a highly-opinionated selection of things happening around town, and sometimes out of town. this month's page here.
wed. oct. 3 punishment park 10:15 PM @ silent movie theater the cyclops, the food of the gods @ egyptian bouquet, mt. eerie @ center for the arts eagle rock the witch who came from the sea MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater occupy la: looking back / looking forward FREE 9 PM @ epfc limelight @ ampas samuel goldwyn this is spinal tap FREE 8 PM @ space 1520 thu. oct. 4 mark cantor's jazz films FREE 7 PM @ 7 dudley cinema @ beyond baroque how the west was won 7 PM @ cinerama anniversary @ arclight cinerama dome the night of the hunter FREE @ melnitz movies @ ucla james bridges the quiet earth, the rapture @ egyptian the conformist @ aero compliance 10 PM @ silent movie theater axe MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater the dining dead @ the smell tabu (1931) FREE 5 PM @ the crank @ ucla james bridges dean wareham plays galaxie 500 (10:30) @ culture collide @ echo park united methodist fri. oct. 5 hard eight, boogie nights @ new beverly phil ranelin jazz ensemble @ angel city jazz fest @ lacma the last emperor @ aero compliance 7:30 10:00 PM @ silent movie theater evilspeak MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater sat. oct. 6 eagle rock music festival luckman jazz orchestra: tribute to kenny dorham @ luckman theatre boogie nights 4:20 9:30 PM, hard eight 7:30 PM @ new beverly gattaca @ barnsdall outdoor movies thee tee pees @ 5 star bar gaz's rockin' blues @ townhouse @ del monte merx FREE 10 PM @ permanent records ghosts @ spielberg @ egyptian 1900 @ aero compliance 9:40 PM @ silent movie theater inferno (1980) MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater tremellow @ the smell sex war and watermelons: robert nelson tribute screening #3 8 PM @ epfc laetitia sadier (10:30) @ culture collide @ echo park united methodist sun. oct. 7 the motorcycle diaries FREE 8 PM @ biker movie night @ satellite magnolia 3:30 7:30 PM @ new beverly archie shepp quartet @ angel city jazz fest @ ford amphitheatre summer window 5:30 PM, this ain't california @ egyptian the sheltering sky, beseiged @ aero compliance 7:00 9:30 PM @ silent movie theater dead & buried MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater mon. oct. 8 enter the i-hop FREE 6 PM @ documental @ unurban magnolia 8 PM @ new beverly cat people, i walked with a zombie @ aero compliance 10 PM @ silent movie theater visiting hours MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater the man who laughs @ ampas samuel goldwyn tue. oct. 9 corin tucker band @ echo punch-drunk love, there will be blood @ new beverly cold showers, violens, diiv @ echoplex return of the living dead @ greg proops film club @ silent movie theater the funhouse MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater decision at sundown 1 PM, buchanan rides again @ lacma the wolf man, an american werewolf in london @ ampas samuel goldwyn wed. oct. 10 punch-drunk love, there will be blood @ new beverly laughter in hell @ egyptian compliance 10:10 PM @ silent movie theater the monster (1925) @ silent movie theater cannibal apocalypse MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater wild pink horse @ redwood palace of silents @ hollywood heritage thu. oct. 11 blancanieves @ egyptian underworld u.s.a., election (2005) @ new beverly vampyr (w/ live score) 7:45 10:00 PM @ silent movie theater the burning MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater le pont du nord, 4 adventures of reinette and mirabelle @ lacma a hole is to dig: performance-based film & video from chicago 8 PM @ epfc thunderbolt FREE 5 PM @ the crank @ ucla james bridges german army @ complex the face of another FREE @ melnitz movies @ ucla james bridges fri. oct. 12 stranger cole, eric "monty" morris @ los globos the sleeping voice, unit 7 @ egyptian the nickel ride, the other @ aero underworld u.s.a., election (2005) @ new beverly xtro MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater heller keller @ pehrspace brannigan's law @ the smell before the revolution, the grim reaper @ ucla film archive the cabinet of dr. caligari, waxworks @ lacma the prosecution of an american president FREE 7 PM @ usc ray stark the last days of pompeii (1913) @ getty villa exit through the gift shop FREE @ santa monica pier sat. oct. 13 sunset boulevard @ barnsdall outdoor movies sweet smell of success, don't make waves @ aero strange behavior, night monster, curtains, neon maniacs, frankenhooker, etc. @ annual all-night horror show @ new beverly the mummy (1932) 5 PM, house of frankenstein @ silent movie theater the american scream 8 PM @ silent movie theater the evil dead MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater faust 5 PM @ lacma the complete metropolis @ lacma the last days of pompeii (1959) @ getty villa sun. oct. 14 the wild ones, no rest for the wicked @ egyptian ghost wave, the golden awesome @ the echo doctor zhivago @ aero mad monster party @ bob baker marionette theater possession MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater mon. oct. 15 taxi driver, bringing out the dead @ new beverly night of the bloody apes MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater tue. oct. 16 we're not broke FREE 7 PM @ usc ray stark taxi driver, bringing out the dead @ new beverly the toolbox murders MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater creature from the black lagoon 3-D (1954), the invisible man (1933) @ ampas samuel goldwyn the new politics of extremism FREE 6 PM @ hammer wed. oct. 17 sunset boulevard FREE @ hammer three o'clock high @ new beverly driller killer MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater thu. oct. 18 neil hamburger @ satellite white fence, woods @ the echo fuxa @ the prospector (LB) robin hood (1922) @ egyptian mardi gras massacre MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater maniac, vigilante @ lacma florian cramer presents work from worm.filmwerkplaats 8 PM @ epfc the bicycle thief, umberto d @ new beverly fri. oct. 19 faust @ redcat the mummy's hand, the mummy's tomb, the mummy's ghost, the mummy's curse @ mummython @ egyptian blow-up, blow out @ aero the beyond MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater animating the subconscious @ lacma evil dead 2: dead by dawn MIDNIGHT @ nuart the bicycle thief, umberto d @ new beverly mary lynn rajskub @ improv the devil rides out @ silent movie theatre sat. oct. 20 soft pack, crocodlies @ echoplex psycho (1960), dressed to kill @ aero the raven (1935) 4:45 PM, house of horrors @ silent movie theater blood feast MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater collage in motion FREE 5 PM @ lacma spotlight on lewis klahr FREE @ lacma movies & tv by mark toscano and lori felker 8 PM @ epfc the bicycle thief 3:30 7:30 PM, umberto d 5:25 9:25 PM @ new beverly the innkeepers MIDNIGHT @ new beverly haunts of angelino heights scavenger hunt 4 PM the manxman @ heritage square dawn of the dead (1978) @ cinespia @ hollywood forever white fence, woods @ soda bar (SD) sun. oct. 21 the man from beyond, terror island @ egyptian less than zero @ aero weird woman 2 PM, pillow of death @ silent movie theater anthropophagus MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater last tango in paris 7 PM @ ucla film archive haunted films in haunted places FREE @ epfc filmmobile haunts of angelino heights scavenger hunt 4 PM allah las, nick waterhouse @ el rey mirrored curtains: lori felker @ spielberg @ egyptian the guns of navarone 6 PM @ new beverly wreckless eric & amy rigby FREE 4 PM @ mount analog mon. oct. 22 animated golden and restored 8:30 PM @ china onscreen biennial: ripples of time and modernity @ redcat the selling 8 PM @ egyptian the shout (w/ live bio-acoustics) 8 PM @ silent movie theater snuff MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater hearst metrotone news FREE @ ucla film archive the guns of navarone 8 PM @ new beverly tue. oct. 23 beijing flickers 8:30 PM @ china onscreen biennial: ripples of time and modernity @ redcat upsilon acrux @ the smell the hands of orlac (w/ live score) @ silent movie theater fight for your life MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater the spider's stratagem @ ucla film archive our man in havana 1 PM @ lacma the birds @ ampas samuel goldwyn wed. oct. 24 melvins @ masonic lodge @ hollywood forever the house on the edge of the park MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater they live 8 PM @ hiddenla outdoor movie night @ heritage square thu. oct. 25 nightmares in a damaged brain MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater la air / joep brouwer & maurice de bruijne 8 PM @ epfc the last outlaw FREE 5 PM @ the crank @ ucla james bridges black cat white cat FREE 8 PM @ center for the arts eagle rock dementia (w/ live narration and score) 10:15 PM @ silent movie theater the flytraps @ lot 1 fri. oct. 26 jon brion @ largo earth @ center for the arts eagle rock ghostbusters (70mm) @ egyptian the hunger, true romance @ aero faces of death MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater gary war, purple pilgrims, night control @ the smell pangea, meat market @ echo big top pee-wee @ new beverly sat. oct. 27 frankenstein meets the wolfman 2:00 8:00 PM @ alex theatre house on haunted hill @ barnsdall outdoor movies spyrals FREE 6 PM @ permanent records ghostbusters (70mm) @ egyptian hellraiser, motel hell, the devil's rain, christine, the living dead of manchester morgue, the manitou @ dusk-to-dawn horrorthon @ aero the ditch @ ucla film archive abbott and costello meet frankenstein 2 PM, the ghost and mr. chicken @ ampas linwood dunn the incredible shrinking man, tarantula @ oscars outdoors texts of light: a mid-career retrospective of fourteen films by david gatten: program i 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama sun. oct. 28 nosferatu (w/ live accompaniment) 4 PM @ egyptian universal horror b-sides 3 PM, dracula (spanish version) @ silent movie theater cannibal ferox MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater haunted films in haunted places FREE @ epfc filmmobile inferno (1953) 7 PM, dark country @ downtown independent catwalk, sea lions @ part time punks @ echo david gatten program ii: four films toward part v of secret history of the dividing line: a true account in 9 parts @ spielberg @ egyptian the cremator 4 PM @ ucla film archive feng shui 7 PM @ ucla film archive mon. oct. 29 silent mountains singing oceans and slivers of time: six films by david gatten 8:30 PM @ redcat dracula (1931), horror of dracula @ aero jerry beck's animated spooktacular @ silent movie theater the last house on the left (1972) MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater the flying ace @ ucla film archive david gatten program iii: silent mountains singing oceans and slivers of time 8:30 PM @ redcat grizzly 7 PM @ pendersleigh & sons cartography tue. oct. 30 the tingler (in "percepto") @ silent movie theater don't go in the house MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater 20 million miles to earth 1 PM @ lacma the phantom of the opera (1925) @ ampas samuel goldwyn black sabbath, from a whisper to a scream @ new beverly garam hawa FREE @ hammer fancy space people @ los globos wed. oct. 31 the cat and the canary (w/ live organ accompaniment) 8 PM @ disney hall bleached @ the echo creature from the black lagoon (3-D) @ aero it came from the vaults: classic horror trailers from the academy film archive @ silent movie theater cannibal holocaust MIDNIGHT @ nightmare city: a video nasties celebration @ silent movie theater what ever happened to baby jane? 8 PM @ arclight hollywood black sabbath, from a whisper to a scream @ new beverly painted skin: the resurrection @ ucla film archive thu. nov. 1 derailroaded FREE 7 PM @ larry "wild man" fischer nite @ 7 dudley cinema @ beyond baroque the dreamers @ ucla film archive caught FREE 5 PM @ the crank @ ucla james bridges show people @ ampas samuel goldwyn hitchcock FREE @ afi fest @ grauman's chinese the films of stephanie maxwell 9:30 PM @ epfc something in the air FREE 7 PM @ usc ray stark brent weinbach 9:30 PM @ ucb boy meets girl FREE @ melnitz movies @ ucla james bridges fri. nov. 2 raiders of the lost ark MIDNIGHT @ nuart everybody in our family FREE 4 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 a hijacking FREE 4:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 sunrise FREE 4:30 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian kid-thing FREE 6:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 pieta FREE 6:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 4 something in the air FREE 7 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 post tenebras lux FREE 7:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 5 life of pi in 3d FREE @ afi fest @ grauman's chinese wrong FREE 9:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 in the fog FREE 9:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 4 everybody's got somebody... not me FREE 10 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 reality FREE 10:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 5 a liar's autobiography: the untrue story of monty python's graham chapman in 3D 7:30 9:30 PM @ aero alien (director's cut) MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater film TBA @ an evening with paul thomas anderson @ lacma miss representation FREE 7 PM @ usc broccoli theatre wake in fright 7:30 10:20 PM @ silent movie theater sat. nov. 3 partner, the conformist @ ucla film archive spires that in the sunset rise, lucky dragons @ the smell berberian sound studio FREE 1 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 after lucia FREE 1 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 sunset blvd. FREE 3 pm @ afi fest @ grauman's chinese the central park five FREE 3:30 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian beyond the hills FREE 3:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 tchoupitoulas FREE 3:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 shorts program 6 FREE 4:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 6 amour FREE 4:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 5 greatest hits FREE 6:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 the most fun i've ever had with my pants on FREE 6:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 4 holy motors FREE 7 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian somebody up there likes me FREE 7:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 6 west of memphis FREE 7:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 caesar must die FREE 7:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 5 on the road FREE 8 pm @ afi fest @ grauman's chinese the last step FREE 9:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 all the light in the sky FREE 9:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 ape FREE 10:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 5 abcs of death FREE MIDNIGHT @ afi fest @ chinese 6 white fence @ satellite a liar's autobiography: the untrue story of monty python's graham chapman in 3D 7:30 9:30 PM @ aero time 6:30 PM @ an evening with kim ki-duk in person @ silent movie theater planet mormon 10 PM @ silent movie theater sound movies: kick that habit and twelve dark noons 8 PM @ epfc uzi rash FREE 6 PM @ permanent records wake in fright 10 PM @ silent movie theater sun. nov. 4 the girl on a motorcycle FREE 8 PM @ biker movie night @ satellite the last emperor 7 PM @ ucla film archive tchoupitoulas FREE 1 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 4 reality FREE 1:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 5 our children FREE 1:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 the last step FREE 1:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 war witch FREE 3:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 something in the air FREE 4:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 5 after lucia FREE 4 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 6 all the light in the sky FREE 4:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 antiviral FREE 6:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 barbara FREE 6:15 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian like someone in love FREE 6:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 4 the hunt FREE 7 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 pearblossom hwy FREE 7 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 6 leviathan FREE 7:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 in another country FREE @ afi fest @ chinese 5 room 237 FREE 9 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 pieta FREE 10 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 greatest hits FREE 10:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 5 a liar's autobiography: the untrue story of monty python's graham chapman in 3D 7:30 9:30 PM @ aero spring summer fall winter... and spring 7:45 PM, 3-iron @ silent movie theater rose lowder: colorful frames @ velaslavasay panorama mon. nov. 5 the poetics of place: films by rose lowder 8:30 PM @ redcat the central park five FREE 1:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 west of memphis FREE 1:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 5 in the fog FREE 1:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 42nd street FREE 1:30 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian somebody up there likes me FREE 1:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 4 wrong FREE 1:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 beyond the hills FREE 4 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 4 a royal affair FREE 4 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian post tenebras lux FREE 4:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 starlet FREE 7 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 6 kon-tiki FREE 7:15 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian tabu (2012) FREE 7:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 tey FREE @ afi fest @ chinese 4 berberian sound studio FREE 9:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 the hunt FREE 10:15 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian the sapphires FREE 10:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 a hijacking FREE 10:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 4 sun don't shine FREE 10:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 a liar's autobiography: the untrue story of monty python's graham chapman in 3D 6 PM @ aero dial m for murder 3D 8 PM @ aero bad guy @ silent movie theater wake in fright 10:20 PM @ silent movie theater tue. nov. 6 cosmonauts @ the echo the caine mutiny 1 PM @ lacma holy motors FREE 1:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 the rules of the game FREE 1:30 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian everybody in our family FREE 1:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 war witch FREE 1:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 6 like someone in love FREE 2:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 4 kon-tiki FREE 4 pm @ afi fest @ grauman's chinese caesar must die FREE 4:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 tabu (2012) FREE 4:30 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian amour FREE 4:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 6 everybody's got somebody... not me FREE 4:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 5 the sapphires FREE @ afi fest @ chinese 1 a liar's autobiography: the untrue story of monty python's graham chapman in 3D 7:30 9:30 PM @ aero wake in fright 9:40 PM @ silent movie theater wed. nov. 7 surname viet given name nam 8:30 PM @ redcat war don don FREE 7 PM @ usc ray stark room 237 FREE 1:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 ape FREE 1:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 5 vivre sa vie FREE 1:30 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian pearblossom hwy FREE 1:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 barbara FREE 4 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian tey FREE 4:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 6 sun don't shine FREE 4:45 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 4 our children FREE 6:45 pm @ afi fest @ egyptian abcs of death FREE 7 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 antiviral FREE 7:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 4 kid-thing FREE @ afi fest @ chinese 5 ginger and rosa FREE 8 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 starlet FREE 10 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 