. Here the freaks take center stage, and the result is startling, provocative and wholly sympathetic to its titular creatures. From cavorting microcephalic "pinheads" to a limbless human torso slithering under a carnival wagon en route to a murder, Freaks packs a wallop that still holds up even in our cynical, seen-it-all times. Our screening is hosted by legendary comic artist Art Spiegelman, and after the show, join us and Art as we head down the street to Family Books, where Art will be signing copies of "Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as A Young %@&*!".


From Beyond
From Stuart Gordon, the director of Re-Animator, comes this outrageous, grisly take on a story by H.P. Lovecraft. The Resonator is a gruesome machine that activates a special sixth sense--one that makes its victims crave human brains.


Full Moon in Paris (Les Nuits de la pleine lune)
1984/color/102 min. | Scr/dir: Eric Rohmer; w/ Pascale Ogier, Fabrice Luchini.
Louise, a charming but complicated young interior decorator who lives with her boyfriend in his flat outside Paris, suddenly announces that her "identity" depends on living alone half the week in the city; but she is soon overwhelmed by the practical complications of her decision. Only twenty-five at the time, Pascale Ogier was widely acclaimed for her riveting performance in the role of Louise, winning the Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival. And Full Moon, with its urban setting and bittersweet portrayal of a woman coping with friendship, career, and independence, is Rohmer's contemporary version of the traditional proverb: "He who has two women loses his soul; he who has two houses loses his mind."


Geronimo
It's an '80s white bread dogooders-in-the-ghetto double feature! First is Geronimo, in which a fey suburban teen of wavering faith is assigned Christian summer camp counselor duty with a gang of urban delinquents straight out of a Larry Clark movie. Get a visceral thrill both from watching the kids shaking-down and pranking their cornball honky counselor, and their authentic partially improvised performances chafing against the squaresville sensibility of the filmmakers, who at times don't even seem to understand the slang the kids are using. Dir. Edward T. McDougal, digital presentation, 71 min.


The Ghost Ship
Unseen for a period of almost fifty years due to litigation, The Ghost Ship is unique among horror films-- it's a deeply affecting psychological study on the effects of fear in close quarters. Third-mate Merriam (Russell Wade), initially befriended by Captain Stone (a superb Richard Dix), calls to the crew's attention that Stone's deteriorating mental health is a danger to them all--or is it merely a danger to Merriam? Dir. Mark Robson, 1943, 35mm, 69 min.


GIRLS UNDER 21
(1940) Directed by Max Nosseck
Preaching the dangers of the fast life to wayward girls, this teenaged morality tale stars Rochelle Hudson as Frances White, a former gangster's moll trying to make good. Leaving her husband, the notorious Smiley Ryan (Bruce Cabot), after his incarceration, Frances returns to the tenements of her youth, only to become an unwilling role model to a group of delinquent girls. Seduced by the extravagance of her former life, the girls reject Frances's appeals to reform. When their escalating misconduct leads to tragedy, she is forced into an act of self-sacrifice, making amends for her own mistakes by paying for theirs.
Producer: Ralph Cohn. Screenplay: Jay Dratler. Cinematographer: Barney McGill. Editor: Charles Nelson. Cast: Bruce Cabot, Rochelle Hudson, Paul Kelly, Tina Thayer, Roberta Smith. 35mm, 64 min.


THE GLASS WALL
(1953) Directed by Maxwell Shane
After a string of box office successes--The Greatest Show on Earth, Macao, Sudden Fear--and an Oscar win for her performance as Dick Powell's southern wife in The Bad and the Beautiful, Gloria Grahame was on the brink of super-stardom by 1953. The Glass Wall was a natural next step as a showcase for Grahame's rising talents. Grahame plays Maggie Summers, an unemployed factory worker who finds herself mysteriously drawn to Holocaust survivor and European refugee Peter Kuban (played by suave Italian leading man Vittorio Gassman in his American film debut). On the run from the law and desperate to avoid deportation, Peter engages Maggie's aid to track down the only person who help him attain political asylum: an American GI he saved from death in the war. Director Maxwell Shane cleverly utilizes Grahame's emotional range to contribute to the tense cat and mouse structure of the film, which culminates on the top of the newly constructed U.N. building in New York City.
Producer: Ivan Tors. Screenplay: Ivan Tors. Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Gloria Grahame, Ann Robinson, Douglas Spencer, Robin Raymond. 35mm, 80 min.


GOD TOLD ME TO
In this cult epic suspense thriller by Larry Cohen (It's Alive), a series of bizarre, motiveless murders send a religious New York cop on a manhunt for a mysterious cult leader. With Tony Lo Bianco, Sandy Dennis, Andy Kaufman and Deborah Raffin.


GRAND HOTEL
Edmund Goulding drama w/ Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt (1932 M-G-M)


GRISBI (TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI), 1954, Rialto Pictures, 88 min. Dir. Jacques Becker (CASQUE D’OR, LE TROU). Aging gangster Jean Gabin is sitting on a fortune in gold from a perfect heist – but sleazeball Lino Ventura decides he wants in on the action, with the help of double-crossing chorus girl, Jeanne Moreau. This exquisite noir was passed over by the Cannes Film Festival because "it gave the wrong idea of French cinema" – it went on to become a huge hit and inspired a wave of crack crime films like BOB LE FLAMBEUR and RIFIFI. In French with English subtitles.


THE GUARDSMAN
Sidney Franklin comedy w/ Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne (1931 M-G-M)


Guerrilla Television, 1969-1972
The late '60s was a time when change was seen by many as not just a possibility, but a necessity in nearly every way, and that included television. Video revolutionaries envisioned themselves overseeing the death of mainstream mass media as it existed, and democratizing the most powerful artform of the twentieth century. And for a brief moment, they did indeed storm the studio gates, and unbelievably, underground video art was actually broadcast on the public airwaves for potential millions to see. Tonight we will take you on a tour of some of the fascinating examples of the “guerilla television” phenomena: work by counter-culture collectives like Raindance Corporation and Videofreeks, and an incredible PBS special, The Medium Is The Medium--all from an amazing time when major network stations allowed the most cutting edge video pioneers in the country to transform the act of television broadcast into a work of art.


Happy-Go-Lucky
2008/color/118 min. | Scr/dir: Mike Leigh; w/ Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman.
This effervescent comedy from British writer/director Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies ) focuses on Poppy, an unmarried school teacher in London, who greets every situation she encounters, good and bad, with unsinkable optimism. Featuring a star-making performance by Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky is by turns hilarious, moving, and serious about that most mysterious and elusive of all human goals: happiness.
In person: Mike Leigh & Sally Hawkins (Silver Berlin Bear for Best Actress)


The Hidden
Two outstanding early efforts from horror/sci-fi craftsman Jack Sholder. First up is The Hidden, a police procedural that starts taking a bevy of twists and turns from its first frame, as an extraterrestrial shapeshifting serial killer continually leaps into different host bodies across Los Angeles, in order to dodge the two lawmen (Michael Nouri and Kyle MacLachlan, in a precursor to his iconic role as Agent Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks) hot on his trail. Dir. Jack Sholder, 1987, 35mm, 96 min.


HIS GIRL FRIDAY
(1940) Directed by Howard Hawks
This hilarious comedy stars Cary Grant as a crafty newspaper editor hell-bent on keeping his ace reporter and ex-wife, Hildy (Russell), from settling down with a pitifully dull businessman (Bellamy) by convincing her to cover the imminent execution of a convicted murderer. Hawks' ingenious use of overlapping dialogue accelerates the film's already break-neck clip and epitomizes the verve of Hollywood's Screwball Era. Producer: Howard Hawks. Screenplay: Charles Lederer. Cinematographer: Joseph Walker. Editor: Gene Havlick. Cast: Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Rosalind Russell, Porter Hall. 35mm, 92 min. Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive


HOUSE ON THE WATERFRONT (PORT DU DÉSIR), 1955, 94 min. Dir. Edmund T. Gréville (PRINCESS TAM-TAM). Jean Gabin is a disillusioned tugboat captain with a wayward daughter. He becomes embroiled in a plot to cover up a murder when tough young diver Henri Vidal is bribed by a gangster (Jean-Roger Caussimon) to retrieve a dead woman’s body from a sunken ship that is about to be salvaged. Co-starring Andrée Debar, Edith Georges. In French with English subtitles. NOT ON DVD


HUMAN DESIRE
(1954) Directed by Fritz Lang
Human Desire was Grahame's second film with both German-émigré director Fritz Lang and leading man Glenn Ford (they had made The Big Heat in 1953). This was the second adaptation of Emil Zola's novel La Bête Humaine--the first was directed by Jean Renoir in 1938 and starred Jean Gabin and Simone Simon--and like the earlier version, Lang's film updated the tale for contemporary America. Grahame reprises Simon's role as the unfaithful wife Vicki, who genuinely falls in love with her railroad worker lover, Tom (Ford), but cannot leave her abusive husband, Carl (Crawford). Vicki becomes so distraught that Carl will discover their illicit affair and kill them both that she convinces Tom they must murder him first. Like her breakout role from In a Lonely Place, Grahame delivered a convincing performance as an emotionally tormented woman hounded by her subconscious fears. In spite of her genuine feelings, she draws her innocent lover into a in a web of precarious deception.
Producer: Lewis J. Rachmil. Screenplay: Alfred Hayes. Editor: William A. Lyon. Cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Edgar Buchanan, Kathleen Case. 35mm, 90 min.


