a highly-opinionated selection of things happening around town, and sometimes out of town. this month's page here.
mon. nov. 2
ty segall, mike watt @ the echo
big trouble in little china, they live @ new beverly theatre
frank fairfield @ redwood bar
tue. nov. 3
jack oblivian @ echoplex
devo @ henry fonda
lichtspiel: contemporary abstract animation and visual music 8:30 PM @ redcat
crumb 7 PM FREE @ hammer museum
trash humpers 10 PM @ afi fest @ mann chinese
no way out 1:30 FREE @ skirball center
big trouble in little china, they live @ new beverly theatre
a tribute to fred wolf 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
wed. nov. 4
broadcast @ troubadour
the stuff, q (aka the winged serpent) @ aero theatre
mia doi todd @ bootleg theater
devo @ henry fonda
bad lieutenant: port of call new orleans 7 PM @ afi fest @ mann chinese
the road 7 PM @ afi fest @ mann chinese
tetro, the outsiders @ new beverly theatre
united red army 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
thu. nov. 5
tetro, the outsiders @ new beverly theatre
luminous triptych 8 PM @ echo park film center
mike watt & the missingmen @ house of blues sunset
venetian snares @ key club
the rock-afire explosion 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
fri. nov. 6
casablanca MIDNIGHT @ nuart theatre
jon brion @ largo
the road (preview) 8 PM @ egyptian theatre
beware of safety @ bootleg theater
betty blue (director's cut) 8 PM @ new beverly theatre
only angels have wings, five came back @ ucla film archive
charade @ lacma
wait until dark 9:35 PM @ lacma
loving 8 PM, up the sandbox @ silent movie theatre
sat. nov. 7
ron silva & the monarchs, hepcat @ house of blues (anaheim)
earthquake, the towering inferno, the poseidon adventure @ aero theatre
lewis klahr's films about childhood 8 PM @ velaslavasay panorama
zombie 9 PM, isle of the damned @ downtown independent
meho plaza @ pehrspace
betty blue (director's cut) 4 PM 8 PM @ new beverly theatre
near dark MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
war and peace @ lacma
shinjuku mad 7 PM, ecstasy of the angels @ silent movie theatre
planet mormon! 10:30 PM @ silent movie theatre
sun. nov. 8
thief, the gambler @ new beverly theatre
#3 7 PM, #23.2 book of mirrors, #7, #11 marey <-> moire @ ucla film archive
the object 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
mon. nov. 9
dunes @ the smell
the road 7:45 PM @ reel talk @ wadsworth theater
frank fairfield @ redwood bar
thief, the gambler @ new beverly theatre
tue. nov. 10
mr. and mrs. smith 1 PM @ lacma
gowns @ the echo
wed. nov. 11
greg ashley @ spaceland
abe vigoda @ the smell
blues control, peter kolovos @ sync space
world's greatest dad, shakes the clown @ new beverly theatre
thu. nov. 12
dolemite, petey wheatstraw @ egyptian theatre
dead meadow, imaad wassif @ echoplex
the wild bunch 7 PM @ million dollar theatre
the sicilian girl, focaccia blues @ aero theatre
world's greatest dad, shakes the clown @ new beverly theatre
8-bit alchemy [rewind] 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
fri. nov. 13
thirst MIDNIGHT @ nuart theatre
12 monkeys MIDNIGHT @ fairfax regency
jon brion @ largo
dirty: one word can change the world 8 PM @ downtown independent
three colors: blue 7 PM, the unbearable lightness of being @ new beverly theatre
the long goodbye @ ucla film archive
my fair lady @ lacma
rocky 8 PM, joe @ silent movie theatre
sat. nov. 14
the homosexuals @ el rey
abe vigoda, gil mantera's party dream @ spaceland
patton oswalt @ largo
look back in anger 4 PM FREE @ getty center
saturday night and sunday morning 7 PM FREE @ getty center
three colors: blue 4:20 PM 9:30 PM, the unbearable lightness of being 6:20 PM @ new beverly theatre
re-animator MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
fifth avenue girl, the great man votes @ ucla film archive
go go second time virgin 7 PM, running in madness dying in love @ silent movie theatre
mondo christploitation 10:30 PM @ silent movie theatre
sun. nov. 15
mission of burma @ echoplex
raymond pettibon 4-6 PM @ mandrake bar
vittorio d 5 PM @ aero theatre
d.w. griffith in california @ echo park film center
the girls FREE 7 PM RSVP Required @ getty villa
bipolar bear @ the smell
win! @ aero theatre
in the heat of the night 3:20 PM 7:30 PM, the defiant ones 5:30 PM 9:40 PM @ new beverly theatre
the threee geniuses: the re-death of psychedelia 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
mon. nov. 16
lynne sachs & mark street's garden of verses 6 PM @ 7 dudley cinema
frank fairfield @ redwood bar
hiking @ pehrspace
in the heat of the night, the defiant ones @ new beverly theatre
tue. nov. 17
the king khan & bbq show @ troubadour
aziz ansari @ largo
unholy rollers, TBA @ grindhouse film fest @ new beverly theatre
the last run 1 PM @ lacma
wed. nov. 18
blood theatre, visitants @ new beverly theatre
the mormons @ l'keg gallery
thu. nov. 19
an unmarried woman, tempest @ aero theatre
dirt dress @ echo curio
three colors: white, three colors: red @ new beverly theatre
8-bit alchemy [fast forward] 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
fri. nov. 20
jon brion @ largo
easy rider MIDNIGHT @ fairfax regency
three colors: white, three colors: red @ new beverly theatre
sweet emma dear bobe @ ucla film archive
wake in fright 8 PM, the apprenticeship of duddy kravitz @ silent movie theatre
sat. nov. 21
dirt dress @ pehrspace
spinal tap @ devil's night drive-in
this sporting life 4 PM FREE @ getty center
blitzkrieg bop 11:30 PM @ downtown independent
terry riley @ disney hall
the loneliness of the long distance runner 7 PM FREE @ getty center
citizen kane, the magnificent ambersons @ aero theatre
three colors: white 3:40 PM 7:30 PM, three colors: red 5:30 PM 9:20 PM @ new beverly theatre
idiocracy MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
no subtitles necessary: laszlo and vilmos @ ucla film archive
violated angels, violent virgin @ silent movie theatre
sects drugs and mind control 10:30 PM @ silent movie theatre
sun. nov. 22
skyscraper souls 2 PM, faithless @ egyptian theatre
lilys @ spaceland
the asphalt jungle 3:45 PM 7:30 PM, armored car robbery 6 PM 9:45 PM @ new beverly theatre
nollywood babylon 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
mon. nov. 23
the asphalt jungle, armored car robbery @ new beverly theatre
frank fairfield @ redwood bar
tue. nov. 24
the asphalt jungle, armored car robbery @ new beverly theatre
fri. nov. 27
the royal tenenbaums MIDNIGHT @ nuart theatre
total recall MIDNIGHT @ fairfax regency
lawrence of arabia (70mm) @ egyptian theatre
the baader meinhof complex @ spielberg theater @ egyptian theatre
love exposure 7 PM @ silent movie theatre
sat. nov. 28
dum dum girls @ spaceland
three stooges big screen event 2:00 8:00 PM @ alex theatre
the baader meinhof complex @ spielberg theater @ egyptian theatre
a hard day's night, head @ aero theatre
alice in wonderland (1949) 7:30 PM @ silent movie theatre
sun. nov. 29
los angeles plays itself @ egyptian theatre
neil hamburger @ spaceland
the baader meinhof complex @ spielberg theater @ egyptian theatre
mon. nov. 30
the films of 1909 @ ampas linwood dunn theater
frank fairfield @ redwood bar
tue. dec. 1
the first films of mary pickford @ ampas linwood dunn theater
edge of the city 1:30 FREE @ skirball center
thu. dec. 3
earthless @ troubadour
skygreen leopards @ echo curio
fri. dec. 4
jon brion @ largo
repo man MIDNIGHT @ nuart theatre
after all @ ucla film archive
sat. dec. 5
the loons @ mind machine @ bordello
