a highly-opinionated selection of things happening around town, and sometimes out of town. this month's page here.
tue. sep. 1
casablanca 8 PM @ rooftop film club @ montalban
triptides @ harvard & stone
a fistful of dollars, cry of a prostitute @ new beverly
on the waterfront FREE 6 PM @ santa monica library ocean park branch
the look of silence 7:30 10:00 PM @ silent movie theater
the war of the worlds 1 PM @ lacma
treasure of the sierra madre 7:45 PM @ arclight sherman oaks
stand and deliver FREE 3:30 PM @ la library granada hills branch
wed. sep. 2
a fistful of dollars @ new beverly
the look of silence @ silent movie theater
lee 'scratch' perry (performs "super ape") @ dub club @ echoplex
o canada! 10:30 PM @ lost & found film club @ silent movie theater
decoder FREE 7 PM @ goethe-institut
thu. sep. 3
winter @ roxy
a fistful of dollars @ new beverly
citizen kane FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
annie hall @ arclight hollywood
fri. sep. 4
the quay brothers in 35mm @ silent movie theater
clue MIDNIGHT @ nuart
blind husbands 4:30 PM @ cinecon @ egyptian
dead men don't wear plaid, notorious @ aero
a fistful of dollars, yojimbo @ new beverly
django unchained MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
the molochs @ echo
shark toys, susan @ all star lanes
media blitz FREE @ espacio 1839
sat. sep. 5
cat power, susan, the rosalyns, the fly traps, glitterburst, julie ruin, bleached, bombon, etc @ burger-a-go-go 2 @ observatory (OC)
psycho @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
the lost weekend 7:45 PM, smash-up (RSVP) @ starlight studio
fight club 8:30 PM @ eat see hear @ autry
true romance @ street food cinema @ poinsettia park west hollywood
the quay brothers in 35mm @ silent movie theater
qui (12:00) @ el cid
casablanca, gaslight @ aero
a fistful of dollars, yojimbo @ new beverly
five deadly venoms MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
out of print @ crest
sun. sep. 6
ferris bueller's day off @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
bleached @ the white lodge
the champion 2:30 PM, limehouse blues 3:15 PM, keaton/arbuckle shorts 4:30 PM, the kid brother 8:30 PM, pier 13 10:20 PM @ cinecon @ egyptian
los angeles plays itself (w/ q&a) @ aero
the mask of dimitrios 5:20 9:35 PM, the maltese falcon 7:30 PM @ new beverly
the quay brothers in 35mm 4 PM @ silent movie theater
a night of comedy with lance bangs (w/ unreleased arthurfest film, live music) 7 PM @ silent movie theater
cosmonauts, etc @ west adams fiesta @ fais do-do
a streetcar named desire 7 PM @ arclight culver city
kung fu hustle FREE 1:15 PM @ la central library
mon. sep. 7
the maltese falcon, the mask of dimitrios @ new beverly
the quay brothers in 35mm 2 PM @ silent movie theater
raising arizona 7:15 PM @ arclight pasadena
tue. sep. 8
the day the earth stood still 1 PM @ lacma
duel of the iron fist, super man chu @ new beverly
seven weeks 8 PM @ silent movie theater
the godfather: part ii 7:45 PM @ arclight sherman oaks
the last picture show FREE 1:30 PM @ skirball
wed. sep. 9
history is made at night, desire @ ucla film archive
house of the long shadows, schizo @ egyptian
the 36th chamber of shaolin, the 8 diagram pole fighter @ new beverly
the quay brothers in 35mm 10:15 PM @ silent movie theater
hausu (w/ q&a) FREE 7 PM @ jfla
mean streets @ arclight hollywood
2001: a space odyssey @ arclight culver city
touch of evil FREE 1:30 PM @ la library granada hills branch
berlin super 80 FREE 7 PM @ goethe-institut
the nightmare 8 PM @ trepany house
thu. sep. 10
the magnificent ambersons FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
the black panthers: vanguard of the revolution FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc stark
when worlds collide, destination moon @ egyptian
journey to italy, stromboli @ aero
the 36th chamber of shaolin, the 8 diagram pole fighter @ new beverly
the quay brothers in 35mm 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
stan vanderbeek: newsreel of dreams 7 PM @ filmforum @ moca grand
viva zapata FREE 5 PM @ la library pacoima branch
fast times at ridgemont high @ eat see hear @ laemmle noho 7
fri. sep. 11
fateful findings MIDNIGHT @ nuart
the war of the worlds (1953), the time machine (1960) @ egyptian
spellbound, anastasia @ aero
airplane!, used cars @ new beverly
true romance MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
blind @ silent movie theater
the quay brothers in 35mm 10 PM @ silent movie theater
the sentinel MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
deep web 7 PM @ arena cinema
post life @ smell
sat. sep. 12
fight club @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
vrem 8 PM @ epfc
santa fe trail 1:30 PM @ autry
the princess bride 8:30 PM @ eat see hear @ centennial square pasadena
jaws @ electric dusk drive-in
the puppetoon movie 3 PM @ egyptian
the fantasy film worlds of george pal, 7 faces of dr. lao @ egyptian
airplane!, used cars @ new beverly
the mighty peking man MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
blind @ silent movie theater
don q son of zorro (1925, w/ live accompaniment) 2 PM @ the silent treatment @ silent movie theater
the quay brothers in 35mm 10 PM @ silent movie theater
twelve monkeys MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
three comrades, the mortal storm @ ucla film archive
deep web 5:30 7:00 PM @ arena cinema
e.t. @ street food cinema @ victory park pasadena
the bank dick 4:30 PM @ silent movie theater
shaun of the dead @ barnsdall park
sun. sep. 13
peace officer FREE (RSVP) 2 PM @ usc stark
the wonderful world of the brothers grimm, tom thumb @ egyptian
top secret! @ aero
meteor, beyond the poseidon adventure @ new beverly
the quay brothers in 35mm 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
deep web 7 PM @ arena cinema
marnie 5 PM @ arclight hollywood
union pacific 7:45 PM (RSVP) @ starlight studio
scarface (1983) 5 PM @ crest
blind @ silent movie theater
incendies FREE 7 PM @ reel grit @ afi
mon. sep. 14
clueless FREE (RSVP) 8 PM @ dive in theatre @ skybar @ mondrian
meteor, beyond the poseidon adventure @ new beverly
blind @ silent movie theater
colleen green (10:00) @ all star lanes
pulp fiction @ arclight pasadena
the quay brothers in 35mm 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
flying hair (11:00) FREE @ the griffin
tue. sep. 15
forbidden planet 1 PM @ lacma
black magic, the boxer's omen @ new beverly
blind @ silent movie theater
the pink panther 7:45 @ arclight sherman oaks
heaven knows what 8 PM @ silent movie theater
wed. sep. 16
the one-armed swordsman, the new one-armed swordsman @ new beverly
innocence @ la collectionneuse @ silent movie theater
blind 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
jackie brown @ arclight hollywood
aliens @ arclight culver city
christiane f. FREE 7 PM @ goethe-institut
thu. sep. 17
the stranger FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
fear and loathing in las vegas FREE 7 PM @ silver lake picture show
electric boogaloo: the wild untold story of cannon films (w/ q&a) 7 PM @ landmark
northern soul 8:30 PM @ arena cinema
strike one FREE (RSVP) @ egyptian
the hour of the wolf @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater
the one-armed swordsman, the new one-armed swordsman @ new beverly
s**t hits 8 PM @ epfc
sangre de mi sangre FREE 5 PM @ la library pacoima branch
slacker FREE @ vidiots
courtaud and bobtail @ ham & eggs
the rosalyns, white dove, l.a. witch, tashaki miyaki, etc @ it's my party!: tribute show to girl groups of the 1950s & 60s @ human resources
out of the present FREE @ veggiecloud
power 7 PM @ aero
the quay brothers in 35mm 10:45 PM @ silent movie theater
black sea @ lot 1
wild river @ laemmle royal
blind 10:15 PM @ silent movie theater
fri. sep. 18
the warriors MIDNIGHT @ nuart
nashville @ aero
kiss the girls and make them die 9:35 PM @ new beverly
true romance MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
they live 10 PM, hell comes to frogtown @ silent movie theater
randy randall & devin sarno FREE (6-8) @ gnarburger
finders keepers @ silent movie theater
l'aura moire (11:00) FREE @ bigfoot east
sat. sep. 19
carrie @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
mike watt & the missingmen, bombon @ pehrspace
budos band, etc @ la psych fest @ regent theater
double indemnity FREE 2 PM @ la library los feliz branch
the goonies @ street food cinema @ will rogers park
miller's crossing (w/ q&a) @ aero
kiss the girls and make them die 9:35 PM @ new beverly
the kid with the golden arm MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
new works salon xxix 8 PM @ epfc
american history x (w/ q&a) 2 PM @ beyond baroque
mind meld, zig zags @ el cid
groundhog day @ barnsdall park
heaven knows what @ silent movie theater
sun. sep. 20
i've always loved you, moonrise @ ucla film archive
moon duo, holy wave, earthless, tomorrow's tulips, etc @ la psych fest @ echo/echoplex
end of the century 8 PM @ arclight hollywood
coast of death 5:30 PM, the plague 9 PM @ spielberg @ egyptian
the outlaw josey wales, dirty harry @ egyptian
duck you sucker 6:30 PM, pat garrett & billy the kid 9:30 PM @ new beverly
the birds 7 PM @ arclight culver city
carlito's way 5 PM @ crest
psycho 2:00 7:00 PM @ chinese theatre
we like it like that FREE (RSVP) 3:30 7:00 PM @ boyle heights arts conservatory
a grin without a cat FREE @ veggiecloud
heaven knows what @ silent movie theater
mon. sep. 21
american hardcore 8 PM @ arclight hollywood
duck you sucker, pat garrett & billy the kid @ new beverly
labyrinth of lies 7 PM @ reel talk @ landmark
heaven knows what 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
tue. sep. 22
laetitia sadier @ the echo
a story of people in war and peace FREE @ hammer
the incredible shrinking man 1 PM @ lacma
the lady eve @ greg proops film club @ silent movie theater
sana shenai, white rainbow, lucky dragons @ los globos
manhattan 7:45 @ arclight sherman oaks
heaven knows what 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
wed. sep. 23
five fingers of death, fists of the white lotus @ new beverly
western @ silent movie theater
ghostbusters @ arclight culver city
the searchers @ arclight hollywood
the last revenge FREE 7 PM @ goethe-institut
psycho 2:00 7:00 PM @ chinese theatre
telecaves @ resbox
some call it loving 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
thu. sep. 24
stars of the lid @ regent
the lady from shanghai FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
the blues brothers, stripes @ aero
the final girls @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater
king boxer, fists of the white lotus @ new beverly
selected works: christopher richmond 8 PM @ epfc
back to school @ eat see hear @ laemmle noho 7
crazy mama @ laemmle royal
heaven knows what 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
the exiles 8 PM @ epfc filmcicle @ union station
fri. sep. 25
jon brion @ largo
dead meadow (7:10), drinking flowers (8:00) @ desert stars @ pappy & harriet's
the last valley, the night of the generals @ egyptian
hud 7 PM, the hustler 9:15 PM @ new beverly
true romance MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
soft fiction @ lacma
traders FREE (RSVP) @ usc stark
future perfect: time capsules in reagan country FREE @ veggiecloud
black panthers: vanguard of the revolution (w/ q&a) 1:30 4:15 7:00 PM @ nuart
fast times at ridgemont high 8 PM @ downtown independent
the keeping room (w/ q&a) @ landmark
sat. sep. 26
all the instruments agree (noon to 10 PM) FREE @ hammer
some kind of wonderful, fast times at ridgemont high @ street food cinema @ exposition park
back to the future, back to the future part ii @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
lawrence of arabia (70mm) @ egyptian
the lesson, they have escaped @ aero
hud 7 PM, the hustler 9:15 PM @ new beverly
five element ninjas MIDNIGHT @ new beverly