5 the most fun i've ever had with my pants on FREE 10:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 3 a liar's autobiography: the untrue story of monty python's graham chapman in 3D 7:30 9:30 PM @ aero the monkey talks @ silent movie theater wake in fright 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater thu. nov. 8 cat power @ palladium ginger and rosa FREE 1:15 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 1 shorts program 6 FREE 1:30 pm @ afi fest @ chinese 2 episodes of "alfred hitchcock presents" FREE @ egyptian a liar's autobiography: the untrue story of monty python's graham chapman in 3D 6 PM @ aero dial m for murder 3D 8 PM @ aero the people's crisis 8 PM @ epfc an evening with fred worden FREE 7 PM @ usc ray stark architecture and cinema: new and rare films part three @ schindler house impulse to archive 7 PM @ moca grand ave fri. nov. 9 miami connection MIDNIGHT @ nuart woggles @ satellite machine-man: the musical mayhem of raymond scott 8:30 PM @ redcat all ages: the boston hardcore film @ spielberg @ egyptian our children @ aero aliens MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater fear and desire, killer's kiss @ lacma sic alps, crazy band @ highland park american legion hall the set-up FREE 8 PM @ art share l.a. sat. nov. 10 the sea and cake @ bootleg all ages: the boston hardcore film @ spielberg @ egyptian hitchcock, psycho @ egyptian boogie nights, punch-drunk love @ aero the killing 5 PM @ lacma paths of glory @ lacma silent cry 8 PM @ epfc neonates @ the smell mon. nov. 12 protest music films FREE 6 PM @ documental @ unurban night control, bachsung, lessnesses @ pehrspace thu. nov. 15 el ten eleven @ the echo we won't grow old together @ new beverly fri. nov. 16 jon brion @ largo we won't grow old together @ new beverly tame impala @ el rey sat. nov. 17 tame impala @ fonda we won't grow old together @ new beverly mon. nov. 19 reconversao 8:30 PM @ redcat tue. nov. 20 the wild one 1 PM @ lacma fri. nov. 23 tamaryn, tropic of cancer @ echo sat. nov. 24 three stooges big screen event 2:00 8:00 PM @ alex theatre mon. nov. 26 print generation FREE @ ucla james bridges tue. nov. 27 dissolution FREE 7 PM @ usc ray stark thu. nov. 29 charles bradley & the menahan street band @ ucla royce hall stevie FREE 7 PM @ usc ray stark the river FREE 5 PM @ the crank @ ucla james bridges fri. nov. 30 moon duo @ casbah (SD) sat. dec. 1 moon duo @ down & out audition, black peter @ ucla film archive sun. dec. 2 the wild ride FREE 8 PM @ biker movie night @ satellite no man of her own 7 PM, the mating season @ ucla film archive a christmas story 2 PM @ orpheum mon. dec. 3 recent work from anthology film archive FREE @ ucla film archive thu. dec. 6 veronika krausas' music & films FREE 7 PM @ 7 dudley cinema @ beyond baroque fri. dec. 7 ornette: made in america @ new beverly all over me @ ucla film archive altered states MIDNIGHT @ nuart sat. dec. 8 the swiss family skiiers, thee tee pees @ 5 star bar ornette: made in america @ new beverly sun. dec. 9 ornette: made in america @ new beverly mon. dec. 10 ornette: made in america @ new beverly tue. dec. 11 ornette: made in america @ new beverly wed. dec. 12 ornette: made in america @ new beverly thu. dec. 13 ornette: made in america @ new beverly fri. dec. 14 wooden shjips, trans am @ los globos sat. dec. 15 ty segall FREE 6 PM @ permanent records ty segall, pangea @ el rey loves of a blonde, the fireman's ball @ ucla film archive fri. dec. 21 jon brion @ largo psychic ills @ echo fri. dec. 28 the princess bride MIDNIGHT @ nuart sat. dec. 29 the greatest cartoons ever 2:00 7:00 PM @ alex theatre WHAT IT IS: ABCS OF DEATH Twenty-five directors – and one lucky contest winner – make signature short films, both deadly and horrific, based on the letters of the alphabet. 123 MIN. AFTER LUCIA DIRECTOR Michel Franco, 102 MIN When a father and daughter move to Mexico City, she is brutally victimized by bullies and disappears, pursued by her heartbroken father. All Over Me (1997) "...tough, compassionate and true." - San Francisco Chronicle Directed by Alex Sichel Alex Sichel’s penetrating feature charts a young lesbian’s sojourn of self-discovery. Alison Folland is pitch perfect as Claude, a teenager whose wish to start a band runs aground of her growing attraction for friend and potential band-mate, self-destructive Ellen. One of only a few lesbian features to receive a general release, the film is an emblem of its time, featuring music of Sleater-Kinney, Ani DiFranco, and Babes in Toyland. Producer: Dolly Hall. Screenwriter: Sylvia Sichel. Cinematographer: Joe DeSalvo. Editor: Sabine Hoffman. Cast: Alison Folland, Tara Subkoff, Cole Hauser, Wilson Cruz, Ann Dowd. 35mm, color, 90 min. ALL THE LIGHT IN THE SKY DIRECTOR Joe Swanberg, 78 MIN | NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Jane Adams stars as an insomniac actress facing the waning days of her career, when her niece pays a visit to her Malibu house. THE AMERICAN SCREAM Winner of Best Documentary Feature at Fantastic Fest 2012 — from the director of Best Worst Movie! Chances are you’ve come across one in your lifetime. Your neighbor, your co-worker, even someone in your family might be one. Months of their planning, designing and building leads up to a single night of terror — one that’s over in the blink of an eye. These people are “home haunters”. Every Halloween, the sleepy town of Fairhaven, MA erupts with endless styrofoam tombstones, backyard beasts and the most ambitiously creative spookery in the world, thanks to a few supremely dedicated local “haunters” devoted to the art of handcrafted monster-making. Michael Stephenson’s brand-new documentary The American Scream follows three of these horrific homesteads, to uncover the triumphs and tragedies that come with carrying the blackened banner of true Halloween spirit — and to revel in the artists’ collective genius, bred from the love of scaring the pants off their friends and neighbors. Michael Paul Stephenson will be here for a Q&A after the film! Dir. Michael Stephenson, 2012, HD presentation, 90 min. AMOUR DIRECTOR Michael Haneke, 127 MIN Director Michael Haneke's deeply moving and uncompromising story of two retired music teachers whose abiding love is challenged by infirmity and dementia. ANIMATED, GOLDEN AND RESTORED The inaugural edition of the three-week bicoastal showcase of Chinese cinema brings two evenings of eye-opening animated and live-action film, respectively, to REDCAT. On October 22, the program “Animated, Golden and Restored” offers a rare glimpse at the luminous output of the “twin Golden Ages of Shanghai animation” (1950s–60s and late 1970s– early 80s). Digitally restored by the China Film Archive, the shorts include Pigsy Eats Watermelon (1958), a vibrant paper-cut animation by the pioneering Wan brothers; Baby Tadpoles Look for Their Mother (1960), the first of the ink-wash masterpieces by ASIFA lifetime achievement honoree Te Wei; and, as a bonus, China’s earliest extant animation, The Mouse and the Frog (1934), showing Disney and Fleischer influences. Animating the Subconscious The surrealists were fond of popular entertainments at their most deliriously irrational and artificial, finding in cinema, as Luis Buñuel once put it, “a marvelous and dangerous weapon . . . the finest instrument there is for expressing the world of dreams, of the emotions, of instinct.” Animation historian Jerry Beck returns to LACMA for an evening devoted to studio cartoons from the 1930s to the 1950s that delve into these subliminal territories with punch-drunk panache. Liberated from the laws of science, decorum, and logic, these cartoons exemplify Hollywood’s dream factory at its most sublimely imaginative and adventurously hilarious. Full program to be announced. ANTHROPOPHAGUS Legendary Italian exploitationeer/pornographer Joe D’Amato (Emanuelle in America, Porno Holocaust) dug new depths of terror with his infamous gorefest Anthropophagus, a perennial favorite of old-school VHS bootleggers everywhere. A group of tourists that includes Video Nasty veterans Tisa Farrow (Mia’s sister, star of Fulci’s Zombie) and Zora Kerova (Cannibal Ferox) arrive on a small Greek island looking for fun in the sun. But it’s not all beautiful scenery and gorgeous villas; a hulking, deformed monstrosity played by co-screenwriter/memorable man-beast George Eastman (1990: The Bronx Warriors) is hungry and looking for prey. A surprisingly atmospheric addition to the Nasties list, the film uses its candle-lit corridors, ghostly dread-building and repulsive teeth-on-flesh ripping on its way to a genuinely shocking climax. Join us for a rare stateside 35mm unleashing of Anthropophagus on the Cinefamily screen! NOTE: our screening comes from the R-rated U.S. version of the film known as The Grim Reaper. We will be screening any scenes missing from the 35mm print on DVD after the film. Dir. Joe D’Amato, 1980, 35mm, 87 min. ANTIVIRAL DIRECTOR Brandon Cronenberg, 108 MIN When the frantic obsession with celebrity leads to the trafficking of stars' diseases to their fans, death is sure to be waiting in the wings. APE DIRECTOR Joel Potrykus, 86 MIN | U.S. PREMIERE Trevor is the poster child for post-adolescent malaise. His sole ambition of being a famous comedian leads him to madness when he makes a deal with the devil. Audition (Konkurs) (1964) Directed by Miloš Forman Forman’s influential first feature is made up of two short stories. In the first, a pair of young musicians in rival brass bands skip an important concert to attend a motorcycle race. In the second, a young female pedicurist secretly takes time off from work to attend a singing audition. Both stories whimsically illustrate the wish to transcend drab, authoritarian strictures. Filmové studio Barrandov. Screenwriter: Miloš Forman, Ivan Passer. Cinematographer: Miroslav Ondrícek. Editor: Miroslav Hájek. Cast: Jirí Suchý, Jirí Šlitr, Markéta Krotká, Ladislav Jakim, Karel Mares. 35mm, b/w, 77 min AXE Axe is a perverse blast of chintzy, art-horror realism that no one eulogizes, but everyone should. In other words, it’s one of the best kept secrets in vintage exploitation. Lisa and her paralyzed grandfather live in a desolate Gothic home. A few rapist-killers stop by for a visit. Guns are waved. Demands are made. Everyone acts like a stoned extraterrestrial. Then, Lisa grabs her AXE! Towing a fine line between affecting techniques and disorientating mood, Axe is an amalgam of gritty, exploitive joy. It’s like the Overlook Hotel from The Shining was relocated to the town from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, then given a makeover by Jean Rollin. With lots of synths. Crafted with confidence by director Frederick Friedel (Kidnapped Coed) and produced by sleaze kingpin Harry Novak, Axe is one of the most notable and unique obscurities in this wild ‘n wooly Video Nasty canon. Our screening is introduced by Video Nasties expert David Gregory (Severin Films)! Dir. Frederick R. Friedel, 1977, 35mm, 72 min. BARBARA DIRECTOR Christian Petzold, 105 MIN In 1980, an East German country doctor must decide between her desire to escape to the West and her attraction to a male colleague who may be informing on her. Before the Revolution (1964) "Here is a new talent of outstanding promise" - The New York Times Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci Fabrizio’s passage to adulthood is marked by the death of an adored childhood friend and then by an affair with his aunt. He faces an existential dilemma: is it possible to maintain one’s youthful ideals and be a member of the bourgeoisie? Offering the suggestion of a libidinal politics with emancipatory potential, the film foreshadows Bertolucci’s later explorations of the link between the sexual and the political. Cineriz. Producer: Gianni Amico. Screenwriter: Bernardo Bertolucci, Gianni Amico. Cinematographer: Aldo Scavarda. Editor: Roberto Perpignani. Cast: Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Allen Midgette, Morando Morandini, Cristina Pariset. 35mm, b/w, 115 min. BEIJING FLICKERS The inaugural edition of the three-week bicoastal showcase of Chinese cinema brings two evenings of eye-opening animated and live-action film, respectively, to REDCAT. On October 23, Zhang Yuan, the best- known exponent of the post 1990s “Urban Generation” of Chinese filmmakers, presents Beijing Flickers (2012), an incisive yet lyrical exploration of the lives of young people “trying to make it” in the melting pot of social contradictions and hybrid cultural values that Beijing has become. BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO DIRECTOR Peter Strickland, 92 MIN At a giallo Italian film company in the 1970s, a British sound engineer from the “home counties” is swept up by the world of sex, sadism and pulp movies. BESIEGED 1998, Fine Line Features, 93 min, Italy, Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci Bertolucci sets the epic sweep of 1900 and THE LAST EMPEROR aside for this chamber piece in which African refugee Shandurai (Thandie Newton) takes a job working for the reclusive Mr. Kinsky (David Thewlis) in Rome. As employee and employer become attracted to one another, Bertolucci uses their relationship to comment on a wide array of issues having to do with all forms of denial and awakening in both a personal and political sense. THE BEYOND The apex of Lucio Fulci’s infamous and unbeatable zombie quartet (which also consists of Zombie, City of the Living Dead, and House by the Cemetery), The Beyond is a hallucinatory masterpiece that you’ll never forget. After an appropriately creepy sepia-tone prologue, we have the story of an abandoned Louisiana hotel under the care of a new owner from the Big City, who quickly realizes that the multiple unexplained and bizarre disturbances throughout the hotel are the result of its dark secret: a cryptic gateway to Hell housed somewhere within the property. All of Fulci’s most noteworthy collaborators attack this film full throttle, especially the amazing Sergio Salvati pumping up the atmospheric lighting across the scope frame, and Fabio Frizzi manipulating piano solos and electronics into a tremendous music score. More than any other Fulci film, The Beyond is a heartfelt poem for horror fans and, most importantly — a gory good show. Dir. Lucio Fulci, 1981, 35mm, 89 min. BEYOND THE HILLS DIRECTOR Cristian Mungiu, 155 MIN An unhappy young woman visiting her one-time lover in a Romanian convent is accused of being possessed by the devil. This gripping drama is based on a case of alleged demonic possession that occurred in a Romanian monastery in 2005. BLACK CAT, WHITE CAT This month, we will be showing the Yugoslavian comedy, Black Cat, White Cat. Even though it's a narrative film and not a documentary, by using non-actors and actual Roma settings, Emir Kusturica gives a raucous but sincere portrayal of gypsy life. Although it was filmed in 1998, so many of the issues and situations presented feel relevant still, as Roma struggle to keep a place for their traditional nomadic lifestyle in the post-Soviet landscape of the Eastern Bloc. "Mr. Kusturica so evidently adores all of the film's other characters that Black Cat, White Cat becomes a wild, warts-and-all celebration of their lives and like Fellini, Kusturica finds true grace where it's least expected and makes films utterly, uncompromisingly his own". -- Janet Maslin, New York Times Black Peter (Cerny Petr) (1964) Directed by Miloš Forman Peter is a disaffected teenager oppressed by his new job scoping out shoplifters in a supermarket, when he’d be much happier hanging out by a swimming pool and flirting with girls. The invectives with which his boss and his father harangue him seem almost of a language other than his own. Forman’s skilled use of non-actors and improvisation gives the film a surprising and cheeky charm. Filmové studio Barrandov. Producer: Rudolf Hájek. Screenwriter: Miloš Forman, Jaroslav Papoušek. Cinematographer: Jan Nemecek. Editor: Miroslav Hájek. Cast: Ladislav Jakim, Pavla Martinková, Jan Vostrcil, Vladimír Pucholt, Pavel Sedlacek. 35mm, b/w, 85 min. BLANCANIEVES (SNOW WHITE) 2011, 104 min, Spain, Dir: Pablo Berger In a year when Snow White reappropriations are de rigeur, Pablo Berger's 1920s-set silent tale, offset by punchy Flamenco rhythms, is hands-down the most imaginative. Rejected at birth by her father, Carmencita (Macarena Garcia) is raised by her grandmother. But when granny dies, the poor dark-haired maiden is sent to the lower depths of her evil stepmother's villa. Maribel Verdu (Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) gives a knockout, ingeniously campy-smart performance as the villainess, hellbent on keeping Carmencita from Prince Charming - here a bullfighting dwarf! - and thwarting her dreams of becoming a matador. "While Michel Hazanavicius’ Oscar winner [THE ARTIST] was a playful valentine to pre-talkies Hollywood, Spanish writer-director Pablo Berger’s inventive Andalusian reworking of Snow White is a love letter to 1920s European silent film, liberally mixing humor and melodrama." - The Hollywood Reporter BLOOD FEAST How far are you willing to go? Mild-mannered sexploiteer Herschell Gordon Lewis answered this very question when he teamed with legendary huckster David F. Friedman to drop this visionary splatter bomb way back in 1963 (the same year Lawrence of Arabia cleaned up at the Oscars), forever changing cinema in the process, and directly influencing nearly every horror film that followed. An Egyptian caterer (and author of the book ‘Ancient Weird Religious Rites’) is hacking through the nubile underworld of a pre-CSI Miami, gathering body parts to pay tribute to his beloved Goddess Ishtar. Featuring more meat than your local butcher, and a Playboy Playmate (Connie Mason) not exactly known for her acting skills, Blood Feast is fueled with more blood-soaked chutzpah than had ever previously hit the drive-in circuit — and, in the intervening fifty years, has lost none of its power to disgust, shock and entertain. The original theatrical poster screams “NOTHING SO APPALLING IN THE ANNALS OF HORROR”, and we can’t help but agree as a rare 35mm print unspools on the Cinefamily screen IN BLOOD COLOR! Dir. Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1963, 35mm, 67 min. THE BURNING Friday the 13th may have gotten all the glory, but stab for stab, no summer camp slasher movie tops 1981's The Burning. Notable for appearances by future stars Holly Hunter, Jason Alexander and (ahem) Fisher Stevens, this underappreciated classic put the Weinsteins on the map and was Tom Savini’s follow-up to his groundbreaking gore work in the original F13th. Drawing from the suburban folktales of the scarred killer “Cropsey”, The Burning concerns itself with a burnt, garden-shear-wielding maniac reaping unholy vengeance on campers for the scorching he suffered at the hands of a prank. Some truly memorable carnage ensues, including an infamous multiple murder on a canoe which routinely flays repertory movie crowds. But like summer camp, what you really take from The Burning is the memories (and maybe perhaps its Rick Wakeman original score), so grab your cutoff shorts and head on down to the lake with us for s’mores of gore. Be sure to write mom and dad that you’ll be home — in a bodybag! Fully uncut 35mm print! Dir. Tony Maylam, 1981, 35mm, 91 min. CAESAR MUST DIE DIRECTORS Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani, 76 MIN Deep within a Roman prison, a cast of real-life inmates rehearses a production of “Julius Caesar,” finding echoes of their own crimes within the text. CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE A schizo genre-swapping early ‘80s thrillride, featuring piles of well-done spurting gore, suburban sexual angst, biker gang viciousness, insane asylum realness, and elderly women running through the jungle while set on fire! Based on its name alone, it would of course be easy (and erroneous) to lump Cannibal Apocalypse into the exact same category as other frolicsome Italian sleazefests like Cannibal Holocaust, but Antonio Margheriti’s crackerjack horrorthon has way more in common with gritty, urban fare like Taxi Driver or Vigilante, with a layer of Rabid‘s virus panic horror on top. After an astoundingly entertaining opening involving John Saxon and his Green Beret death squad ambushing said old ladies in Vietnam with their flamethrowers, we flash forward to years later, when Saxon and some POWs he rescued back in the jungle all reunite, after discovering a mutual taste for ripping hunks of meat out of peoples’ faces with their teeth. Somewhere in the mix, there’s a vague explanation about a cannibal virus picked up by the POWs in Vietnam — but does it really matter? Dir. Antonio Margheriti, 1980, 35mm, 91 min. THE CAT AND THE CANARY The will of wealthy Cyrus West is read to his relatives, who spend the night in his mansion and are stalked by “The Cat,” a mysterious escapee from the local asylum, who claws his victims like canaries. Directed by German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni, this 1927 classic silent film is accompanied by Clark Wilson on Walt Disney Concert Hall’s incredible organ. CAUGHT A dark and compelling story of a girl married to the wrong man who runs away and falls in love with a struggling young ghetto doctor. Chased down by the husband, she is forced to choose between money and love. Robert Ryan gives a strong performance as the vicious, mentally unstable millionaire husband (based on Howard Hughes). With Barbara Bel Geddes and James Mason as the lovers. Max Ophuls---USA---1949---90 mins. THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE DIRECTORS Sarah Burns, Ken Burns, David McMahon, 119 MIN Ken Burns' documentary about what was known as the crime of century showcases a group of teenagers who were forced to give false confessions and were wrongfully convicted for raping and beating New York City jogger Trisha Meili. Collage in Motion This free program covers more than sixty years of groundbreaking cinema that shares surrealism’s affinity for working with paper to create vibrant landscapes of the mind. Whether manipulating found materials or animating the artist’s own cutouts, these works are at once artisanal in their practice, avant-garde in their aesthetics, and often subversive in their themes. The Complete Metropolis 1927/b&w/148 min./digital Scr: Thea von Harbou; dir: Fritz Lang; w/ Alfred Abel, Brigette Helm, Gustav Froelich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge With a year-and-a-half-long production and nearly thirty-seven thousand actors employed, Fritz Lang’s dystopian epic was an immense and expensive undertaking that nearly bankrupted UFA. But its blend of romance, adventure, and allegory, set against a vast and sophisticated fantasy world, has resonated throughout film history and made Metropolis one of the most influential films of all time. Set in the year 2026 in a future society divided between a master race of all-powerful capitalists who rule and play atop towering high rises and masses who toll in mechanized unison in sprawling subterranean factories, Lang’s film focuses on the struggle between the pacifist, Lower City activist Maria and her evil double—a sensual robot that incites the worker slaves to self-destructive anarchy. Reputedly inspired by Lang’s view of the New York skyline, Metropolis transforms the social crises of urbanized 1920s Germany into an unforgettable vision of hell on earth. This restored version of Metropolis premiered at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival where more than two-thousand people viewed it at the Brandenburg Gate. It incorporates twenty-five minutes of footage presumed lost since the film’s original 1927 Berlin debut. Sourced from a recently discovered 16mm dupe negative found in an Argentinian film archive, this version of Metropolis comes closest to capturing Lang’s original vision for this most ambitious of films. COMPLIANCE “Deeply, viscerally unnerving — it’s about the scared, intimidated and unquestioning follower in all of us.” — Nathan Rabin, AV Club When a police officer tells you to do something, you do it — right? Bound to inspire the most heated post-screening audience debate since Antichrist, the chill-you-to-your-core experience of Compliance presents one of the most complex psychological finger traps to hit the screen in years. In a nightmarish tale (based on true events) that blurs the line between legality and reason, the high-strung manager of a suburban fast-food joint receives a call from a cop saying that one of her female teenage employees has stolen money. Convinced she’s only doing what’s right, the manager complies with the officer’s strict demands in a humiliating step-by-step investigation — but as the shocking reality of the ordeal escalates into the stratosphere, the question throbs in your mind: “Am I certain I wouldn’t do the same?” Told with fantastically nuanced performances (including a career-maker from Ann Dowd as the once-kindly restaurant manager), Compliance’s unforgettable descent into the depths of raw human-ness is impossible to turn away from, and an indelible reminder of cinema’s power to positively provoke. Dir. Craig Zobel, 20120, 35mm, 90 min. THE CYCLOPS 1957, Warner Bros., 66 min, USA, Dir: Bert I. Gordon When test pilot Bruce Barton goes missing, his girlfriend organizes a search party that includes a scientist, a pilot, and a mining expert (played by horror icon Lon Chaney Jr.). Flying into a Mexican jungle, the group encounters enormous mutant snakes and bugs, and that's nothing compared to the 50-foot title character they eventually find! B-movie auteur Bert I. Gordon directs this classic of 1950s sci-fi horror. Discussion between films with director Bert I. Gordon. DEAD & BURIED From the directorial genius who brought you both the ‘80s urban grimesploitation classic Vice Squad and the ‘70s subterranean zombie chompfest Raw Meat — and from the pen of the creator of both Alien and Return of the Living Dead! Oh, yeah, and with SFX by Stan Winston too! The sheriff of a sleepy New England town makes all kinds of exaggerated upset faces when the local populace begins engaging in mass homicide. It seems that every other citizen in Potter’s Bluff is in on the dirty doin’s, including Robert “Freddy” Englund, all-American dreamgirl Lisa Blount and a charmingly feeble 90-year-old undertaker who couldn’t be more pleased by the sudden increase in his revenue. Though the film unfolds with Bradbury-esque fairytale weirdness, there’s more than a few bucketfuls of shocking gore, including a downright brain-curdling showdown between a hypodermic needle and an eyeball. Blecccchhh!!! Dir. Gary Sherman, 1981, 35mm, 92 min. Dementia (w/ live narration by Paul F. Tompkins and live score by Eban Schletter!) You'll be guided through a special screening of this gem of 1950s shot-without-sound weirdness by the ghastly live narration of both Paul F. Tompkins & guest Matt Gourley (of Superego), and the spine-tingling accompaniment of Eban Schletter (music man of "Mr. Show")! They'll lead you into the smoky labyrinth of a hell so groovy, only the straightest of squares would dare turn away from its jazz-laced majesty. DERAILROADED: INSIDE THE MIND OF LARRY "WILD MAN" FISCHER 2nd Annual LARRY "WILD MAN" FISCHER NITE - Celebrate a sympathetic and touching journey through the thunderstorms of the mind of paranoid-schizophrenic Larry "Wild Man" Fischer and his discordant encounters in the music business live readings, performances and rare film clips. Fischer wandered the mean streets of L.A. singing his totally unique brand of songs for 10¢ to passersby. He was discovered by Frank Zappa, with whom he cut his first record album, including the enduring dada rock classic "Merry Go Round." A precursor to punk, Fischer became an underground club and concert favorite. Over the course of 40 years, he appeared on national television (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in) and the Top 50 music charts in England, was the subject of his own comic book, was the first artist to be recorded on Rhino Records, and sang a duet with Rosemary Clooney. Hear testimonies in DERAILROADED: INSIDE THE MIND OF LARRY "WILD MAN" FISCHER, Josh Rubin & Jeremy Lubin's acclaimed 2006 documentary, with Frank & Gail Zappa, Weird Al Yankovic, Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh, Solomon Burke, Dr. Demento, and Billy Mumy (Barnes & Barnes). "The troubled life & distorted times of LA's 'Godfather of Outsider Music'...equal parts hilarity & heartbreak" -MOJO. THE DEVIL’S RAIN, 1975, 86 min. Mark Preston (William Shatner) possesses a powerful ancient book sought by Satanic cult leader Jonathan Corbis (the late Ernest Borgnine) and heads for a desert ghost town to try to beat the devil in a battle of faith. Director Robert Fuest (THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES) enlisted real-life Satanist Anton LaVay as technical advisor on this occult thriller, which also features Tom Skerritt, Eddie Albert and a young John Travolta. THE DEVIL RIDES OUT A career high point for everyone involved, The Devil Rides Out represents everything fantastic about Hammer Films’s hyper-stylized catalogue of films. Wisely cast against type, Christopher Lee has one of his finest roles as an urbane gentleman whose knowledge of the black arts comes in handy when his good friend falls under the hypnotic influence of diabolical priest Mocata. The Devil Rides Out is primarily Lee’s show, and he’s exactly the man anyone would want on their side in a battle against evil — however, future James Bond bad guy Charles Gray is also outstanding as the fearsome and crafty adversary. Credentials behind the scenes are equally up to par, with the legendary Richard Matheson (“I Am Legend”) skillfully adapting Dennis Wheatley’s occult novel (while wisely retaining the 1930s setting) and director Terence Fisher obviously using all of his formidable directorial skills to deliver some of horror’s best setpieces. The suspenseful and frightening passage in which our heroes are confined within a holy circle, and assaulted by demonic forces, is as good as ’60s horror gets. Brand-new HD restoration! Dir. Terence Fisher, 1968, HD presentation, 95 min. DINOTASIA 2012, 83 min, USA, Dir: David Krentz, Erik Nelson Werner Herzog narrates this offbeat animated feature on dinosaurs that’s been called “the ‘Sopranos’ of the Mesozoic,” and focuses on the creatures’ violent, destructive nature through a series of gory vignettes. The combination of sheer dinosaur carnage with Herzog's typically dry, hilarious storytelling makes this a welcome departure from the standard cutesy animated feature. Introduction by Werner Herzog, and discussion following with Herzog, and co-directors Erik Nelson and David Krentz. DISSOLUTION (HITPARKUT) A Film by Nina Menkes with David Fire Followed by a Q&A with Nina Menkes, moderated by SCA Professor David James. Dissolution (HITPARKUT) combines an almost surreal fairy-tale energy with brutal black and white realism to explore the condition of violence which permeates contemporary Israeli society. Shot in Yafo (the predominantly Arab area of Tel Aviv), the movie follows the moral collapse and first glimmer of redemption, of a young, morose Israeli Jew, played by David (Didi) Fire. B&W. Running time: 88 minutes. The Ditch (2010) US Premiere! Directed by Wang Bing In his first dramatic feature, director Wang Bing, best-known for his epic documentary West of the Tracks (2003), vividly recreates the brutal conditions at the Jiabiangou labor camp in the Gobi Desert, where some 3,000 intellectuals were sent during the Anti-Rightist Campaign beginning in the late 1950s. Digging the eponymous ditch, the prisoners labor at the very edge of human endurance. They seem resigned to death, until a woman appears, searching for her husband and inspires some of them to plot an escape. With its emphasis on sensory details like the incessant, blinding desert sun and the slurping of the thin gruel on which its characters subsist, The Ditch is an intensely visceral experience about a period of Chinese history still rarely discussed today. Producer: K. Lihong, Mao Hui, Philippe Avril, Francisco Villa-Lobos, Sebastien Delloye, Dianba Elbaum. Screenwriter: Wang Bing. Cinematographer: Lu Sheng. Editor: Marie-Hélèene Dozo. Cast: Lu Ye, Lian Renjun, Xu Cenzi, Yang Haoyu, Cheng Zhengwu, Jing Niansong. 35mm, color, Putonghua w/ English s/t, 109 min. DON’T MAKE WAVES 1967, Warner Bros., 97 min, USA, Dir: Alexander Mackendrick Wonderfully sly, wistful satire of Malibu beach culture in the ’60s from the director of SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS. East Coast schlep Tony Curtis reinvents himself as a sun-tanned swimming pool salesman, amid a carnival of muscle boys, surfer girls, astrologers, skydivers and more. One of the great lost comedies of the ’60s - as good as THE LOVED ONE or LORD LOVE A DUCK. With Sharon Tate. Drácula (Spanish Version) Often considered “the superior Dracula” to Tod Browning’s canonical work with Bela Lugosi, 1931’s Spanish-language version (a common practice at the time, capitalizing on growing international audiences) was filmed at night using the same sets and costumes that were being used during the day to make the English-language version. Glimpsing the way the shadows curdle and bend from one sequence to the next, it’s clear why no other foreign-language film from that era has attained the legendary cult status of “Spanish Dracula”. Film buffs also laud the performances, especially that of star Carlos Villarías, widely regarded as more passionate, sensual, and intense than his Hungarian-born counterpart. The story goes that this film’s crew, working with a much smaller budget and crazier hours than Browning’s production, would watch the dailies from the English version, and plan more sophisticated, artful approaches to everything, from camera angles to line readings. One thing’s certain: Spanish Dracula vants to suck your blood — and luckily, fans of Universal Horror never let language barriers get in the way of such a juicy bite of celluloid. Drácula Dir. George Melford, 1931, 35mm, 104 min. THE DREAMERS Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci An American exchange student in Paris, besotted by the cinema, takes up residence with a brother and sister he meets at the Cinémathèque Française. He enters with them into a rapturous existence of artistic debates and sexual games, as the student revolts of 1968 teem in the streets below. Analyzing his subjects with a shrewd but forgiving eye, Bertolucci implicitly posits the uneasy fulcrum that sensuality can represent between the personal and the political. Recorded Picture Company. Producer: Jeremy Thomas. Screenwriter: Gilbert Adair. Based on a novel by Gilbert Adair. Cinematographer: Fabio Cianchetti. Editor: Jacopo Quadri. Cast: Michael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel, Robin Renucci, Anna Chancellor. 35mm, color, in English and French w/ English subtitles, 115 min. DRILLER KILLER “Darkly fascinating, as much a document of the late-’70s New York punk and pop-art scenes as it is a grindhouse plugger.” — Noel Murray, A.V. Club One of the key reasons why the Video Nasties list exists (for both all the right and wrong reasons), independent film god Abel Ferrara’s first feature has risen to infamy based almost entirely on its title alone, but offers out-of-left-field stylish moments and Ferrara’s developing quirky sense of humor, in addition to its gritty despair. Starving, irritated artist Reno (Ferrara) lives in a squalid tenement surrounded by drunken derelicts (one of whom happens to be his father!) Plagued with nightmarish visions, Reno tenuously clings to sanity and his painting “career”, but when a punk band moves next door and starts playing around the clock, Reno snaps, darting around the nocturnal city streets and picking off bums with his electric hand drill. Striking a terrific balance between atmosphere and shock, Driller Killer is gruesomely effective on many arthouse levels — and features some of the most repulsive on-screen pizza eating ever filmed. You’re entirely welcome. Dir. Abel Ferrara, 1979, 35mm, 96 min. ELECTION A uniquely restrained, thought-provoking Triad film from Hong Kong, Johnny To's drama follows the struggle between two leaders (Simon Yam Tat Wah and Tony Leung Ka Fai) angling to control the powerful Wo Sing Society. When the aggressive, unpredictable Big D (Leung) begins bribing seniors in the underworld to sway the vote, calm and level-headed Lok (Yam) uses his influence to secure a favorable outcome, forcing a showdown between the candidates that stretches well past inauguration. "Riveting" (Entertainment Weekly). Johnny To---Hong Kong---2005---89 mins. ENTER THE I-HOP Filmmaker/musician Xaime Casillas (in person) will screen his exciting 12 minute short film ENTER THE I-HOP showing at 6pm and 8pm. This '70s Super 8mm kung fu documentary about the West LA "Kung Fu Studio" visits locations near the Unurban with spectacular fun footage of West Side youths learning kung-fu moves in the back alleys. Plus rare martial arts film clips to fill out the evening. "Enter the I-Hop" captures the influence Bruce Lee had on neighborhood teenagers. It colorfully documents the little known lineage and influence "Ark Yuey Wong" (the Grandfather of Kung Fu) had on the West Side. The Kung Fu Studio was located right next door to Arlene's Donuts at the corner of Bundy and Santa Monica Boulevard, now the new I-Hop restaurant. It shared space with the Odyssey Theatre back in the day. Xaime Casillas is creator of the "Arizona gonna get Knocked Out" project in 2010, (a nationally recognized recording featured on NPR by music aficionado Betto Arcos). Casillas presents an evening of kicks, punches and snaps of circa 70's Schwinn bicycles. If you like Martial Arts, Kung Fu, and Westside History, come join us for a fun evening of kiai yells and other overdone voice overs. EVERYBODY IN OUR FAMILY DIRECTOR Radu Jude, 107 MIN When a divorced father is denied a long-awaited day at the beach with his daughter, he veers dangerously off course with horrifying consequences. EVERYBODY'S GOT SOMEBODY... NOT ME DIRECTOR Raúl Fuentes, 95 MIN A troubled intellectual woman has a love affair with an inquisitive teenaged girl. When her attentions grow suffocating, the girl must make a choice. EVILSPEAK Horror movies about teens with supernatural powers have been with us for a long time, but Evilspeak adds juicy novelty, thanks to: a) the Wargames-era presence of a bulky home computer as a gateway to Satan; b) a military school setting where sadism is already encouraged; and c) rampaging, bloodthirsty devil pigs. All of this mayhem is orchestrated by put-upon cadet Stanley (Clint Howard), a kid so unbearably schlubby that even his teachers don’t like him. When they finally push him too far, the ruling elite get theirs thanks to a flying, demon-eyed Howard (who’s discovered the school was founded by a lord of darkness) and some of the decade’s tastiest gore scenes, including a show-stopping sword impalement. Complete with that unmistakable early ‘80s aura and the battiest treatment of a cute puppy in cinema history, this is the kind of tasteless, utterly watchable celluloid gold they just don’t make anymore. Dir. Eric Weston, 1981, 35mm, 89 min. THE FACE OF ANOTHER A staggering work of existential science fiction, The Face of Another dissects identity with the sure hand of a surgeon. Okuyama (Yojimbo's Tatsuya Nakadai), after being burned and disfigured in an industrial accident and estranged from his family and friends, agrees to his psychiatrist’s radical new experiment: a face transplant, created from the mold of a stranger. As Okuyama is thus further alienated from the strange world around him, he finds himself giving in to his darker temptations. With unforgettable imagery, Teshigahara’s film explores both the limits and freedom in acquiring a new persona, and questions the notion of individuality itself. "The theme is brilliantly and imaginatively explored, and the acting is potent." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER "The Face of Another is recognized by many film scholars as one of the major Japanese films of the sixties and certainly one of Teshigahara's key achievements." - Jeff Stafford, TCM "It is a great-looking, highly intelligent and unique piece of work that admirably encapsulates the progressive spirit of the times." - Jaspar Sharp, MIDNIGHT EYE Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara. Screenplay: Kôbô Abe. Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Machiko Kyo, Mikijiro Hira .Janus Films. 