tamaryn, girls @ troubadour
voila la liberte @ ucla film archive
sun. dec. 6
idiot's delight 7 PM, confessions of a nazi spy @ ucla film archive
ivanhoe FREE 1 PM RSVP required @ getty center
tamaryn @ bootleg theater
tue. dec. 8
jonathan richman @ the mint
pressure point 1:30 FREE @ skirball center
wed. dec. 9
the prisoner of zenda 8 PM @ ampas samuel goldwyn theater
jonathan richman @ the mint
thu. dec. 10
jonathan richman @ the mint
fri. dec. 11
bipolar bear, foot village @ the smell
jon brion @ largo
espers @ fernwood (big sur)
the cat and the canary, son of frankenstein @ ucla film archive
sat. dec. 12
mark mcguire @ the smell
mike watt & the missingmen @ redwood bar
sun. dec. 13
borderline case 7 PM, the life of an agent @ ucla film archive
mon. dec. 14
the scarlet claw, the spider woman @ ucla film archive
tue. dec. 15
marc cooper 8:30 PM @ redcat
fri. dec. 18
five graves to cairo, the emperor waltz @ new beverly theatre
jon brion @ largo
sat. dec. 19
five graves to cairo, the emperor waltz @ new beverly theatre
gremlins @ devil's night drive-in
slap shot MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
sun. dec. 20
rolling thunder, death wish 3 @ new beverly theatre
mon. dec. 21
moving image art 6 PM @ 7 dudley cinema
rolling thunder, death wish 3 @ new beverly theatre
tue. dec. 22
rolling thunder, death wish 3 @ new beverly theatre
sun. dec. 27
neil hamburger @ spaceland
fri. jan. 1
squirrel nut zippers @ el rey
tue. jan. 5
bipolar bear @ l'keg gallery
wed. jan. 6
bipolar bear @ the smell
fri. jan. 8
sunset boulevard MIDNIGHT @ nuart
sat. jan. 9
sonic youth @ wiltern
WHAT IT IS:
#23.2, BOOK OF MIRRORS
(2002, Netherlands) Directed by Joost Rekveld
#23.2, Book of Mirrors deals with the multiplication of light beams through mirrors and kaleidoscopes. The structure of the film has been developed in close cooperation with composer Rozalie Hirs who wrote the music for it. The composition is based on symmetries and inversions of proportions and gestures. The film was inspired by concepts found in medieval and renaissance optics, and it was made with a set-up in which I use elementary optical principles to generate images. These images are caused by the interplay of light waves directly onto the emulsion, not using lenses as they are used normally to reproduce a scene outside of the camera. In that way, I try to explore alternative forms of spatiality not related to traditional pictorial perspective.
35mm, color, 12 min.
#3
(1994, Netherlands) Directed by Joost Rekveld
#3 is a film with pure light, in which the images were created by recording the movements of a small light source with extremely long exposures, so that it draws traces on the emulsion. The light is part of a simple mechanical system that exhibits chaotic behavior. I had long been fascinated by the fact that it is possible to construct a static image using movement, and that it is possible to recreate movement by showing several of these static images in succession. In this way, both the images, as well as the transformations of those images, are caused by the interference between the movement of one single light-germ and the movement of the film camera. The film was made according to an extensive score covering color, exposure, camera position, width of the light-trail and the direction and speed of movement of the mechanical system. The score consists of 13 sections in which I have tried at all costs to avoid repetition, symmetry and trivial developments.
16mm, silent, color, 4 min.
#7
(1996, Netherlands) Directed by Joost Rekveld
#7 was made by stamping paint onto transparent film and using the result of this as a negative. All movements in the film are caused by the interference of the stamped grid patterns and the perforation of the film material. Working on the filmstrip directly is interesting because of its simplicity and because of the fact that the traditional perspective inherent in the optical system of the camera becomes irrelevant. Illusion of depth occurs because of the difference in size of particles of paint, illusion of movement occurs when these particles are in some way equally spaced on the film. The colors of #7 are based on the opposition of pigment and light. The color model of theoretician Harald Küppers reduces this opposition to a unity at a deeper level in our perceptual system. I used his color model to structure a slow evolution from black to white. This is an elaboration of an old idea, articulated by Aristotle, among others, that colors are located in the shadow between light and dark. When stamping grid patterns onto film the content of every film frame is in part determined by chance. In contrast with this, all parameters that allow for control are composed in an elaborate score. The time structure is built up from the separate film frame to 28 sections that group into five larger parts. Each of these sections has its own color scheme and its own choice from the 17 grid patterns used.
16mm, silent, color, 32 min.
#11, MAREY <-> MOIRÉ
(1999, Netherlands) Directed by Joost Rekveld
#11, Marey <-> Moiré is a film in which all images were generated by intermittently recording the movement of a line. It is a film about the discontinuity that lies at the heart of the film medium. After making films #3 and #5 I was thinking about other methods to generate images by distributing light across film frames. One idea that came to mind was to record a continuous movement with long exposures like I had been doing before, but to interrupt these exposures many times to generate visual patterns. This would create interesting interferences between the motions involved. This idea also came from an increasing interest in the technological history of film. I had been looking for a kind of “pure” film: images the film apparatus would come up with if left alone, as it were. While thinking about this, I started to look towards the historic origins of film and new media in general. This led to experiments with various mechanical installations using Nipkow discs or anorthoscopes. The principle on which the set-up for #11 is based, is the same as used by the French scientist Etienne-Jules Marey. His work marks a definite turn in the strategies to deal with processes, motions and flux. The isolation of phases in time and the conversion of time in graphic space, led to many powerful inventions such as the assembly line. The French philosopher Henri Bergson compared these principles to the very way the human problem-solving mind works: our mind can only think in discrete concepts and flux is always seen as a transition between fixed states.
35mm, 21 min.
In Person: Joost Rekveld
AFTER ALL…
(És mégis...)
(1990, Hungary/Germany) Directed by Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács
This emotional drama of personal and public morality concerns Kristóf Zeyk, a 50-year-old journalist whose life undergoes enormous changes after the fall of Hungary’s communist government. Personally opposed to the old regime but never to the point of endangering his career, he is now termed a “Stalinist,” which troubles him deeply. Turning inward, and seeking the support of his young daughter, he reassesses his convictions and seeks a way forward in this new world.
Screenplay: Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács. Cinematographer: Balázs Sara. Editor: Éva Kárementö. Cast: András Kozák, Lili Monori, László Mensáros. Presented in Hungarian dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 95 min.