The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Even after Chaney became a name actor following the success of his 1919 film The Miracle Man, it took three years of lobbying before he managed to convince producer Irving Thalberg to get behind an adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel "Notre Dame De Paris". In Chaney's reimagined version, the novel's tragic side figure Quasimodo would become the star, and even after 85 years, his portrayal of the hunchback remains the definitive one. A shocking grotesquerie with impeccable character design by Chaney himself, the performance easily stands out amongst the grandeur of an epic production filled with lavish sets, gazillions of extras and sumptuous costumes. The now-familiar medieval story revolves around dancer Esmeralda (Patsy Ruth Miller) and her dalliances with different men, but it's Chaney's athletic, physically eloquent turn as the sympathetic hero that will keep you riveted.
Dir. Wallace Worsley, 1923, 16mm.


I'M A STRANGER HERE MYSELF at 8pm ('74, 58m) Myron Meisel's (in person) probing documentary about Nic Ray's last film We Can't Go Home Again, his radical independent feature with hippie and student collaborators. Sterling Hayden's tag line in Johnny Guitar, "I'm a stranger here myself," eventually became Ray's motto. Film critic Dave Kehr's review of In a Lonely Place stated "The film's subject is the attractiveness of instability, and Ray's self-examination is both narcissistic and sharply critical, in fascinating combination .


Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner
This sneak preview of a new documentary feature film traces the lifelong quest of visionary genius John Lautner to create “architecture that has no beginning and no end.” It is the story of brilliance and of a complicated life—and the most sensual architecture of the 20th century. Renowned architectural filmmaker Murray Grigor explores Lautner’s dramatic spaces as Lautner himself provides the commentary, speaking with insight and wit in recordings culled from archival sources. Includes comments from Frank Gehry, original clients, owners and builders, Frank Escher, and Julius Shulman.
Murray Grigor–writer/director, Anna Thomas + Sara Sackner–producers.


In the Shadow of the Moon
Combining archival material from actual NASA film footage and interviews with surviving astronauts from the Apollo program, this marvelous documentary recreates the sense of wonder that captivated the world between 1968 and 1972, when 12 Americans walked on the Moon. "A researcher for this production spent years screening NASA footage that was still, in many cases, in its original film cans and had never been seen. The film was cleaned up and restored, the color refreshed, and the result is beautiful and moving" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times).


I, PIERRE RIVIERE, HAVING SLAUGHTERED MY MOTHER, MY SISTER AND MY BROTHER ...
(Moi, Pierre Riviere, Ayant Egorge Ma Mere, Ma Soeur Et Mon Frere…)
(1976, France) Directed by Rene Allio
In 1835, in rural Normandy, Pierre Riviere, committed a horrific crime, slaying his mother, sister and brother. Based upon texts compiled by French philosopher Michel Foucault on the killings and subsequent criminal proceedings, Moi, Pierre Riviere… is an unflinching portrait of psychopathology, dramatizing psychiatry's first moorings to the judicial system. Director Rene Allio cast mainly non-professionals, actual villagers from the area where the original events took place, to portray the key roles of the murderer and his relatives and friends. Told from multiple perspectives, including the Pierre's own written confession, the film unfolds as a rich and complex examination of constructions of "truth" and "history".
Screenwriter: Rene Allio, Pascal Bonitzer. Cinematographer: Nurit Aviv. Editor: Sylvie Blanc. Cast: Claude Hebert, Joseph Leportier, Jacqueline Milliere. Presented in French dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 125 min.


ISLAND OF DOOMED MEN
(1940) Directed by Charles Barton
Once again paying the penance for an easy life made by ill-gotten gain, Hudson plays the glamour-puss wife, Lorraine, of fascist megalomaniac Stephen Danel (Peter Lorre). Marrying Danel to escape working as a showgirl, Lorraine finds herself trapped on a remote island, indulging her husband's proclivity for the finer things while forced to silently witness the illicit dealings that finance them. When a secret service operative arrives to investigate Danel's use of slave labor, Lorraine must work covertly to aid in her husband's undoing. Ironically, two years after the making of Island of Doomed Men, Hudson was involved in real-life espionage, taking a temporary leave from acting to work undercover in Mexico for U.S. Naval Intelligence throughout World War II.
Producer: Wallace MacDonald. Screenplay: Robert D. Andrews. Cinematographer: Benjamin Kline. Editor: James Sweeney. Cast: Peter Lorre, Rochelle Hudson, Robert Wilcox, Don Beddoe, George E. Stone. 35mm, 68 min.


Isle of the Dead
A morbid mood does indeed dominate Isle of the Dead. This time Karloff is a harsh-tempered General stuck in an island quarantine, while the local villagers slowly succumb to what is either plague or the work of a vampiric spirit. Death is routinely invoked throughout the film, as each character works through their own fear of mortality, including an increasingly freaked-out Karloff who lies in wait for his visit from the monster. Dir. Mark Robson, 1945, 35mm, 72 min.


I Walked With a Zombie
I Walked With A Zombie is the most hallucinatory work made under Lewton's watch, loosely based on (what else?) "Jane Eyre". The film's elegant, haunting depiction of West Indian voodoo rites, along with its hypnotic pulse-laden score and a Lynchian refusal to give easy explanations, make for a pleasantly unsettling experience. Dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1943, 35mm, 69 min.


Jerry Beck's Animated Spooktacular
Animation historian Jerry Beck returns to the Cinefamily with a special show of the horrific characters, monsterous motifs and the creepiest concepts in classic animated cartoons from the 1930s to the 1960s. Frankenstein’s Cat, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Milton the Monster join forces with the groovy ghoulies, screaming skulls and bloody best of animation’s past. Beck will also present several brand new “monsterrific” cartoons and special guest animators to discuss their ghastly influences. Rare 16mm and 35mm prints will be screamed… err, screened.


KAGEMUSHA (1980)
Featuring the premiere of a new print, and evening viewing hours for the exhibition “Akira Kurosawa: Film Artist” from 6 to 8 p.m.
When a powerful warlord is mortally wounded, a common thief who bears a striking resemblance to him is called upon to become his “double” to maintain the clan’s aura of strength. 35mm. 162 mins.
Academy Award nominee: Art Direction (Yoshiro Muraki), Foreign Language Film (Japan)


The Keep
Michael Mann follows up the moody, rain-soaked neon of his Chicago heist film Thief with this very different feature--a historical drama set in German-occupied Romania during WWII. At the center of the mysterious drama is a foreboding castle whose walls contain an ancient and powerful force. When an enigmatic drifter arrives, revealing the nature of the creature, a struggle ensues over whether to contain or release it. A stellar cast (including Gabriel Byrne, Ian McKellan, and Scott Glen) and Mann's patented visual style make this an effectively moody (if sometimes muddled) effort by a skilled American auteur.


THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK
(1950) Directed by Earl McEvoy
In an interesting spin on noir's familiar femme fatale, Keyes stars as Sheila Bennet, a diamond smuggler and Cold War incarnation of Typhoid Mary (only this time spreading smallpox amongst the hysterical masses). Keyes gives an impassioned performance while doubly on the run from federal agents and New York's entire medical community, doggedly persevering even as she deteriorates. Inspired by New York's real-life smallpox scare in 1946, The Killer That Stalked New York, is part-documentary, part-noir. Shot largely on location, the film acutely depicted America's looming postwar anxiety and paranoia over forces unknown. It was one of Keyes' last films with Columbia before scouting around for roles outside the studio.
Producer: Robert Cohn. Screenplay: Harry Essex. Cinematographer: Joseph Biroc. Editor: Jerome Thoms. Cast: Evelyn Keyes, Charles Korvin, William Bishop, Dorothy Malone, Lola Albright. 35mm, 79 min.


KOYAANISQATSI, 1982, MGM Home Entertainment, 86 min. Dir. Godfrey Reggio. The most famous and well-known of the QATSI trilogy, KOYAANISQATSI explores our perceptions of the world. The title of the film is taken from the Hopi word meaning "life out of balance," and that concept is used to examine the conflicts between technology and the environment. Philip Glass’ haunting, stunning score accompanies Reggio’s exploration of the idea that we don’t live with nature any longer – we live off of it. Perhaps the best-received of Reggio’s works, KOYANNISQATSI has a massive cult following and has influenced filmmakers and filmgoers alike.


Kuroneko
Stories about nekomata (ghost cats) were among the most popular genres of Japanese horror in the 50s and 60s, and after completing the classic Onibaba, Kaneto Shindo directed Kuroneko, the creepy and emotionally-charged nekomata tale set in feudal Japan. Kuroneko is loosely based on The Cat's Return, a Japanese folktale about two peasant women who, after being raped and killed by a band of samurai, seek revenge as cat-like spirits who lure soldiers in with sex, then pounce and maul them to death. After several of his men have fallen, the local samurai lord seeks revenge, not knowing he shares a previous special connection to the two apparitions. Painting a bleak, realistic portrait of a "noble" soldier class, mixing it with a heartwrenching tale of fate and wrapping it all up in an evocative black-and-white package, Shindo's Kuroneko is a stark horror classic steeped in its nation's chilling history.
Dir. Kaneto Shindo, 1968, 35mm, 95 min.