after hours MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
artico 5 PM @ la ola @ epfc
the general died at dawn 7:45 PM, peter ibbetson (RSVP) @ starlight studio
winter @ non plus ultra
the lost weekend 2 PM @ silent movie theater
coming to america @ barnsdall park
double indemnity 7 PM @ echo park lake
black panthers: vanguard of the revolution (w/ q&a) 1:30 4:15 7:00 PM @ nuart
the keeping room (w/ q&a) 5:10 7:50 PM @ landmark
sicario (w/ q&a) 7:15 PM @ landmark
sun. sep. 27
all the instruments agree (noon to 10 PM) FREE @ hammer
neil hamburger @ satellite
an evening with pablo frasconi FREE 8:30 PM @ 7 dudley cinema @ beyond baroque
the candidate (1972), downhill racer @ new beverly
doctor zhivago @ egyptian
taxi driver 7 PM @ arclight culver city
harold and maude @ silent movie theater
on the waterfront 5 PM @ arclight hollywood
akosua adoma owusu: triple consciousness @ filmforum @ spielberg @ egyptian
the keeping room (w/ q&a) 5:10 PM @ landmark
mon. sep. 28
the candidate (1972), downhill racer @ new beverly
legend 7 PM @ reel talk @ landmark
mind meld, flying hair, etc FREE @ echo park reprising @ echo/plex
tue. sep. 29
troublemakers: the story of land art (w/ q&a) 8 PM @ ace hotel theater
drunk stoned brilliant dead: the story of the national lampoon FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc stark
invasion of the body snatchers 1 PM @ lacma
the avenging eagle, five deadly venoms @ new beverly
m. geddes gengras @ los globos
industrial musicals @ silent movie theater
wed. sep. 30
kings of nowhere FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc stark
golden swallow, masked avengers @ new beverly
malcolm x @ arclight hollywood
whisper & scream FREE 7 PM @ goethe-institut
thu. oct. 1
macbeth (1948) FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
kingdom of shadows FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc stark
golden swallow, masked avengers @ new beverly
dream boys @ satellite
rock & roll high school @ eat see hear @ laemmle noho 7
legend (2015) @ beyond fest @ egyptian
fri. oct. 2
animal house MIDNIGHT @ nuart
better off dead (w/ q&a) @ beyond fest @ egyptian
yakuza apocalypse: the great war of the underground 10:15 PM @ beyond fest @ egyptian
sat. oct. 3
triptides @ roxy
spokenest @ pehrspace
cafe society (1939) 7:45 PM, topper (RSVP) @ starlight studio
the big lebowski 8:30 PM @ crest
sun. oct. 4
habit @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater
frizzi2fulci, the beyond @ egyptian
mon. oct. 5
the invitation, invasion of the body snatchers (1978) @ beyond fest @ egyptian
tue. oct. 6
fargo FREE 6 PM @ santa monica library ocean park branch
breaking away FREE 1:30 PM @ skirball
bone tomahawk @ beyond fest @ egyptian
wed. oct. 7
he never died @ beyond fest @ egyptian
too late 10:15 PM @ beyond fest @ egyptian
thu. oct. 8
othello (1952) FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
sun choke 10 PM @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater
this is spinal tap @ eat see hear @ laemmle noho 7
eraserhead @ beyond fest @ egyptian
the devils 10 PM @ beyond fest @ egyptian
sat. oct. 10
kids in the hall, etc @ festival supreme @ shrine
glory 1:30 PM @ autry
scarface (1983) @ street food cinema @ exposition park
jessica pratt FREE (RSVP) @ getty center
the thin man 2:30 PM @ silent movie theater
the phantom of the opera (1925, w/ live accompaniment & q&a) 4 PM @ beyond fest @ egyptian
dog day afternoon (w/ q&a) @ beyond fest @ egyptian
stand and deliver @ barnsdall park
sun. oct. 11
rabid dogs (2015) FREE 9:30 PM @ beyond fest @ spielberg @ egyptian
mon. oct. 12
avant garde jazz films FREE @ documental @ unurban
the assassin (2015) @ beyond fest @ egyptian
tue. oct. 13
qui, high cameras @ echo
wed. oct. 14
heron oblivion @ fonda
thu. oct. 15
mr. arkadin FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
love & peace @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater
the visit 10:30 PM @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater
the man who shot liberty valance FREE 2 PM @ santa monica library montana branch
sex lies & videotape FREE @ vidiots
afronauts 7 PM, what we do in the shadows FREE (RSVP) @ aero
abstract video: the moving image in contemporary art @ filmforum @ lace
sat. oct. 17
back to the future, back to the future part ii @ street food cinema @ victory park pasadena
quindar FREE @ on edge fest @ goodland hotel (santa barbara)
dear white people @ barnsdall park
sun. oct. 18
experimental landscapes i: landscape and the body at work and play @ filmforum @ spielberg @ egyptian
mon. oct. 19
ghostbusters FREE (RSVP) 8 PM @ dive in theatre @ skybar @ mondrian
tue. oct. 20
fuzz, mudhoney @ regent
thu. oct. 22
orson welles tv FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
nasty baby FREE (RSVP) @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater
aaaaaaaah! 10:45 PM @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater
fri. oct. 23
flipper (w/ david yow) @ troubadour
sat. oct. 24
luna @ teragram ballroom
zombies @ saban theatre
rosemary's baby @ electric dusk drive-in
dusk-to-dawn horrorthon (titles TBA) @ aero
donnie darko @ cinespia @ palace theater
monty python and the holy grail @ barnsdall park
sun. oct. 25
luna @ teragram ballroom
casa de mi padre FREE 2 PM @ hammer
neil hamburger @ satellite
the amityville horror @ electric dusk drive-in
dracula (1931 english version) 2:00 7:00 PM, dracula (1931 spanish version) @ chinese theatre
mon. oct. 26
the shining FREE (RSVP) 8 PM @ dive in theatre @ skybar @ mondrian
straight from bertha 8:30 PM @ redcat
wed. oct. 28
wand @ echo
king khan & bbq show @ teragram ballroom
age of panic, tonnerre @ aero
begotten @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater
dracula (1931 english version) 2:00 7:00 PM, dracula (1931 spanish version) @ chinese theatre
thu. oct. 29
touch of evil FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
son of frankenstein (1939) @ alex theatre
tikkun @ spectrefest @ silent movie theater
fri. oct. 30
the ex @ the roxy
jon brion @ largo
sat. oct. 31
dracula (1931) (w/ philip glass & the kronos quartet live accompaniment) 4 PM @ ace hotel
shaun of the dead @ street food cinema @ exposition park
dr. jekyll and mr. hyde (w/ live organ accompaniment) 8 PM @ disney hall
sun. nov. 1
windhand @ roxy
mon. nov. 2
small-gauge l.a. 8:30 PM @ redcat
tue. nov. 3
fuzz @ constellation room (santa ana)
wed. nov. 4
ian svenonius (lecture) FREE @ hammer
thu. nov. 5
afi fest
drinks @ the echo
the trial FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
fri. nov. 6
afi fest
deerhoof @ echoplex
from here to eternity FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc sinatra
sat. nov. 7
afi fest
red krayola @ redcat
lee ranaldo FREE (RSVP) @ getty center
fear and loathing in las vegas 8:30 PM @ crest
sun. nov. 8
afi fest
mon. nov. 9
afi fest
tue. nov. 10
afi fest
joanna gruesome @ the echo
wed. nov. 11
afi fest
thu. nov. 12
afi fest
chimes at midnight FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
sat. nov. 14
the outlaw josey wales 1:30 PM @ autry
mon. nov. 16
low @ troubadour
rick prelinger: lost landscapes of los angeles 8:30 PM @ redcat
wed. nov. 18
ucla game arts festival @ hammer
thu. nov. 19
the immortal story FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
vodka lemon FREE @ hammer
sat. nov. 21
antibalas @ regent
sun. nov. 22
true widow, king woman @ the echo
the times of harvey milk FREE 7 PM @ ucla film archive
mon. nov. 23
songs from the north 8:30 PM @ redcat
tue. nov. 24
la source FREE @ hammer
sun nov. 29
neil hamburger @ satellite
tue. dec. 1
freeway: crack in the system FREE @ hammer
thu. dec. 3
f for fake FREE 7 PM @ csun armer
mon. dec. 14
mike kelley: single channel videos 8:30 PM @ redcat
tue. dec. 15
the color of pomegranates FREE @ hammer
sun. dec. 27
neil hamburger @ satellite
mon. jan. 11
and when i die i won't stay dead 8:30 PM @ redcat
WHAT IT IS:
AAAAAAAAH!
Steve Oram (Sightseers), makes his directorial debut with this anarchic, absurd, hysterical, limb-rippingly-violent and at times, oddly touching film set in a world where human beings remain assuredly ape – communicating with only grunts, growls and howls.
What begins as a simple tale of tribal rivalry, ultimately becomes a deadly showdown between two battling primal sects, both vehemently determined to protect their tight-knit communities. A veritable who’s who of UK television (including Noel Fielding & Julian Barratt of Mighty Boosh fame), without an iota of hyperbole, we can virtually guarantee you haven’t seen anything like Aaaaaaaah! since the long lost days of Themroc. Dir. Steve Oram, 2015, DCP, 79 min.
AGE OF PANIC
2013, Shellac Distribution, 94 min, France, Dir: Justine Triet
May 6, 2012 becomes a hectic day for news correspondent Laetitia (Laetitia Dosch) - as she covers Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande’s victory, her unstable ex-husband (Vincent Macaigne) shows up at her apartment demanding to see their kids. The strong lead performances and scenes shot in Paris streets during Election Day add sparks to this indie dramedy. In French with English subtitles.
ALL THE INSTRUMENTS AGREE
ALL THE INSTRUMENTS AGREE: an exhibition or a concert is a two-day program of back-to-back live performances by over 25 local, national, and international sound artists, music collectives, art bands, and visual artists whose practices extend into the production of sound. Conceived as an exhibition in the form of a concert, the continuous program of performances will alternate between two outdoor stages in the Hammer courtyard from noon to 10 p.m. each day. Spanning a range of influences, genres, and styles, participating artists include industrial music pioneer Genesis Breyer P-Orridge; Cairo-based artist Hassan Khan, whose live-mixed multi-track work Taraban will be performed for the first time in the U.S.; and GLITTERBUST, a new project by Kim Gordon and Alex Knost. ALL THE INSTRUMENTS AGREE brings together a variety of disparate approaches to underscore the unruliness, temporality, and communal nature of musical and sonic performance as an art form that is inherently at odds with the conventions of exhibition and display while remaining essential to the production and social sphere of contemporary art.
ANASTASIA
1956, 20th Century Fox, 105 min, USA, Dir: Anatole Litvak
Ingrid Bergman’s return to Hollywood brought her a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the title role of this intriguing historical drama. Among the first casualties of the 1917 Russian Revolution were Tsar Nicholas II and his family, though rumors persisted for years that daughter Anastasia had escaped execution. With a £10 million inheritance on the line, General Bounine (Yul Brynner) grooms a mysterious young woman (Bergman) to play Anastasia, but the more time he spends with her, the more he begins to suspect she’s the real thing. Helen Hayes is wonderful as the dowager Empress who will decide the claim.
And When I Die I Won't Stay Dead
Billy Woodberry introduces the US premiere of his long-awaited new film And When I Die I Won’t Stay Dead, a feature-length documentary about jazz-inspired beat poet Bob Kaufman, sometimes called the “black American Rimbaud." Woodberry’s landmark 1984 film Bless Their Little Hearts was honored with a jury award at the Berlin International Film Festival and was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. The program begins with Marseille après la guerre, a short montage crafted from images found in a longshoremen’s union hall.
ARTICO
Simon and Jota are two young scoundrels who hit the street every day to eke out a living. Each one wants what he lacks. Simon cannot stand being surrounded by his large family all the time. Jota wants to stop leading a lonely life and will do his best to have his own family. Dir. Gabriel Velázquez, 2014, 78 mins.