Alice In Wonderland (1949)
This ambitious, highly faithful late-'40s Alice adaptation took years to complete, and features an abundance of impressive, meticulous and labor-intensive stop-motion work from pioneer puppeteer Lou Bunin. After a live-action prologue showing the historical inspirations for the major characters, Alice (a decidedly adult Carol Marsh) is quickly launched into surreal realms of design and color. Remarkably, the film stays true to the original novel's anarchic construction, and the inspiration of Victorian illustrator John Tenniel's Alice imaginings. Bunin's handiwork is at its peak during the musical numbers, which dunk you head-first into the film's opium-riddled dreamworld--and in addition, live-action director Dallas Bower comes up with clever, simple solutions to the FX limitations of the day. Originally suppressed by Disney for fear of its potential upstaging of their own animated Alice, Bunin's work comes to you here at the Cinefamily in a rare screening of a beautiful MOMA-restored 35mm print!
Dirs. Dallas Bower & Lou Bunin, 1949, 35mm, 76 min.
THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ
(from IMDB)
The younger son of a working-class Jewish family in Montreal, Duddy Kravitz yearns to make a name for himself in society. This film chronicles his short and dubious rise to power, as well as his changing relationships with family and friends. Along the way the film explores the themes of anti-semitism and the responsibilities which come with adulthood. Dir. Ted Kotcheff, 1974, 120 mins.
ARMORED CAR ROBBERY
(from IMDB)
Dave Purvis takes pride in being unknown to the law, though famed among fellow crooks as a planner He plots a holdup in meticulous detail; but things go wrong, a cop and two robbers are killed, and Purvis hides out with the money while Lieut. Cordell, friend of the dead cop, investigates. Dir. Richard Fleischer, 1950, 67 mins.
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
John Huston directs this excellent underworld drama about crime and punishment. Five guys pull off a jewelry heist only to be double-crossed by their fence. With Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern and Marilyn Monroe as John Huston---USA---1950---112 mins.
THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX, 2008, Vitagraph Films, 155 min. Dir. Uli Edel. Germany 1967: The children of the Nazi generation vow fascism will never rule again. In their fight for freedom, they lose themselves in the cause and ignite a revolution around the world. Meet the original faces of terrorism, the Baader Meinhof Group, in this Academy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated film.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New OrleansBad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
USA | DIR Werner Herzog
CAST: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Coolidge, Fairuza Balk, Alvin “Xzibit” Joiner
After RESCUE DAWN, Werner Herzog returns to American genre cinema, this time taking on the mythic, audience-friendly framework of the gritty urban cop film. Working from William Finkelstein’s tightly compelling script, Herzog sets the plot in New Orleans, which allows for a few surreal Herzogian touches—decaying buildings, men communing with alligators. But this dark, shockingly funny drama keeps the focus on the title character, Detective McDonough, who scarfs down narcotics to cope with his back pain—making bets his body can’t cover—while neck-deep in a murder investigation. Nicolas Cage, in one of his strongest performances, invests McDonough with urgency and compassion, and gets terrific support by Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Vondee Curtis-Hall and Brad Dourif. Having positioned himself, in deed and word, as the ultimate Hollywood outsider, Herzog suddenly earns comparison with masters including Don Siegel, Nicholas Ray and Sidney Lumet. – Larry Gross
BETTY BLUE
A lusty, oddball romance might be the best way to describe the relationship between Betty and Zorg. Beatrice Dalle is the much troubled and very sexy Betty and Jean-Hughes Anglade is the would-be writer she loves. The third film from Jean-Jacques Beineix (Diva). In French with English subtitles. Jean-Jacques Beineix---France---1986---185 mins.
BLITZKRIEG BOP
This 16mm splatter-punk conflagration from Ramones fanatic Kakuei Shimada is like nothing you’ve ever seen. Or probably should see. Featuring a miscreant rock n’ roller who never loses a fight, a yakuza with the voice of an angel and possibly sex in outer space, Shimada’s manic indie outrages and entertains for 101 minutes, despite the fact that the narrators—a suicidal couple in mid-flight from the roof of a building—have only five seconds before they hit the ground.
BLOOD THEATRE
(from IMDB)
Spot Light Cinema have just taken over a closed down theater, with a tragic enigmatic past, concerning a fired theater's manager in the earlier part of the 20th century who snapped and ended up a mass murderer, offing a female member of staff before turning his rage on the cinema-goers. Despite this notoriety, Spot Light are dead set on opening up as yet another one of their own movie houses. But the past won't stay buried and soon both staff and visitors alike are dying off one by one. Dir. Rick Sloane, 1984, 75 mins.
BORDERLINE CASE
(2006) Directed by Peter Szalay
The heart wrenching chronicle of the Iron Curtain's final victim; a German citizen killed during his attempt to cross Hungary's border to Austria, mere days before the border was opened.
Video, 32 min.
THE CAT AND THE CANARY
(1939) Directed by Elliott Mugent
In the second studio remake of the silent old dark house classic, Bob Hope matches every bump in the night with a trademark one liner as someone or something tries to keep Paulette Goddard’s naïve waif from inheriting a fortune. For all the film’s comic sensibilities, director Elliott Mugent doesn’t skimp on the creepy atmospherics in this genre-bending treat.
Paramount Pictures. Producer: Arthur Hornblow, Jr.. Screenplay: Lynn Starling. Cinematographer: Charles Lang. Editor: Archie Marshek. Cast: Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, John Beal, Douglass Montgomery, Gale Sondergaard. 35mm, B/W, 72 min.
Charade
1963/color/113 min. | Scr: Peter Stone; dir: Stanley Donen; w/ Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn.
Donen worked closely with writer Peter Stone on this North by Northwest-inspired film that alternates high suspense and grisly murder with comedy and romance. The story of a woman who realizes she knows absolutely nothing about her murdered husband, and who seeks help from an attractive stranger when her husband's criminal cohorts threaten her life, Charade is a series of stylish twists and romantic reversals that allowed Donen to display his directorial mastery of innuendo-laden dialogue, striking camera angles, and breathless pacing. An enormous hit with audiences—it played New York's Radio City Hall at Christmas and well beyond—Charade remains one of the iconic Audrey Hepburn pictures, complete with romantic Paris settings, clothes by Givenchy, and a lilting Henry Mancini score.
CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY
(1939) Directed by Anatole Litvak
Based on a sensational Nazi espionage trial in 1938, Confessions was the first studio film to address Fascism and Hitler’s rise to power given that Germany was Hollywood’s largest European market. While Edward G. Robinson reprises the role of G-man he had played in other Warners films, Sanders creates a suave, sophisticated and thoroughly evil Nazi, a perennial characterization.
Warner Bros.. Producer: Robert Lord. Screenplay: Milton Krims, John Wexler. Cinematographer: Sol Polito. Editor: Ernest Haller. Cast: Francis Lederer, Edward G. Robinson, George Sanders, Paul Lukas, Lya Lys. 16mm, B/W, 104 min.