Kwaidan
One of the most internationally revered Japanese films, Kwaidan is that rare creature, a horror film capable of functioning as a work of art regardless of genre. This quartet of ghost stories caused a sensation when released, racking up awards at Cannes and, along with Onibaba and Ugetsu, introducing English-speaking viewers to an entirely different kind of cinematic terror. Kwaidan is a sensually amazing experience--every frame of the film is perfectly composed and a wondrous feat of color lighting; you could literally freeze-frame at any point and have a painting on the screen. Director Masaki Kobayashi (The Human Condition) displays a remarkable command of the medium here, and the vibrant, unnatural backdrops have influenced several generations of filmmakers both in the East and West. Imagine The Twilight Zone with the scope of Coppola and Fellini's visual flair, and that might convey some of the tone of this unique masterpiece.
Dir. Masaki Kobayashi, 1964, 35mm, 183 min.


La Collectionneuse
1967/ color/90 min. | Scr/dir: Eric Rohmer; w/ Patrick Bauchau, Haydée Politoff, Daniel Pomereulle.
Adrien (Bauchau) a self-absorbed art dealer in his mid-thirties, is surprised to find he is sharing a borrowed villa on the Riviera with housemates: Daniel, a friend; and Haydée, an energetic twenty-year-old beauty whose nightly bouts of bars and promiscuity drive the guys (whom she barely notices) so crazy that they vow to steer her onto life's higher moral path. Shot on a low budget but graced with a sexy cast and Nestor Almendros' dazzling images of the Mediterranean coast, La Collectioneuse created the mold for a Rohmer specialty: the "vacation film." "The film's mood of sardonic playfulness combines with a psychological concentration and a Warholian feeling for pose and emptiness that are unique in Rohmer's work."-Chris Fujiwara, Boston Phoenix.
Special guest: Patrick Bauchau


The Lady and the Duke (L'Anglaise et le duc)
2001/color/125 min. | Scr/dir: Eric Rohmer; w/ Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Lucy Russell.
The lady is Grace Elliott, a Scottish-French aristocrat living in Paris during the French Revolution, and the duke is the Duc d'Orléans, Grace's former lover and an enlightened aristocrat sympathetic to the revolution. Each worries about the other's safety and, as their story unfolds from 1790 to 1794, they debate the pros and cons of revolution, specifically the bloody days of the Terror, in a series of elegantly conceived scenes that blend the personal with the political. A faithful adaptation of Elliot's memoirs, the script portrays a woman of great courage who risked her life to save lives: the scene where she hides the governor of the Tuilleries in her home and her nocturnal escape from Paris on foot are classic suspense sequences that convey the omnipresent danger for rich and poor alike. Wanting the characters to walk through streets and squares of an eighteenth-century Paris that no longer exists, Rohmer commissioned digital sets based on nineteenth-century landscape paintings: the fantastic images evoke the magic of early cinema and lend this classically romantic film a theatricality that is entirely appropriate.


The Leopard Man
Jacques Tourneur teamed up again with Lewton for another feline menace, The Leopard Man. Someone is offing folks in a small town, and everyone thinks the killer is a leopard that's escaped its keepers--but the deaths are too strange to have been committed by a cat, AND they continue once the leopard's remains are also found. A simply and expertly executed visceral proto-slasher film. Dir. Jacuqes Tourneur, 1943, 35mm, 66 min.


LES MYSTÈRES DU CHÂTEAU DE DÉ
(1929, France) Directed by Man Ray
Director Man Ray's classic avant-frolic through Villa Noailles, designed by architect Robert Mallet Stevens.
35mm, silent, 27 min.


Lilith
The final film of director Robert Rossen (The Hustler) finds Beatty as Vincent, a haunted veteran-cum-sanitarium nurse unable to resist the seductive machinations of Lilith, a beguiling blueblood enchantress with a double case of schizophrenia and nymphomania. Beatty himself insightfully suggested the beautiful, but fragile Jean Seberg for the film’s lead role. Seberg (who would eventually commit suicide at 41) would rank the performance as one of her favorites. While Beatty's performance was mocked at the timeas "non-acting," his underplaying anticipates today’s preference for understated performance; his ambivalent feelings towards Lilith subtly emerge through the passion with which he delves into her clouded mind in an attempt to "help" her. The mood is secured by Eugen Schüfftan’s impressive black-and-white cinematography (with its multilayered emphasis on the whites), and stellar low-key support performances by Gene Hackman, Olympia Dukakis, and Peter Fonda.
Dir. Robert Rossen, 1964, 35mm, 114 min.


LIVE FLESH
Though it's unmistakably his, the tragicomic Live Flesh is rare among Almodóvar's films, in large part because it's an adaptation of a British crime novel. The film tightly interlocks dark narrative threads with only slightly-restrained comic hysteria, and builds around the aftermath of an accidental shooting and a wrongly-jailed man's quest for revenge. Live Flesh was universally lauded for its spectacular visuals and nuanced performances by Fracesca Neri, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, but it's the seriousness of the piece, apparent in all of his subsequent films, that sets it apart from his earlier work. Dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 1997, 35mm, 103 min.


LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF, 2003, 169 min. Dir. Thom Andersen. Voted Best Doc of 2004 by The Village Voice. A must-see for Los Angeles history buffs and cinema enthusiasts, who will marvel at the hundreds of archival and film clips revealing an almost secret history of the City of Angels. "This cinematic essay focuses on the discrepancy between the lived-in urban reality of Los Angeles and its various century-deep cinematic mythologies. The movie is about more than just what the movies get wrong. It’s about the way the imaginary space of cinema intrudes upon the actual space of our lives, so that the L.A. of the movies becomes a kind of separate urban reality unto itself." -- The Toronto Star See it now on the big screen. It will never be on DVD! Discussion following with director Thom Andersen.


The Lost World
Full of torrid love affairs, valiant rescues, and a blustery performance by Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger, the first adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World is a film full of human drama. The foremost reason to see the film, however, is its landmark stop-motion effects by King Kong's Willis O'Brien; gigantic and compelling, they were highly influential in their time, and still impress. Amongst ape-men, snakes, and bears, the stop-motion dinosaurs are the main event; realized down to the subtlest detail, they snort, whip their tails around, react to sounds, bleed when hurt—and a little less subtly, stomp everything in their path, like the captured brontosaurus who tries to reduce London to dust in the film's finale. One of the silent era's finest fantasy flicks.
Dir. Harry O. Hoyt, 1925, 35mm, 100 min.


Love Me or Leave Me
1955/color/122 min./CinemaScope | Scr: Daniel Fuchs, Isobel Lennart; dir: Charles Vidor; w/ Doris Day, James Cagney.
True story of torch singer Ruth Etting's struggle to escape the gangster who made her a star.


Lucio Fulci Triple Feature: Zombie/Gates of Hell/The Beyond
Even though he worked in many genres, Lucio Fulci will forever be known as a splatter master. Starting in the late '70s, Fulci upped the gore quotient in all his films, leaving the plots to fall through the paper shredder, in order to concentrate on innovative grossout moments and a plethora of juicy kills. His undead "trilogy" (Zombie, Gates of Hell and The Beyond), made at the height of his popularity, are legendarily nutty, grotesque and awesome. Eyes gouged out on sharp things! Pretty girls literally vomiting their guts out! Maggot sandstorms! Power drills through the skull! A zombie punching a shark in the face, man!!!! For real, not some CGI bullshit--a real live actor clocking a motherfucking shark on the head in a water tank! Any horror fan not into this should be sent to the gulag.
Zombie Dir. Lucio Fulci, 1979, 35mm, 91 min.
Gates of Hell Dir. Lucio Fulci, 1980, 35mm, 93 min.
The Beyond Dir. Lucio Fulci, 1981, 35mm, 87 min.


Macbeth
Roman Polanski's highly controversial version of Shakespeare's Macbeth stars Jon Finch as Macbeth in a graphically violent interpretation that struck some as entirely appropriate and others as rather excessive. Whatever one's reaction, there's no denying Polanski's visual command here. Many critics saw the director's bloody vision as a cathartic exercise in the aftermath of the horrific murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, in 1969.


The Marquise of O… (Die Marquise von O)
1976/color/102 min. | Scr/dir: Eric Rohmer; w/ Edith Clever, Bruno Ganz.
Desire and betrayal take on a life-and-death urgency in this adaptation of an eighteenth-century German novella about a marquise that is rescued from a sexual assault on her own estate by a visiting Russian count who becomes obsessed with her. Acclaimed for its authentic neoclassical design, the performances of Ganz and Clever, and its narrative surprises, Rohmer's only non-francophone film won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes.


Martin
"Don't worry, I'm always careful with the needles," advises the troubled Martin to a female victim as he injects her with a sedative. In a dim train car, he embraces her unconscious body and uses a razor blade to open her veins and drink her blood. With this unforgettable opening, Romero reveals the same precision found in his previous studies of zombies, though Martin finds him taking vampire lore into devastating waters. The teenage Martin (John Amplas) lives with his stern uncle, who claims that Martin is actually an ancient, traditional vampire who stalks the streets at night; the viewer is never completely sure about the true nature of Martin's identity, with eerie gothic flashbacks reinforcing the uneasy coexistence between past and present in his family. The kind of film that horror buffs adore, Martin is Romero's true masterpiece, a perfect example of his personal expression as a filmmaker, and very rarely screened--so don't miss it.
Dir. George Romero, 1978, 35mm, 95 min.