35mm/124 min. Faust 1926/b&w/106 min. Scr: Hans Kyser; dir: F. W. Murnau; w/ Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn, Wilhelm Dieterle Coming off the international success of The Last Laugh, director F.W. Murnau and star Emil Jannings reunite to tell the story of a man whose deal with the devil (Jannings as an impish Mephisto) leads to his ultimate comeuppance. Drawing from German folk legend and its subsequent theatrical adaptations by Goethe, Gounod, and Marlowe, Faustis a dazzling showcase of Murnau’s unbridled vision matched with the sublime excess of UFA style. A masterpiece of visual power and potent storytelling, the film is rendered in atmospheric, shadowy tableaux reminiscent of Rembrandt, Breughel, Dürer, and Caravaggio. Its obvious virtuosity allowed Murnau to travel to America with a suitable calling card, where both he and Jannings went on to win Oscars at the first-ever Academy Awards for their subsequent American debuts: Murnau’s Sunrise took home Unique and Artistic Production and Best Cinematography while Jannings won Best Actor for The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. Murnau stayed in Hollywood though his career was cut short due to a car crash days before the premiere of what proved to be his final film (1931’s Tabu) , Jannings wound up returning to Germany where he became a fixture of Nazi cinema. “At the peak of his career, [Murnau] was able to mobilize every means to guarantee total spatial control. All of the forms that appears—in the faces, bodies, snow, light, fire, clouds—have been shaped or redesigned by his imagination based on an exact understanding of the effect they create. Never has a film left so little to chance.”—Eric Rohmer. Live musical accompaniment by Robert Israel The Fireman's Ball (Horí, má panenko) (1967) "The movie is just plain funny. And as a parable it is timeless, with relevance at many times in many lands." - Roger Ebert Directed by Miloš Forman Forman’s absurdist comedy depicts social breakdown at a ball organized for a local fire department during which raffle prizes are looted, an impromptu beauty contest becomes a farce, and a fire breaks out, challenging inebriated firemen to do their job. Based on an actual anecdote, this allegory of official corruption and ineptitude was Oscar-nominated and provided a springboard to Forman’s American career. Filmové studio Barrandov. Producer: Rudolf Hájek. Screenwriter: Miloš Forman, Jaroslav Papoušek, Ivan Passer, Václav Sasek. Cinematographer: Miroslav Ondrícek. Editor: Miroslav Hájek. Cast: Vaclav Stöckel, Josef Švet, Jan Vostrcil, Josef Sebánek, Milada Jezková. 35mm, color, 73 min. FLORIAN CRAMER PRESENTS WORK FROM WORM.FILMWERKPLAATS In more than a decade, the film work space at WORM, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, has become one of Europe's leading DIY film labs and production space for non-narrative (and sometimes also narrative) film. It is a vital part of a large international network of DIY labs and micro cinemas. Florian Cramer from Rotterdam has brought along a selection of 8 and 16mm films from WORM.filmwerkplaats and will introduce them to the audience. These films were made with intricate analog laboratory processes and printing techniques. Many of them are lyrical, many of them oscillate between nature and cityscapes, abstract and concrete imagery. In stark contrast, the 45 min. film Ctrl-Alt-Esc from Rotterdam is an adults-only exploitation movie featuring Joep van Lieshout as maniac artist/serial killer Bokito and, most importantly, the building of WORM. The Flying Ace (1926) Directed by Richard E. Norman When a railroad agent with $25,000 in his care disappears, World War I flying ace and former detective, Billy Stokes, volunteers to solve the crime. He also happens to be in love with the station master’s daughter. Featuring an all black cast, this was one of the last films produced by the Norman Film Company, one of the only African-American producers in the history of American cinema before the 1970s, other than Oscar Micheaux. Norman Film Mfg. Co. Producer/Screenwriter: Richard E. Norman. Cast: Laurence Criner, Kathryn Boyd, R.L. Brown, Boise De Legge, George Colvin. 35mm, b/w, 65 min. Musical accompaniment provided by Cliff Retallick. THE FOOD OF THE GODS 1976, 88 min, USA, Dir: Bert I. Gordon In this cult classic adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel, a strange substance bubbling up on an island in British Columbia puts everything that eats it on a serious growth spurt; when a pro footballer (Marjoe Gortner) and his friends go camping on the island, giant killer wasps are just the beginning of their problems. Another enjoyable exploitation effort by director Bert I. Gordon (AIP’s go-to guy for nature-gone-bad flicks), FOOD OF THE GODS slips in sly winks at fundamentalists, ecologists and capitalists while critters the size of SUVs stalk the screen. Also starring Pamela Franklin, Ralph Meeker and the great Ida Lupino, who starts the whole thing off by feeding the mysterious goo to her chickens. Discussion between films with director Bert I. Gordon. 4 Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle 1987/color/95 min. Scr/dir: Eric Rohmer; w/ Marie Riviere, Jessica Forde, Fabrice Luchini. Les Films du Losange is one of France’s most prestigious independent production and distribution companies. Founded in 1962 by Barbet Schroeder and Éric Rohmer, at the height of the New Wave, Les Films du Losange has worked and supported some of the most acclaimed filmmakers from all over the world. This tribute to the company’s fiftieth anniversary will feature brand new 35mm prints of films largely shot on location in Paris by two directors closely associated with Losange—Rohmer—and the man who replaced him at the helm of Cahiers du cinema, Jacques Rivette. Rohmer’s charming 4 Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle spans four episodes in which two young women—one a painter from the provinces, the other a worldly Parisian student—meet by chance in the countryside and decide to room together in the capital. Once in Paris, they encounter many of its fixtures: the antagonistic waiter, the metro station hustler, and the snooty gallery owner. Shot, like Rivette's Le Pont du Nord, on 16mm and in situ, the film moves from the elemental (“the blue hour” between day and night) to the existential, all while carefully balancing wit, wisdom, and bittersweet revelations. THE FUNHOUSE Tobe Hooper’s bid into the early ‘80s slasher game, The Funhouse finds the Texas Chainsaw Massacre auteur operating at his skin-crawling best. When a group of teens get it in their (soon to be decapitated) heads to spend the night in an amusement park after-hours, they get the price of admission and then some when they find themselves stalked by a killer in a Frankenstein mask. The Funhouse has way more up its sleeve than your standard stalk-n-slash however, as Hooper stages some genuinely disturbing voyeuristic scenes of wanton depravity that no doubt were the reasons the film landed on the infamous Video Nasties list. Really, the film is just a plain ol’ good time, and fans of a) slashers; b) Hooper; and c) horror in general owe it to themselves to see this in its gory glory on the big scream. Step right up and have your ticket ready — for the Funhouse! Dir. Tobe Hooper, 1981, 35mm, 96 min. GHOSTS 1915, 49 min, USA, Dir: George Nichols The decades-long ban on Henrik Ibsen’s “notorious” 1881 play Ghosts was only lifted in Britain in 1914, a year before this film was released. A daring production, the film was directed by Griffith protégé George Nichols, with meticulous set decoration by Eric von Stroheim, who appears onscreen briefly. While it emphasizes the sensational aspects of Ibsen’s play over its philosophical themes, Henry Walthall is brilliant, and genuinely frightening, as Osvald, who flirts with incest and descends into madness as he succumbs to the ravages of syphilis. Screening format: 8mm. Plus, a great selection of short films starring Henry Walthall, including “A Woman in Grey, Episode 4” (1919). With live piano accompaniment by Cliff Retallick. GINGER AND ROSA DIRECTOR Sally Potter, 89 MIN As the Cold War meets the sexual revolution in 1960s London, the lifelong friendship of two teenage girls is shattered by ideological differences and personal betrayals. Cast includes Elle Fanning and Alice Englert. GREATEST HITS DIRECTOR Nicolás Pereda, 103 MIN | U.S. PREMIERE Gabino sells “Greatest Hits” CDs in the subway to help his mother make ends meet when his long-absent father mysteriously surfaces. The Grim Reaper (1962) Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci When a prostitute is found dead in a park, the police interview those who were near the scene of the crime. Widely varied accounts reveal the Roman lower depths of hustlers, pimps and petty thieves. The director has said that the film was made under the spell of Pasolini, but the complex temporal back-and-forth and the camera’s restless energy are pure Bertolucci. Cineriz. Producer: Antonio Cervi. Screenwriter: Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Sergio Citti. Cinematographer: Giovanni Narzisi. Editor: Nino Baragli. Cast: Francesco Ruiu, Giancarlo de Rosa, Vincenzo Ciccora, Alfredo Leggi, Gabriella Giorgelli. 35mm, b/w, 95 min. THE HANDS OF ORLAC This expressionist horror classic from the director of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was the first version of a story brought to the screen again in 1935 (as Mad Love) and 1961, with countless other variations on the theme. The hands of a brilliant concert pianist (Conrad Veidt) are severed in a train wreck. A surgeon with dubious motives gives the pianist new hands... the hands of a killer! Soon the musician comes to believe he is possessed with the murderous thoughts of the hands' original owner. Robert Wiene---Austria/Germany---1924---110 mins. With live score by Hauschka. HAUNTED FILMS IN HAUNTED PLACES Join us for two scary Sundays as the Filmmobile teams up again with GHOULA to present Haunted Films In Haunted Places. We’ll be presenting spooky movies in a very special haunted locations... Creepy fun for everyone! Ghost Hunters Of Urban Los Angeles (GHOULA) is a social club dedicated to the preservation of greater Los Angeles' rich haunted history, and the promotion of this local lore through ghostly gatherings, events, and publications. For event location check the Filmmobile Facebook 24 hours prior to showtime. Hearst Metrotone News The Hearst Metrotone News collection is one of UCLA Film & Television Archive’s most important collections. It includes not only the best surviving material of theatrically released newsreels, but also news programs made for television, films Hearst was hired to produce for the US government, and several million feet of unreleased footage. Tonight’s program will highlight some of the problems and concerns associated with the preservation and restoration of this material. Among the films to be screened are a surprisingly uncritical one-reel documentary on Fidel Castro made in 1958, a short documentary from 1966 on how a new foreign diplomat—actually a young Anwar Sadat—becomes familiar with his host country, and unreleased footage of MAD magazine founder William Gaines testifying before a Senate committee in 1954. Approx. TRT: 80 min. HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD While Fulci’s zombiefests were busy traumatizing audiences around the world, Bruno Mattei’s insane Hell of the Living Dead rode along in their wake, to become one of the most ridiculously entertaining Italian gut-munchers of the early ‘80s. A chemical lab in New Guinea is sent into an uproar when two of its workers accidentally unleash a plague, thanks to interference of a pesky rat. Rampant flesh-eating madness ensues as this company, designed to provide for its third world environment, instead unleashes zombies on the jungle-dwelling populace. In a desperate, zero-budget attempt to patchwork together a hit that would ape Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (right down to cribbing its Goblin score, along with a handful of the band’s other cues from fellow Italo-schlockslinger Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination), Mattei throws just about everything against the wall here to see what might stick: a little mondo footage, some nudity, some city mayhem, jungle mayhem, and in the oddest bit during the climax, one character turned into a human puppet, years before Peter Jackson did the same bit with Brain Dead. This film is madness — and it is fun. Dirs. Bruno Mattei & Claudio Fragasso, 1980, 35mm, 101 min. A HIJACKING DIRECTOR Tobias Lindholm, 110 MIN | U.S. PREMIERE When Somali pirates seize a Danish cargo ship in the Indian Ocean, high-stakes, life-or-death negotiations commence in this work of fiction inspired by today's headlines. HITCHCOCK DIRECTOR Sacha Gervasi, 97 MIN | WORLD PREMIERE The love story between the iconic filmmaker and his wife, Alma Reville, during the filming of PSYCHO in 1959. Cast includes Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren. A HOLE IS TO DIG: PERFORMANCE-BASED FILM & VIDEO FROM CHICAGO Ranging from durational performances to political role-play, and from conceptual reenactments to experimental narratives, this program highlights the diverse approaches to performance found in current film and video practices, while showcasing the work of emerging Chicago-based artists and filmmakers. The program includes Alexander Stewart's 4000 Frame Throw (Pitchin' Machine) (2011), Kasia Houlihan's Hold On (2011), Cheryl Pope's Up Against (2010), Irene Botea's Photocopy/Fotocopia (2011), Kelly Kaczynski's Salty Banana (2012), Mathew Paul Jink's The Queen's Tailor (2009), and Melika Bass's Waking Things (2011). Curated by Michael Green. HOLY MOTORS DIRECTOR Leos Carax, 116 MIN Denis Lavant plays Mr. Oscar, a shadowy figure who inhabits many roles while fulfilling assignments from inside a white limousine in Léos Carax's beguiling work. Cast includes Denis Lavant, Eva Mendes and Kylie Minogue. HORROR OF DRACULA 1958, Warner Bros., 82 min, UK, Dir: Terenece Fisher Director Terence Fisher and screenwriter Jimmy Sangster’s stripped-to-the-basics, expertly paced take on Bram Stoker’s popular bloodsucker remains one of the most satisfying, just plain exciting Gothic horror films ever made. From Christopher Lee’s revelatory, broodingly romantic performance as Dracula (introducing a sexual frisson to the proceedings) to Fisher’s masterful direction, from Peter Cushing’s Professor Van Helsing to Jack Asher’s atmosphere-drenched cinematography and James Bernard’s superb score, this is perfection. One of Hammer’s most enduring masterpieces! Discussion between films with publisher and artist Kerry Gammill, editor and screenwriter Sam F. Park, writer Robert Tinnell and comic book and Hollywood conceptual artist Henry Mayo, with more special guests to be announced. House of Frankenstein They don’t get any more whizz-bang than this. House of Frankenstein gives you Boris Karloff as a murderous mad scientist, a murderous hunchbacked henchman, John Carradine as Count Dracula (who only shows up for ten minutes ‘n change in the middle of the film before going bye-bye), a dynamic duo of Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man and a Frankenstein’s Monster who’ve both been thawed out Iceman-style, a fiery gypsy girl, and even a drowning in quicksand — all in just a hair’s breadth over an hour’s running time. WOW!!!! Made at the tail end of the “monster rally” craze (wherein Universal would increasingly cram as many of its trademark filmic horror properties as possible into a single picture), House of Frankenstein is the apex of zany Forties studio B-movie horror fare, and one of the most giddy reasons this entire series exists. House of Frankenstein Dir. Erle C. Kenton, 1944, 35mm, 71 min. House of Horrors “Utterly absorbing in its alternately dismissive and sympathetic attitudes toward art and abnormality.” — John Beifuss, The Bloodshot Eye Part film noir, part high-camp Frankenstein, House of Horrors winds its way around a cartoonish version of the New York art world with the snap and melodrama of a riveting vintage radio play. This movie also has gleefully enjoyed a wicked reputation down the decades thanks to Rondo Hatton, its bulbous-faced giant co-star whose visage launched an entire era’s worth of kiddie nightmares. An insane and impoverished Peter Lorre-like European sculptor (who occupies a dank, crumbling house full of his own art, mostly enormous headless torsos) is ready to commit suicide by hurling himself into a river — but instead ends up fishing out a disfigured, elephantine serial killer (Hatton), whom he of course employs to viciously murder every slanderous art critic in town! Every time he appears onscreen in this film, Hatton is genuinely disturbing, especially considering his brutish, minimal line delivery and heavy-as-an-anvil deadeye stare. An absorbing little slice of mayhem, House of Horrors is one of the best-kept secrets in the Universal Horror canon. House of Horrors Dir. Jean Yarbrough, 1946, 35mm, 65 min. THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK Helmed by Ruggero Deodato (the ballsy dude behind Cannibal Holocaust), this claustrophobic shocker takes no prisoners as it spins a tale of party-crashing sleazebag mechanics taking prisoners at a posh condo. Riffing on Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left, Deodato puts Last House heavy David Hess center stage as the scenery-chewing brute hellbent on making life anti-peachy for the collection of shocked yuppies assembled in the ultimate Italo party pad. While Hess’ relentless performance — one which blithely spins out of control, as his character rapes and torments his hosts in an orgy of self-destruction — ultimately drives the film, Eurotrash fanatics will also thrill to the appearances of Cannibal Ferox alumnus Lorraine De Selle, Tenebrae‘s Christian Borromeo, and a bald black lady who’s possibly the foxiest of all bald black ladies throughout cinema. This magnum sickus, coated in a quasi-American visual gloss, is a rare delight, and remains a suitably stylized contribution to early ’80s shock filmmaking. They sure don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Dir. Ruggero Deodato, 1980, 35mm, 91 min. THE HUNT DIRECTOR Thomas Vinterberg, 111 MIN Set in a small Danish village at Christmastime, one man becomes the target of mass hysteria. IN ANOTHER COUNTRY DIRECTOR Hong Sang-soo, 89 MIN A triptych of romantic French seaside vignettes starring Isabelle Huppert as a film director, a corporate executive's wife and a wealthy divorcee – all named “Anne.” INFERNO (1953) Inferno is the only 1950s 3-D film produced by 20th Century Fox studio. Presented here for the first time in a brand new digital restoration by film historian Daniel Symmes, Inferno makes striking use of 3-D in telling the tale of a treacherous wife (Rhonda Fleming) who leaves her millionaire husband (Robert Ryan) in the Mojave Desert to die. On hand to introduce the films will be the “Czar of Noir,” Eddie Muller, founder of the Film Noir Foundation, and Thomas Jane, director and star of Dark Country 3-D. The evening of this big Desert Noir 3-D double bill will also feature a display of historic 1950s 3-D promotional materials in the lobby of the Downtown Independent Theater and a Q&A between Muller and Jane before the screening of Dark Country 3-D. INFERNO (1980) Foregoing conventional logic for pure nightmare dreamscape, Inferno finds director Dario Argento at the top of his game, and is the second film in his “Three Mothers” trilogy (directly following Suspiria.) An American college student in Rome (Leigh McCloskey, frequent soap opera heartthrob and star of the infamous TV movie Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn) is called to New York to help his poet sister investigate the mysterious & supernatural history of her building. The threadbare plot serves as a springboard for some of Argento’s wildest set pieces (the underwater ballroom!), most imaginative use of light and color, and continued exploration of visual alchemy propelled by a raging soundtrack (this time by Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s keyboard virtuoso Keith Emerson). Featuring the final collaborative work of Italian grandmaster Mario Bava, Inferno is easily one of the most beautiful films in the Video Nasties canon — so don’t miss it loud ‘n large in 35mm! Dir. Dario Argento, 1980, 35mm, 107 min. IN THE FOG DIRECTOR Sergei Loznitsa, 128 MIN | U.S. PREMIERE In Nazi-occupied Belarus in 1942, a man and his captors come under fire, forcing all to make radically divergent but equally harrowing choices. IT CAME FROM THE VAULTS: CLASSIC HORROR TRAILERS FROM THE ACADEMY FILM ARCHIVE The best movie trailers have always been wonderful, inspiring self-contained works in their own right, with a legacy extending far beyond their original sell-by dates. Tonight’s show — the start of a new biannual program co-presented by the Academy Film Archive, home of the largest 35mm trailer collection in the world — features a snappy selection of the wildest and most artful horror movie pre-show entertainment from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. As tension builds and shadows wind, the larger-than-life monsters, undulating titles, and shocking cuts found within these classic trailers add up to an equal amount of camp thrills and genuine weirdness — and we couldn’t be more excited. Show