BEGOTTEN
Possibly the godfather of all cult films, Elias Merhige’s Begotten has long toiled in bootleg obscurity, only being accessible through tenth-generation VHS copies or shoddy youtube video streams. Branded as a Rorschach test for the adventurous eye by film critic Richard Corliss, and “one of the then most important films of modern times,” by none other than Susan Sontag, Begotten is a seminal, powerhouse piece of experimental cinema that has been unfairly relegated to niche circles of film buffs and pure experience seekers. The film resembles a subconscious nightmare made manifest; as though the Earth itself could “dream” and transmit that disturbing phantasm to us — its wards — a chronicle of its long, ever-changing violent seasons. (John Muir)
Although reducing this film to a plot is a disservice, it nonetheless can offer the viewer at least a warning as to what they’re about to experience and the realm that Merhige is playing in. A God-like being kills itself, but “Mother Earth” takes its seed and gives birth to a human-seeming son, who is then taken and abused by strange, robed natives from a nearby community. The “Son of Earth” creates life and food for them in a kind of enforced fertility rite, and the villagers then proceed to kill Mother Earth and her son. Life springs anew from their grave, and the cycle of life and death continues anew.
We proudly bring Elias Merhige out for a night of conversation and show & tell of his incredible collections of artifacts, literature and cultural ephemera. We will be screening Begotten from Merhige’s own personal, rarely-seen 16mm print, along with a screening of his short film Din of Celestial Birds in 35mm. Dir. E. Elias Merhige, 1990, 16mm, 72 min.
BERLIN SUPER 80
Germany (BRD), 1978-1984 (2005), 120 min., digital proj.
Dir.: Various including Jörg Buttgereit, Manfred Jelinski, Dieter Hormel & Brigitte Bühler, Klaus Beyer, Rolf S. Wolkenstein.
Music: Various, including Malaria, Einstürzende Neubauten. Die Tödliche Doris, etc.
This 120 minute program presents the selection of experimental and underground short music films that comprise the compilation BERLIN SUPER 80 - Music & Film Underground Berlin (WEST) 1978 – 1984. Described as a snapshot of early 80’s subculture in West Berlin, these films present a small sampling of the creative output by filmmakers in the city’s underground movie scene.
In rediscovering the Super 8mm film format as a medium for their creativity, these filmmakers captured West Berlin during this unique period of creative expression. Short films such as Christoph Doering’s 3302 (a taxi ride through Berlin’s underground nightlife), Mein Papi from Jörg Buttgereit (Nekromantik, Nekromantik 2, German Angst), So war das So36 from Manfred Jelinski (capturing the legendary punk and underground club in Berlin-Kreuzberg during it’s prime as a meeting place for the “dilettante” scene), and Dieter Hormel & Brigitte Bühler’s Geld (an early Music film for the band Malaria!) are accompanied by music from bands including Die Tödliche Doris, Flucht Nach Vorne, Einstürzende Neubauten and others.
Complete Program:
- Brand & Maschmann: E Dopo? -Music: La Loora, (1981), 3 min.
- Christoph Doering: 3302 -Music: Die Unbekannten, Flucht Nach Vorn, MDK, (1979), 14 min.
- Markgraf & Wolkenstein: Hüpfen 82 (1982), 2 min.
- Yana Yo: Sax -Music: A.V. Oertzen (1983), 6 min.
- Maye & Rendschmidt: Ohne Liebe gibt es keinen Tod (1980), 5 min.
- Stiletto Studios: Formel Super VIII (1983), 2 min.
- Walter Gramming: Hammer und Sichel (1978), 5 min.
- Georg Marioth: Morgengesänge (1984), 14 min.
- Hormel/Bühler: Geld -Music: Malaria! (1982), 4 min.
- Notorische Reflexe: Fragment Video -Music: Notorische Reflexe (1983) , 12 min.
- Jörg Buttgereit: Mein Papi -Music: Gundula Schmitz, Max Müller (1981-95) 7 min.
- Die Tödliche Doris: Berliner Küchenmusik -Music: Die Tödliche Doris (1982), 5 min.
- Butzmann & Kiesel: Spanish Fly (1979), 5 min.
- Manfred Jelinski: Exerpts from „So war das SO 36“ -Music: Carambolage, Die Gelbs, Einstürzende Neubauten, Lorenz Lorenz, Malaria (1984) , 12 min.
- Klaus Beyer: Die Glatze -Music: Klaus Beyer (1983) 2 min.
- Markgraf & Wolkenstein: Craex Apart -Music: Craex Apart (1983), 6 min.
- Andrea Hillen: Gelbfieber (1982) 3 min.
THE BEYOND
1981, Grindhouse Releasing, 87 min, Italy, Dir: Lucio Fulci
In director Lucio Fulci’s gothic masterpiece, Lisa (Catriona MacColl) inherits a decrepit New Orleans hotel and hopes to renovate it. What her real estate agent never told her is that one of seven doors to Hell is in the cellar; after several gruesome accidents, the passageway opens, unleashing a horde of zombies. Both gory and surreal (French playwright Antonin Artaud was an influence), THE BEYOND boasts one of Fabio Frizzi's most menacing scores.
BLACK MAGIC
Produced by The Shaw Brothers, the martial arts/horror cross-pollinated Black Magic (1975) grabs the audience by the throat and refuses to let go. The story opens with newlyweds Hsu Lo (Ti Lung) and Wang Chu-ying (Lily Li) relentlessly tormented by widow Lo Yin (Tanny Tien Ni), who has sexual designs on Hsu and draws on the power of a necromancer to entrance the young bridegroom. But the Necromancer defies Lo's orders and enacts a wicked scheme of his own designs, which brings everyone to a gruesome end and then erupts into an apocalyptic battle between sorcerers, where light and darkness go to head-to-head. Lo Lieh co-stars; Ho Meng-Hua (Shaolin Handlock) directs. Running Time: 1 hr. 35 min.
BLIND
Losing a sense heightens others. This phenomenon suffuses Eskil Vogt’s Blind with a sense of discovery, almost developmental in tone. Vogt, co-writer of Joachim Trier’s Reprise and Oslo, August 31, has made a similarly coy and literary film with Blind. The protagonist, a recently blinded woman hesitant to leave her apartment and disconnected from her architect husband, becomes absorbed by writing, her fantasies and fears playing out in a mutable narrative that seeps into her reality, the two becoming indistinguishable through Vogt’s playful experiments. It’s a slippery film, by turns sexy and cerebral, and hyper-concerned with sensory perception. Sensation becomes constructive, like the writerly process itself, with both modes developing in a porous temporality and space, simultaneously steeped in drama and wry humor. Dir.Eskil Vogt, 2014, DCP, 96 min.
Blind Husbands (1919)
In this film, the trouble begins when a doctor and his neglected, sexually-frustrated wife visit a beautiful Alpine village to do a little mountain climbing. While he is off scaling rugged peaks, she remains behind finding her own excitement in the capable hands of a handsome, passionate Austrian army officer. It's now noteworthy as a curio, but when first released it splashed von Stroheim's name onto the international spotlight as a brilliant filmmaker. Directed By: Erich von Stroheim. Running Time: 1 hr. 38 min.
THE BOXER'S OMEN
The director of Killer Snakes returns to terrify viewers with this tale of a fallen boxer whose quest for an omen with the power to break a long-running family curse leads to an action filmed adventure through a horrific land of nightmares and death. When the punches start flying and the creatures of the underworld come out to play, the battle is on to defeat the powers of evil, and free his family from the evil hex that binds them. Bolo Yeung and Lung Wei Wang star in a classic supernatural martial arts film from the prolific Shaw Brothers. Dir. Chih-Hung Kuei, 1983, 99 min.
THE CHAMPION
In the early part of the 20th century advancements in motion picture cameras by inventors like Edison made opportunities abound in the film industry. Immigrants, artists, minorities and entrepreneurs fueled by ambition made a go in the film business looking for the American dream. As the art-form advanced, dozens of motion picture companies sprang up to fill the tremendous demand. Thousands of films were produced in the silent film era. In those early years two small towns on either side of the nation with an abundance of space and scenery jockeyed for a position as the center of film production, with dozens of bustling studios calling them home. However, only one would ultimately survive as as the undisputed studio town, as the other would fade into history.
In 1910 promising film producer Mark Dintenfass made the trek to a sleepy little village across the Hudson River called Fort Lee, New Jersey. With a mixture of amazingly interchangeable scenery close to New York City’s Broadway talent, it was the perfect location to shoot pictures. Dintenfass joined dozens of filmmakers like D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford and Carl Laemmle learning the new trade. Here he would form The Champion Film Company, the first of eleven studios that would become the epicenter of the film industry for a decade before the California sun proved too enticing. This is a story of the birthplace of the motion picture industry and the effort to save our film history. Dir. Marc J. Perez, 2015, 35 min.
Chimes at Midnight (1965), 119 mins.
Welles's lifelong fascination with the relationship between Prince Hal and William Shakespeare’s recurring fictional character Sir John Falstaff, played by Welles himself, made it to the big screen in a production Welles cited as his favorite and most personal film. Initially dismissed by critics, Chimes at Midnight (also known as Falstaff) is now regarded as one of Welles’s greatest cinematic achievements.
CHRISTIANE F.
Germany (BRD), 1981, 131 min., German with English subtitles, digital. Dir. Uli Edel, Cast: Natja Brunckhorst, Thomas Haustein, and David Bowie. Music: Jürgen Knieper, David Bowie
Berlin-Gropiusstadt, 1975. 13 year old Christiane (Natja Brunckhorst) lives with her mother and younger sister in a high-rise housing project on the outskirts of West-Berlin.
Only the music of David Bowie offers her a sense of escape from an otherwise lonely and alienated existence.
Sneaking out one night to join her older friend Kessi at the nightclub “Sound,” Christiane meets Detlef (Thomas Haustein), an older boy, who introduces her to a world of drugs and the rebellious nightlife of the city.
Driven by a need to escape her chaotic home life, and her growing infatuation with Detlef, Christiane’s initial experiments with pills, marijuana and LSD quickly lead to heroin, a drug that all of her new friends use.
Soon Christiane and her friends are drawn to the seedy “Bahnhof Zoo” railway station, notorious for drugs and prostitution, where they sell their bodies to feed their ever-growing addiction.
Based on the shocking autobiography of the teenage heroin addict turned prostitute Christiane Felscherinow (“Christiane F”). Complemented by a soundtrack including songs from Bowie's Berlin years (1977–1979), Edel’s film achieved almost immediate cult status for its hauntingly realistic portrayal of the underground drug scene that plagued Germany and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker Uli Edel
COAST OF DEATH
2013, 83 min, Spain, Dir: Lois Patiño
A touching, hypnotic essay on the relationship between a landscape and its people, COAST OF DEATH depicts a region in Galicia, Spain, which earned its name from the many men and women who have lost their lives to its sea. With this subtle, breathtakingly beautiful and lyrical homage to his homeland, Patiño won the prestigious Best Upcoming Director award at the Locarno Film Festival. In Gallegan with English subtitles. Discussion after the first film with director Lois Patiño, followed by a cocktail reception in the Egyptian courtyard. Second feature begins at 9:00 PM.
CRAZY MAMA
CRAZY MAMA was one of the early movies directed by Oscar winner Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Melvin and Howard, Married to the Mob, Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married). Produced by Roger and Julie Corman, the film follows three generations of women (played by Cloris Leachman, Ann Sothern as her mother, and Linda Purl as her daughter) on a crime spree that takes them from California to the family homestead in Arkansas. Leonard Maltin called the low-budget film "a gem… joyous, unrelentingly kitschy celebration of '50s America." Co-stars include Stuart Whitman, Jim Backus, Donny Most, Sally Kirkland, and newcomers Dennis Quaid and Bill Paxton in their movie debuts. Cloris Leachman in person for post-screening Q&A!
CRY OF A PROSTITUTE
A Fistful of Dollars gets a 1970s grindhouse gangster update from exploitation great Andrea Bianchi (Burial Ground, Strip Nude For Your Killer) in Cry of a Prostitute! New Bev fave Henry Silva stars as a violent loner who arrives in a Sicilian town run by two warring drug families, intent on using their hatred to destroy each other while attracting the attention of the beautiful Barbara Bouchet. 1974, Italy, 83 min, 35mm. Directed by Andrea Bianchi
DECODER
Germany, 1983, 90 min., digital.; Dir. Muscha (Jürgen Muschalek). German with English subtitles.