Crumb
A brilliant chronicle of the life and twisted times of a most unlikely bad boy, a skinny, four-eyed, sex-obsessed misanthrope with no weapons to fire back at the society that rejected him save one: The nerd can draw. —Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Shot over a period of six years, director Terry Zwigoff's Crumb is an illuminating portrait of the controversial comic artist. The film uses uncensored interviews with the artist, his family, colleagues, critics, and ex-lovers, along with footage of his work, to paint a riveting picture of Crumb and the influences that have endowed his creativity. (1995, 119 MIN., DIR. T. ZWIGOFF)
THE DEFIANT ONES
Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis were both nominated for Oscars for their roles in this savvy study of racism, an important film of its time. They play a pair of decidedly unfriendly convicts who escape shackled at the wrist in the deep south. Oscars awarded for screenplay and cinematography. With Lon Chaney Jr., Theodore Bikel, Claude Akins and Cara Williams. Stanley Kramer---USA---1958---97 mins.
DIRTY: ONE WORD CAN CHANGE THE WORLD is an intimate look into the life and death of the ground-breaking rap and hip hop artist Russell Jones, aka Ol’ Dirty Bastard or ODB. This in-depth documentary traces ODB’s life from his childhood in Brooklyn to his eternal influence on music, time spent in prison and, finally, to his untimely death just two days before his 36th birthday.
DOLEMITE, 1975, Xenon, 90 min. Super soul brother, Dolemite (Rudy Ray Moore), aided by his squad of kung fu hookers, goes up against evil bad-ass Willie Green (D'Urville Martin, who also directed) in this low-budget classic. Peppered with Rudy's famous toasts, martial arts skills and just plain crazy plot twists, DOLEMITE must be seen to be believed.
D.W. Griffith in California
Los Angeles Filmforum presents D.W. Griffith in California, with talk by Tom Gunning. For fans of early film, and of Southern California history! We’re delighted to host the internationally-renowned film scholar Tom Gunning, who will talk about Griffith’s time in California, and these selected, rarely screened films made in So Cal in the years before World War I. All in 16mm with live musical accompaniment by Cliff Retallick. Films: Man’s Genesis (1912, 17 min); The New Dress (1911, 17 min.); The Massacre (1914, 20 min); The Unchanging Sea (1910, 14 min.); The Sands of Dee (1912, 17 min); The Female of the Species (1912, 17 min)
Ecstasy of the Angels
Ecstasy of the Angels, a jarring exercise in experimental cinema clothed in pink film trappings, trails a leftist terrorist unit that, after a failed attempt to steal weapons from a US military base, learns that they might have been set up to fail by their parent organization. Dispensing with conventional storytelling, Wakamatsu plunges the viewer into a melange of political dissertations, rough and sweaty sex, explosions and swanky nightclubs. Though it certainly looks and feels like an exploitation picture, Ecstasy clearly has much more on its mind. The infusion of radical politics into the head-spinning assault of nudity and gore makes for a very odd experience, and the rapid shifts in time, film stock (black and white alternating with colour), sound effects, and character affiliations make this a dense, truly rewarding hour and a half. Ecstasy was Wakamatsu's biggest production to date -- a fact that guaranteed that the film was still released even though the government viewed him as an instigator of violence and anarchy. Dir. Koji Wakamatsu, 1972, DigiBeta, 89 min.
EDGE OF THE CITY (1957, 85 min. No MPAA rating.)
Axel Nordmann (John Cassavetes) and Tommy Tyler (Sidney Poitier) are a white and a black man who make friends working in the New York rail yards. But when their racist boss (Jack Warden) turns violent, Nordmann must decide whether to take a stand or stay out of trouble. Directed by Martin Ritt (Norma Rae).
8-Bit Alchemy [fast forward]
Many of today's artists are looking forward by looking back. Fascinated by the huge, chunky blocks of primary colors and all things that go blip in the night, they draw inspiration from the glitches and grit of the ghosts in the machines of yore. Using these crude tools, they express ambiguity and emotions in mediums that were once only considered utilitarian tools for office work or after school amusement. We'll be exhibiting short films from contemporary filmmakers like Jacob Ciocci, Shana Moulton, and Cory Arcangel. Then we kick back and enjoy a performance after film ends by experimental music diviner Daedalus.
8-Bit Alchemy [rewind]
Come see yesterday's tomorrows -- today! Tonight, we'll sift through the last 40 years of big scary machines and all the mysterious things they did. Machines that were, at the time, cutting edge but are now antiquated and often down right quaint. And, compared to today's microchip-fueled, byte-bloated world, this palette for yesteryear's electronic artists was relatively primitive. The solutions they found to work around these limitations is often fascinating. We'll be screening short films by pioneers like Stan Vandeerbek, Eric Siegel among others and some documentaries from that time dealing with everything from synthesizers to computer hacking, a 1969 industrial film's idea of life in 1999 (and see how much they got right and wrong) and various pop cultural detritus showing how we ate it all up (Bubblicious Pac Man TV commercials, news stories on video game trends, etc.) After the show, stick around for a show-and-tell demo of some curious analog contraptions.
FAITHLESS, 1932, Warner Bros., 88 min. Dir. Harry Beaumont. Tallulah Bankhead plays Carol Morgan, a spoiled young woman whose father's fortune is wiped out by the depression. She refuses to accept reality, however, and refuses to accept the love of middle-class suitor Robert Montgomery, who's baffled by the way she prioritizes money over romance.
FIFTH AVENUE GIRL
(1939) Directed by Gregory La Cava
When Walter Connolly’s wealthy industrialist strikes up a friendship with Ginger Roger’s working girl, his jaded patrician brood goes from concern to alarm after he moves her into their palatial Fifth Avenue mansion. Is she a gold digger or has he really fallen in love? The answers come as brilliant screwball comedy in this late-Depression era social satire.
RKO. Producer: Gregory La Cava. Screenplay: Allan Scott. Cinematographer: Robert de Grasse. Editor: Robert Wise. Cast: Ginger Rogers, Walter Connolly, Verree Teasdale, James Ellison, Tim Holt. 35mm, B/W, 83 min.
THE FILMS OF 1909
Presented on a 1909 hand-cranked Power’s Model 6 Cameragraph motion picture machine restored and cranked by Joe Rinaudo.
Featuring live musical accompaniment by Michael Mortilla.
The Academy celebrates the year 1909 and its developmental contributions to motion pictures with a program of selected films in “A Century Ago: The Films of 1909.” The program will spotlight the public’s earliest recognition and preference for screen actors, which would force film distributors to identify them, quickly evolving into the “star system” of motion picture advertising (click here to see an evening of 1909 Mary Pickford films presented the following night).
“A Century Ago: The Films of 1909” will include D.W. Griffith’s landmark social film “A Corner in Wheat” which illustrates his continued development of parallel cutting, Vitagraph’s trick film “Princess Nicotine” containing state-of-the-art visual effects of the time, Essanay’s “A Case of Seltzer” featuring comic actor Ben Turpin, Pathé’s comedic “Love’s Surprise” starring Max Linder, Essanay’s ”The Ranchman’s Rival” starring “Broncho Billy” Anderson, and the newly formed IMP Company’s “Hiawatha” among others. Most prints will be in 35mm and are drawn from the collections of the Academy Film Archive, the Library of Congress, George Eastman House, and the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
THE FIRST FILMS OF MARY PICKFORD
Hosted by Christel Schmidt of the Library of Congress.
Presented on a 1909 hand-cranked Power’s Model 6 Cameragraph motion picture machine restored and cranked by Joe Rinaudo.
Featuring live musical accompaniment by Michael Mortilla.