THE MASK OF FU MANCHU
Charles Brabin horror film w/ Boris Karloff, Karen Morley, Myrna Loy (1932 M-G-M)


The Masque of the Red Death
Producer icon Roger Corman's most personally beloved work is the series of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations he himself directed in the 1960s. We’re celebrating this work with a double feature, featuring plenty of trippy dream sequences, bizarre twists, and scream queen Hazel Court in low-cut dresses. First up, evil Vincent Price and his rich pals try to hide from a medieval plague by terrorizing nearby villagers and throwing a swanky party, the Masque Of The Red Death. But a Seventh Seal-inspired Death has other plans. Dir. Roger Corman, 1964, 35mm, 89 min.


MATA HARI
Greta Garbo adds her glamour to the tale of the exotic World War I spy. She dances, she flirts, she gives comfort to wounded soldiers. With Ramon Navarro, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone and Karen Morley. (1931 M-G-M)


Messiah of Evil
Messiah Of Evil is one of the great lost films. Made by screenwriting team Willard Hyuck and Gloria Katz right before their breakout success writing American Graffiti, it details the unsettling relationship between a girl, her mysterious painter father, and a Northern California town full of bloodthirsty catatonic everyday people. There are standout zombie attacks in a supermarket and a movie theatre (one of the best ever), as well as an appearance by '70s gay film icon Michael Greer (Fortune and Men's Eyes, The Gay Deceivers), make the film an off-kilter killer. Dir. Willard Hyuck & Gloria Katz, 1973, 35mm, 85 min.


Mickey One
Beatty’s first collaboration with Arthur Penn was essentially Hollywood’s first film heavily influenced by the French New Wave and remains one of the most unforgivably forgotten works of the '60s. As "The Comic," a wise-cracking, subversive comedian, Beatty finds himself on the run from a nameless mob which, eerily, may or may not be real as he inconspicuously drifts through a noirish Chicagoland. As the whys, whos and wherefores of his debt elude him, Beatty paranoically clings to anonymity until the lure of the stage and returning under the moniker “Mickey One” proves too strong to resist. Stan Getz's jazz score blazes in startling counterpoint to the film’s use of ingenious montage as Penn unwaveringly commands our gaze with a dazzling presentation of lush cinematography, idiosyncratic character touches, and decadent urban milieus seething with darkly surreal notes.
Dir. Arthur Penn, 1965, 35mm, 93 min.


MODERN SHORTS SELECTED BY TERENCE GOWER
Recently there has been a general resurgence of interest in modern architecture. Art exhibitions, advertising campaigns, even real estate marketing schemes have tapped into this trend. Part of the attraction of modernism is the pristine nature of it's documentation. Photographers and film-makers documenting these buildings from the 1930s through the 1960s tended to strive for an extremely clean, idealized image. Whether interior or exterior shots, and regardless of geographic location, architectural photographs from this period were usually set up to hide signs of human habitation, including the human inhabitants themselves.
The works in this screening question this clean, idealized image of modern architecture. Here the architecture is touched, jumped upon, danced in, squatted, transformed into building blocks and children's toys, and activated as a setting for romance and more. I imagine this screening as propaganda for a Modernism which is inviting, lived-in and perhaps even humanized.


Mondo Christploitation
In past Mondo nights, we've hosted "found film" festivals based on the subjects of drugs and patriotism. Now, we've explored the universe of Christian filmmaking, and are here to bear witness. From the depths of public access loudmouth preachers and rapping pirates, to the depths of inspirational burn victim crooner documentaries, from anti-evolutionary Sunday school "science" films to Bible-thumping superheroes, tonight's program will be a revelation to all. Especially our final film of the evening, a rare 16mm screening of Ron Ormond's If Footmen Tire You...What Would Horses Do? When this infamous figurehead of psychotronic filmmaking survived a plane crash, he became born-again and devoted his talents to making religious films for the fire-and-brimstone preacher Rev. Estus Pirkle (yeah, that's his real name). Thus begat a teaming of the sacred and profane, of exploitation and evangelism, that both blows your mind and saves your soul at the same time. It's a redneck rendering of what can and will happen in middle America once the Commies take over--you know, like beheading children that refuse to renounce Christ.


Mondo Kinder-Carnage!
We've got an overstimulated sugarbomb of a program featuring terrorist toddlers, reprobate ragamuffins, budding butchers, and cutthroat cubs hurling pure malice towards any adult in their path, ending with the psyche-shattering Child of Rage, the must-see TV movie featuring the most evil little-girl-not-literally-possessed-by-the-devil you've ever seen. This rarity is both hilariously shocking and shockingly hilarious, because all the scorching hate unleashed by the little girl is encased within the pasteurized skin of women's network filler. An insulated middle-class couple questions their adoption, when their little girl turns out to be pure psychopath: smothering her younger brother with a pillow while repeatedly punching his gut, hitting on her new grandpa, and hiding a knife in her teddy bear like a prisoner smuggling a shank. They actually cure the kid (using primal screaming brat therapy), but seriously, once you see her in action, you won't want her to ever be cured. It's just that good.


Monkey Shines
The bizarre Monkey Shines concerns a recent quadrapelegic who's supplied with Ella, a cute little helper monkey, to help him out around the house--a monkey who also belongs to a test group scientifically manipulated to become intelligent and responsive to human commands. The two bond a little too closely, and when the recipients of his mounting rage turn up dead, you can guess who's responsible. Dir. George Romero, 1988, 35mm, 113 min.


MOONTIDE¸ 1942, 20th Century Fox, 94 min. In the mythical California port of San Pablo (standing in for San Pedro), hard-drinking longshoreman Bobo (Jean Gabin) becomes convinced by blackmailing comrade Tiny (Thomas Mitchell) that he has killed a man in an alcoholic blackout. Despairing Bobo simultaneously falls in love when he saves suicidal waitress Anna (Ida Lupino) from trying to drown herself. Gabin and Lupino are electric together, generating transcendental romantic chemistry, and Claude Rains as a barroom philosopher prefigures his chivalrous Frenchman in CASABLANCA.This was one of two films that Gabin made in America. Director Archie Mayo took over when original director Fritz Lang quit a few days into production. Charles G. Clarke’s luminous black-and-white cinematography was Oscar-nominated. Original English-language version.


MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY
Frank Lloyd adventure w/ Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone (1935 M-G-M)


MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS
(1945) Directed by Joseph Lewis
My name is Julia Ross was Foch's first starring role for Columbia and it is arguably her best film. Teamed with director Joseph H. Lewis (known for his alluring compositions and off-beat style) and British actress Dame May Witty, Foch was in talented company in this shadowy film noir set in postwar London. As the film's down on her luck title character, Foch gratefully accepts a personal secretary job only to become an unknowing target of a duplicitous murder plot by her new employers, a perverse mother and son team. Instead of taking dictation, they expect her to play the role of the son's murdered wife in order to cover up their hand in the crime. As Julia gradually uncovers the bizarre and twisted plot, Foch turns in a breakthrough performance as a woman pushed to the brink of madness. Though Columbia intended to release Julia Ross as a "B" movie, the film's unexpected critical success prompted the studio to elevate the film to a main release.
Producer: Wallace MacDonald. Screenplay: Muriel Roy Bolton. Editor: Henry Batista. Cast: Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready, Roland Varnol, Anita Bolster. 35mm, 65 min.


My Night at Maud's (Ma Nuit chez Maud)
1969/b&w/105 min. | Scr/dir: Eric Rohmer; w/ Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Fabian
Having determined to marry a demure young blonde whom he has been intently observing for weeks at Sunday Mass, Trintignant, an engineer in Clermont-Ferrand on business and stranded by a blizzard, gratefully accepts a spare room for the night in the home of worldly Fabian, an attractive divorcee. During a spirited conversation that extends late into the night, Fabian challenges Trintignant's conservative beliefs and smug assumptions about life and love before revealing that she has no spare room. Rohmer's first international hit was Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and Original Screenplay.


My Tutor
Caren Kaye skinny-dipped her way into adolescent hearts everywhere with this wish-fulfillment fantasy about a live-in French tutor who teaches her teenage pupil all about the facts of life. My Tutor was intended as a cash-in on the similar Private Lessons by the drive-in impresarios at Crown International Pictures, and it's better than it had any right to be thanks to the two leads and a surprisingly savvy script. As an added bonus, Crispin Glover also makes a suitably weird impression in an early role as Lattanzi's best friend, appearing typically unhinged throughout!
Dir. George Bowers, 1983, 35mm, 97 min.


NAQOYQATSI, 2002, Miramax, 89 min. Dir. Godfrey Reggio. Reggio’s most recent film examines the transition from nature to technology via the idea of "war as a way of life." The war in the title’s definition refers to the epic battle between the natural world and the technological one. People in the film do not use technology as a tool, but as a means of living. Because the hunger for technology is infinite, its power is as well. Discussion in between films with director Godfrey Reggio.