curated entirely from the Packard Humanities Institute Collection at the Academy Film Archive. JERRY BECK'S ANIMATED SPOOKTACULAR For the fifth year in a row, animation historian Jerry Beck will be screaming — err, screening a selection of strange, creepy Halloween-related cartoons using vintage prints in 16mm and 35mm that range from ghoulishly red Eastmancolor to gorgeously garish Technicolor. Prepare to be dazzled by animated witches, warlocks, goblins, pumpkin-heads, black cats and everyone from Koko The Clown to Casper the Friendly Ghost, as classic cartoon characters Oswald Rabbit, Flip The Frog and Popeye meet all the famous monsters of filmland. This selection of hellish tricks and horrific treats will more than satisfy your animated sweet tooth (err, fangs.) Be prepared, foolish mortals! KID-THING DIRECTOR David Zellner, 83 MIN Annie is a young girl leading a lonely existence in Austin, Texas, whose life takes a fascinating turn when she hears a plea for help coming from the bottom of a well. Preceded by the short: ‘92 SKYBOX ALONZO MOURNING ROOKIE CARD | DIRECTOR Todd Sklar | 12 MIN KON-TIKI DIRECTORS Joachim Roenning, Espen Sandberg, 119 MIN Epic explorer Thor Heyerdahl makes his legendary 4,300-mile journey across the Pacific on a balsa wood raft in 1947. LA AIR / JOEP BROUWER & MAURICE de BRUIJNE LA AIR is a new artist-in-residence program that invites Los Angeles filmmakers to utilize EPFC resources in creating a new work over a four-week period. This month, our artists are Joep Brouwer and Maurice de Bruijne, students at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam who are in the midst of a three-month internship at EPFC. Joep’s project will focus on “exploring and capturing parts of daily life. The interaction and disconnection between people in search of happiness, wellness, love and fulfillment.” Maurice will be working with the concept of the Flywheel as defined by Wikipedia: “Flywheels are often used to provide continuous energy in systems where the energy source is not continuous. In such cases, the flywheel stores energy when torque is applied to the energy source and it releases stored energy when the energy source is not applying torque to it.” The Last Days of Pompeii (Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei) (1913) Italy, 88 minutes, silent, black and white) Directed by Mario Caserini, one of the early masters of silent cinema in Italy, this landmark epic features a lavish historical spectacle that influenced a generation of filmmakers that followed, including the American D. W. Griffith, namely his classic Intolerance (1916). The Last Days of Pompeii (Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei) (1959) Italy, English language, 100 minutes, color, widescreen) Shot in Supertotalscope, this "Fiery Summit of Spectacle" proved to be screenwriter Sergio Leone's directoral debut, once ailing director Mario Bonnard withdrew after the first day of shooting. Starring former bodybuilder Steve Reeves, the film captures with great, lurid ambition "the City that Lived in Sin... and Died in Flame!" THE LAST OUTLAW After serving 25 years in prison for robbery, Dean Payton returns to his home town to see his daughter, Sally, who is unaware he is her father. He befriends Cal Yates, the now semi-retired assistant sheriff who originally caught him, and Chuck Wilson, a young rancher who has eyes for Sally. Wanted criminal Al Goss holds up the local bank and makes his getaway, taking Sally hostage... Dir. Christy Cabanne, 1936, 73 mins. THE LAST STEP DIRECTOR Ali Mosaffa, 88 MIN A playful puzzle of a film about a deceased architect, his mercurial actress widow and a mysterious doctor who seeks a role in her latest film. LAUGHTER IN HELL 1933, Universal, 70 min, USA, Dir: Edward L. Cahn Irish mine worker Barney Slaney (Pat O'Brien) finds his wife in bed with another man and kills them both; when he decides to do the right thing by turning himself in, his troubles really begin. Barney is sentenced to life in prison, and it turns out that the brother of the man he killed is in charge of his chain gang. Barney quickly realizes that his life is going to be a living hell...unless he can find a way to turn the tables on his oppressor. Once thought lost, this controversial pre-Code gem is one of the great social realist films of the early 1930s. LE PONT DU NORD 1982/color/127 min. Scr/dir: Jacques Rivette; w/ Bulle Ogier, Pascale Ogier, Pierre Celementi. Les Films du Losange is one of France’s most prestigious independent production and distribution companies. Founded in 1962 by Barbet Schroeder and Éric Rohmer, at the height of the New Wave, Les Films du Losange has worked and supported some of the most acclaimed filmmakers from all over the world. This tribute to the company’s fiftieth anniversary will feature brand new 35mm prints of films largely shot on location in Paris by two directors closely associated with Losange: Rohmer and the man who replaced him at the helm of Cahiers du cinema—Jacques Rivette. Bulle Ogier and her real-life daughter Pascale (who tragically died two years later at the age of twenty-five) star in Le Pont du Nord as two women, one of them recently released from prison, who are brought together by fate and a black valise to embark on a dangerous treasure hunt through the City of Lights. Harkening back to the central theme of Celine and Julie Go Boating— two women joined by chance on an enigmatic journey through an urban wonderland—Rivette crafts a delirious, noir-tinged fairy tale. LESS THAN ZERO 1987, 20th Century Fox, 98 min, USA, Dir: Marek Kavievska 18-year-old Clay (Andrew McCarthy) returns home to Beverly Hills for the Christmas holiday, but is met by a rude awakening: His ex-girlfriend (Jami Gertz) has taken up with his former best friend (Robert Downey Jr.), who is living the fast life with copious amounts of cocaine and equally as much debt. A fascinating portrait of adrift rich kids on the uncertain, even dangerous precipice of adulthood. Discussion following the film with actor Andrew McCarthy. LEVIATHAN DIRECTORS Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel, 87 MIN LEVIATHAN hurls the audience into the inky, writhing world of a commercial fishing rig at night, capturing the fishermen and their catch with equal intimacy. LIFE OF PI in 3D DIRECTOR Ang Lee, 126 MIN Director Ang Lee creates a groundbreaking movie event about a young man who survives a disaster at sea and is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an amazing and unexpected connection with another survivor – a fearsome Bengal tiger. LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE DIRECTOR Abbas Kiarostami, 109 MIN A beautiful young student doubles as an escort in Tokyo. On an arranged date with an elderly client, she finds an unexpected protector. LIMELIGHT Perhaps his most autobiographical and underrated film, Charlie Chaplin’s "Limelight" offers a particularly poignant backstage portrait of the music halls that were the training ground of one of the screen’s first comedic geniuses. Produced just before his re-entry permit to the United States was revoked during his travels abroad, the film is a bittersweet time capsule, reflecting the mindset of an artist whose world was changing around him, even as a new love managed to comfort and surprise him. Featuring Claire Bloom in what was only her second film, "Limelight" is a tender and often humorous love story that revels in the details of life onstage. The film’s brief, but tantalizing, scene between Chaplin and his closest comedic rival, Buster Keaton, is yet another facet of the film’s charm. Claire Bloom, who stars as Thereza the ballet dancer, and Norman Lloyd, who appears as Bodalink, will be on hand to discuss their work with Chaplin and the influence he had on their distinguished careers. THE LIVING DEAD OF MANCHESTER MORGUE (aka LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE), 1974, Blue Underground, 95 min. Dir. Jorge Grau. This Spanish-Italian production, released internationally under more than a dozen titles, is set in the English countryside, where an experimental machine designed to kill insects has the unintended effect of reviving dead humans. The zombies nearly get Ray Lovelock and Cristina Galbó, and local police sergeant Arthur Kennedy is of no help to the two travelers - he blames them for the rash of homicides. Loves of a Blonde (Lásky jedné plavovlásky) (1965) Directed by Miloš Forman A troop of conscripts is sent to a small factory town with a man shortage. Their smooth moves at an organized dance fail to charm young schoolgirl Andula, though she falls for a fast-talking pianist, unexpectedly following him to his home in Prague. Ironic and touching, Forman’s portrait of love’s letdowns implicitly critiques social engineering in communist Czechoslovakia of the 1960s. Filmové studio Barrandov. Producer: Rudolf Hájek, Vlado Hreljanovic. Screenwriter: Miloš Forman, Jaroslav Papoušek, Ivan Passer, Václav Sasek. Cinematographer: Miroslav Ondrícek. Editor: Miroslav Hájek. Cast: Hana Brejchová, Vladimír Pucholt, Vladimír Menšík, Ivan Kheil, Jirí Hrubý. 35mm, b/w, 88 min. MAD MONSTER PARTY We’re stuffing more tricks and treats into this goodie bag than you can shake a broom at, as Screen Novelties (one of LA’s premiere stop-motion studios) joins forces with Cinefamily’s own Animation Breakdown to present a haunted hullabaloo with (and a spirited fundraiser for) the historic Bob Baker Marionette Theatre!! This goofy, ghoulish spectacular features a shuddersome mix of creepy cartoons, vintage Hallow’s Eve safety films, and madcap musical shorts — along with Halloween puppet performances from the legendary Baker troupe, a kooky monster-making workshop, and a rare screening of the spookadelic ‘60s animated classic Mad Monster Party. If you’ve never seen this stop-motion marvel, this Rankin-Bass romp — a huge inspiration to Tim Burton — will get you in the mood to do the mash with its groovin’ ghoulies, devilish daddy-o’s and fanged phantasms. Dr. Frankenstein (voiced by Boris Karloff) is throwing a swingin’ shindig for all his monster friends, and you’re invited to crash it! Kid-friendly, but fun for all folks: big folks, little folks, dead folks, undead folks, and all yer monster pals. Dir. Jules Bass, 1967, digital presentation, 94 min. THE MAKIOKA SISTERS The Makioka Sisters chronicles the life and affairs of four sisters in late '30s Japan. An older, conservative sister tries to continue family traditions and pretensions to status, while the younger sisters discover the new freedoms becoming available to them. "This Kon Ichikawa film has a triumphant simplicity about it. You don't just watch the film--you coast on its rhythms and glide past the precipitous spots" (Pauline Kael, The New Yorker). The cast includes Juzo Itami, who would later emerge as a prominent director with The Funeral, Tampopo and A Taxing Woman. In Japanese with English subtitles. 1983, Japan, 35mm, 140 minutes. 35mm print made in 2011! directed by Kon Ichikawa; starring Keiko Kishi, Yoshiko Sakuma, Sayuri Yoshinaga, Yûko Kotegawa; in Japanese with English subtitles. THE MAN FROM BEYOND 1922, Kino International, 74 min, USA, Dir: Burton L. King Harry Houdini plays Howard Hillary, a man who is thawed out after being encased in Arctic ice for a century. He meets Felice, who seems like the reincarnation of his lover from 100 years past, and soon must rescue the young woman’s abducted father. This silent showcases both Houdini’s interest in life after death and some of his most breathtaking stunts, including a sequence that brings the legendary magician/escape artist to the brink of Niagra Falls! MANIAC 1980/color/87 min. Scr: C.A. Rosenberg, Joe Spinell, dir: William Lustig; w/ Joe Spinell, Carolline Munro. A Halloween double feature from the dirty fingernails of one of horror’s finest practitioners: director William Lustig. The influence of his 1980 suspense/horror film Maniac is still sending shockwaves through the world of exploitation cinema. The movie’s poster alone—a painting featuring a bloody, severed scalp clutched by the titular figure at waist height as if it’s dangling from his belt—has the impact of a soiled-with-DNA ransom note; this image was responsible for the MPAA stepping in to give ratings to posters. (It would likely have got an X rating retroactively.) Joe Spinell co-wrote the film and stars as Frank, a loner who stalks and scalps victims; he gives the film its grungy, uncalculated obsessive quality and doesn’t invite you to like Frank but dares you to look away. Lustig’s direction has an equally intense quality. THE MANITOU, 1978, Rialto Pictures, 104 min. Dir. William Girdler. Gonzo 1970s drive-in movie madness, with Susan Strasberg as a young woman who has a 400-year-old medicine man growing out of her back. Tony Curtis stars as a bogus spiritualist who comes face-to-face with the midget demon, with the help of New Age midwife Michael Ansara. Must be seen to be believed. THE MAN WHO LAUGHS Considered one of Leni's best films, this rare silent film is an excellent example of a UFA-inspired gothic drama. Based on the Victor Hugo novel L'Homme Qui Rit, this is the melodramatic tale of Gwynplaine, a boy whose features are surgically altered into a permanent grin by order of James II because his father was a political enemy. Gwynplaine becomes a famous clown and falls in love with a blind girl rescued from a snowstorm by his traveling circus, but is summoned back to England when he discovers he is heir to a peerage. Paul Leni---USA---1927---110 mins. THE MANXMAN In the evening of Saturday, October 20, the museum will host its fifth annual Halloween and Mourning Movie Night. Guests are invited to bring a picnic, blankets, chairs, and candy while enjoying classic scary movies at Heritage Square... if they dare. Special feature is The Manxman (1929) featuring European singer, film and stage actress, Anny Ondra. A fisherman and a rising young lawyer, who grew up as brothers, fall in love with the same girl. This romantic thriller is a rarely seen silent movie directed by the great Alfred Hitchcock, and was the last silent movie he ever made. MARDI GRAS MASSACRE One of the rarest and most obscure titles of this Video Nasties journey — and we’re super-stoked to run it, in what’s quite possibly its first L.A. screening since the late ‘70s! But don’t just take our word for it; check out what our pal Joe Z. at Bleeding Skull has to say: “Mardi Gras Massacre is the disco-soaked story of a man, his rubbing oils, and the fully nude prostitutes and strippers that serve as his gore-strewn sacrifices to an Aztec god. The film has long been considered an homage to H.G. Lewis’s groundbreaking Blood Feast; however, it has little in common with Fuad Ramses’s supper plans. In the span of exactly 90 minutes, Mardi Gras Massacre weaves a gut-busting epic of illogical, dirt-cheap sleaze. All aspects of the film defile the bounds of common sense in the best of ways. Yes, even the air-keyboarding pimps, the gory hearts the size of cantaloupes, the fake slow-motion bar brawls, and the cop and the hooker who drink to “...ships that will pass in the night,” then partake of a “falling in love” montage before a VERY bad break-up. As tape echo sound effects trade blows with funkified People’s Court music cues, the ripple effect takes form. This is a tier of bizarre filmmaking that plays out so irrationally, it’s a wonder how it was ever conceived.” Dir. Jack Weis, 1978, 35mm, 95 min. MARK CANTOR's JAZZ FILMS Screening and discussing sonic cinema, seminal historian CANTOR pulls from his stellar collection of over 4,000 separate titles to feature rarities in jazz, blues, Swing, Western Swing, pop, rhythm and blues, country-western, vernacular dance & vaudeville with Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Stan Getz, Sarah Vaughan, Benny Goodman, Ernie Andrews, Art Blakey, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Buddy Collette, Erroll Garner, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Louis Armstrong, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, Dinah Washington and many more. "Mark Cantor has one of the very best collections of jazz films in the world. He was an invaluable asset to our Jazz series whose generous advice helped us unearth some extraordinary footage. Mark is an essential resource to anyone making a film about jazz." - Ken Burns. Film archivist and historian Mark Cantor has been active as a researcher and preservationist in the area of music on film for the past thirty years. During that time he has assembled one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of popular music on film existing in the United States.....more than four thousand titles in total. Along with the public exhibitions of jazz and blues films, Mr. Cantor has served as a consultant in the production of a large number of documentaries and feature film presentations. As a well-known authority on the subject of music on film, Mr. Cantor is contacted on a regular basis by filmmakers, television producers, newspersons and writers for information relating to jazz music and its documentation on film. He regularly publishes articles on jazz film in the Journal of the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors. Mirrored Curtains: The Films and Videos of Lori Felker Lori Felker in person from Chicago! Lori Felker’s films and videos relish the idiosyncrasies of science fiction, public access television, and tourism as gateways to a better understanding of human behavior. These structures turn her experimental/experiential approaches into dark, self-reflective comedies that take us next to nowhere. Once referred to as a "zen prankster", Felker attempts to locate and stand upon the middle ground between polar opposites and dance between the surface and the subconscious. THE MONSTER The Monster isn’t your typical lunatics-take-over-the-asylum movie, for the story contorts as dramatically as Lon Chaney Sr.’s incredible, unmistakable face. Directed by Roland West (the filmmaker behind the spooky talkies Alibi and The Bat Whispers), the film’s weirdness reaches epic heights long before two main characters are strapped to a transducer to have their souls switch bodies. Leading the chaotic charge is Chaney as a former-surgeon-turned-mental patient who, along with three fellow inmates, has imprisoned the head of Dr. Edward’s Sanitarium in the building’s dungeon. When a small-town dream girl is lured as a subject for Chaney’s grotesque experiments, two of her goofy paramours bumble to her rescue — and discover the madman’s horrific plans to unlock the secret to eternal life. The Monster is masterful in its balance of spookiness and comic relief — the dynamics between its affable heroes and freakish villains are played up for maximum effect — but it’s Chaney’s unhinged, larger-than-life performance that makes The Monster affecting and unforgettable. Roland West biographer/USC film archivist Dino Everett will be here to give the show’s opening remarks — plus, the feature film is preceded by the eerie 1917 silent short The Devil’s Assistant! The Monster Dir. Roland West, 1925, 80 min. THE MOST FUN I'VE EVER HAD WITH MY PANTS ON DIRECTOR Drew Denny, 95 MIN In this dark comedy, friends Andy and Liv travel through the picturesque landscape of the Southwest in remembrance of Andy's father. MOTEL HELL, 1980, MGM/Park Circus, 101 min. Dir. Kevin Connor. And you thought the Bates Motel was a place to avoid! The blood-and guts horror spawned by PSYCHO reaches its logical and hilarious conclusion here, as Farmer Vincent (Rory Calhoun) turns unsuspecting tourists into the tastiest meat in the county. With Wolfman Jack as Reverend Billy. MOVIES & TV BY MARK TOSCANO AND LORI FELKER Mark Toscano and Lori Felker are two makers who are very serious about exploring the un-serious. This program brings together recent TV-shaped videos by Felker and a whole slew of 16mm films by Toscano. Lori Felker is a film/videomaker, programmer, projectionist, performer and collaborator. Her work employs multiple formats, styles, and structures, all attempting to make sense of the simultaneous simplicity and chaos of humanity. She is enamored with awkwardness, ineloquence, frustration, searching, trying and failing (or falling) and considers herself an "experiential" filmmaker. Mark Toscano is an archivist and filmmaker, though not necessarily in that order. Program: Videos by Lori Felker: It Doesn’t Matter (2012), Broken New (Disaster) (2012, with Chris Royalty), Broken New (Drama) (2012, with Chris Royalty), Broken New (Conspiracy) (2012, with Chris Royalty) / 16mm films by Mark Toscano: The Electrolysis of Brine (2008), February 2008 & June 1967 (2010), Finding the Horn (2008), The Wofobs (2008), WDD / CHL (2009), Rating Dogs on a Scale of 1 to 10 (2011), Demonstration (2012), Process of Elimination (2012), Releasing Human Energies (2012). The Mummy “How can you call one of Universal’s most famous movie monsters a ‘B-side’?”, you ask. It’s true: this film not only spawned an entire slew of sequels, but also a run of Hammer knock-offs, and the millennial blockbusters bearing its name as well — but everything you remember about the The Mummy’s grim, zombie-like terrorizing originates from Universal’s 1940 loose remake The Mummy’s Hand. 1932’s The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff in what’s arguably the second greatest role of his film career next to Frankenstein’s Monster, is decidedly different from any later Mummy incarnation, remaining forever ripe for rediscovery. Filled with unforgettable imagery and a startling sense of dread rarely matched even in modern horror, this Mummy finds Karloff’s Imhotep resurrected in the famous rags ‘n tatters only in the opening sequence, and from there on has him disguised himself as a modern Egyptian dude in utterly creepy quasi-human form, out to murder a young woman whom he attempts to then resurrect, so that she might be his undead bride! Directed by Karl Freund (cinematographer for such filmmakers as Murnau and Lang), this impeccable experience is the best way possible to kick off our B-Sides series. The Mummy Dir. Karl Freund, 1932, 35mm, 73 min. THE MUMMY’S CURSE, 1944, Universal, 62 min. Dir. Leslie Goodwins. “The Devil’s on the loose and he’s dancin’ with the mummy!” The final film with Lon Chaney Jr. as the undead Kharis shifts the action to the Louisiana bayou, where the mummy and his beloved have been buried in a swamp for years, until a couple of Egyptian disciples start brewing up the tana leaves. With Virginia Christine and Martin Kosleck. THE MUMMY’S HAND, 1940, Universal, 67 min. Dir. Christy Cabanne. The MUMMY returns to Egypt, as Indiana Jones-style adventurer Dick Foran squares off against nefarious George Zucco and the immortal mummy Kharis (played by a surprisingly effective Tom Tyler). First-rate matinee style entertainment. With Peggy Moran and Wallace Ford. THE MUMMY’S GHOST, 1944, Universal, 61 min. Dir. Reginald Le Borg. In this installment, Chaney is joined by fellow horror great John Carradine, who plays a high priest charged with returning Kharis and the body of Ananka to Egypt. But the plan goes haywire when it turns out Ananka has been reincarnated as a beautiful young woman (Ramsay Ames). THE MUMMY’S TOMB, 1942, 60 min. Dir. Harold Young. Foran, Zucco and Ford return for this atmospheric and fast-paced sequel set thirty years after THE MUMMY’S HAND. Here Lon Chaney Jr. debuts in the role of Kharis; and his caretaker Turhan Bey brings the mummy to America to avenge the desecration of Princess Ananka’s tomb in the previous film, by killing all the archeologists and their descendents. The New Politics of Extremism Visitors are invited to watch the broadcast of the second Presidential Debate in the Billy Wilder Theater from 6-7:30pm. The Forum will begin at 7:30pm. Long time Washington insiders Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann join us to discuss why they believe that Washington is not working for the American people and who is responsible. Ornstein, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, writes a weekly column for Roll Call called Congress Inside Out and is an election eve analyst for CBS News. Congressional scholar Thomas Mann is a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. Both are authors of the best-seller It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism. THE NICKEL RIDE 1974, 20th Century Fox, 99 min, USA, Dir: Robert Mulligan A superb neo-noir with Jason Miller (THE EXORCIST) as the can-do man who holds keys to stolen-goods depots in downtown Los Angeles. Charged by his syndicate boss, urbane John Hillerman, with buying up an unused block of warehouses for more storage, Miller starts to encounter problems. Like an unraveling ball of yarn, trivial difficulties snowball out of control, threatening not only his career but his life. Beautifully realized, from the low-key performances to the evocation of a dying-on-the-vine downtown - whole blocks of which have not changed much since the making of this film. The gradual building of suspense and the aura of impending doom - a feeling so borderline we're not sure if Miller’s just being paranoid - is intensely disturbing. Bo Hopkins is the friendly good ol’ boy apprentice Miller gets saddled with and Linda Haynes is Miller’s understanding girl. Screenplay by Eric Roth (THE INSIDER, MUNICH, FORREST GUMP). Discussion between films with THE NICKEL RIDE screenwriter Eric Roth. NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN God, this movie is so, so filthy. One of the more infamous unrated gore films released in the wake of George Romero’s wildly successful Dawn of the Dead, Nightmares... is the kind of film tailor-made to get shredded to ribbons by trigger-happy censorship boards. A mental patient named George suffers from horrible nightmares, including a heck of a curtain raiser involving a severed woman’s head in his bed. After undergoing experimental treatment he’s unleashed into the public, and naturally goes on a slashing rampage, stalking a young single mom and her kids — setting the stage for an insane home invasion showdown. The gore scenes here are routine show-stoppers, and the sex couldn’t be more unsavory (including a pivotal kinky flashback no viewer has ever forgotten), but running interference is a hefty vein of unintentional comedy, thanks to Italian-born director Romano Scavolini’s odd view of American culture. Despite cuts mandated by the BBFC, Nightmares... was still branded as a video nasty, and became one of that period’s most legendary persecuted titles. Could it have all started with the original release’s grisly marketing campaign, asking theater patrons to guess the weight of a brain floating in a jar of liquid? Dir. Romano Scavolini, 1981, 35mm, 97 min. NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES If H.G. Lewis had made a wrestling/killer monkey-man movie, it would have probably looked a lot like this! The funniest of the many sleaze epics generated over the years by Rene Cardona (the man behind such delicious anti-classics as Doctor of Doom and Santa Claus), this wacko gem starts off as an El Santo ripoff, and quickly veers into gory territory when innocent women are suddenly attacked by a shirtless muscleman with an ape face — the result of a mad doctor who tries to reverse the effects of his son’s leukemia by giving him the heart of an ape (in graphic detail). While the film would already be compelling enough based on the sheer lunacy of its premise, Cardona spices up the proceedings with piles of cheesecake nudity, the aforementioned heart transplant (filmed during real-life open heart surgery), and killings that all contain gruesome close-ups of characters being dismembered, skinned, or otherwise abused (all rendered in loving color.) On top of all this, the crazy dubbing just adds to the fun, as characters spout nonsensical observations right and left, turning the story into a maddening jumble. What’s not to love? Dir. René Cardona, 1969, 35mm, 81 min. 1900 1976, Paramount, 245 min, Italy, Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci Bertolucci tells the story of the first half of the 20th-century through the lives of a pair of friends born on the same day, one a peasant (Gerard Depardieu) and one an aristocrat (Robert De Niro). As the friends grow up and grow apart, their experiences encompass the changing political and economic climate of Italy, and of Europe as a whole. Donald Sutherland and Burt Lancaster also star in this stunning combination of the intimate and the epic. No Man of Her Own (1950) Directed by Mitchell Leisen A train accident and a case of mistaken identity gives a pregnant woman abandoned by her lover the opportunity to pass as the daughter-in-law of a wealthy couple. When her past returns to threaten her new life, she discovers the lengths she will go to escape it. Leisen’s suspenseful noir probes the possibility of reinvention and redemption. Paramount Pictures Corp. Producer: Richard Maibaum. Screenwriter: Sally Benson, Catherine Turney. Based on a novel by William Irish. Cinematographer: Daniel L. Fapp. Editor: Alma Macrorie. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, John Lund, Jane Cowl, Phyllis Thaxter, Lyle Bettger. 35mm, b/w, 98 min. NO REST FOR THE WICKED (NO HABRA PAZ PARA LOS MALVADOS) 2011, 114 min, Spain, Dir: Enrique Urbizu Enrique Urbizu's explosive neo-noir centers on hardened cop Santos Trinidad (Jose Coronado), an alcoholic who, after a tense bar brawl, shoots three people dead. The fourth opponent in the fight (Karim El-Kerem) makes it out alive, leaving Trinidad to track down the sole breathing witness to his impulsively heinous crime. From here, the expertly crafted crime film shifts into cat-and-mouse mode, alternating between police procedural (as investigative detective Helena Miquel pursues Trinidad) and stalker thriller as the crooked cop hunts down his incriminating prey. Winner of the 2012 Goya Award for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor. In Spanish with English subtitles. OCCUPY LA: LOOKING BACK / LOOKING FORWARD To mark the anniversary of Occupy LA, we present an open screening of films and videos about the movement as a conduit for community discussion and debate. Films will include Arpan Roy’s Raid Night: Counternarratives From Arrested Activists At Occupy Los Angeles; Occupy Los Angeles: October 1st -- November 28th, 2011, a 16mm film by Sean Batton and Kelsey Brain comprising footage of Occupy Los Angeles's two-month encampment at City Hall; and Occupy Los Angeles by EPFC student Clara Polito. We invite you to add your work and your voice to the exchange. ON THE ROAD DIRECTOR Walter Salles, 124 MIN Jack Kerouac's seminal pseudo-autobiography arrives on the big screen at the intersection of fact and fiction. Cast includes Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund and Kristen Stewart. Ornette: Made in America Shirley Clarke cemented her place as one of the key figures of the American independent film movement with her films The Connection (1961) and The Cool World (1963), both of which had strong jazz elements. Before retiring from filmmaking in the '80s, Clarke returned to the jazz scene for her final work, making this brilliant documentary on the decades-spanning career of multi-instrumentalist Ornette Coleman, a towering yet humble figure whose "free jazz" innovations rocked the world upon the release of his album "The Shape Of Jazz To Come" in 1959. Highlights include Coleman's homecoming performance of his "Skies Of America" symphony in Fort Worth, Texas (a town whose segregated past Coleman longed to escape as a child), and footage of Coleman's fusion group Prime Time overlayed with 8-bit video game effects! Dir: Shirley Clarke, 1985, 35mm, 85 min. THE OTHER 1972, 20th Century Fox, 108 min, USA, Dir: Robert Mulligan This creepy adaptation of Tom Tryon’s best-seller is set on a New England farm in the mid-1930s, where strange happenings begin to swirl around twins Niles and Holland Perry. With their mother (Diana Muldaur) reduced to a recluse by her husband’s recent death, the boys gravitate to their grandmother (played by famed acting teacher Uta Hagen). She teaches one of them how to play “the great game” - a way to project the mind outside the body - which has grave consequences when it turns out the pair are much less angelic than they initially appear. Jerry Goldsmith composed the darkly atmospheric score. OUR CHILDREN DIRECTOR Joachim Lafosse, 110 MIN In this psychological drama, a young mother is brought to the brink of despair, where she commits the ultimate shocking act. PALACE OF SILENTS On Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles there is a 150-seat movie theater that for over sixty-eight years has doggedly dedicated itself to the exhibition of silent films. Built in 1942 by maverick film preservationist and collector John Hampton, the theatre championed silent film at the very moment when the Hollywood studios across town were busily destroying their nitrate inventories. With hard chairs, jazz-record accompaniments and sometimes dubious prints, the dingy mom-and-pop operation was nonetheless a palace to the fanatical few who became its loyal audience. Through the theatre's tumultuous years of operation, its owners and employees have struggled to keep a cherished art form alive, often paying a heavy price in the personal tragedies that have stemmed from this struggle: obscurity, financial ruin, and even murder. Through interviews, archival footage and detailed research, PALACE OF SILENTS reveals the touching, twisted, and bloody history of one independent theatre's successful attempt to stubbornly buck every cinematic trend in the hometown of American cinema. Hollywood Heritage is proud to present this special screening of the documentary film "Palace of Silents" which played to a standing-room-only crowd at the Cinecon Film Festival this year. Director Iain Kennedy will be on hand for a Q&A after the film. Partner (1968) Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci Bertolucci’s most experimental—and rarely seen— feature concerns a theater professor and his murderous double, who emerges from out of nowhere to lead a libidinal assault on the forces of convention. Coinciding with Godard’s influential renunciation of narrative convention, Bertolucci too sought a new idiom to express twin interests in Marxism and psychoanalytic theory. The film foreshadows The Dreamers (2003) in its examination of the politics of 1968. Red Film. Producer: Giovanni Bertolucci. Screenwriter: Bernardo Bertolucci, Gianni Amico. Cinematographer: Ugo Piccone. Editor: Roberto Perpignani. Cast: Pierre Clémenti, Stefania Sandrelli, Tina Aumont, Sergio Tofano, Giulio Cesare Castello. 35mm, color, in Italian and French w/ English subtitles, 109 min. PEARBLOSSOM HWY DIRECTOR Mike Ott, 80 MIN | NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Friends Cory and Anna drift through life. He longs to appear on a reality TV show and she sells sex for money in order to gain her citizenship. PIETA DIRECTOR Kim Ki-Duk, 104 MIN | U.S. PREMIERE A brutal loan shark must come to terms with his past crimes when the mother who abandoned him as a child pays him a visit, bearing a deep secret. Pillow of Death Touting one of the strangest titles in vintage moviedom, Pillow of Death is, from start to finish, exactly the kind of lazy Sunday afternoon matinee programmer that one has fantasies about, when one thinks of “What exactly was it like to go see those old B-movies in a movie theater?” Ol’ dependable Lon is an attorney whose friends and family are plagued by a rash of pillow-smothering deaths. Since he’s the prime suspect, Lon turns to a fussy medium named Julian Julian(!) and his creepy séances in order to get to the sordid bottom of the whole affair. Delivering on the haunted house/metaphysical angle many times over, this lighthearted murderama cuts right to the chase — straight up until the mind-boggling ending, in which the culprit dispatches of themselves in the most head-scratching way possible. Liberally dosed with precious old-timey atmosphere, this is a rare title from the vaults that you’d be foolish to miss. Dir. Wallace Fox, 1945, 35mm, 66 min. THE POETICS OF PLACE: FILMS BY ROSE LOWDER Rose Lowder is one of Europe’s most influential and celebrated cinematic treasures—a filmmaker and scholar who first trained as a painter and sculptor, then later studied with filmmaker Jean Rouch. Since 1977 Lowder has made more than 50 films that create complex single-frame matrices, bordering eerily on the edge of animation. Whether filming the view from her Avignon window, the French countryside, or centuries-old structures, Lowder composes highly charged, multiple-perspective mosaics that explore nature’s visual wonders and the underlying ecology of specific places. She investigates the world around her with a scientist’s precision, and exalts it with a singular vibrancy of form and color. The program includes the early masterwork Rue des Teinturiers (1977), the series of stunning one-minute cinematic studies, Bouquets 11–20 (2005–10), and the recent tour-de-force Jardin du sel (Garden of salt, 2011). In person: Rose Lowder POSSESSION Capturing the energy generated when two people whose lives are so intensely fused and woven are forcibly split, Andrzej Zulawski’s 1981 masterpiece Possession is an emotional nuclear explosion. If all we were given were its operatic and shamanistic performances by leads Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, its impossible-to-describe music by Andrzej Korzynski, and Zulawski’s masterful, hyper-kinetical ballet of camera choreography — all delivered with the force of a a long-suppressed traumatic memory — then Possession would already be the best film about divorce ever filmed. But when the angels and demons of our inner nature are literally incarnated in phantasmagorical form — the kind requiring the talents of Oscar-winning creature FX master Carlo Rambaldi (who, instead of making a cutey-pie “E.T.”, concocts a tentacled Lovecraftian octo-sex-demon) — you have the kind of cathartic and entertaining experience that leads to movie-lover nirvanic bliss. Welcome to Possession, your new favorite movie. Dir. Andrzej Zulawski, 1981, 35mm, 123 min. POST TENEBRAS LUX DIRECTOR Carlos Reygadas, 120 MIN A wealthy couple live with their children in Mexico. When a trusted employee betrays the husband, chaos ensues, juxtaposing innocence with animal brutality. Print Generation (1974) "Print Generation is a masterfully accomplished film. With it, Murphy sums up concerns that have marked independent filmmaking since the late Sixties: intrinsic film structure and personal diary." - Mike Reynolds, Berkeley Barb Directed by J.J. Murphy J.J. Murphy’s feature length experimental film is a meditation on light, chemistry, and the properties of photographic emulsion and can therefore be identified as a structuralist film. Beginning with points of red light, the film takes a single minute of film and reprints in over and over, moving through several levels of abstraction, then returning to them. Winner of several experimental film festival awards. 16mm, color 50 min. THE PROSECUTION OF AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT The Prosecution of an American President documents the efforts of Vincent Bugliosi, one of our nation's foremost prosecutors, as he presents his case that former president George W. Bush should be prosecuted for the deaths of over 4,000 American soldiers who died in Iraq. Based on Bugliosi's controversial New York Times bestseller, the movie discloses hidden details of how key Bush officials and President Bush himself systematically lied to Congress and the American people, deliberately taking our nation to war under false pretenses. Using a mountain of evidence, Bugliosi not only reveals the shocking deception behind the Iraq war, he also lays out his strategy for the prosecution of an American President... setting the stage for what would be the biggest and most important trial in U.S. history. Directed by Dave Hagen and David J. Burke. Produced by Jim Shaban. Followed by a Q&A with Dave Hagen, D. Channsin Berry, and Nathan Folks THE QUIET EARTH 1985, 91 min, New Zealand, Dir: Geoff Murphy New Zealand scientist Zac Hobson (Bruno Lawrence) awakens one morning to discover that his global energy research experiment “Project Flashlight” has caused all of humanity to vanish. Just as the solitude drives Zac to the brink of madness, two others appear: a young woman (Alison Routledge) and a Maori man (Pete Smith). But how did these three survive? And is there another apocalyptic event on the horizon? Based on the Craig Harrison novel, THE QUIET EARTH is a sci-fi thriller whose mysteries will keep you thinking long after its haunting final image. THE RAPTURE 1991, Warner Bros., 100 min, USA, Dir: Michael Tolkin Sharon (Mimi Rogers), a bored telephone operator, spends her evenings out with her boyfriend picking up couples for casual group sex. When a collection of strange occurrences seems to add up to the existence of a higher power, Sharon becomes a full-on, born-again Christian. But she soon finds that God can be lost as quickly as found. The Raven The teaming of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff as two of the most idiosyncratic characters of their respective careers instantly renders The Raven a classic must-see — and the tale of a vengeful mad scientist and his murderous cohort still holds up as it builds to its feverish climax. Lugosi is haunting as a morbidly obsessive, Edgar Allen Poe-worshipping surgeon tasked with healing a beautiful car wreck victim with whom he quickly falls in love. Spurned by her and rejected by her family, Vollin hatches a plan that makes grisly use of the Poe-inspired torture chamber on his property. Karloff is also stellar as the conflicted, monstrous escaped convict ensnared by Vollin’s scheme after asking for face-altering plastic surgery to begin a new life. Masterfully and tautly edited, The Raven makes perfect use of its stars’ sizable capacities for scenery-chewing hysteria and heart-rending sensitivity. Lugosi’s performance still elicits shudders: “Death hasn’t the same significance for me as it has for you.” The Raven Dir. Lew Landers, 1935, 35mm, 61 min. REALITY DIRECTOR Matteo Garrone, 115 MIN A Neapolitan fishmonger is desperate to appear on the reality show GRANDE FRATELLO, Italy's version of BIG BROTHER. RECENT WORK FROM ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES Curator of Collections Andrew Lampert will present a program of recent preservations undertaken by Anthology Film Archives including Money, a radically-composed, rapid-fire time capsule of Lower Manhattan and United States, a conceptual bicentennial film dealing with spatial and temporal relationships between two travelers, their car, and the geographic, political, and social changes from New York to Los Angeles. In addition to the other works listed, Lampert will show a sampling of newly digitized videos and a few reels from the “Unessential Cinema” collection of works gathered from deceased laboratories, bereaved widows and trash dumpsters. Approx. TRT: 60 min. Money (1985) Directed by Henry Hills. A radically-composed time capsule, a rapid-fire portrait of the innovative ‘downtown’ Lower Manhattan community of poets, musicians, dancers, and personalities active in the early-to-mid-1980s. As much a sound work as it is a film, Money features John Zorn, Christian Marclay, Fred Frith, Arto Lindsay, Abigail Child, Charles Bernstein, and an extraordinary cast of luminaries. 