It was one hundred years ago that a young Broadway actress from Canada would hesitantly accept work in “the flickers” at the Biograph Studios in New York in an effort to make ends meet. Within weeks of her appearances in D.W. Griffith’s stock company she was already being singled out by audiences. Eventually to become known as “America’s Sweetheart,” Mary Pickford would emerge as one of motion pictures’ earliest and most enduring stars and a seminal force in early Hollywood filmmaking.
The Academy, which Pickford helped found, celebrates her filmmaking centennial with a selection of films from her first year including “They Would Elope,” “The Trick That Failed,” “A Midnight Adventure,” “The Mountaineer’s Honor” and “To Save Her Soul.”
All prints will be in 35mm, some newly restored, and are drawn from the collection of the Library of Congress.
FIVE CAME BACK
(1939) Directed by John Farrow
Director John Farrow wrings riveting tension from every second of this tightly plotted disaster film about a dozen passengers struggling to survive after their plane crashes in the uncharted Amazon. Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo injects a hardboiled dose of social commentary into the action as some of the passengers prove more dangerous than the menacing jungle.
RKO. Producer: Robert Sisk. Screenplay: Jerry Cady, Dalton Trumbo. Cinematographer: Nicholas Musuraca. Editor: Harry Marker. Cast: Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Wendy Barrie, John Carradine, Allen Jenkins. 35mm, B/W, 74 min.
FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO
(from IMDB)
June, 1942. The British Army, retreating ahead of victorious Rommel, leaves a lone survivor on the Egyptian border--Corporal John Bramble, who finds refuge at a remote desert hotel...soon to be German HQ. To survive, Bramble assumes an identity which proves perilous. The new guest of honor is none other than Rommel, hinting of his secret strategy, code-named 'five graves.' And the fate of the British in Egypt depends on whether a humble corporal can penetrate the secret... Dir. Billy Wilder, 1943, 96 mins.
FOCACCIA BLUES, 2009, Bunker Lab, 78 min. Dir. Nico Cirasola. Based on actual events in Altamura, where the opening of a huge McDonald's piques the interest of the townspeople. Luca Digesu, owner of a little place right next to the American interloper, decides to open a small bakery to produce his specialty: focaccia. Surprisingly, the Altamurian baker becomes a thorn in the side of the fast food giant. Discussion in between films with directors Marco Amenta (THE SICILAIN GIRL), Nico Cirasola (FOCACCIA BLUES) and actress Veronica D’Agostino (THE SICILAIN GIRL).
THE GAMBLER
James Caan is a college professor with a compulsive gambling habit that puts his family, future, and ultimately his life, on the line. Loosely inspired by Dostoyevsky, this compelling drama was the first produced screenplay by James Toback (Fingers, Bugsy). The cast includes Lauren Hutton, Paul Sorvino, and Burt Young, with minor roles by James Woods and M. Emmet Walsh. Karel Reisz---USA---1974---114 mins.
THE GIRLS
The fourth film from unsung feminist director Mai Zetterling (Loving Couples) features three supremely talented actresses best known for their performances in Ingmar Bergman classics. Harriet Andersson, Bibi Andersson, and Gunnel Lindblom star as actresses preparing to go on the road with a theatrical production of Aristophanes' classic comedy Lysistrata. As they scrutinize their roles, the women discover that certain real-life resonances cast the play in a tragic light. "A film which no man could have made, but which gains an added dimension from the fact that its maker is a woman" (The Times, UK). Mai Zetterling---Sweden---1968---100 mins.
Go, Go Second Time Virgin
An allegory for the end of the hippie movement? For the impotence of youth against the crushing oppression of a chaotic world? Or a cruel reflection of society’s self-destruction during the chaos of the 1960s? It’s up to you to draw your own conclusion, for Go, Go Second Time Virgin's grim teen rebellion has explosive impact that defies conventions. In the film, two psychologically battered teenagers of the opposite sex meet on a desolate urban rooftop and bare their psychic scars to each other. The boy feels a mixture of arousal and anguish when he sees the girl unclothed following a gang rape on the rooftop (in which he was a partial participant) but their relationship becomes far more devastating and perverse than a forced sexual encounter. Though running barely over an hour, Go, Go... packs a tremendous amount of artistry into every scene, as Wakamatsu gives us one of his most visceral and intensely focused works. Dir. Koji Wakamatsu, 1969, 35mm, 65 min.
THE GREAT MAN VOTES
(1939) Directed by Garson Kanin
Complicated icon of stage and screen, John Barrymore stars in one of last major roles as a former professor turned to drink after the death of his wife. Working as a night watchman, his only remaining champions are his two precocious kids who shove him toward redemption in a battle with the local party boss after it’s discovered that he's the only registered voter in a crucial district for the local machine.
RKO. Producer: Cliff Reid. Screenplay: John Twist. Cinematographer: Russell Metty. Editor: Jack Hively. Cast: John Barrymore, Peter Holden, Virginia Weidler, Katharine Alexander, Donald MacBride. 35mm, B/W, 72 min.
IDIOT'S DELIGHT
(1939) Directed by Clarence Brown
The story concerns a motley crew of American ex-patriots holed up in a Swiss mountain resort as war clouds gather around them. The original Broadway play by Robert E. Sherwood won a Pulitzer Prize, but this MGM adaptation failed at the box office. Nevertheless, this is an interesting document of America’s collective psyche in 1939, torn between isolationism and the desire to help those struggling against Fascism.
MGM. Producer: Hunt Stromberg. Screenplay: Robert E. Sherwood. Cinematographer: William Daniels. Editor: Robert J. Kern. Cast: Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Edward Arnold, Joseph Schildkraut, Burgess Meredith. 35mm, B/W, 100 min.
IVANHOE
An elaborately staged costume drama based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott, with an all-star cast including Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, Emlyn Williams and others. Richard Thorpe---USA---1952---106 mins.
JOE
Peter Boyle put himself on the map with his fantastic performance as the title character--a bigoted, blue-collar worker who befriends a wealthy executive and steers him in a violent direction. Susan Sarandon made her feature film debut as the executive's hippie daughter, whose group of friends becomes the main target of the disturbed duo's rage. Often quite funny, though ultimately very troubling, this was an important film of its time, reflecting the darkening mood of the counterculture as well as the darkest side of the conservative movement. John G. Avildsen---USA---1970---107 mins.
The Last Run
1971/color/100 min./Panavision | Scr: Alan Sharp; dir: Richard Fleischer; w/ George C. Scott, Tony Musante, Trish Van Devere, Colleen Dewhurst.
An aging gangster insists on pulling one more job for the mob.
LEWIS KLAHR'S FILMS ABOUT CHILDHOOD
Called the "reigning proponent of cut and paste" by critic J. Hoberman of the Village Voice, master collagist Lewis Klahr has been making films since 1977. A Guggenhein Fellow whose work has screened at several Whitney Biennials, he is known for his uniquely idiosyncratic experimental films and cutout animations, which have been screened extensively at museums and festivals throughout the United States and Europe.
His epic cutout animation "The Pharaoh's Belt," which will be screened here, received a rare special citation for experimental work from the National Society of Film Critics. Followed by: A Special Conversation between Film Scholar Tom Gunning and Filmmaker Lewis Klahr.