Night of the Creeps
Fred Dekker's underrated campy campus comedy of terrors, where alien brain parasites freed from a college lab turn infected hosts into killer zombies. And guess what: the parasites just found out about that party full of hot sorority girls! Featuring characters named for famous directors, '50s retro self-aware humor, and a nimble balance of real laughs and real scares. Oh, and supposedly, George Clooney plays the janitor--if you see him, scream real loud. Dir. Fred Dekker, 1986, 35mm, 88 min.


Night of the Living Dead
Romero's '68 masterpiece, elegant in its simplicity and stark in its depiction of an American populace sleepwalking through the Vietnam era, remains the template for the modern zombie film, even after all these years. Even if you think you know the film inside and out--when's the last time you actually sat down and watched it? In 35mm? Come give it another whirl with us, and rediscover its brutal beauty. Dir. George Romero, 1968, 35mm, 96 min.


Nova-Kino: The History of Cinematic Agit-Prop
Nova-Kino is an experimental cinematic movement with departure points from the Russian twenties, film noir, situationism, the classical avant-garde, and post-modern appropriationist theory. Experimental filmmaker Mark Boswell traces the roots of collage filmmaking to its origins in Futurism, Dadaism, and Constructivism up to the present. He co-founded the Alliance Film/Video Cooperative in Miami, and teaches in the Media Arts Department at the Pratt Institute of New York.


Once a Thief
1965/b&w/106 min./Panavision | Scr: Zekial Marko; dir: Ralph Nelson; w/ Alain Delon, Ann-Margret, Van Heflin, Jack Palance.
A young ex-con trying to go straight gets caught up in another criminal scheme.


ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION
(1953) Directed by Hugo Haas
Following the breakthrough success of Marilyn Monroe, Cleo Moore was one of many in the 1950s to garner fame using her golden locks and curvaceous figure. Moore became a cult icon for her roles as a B-movie "bad girl", most notably in the films by writer, director, producer and star, Hugo Haas. In the second of seven Haas films starring the buxom blonde, Moore plays Mary Adams, a waitress working at a waterfront diner formerly owned by her father. Tired of being used by her father's corrupt ex-business partner as eye candy to lure in customers, Mary steals his entire savings aiming to hide the cash, turn herself in and recover the loot after serving her sentence. Like all best laid plans, Mary's goes considerably awry and she plummets in a self-destructive wayward descent, proving herself to be the kind of girl every man wants, but should never dare marry.
Producer: Hugo Haas. Screenwriter: Hugo Haas. Cinematographer: Paul Ivano. Editor: Merrill G. White. Cast: Cleo Moore, Hugo Haas, Glenn Langan, Ellen Stansbury, Anthony Jochim. 35mm, 73 min.


Ordinary Guy
Has the charm and campy appeal of the cheesiest Reagan-era "morning in America" After School Specials, but gets weirder and weirder as it unfolds. Our well-wishing vanilla protagonist wants to become an even better Christian, and so finds himself teaching gymnastics to inner-city thugs, which he finds is his calling, much to the distress of his shallow fiancee. Bless the B-boys and children. 1980, digital presentation, 70 min.


OVER-EXPOSED
(1956) Directed by Lewis Seiler
This titillating bit of pulp sensationalism was the last in a string of "B" films that Cleo Moore starred in at Columbia. Moore plays Lila Crane, an ambitious career woman with flexible morals and a penchant for fast money. Formerly a clip-joint floozie under the name of Lily Krenshka, Lila undergoes a change in name and occupation, rapidly hustling her way to becoming New York's foremost commercial photographer. Moore stays steadfast to her "bad girl" personae--brassy and suspicious; conniving, yet sweet--in this smirky glimpse at the back-biting nastiness that accompanies wealth and glamour.
Producer: Lewis J. Rachmil. Story: Richard Sale, Mary Loos. Screenplay: James Gunn, Gil Orlovitz. Cinematographer: Henry Freulich. Cast: Cleo Moore, Richard Crenna, Isobel Elsom, Raymond Greenleaf, Shirley Thomas. 35mm, 79 min.


Pauline at the Beach (Pauline à la plage)
1983/color/94 min. | Scr/dir: Eric Rohmer; w/ Amanda Langlet, Arielle Dombasle, Pascal Gregory.
The proverb ''A wagging tongue bites itself,'' by the twelfth-century poet Chrétien de Troyes, sent Rohmer (and Almendros) back to the beach sixteen years after La Collectionneuse -this time to chilly Normandie in late August-to direct what became his most commercially successful film, a farce with tragic undertones. Five adults, three women and two men, indulge in a game of musical beds that, fueled by gossip, bad judgment, and self-justification, ruins everyone's vacation and more. Only fifteen-year old Pauline is spared a broken heart but the disdain she feels toward the adults marks the end of her innocence.


The People Under the Stairs
Never one to shy away from metaphor, Wes Craven explored the horrors of poverty in 1991's The People Under The Stairs. The film reunites Twin Peaks couple Everett McGill and Wendy Robie in a loopy combo performance (inspired by the Reagans) as the fiendish rich people who oppress an entire neighborhood of welfare cases, turning them into de-facto zombies buried in their expansive basement. But forget about the social commentary--the real draw is McGill going bat-shit crazy in a gimp suit while covered in blood. Dir. Wes Craven, 1991, 35mm, 102 min.


The Phantom of the Opera
Even those who are intimately familiar with the story of The Phantom of The Opera will be awestruck by Lon Chaney's devastating portrayal of Erik, who sports The Man Of A Thousand Faces' most recognizable face. In one of the most physically tortured performances in all of silent film (made all the more impressive by makeup effects that included actually painting his eyeballs darker), a masked Chaney lurks in the shadows of the Paris Opera House while its new owners stage a production of "Faust". Rather than starring the diva Mme. Carlotta (Virginia Pearson), the Phantom demands that beautiful understudy Christine (Mary Philbin), whom the Phantom loves from afar, take the role, or else there will be grave consequences! The blend of Chaney's shocking visage, along with his emotive rendition of Erik's' tortured soul, made The Phantom the most iconic role of the actor's entire career.
Dir. Rupert Julian, 1925, 16mm, 92 min.


The Picture of Dorian Gray
1945/b&w and color/110 min. | Scr/dir: Albert Lewin; w/ George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury.
A man remains young and handsome while his portrait shows the ravages of age and sin.


POWAQQATSI, 1988, 99 min. Dir. Godfrey Reggio. Powaqqatsi, or "life in transformation," is a study of developing nations and the effect that Westernization has had upon them. Co-written with Ken Richards, the film explores the disappearance of ancient cultures and customs that occurs under modernization from the Western world. A celebration of themes like craftsmanship, labor, worship and creativity, the film draws connections between the individuality of different cultures and the collaborative concept of the "Global Village."


The Premature Burial
Jittery nobleman Ray Milland copes with his fear of The Premature Burial by rigging an elaborate, gimmicky entombment system, only to find his worst fears eventually realized. Filled with stunning anamorphic imagery (Masque’s director of photography was Nic Roeg) and packed with vivid characters and color schemes, these gorgeous films show the real cineaste at the heart of America's most famous B-movie mogul. Dir. Roger Corman, 1962, 35mm, 81 min.


RAN (1985)
Premiering a new print
The story of King Lear, 16th century Japanese civil war history, and the legend of Morikawa, a feudal warlord with three sons, come together in this intense examination of family betrayal and the precariousness of human relationships. 35mm. 160 mins.
Academy Award winner: Costume Design (Emi Wada)
Academy Award nominee: Art Direction (Yoshiro Muraki, Shinobu Muraki), Cinematography (Takao Saito, Masaharu Ueda, Asakazu Nakai), Directing (Akira Kurosawa)


RASHOMON
The Academy launches its three-month celebration of master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa (1910–1998) with an evening highlighting a dynamic new exhibition as well as the digital restoration of Kurosawa’s early masterpiece RASHOMON.
A crime drama that questions the very nature of truth, RASHOMON, set in feudal Japan, depicts a violent incident from four different points of view. The film’s innovative approach and style not only had a profound influence on cinematic storytelling, it also cemented Kurosawa’s international reputation as a significant creative force.
Before the screening, Kurosawa’s son Hisao, currently the head of Kurosawa Productions in Japan, will participate in a panel discussion along with friends and collaborators of the legendary director.
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Kichijiro Ueda, Fumiko Honma, Daisuke Kato. Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Produced by Jingo Minoura. Screenplay Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto. Based on the two short stories "In a Grove" (Yabu no Naka) and "Rashomon" by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Cinematography Kazuo Miyagawa. Art Direction Takashi Matsuyama. Set Decoration H. Matsumoto. Music Fumio Hayasaka. 35mm. 88 mins. Daiei Motion Picture Co. Followed by a preview of the new exhibition "Akira Kurosawa: Film Artist" in the Academy's galleries.


RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS
Richard Boleslavsky epic w/ Lionel Barrymore, John, Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore (1932-M-G-M)


Ratcatcher
Ratcatcher is a grim coming-of-age tale set in working-class Glasgow during a sanitation strike, but director Lynne Ramsey's imaginative flights of fantasy and masterful filmmaking seem to help her characters transcend the world of garbage and grime they inhabit. She selects her details with the taste of a great short-story teller, just a couple at a time; each image and sound is beautiful in some way, rich with potency. Ratcatcher seemingly documents spontaneous and unrecreatable real events, and also captures carefully composed images of a talented cinematographer; it is this balance of talents that makes Ramsey one of the rising stars of international cinema today. Incredibly, the film is her debut feature, and represents the best of a trend towards a modern poetic realism--films trying for hyper-realism in location and characters, but seeking to create a strange, mysterious quality, rather than just a gritty documentary world. Stunning.
Dir. Lynne Ramsay, 1999, 35mm, 94 min.