Cast: FM Einheit, William S. Burroughs, Bill Rice, Christiane Felscherinow, Genesis P. Orridge
Music: Soundtrack composed by members of Einstürzende Neubauten, Soft Cell, Psychick TV, and The The.
This cyber-punk political thriller is set in a post-modern dystopic German cityscape where „Muzak“ has been carefully engineered by scientists and marketing executives to promote productivity and compliance, and agents of a „shadow government“ are charged with the task of eliminating dissidents.
The titular “Decoder,” FM (played by FM Einheit of the 'experimental' music group Einstürzende Neubauten), is a disillusioned punk and 'noise-freak' who experiments with white-noise and “infra-sound” in his home studio.
While taking a break in a fast food burger shop, FM is confronted by the ubiquitous Muzak and asks himself if there is some connection between the bland music and the “plastic” food served to the masses. He begins to record, edit and “decode” the Muzak around him in order to learn what secrets, if any, are behind it.
When he discovers, almost by accident, that the „decoded“ Muzak can incite the populace to riot, FM realizes that he may hold the key to revolution and liberation. Filmed in Berlin, Hamburg and London, and drawing from the writings of William S. Burroughs, who also appears in the film, Decoder has become an underground Cult classic of the Punk and Underground music world.
DEEP WEB
Deep Web gives the inside story of one of the the most important and riveting digital crime sagas of the century -- the arrest of Ross William Ulbricht, the convicted 30-year-old entrepreneur accused to be 'Dread Pirate Roberts,' creator and operator of online black market Silk Road. The film explores how the brightest minds and thought leaders behind the Deep Web are now caught in the crosshairs of the battle for control of a future inextricably linked to technology, with our digital rights hanging in the balance. Narrated by Keanu Reeves. Directed by Alex Winter. Q&A with director Alex Winter (9/11 & 9/12 evening screenings only).
DESTINATION MOON
1950, Wade Williams, 91 min, USA, Dir: Irving Pichel
Producer George Pal’s rarely screened classic helped usher in the sci-fi boom of the 1950s and featured amazingly realistic depictions (for the time) of manned space flight and lunar landing, aided by German rocket expert Hermann Oberth (who worked on Fritz Lang’s similarly futuristic DIE FRAU IM MOND in 1929). Starring John Archer (WHITE HEAT), Warner Anderson and Tom Powers. Academy Award winner for Best Special Effects. Discussion between films with Barbara Rush. Discussion between films with actress Barbara Rush.
AN EVENING WITH PABLO FRASCONI
Since 1969, Pablo Frasconi has made films about the U.S. bicentennial, gentrification, childhood literacy, public art, creativity, civil liberties and poetry, including, Towards the Memory of a Revolution ('76, 53m), The Woodcuts of Antonio Frasconi ('87, 25m), Survival of a Small City ('86, 57m), broadcast nationally on PBS, and, The Longing ('08,15m).
THE LIGHT AT WALDEN ('14, 39m) is a meditation shot at Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts, interweaving pieces of Henry David Thoreau’s texts and a war resister’s personal journey on a wilderness island in Canada. The filmmaker, as a young man during the U.S. / Vietnam War, attempts to follow Thoreau’s principles: building a cabin and living sustainably in the woods, “to front only the essential facts of
life.” This is one story among the nearly 125,000 war resisters in Canada. Music composed by John Luther Adams, John Cage, Lou Harrison, Charles Ives, Arvo Part, Karen Tanaka and others. With two shorts by Frasconi: THE SONG OF THE SOUL ('99, 6m), an adaptation of Walt Whitman's Children of Adam: From Pent-up Aching Rivers, and, LOOK OUT ('06, 8m), an adaptation of Wendell Berry's poem.
THE FANTASY FILM WORLDS OF GEORGE PAL
1985, 93 min, USA, Dir: Arnold Leibovit
Stop-motion pioneer George Pal was a legend among sci-fi and fantasy film buffs, and this enjoyable documentary features archival interviews with the Oscar-winning producer-director, clips from his half-century career and testimonials from such colleagues and admirers as Ray Harryhausen, Gene Roddenberry and Tony Curtis. Introduction by director-producer Arnold Liebovit.
THE FINAL GIRLS
Taissa Farmiga plays the daughter of a legendary scream queen known for a nominal role in a supremely campy 80s slasher; Camp Bloodbath. She is still trying to get over the untimely death of her mother, when a local programmer decides to show the film and invite her to be a guest at the screening. Everything goes awry, and our teenagers end up inside the film.
It quickly becomes apparent that this is far more than its high concept might suggest. What could have easily become an exhausting pastiche throwback film, reveals itself as an infections, joyous love letter to the genre and perhaps more surprising, a highly emotional story about love, loss and how humans learn to deal when life becomes a horror film. Dir. Todd Strauss-Schulson, 2015, DCP, 88 min.
FINDERS KEEPERS
This stranger-than-fiction doc takes as its premise the absurdity of headlines and evening news, plucking one of the most bizarre stories in present memory from the world of reality television and Judge Mathis, granting it a full cinematic form.
A self-described “entrepreneurial” hustler finds a mummified leg in the crusty old smoker he’s purchased from a storage unit auction. Subsequently, John Wood (amputee and the original owner of the leg) wants it back, and a grotesque and public battle over the severed limb ensues. Yes, this actually happened. Yes, it was on TV.
By turns hilarious and dark, Finders Keepers goes beyond the viral meme-ready aspects of its story––a foot chandelier, a Star Trek obsessed forensic veterinarian, $3 a pop mummified foot viewings––becoming more and more unbelievable each minute. Dir. Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel, 2015, DCP, 82 min.
Freeway: Crack in the System
The real story behind America's drug war, complete with drug dealers, dirty cops, and government complicity, this film was selected by the artist Frances Stark. At the center of it all is the rise, fall, and redemption of “Freeway” Rick Ross—a street hustler who became the king of crack. Followed by a Q&A with “Freeway” Rick Ross and others. (2015, Dir. Mark Levin, 103 min.)
FRIZZI2FULCI
Legendary composer Fabio Frizzi comes to Los Angeles for the first time ever to perform his horror classics live. Complete with his 8-piece Frizzi2Fulci Orchestra, Fabio will perform for one night only on Sunday, October 4th at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
Beyond Fest have partnered with Mondo and Death Waltz Recording Co. to bring the Italian maestro to Los Angeles where he will be performing suites from Lucio Fulci’s classic Italian horror films including ZOMBI 2 (AKA ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS), SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK, THE BEYOND, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, MANHATTAN BABY and more. Orchestral performances will also be accompanied by live visuals derived from Fulci's iconic filmography.
FUTURE PERFECT: TIME CAPSULES IN REAGAN COUNTRY (2015, Dir: Daniel Tucker)
Daniel Tucker in conversation with artist Rosten Woo to follow!
Completed ten years after Ronald Reagan’s death, Future Perfect grows out of an interest in the continued echoes of a speech he delivered at the 1976 Republican National Convention following the end of his Governorship in California. Reagan talked about the difficulty he found in writing a letter for a time capsule to be sealed in Los Angeles and opened one hundred years in the future. Using this idea as a departure, Tucker explores Reagan’s future-oriented, science-fiction imagination and rhetoric, with visits to Reagan-inspired monuments and time capsules throughout California, archival footage, and interviews with political strategists, local historians, and astronomers alike. A cocktail reception will precede the screening.
THE GENERAL DIED AT DAWN
In this old-fashioned thriller, General Yang is a politically ambitious Chinese bandit who holds the Northern districts in a grip of terror. Yang is opposed by O'Hara, an American mercenary who fights on behalf of the peasants. When he is entrusted with a large sum of money, O'Hara becomes Yang's latest target. Dir. Lewis Milestone, 1936, 1 hr 33 min.
HABIT
Join us for a night with filmmaker Larry Fessenden and a screening of his film, Habit.
Sam (Fessenden) is a spiraling alcoholic New Yorker. Still recovering from the shock of his father’s sudden death and in the midst of a break-up, Sam is looking forward to the freedom of single life: to be able to drink what he wants, when he wants. He is, in his own words, “committing suicide on the installment plan.” Sam has friends, but they are increasingly distant on account of his self destructive alcoholism. That’s when he meets Anna (Meredith Snaider) at a Halloween party, a mysterious and alluring woman who may or may not be a vampire. Sam and Anna embark on a fairly unorthodox union; Sam never sees her in daylight, and she is prone to biting during their aggressive sexual encounters. For Sam’s noncommittal self, this relationship seems ideal, but then he starts to fall dangerously ill, and Sam wonders if Anna’s love might come at a hidden cost.
This seminal work rocked the New York film scene upon its release in 1995, bringing a grounded realism to a supernatural tale in ways that invoked Cassavetes as much as Poe. In the 20 years that have followed, Fessenden has become a force in genre film with Glass Eye Pix, fostering numerous young talents such as Ti West and Kelly Reichardt, as well as going on to direct Wendigo and The Last Winter. Following the screening, Fessenden will join SpectreVision partner Daniel Noah for an in-depth discussion of his life and work. Dir. Larry Fessenden, 1995, 112 min.
HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT
Q&A with director Josh Safdie and actress Arielle Holmes! Plus a short LIVE SET by Ariel Pink, who created original music for the film!
Josh Safdie met Arielle Holmes—a homeless teenager with a ferocious Jersey accent—on an NYC subway platform, and began the friendship that led to Heaven Can Wait. The Safdies (Daddy Longlegs) encouraged Holmes to write about her experience with drug addiction, homelessness, and a volatile romance, adapting the material to create a grim blend of documentary and fiction, inviting obvious comparisons to Larry Clark’s Kids. Written in spurts in Apple Stores around Manhattan, Holmes’ story—also forthcoming in her memoir Mad Love in New York City—possesses a raw and craggy kind of beauty, capturing the rapture of drug addiction, without falling into the cinematic romance trap. Dir. Benny & Josh Safdie, 2014, DCP, 94 min.
History is Made at Night (1937)
A swooning mash-up of comedy, melodrama, farce and tragedy, History is Made At Night defies narrative logic in favor of love’s more unpredictable ways. After an unhappily married American woman (Jean Arthur) meets a debonair Parisian maitre d’ (Charles Boyer), not her murderously jealous husband, a bad bouillabaisse, or an iceberg in the Atlantic, could keep them apart. Production: Walter Wanger Productions, Inc. Distribution: United Artists Corp. Producer: Frank Borzage. Director: Frank Borzage. Screenwriter: Gene Towne, Graham Baker. Cinematographer: Gregg Toland. Art Director: Alexander Toluboff. Editor: Margaret Clancey. Music: Alfred Newman. With: Charles Boyer, Jean Arthur, Leo Carrillo, Colin Clive, Ivan Lebedeff. 35mm, b/w, 97 min.
THE HOUR OF THE WOLF
“The hour of the wolf is the hour between night and dawn. It is the hour when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are most real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fear, when ghosts and demons are most powerful. It is also the hour when most children are born.”
Bergman’s strangest film stations Artist Johan Borg (Max Von Sydow) & his wife Alma (Live Ullmann) on an island for a supposed vacation. Across the water lies a castle containing a baron and his menagerie of perverted friends. As time passes, Johan is unable to sleep without being plagued by brutal nightmares, and he becomes unable to thrive during the day as his paranoia is crippling. As the fear builds, and the baron begins to invade the lives of the lovers, Bergman blurs the line between dream and reality so effectively that we aren’t sure what to take as real anymore.
SpectreVision composer Kreng, whose lauded original score for Cooties will be released on Mondo/Death Waltz, returns to his avant garde roots creating disquieting soundscapes for Belgian surrealist horror-theatre company Abattoir Fermé to push Bergman’s classic even further into the hypnagogic landscape. Dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1968, 35mm, 90 min.
HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS
1983, Park Circus/MGM, 100 min, UK, Dir: Pete Walker
Director Pete Walker’s final feature stars a horror movie dream team: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and John Carradine. The fearsome foursome complicates the work of a writer (Desi Arnaz Jr.), who hopes to pen a Gothic novel during a single night at the decaying Grisbane mansion in order to win a $20,000 bet. This distinctive thriller filters 1980s gore through the grand traditions of AIP and Hammer horror films. Discussion between films with director Pete Walker, moderated by David Del Valle.
The Immortal Story
To make the tall tale of the title come true, an aging European merchant played by Welles hires a sailor to sleep with his wife, but the elaborate set-up soon starts to take on a life of its own. Based on a short story by the Danish writer Isak Dinesen, The Immortal Story is the shortest of Welles’s feature films and first aired on French television. Together with excerpts from Welles’s great unfinished film project, Don Quixote. The Immortal Story (1968), 60 mins., and Don Quixote (1955-1985), 60 mins.
INCENDIES
Director Denis Villeneuve adapts Wajdi Mouawad's play concerning a pair of twins who make a life-altering discovery following the death of their mother. Upon learning that their absentee father is still very much alive and they also have a brother they have never met, the pair travels to the Middle East on a mission to uncover the truth about their mystery-shrouded past. Dir. Denis Villeneuve, 2011, 2 hr 10 min.
INDUSTRIAL MUSICALS
Join us for a unique documentary fundraiser with this night of bizarre cinema and live music hosted by Steve Young, former “Letterman” and “Simpsons” writer! Once upon a time, when American industry ruled the earth, business and Broadway had a baby. This mutant offspring, glimpsed only at conventions and sales meetings, was the industrial musical. Think Broadway show, except the audience is managers and salesmen, and the songs are about how great it is to be working at the company.
Young will screen some of the most twisted examples ever committed to film, including American Standards’ “The Bathrooms Are Coming.” You won’t find any of this on YouTube! Plus, get a sneak peek at the upcoming documentary starring Martin Short, Dave Letterman, Susan Stroman & more. And, a live performance by Eleni Mandell & DJ set from Don Bolles.
INNOCENCE
Solemn children performing rituals in matching white uniforms is usually a good indication you're not watching a romantic comedy, and trust us, you're not. Idyllic summer camp vibes gradually decay into unexplained fear, as frolicking little girls train each other to obey unseen authorities and escape is gently forbidden. This highly choreographed, hyper-minimal gothic fever dream sinks through levels of surreality (doe-eyed kids enter the campus in coffins; ballerinas perform for a murmuring audience of shadows; playtime imperceptibly shifts to unmotivated violence) until it comes full circle and appears alarmingly real. Based on the novella by Frank Wedekind, two of whose stage plays became Tony-winner Spring Awakening and German silent classic Pandora’s Box, Innocence won top honors at Stockholm Film Festival for director Lucile Hadzihalilovic and cinematographer Benoît Debie, who also collaborated on Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void. Marion Cotillard’s tragic elegance matches the film’s; she nurtures the children and punishes them in a stately world of propriety, where tranquility and opulence give way to a strange, hidden brutality. Dir. Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2004, 122 min.
I've Always Loved You (1946)
As a post-war journeyman director, Frank Borzage came to Republic, which produced this uncharacteristically lavish Technicolor romance about an egotistical concert pianist (Philip Dorn) who takes on young prodigy Catherine McLeod as his pupil. The student develops amorous feelings for her mentor, but when her talent threatens to outshine his, he brutally severs their relationship in what may be Borzage’s most unrestrained melodrama.
Production: Republic Pictures Corp. Distribution: Republic Pictures Corp. Producer: Frank Borzage. Director: Frank Borzage. Based on the story "Concerto" by Borden Chase. Screenwriter: Borden Chase. Cinematographer: Tony Gaudio. Production Design: Ernst Fegté. Editor: Richard L. Van Enger. Music: Walter Scharf. With: Philip Dorn, Catherine McLeod, William Carter, Mme. Maria Ouspenskaya, Felix Bressart. 35mm, color, 117 min.
JOURNEY TO ITALY
1954, Janus Films, 86 min, Italy, Dir: Roberto Rossellini
Inspired by Colette’s novel Duo, this subtle domestic drama stars director Roberto Rossellini’s then-wife, Ingrid Bergman, and George Sanders as an English couple who travel to Naples to sell a property they recently inherited. The marriage is strained and the two decide to spend time apart, taking in beautiful tourist spots as they decide whether they still have a future together. Beneath this simple narrative lies an emotional intensity and spirituality that has won such fans as Martin Scorsese and Sight & Sound’s team of critics, who recently named it as one of the 50 greatest films ever made. English-language version.
The Kid Brother (1927)
The Kid Brother is among comedian Harold Lloyd's finest features. Featuring a deft blend of hilarity and pathos, the story, unlike many other Lloyd efforts, does not hinge upon nail-biting, breathtaking daredeviltry, but rather emphasizes the story itself. Lloyd plays a small-town sheriff's who is as timid as his siblings and male relatives are macho. When a thuggish villain begins to terrorize the town, it is meek Lloyd who finds the courage to defeat him. Most of the story was shot on location on Southern California's beautiful Catalina Island. Other segments were shot in Placentia and the Santa Ana Canyon. The story grossed $2million and was the most popular film of 1927.
KINGDOM OF SHADOWS
In Kingdom of Shadows, Bernardo Ruiz takes an unflinching look at the hard choices and destructive consequences of the U.S.-Mexico “drug war,” weaving together the stories of a U.S. drug enforcement agent on the border, an activist nun in violence-scarred Monterrey, Mexico, and a former Texas smuggler, to reveal the human side of an often misunderstood conflict that has resulted in a growing human-rights crisis that only recently has made international headlines. Running time: 74 minutes. In Spanish and English, with English subtitles. Directed by Bernardo Ruiz. Preceded by a short doc, Sael Kuxlejal (10 min.) Followed by a Q&A with Bernardo Ruiz
KINGS OF NOWHERE
Three families live in a village partially submerged by water in Northwestern Mexico: Pani and Paula do not want to close their tortilleria and spend their spare time rescuing the town from ruins; Miro and his parents dream of leaving but can’t; Yoya and Jaimito live in fear but have everything they need. Provided courtesy of Venado Films and Ruta 66 Ciné. Not rated. Running time: 90 minutes. In Spanish, with English subtitles. Written and Directed by Betzabé García. Preceded by a short doc, Papa Machete (11 min.) Followed by a Q&A with Betzabé García
LA SOURCE
As Los Angeles dips into a time of water scarcity, the Hammer screens this documentary about a village in Haiti where obtaining safe drinking water has never been easy. Josue Lajeunesse, the Princeton University custodian who is the compelling narrative’s core, returns to Haiti to channel a consistent, clean water source to his village. Determination drives what the Washington Post dubs an “artfully shot documentary.” Narrated by Don Cheadle. (2012, Dir. Patrick Shen, 71 min.)
THE LAST REVENGE
Germany (BRD), 1982, 89 min., German with English subtitles, digital.
Dir.: Rainer Kirberg Cast: Erwin Leder, Gerhard Kittler, Andreas Dorau, Music: Der Plan.
First broadcast in 1982 on West Germany's second TV channel (ZDF) "Die Letzte Rache" rapidly achieved cult status amongst film connoisseurs throughout Europe, Japan and the USA. Kirberg’s film narrates the eventful tale of the adventurer known only as “The Worldly,” who enters the service of an ageing ruler in order to seek for him a successor. Unable to find a worthy heir, the Worldly succumbs to the temptation to seize power himself. The ruler, however, thwarts his plan and uses the Worldly, by means of a scientific experiment, to attain immortality.
The Worldly wreaks vengeance by laying the ruler's kingdom to waste – thereby preparing the ground for unforeseen intrigue: the ruler's son and daughter, united in incestuous love, take revenge for the inheritance denied them by subjecting their now immortal father to everlasting pain and suffering.
Even in the more than twenty years following its first showing, The Last Revenge has continued to attract new audiences, thanks to the film’s exceptional blend of expressionist character drama, comic strip, film noir and pop musical. This presentation of the director’s cut includes additional film music by the German avant-garde group "Der Plan.”
THE LAST VALLEY
1971, Buena Vista Pictures, 128 min, UK/USA, Dir: James Clavell
Writer-director James Clavell’s epic adventure takes place in the shadow of the Thirty Years War, which ravaged Germany in the 17th century. One remote region remains unscathed when Omar Sharif arrives in search of refuge; unfortunately, he’s been followed into the valley by Michael Caine and his band of mercenary soldiers. With superb performances, a highly literate script and one of John Barry’s best scores, THE LAST VALLEY brings a little-known period of history to vivid life.
THE LESSON (UROK)
2014, Film Movement, 105 min, Bulgaria, Dir: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov
Life is tough for teachers everywhere but even more so in Bulgaria, where Nade (Margita Gosheva, in a very strong performance) must turn to a loan shark when her family’s house is threatened with foreclosure. Based on a true story, this absorbing drama won the Sofia City of Film Grand Prix and the Audience Award for Best Film at the Sofia International Film Festival. In Bulgarian with English subtitles.
LIMEHOUSE BLUES
Fresh from Chinatown in New York, Harry Young (George Raft) has taken over the illegal import business in the seamy Limehouse district of London, where he cold-bloodedly disposes of rivals and runs a smoky nightclub. He falls for a low-class, white pickpocket, diminishing his pride in the Chinese half of his heritage and sparking the jealousy of the nightclub's moody star performer. Dir. Alexander Hall. 1934, 66 min.
Little Man, What Now? (1934)
Director Frank Borzage’s “Weimar Trilogy” begins here with Margaret Sullavan, the trilogy’s radiant, fragile muse, as one half of a young married couple struggling to make their way in 1930s Germany. Borzage doesn’t shy from depicting the grim realities of a country plunged into economic and, more importantly, spiritual despair, making the film’s sense of humanity all the more moving for being hard won.
Production: Universal Pictures Corp. A Frank Borzage Production. Distribution: Universal Pictures Corp. Producer: Carl Laemmle Jr., Frank Borzage. Director: Frank Borzage. Based on the novel Kleiner Mann, was nun? by Hans Fallada. Screenwriter: William Anthony McGuire. Cinematographer: Norbert Brodine. Art Director: Charles D. Hall. Editor: Milton Carruth. With: Margaret Sullavan, Douglass Montgomery, Alan Hale, Catharine Doucet, DeWitt Jennings. 35mm, b/w, 98 min.
LOVE & PEACE
Shion Sono begins his latest tale in modern-day Tokyo with a tragic man named Ryoichi, who having given up his dreams of rock stardom, toils away in a musical parts company. Ryoichi discovers his only friend in a turtle he aptly names Picadon. The friendship blossoms as Picadon helps Ryoichi plan his rock n roll takeover, until one day on account of overwhelming ridicule from coworkers, Ryoichi flushes his only friend down the toilet.
From there, Sono’s signature imagination takes over. Certainly one of the most joyous and heartfelt films of his career, Love & Peace blasts off into the ether with the catchiest theme song you’ll hear all year, anthropomorphized toys, a choice of pills that puts the red pill/blue pill option to shame & massive Kaiju. Dir. Shion Sono, 2015, DCP, 117 min.
Mike Kelley: Single Channel Videos
“One of the most influential artists of the past quarter century and a pungent commentator on American class, popular culture and youthful rebellion.” – The New York Times
When Mike Kelley passed away in 2012, he left the legacy of a body of deeply innovative work mining American popular culture and both modernist and alternative traditions. This screening features a selection of Kelley’s videos, from the sassy/melancholy Superman Recites Selections from 'The Bell Jar' and Other Works by Sylvia Plath (1999) to the threatening histrionics of Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #1 (Domestic Scene) (2000), as well as collaborative pieces, such as his minimalist exploration of sado-masochistic relationships in 100 Reasons (1991) – among others.
Mr. Arkadin (1955), 106 mins.
Welles’s Mr. Arkadin (a.k.a. Confidential Report) tells the story of an elusive billionaire who hires an American smuggler to investigate his past, leading to a memorable procession of grotesques and a dizzying descent into a cold-war European landscape. While several different versions of the film exist, we will be screening the “Comprehensive Version,” compiled and edited by the Munich Film Museum in 2006.