Lichtspiel: Contemporary Abstract Animation and Visual Music
“Joost Rekveld has provided an undeniable masterpiece with #37.” International Film Festival Rotterdam
This ravishing “play of light” explores rhythmic abstractions in the cinematic tradition of Oskar Fischinger and visual music animation. The centerpiece of the program is the Los Angeles debut of Joost Rekveld’s #37 (Netherlands, 2009, 31 min., 35mm CinemaScope), a stunningly beautiful study of the propagation and diffraction of light through crystalline structures. Sure to bend more than a few minds, the lineup also offers award-winning animated shorts from around the world, most of which are screening in L.A. for the first time. Featured artists include Scott Draves, Robert Seidel, Steven Woloshen, Bärbel Neubauer, Thorsten Fleisch, Bret Battey, Michael Scroggins, Samantha Krukowski, Mondi, Devon Damonte, Scott Nyerges, Vivek Patel and Yusuke Nakajima. Plus the final film by the late CGI wizard Richard “Doc” Baily.
In person: Joost Rekveld
THE LIFE OF AN AGENT: SECRET POLICE TRAINING FILMS FROM THE COMMUNIST ERA
(2004, Hungary) Directed by Gábor Zsigmond Papp
A rare curiosity, creepy and illuminating, this recent documentary assembles clips from a little-known cache of instructional films for the Secret Police in Hungary’s Communist era. Actors dramatize such important procedural matters as entering and leaving homes without detection, planting bugs, enlisting other officers and identifying effective drop-off points for secret documents. The film reveals the heights of paranoia to which agents (and presumably citizens) were subject in the old Communist state.
Presented in Hungarian dialogue with English subtitles. Video, 54 min.
THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER
1962, Warner Bros., 103 min. As he did in ANGER, director Tony Richardson once more perfectly captures the ashen, grey atmosphere of working class England, a kingdom of crushed dreams. Tom Courtenay is the oldest son of his large, nearly impoverished family. When his father dies, he is pushed over the brink into a hopeless rat race of trying to live up to his new role as breadwinner. Caught after robbing a bakery, he’s sent to a reform school run by tradional, yet fair governor, Michael Redgrave. Recognized as a potential long distance runner during soccer, Courtenay’s soon offered the opportunity to compete, something that could lead to a brighter future... or not.
THE LONG GOODBYE
(1973) Directed by Robert Altman
Transposing Raymond Chandler’s rain-soaked detective fiction to a sun-drenched Southern California of the 1970s, Robert Altman crafts a fascinating genre hybrid. The femme fatale; the mob king…they’re all here, along with the hippies, the haze and Elliott Gould’s scruffy Philip Marlowe; a walking pastiche of then and now in his omnipresent suit and tie. An affirmed cult classic, the film’s traces may be seen in neo-noir works by Michael Mann, William Friedkin, Quentin Tarantino and others.
United Artists. Producer: Elliot Kastner, Jerry Bick. Screenplay: Leigh Brackett. Cinematographer: Vilmos Zsigmond. Editor: Lou Lombardo. Cast: Elliott Gould, Nina Van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell, Henry Gibson. 35mm, 112 min.
IN PERSON: Kathryn Altman, Elliot Gould and Mitchell Zuckoff, author of ROBERT ALTMAN: THE ORAL BIOGRAPHY.
LOOK BACK IN ANGER
Richard Burton stars in Tony Richardson's adaptation of John Osborne's explosive "angry young man" play. Claire Bloom co-stars in the intense drama, one of the definitive British "kitchen sink" films of the 1950s and '60s. Tony Richardson---Great Britain---1959---99 mins.
LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF, 2003, 169 min. Dir. Thom Andersen. A must-see for Los Angeles history buffs and cinema enthusiasts, who will marvel at the hundreds of archival and film clips revealing an almost secret history of the City of Angels! See it now on the big screen. It will never be on DVD!
Love Exposure
"It’s too bad words like 'masterpiece' and 'epic' have been so overused by excitable film critics, because Sion Sono’s Love Exposure is an actual epic masterpiece that is going to dominate the filmscape for decades." - New York Asian Film Festival
Ask yourself this question: when was the last time a movie really mattered to you, and shattered your world? Every so often, a film comes screaming out of the ether that magically reveals a larger truth about this thing we stumble through called life, and the latest cinematic salve is the unforgettable, uncategorizable, unmissable Love Exposure, the brand-new behemoth from Sion Sono (Suicide Club, Strange Circus) that gleefully tackles life's biggest issues: love, death, sex, revenge, religion and up-skirt panty photography. Winner of festival awards across the globe, and breaker of art house attendance records in Japan, Love Exposure has only been seen in the U.S. at a handful of sell-out screenings, with its initially daunting 237 minutes leaving audiences desperate for another installment. Purportedly based on the life of one Sono's friends, the film tells the epic story of Yu, a teenager who loses his Catholic faith when his mother dies and his bible-thumping priest father demands that the innocent boy confess to sins that he hasn't committed. As he manufactures sins to keep his father pleased, Yu trains in the 'art' of panchira (clandestine panty snapshots!), and all bets are off when he crosses paths with Yoko, the woman of his dreams (his "Virgin Mary"), at a streetfight. As he pursues his heart, Yu finds himself tripped up by apocalyptic religious cults, Catholic guilt and the call of pornography, and must use his love to fight his way out of darkness. The Cinefamily is proud to present one of the top Japanese films of the last year -- if not the last decade.
Dir. Sion Sono, 2008, digital presentation, 237 min.
LOVING
Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) directs this tragically romantic drama. Brooks (George Segal) seemingly has it all: a rising career as an illustrator, a wife, and two kids. Despite his successes, he finds himself at a personal crossroads and risks everything on an affair with another woman (Janis Young). Also stars Eve Marie Saint, Roy Scheider, and Sterling Hayden. Irvin Kershner---USA---1970---89 mins.
LUMINOUS TRIPTYCH: ANGELINA KRAHN, KAREN JOHANNESEN, RICK BAHTO
Working from different aesthetic and conceptual backgrounds, the films of these three artists share an ethos of handmade, personal cinema. Angelina Krahn utilizes a wide palette of alternative techniques in her films, perhaps most poignantly in Stigmata Sampler, in which she sewed into the surface of the film to cover up and obscure images of her own body. Karen Johannesen’s masterful editing and single-framing techniques serve to embody studies into quantum mechanics, bringing to vision in delicate landscapes a world “teeming with billions of unrealized possibilities”. Rick Bahto’s in-camera edited works use the people and places of his everyday life as the basis of studies in movement, rhythm and duration, creating a tension between pre-determined structures and a freedom of improvisation. This is the first time any of these films have been seen in Los Angeles, and there will be several World Premieres.
FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE!
LYNNE SACHS & MARK STREET'S GARDEN OF VERSES. 6-10pm. From archival snips of an educational film on the weather to cine-poems in full blossom, New York film "avant-gardeners" Sachs & Street cultivate an evening of cinematic seeds and mordant vines. Short films=2 0reap audio-visual crops from the fertile soil of the filmmakers' florid imaginations. In this mulch of visual ruminations on nature's topsy-turvy shakeup of our lives, they ponder a city child's tentative excavation of the urban forest,winter wheat, and the great American deluge of the 21st Century.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
1941/b&w/95 min. | Scr: Norman Krasna; dir: Alfred Hitchcock; w/ Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery, Gene Raymond, Jack Carson.
A quarrelsome couple discovers their marriage isn't legal.
Mondo Christploitation
(feat. If Footmen Tire You, What Would Horses Do?)