The Red and the White (Csillagosok, katonák)
1967/b&w/92 min./CinemaScope | Scr: Georgiy Mdivani, Gyula Hernádi, Miklós Jancsó; dir Miklós Jancsó; w/ József Madaras, Tibor Molnár, András Kozák.
Jancsó worked in the Soviet Union for this commission in honor of the October Revolution's fiftieth anniversary. As members of the defeated Hungarian army find themselves behind enemy lines at the close of World War I, they end up joining Bolshevik "Reds" in the struggle against Tsarist "Whites" in Russia's Civil War. "Great plastic beauty and a poisonous lyricism permeate this ballet of violence, its nameless men trapped in hypnotic, archaic rituals… this is a fully realized paraphrase of the human condition."—Amos Vogel.


RED DUST
Victor Fleming comedy-drama w/ Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Mary Astor (1932 M-G-M)


Red Heroine (with live music from Devil Music Ensemble [Boston, MA])
The Cinefamily is thrilled to present the Boston-based Devil Music Ensemble's live performance of their score for Red Heroine, the only surviving feature-length silent kung fu film! Made at the height of the martial arts craze in 1920s Shanghai, Red Heroine is a lively tale about the rise of a woman warrior, and features the genre’s then-characteristic blend of pulp and mystical derring-do. A rampaging army raids a village and kidnaps a maiden, causing the death of the her grandmother. At the general’s lair, the maiden is rescued by the mysterious Daoist hermit, White Monkey. Three years later, the maiden reemerges as a full-fledged warrior, ready to deploy the magic powers learnt from White Monkey to avenge her grandmother. Formed in 1999, the Devil Music Ensemble has accompanied silent films for most of this decade, and their score for Red Heroine provides a stirring, pulse-pounding backdrop which will make this evening truly unique to your silent film-going experience.
Dir. Wen Yimin, 1929, digital presentation, 94 min.


Red Psalm (Még kér a nép)
1971/color/87 min. | Scr: Gyula Hernadi; dir: Miklós Jancsó; w/ József Madaras, Tibor Orbán, Tibor Molnár.
Jancsó received a Best Director prize at Cannes for this rhapsodic portrayal of a nineteenth-century peasant farmers' uprising. Staging maypole dances, folk chants, and other mass rites instead of tending to fields of grain, the strikers' processional ceremonies are tracked by Jancsó in twenty-six elegantly orchestrated shots and tensely observed by bailiffs, clergy, and eventually government troops. "Dazzling… Jancsó's awesome fusion of form with content and politics with poetry equals the exciting innovations of the French New Wave… it may well be the greatest Hungarian film of the sixties and seventies."—Jonathan Rosenbaum.


Repulsion
Polanski's first English-language film, a chilling study of madness, stars Catherine Deneuve as a jealously sadistic schizophrenic, terrified of sex. Full of memorable sequences, such as Deneuve's delusions of rape as she sees plaster turn into a clawing hand and walls cracking or overhears the moans of her sister making love. With Yvonne Furneaux and John Fraser. In French with English subtitles.


Retribution
The Cinefamily brings you one of the latest from the prolific David Lynch of J-horror, Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Cure), and produced by Taka Ichise, the behind-the-scenes force responsible for the Ring and Ju-On franchises. Overworked cop Yoshioka investigates a seemingly motiveless murder, a Jane Doe case of a woman in a red dress drowned in a shallow pool of water. The only clues mysteriously point straight at Yoshioka himself, even though he has zero recollection of the crime. As more bodies and searing plot twists crop up, alongside a succession of minor earthquakes, Yoshioka's mind turns against him, and he swims through a waking nightmare of ghostly visitations, a disintegrating relationship with his girlfriend, and a post-industrial Tokyo landscape that would turn-on J.G. Ballard. Like the other directors in this series, Kurosawa gives us a bloodless horror, but a chilling and supremely effective one.
Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2006, 35mm, 104 min.


RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
Years before 28 Days Later, writer/director Dan O'Bannon created the first "fast zombie" flick by successfully tweaked the zombie behavior template that had previously been held sacred: zombies don't just shuffle and eat--now they can talk, scheme, and get laid. Craggy heroes Clu Gulager and James Karen hold stage with sexpots Linnea Quigley and Jewel Shepherd while classic L.A. punk rock wails over the soundtrack. Dir. Dan O' Bannon, 1985, 35mm, 91 min.


The Round Up (Szegénylegények)
1965/b&w/94 min./CinemaScope | Scr: Gyula Hernádi; dir: Miklós Jancsó; w/ János Görbe, Zoltán Latinovits, Tibor Molnár, András Kozák.
Jancsó's breakout film is set amid the summary detention of entire villages as Hapsburg forces try to root out any remnants of Hungary's defeated nationalist guerillas that may still roam the country's sprawling plains. Confined to a wooden fort, peasants and herdsmen are subjected to a complex array of interrogations, traps, and ruses set by their Austrian keepers. "Jancsó exhibits portraits of an embryonic police state, set against a pitiless sky and a plain so vast that it seems to show the curvature of the earth. In his cold eye, war is an aleatory art in which values are as random as bullets... In his own deep-dimensioned, black and white montages, he seems a sculptor who scrapes his material from the soil of his native land and gives it a cast of permanence."-Time (1969).


Season of the Witch
After his first zombie classic, Romero produced these two atmospheric, endearing early-'70s experiments worthy of rediscovery. Season Of The Witch tried to find an audience under other titles (Jack's Wife and Hungry Wives), none of which capture the full surreal experience of this intense look at a housewife resorting to suburban witchcraft when her husbands and friends fail to provide any fulfillment. Dir. George Romero, 1973, 35mm, 89 min.


The Serpent and the Rainbow
Craven had already delved into zombie territory in The Serpent And The Rainbow, his 1988 tale of politics and voodoo run amok, starring Bill Pullman as a nosy white guy who sticks his nose into a Haitian community's affairs and gets buried alive for his trouble. Now that's what we call white man's guilt! Dir. Wes Craven, 1988, 35mm, 98 min.


SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)
Premiering a new print
In 16th century Japan, seven wandering swordsmen band together to defend an isolated farming village against marauding bandits. 35mm. 207 mins.
Academy Award nominee (1956): Black-and-White Art Direction (Takashi Matsuyama), Black-and-White Costume Design (Kohei Ezaki)


THE SHANGHAI GESTURE
Legendary director Josef von Sternberg is renowned for his critically praised, sensitive films offering insight into the delicate male-female dynamic. The Shanghai Gesture is not one of them. Shot mostly while the director was laid up flat on his back in pain, this wonderfully overheated 1941 melodrama follows the misadventures of pretty Poppy (Gene Tierney), who slides into the booze and gambling world of Shanghai, thanks to the unholy influence of Mother Gin Sling (Ona Munson, sporting some of funniest hairdos in Hollywood history), while her estranged dad (Walter Huston) tries to intervene. This dreamlike orgy of Art Deco excess, quotable juicy dialogue and surreal plotting offers one compulsive guilty pleasure after another, showing exactly where Kenneth Anger got most of his ideas. For years this was considered an embarrassment for the director, but its avid cult following would certainly argue otherwise. The Shanghai Gesture Dir. Josef von Sternberg, 1941, 35mm, 98 min.


Shock Waves
No-budg underwater Nazi zombie flick that cares: Shock Waves. Brooke Adams is the survivor of an ill-fated vacation cruise, during which her ship runs aground on Peter Cushing's tropical SS hideaway. On the isle, Cushing breeds zombies from his deceased soldiers, who now lurk beneath the water, ready to drag the living to a watery death. The dreamlike setting plays like a cross between Fulci's Zombie and the haunted wastelands of Val Lewton, and coupled with a skin-crawling electronic score, makes for a unique and unsettling experience. Dir. Ken Wiederhorn, 1977, 35mm, 90 min.


THE SICILIAN CLAN (LE CLAN DES SICILIENS), 1969, 20th Century Fox, 118 min. Expatriate Sicilian mobster Jean Gabin and his family shelter homicidal, lone-wolf jewel thief Alain Delon after his daring escape from a prison van. Delon proposes a multimillion-dollar jewel heist to Gabin that is fraught with danger, but the semi-retired patriarch signs on when he decides it will allow him to retire home to Sicily all the faster. But no one counts on dogged police inspector Lino Ventura (CLASSE TOUS RISQUES, SECOND BREATH) on Delon’s trail. Ventura is extra-surly from trying to kick cigarettes and channels all his frustrations into nabbing Delon and his accomplices. Director Henri Verneuil collaborated with Gabin and Delon on another heist picture ANY NUMBER CAN WIN (MELODIE EN SOUS-SOL) in 1963. Ennio Morricone provides another memorable score. Dubbed-in-English version. NOT ON DVD


Silence and Cry (Csend és kiáltás)
1968/b&w/73 min./CinemaScope | Scr: Gyula Hernadi, Miklós Jancsó; dir: Miklós Jancsó; w/ Andras Kozak, Zoltán Latinovits.
Amid the collapse of the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919 and the merciless hunt for members of its defunct army, a Red soldier goes into hiding on a farm in the Hungarian prairies under the watch of a childhood friend, perhaps an estranged brother, who is now a commandant of the local government troops.