35mm, b/w, 15 min. Chewing (1980) Directed by Madeleine Gekiere. A delightful structuralist study of the act of eating an apple. 16mm, color, 6 min. Letter to D.H. in Paris (1967) Directed by David Brooks. An influential figure within the NYC experimental film community of the mid-1960s, David Brooks died tragically young leaving behind only a handful of works. This piece is described by the maker as “Stoned people, music, movement, fields.” 16mm, color, 4 min. Six Windows (1979) Directed by Marjorie Keller. “A pan and a dissolve make a window of a wall on film. A portrait of the filmmaker in a luminous space, synthetically rendered via positive and negative overlays. ... I lived in some rooms by the sea and watched the inside and the view as well as the window panes that divided and joined them. I was often lost in thought. The birds would come and make a racket, reminding me I shared that space and sky with them. The film is a moody record of that place and my peace of mind.” 16mm, color, silent, 7 min. The United States of America (1975) Directed by Bette Gordon, James Benning. A true masterpiece of 70s cinema, more remarkable today than ever before. A conceptual bicentennial film dealing with spatial and temporal relationships between two travelers, their car, and the geographic, political, and social changes from New York to Los Angeles. The space within each frame is at the same time continuous and elliptical. 16mm, color, 27 min. RECONVERSAO Portugal/USA, 65 mins, video With Reconversão (Reconversion), Thom Andersen opens another fascinating chapter of his ongoing investigation of architectural landscapes, their filmic representation, and their relation to history, by focusing on 17 buildings and projects by the often-controversial Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura—winner of the 2011 Pritzker Prize. Echoing Dziga Vertov’s concepts and Eadweard Muybridge’s techniques (shooting only one or two frames per second), Andersen masterfully brings forward what makes Souto de Moura an original: the incorporation of the passing of time into architectural designs, positing them within a history fraught with class struggle and societal changes, in a continuum with ruins—from which they may originate, and to which they will return—and with nature—which they frame, and by which they are framed. In person: Thom Andersen The River 1951/color/99 min. | Scr: Rumer Godden, Jean Renoir; dir: Jean Renoir; w/ Nora Swinburne, Patricia Walters, Thomas E. Breen This sublime adaptation of a novel by Rumer Godden, who was raised in India and collaborated during the shoot, was a challenge to bring to the screen: the first Technicolor film shot in India, it involved heavy equipment and long delays in printing the dailies; the cast was almost entirely nonprofessional; local festivities and superstitions interfered with the normal pace of production; and the locations needed frequent adjustments to reflect a year of seasons. The story is narrated by Harriet, now an adult, who recalls her life in India at age fifteen, the year that Captain John came to visit; and through her eyes we follow the day-to-day routine of a British colonial family, share her adventures with her closest companions, an Indian girl and her little brother, contemplate the natural beauty and mysterious culture of a foreign land, and experience the pain and joy of first love. In time with the flow of the ever-present river, the film has a measured pace that chronicles life with its sudden bursts of tragedy and pleasure. "Like Rossellini's Voyage to Italy (1953), The River has survived falling out of fashion to re-emerge as a touchstone for a certain kind of modernity in cinema. It's a self-conscious, reflective film that draws on the 'reality' of India but does so to immerse us in the spiritual drama of its central character. None of the principal characters in The River find immediate happiness; instead, they learn to overcome frustration and despair… Unlike conflict-centered Hollywood narratives, which invariably end in resolution, Renoir's films tend to show that not all problems are soluble."—Ian Christie. ROOM 237 DIRECTOR Rodney Ascher, 102 MIN Rodney Asher's documentary delves into the symbols and messages hidden within Stanley Kubrick's acclaimed film, THE SHINING, revealing more secrets after 30 years. A ROYAL AFFAIR DIRECTOR Nikolaj Arcel, 132 MIN A young Danish queen married to an insane king falls in love with her physician and together they change a nation. THE SAPPHIRES DIRECTOR Wayne Blair, 99 MIN In 1968, four talented young Australian Aboriginal girls form a girl group, The Sapphires, to entertain U.S. troops in Vietnam. THE SELLING 2011, 92 min, Dir: Emily Lou Too-nice real estate agent Richard Scarry (Gabriel Diani) talks people out of buying houses they can’t afford. When his business partner Dave Ross (Jonathan Klein) schemes a plan to flip a decrepit house for profit, Richard agrees only because he needs to pay for his sick mother’s medical bills. While Richard and Dave fix up the house for buyers, disembodied voices emerge telling them to leave, walls bleed and a portal to the spirit realm opens in an upstairs closet! Richard must get rid of the house before its ghostly inhabitants ruin his life - but when an evil spirit moves out of the house and into Richard’s body, he has a whole new set of problems. With Barry Bostwick, Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory) and Janet Varney as rival real estate agent Mary Best. “This movie is like Halloween. Not HALLOWEEN the franchise but Halloween the holiday put on film.” - The Huffington Post. “Perhaps the greatest horror-comedy since SHAUN OF THE DEAD.” - Disturbing Films. SEX, WAR, AND WATERMELONS: ROBERT NELSON TRIBUTE SCREENING #3 A third in a series of tribute screenings to the late, great Robert Nelson, presented by Mark Toscano and the Echo Park Film Center. Renowned for their exuberance and inventive cinematic wit, Robert Nelson’s films established him as a leading member of the West Coast avant-garde and post-Beat culture of the ‘60s and ‘70s. This program will include the controversial classic Oh Dem Watermelons, along with a few other rarely seen works from the 60’s, including Oily Peloso the Pumph Man, Confessions of a Black Mother Succuba, and War is Hell. All works screened on 16mm. THE SHELTERING SKY 1990, Warner Bros., 138 min, Italy, Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci Kit (Debra Winger) and Port (John Malkovich) journey to the Sahara as "travelers," not "tourists" - they make the distinction because they see tourists as seeking the comforts of home wherever they go, whereas Kit and Port want adventure. As their vacation progresses, however, it becomes clear that what they're really in search of is the love they used to have. Stunning landscape photography by Vittorio Storaro and career-best performances by Malkovich and Winger make this a must-see masterpiece. SHORTS PROGRAM SIX 72 MIN IT'S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY, USA. DIRECTOR Don Hertzfeldt, 23 MIN. Bill finds himself in a hospital struggling with memory problems in this third and final chapter of Don Hertzfeldt’s EVERYTHING WILL BE OK trilogy. JUST ANCIENT LOOPS, USA. DIRECTOR Bill Morrison, 25 MIN. Using archival footage, chemical processes and animation, Bill Morrison presents a unique view of the heavens. NARCOCORRIDO, USA. DIRECTOR Ryan Prows, 24 MIN. Narcocorrido – the drug ballad of a gravely ill border cop’s reckless heist of a cartel shipment, sung by a desperate soul destroyed in its wake. THE SHOUT A spellbinding, occult-tinged movie of mind control and superstitions come true, with a top-notch cast, including Alan Bates, Susannah York, John Hurt and Tim Curry. A surrealistic atmosphere pervades this spine-tingler as a mysterious "shout" kills people in the English countryside. Offbeat, psychological thriller that won the Cannes Film Festival. Jerzy Skolimowski---Great Britain---1978---83 mins. With live bio-acoustics by Jacob Kirkegaard. SHOW PEOPLE Though the filmmakers of "The Artist" readily acknowledged their debt of gratitude to Douglas Fairbanks, for silent film enthusiasts it is "Show People" that served as a template for this year’s Best Picture winner. Equally enthralled with the behind-the-scenes stories of Hollywood filmmaking of the 1920s, "Show People" features not only wonderfully comedic performances by Marion Davies and William Haines, but a unique string of cameo appearances by the biggest stars of the day. Davies stars as Peggy Pepper, who arrives in Hollywood from Georgia to claim the film stardom that her father believes is rightfully hers. Haines is a comic performer who helps her find work even though she sees herself as a "dramatic" actress. Filled with true affection for what was then already a disappearing art form due to the coming of sound, King Vidor was able to capture the small-town flavor of silent era Hollywood and the seemingly accidental nature of how movies got made in that outwardly carefree time. "Show People" is an excellent introduction for a silent film novice, but also serves as a wonderful reminder of what a unique treat a great silent film can be. With cameo appearances by Charlie Chaplin, John Gilbert, Douglas Fairbanks, Elinor Glyn, William S. Hart, Aileen Pringle, Rod La Rocque, Norma Talmadge and more. Produced and directed by King Vidor. Written by Agnes Christine Johnston, Laurence Stallings, Wanda Tuchock. Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 35mm, silent, black-and-white, 79 minutes. Introduced by acclaimed silent film historian and preservationist Kevin Brownlow. Featuring a print restored under the supervision of Kevin Brownlow with a stereo musical score composed by Carl Davis. SILENT MOUNTAINS, SINGING OCEANS, AND SLIVERS OF TIME: SIX FILMS BY DAVID GATTEN Over the last 15 years, David Gatten has explored the intersection of the printed word and moving image with a depth and imagination unique to cinema. Making connections across fields of knowledge and meaning, Gatten’s films generate tactile compositions and draw novel conclusions from 19th-century scientific treatises, “outdated” 20th-century instructional texts, and rare books from 17th- and 18th-century personal libraries. Gatten, a leading figure dedicated to mining 16mm film’s continuing expressive possibilities in the digital era, was recently included in Cinema scope’s “Best Fifty Filmmakers Under Fifty.” This program, Part 3 of a touring retrospective, consists of six films made between 1998 and 2010. Part 1 screens at the Velaslavasay Panorama on October 27 and Part 2 at Los Angeles Filmforum on October 28. In person: David Gatten THE SLEEPING VOICE (LA VOZ DORMIDA) 2012, 128 min, Spain, Dir: Benito Zambrano “Two sisters, one politically active and the other not, find themselves caught up in politics in the dark days following the Spanish Civil War… Vivid performances by attractive leads Maria Leon, who won Best Actress kudos at the San Sebastian festival, and the fiery Inma Cuesta.” - Hollywood Reporter. “A harrowing drama that transforms the sorry plight of female prisoners in post-Civil War Spain into a bleak examination of man's inhumanity to women, THE SLEEPING VOICE magnificently tells a tale that needs to be told and retold. Shrewdly remaining mainstream while plumbing the depths of grief and violence… foreign audiences will be gripped.” –Variety. Winner of three Goya Awards (including Best New Actress for Maria Leon), and nominated for an additional six (including Best Director and Best Film). In Spanish with English subtitles. Discussion between films with director Benito Zambrano (THE SLEEPING VOICE) and actor Marc Clotet (THE SLEEPING VOICE). SNUFF Beneficiary of one of the most ingenious movie marketing schemes of the 20th century, the caustic oddity Snuff is a weird Frankenstein-ed beast, and has a backstory as killer as its freakish finale. Starting life as the unreleased flick Slaughter, the film is, up until its last minutes, the Manson-like tale of a South American biker cult leader (named “Satan”, BTW) and his murderous/topless hippie chick followers. Cool enough already, eh? Directed by infamous 42nd Street sleaze king Michael Findlay, Slaughter was years later acquired by Findlay’s distributor (and sometimes pornographer) Allan Shackleton, who commissioned a new ending: a complete 90-degree turn, filmed in vérité style, purporting to be documentary footage of the Slaughter film crew committing a real-life murder of an actress. Not just any killing, but rather one in which they split her open and toss her guts around like Christmas tinsel. Hiring fake protesters to picket theaters showing the film, Shackleton instigated such a juicy public outcry against this “real snuff film” that curious moviegoers had no choice but to queue up around the block and participate in the historic event. This October 22nd, relive the nauseous outrage with us, in an ultra-rare 35mm screening of this celebrated curio! Dirs. Michael Findlay, Horacio Fredriksson & Simon Nuchtern, 1976, 35mm, 80 min. SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME DIRECTOR Bob Byington, 76 MIN A deadpan fable about thirty-five years in the life of Max, his best friend Sal and a woman they both adore. SOMETHING IN THE AIR DIRECTOR Olivier Assayas, 122 MIN An 18-year-old young man reacts to the social changes of late 1960s Europe. THE SPIDER'S STRATAGEM Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci A young man is called to his hometown by the former mistress of his long-dead father to investigate the death of his father, a hero of the anti-Fascist resistance who was murdered by unknown assassins while plotting against Mussolini. The son’s quest becomes more like a suspenseful game of cat-and-mouse at each turn, as past and present, father and son, hero and traitor, blend and blur. Radiotelevisione Italiana. Producer: Giovanni Bertolucci. Screenwriter: Bernardo Bertolucci, Eduardo De Gregorio, Marilù Parolini. Cinematographer: Vittorio Storaro. Editor: Roberto Perpignani. Cast: Giulio Brogi, Alida Valli, Pippo Campanini, Franco Giovanelli, Tino Scotti. 35mm, color, 102 min. Spotlight on Lewis Klahr Lewis Klahr is an internationally-acclaimed and Los Angeles–based experimental filmmaker whose work has been included in the Whitney Biennial, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Meticulously culling images, textures, and fleeting details from an array of mid-century ephemera—from superhero comic books to ladies’ magazine ads and from playing cards to telegrams—Klahr pieces together exhilarating and enigmatic collages imbued with hints of melancholy romance and noir-tinged (mis)adventure. Klahr’s first-ever screening at LACMA will include the Los Angeles premiere of his newest work, The Pettitfogger and rarities from his prolific oeuvre. STARLET DIRECTOR Sean Baker, 103 MIN The unlikely friendship between a young, rootless porn actress and a prickly octogenarian results in a combative yet tender mother-daughter bond. STEVIE In 1995, filmmaker Steve James returns to Pomona, a beautiful rural hamlet in Southern Illinois to reconnect with Stevie Fielding, for whom James once served as an advocate Big Brother. He finds that the once difficult, awkward child has become -- ten years later -- an angry and troubled young man. Part way through filming, Stevie is arrested and charged with a serious crime. He confesses to the crime and then later recants. The filmmaker himself is drawn into the film as he tries to sort out his own feelings, past and present, about Stevie and how to deal with him in the wake of his arrest. What was to be a modest profile of Stevie, turns into an intimate four and a half year chronicle of a dysfunctional family's struggle to heal. Directed by Steve James. Produced by Steve James, Adam D. Singer, and Gordon Quinn. Followed by a Q&A with Steve James SUN DON'T SHINE DIRECTOR Amy Seimetz, 82 MIN Crystal and her boyfriend Leo embark on a mysterious road trip across the haunting Central Florida landscape, her disturbing past riding close behind. SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS DIRECTOR F.W. Murnau, 89 MIN A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city who tries to convince him to drown his wife. SUNSET BLVD. DIRECTOR Billy Wilder, 110 MIN Paramount Home Media Distribution proudly presents one of the studio's most iconic films, newly restored and in sparkling high definition for the first time. SURNAME VIET, GIVEN NAME NAM USA, 1989, 108mins., 16mm Twenty-three years after its premiere, Trinh T. Minh-ha’s film remains a post-colonial classic, tackling issues of translation and untranslatability: from a Vietnamese transcript of half-spoken voices recorded at night, to the French publication of these interviews, to their re-translation into English by a native Vietnamese speaker, to the patient efforts of ordinary Vietnamese women to memorize and utter them—then to the lyrics of Vietnamese ballads translated into English subtitles—and finally to Trinh delivering, in English, fragments of oral history, epic poems, and folk sayings about women’s role in society. What is lost and what is gained in this multiple-entry process, in this palimpsest of half-erased texts? What is not gained is a “knowledge-about” a certain object: Vietnam. And what is not lost is a certain truth about the bodies of Vietnamese women. In person: Trinh T. Minh-ha SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS 1957, MGM/Park Circus, 96 min, USA, Dir: Alexander Mackendrick Tony Curtis gives his greatest performance as cutthroat press agent Sidney Falco, willing to sell his soul to syndicated columnist Burt Lancaster for a few lines of copy, in director Alexander Mackendrick’s dark, glittering gem of a movie - one of the most frightening and seductive films of the 1950s. Brilliantly scripted by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman, with stunning, mood-drenched black-and-white photography by the legendary James Wong Howe. TABU (1931) Filmed entirely in Tahiti, Tabu represents an unusual collaboration between legendary directors F.W. Murnau and Robert Flaherty. Combining Flaherty's poetic sense of the native people with Murnau's strong filmic sensibilities, the film tells the story of two lovers doomed by a tribal edict decreeing the beautiful princess as "tabu" to all men. "Murnau is one of the great masters. The beautiful restoration of Tabu will enable future generations to enjoy and appreciate his inspiring talent" (Martin Scorsese). Friedrich W. Murnau---USA---1931---84 mins. TABU (2012) DIRECTOR Miguel Gomes, 