Mommy, what’s a mondo mix? Well, Mondo Mixes are Cinefamily’s signature homemade long-form modern videomontages of found footage madness that can blow your mind and put a smile on your face, may or may not be hazardous to your health, reknew or destroy your faith in humanity, but just might change your life. We promise. For this month's Mondo, we take you on a tour of films that screened on church walls, religious channels, at tent revivals, and childrens' summer camps. 'Cause first and foremost, evangelical filmmakers are just that: filmmakers. They want to engage, excite, scare and please their audience with the best rip-roarin’ tale they can -- but with a message, too! They try and deliver the goods like Hollywood would, but on indie-film budgets and sans sinful influence. It’s a juicy universe, full of psychotic, contemptuous atheists, penny-ante 16mm apocalypse movies shot in small-town Iowa, and fire-and-brimstone visions of hell (recreated on "community theatre" scale.) From public access loudmouth preachers and rapping pirates, to inspirational burn victim crooner documentaries, these films will blow your mind and save your souls at the same. The finale is a rare 16mm screening of the collaboration between exploitation filmmaker Ron Ormond and Southern preacher Estus Pirkle (a match made in heaven), If Footmen Tire You, What Would Horses Do?
MOVING IMAGE ART - 7:30pm. Probing survey of cinema from pioneer Melies and experimentalist Vertov to maverick Welles and preservationist Henri Langlois. 6pm: rare Motown film of The Temptations.
NEAR DARK
Kathryn Bigelow's vampire western is set in the farm country of middle America, where a young man gets more than he bargained for when he meets a dreamy blonde girl with a thirst for blood. The real danger, however, comes from the roving pack of bad-ass bloodsuckers she travels with. Bigelow expertly juggles suspense, violent action scenes, horror iconography, and some unexpectedly serene images to create something truly fresh and memorable. With Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Tim Thomerson, and young Joshua John Miller in a great performance as a vampire with adult desires, stuck in the body of child.
Kathryn Bigelow---USA---1987---95 mins.
Nollywood Babylon
"Peppered with outrageously juicy movie clips and buoyed by a rousing score that fuses Afropop and traditional sounds, Nollywood Babylon celebrates the distinctive power of Nigerian cinema as it marvels in the magic of movies." -- Sundance 2009
In the bustling, chaotic stalls of the Idumota Market of Lagos Island, Nigeria, amongst the farmers' produce and the reams of fabrics, lies the second-largest film industry in the world. Outrageous, but true! The "Nollywood" film business churns out hundreds of no-budget films every month, tossing infidelity, comedy, prostitution, romance, corruption, voodoo, Islam and Christianity into an overflowing cauldron of nonstop gritty video that's captivated the imaginations of tens of millions of Nigerians. Not only does Nollywood Babylon serve up a slew of killer clips from of the nation's finest films, but it also follows the charismatic and adventurous Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen (a Nollywood cross between Fassbinder and Sam Fuller), as he fights his way through the production of his 157th(!) flick. His own journey is the Nollywood experience itself: scrappy, irreverent and altogether joyous.
Dirs. Ben Addelman & Samir Mallal, 2008, digital presentation, 74 min.
NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY: LASZLO AND VILMOS
(2008) Directed by James Chressanthis
Augmenting our survey of Hungarian cinema comes this appreciation of two of the country’s most prominent expatriates working in film: cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond. The lifelong friends, who defected following the 1956 Soviet invasion (which they bravely photographed), ultimately became crucial to the “American New Wave” and to America’s standing among national film cultures. This documentary chronicles their storied careers with numerous clips, and testimonials from luminaries including Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Fonda and Ellen Kuras.
Producer: Zachary W. Kranzler, Tony Frere, Kian Soleimanpor, James Chressanthis. Cinematographer: Anka Malatynska. Editor: Elisa Bonora. Video, 86 min.
In person: James Chressanthis, Vilmos Zsigmond
NO WAY OUT (1950, 108 min. No MPAA rating.)
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve), this gritty film noir marked the debut of Sidney Poitier, who plays lead character Dr. Brooks. The young resident is harassed by a petty thief (Richard Widmark), who believes that Brooks willfully killed his brother in retaliation for the brothers' racist harangues. Racial tension escalates, and the safety of the town rests upon Dr. Brooks' shoulders. Also starring Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Linda Darnell.
The Object
Between jobs and at loose ends in his hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky, part-time tile layer Todd Walker headed to Nashville for a job, left home late, blew off the job, wandered through a Goodwill store, and for sixty-nine cents purchased an object that he feels is an Old Testament oracle with which he can communicate with God. The Object traces his life-changing experience with what he calls "God's computer chip." Todd and his brothers-in-law, Dale and David, see visions when peering into their find. Sharing their experiences with other seekers, they build a following of believers, ranging from a former "Jeopardy!" champion to a wrestling preacher. This documentary may be the first ever to chronicle the founding of, as one religious professor put it, the next great American religion. Come along on this riotous, often unbelievable, but always thought-provoking spiritual quest. The Object takes us to the intersection where Borat meets Flannery O'Connor, except this is for real! Todd, Dale and David -- the keepers of "the object" -- will be at the Cinefamily in person, for a Q&A after the screening!
Dirs. Jacob Taylor & Dub Cornett, 2007, digital presentation, 76 min.
ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS
(1939) Directed by Howard Hawks
Stranded in a remote South American outpost, Jean Arthur’s vagabond showgirl finds herself alternately repelled and inexplicably drawn to the brutal ethos that bonds a group of death-courting mail (male) pilots lead by Cary Grant’s seemingly ruthless boss. Scripted by Jules Furthman, Only Angels Have Wings is archetypal action adventure that couldn’t be more quintessentially Hawksian in its valorization of impenetrable masculinity.
Columbia Pictures. Producer: Howard Hawks. Screenplay: Jules Furthman. Cinematographer: Joseph Walker. Editor: Viola Lawrence. Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell. 35mm, B/W, 121 min.
PETEY WHEATSTRAW, 1977, Xenon, 94 min. Dir. Cliff Roquemore. Star Rudy Ray Moore plays the title role in this blaxploitation classic. When Petey Wheatstraw dies, the devil offers him a chance to return to earth. The catch: Petey must marry the devil's daughter, the ugliest woman in the world. Costarring Wildman Steve.
Planet Mormon!
(feat. Trent Harris's Plan 10 From Outer Space)
Mormons. Hmmmmm....it all seems so normal...yet...there something that just doesn't add up. In pairs they wander door to door, bland-on-bland, clean-cut and suited up; they are a whiter shade of square, disquietingly normal in appearance. But that's just when they walk among us; trust us, there's more going on there. Let's travel deep into their beehive: Utah. Like the Coneheads or the Applegates, they try and disguise their weird customs and alien behavoirs under a suburban skin, but it's a different world they live in. It's Planet Mormon. They have their own alternate history (where Jews were actually an Native American tribe), their own folklore (Cain is "Bigfoot"), and they even have their own language ("mormonclature", as we call it around here). Best of all, they have their own movies. Come see a night of amazing 16mm feel-bad movies originally made to be shown to Mormon youth, educational films, and anti-Mormon propaganda much, much worse than what we just wrote. Sorry, Mormons --we do love you, and your crazy movies! And, be sure to stick around for the finale: a rare 16mm screening of Plan 10 From Outer Space, the sci-fi love letter to all things "mondo" about Mormons by cult filmmaker Trent Harris (Rubin & Ed).