Moonrise (1948)
Director Frank Borzage suffuses a noir idiom with this own brand of unadulterated romanticism in his last great film. Dane Clark stars as an alienated young man haunted by his father’s crimes who finds himself hunted by the law after killing a local bully in a fight. Wracked by guilt, he nevertheless seems poised for redemption when he falls for his victim’s fiancée (Gail Russell).
Production: Chas. K. Feldman Group Productions, Inc.; Marshall Grant Pictures. Distribution: Republic Pictures Corp. Producer: Charles Haas. Director: Frank Borzage. Based on the novel Moonrise by Theodore Strauss. Screenwriter: Charles Haas. Cinematographer: John L. Russell. Production Design: Lionel Banks. Editor: Harry Keller. Music: William Lava. With: Dane Clark, Gail Russell, Ethel Barrymore, Allyn Joslyn, Rex Ingram. 35mm, b/w, 90 min.
The Mortal Storm (1940)
The concluding chapter in director Frank Borzage’s “Weimar Trilogy,” The Mortal Storm addresses head-on the rise of fascism. Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart play a young intellectual couple whose families are riven by ideological differences when Hitler becomes Chancellor in 1933. By situating the star-crossed lovers against a harrowing political backdrop, director Frank Borzage imbues his most cherished tropes with a tragic gravity.
Production: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. A Frank Borzage Production. Distribution: Loew's Inc. Producer: Frank Borzage. Director: Frank Borzage. Based on the novel The Mortal Storm by Phyllis Bottome. Screenwriter: Claudine West, Anderson Ellis, George Froeschel. Cinematographer: William Daniels. Art Director: Cedric Gibbons. Editor: Elmo Vernon. Music: Edward Kane. With: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan, Robert Stack. 35mm, b/w, 100 min.
NASTY BABY
Freddy (Sebastian Silva) is a visual artist whose top goal is becoming a father. Luckily his best friend Polly (Kristin Wiig) is happy to assist. When Freddy’s sperm reveals its inadequacies, his reluctant boyfriend Mo (Tunde Adebimpe) is called upon to save the day.
In the hands of anyone other than Sebastian Silva (Magic, Magic & The Maid), Nasty Baby would undoubtedly become an overbearing improvisational, twee mess of sad-sack-hipster-chic-melodrama. Luckily Silva has no interest in making any semblance of predictable or milquetoast cinema. Whittled down to it’s core, Nasty Baby is damn near guaranteed to bring laughter, bring tears and then most likely make you forget to breath as the story comes to a shockingly dark close… Dir. Sebastian Silva, 2015, DCP, 100 min.
NEW WORKS SALON XXIX: BAHTO/WADA, FOGEL, IANNAZZI, JENKINS, JONES, O’CONNELL, RAVELO
The New Works Salons series is a casual forum for the presentation and discussion of new works in film, video, sound, and performance, with local and visiting artists in-person to introduce their work. For this program, William E. Jones presents America, Hail Satan: near the end of the Vietnam War, Satan comes to the Paris Peace Talks to see Henry Kissinger about renewing the United States’s contract, which is due to expire in 1973. Will the United States continue on its path of world domination, or will it risk the dissolution of its empire by turning away from Satan—an aging hippy who may or may not be an impostor? Bill Jenkins, a Brooklyn-based artist whose recent exhibitions have focused on low-tech experiments with light and architecture that slip back and forth between functionality and metaphor, will present a new work from his sidewalk video series. These works are made when Jenkins takes a small cart with a camera attached to the bottom for roving walks around different urban neighborhoods. The close-to-the-ground scrolling imagery documents changes in surface textures and colors, and has flashes of anomalies in or on the sidewalk or street. Also Bay Area artist Zach Iannazzi will show his most recent 16mm film Old Hat, Corey Fogel will present a selection of recent videos, Brian O’Connell screens Palomar, a new 16mm film based on Italo Calvino’s book of the same name, Jorge Ravelo shows two short videos including Self; Proxy: Prologue and Rick Bahto and Tashi Wada present an in-progress collaboration for small gauge film, slide projectors, and virginal.
THE NIGHTMARE
A documentary-horror film exploring the phenomenon of 'Sleep Paralysis' through the eyes of eight very different people. These people often find themselves trapped between the sleeping and waking worlds, totally unable to move but aware of their surroundings while being subject to frequently disturbing sights and sounds. A strange element to these visions is that despite the fact that they know nothing of one another, many see similar ghostly 'shadow men.' This is one of many reasons many people insist this is more than just a sleep disorder. This documentary digs deep into not only the particulars of these eight people's uncanny experiences, but it also explores their search to understand what they've gone through and how it's changed their lives. Dir. Rodney Ascher, 2015, 1 hr. 34 min. WITH DIRECTOR RODNEY ASCHER, AND SLEEP PARALYSIS EXPERT DR. BRIAN SHARPLESS, IN PERSON.
THE NIGHT OF THE GENERALS
1967, Sony Repertory, 148 min, UK/France, Dir: Anatole Litvak
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA costars Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif (and composer Maurice Jarre) reunite for this underrated mix of WWII history and murder mystery. When a prostitute who had been working as a German agent in occupied Warsaw is killed, military intelligence investigator Major Grau (Sharif) focuses on three German officers (Donald Pleasence, Charles Gray and O’Toole) as suspects while wartime intrigue swirls about. With Tom Courtenay, Philippe Noiret and Christopher Plummer.
O CANADA!
O Canada, northern neighbor, short film haven strong and free, from far and wide we’ve gathered 16mm films for thee! The great white north produced some astonishing shorts we’re just crazy aboot, and tonight Lost & Found Film Club will dig deep into their archives to concoct a strange brew of maple syrupy masterpieces from the glory days of government-funded experimentalism. We’ll visit master animator Norman McLaren in his workshop, grab a bite at Montreal’s hottest health food store, cheer on an old-fashioned horse pulling competition, learn Eskimo printmaking techniques, and prance our way through 100 years of frontier living with the truly bonkers Ballad of Joe Caribou. These impressive miniature masterworks put U.S. documentaries and educational films to shame with their slice-of-life simplicity and poutine-powered local pride. See the rarities that the lower Americas have been missing out on. Sounds like a good time, eh?
Orson Welles TV
Sketch Book, Around the World, The Fountain of Youth (1955-58), 120 mins.
An evening of Welles television rarities, including episodes of his two series made for British television, Orson Welles’ Sketchbook and Around the World with Orson Welles. Also included will be his rare landmark TV pilot Fountain of Youth, excerpts from his starring roles in The Man Who Came to Dinner and King Lear; a compilation of classic television interviews, and even an episode of I Love Lucy.
OUT OF PRINT
A documentary exploring the importance of revival cinema and 35mm exhibition - seen through the lens of the patrons of the New Beverly Cinema - a unique and independent revival cinema in Los Angeles.
The New Bev is a theater where a double feature is still $8 - cash only. A theater where David Lynch pops by for a secret Q&A and where Edgar Wright introduces our monthly midnight screening of Scott Pilgrim whenever he is in town. A theater where directors program a week of their favorite films and come down to talk about how they inspired them. A theater where Fassbinder, Romero, Scorsese and Hitchcock films all show in the same week. Where you could catch a double feature of Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons - then stick around for the midnight screening of Cool As Ice. A place where the owner and employees genuinely care about cinema and are excited to talk to you about what the ending of Primer really means, or to recommend a film you've maybe never heard of. Since 1978 we've been home to dedicated film geeks, casual moviegoers and some of the greatest directors and actors in the world - everyone is treated equally here. We're one of the last places where that happens. 86 min | Documentary, Biography, History | 15 October 2014 (USA) | Director: Julia Marchese
OUT OF THE PRESENT
Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev left Earth for the Mir space station in 1991, a citizen of the Soviet Union. As he orbited the planet, his nation collapsed, its fate uncertain. Krikalev, too, faced an uncertain fate, as his return to Earth loses priority amidst the chaos down below. Upon his final descent to the planet, Cosmonaut Krikalev must brace for a new world, one far different than the one he left behind. Directed by Andrei Ujica, 1995, 96 mins.
PEACE OFFICER
A former sheriff will stop at nothing to confront the SWAT team he founded.
Peace Officer is a feature documentary about the increasingly militarized state of American police as told through the story of William “Dub” Lawrence, a former sheriff who established and trained his rural state’s first SWAT team only to see that same unit kill his son-in-law in a controversial standoff 30 years later. Driven by an obsessed sense of mission, Dub uses his own investigative skills to uncover the truth in this and other recent officer-involved shootings in his community while tackling larger questions about the changing face of peace officers nationwide. Running time: 105 minutes. Directed and Cinematography by Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber. Followed by a Q&A with USC Alum Brad Barber
PIER 13
A policeman makes the startling discovery that his girlfriend is involved in a waterfront smuggling racket. A re-make of Me and My Gal (1932) with Lloyd Nolan in the Spencer Tracy role and Lynn Bari as the waterfront waitress. Photographed by one of Hollywood's top five cinematographers, namely Virgil Miller – a whiz with film noir lighting. Directed by Eugene Forde. 1940, 67 mins.
THE PLAGUE
2013, 84 min, Spain, Dir: Neus Ballús
Carefully intertwining a series of minimalist personal stories, THE PLAGUE offers a moving portrait of life on the outskirts of Barcelona. A Filipino nurse, an aging woman, a Moldavian wrestler and a local farmer, among others, illustrate the uncertainty and the rebellious spirit that underlies contemporary Spain in the throes of the global economic crisis. Filming nonprofessional actors over a four-year period, Ballus uses real-life characters and their daily struggles to construct this rich social portrait. In Catalan, Spanish and Russian with English subtitles.
POWER
(JEW SÜSS)
1934, Park Circus, 105 min, UK, Dir: Lothar Mendes
This adaptation of Lion Feuchtwanger’s novel Jew Süss was such a stinging indictment of the anti-Semitism then on the rise in Germany that the Nazis remade it in 1940, turning its hero into a villain to advance their propaganda. Hoping his influence can help Jews in the 18th-century ghetto of Württemberg, Josef “Jew Süss” Oppenheimer (Conrad Veidt, in one of his best performances) serves a duke whose corruption and lechery lead both men to ruin. Cedric Hardwicke costars as Süss’ guilty conscience, Rabbi Gabriel. Introduction by Frank Stern of the University of Vienna, Austria, who will discuss the work of Lion Feuchtwanger and the novel Jew Süss.
THE PUPPETOON MOVIE
1987, 90 min, USA, Dir: Arnold Leibovit
George Pal’s pioneering shorts of the 1930s and ’40s influenced legions of stop-motion animators, so it’s only fitting that Art Clokey’s Gumby serves as host to this loving tribute to the master, including several of Pal’s Oscar-nominated Puppetoons in their entirety. Program begins with a selection of original Puppetoons on 35mm, after which director-producer Arnold Leibovit and Jerry Beck will introduce the feature.
THE QUAY BROTHERS IN 35mm
Two of the world’s most original filmmakers, identical twins Stephen and Timothy Quay have been making their unique blend of puppetry and stop-motion animation for over 30 years and have spawned an enormous cult following. The Quays display a passion for detail, a breathtaking command of color and texture, and an uncanny use of focus and camera movement that make their films unique and instantly recognizable.
Best known for their classic 1986 film Street of Crocodiles, which filmmaker Terry Gilliam selected as one of the ten best animated films of all time, they are masters of miniaturization and on their tiny sets have created an unforgettable world, suggestive of a landscape of long-repressed childhood dreams. Curated by Christopher Nolan. ALL NEW 35MM PRINTS
Including (in order):
-In Absentia
Stephen & Timothy Quay, 2000, 35mm, 20 min
-Quay, Nolan’s new short film revealing the inner workings of the Brothers’ studio.
Christopher Nolan, 2015, 35mm, 8.5 min.
-The Comb
Stephen & Timothy Quay, 1991, 35mm, 18 min.
-Street of Crocodiles
Stephen & Timothy Quay, 1986, 35mm, 20 min.