Slogan
Slogan is a sexy satire of swinging, switched-on '60s Europe, starring two icons of the era: Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, who famously fell in love during the film's production. Serge (basically portraying himself) is a hip and successful director of commercials--the film opens with an amazing montage of great Pop Art satires of then-contemporary TV spots--who takes leave of his pregnant wife to attend an advertising awards festival, and enters into a passionate affair with a young Jane. Gainsbourg's soundtrack for the film is legendary; it's one of those killer works of the era that's been sampled by many, featuring lush strings and a tight funk combo, a precursor to his masterpiece "Histoire de Melody Nelson". Awash in groovy set pieces and decor, and featuring an awesome hotrodding speedboat chase through the canals of Venice, Slogan is crazy cool. This a full night! The program starts with rare interviews of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, '60s and '70s T.V. commercials by director Pierre Grimblat, and closes with a live musical tribute by Paris Loves L.A.
Dir. Pierre Grimblat, 1969, DigiBeta, 90 min.


Spirit of '68: Protest Films For The Decade of Revolution
Curated by Jack Stevenson
The 1960s was clearly a landmark era in modern American history, enflamed by a spirit of activism and solidarity fondly recalled today as we mark the fortieth anniversary of that pivotal year – 1968 – in which so many decisive events took place. The short films in this program each describe a different aspect of this "decade of disillusion", from the brooding working-class existentialism of Assembly Line (1961) to the hyper-patriotism of a society in deep conflict with itself in America’s In Real Trouble (1968), the bloody riots of People’s Park (1969) to the social, political and pop culture turmoil captured in the impressionistic Love It/Leave It (1970). These are all in a sense "underground" films, loose, raw documents of the street that impart a feel for the attitudes and ambiguities of the times.
1961-70, 16mm, 85 min.


Splendor in the Grass
Two great mentors shepherded 21-year-old Warren Beatty to stardom. Broadway playwright William Inge tailored the part of small-town football star Bud specifically for Beatty, an unknown actor, whom Inge admired for his looks and sensitivity. Inge then convinced "actor's director" Elia Kazan to cast Beatty opposite superstar Natalie Wood in what Kazan called his "poem in praise of young love." The film's “across the tracks” love story, set in rural Kansas at the time of the 1929 stock market crash, pits the icy patriarchal virtues of Bud against the fiery, eternal ones embodied by Deanie (Wood). Wood's onscreen, slow-boil meltdown and the film's brazen sexuality caused a sensation upon its release. The film’s often-copied, but never-equaled nostalgic longing for lost innocence and first love elevates it past standard teensploitation fare, rendering it a classic.
Dir. Elia Kazan, 1961, 35mm, 124 min.


State of Grace
Sean Penn stars as an Irish tough, who together with his mob buddies Ed Harris and Gary Oldman, falls on hard times. This forces them to work as contract killers for the Italians. Between this comedown and the shrinking of their home turf, an intense urban story of desperation and violence emerges.


Stations of the Elevated
A wordless tone poem to elevated trains creakin' on by in NYC. Dir. Manfred Kirchheimer, 1979, 16mm, 40 min.


Style Wars
Photographer Henry Chalfant had been snapping subway graffiti pics when he met filmmaker Tony Silver, and the duo’s union birthed the graffiti movie par excellence. Where Wild Style evokes the relentless energy of its time, Style Wars delves profoundly into the ethos of its writers: one-armed “computer rock” prophet KASE 2 rhyming and boasting, ski-goggled SKEME sparring with his mother in their kitchen, DONDI musing on the solitary writer surrounded by metal, and SEEN doing a step-by-step how-to to Dion’s “The Wanderer.” The film also shows the collective psyche of the city at the time, from angry train riders to smug Mayor Koch and Richard Ravitch,then head of the MTA. Made for PBS, yet hardly ever televised, Style Wars won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1984 (then called the USAFF). Dir. Tony Silver, 1983, 16mm, 70 min.


Summer (Le Rayon vert)
1986/color/98 min. | Scr/dir: Eric Rohmer; w/ Marie Rivière, Lisa Meredia, Béatrice Romand.
When her roommate cancels their planned trip to Greece right before the August holiday, Delphine, a Parisian secretary, is devastated; unwilling to be alone in Paris, she attempts to vacation in Cherbourg, Biarritz, and the Alps, but her self-pity and negativity drive away potential friends, and she finds a reason to leave. Denying the rejection and masking her deep loneliness, she dreams of meeting "the perfect man" during the remaining two weeks of her vacation… In a radical departure from Rohmer's intricate plotting, crisp imagery, and polished dialogue, Summer was made on 16mm with a small crew and no script-the actors improvised their roles-resulting in one of the director's most esteemed and emotionally powerfully films. "A stunning mix of everyday naturalism and metaphysical speculation, the film is a masterpiece." -Geoff Andrew.


SUSPIRIA
Perhaps the most frightening and visually garish of all Italian horror films, Suspiria stars Jessica Harper as Suzy Banyon, an American student who has enrolled in a German dance academy. On the very night she arrives, two of the students are brutally murdered. It soon becomes apparent that this is only the beginning of a terrifying nightmare.


Sword of Doom
In the tradition of comparing the samurai film to the western, Sword of Doom would be High Plains Drifter or The Wild Bunch: stylish, pitch-black, ultraviolent, with an anti-hero far beyond good and evil--the ultimate embodiment of amoral killing technique. Period specialist Kihachi Okamoto skillfully adapts Shinobu Hashimoto's bestselling novel about the emptiness of revenge. Tatsuya Nakadai is unforgettable as an orphan-turned-samurai whose one ambition--to avenge his father's murder--leads him to forsake any semblance of humanity or pity. Toshiro Mifune is his instructor, who is increasingly appalled by his pupil's cruelty, but helpless to match his swordsmanship. Sword of Doom culminates in what may be the most stunning blowout of abstract bloodletting ever filmed in black-and-white.
Dir. Kihachi Okamoto, 1966, 35mm, 119 min.


Taipei Story (Qingmei Zhuma)
1985/color/117 min. | Scr: Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Zhu Tian-wen; dir: Edward Yang; w/ Tsai Chin, Hou Hsiao-Hsien.
In a rare acting role, Hou Hsiao-Hsien plays a former baseball star disillusioned with his job as a textile salesman and his sullen girlfriend, a high-level executive played by Yang's first wife, pop star Tsai Chin. "A film that helped to change the face of Taiwanese cinema…The moods it conjures up are potent and indelible." -Jonathan Rosenbaum.


A Thief in the Night
In a nice mix of Dazed And Confused and Night of the Living Dead, this amazing, ambitious and very creepy End Of The World movie made in Iowa says The Rapture is upon us--but also gives us a great paranoia fantasy that speaks of the particular ennui of teens in the early '70s. Starting with an on-screen teen Xtian rock band ("The Fishmarket Combo", playing the weird, dirgy Rapture ballad "I Wish We'd All Been Ready"), a sunbaked small town Endtimes unfolds, and our fair-haired heroine Patty (Patty Dunning) must weigh the finer points of converting to the faith whilst the United Nations, in cahoots with the Antichrist, breeze in and create a godless New World Order where everyone is barcoded and triple-six tattooed. The first in a four-part Rapture action series from Mark IV Pictures, A Thief In The Night continues to rock the ages.
Dir. Donald W. Thompson, 1972, 16mm, 69 min.


Three O'Clock High
(from IMDB)
A high school nerd, Jerry Mitchell (Siemaszko) is assigned to write a piece for the school paper about new boy Buddy Revell (Tyson), who is rumored to be a psychopathic nutcase. When Jerry accidentally touches Buddy, he says that they must fight in the parking lot at 3pm. Jerry will just about do anything to avoid the confrontation.


THE TINGLER
What better location for a Halloween throwdown than at a place with serious Hollywood Gothic history (just Google our name plus "Laurence Austin"). First, we all sit down and watch The Tingler, William Castle's weirdo masterpiece of gimmickry about a lobster-shaped creature which feeds on terror within the human body! Aside from being the first film to utilize LSD as a plot device, the original theatrical run was presented in "Percepto," whereby theater patrons were given electric shocks in their seat to simulate the monster's attack. The result, of course, was giddy insanity as Price's voice urges patrons to "scream for your lives!" Best of all, The Tingler features a major subplot based on the Silent Movie Theatre itself and its original owners, the Hamptons (Castle even used our space for exteriors). Feel a tingle up your spine as you watch this scenes from this classic set in the location you're sitting in...and maybe a tingle on your tuchas when we shock you Castle-style with real wired seats! Dir. William Castle, 1959, 35mm, 82 min.


Tombs of the Blind Dead
Tombs Of The Blind Dead is the first Romero-influenced Spanish horror film, all about the Knights Templar using witchcraft to return centuries later as the blind undead on horseback--in gorgeous dreamlike slo-mo, backed by an amazing musique concrète score. We were lucky enough to find the rare re-titled U.S. version, Revenge From Planet Ape, featuring a bizarro sci-fi Planet Of The Apes-inspired prologue! Dir. Amando de Ossorio,1971, 35mm.