111 MIN An elderly woman in Lisbon is attended by a kind neighbor. The film then takes a turn, becoming an aural journey of illicit love in Africa. TCHOUPITOULAS DIRECTORS Bill Ross, Turner Ross, 80 MIN This dreamlike documentary from the brothers Ross follows three young boys across the Mississippi into New Orleans' French Quarter for a kaleidoscopic night of revelry. TERROR ISLAND 1920, Cohen Media, 55 min, USA, Dir: James Cruz Young Beverly West (Lila Lee) has a map to a priceless cache of pearls, but is much more interested in locating her father. Inventor Harry Harper (Harry Houdini) sails to a South Seas island to find them both, doing battle with treasure hunters and cannibals in the process. Though a couple of its reels are lost to time, this may be Houdini’s most exciting big screen effort, packed to the gills with action (including an underwater safe escape). Costarring Eugene Palette. TEXTS OF LIGHT: A MID-CAREER RETROSPECTIVE OF FOURTEEN FILMS BY DAVID GATTEN: PROGRAM I Secret History of the Dividing Line, A True Account in Nine Parts: Parts I-IV Secret History of the Dividing Line (2002) 20 mins., black and white, silent The Great Art of Knowing (2004) 37 mins., black and white, silent Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises, or The Doctrine of Handy-Words Applied to the Art of Printing (1999) 26 mins. [18 fps], black and white, silent The Enjoyment of Reading (Lost and Found) (2001) 18 mins. [18 fps], color, silent Filmmaker will be in attendance. TEY DIRECTOR Alain Gomis, 86 MIN A rare glimpse of life in contemporary Senegal, TEY is a lush, poetic portrait of one man's search for peace on the last day of his life. THIS AIN'T CALIFORNIA 2012, 90 min, Germany, Dir: Marten Persiel Divided into seven chapters, Marten Persiel's fascinating documentary retraces the life of East German skateboarder Denis “Panik” Panicek from the 1970s through the '90s. Illustrating how the sport brought people together in fractured Germany, the film reinterprets the severe, bleak aesthetic of the GDR and turns it into a playground, emphasizing the subversive power and identity outlet that skate culture provided in Communist Germany. Using a blend of Super 8 footage, testimonies from Panicek's friends, black-and-white animation and a punchy soundtrack, Persiel recreates the atmosphere of freedom and rebellion Panicek helped to foster. In German with English subtitles. THUNDERBOLT Thunderbolt is a 1929 proto-noir which tells the story of a criminal, facing execution, who wants to kill the man in the next cell for being in love with his girlfriend. It stars George Bancroft, Fay Wray, Richard Arlen, Tully Marshall and Eugenie Besserer. The movie was adapted by Herman J. Mankiewicz, Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Josef von Sternberg from the story by Charles Furthman and Jules Furthman. It was directed by von Sternberg. Bancroft was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. THE TINGLER One of the concluding events of our crazy Nightmare City month-long celebration is one of Cinefamily’s most favorite annual Halloween traditions: the spine-tingling horror of The Tingler, William Castle’s weirdo masterpiece of gimmickry about a lobster-shaped monster that feeds on terror within the human body! Aside from being the first film to use LSD as a plot device, the original theatrical run was presented in “Percepto,” whereby theater patrons were administered buzzer shocks in their seats, to simulate the monster’s attack. The result, of course, was giddy insanity, as star Vincent Price’s voice urges patrons to “scream for your lives!” Best of all, The Tingler features a major subplot based on the Silent Movie Theatre itself and its original owners, the Hamptons. Feel a tingle up your spine as you watch these scenes set in the very location where you are sitting — and maybe a tingle on your tuchas when we shock you Castle-style with real wired seats! THE TOOLBOX MURDERS A marvel of economical trash filmmaking, delivering a nonstop parade of T&A, tacky easy listening music, and one brutal dispatching after another from the hand of a psycho in a Torso-style ski mask who makes inventive use of his bottomless toolbox. Hammers, chisels, drills — and, in the most infamous moment of all, a nail gun applied to a beautiful bathing self-pleasurer — all set the tone for a near-plotless exercise in carnage, only for the story to abruptly swerve at the second-act pivot point into something resembling a sordid Tennessee Williams play, albeit one relocated to the San Fernando Valley, circa ’78. As well, since the film makes it plainly obvious who the killer is, director Dennis Donnelly resorts to other methods of holding the viewer’s attention — which mostly consists of letting the wonderfully hammy Cameron Mitchell rip into his role with full gusto, with one scene in particular that’s quite unlike anything else ever put on film: a jaw-dropping protracted dramatic exercise that comes completely out of left field. For nostalgic fans of extreme unease! Dir. Dennis Donnelly, 1978, 35mm, 93 min. UNDERWORLD U.S.A. One of Samuel Fuller's toughest pictures, this is a crime thriller that feels more like a war movie. Released from prison, career crook Tolly Devlin (Cliff Robertson) vows revenge on the three hoods who years earlier beat his father to death. To enact his vengeance, Tolly works both sides of the law, a lone wolf playing his own angles in the battle between the mob and the FBI. One of Fuller's most airtight scripts provides the blueprint for this unrelenting masterpiece. Spot-on performances from Beatrice Kay, Dolores Dorn, Roger Ehmhardt, and Richard Rust. 1961, Columbia (Sony), 99 min. Dir. Samuel Fuller. “Universal Horror B-Sides” Video Mix In our inaugural edition of Nightmare City, which features more films in a month’s time than any other single month in Cinefamily history(!), we were only able to squeeze in four calendar spots’ worth of juicy Universal Horror B-sides — but it seemed a shame for us to have learnt so much from surveying the entire “golden era” Universal Horror repertoire without being able to fully share the enormous scope of our discoveries. So, in classic Cinefamily fashion, we’re rectifying that with a custom hour-long video mix, featuring the most amazing stand-alone scenes from all the cool vintage Universal Horror movies we didn’t have time to show in their entirety, accompanied by insightful and colorful lecture-style notes from the Cinefamily programming staff! UNIT 7 (GRUPO 7) 2012, 96 min, Spain, Dir: Alberto Rodríguez In advance of the 1992 World Exhibition in Seville, four cops are asked to clear the streets of drug trafficking; among them are Angel (Mario Casas) and Rafael (Antonio de la Torre). But the streets they work hold both dangers and temptations, and the bribery, violence and intimidation these two men encounter on the job put them on very different paths. Strong lead performances and a nuanced script ground this stylish film noir/cop thriller, which is based on real-life incidents. UNIT 7 also benefits from outstanding cinematography, its gritty tones ramping up the intensity of the moral conflict (and some pretty spectacular chase sequences). Winner of the Goya for Best Cinematography. In Spanish with English subtitles. Discussion between films with director Benito Zambrano (THE SLEEPING VOICE) and actor Marc Clotet (THE SLEEPING VOICE). The 10-minute short film "O Xigante" will screen before the second feature: "O Xigante," (2012, 10 min.) Dir. Lluis Da Mata. A gorgeous creation myth come to life. VAMPYR Steven Severin (acclaimed solo artist and founding member of the legendary Siouxsie and the Banshees) returns to the Cinefamily in person, giving audiences a rare opportunity to hear his new score for Carl Dreyer’s Vampyr: the third in his ongoing film accompaniment series “Music For Silents.” Though Hitchcock called it “the only film worth seeing twice”, the mysteries of Vampyr couldn’t be untangled in a thousand viewings. Dreyer’s film set a precedent for psychological horror, deploying mood and technical wizardry to render the strange logic of a nightmare on the screen. Shot with a silent film aesthetic despite being filmed in the sound era (and a year after Lugosi starred in Universal’s Dracula), Vampyr finds a perfect aural counterpart in Severin’s suitably textured score: a synthesized, highly atmospheric soundscape that draws the viewer rhythmically into a strange, horrifying dimension just outside our field of vision. VERONIKA KRAUSAS' MUSIC & FILMS Composer Veronika Krausas screens films and discusses her music. "In all her creative endeavors, be they music, performance, film or photography, she is a compiler, forging compositions in a literal sense through a vast archive of accumulated observations and the unlikely connections between them. Sonically and visually, she is intrigued by dissonance. Krausas is a student of randomness, engineering conceptual juxtapositions of elements that have haphazardly intruded into her consciousness and piqued her interest." -Shan Nys Dambrot, Art Critic & LA Weekly. "Krausas' extraordinary works eschew the commonplace, the pretty, and the predictably lyric sensibility to explore a more provocative and uncharted path…a sortie into an incongruous universe where forking paths inexplicably converge, and where discordances co-exist in subtle sympathy… [Her] pieces invoke a place beyond comfort or familiarity, and deliver the listener into a crossroads of authentic grace, discovery, and delight." - Quintan Ana Wikswo, Catalysis Projects. VIGILANTE 1983/color/90 min. Scr: Richard Vetere; dir: William Lustig; w/ Robert Forster, Fred Williamson A Halloween double feature from the dirty fingernails of one of horror’s finest practitioners: director William Lustig. For his 1983 film, Vigilante, Lustig cast Robert Forster as his working class hero, Eddie, whose life is ruined when his wife and young son are killed—he blames himself because he didn’t join an underground vigilante group put together by a friend (Fred Williamson). Like Maniac, Vigilante doesn’t let its protagonist off the hook but instead shows that once violence infects someone’s life, he can never be healed morally. VISITING HOURS As the only Canadian horror film to make the UK Director of Public Prosecution’s video nasty list, Visiting Hours showcases something infinitely more shocking than non-stop blood and guts: MICHAEL IRONSIDE (Scanners, Top Gun, Starship Troopers). Ironside full-throatedly plays a psychotic misogynist intent on silencing feminist journalist Lee Grant (who looks genuinely bewildered throughout.) When the initial attack sends the outspoken reporter to the hospital, the true horror begins. Ominous phone calls, sharp objects, dark hallways, sweaty Ironside close-ups and pudding-eating William Shatner make Visiting Hours a classic ‘80s psycho-slasher that demands late-night, dark room viewing. When the film inadvertently became the first Video Nasty to be shown on UK television in 1989, the station was vociferously rebuked, highly scandalized and heavily fined. See why tonight in 35mm! Dir. Jean-Claude Lord, 1982, 35mm, 105 min. WAR DON DON After ten years of violent civil war, Sierra Leoneans were relieved in 2002 when the brutal war was over (exclaimed as “war don don” in the Krio language), but the painful memories of murder, systematic rape and dismemberment remained. War Don Don, directed by first-time filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen, follows the war crimes trial of Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel leader Issa Sesay, exploring the complex relationship between individual accountability, collective reconciliation and the limits of international justice. From 1991 to 2001, the RUF fought to overthrow the ruling government of Sierra Leone. In 2003, after the end of the war, the United Nations and the government of Sierra Leone spent more than $200 million building a Special Court to seek justice and reconciliation, setting up the world’s first international war crimes “hybrid tribunal.” Three years in the making, War Don Don draws on unprecedented access to the inner workings of the defense and prosecution in Issa Sesay’s trial, including access to Sesay himself, exploring the contradictions of a man who dealt in blood diamonds, commanded child soldiers and was blamed for mass atrocities against civilians, while also being credited by some with single-handedly ending the war. Directed & Produced by Rebecca Richman Cohen. Produced & Edited by Francisco Bello. Introduced by Anne Archer, Actress and Founder, Artists for Human Rights. Followed by a Q&A with Rebecca Richman Cohen; Elise Keppler, Senior Counsel in the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch; Dr. Michael Renov, Ph.D., Vice Dean, School of Cinematic Arts; Moderated by Hannah Garry, Professor at the USC Gould School of Law. WAR WITCH DIRECTOR Kim Nguyen, 90 MIN A 14-year-old girl in Sub-Saharan Africa tells her unborn child the story of her life from the time she was abducted by the rebel army at age 12. Waxworks 1924/b&w/83 min. Scr: Henrik Galeen; dir: Paul Leni; w/ Conrad Veidt, Emil Jannings, Werner Krauss Camilla Horn, Wilhelm Dieterle. Restored 35mm from Cineteca di Bologna. The proprietor of a carnival wax museum hires a young author to pen the gruesome backstories of the three leads in his life-sized rogue’s gallery: Harun al-Rashid, Ivan the Terrible, and Jack the Ripper. Director Paul Leni began as an expressionist painter before working under Max Reinhardt in the Berlin’s Deutsches Theater in Berlin and though the film is written by Henrik Galeen, perhaps best known for the screenplays to Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) and Wegener’s The Golem (1920), Waxworks is as well-known for the extravagant and eclectic artificiality of its production design as it is for its tales of bloodthirsty despots and stolen brides. In effect, Waxworks serves as a concise summation of some of the late silent era’s definitive visual styles. There’s the sensual Arabian exotica of the Harun al-Rashid chapter (starring a leering, outrageously mustachioed and decadently rotund Emil Jannings), which appears to have inspired Douglas Fairbanks’s Thief of Baghdad; the ornate interiors and tautly stylized performances of the Ivan the Terrible section (which von Sternberg’s The Scarlet Empress and Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible both seem to draw from, respectively); and the multiple superimpositions and impressionistic layering of imagery in the brief Jack the Ripper section. Live musical accompaniment by Robert Israel Weird Woman Right from its introductory sequence of a floating head in a crystal ball extolling the inevitability of “murrrrderrrr,” Weird Woman is a fantastic example of wall-to-wall camp — a dark, twisty delight peppered with more hysteria than any cuckoo’s nest. L.C. Jr. is a brilliant, imposing sociology professor (from a university about which the film will not let us forget is entrenched in the study of Reason vs. Superstition!) Every woman is besotted with him — and every man is rabidly jealous. Returning from a South Pacific trip with an “exotic” island wife, trouble brews quickly, thanks to corrupt colleagues and their shrewish wives, a tarty, bookish T.A. with a temperamental boyfriend, and an evil old flame armed to the elbows with metaphorical gaslights. Though Chaney’s stellar as a monster, it’s wonderful to see him in a gripping, soapy thriller that delivers its absurd histrionics in voodoo-spouting spades. Dir. Reginald Le Borg, 1944, 35mm, 63 min. WE'RE NOT BROKE America is in the grip of a societal economic panic. Lawmakers cry “We’re Broke!” as they slash budgets, lay off schoolteachers, police, and firefighters, crumbling our country’s social fabric and leaving many Americans scrambling to survive. Meanwhile, multibillion-dollar American corporations like Exxon, Google and Bank of America are making record profits. And while the deficit climbs and the cuts go deeper, these corporations—with intimate ties to our political leaders—are concealing colossal profits overseas to avoid paying U.S. income tax. We're Not Broke is the story of how U.S. corporations have been able to hide over a trillion dollars from Uncle Sam, and how seven fed-up Americans from across the country, take their frustration to the streets . . . and vow to make the corporations pay their fair share. Running time: 81 minutes. WEST OF MEMPHIS DIRECTOR Amy Berg, 146 MIN Amy Berg's film casts a light on the brutal murder of three young boys and the 18-year struggle to exonerate the teenagers who were convicted of the crimes. WE WON'T GROW OLD TOGETHER Maurice Pialat, who one critic dubbed "the French Cassavetes" and Film Comment called "the most important French filmmaker since Robert Bresson", directed this semi-autobiographical drama about a couple unable to separate from one another. Maurice Pialat---France---1972---106 mins. THE WILD ONES (ELS NENS SALVATGES aka THE WILD CHILDREN) 2012, 100 min, Spain, Dir: Patricia Ferreira Patricia Ferreira’s elegant triptych of coming-of-age tales follows three teenage friends and their individual struggles to define themselves amidst hard family conditions and a seemingly indifferent society: Graffiti artist Alex (Alex Monner), ignored by his parents and faced with the mounting living expenses for an art grant he wins; kickboxer Gabi (Alberto Baro), who lives in fear of his domineering gym-owner father; and wealthy Oky (Marina Comas), who lives comfortably but without affection from her parents. “The sins of parents and teachers are visited on their progeny and students in THE WILD CHILDREN, a largely subtle, compassionate and perceptive take on bad education affecting a trio of Catalan teens. Helmer Patricia Ferreira's strongest work to date delivers a clear call to grownups to mend their ways, filtered through a neatly structured criss-crossing narrative... An engrossing drama as well as an urgent cry for social change.” –Variety. Winner of Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Monner) at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival. In Catalan with English subtitles. Discussion between films with director Patricia Ferreira (THE WILD ONES). THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA The most colorful trip about about a waitress’ psychological disintegration into castration mania ever committed to the screen! Millie Perkins (The Shooting, The Diary of Anne Frank) plays the tormented woman, whose repressed memories of childhood abuse begin to surface in some pretty undesirable ways, compelling her to pick up a razor and go after some of the men she sees on TV everyday. The Witch who Came from the Sea could certainly have never been made in a Hollywood studio context, and it’s a gigantic anomaly even among drive-in films; while it was marketed (when it was marketed at all) as a psychotic slasher film, it doesn’t really slip easily into any single genre, for it has as much Repulsion and Persona in it as Psycho. Thanks to a poetic touch, striking Malibu-shot visuals (courtesy of expert scope cinematographer Dean Cundey in his first major job), and a fine central performance from Perkins, Witch avoids sliding into either grindhouse sleaziness or unbearable pretension. And it’s completely, unforgettably messed up! Dir. Matt Cimber, 1976, 35mm, 88 min. WRONG DIRECTOR Quentin Dupieux, 94 MIN Taking super-realism to dizzying new heights, this absurd story tells of one man's epic and fantastical quest to reunite with his lost dog. XTRO Both a gooey, twisted freak-out and a fevered potpourri of concepts, Harry Bromley Davenport’s notorious XTRO is a must-see for all fans of crazy shit. Playing out like a “best-of” the science fiction and horror genres, the film focuses on a young boy who witnesses his father being abducted by a light from the sky. Three years later, that light returns and plants a seed in the ground. That seed grows into a horrible creature. That creature then impregnates a woman. That woman then gives birth to a fully-formed version of the father, just as we last saw him. And that’s just the set-up! Cue the truly insane E.T.-ripoff-by-way-of-Carrie, balls-to-the-wall, family-drama-cum-outer-space-splatter stuff to follow! Technically, XTRO never officially landed on the Video Nasties list, but the film has famously been presumed to be for decades, and for good reason: Roger Ebert began his review of the film by stating that “XTRO is an ugly, mean-spirited and despairing thriller that left me thoroughly depressed.” So — that’s a bad thing? Dir. Harry Bromley Davenport, 1983, 35mm, 84 min. Ultra-rare 35mm print from Down Under — possibly the last known surviving print in the world!