With Christopher Nolan in person (9/4 screening only)
Rick Prelinger: Lost Landscapes of Los Angeles
Having given eye-opening “urban history” presentations in San Francisco, Oakland and Detroit, Rick Prelinger now draws on his vast archive to offer a cultural history of greater Los Angeles in pictures. The archivist, writer, filmmaker and UC Santa Cruz professor combines excerpts from long-dated “ephemeral” sources—yesteryear’s home movies, newsreels, educational, industrial and amateur films, even studio “process plates”—into a richly detailed socio-topographical study of L.A.’s bygone cityscapes, and in the process casts the contemporary terrain in a new light. Viewers, meanwhile, are invited to supply the soundtrack, with their own commentaries, questions and discussions. Founded in 1983, the Prelinger Archive is among the largest repositories of its kind in the world. In person: Rick Prelinger
Santa Fe Trail (1940)
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ronald Reagan
Empire and Liberty: The Civil War and the West shows how the institution of slavery and the notion of liberty were intricately tied to westward expansion. Many of the issues raised in the exhibition are also addressed onscreen. Santa Fe Trail is the first movie in the Civil War block.
In the days leading up to the Civil War, West Point classmates Jeb Stuart (Flynn) and George Custer (Reagan) are stationed at Fort Leavenworth in the Kansas Territory. The two men work together to put down uprisings led by anti-slavery fanatics, but they find themselves at odds when they both fall in love with the same girl (de Havilland).
SCHIZO
1976, 109 min, UK, Dir: Pete Walker
“Schizophrenia ... When the left hand doesn't know who the right hand is killing!” Ice skater Lynne Frederick is about to get married (to U.K. ’60s pop singer John Leyton) when she sees a man (Jack Watson) from her past. She keeps seeing him nearly everywhere she turns, and the stalker’s arrival coincides with a series of gruesome deaths. A riveting séance sequence is but one example of Walker’s stylish direction in this giallo-like British thriller. Discussion between films with director Pete Walker, moderated by David Del Valle.
SELECTED WORKS: CHRISTOPHER RICHMOND
In The Milky Way (2015) an unnamed humanoid giant encounters an array of characters living on the margins of society who share their thoughts, impassioned soliloquies, and beliefs about the world with it. With a round, placid face and deep-set eyes that intimate intelligence, the creature looks like a primordial being, but is clearly a special effect. It is an analog effect that reflects back on both the apparatus of the camera and on celluloid film’s concrete and illusive qualities. It is an analogue inside the analogue – a silent figure that represents a series of figures that have appeared throughout cinematic history but generally stand for the absence of language. It is a symbol of silence. There is a good deal of talking around it but it remains quiet and all seeing.
Traveling by car through a myriad of landscapes, from the natural habitats of the forest and desert, to the inner city of Los Angeles, The Milky Way’s off-kilter characters are brought together under circumstances that are in and of themselves a bit unusual. Something is amiss in this world. Travel seems to happen, but without a destination; it is like some sort of primeval wandering in the Western canon. Accompanying the screening of The Milky Way, Christopher Richmond will also be presenting two short films, Available Light (2013-14) and Summary (2014). FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!
THE SENTINEL
For a glorious period of the 70's, following the success of The Exorcist, the supernatural thriller was king in horror cinema, many of them featuring beautiful women tormented by malevolent entities. Of this crop, one of the most unsettling and wonderful is Michael (Death Wish) Winner's 1977 brain-melter The Sentinel. Starring Christina Raines as the harried beauty, an absurdly star-studded supporting cast (Chris Sarandon, Beverly D'Angelo, Jeff Goldblum, Eli Wallach, John Carradine, Burgess Meredith, Jerry Orbach, Ava Gardner, Jose Ferrer and Christopher Walken!) and real, honest-to-goodness sideshow freaks, the sheer "wow" factor boasted by the film is frankly second to none. The story centers around a New York City brownstone that is also a portal to hell (but hey, the rent is reasonable!), and by the film’s dizzying climax you too will feel as though you have been delivered into this freakish and terrifying dimension — of total awesomeness! This is one of those 70's horror gems that gets unfairly overlooked time and time again, so don't make that mistake and join us for a rare, 35mm screening! Dir. Michael Winner, 1977, 35mm, 92 min.
7 FACES OF DR. LAO
1964, MGM, 100 min, USA, Dir: George Pal
When the mysterious Dr. Lao (Tony Randall) arrives in tiny Abalone, Arizona, with his traveling circus in tow, the locals soon discover that this is no ordinary sideshow. The circus performers offer reflections of the townspeople that aren’t always flattering; a rapacious rancher (Arthur O’Connell) sees a great serpent, and a bitter woman is even turned (briefly) to stone. But Lao’s changing faces and cryptic pronouncements can also enlighten, bringing a grieving widow (Barbara Eden) out of her shell and teaching her young son to embrace the wonders of the world. One of noted fantasy filmmaker George Pal’s most distinctive creations, 7 FACES OF DR. LAO earned an Academy Award nomination for its special effects, and an honorary Oscar for William Tuttle’s makeup work. Introduction by director-producer Arnold Liebovit.
SEVEN WEEKS
“GUERNICA IN MOVING IMAGES” is the description Nobuhiko Obayashi, best known to Western audiences as the director of wild cult-horror classic Hausu, has assigned his new film. Sprawling and ambitious, Seven Weeks takes the death of the Suzuki family patriarch as its narrative origin. The family gathers in Hokkaido to mourn, in keeping with the Buddhist tradition of holding memorials every seven days for 49 days, a ritual out of which an epic web of family history and Japanese history is spun. By turns political and poetic, Seven Weeks flits between time periods and locales, with surreal sequences and cacophonic dialogue echoing the fantasy and surrealism for which Obayashi is known. Labyrinthine in both content and form, Seven Weeks spans huge swaths of time and space, all the while haunted by the specter of WWII. Do not miss this saga of epic proportions! Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 2014, 171 min. Nobuhiko Obayashi in person!
SHE’S FUNNY THAT WAY
2014, Lionsgate, 93 min, USA, Dir: Peter Bogdanovich
Director Peter Bogdanovich’s first feature in more than a decade kicks into gear when Broadway director Owen Wilson takes a fancy to call girl-turned-actress Imogen Poots and casts her in his latest play – along with his wife (Kathryn Hahn) and her ex (Rhys Ifans). Jennifer Aniston, Will Forte and a host of cameos too good to spoil here add to the romantic chaos in this effervescent comedy. “It’s a hysterical screwball fantasia that openly steals from Lubitsch, Hawks, Capra and Sturges and wants to be caught with its fingers in the till. The result is a highly sexed Jenga-pile of silliness, to which Bogdanovich can’t resist adding block after teetering block.” - Robbie Collin, The Telegraph. Discussion between films with director Peter Bogdanovich.
S**T HITS
Dylan Sharp is a musician and filmmaker who has been making crude, entertaining narratives in semi-spontaneous collaboration with other artists for sixteen years. His films and videos are usually weird scenarios that deal with ineptitude, obsessiveness, drugs, the awkwardness of human interaction and modern dance. In the tradition of the Kuchars or Pettibon, Sharp dispenses with traditional production values in order to focus instead on exploiting the unique visual possibilities of cheap consumer gear and drily humorous storytelling. Contrasting unsophisticated psychedelia with the purposefully drab, these videos attempt to explore the unique possibilities that come from letting mind freaks ham it up on the small screen. Originally based in Olympia, Washington and now out of Echo Park, this is Sharp’s first Los Angeles screening. FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!
SMALL-GAUGE L.A.
Rick Bahto and Alee Peoples are exemplary figures in the vibrant L.A. creative community committed to realizing personal vision through the hands-on intimacy of small-gauge film, DIY media and live performance. Bahto, a San Francisco transplant, plays with multiple layers of printing, rephotography and projection to explore the tension between the incidental and the controlled, while Peoples, an Oklahoma City native, uses Super 8 and 16mm film as platforms for whimsical storytelling with a nod to history. Bahto’s section of the program includes Accretions, for multiple slide projectors, and Compositions; Peoples is presenting the L.A. premiere of Non-Stop Beautiful Ladies, a street film starring decaying signage, car radios and human ad spinners. In person: Rick Bahto and Alee Peoples
Soft Fiction
1979, 56 min, B&W, 16mm. Directed by Chick Strand.
Restored by the Academy Film Archive. Restoration funding provided by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and The Film Foundation.
LACMA is proud to host the premiere of the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation restoration of experimental filmmaker Chick Strand’s crowning 1979 work. The film starts as a series of interviews with five women artists and thinkers and their perspectives on trying to fit their ambitions and talents into a world that doesn’t quite have a place for them. It’s almost an origin story, with a group of female protagonists who will change the world; and Strand’s allusive, dreamy filmmaking quickly departs from the conventional and takes us inside the heads of the camera subjects (and the filmmaker).
SOME CALL IT LOVING
Those who “like to keep their fairy tales innocent, their pornography sordid, their allegories obvious and their dreams intact are bound to be disconcerted” (Jonathan Rosenbaum) by this bizarre fever dream, wrought with magical realism and strange fantasy. A disillusioned musician (Zalmon King) buys a “Sleeping Beauty” (Tisa Farrow), from a sleazy carny, awakening the young girl at his secluded castle. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Harris came up with the initial idea for this “obstinately and superbly unclassifiable” (Rosenbaum) adaptation of John Collier’s short story, “Sleeping Beauty,” while working on Lolita with Stanley Kubrick. With sumptuous visuals by cinematographer Mario Tosi (Carrie, The Stunt Man) and a haunting score by Richard Hazzard (Xanadu, Terms of Endearment), you’ll fall right into this outré fantasy. Dir. James B. Harris, 1973, DCP, 103 min.
Songs from the North
“Rare and extraordinary…profoundly strange, immediate, and real.” – The Village Voice
Honored as the Best First Feature in both Locarno International Film Festival and DocLisboa, Songs From the North is an original and intimate look at the enigma of North Korea. Bypassing and decoding the country’s jingoistic propaganda, as well as derisive satire from the West, Soon-Mi Yoo interweaves footage from three visits to North Korea with songs, spectacle, popular cinema and archival footage. Songs From The North strives to understand, on their own terms, the psychology and popular imagery of the North Korean people and the political ideology of absolute love. Born in South Korea, Yoo teaches at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and frequently shows her work internationally. In person: Soon-Mi Yoo
Stan VanDerBeek: Newsreel of Dreams
Insatiably curious and eternally optimistic about the ever-moving horizons of moving image making, Stan VanDerBeek experimented with nearly every means available of creating and combining pictures. From collage film and cut-out animation to early explorations of large-scale film installation and the front-lines of electronic image-making, VanDerBeek enthusiastically embraced evolving technologies and their potential for new experiences. Trained at Black Mountain College, where he was influenced by figures such as John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Buckminster Fuller, VanDerBeek saw the potential in each new tool for expanding communication and immersion, often joyfully combining forms—photography, film, music, video, computer, dance, et al.—to arrive at unique syntheses and interdisciplinary projects. According to Gene Youngblood, he was a visionary of “the cultural and psychological implications of the Paleocybernetic Age.” Los Angeles Filmforum at MOCA is proud to present a program of VanDerBeek’s films in connection with the work of artists associated with Black Mountain College currently on view in the permanent collection.
A Story of People in War and Peace
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, we dedicate 2015 to an exploration of multiple facets of Armenian culture, history, and landscape through film in our series I Am Armenian.