Treasure Island
1934/b&w/110 min. | Scr: John Lee Mahin; dir: Victor Fleming ; w/ Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Lionel Barrymore.
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of a young boy out to foil pirates and find a buried treasure.


THE TRIAL
(1963, France) Directed by Orson Welles
When sets for his adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Trial fell through, the ever-resourceful Welles shot the whole thing in Paris' abandoned Gare d'Orsay, where he discovered "a kind of Jules Verne modernism, quite in the taste of Kafka." Utilizing practically every corner of the station to visualize the bureaucratic nightmare that ensnares Anthony Perkins' clerk, Welles crafts a paranoid vision of justice deferred amid the "the kind of sorrow that only accumulates in a railway station."
Producer: Yves Laplanche, Miguel Salkind, Alexander Salkind. Screenwriter: Orson Welles. Cinematographer: Edmond Richard. Editor: Yvonne Martin. Cast: Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider. 35mm, 118 min.


TRUE CONFESSION, 1937, Universal, 85 min. Director Wesley Ruggles helmed this long-out-of-circulation (due to rights issues) screwball comedy. Pathological liar Carole Lombard tries to boost the career of her scrupulously honest (and thus unsuccessful) lawyer husband Fred MacMurray by confessing to a murder so he can defend her. John Barrymore is an egotistical opportunist who tries to blackmail her, with hilarious results. Originally premiered at the Egyptian.


TV Tuesday: Halloween Edition
Since Halloween is the favorite holiday of millions of Americans, and since advertisers love to flog the hell out of Halloween, there exists a bounty of creepy commercials, scary "special" episodes and terrifying TV movies all centered around the mischevious dark spirit that drives All Hallows' Eve. We promise a magical night where every flip of the channel lands you on lost eerie emissions you can't seem to look away from. We've got at least two great '70s horror TV movies, and a whole mess of stuff you can barely remember, or can't believe existed. Bring your favorite snacks, join our couch and snuggle up, 'cause it's TV Tuesday: The Halloween Edition!


TWO OF A KIND
(1951) Directed by Henry Levin
In this tale of duplicity and deceit, Scott plays the bewitching blonde Brandy Kirby, who convinces the reluctant Mike Farrell (O'Brien) to sever the top of his left pinky finger in order to impersonate an elderly wealthy couple's long lost son in order to secure his inheritance. It's a simple plan that lust and greed spin increasingly out of control. As Brandy and Mike fight an uncontrollable attraction to one another, Brandy's secret co-conspirator (Knox) decides he can't wait for "nature to take its course" and turns to murder as a quicker means of securing the cash. While Scott's Brandy initially seems to be the classic femme-fatale, the role marks a deviation from Scott's dangerous screen image, as she helps foil the cold-blooded crime, and romance blossoms when she and Mike realize that there are indeed "two of a kind." Although by the 1950s Scott more or less found herself bound to her usual good girl done wrong or femme fatale stereotype, she managed to bring a complexity to roles like Brandy, and transcended the limitations Hollywood placed on her career.
Producer: William Dozier. Screenplay: Lawrence Kimble. Cast: Edmond O'Brien, Lizabeth Scott, Terry Moore, Alexander Knox, Griff Barnett. 35mm, 77 min.


Ugetsu
Frequently making appearances on critics' "best films of the 20th century" lists, Kenzi Mizoguchi's most famous film is both a subtle evocation of the supernatural and a testament to the perpetual odds by which men and women coexist in a world torn apart by war and injustice. Inspired by two 16th century ghost fables, Ugetsu explores the journey of two brothers who risk their lives to pursue their obsessions, despite the protests of their loving wives who only wish for a simple, happy life. With supremely beautiful and fluid camerawork, and through a dream-like web of symbolism and horror, Mizoguchi captures an incredible mixture of moods from poignancy to dread--just say aloud the rough translation of the title of this ghost story in English: "Tales of the Pale and Silvery Moon After the Rain", and see if you feel a shiver.
Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953, 35mm, 94 min.


The Unholy Three
Whereas Tod Browning's The Unknown was all about Chaney seeking refuge within the confines of the circus, The Unholy Three gives us a Chaney that wants out. In a loopy yet highly entertaining plot, ventriloquist Echo (Chaney), hungry for cash, leads a midget (Harry Earles) and a strongman (Victor McLaglen) in a serial robbery scheme involving selling parrots through a pet store front. When unsuspecting customers buy a bird, Echo (disguised as a grandmother!) uses his skills to throw its voice; when the bird doesn't talk in the customer's home, the Unholy Three arrive to refund the customer--and to case their house. In addition to the usual stellar turn by Chaney in yet another outrageous guise, Earles is particularly unsettling in the role of an adult posing as a baby in a carriage. This very successful picture was remade five years later, as Chaney's only talkie before his death in 1930.
Dir. Tod Browning, 1925, 35mm, 86 min.


The Unknown
Before macabre master Tod Browning turned in his masterpiece Freaks, he crafted another moody circus piece. The Unknown stars Chaney as a supposedly armless talent with a bravura knife-throwing act in which he uses only his feet! On the lam from the law, he bides his time in Zanzi's Circus, pretends not to have arms in order to hide his identity, and develops a serious crush on Nanon, Zanzi's daughter (Joan Crawford, in an early role). Nanon is a strange one, with a severe phobia of mens' hands, so things are looking up for Alonzo's romantic prospects. That is until he murders Zanzi in a rage, and, to throw off suspicion, bribes a doctor to amputate his arms for real. Through deftly-controlled pathos, Chaney manages to make his selfish, criminally-minded lead the object of our affection, right through to the film's startling, unpredictable finale.
Dir. Tod Browning, 1927, 35mm, 63 min.


Versus
Explaining the plot of the genre-bending Japanese instant classic Versus in a hundred words or less is virtually impossible, so we thought we'd let its IMDB keywords do the talking: samurai, splatter, forest, zombie with gun, immortality, yakuza, amnesia, exploding head, exploding body, escaped convict, man with no name, heart in hand, shot in the head, shot in the face, shot in the chest, shot in the back, shot in the arm...and yes, almost forgot: martial arts. Dir. Ryuhei Kitamura, 2000, 35mm, 119 min.


VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED
Classic sci-fi thriller about twelve children all born on the same day in a peaceful English village, who terrorize their community with telepathic powers. With George Sanders.


WAIT UNTIL DARK
Audrey Hepburn plays a blind woman who is left alone in her apartment, terrorized by a psychotic (Alan Arkin) and a group of men looking for a heroin stash they are sure is in there. A tense thriller, based on Frederick Knott's Broadway play.


WARGAMES, 1983, MGM Repertory, 114 min. Gentlemen, please: no video-gaming in the war room. For Matthew Broderick's seminal teen computer hacker, coming of age, saving the world and getting Ally Sheedy means accidentally triggering World War III (and causing big headaches for the likes of Dabney Coleman and Barry Corbin). Director John Badham's tale of a boy, his modem and Armageddon is as suspenseful -- and unnerving -- as ever. Both films scored by Arthur Rubinstein. Discussion in between films with director John Badham and film historian Eric Lichtenfeld.


We're Going to Eat You
One of Tsui Hark's earliest films, the cannibal kung fu crime comedy We're Going To Eat You, in which the fake blood flows like wine, the zombies flow like fake blood, all the characters scream and the soundtrack screams louder. Gory gory hallelujah! Dir. Tsui Hark, 1980, digital presentation, 90 min.


WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD, 1933, Warner Bros., 68 min. Dir. William Wellman. "Girls living like boys! Boys living like savages!" During the Great Depression, high schoolers Eddie (Frankie Darro) and Tommy (Edwin Phillips) decide to take off on their own, no longer wanting to burden their parents with another mouth to feed. A cross-country trip in search of work ensues, and they meet many other vagabond teenagers. These include Sally, played by Dorothy Coonan, who was later to become the fourth Mrs. Wellman and mother of the director's seven children. Film critic Kevin Thomas will introduce the screening.


WILD STYLE
Joyous, raucous, and explosive, Wild Style is the movie that made Hollywood wake up to hip-hop. A fixture of the scene for nearly half a decade, downtown NYC director Charlie Ahearn had unique access, offeringus a living, breathing document of early hip-hop history. The film is essential text: ZEPHYR’s animated titles rivaling those of Saul Bass; the epic Williamsburg Bridge park jam climax with Rammellzee in a trenchcoat waving around a sawed-off; Chief Rocker Busy Bee at the Dixie Club; the Cold Crush Brothers and the Fantastic 5 battling on the b-ball court; Grandmaster Flash on the ones and twos in his kitchen; and, glorious graf galore. Charlie Ahearn will be in person for a Q & A, and DJ Cut Chemist will spin before and after the show. Dir. Charlie Ahearn, 1983, 35mm, 83 min.


YOJIMBO (1961)
In a village divided by rival factions, a samurai warrior who is courted by both sides devises his own plan to rid the community of its criminals. 35mm. 110 mins.
Academy Award nominee: Black-and-White Costume Design (Yoshiro Muraki)