Over the course of five days in 1994, the filmmaker Vardan Hovhannisyan documented a close-range battle of the Karabakh War, in which half the soldiers were wounded and a full third killed. Twelve years later he finds survivors, men with whom he shared a terrifying trench. His intimate conversations with these veterans demonstrate the cost of war and what it is to survive the peace. (2007, Dir. Vardan Hovha)
STRAIGHT FROM BERTHA
Calling attention to the recent digital and hybrid media work of longtime collaborators Roberta Friedman and Grahame Weinbren, this program features the latest iteration of the multi-generational, Gertrude Stein-inspired opus Straight from Bertha (1976/2010/2014, 40 min.)—with the new segments shot in the “ruins” of New York’s Millennium Film Workshop. Having collaborated at CalArts in the 1970s, Friedman and Weinbren explored mathematical structures, film as music, movie syntax and avant-garde narratives with a singular wit in their early films before turning to multimedia and interactive video installation, of which The Erl King (1983–86, Whitney Biennial 1987) was a groundbreaking example. Friedman and Weinbren—the senior editor of Millennium Film Journal—have continued to collaborate while also working individually. In person: Roberta Friedman and Grahame Weinbren
STRIKE ONE
2014, California Pictures, 102 min, USA, Dir: David Llauger Meiselman
Shot on location in East Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights neighborhood, this powerful coming-of-age drama shows the destructive wake of California’s “Three Strikes” law. Growing up in a gang-controlled area, Juan Garcia (Johnny Ortiz) has few male role models beyond his uncle Manny (Danny Trejo), an ex-gang banger who has reinvented himself as an actor. But even he may not be able to keep Juan out of trouble when that’s all the judicial system sees in his community. With French Stewart and James Russo. Preceded by: “Contrapelo” (2014, 19 min. Dir. Gareth Dunnet Alcocer) A proud Mexican barber (Art Bonilla) is forced to shave a druglord (Eduardo Roman) who is destroying his country.
STROMBOLI
1950, Janus Films, 81 min, Italy/USA, Dir: Roberto Rossellini
Ingrid Bergman’s affair with director Roberto Rossellini during the making of this drama sparked a scandal, derailing her Hollywood career for several years. She plays Karen, a Lithuanian war refugee who marries an Italian fisherman (Mario Vitale) to escape an internment camp, but life on his tradition-bound volcanic island proves restrictive in other ways. Rossellini’s neorealist approach provides a fascinating frame to Bergman’s strong central performance as the alienated village newcomer.
SUN CHOKE
A film firmly routed in the tried and true tradition of House of Psychotic Women, Sun Choke places ambiguity above all and revels in it via an unreliable narrator who’s a murderer, some perverse form of an epileptic and an adept manipulator.
Sarah Hagan stars in the film, as a severely damaged, borderline-autistic girl being cared for (held hostage by?) by her lifelong Nanny (Barbara Crampton) while the absent father figure is overseas for work. As mystery and abstraction certainly highlight this film’s strongest assets, going into plot description seems crass and egregious.
With lovely cinematography (including some delectable images of grotesquerie), solid performances all around, a haunting and ephemeral score by Bryan Hollen (Boom Bip) and a tight, yet fiercely open and illusive screenplay, Sun Choke is certainly one of the best pieces of intrigue hitting cinemas this year. With a live set by Boom Bip prior to the film! Dir. Ben Cresciman, 2015, DCP, 90 min.
THEY ALL LAUGHED
1981, HBO Films, 115 min, USA, Dir: Peter Bogdanovich
Director Peter Bogdanovich uses the private-eye genre as a vehicle to deliver deeply romantic insights about love, marriage and regret. John Ritter and Ben Gazzara work for the Odyssey Detective Agency, a firm where the investigators are more concerned with their own complicated love lives than with solving any cases. Audrey Hepburn and Dorothy Stratten co-star in this hilarious ensemble dramedy, a film that Quentin Tarantino declared one of the 10 greatest ever made.
THEY HAVE ESCAPED
2014, 102 min, Finland, Dir: J.-P. Valkeapää
Misfits Joni (Teppo Manner) and Raisa (Roosa Söderholm) flee a halfway house for troubled youth and hit the road to search for a buried fortune – a journey that takes several dark and surreal turns. Winner of four Jussi Awards, including Best Film and Best Direction. In Finnish with English subtitles.
Three Comrades (1938)
The second entry in director Frank Borzage’s “Weimar Trilogy” was adapted from its Erich Maria Remarque source novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Margaret Sullavan plays an impoverished young aristocrat who falls in with a trio of disillusioned WWI veterans whose camaraderie has become their refuge from the world. Fitzgerald's script—his only Hollywood screen credit—is suffused with “Lost Generation” nostalgia and a bittersweet vision of love.
Production: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. A Frank Borzage Production. Distribution: Loew's Inc. Producer: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Frank Borzage. Director: Frank Borzage. Based on the novel Drei Kameraden by Erich Maria Remarque. Screenwriter: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edward E. Paramore. Cinematographer: Joseph Ruttenberg. Art Director: Cedric Gibbons. Editor: Frank Sullivan. Music: Franz Waxman. With: Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone, Robert Young, Guy Kibbee. 35mm, b/w, 98 min.
TIKKUN
Tikkun is as an unflinching and unnerving portrait of an ultra-orthodox yeshiva student in Jerusalem. Haim-Aron is so obsessed with his studies and the rules he must follow, that it begins to border on martyrdom. When Haim-Aron considers indulging his desire for self-pleasure, it leads to an accident that seemingly takes him to death’s door and back again. When he wakes up in the hospital, a lot has changed. Haim-Aron’s father is haunted by surreal visions and violent dreams as he grapples with the changes he’s beginning to see in his son.
Enhanced immensely by striking black and white cinematography, a flirtation with the supernatural, a minimal but succinct script & eerily convincing acting from the majority of the cast, Tikkun is one of the most intriguing, demanding & ultimately rewarding films of the year. Dir. Avishai Sivan, 2015, DCP,120 min.
TONNERRE
2013, Wild Bunch, 102 min, France, Dir: Guillaume Brac
The little town of Tonnerre in Burgundy provides refuge to Maxime (Vincent Macaigne), a musician a bit past his prime. Things start looking up for him when he meets younger journalist Mélodie (Solène Rigot), until she suddenly breaks off their relationship, sending Maxime off the rails. As the film shifts from character study to thriller, Macaigne’s intense performance shows why he is among France’s most in-demand actors. In French with English subtitles.
Traders
What if it made sense for ordinary people to kill each other for money? Jobs are gone. Homes are being repossessed. Suicide rates are soaring. But Vernon Stynes might have the answer — Trading. Two people empty their bank accounts, sell everything they own and put the cash into green sports bags. They travel together to a remote location, dig a grave and fight to the death. The winner buries the loser and walks away with the two bags. Then you find someone else and do it again, and again, and again, until you are rich enough or dead, whichever comes first. Harry Fox has lost his job, his dignity and his best friend. What else has he got to lose? Why not become a Trader? Running time: 90 minutes. Written and Directed by Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy. Followed by a Q&A with Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy.
USED CARS
1980, Sony Repertory, 113 min, USA, Dir: Robert Zemeckis
Screenwriters Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis simultaneously satirize and celebrate what it means to be successful in America in this hilarious tale of a used-car salesman (Kurt Russell) who will do anything to hold onto his lot and make a sale. Jack Warden gives one of the best performances of his career as twin brothers who own rival dealerships where the gimmicks become increasingly outrageous as the competition escalates; Russell is at his most charming as a cynical variation on the Capra-esque hero.
THE VISIT
WHAT will happen when alien life arrives on earth? Conceptual artist Michael Madsen’s experimental documentary, The Visit—the second installment in in his “Trilogy on Mankind” (the first being Into Eternity, the 2010 documentary on the construction of the Onkalo nuclear waste storage facility in Finland)—is a stunning, immersive, and meandering answer to this question. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, NASA personnel, retired military experts, legal experts, astrobiologists, and psychologists hesitantly perform the roles they imagine inhabiting in the event of such an encounter, testing out their questions for ETs on Madsen’s audience. This film doesn’t need the spectacle of alien life to terrify viewers; all it takes is a glimpse into the monumental uncertainties embedded in a slew of worldly bureaucracies; Madsen’s ethereal sequences find alien territory on earth itself. Dir. Michael Madsen, 2015, Digital Presentation, 90 min.
VODKA LEMON
The central character in this comedy set amid a snowy Yazidi Kurdish village in post-Soviet Armenia is Hamo, a widower with three worthless sons. Hamo is so poor that he’s about to sell off his treasured military uniform when he meets Nina, a lovely widow who works at the village’s sparsely attended bar, Vodka Lemon, which is about to close. Selected to play at the Toronto Film Festival and in MoMA’s New Directors / New Films Festival. (2003, Dir. Hiner Saleem, 88 min.)
VREM
Echo Park Film Center graduate James Noel presents the premiere of his third feature, the surreal, experimental science fiction epic VREM, starring Janet Housden (DESPERATE TEENAGE LOVEDOLLS), Teddy Quinn (THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN), and legendary autobiographical cartoonist Carrie McNinch. James wrote, directed, photographed, and edited the film, as well as composing the original score; Kurt Comstock created several 16mm sequences; Marc Myers and Buzzsaw provided additional music.
WE LIKE IT LIKE THAT
Starring Latin boogaloo legends like Joe Bataan, Johnny Colon and Pete Rodriguez, We Like It Like That explores this lesser-known, but pivotal moment in Latin music history, through original interviews, music recordings, live performances, dancing and rare archival footage and images.
WESTERN
For generations, all that distinguished Eagle Pass, TX, from Piedras Negras, MX, was the Rio Grande. But when darkness descends upon these harmonious border towns, a cowboy and lawman face a new reality that threatens their way of life. This documentary takes a "hands off" approach, observing rather than questioning, and letting events unfold. Dir. Bill Ross IV & Turner Ross, 2015, HDCam, 92 min.
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE
1951, Paramount, 83 min, USA, Dir: Rudolph Mate
Despite its age, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE still remains far superior to all the other "giant-asteroid-on-a-collision-course-with-Earth" films that followed. Scientist Richard Derr tries to convince skeptical colleagues and world leaders about the Earth’s imminent demise. When they fail to listen, a dedicated band of pioneers constructs a Noah’s Ark-like rocket ship to save a few brave souls from annihilation. With Barbara Rush, Peter Hansen. Winner of the 1951 Special Effects Oscar - wait till you see the sinking of Manhattan! Discussion between films with actress Barbara Rush.
WHISPER & SCREAM
East Germany (DDR), 1988, 120 min., German with English suntitles, digital projection, Dir. Dieter Schumann
Music: André + Die Firma, Chicorée, Die Zöllner, Feeling B, Sandow, Silly and This Pop Generation.
Shot in 35mm shortly before the fall of the Berlin wall, and playing to over one million viewers in sold-out theaters in East Germany, Schumann’s film remains a cult film among music fans who grew up on both sides of the Iron Curtain. In many ways a road movie, the film follows well-established bands like Silly as well as underground rock bands like Feeling B as they tour through the GDR.
Clips from concerts and interviews with fans and members of André + Die Firma, Chicorée, Die Zöllner, Feeling B, Sandow, Silly and This Pop Generation, present an extremely candid view of this often overlooked music scene. The camera captures young people using music as an outlet to express their take on life, opposition to their parents' generation, and opinions on the political and social climate. The film shows that similar to their cohorts in Western Germany, East German youth used music as vehicle for rebellion, even withing the strict social confines of East Germany.
WILD RIVER
Fifty-fifth anniversary screening.
WILD RIVER (1960), set in Depression-era America, tells a provocative story of the conflict between an agent from the Tennessee Valley Authority and a proud, defiant older woman who refuses to sell her land in order to make way for a much needed dam. Oscar-nominated actors Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick star, and Oscar-winning actress Jo Van Fleet (only 40 at the time she made the film) plays the stubborn, 80-year-old matriarch, Ella Garth. This story raises issues about eminent domain that continue to be debated in the 21st century. Two-time Oscar-winning director Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront) considered this one of this most personal and pertinent films.
The film received mixed reviews at the time of its release, but Variety called it “an important motion picture… it has caught something timeless and essential in the human spirit and shaped it in the American image.” The Los Angeles Times agreed that it was “an excellently made, thought-provoking and turbulent film drama dealing with an important and certainly controversial part of American history.” Over the years the film’s reputation has grown. Several years ago, critic Dave Kehr declared, “This is probably Elia Kazan’s finest and deepest film.” In 2002 the film was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, an honor reserved for American films of special social or artistic significance.
Wild River marked the film debut of Bruce Dern, who had worked with Kazan in the Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth the previous year. Bruce Dern in person for a Q&A after the screening!