PRESSURE POINT (1962, 89 min. No MPAA rating.)
Stanley Kramer (Inherit the Wind) produced this complex film about the match of wits between an African American prison psychiatrist (Sidney Poitier) and a Nazi sympathizer (Bobby Darin). Told through a series of flashbacks, the film comes to a boil when the doctor's integrity and prejudice are questioned. Also starring Peter Falk.
THE PRISONER OF ZENDA
The Academy's Science and Technology Council presents “The Prisoner of Zenda” (1937).
Featuring a 35mm print from the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Hosted by Academy governor Craig Barron.
In commemoration of what would have been Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.“s 100th birthday, Oscar®-winning visual effects supervisor Craig Barron will examine the innovative photographic and sound effects used in creating the classic 1937 film “The Prisoner of Zenda,” which featured Fairbanks along with Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, Raymond Massey, C. Aubrey Smith and David Niven.
Based on the 1894 adventure novel by Anthony Hope, “Zenda” tells the story of the soon-to-be-crowned King of Ruritania (Colman), who is abducted by his rival Black Michael (Massey) on the eve of his coronation, and the distant cousin Rudolf Rassendyll (also played by Colman) who must impersonate him in order to save the monarchy.
From a technical perspective, “Zenda” stands out as being one of the first Hollywood sound films to successfully enable one actor (Colman) to appear as two different characters within the same shot, using in-camera split-screens and an audio playback system.
The evening will feature rare behind-the-scenes color footage of “Zenda” from the Academy Film Archive“s Home Movie Collection, including footage of the film“s cinematographer James Wong Howe and his camera crew, along with Fairbanks practicing sword fighting for the film. The presentation will also include never-before-seen camera tests from the personal collection of the film“s visual effects cameraman Clarence Slifer that show how many of the film“s illusions were created.
Directed by John Cromwell. Produced by David O. Selznick. Screenplay John L. Balderston. Adaptation Wells Root. Based on the novel by Anthony Hope and the play by Edward E. Rose. Cinematography James Wong Howe. Special Effects Jack Cosgrove. Sound Oscar Lagerstrom. Selznick International Pictures; United Artists. 1937. 35mm. 101 mins.
Q (aka THE WINGED SERPENT), 1982, Taurus, 93 min. Dir. Larry Cohen. Q is a winged resurrected Aztec deity decapitating New York citizens - and two-bit piano player Michael Moriarty knows just which skyscraper hides its nest. He intends to profit from the knowledge, much to the dismay of cops David Carradine and Richard Roundtree. Discussion in between films with director Larry Cohen.
THE ROAD, 2009, The Weinstein Co., 119 min. Dir. John Hillcoat. Based on Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Academy Award nominee Viggo Mortensen leads an all-star cast in the big screen adaptation of The Road, the epic post-apocalyptic tale of a journey taken by a father (Viggo Mortensen) and his young son (newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee) across a barren landscape that was blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed civilization and most life on earth. Discussion following with director John Hillcoat, actor Viggo Mortensen and producers Nick Wechsler, Steve Schwartz, and Paula Mae Schwartz.
The Rock-Afire Explosion
8-Bit Alchemy [play]
(feat. The Rock-Afire Explosion!
In the early '80s, kids all over the country dragged their parents to Showbiz Pizza (created by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell) for the rides, games, and the animatronic rock band The Rock-afire Explosion. Created by 23-year-old prodigy Aaron Fechter, The Rock-afire Explosion amazed children and adults alike before being mysteriously pulled from showrooms and replaced by the now popular Chuck-E-Cheese in the early nineties. Still profoundly affected by his experience at Showbiz Pizza, small-town disc-jockey Chris Thrash sought out Fechter nearly twenty years later and purchased a full Rock-afire band of his own. After some clever modding on Thrash's part, the band was once again performing for millions, this time on YouTube, to the likes of Lil Wayne and MGMT! The Rock-afire Explosion reveals how Thrash revived this fallen robotic gem, alongside the heart-wrenching rise and fall of Fechter's former 300-employee, $20 million-per-year venture. After the film, we'll be screening Thrash's Rock-afire music videos -- plus we'll be recreating Showbiz Pizza for one night only on our back patio, complete with a gallery of vintage arcade consoles! As well, DJ Sysop (from KSPC's "The Retro Video Game Music Show") will be spinning both before and after the film!
Dir. Brett Whitcomb, 2008, digital presentation, 70 min.
Running In Madness, Dying In Love
Lesser-known but still packing a mad punch, Running In Madness... tells of a student activist who is forced to flee Tokyo with his sister-in-law after he inadvertently shoots his police officer brother at a protest rally. We follow the two as they travel north to their hometown of Hokkaido, across a majestic winter landscape. Shot in a stellar psychedelic style and scripted by frequent collaborator Masao Adachi, the story was influenced by Adachi’s time spent with master director Nagisa Oshima, which led to Adachi's development of a more rigorous, formal approach to his work. Running In Madness is one of the first Japanese films to employ "Landscape Theory" (fukei-ron), a style of storytelling, according to Adachi, in which "all the landscapes one faces in...daily life, even those such as the beautiful sites shown on a postcard, are essentially related to the figure of a ruling power." Dir. Koji Wakamatsu, 1969, DigiBeta, 77 min.
SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING
Albert Finney became a star and made this British New Wave film--Reisz' first feature--a box office hit with the defiant phrase, "Don't let the bastards grind you down." Finney's brooding performance as the young Nottingham factory worker lashing out at the working class and his "dead from the neck up" parents is still fresh today. With Shirley Anne Field, Bryan Pringle, Hylda Baker, Norman Rossington, Colin Blakely and Rachel Roberts. Karel Reisz---Great Britain---1960---89 mins.
THE SCARLET CLAW
(1944) Directed by Roy William Neill
Basil Rathbone, all cool urbanity, shines in this brooding, suspenseful installment in Universal Pictures’ long-running Holmes series, for which the versatile actor is still best remembered. An unusual Holmes entry set in Canada, the story concerns a series of bizarre murders that the Québécois villagers attribute to a legendary ghost. Holmes chases down numerous leads on his way to identifying the real killer, assisted by Nigel Bruce’s (as usually) befuddled Dr. Watson.
Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by Hugh Hefner.
Universal Pictures. Producer: Roy William Neill. Screenplay: Edmund L. Hartmann, Roy William Neill. Cinematographer: George Robinson. Editor: Paul Landres. Cast: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Gerald Hamer, Paul Cavanagh. 35mm, B/W, 74 min.
Sects, Drugs and Mind Control
(feat. Moonchild)
Using video examples and samples, collected and selected from our deepest valuts of esoterica, we will show you how you too can learn in just a few easy steps how to brainwash the masses to doing your bidding. From benevolent faith groups to apocalyptic messengers of doom --you'll be exposed to every manner of charismatic fringe group under the culty sun. Then, as our final exhibit, check out in its complete form: Moonchild, a 49-minute educational film gem. Real-life deprogrammers and ex-Moonies reenact one member's journey into and out of the Unification Church in this compelling docudrama. Moonchild is an eye-opening glimpse of a religious cult from an insider's point of view.
SHAKES THE CLOWN
(from IMDB)
Shakes plods about his duties as party clown, and uses all of his free time getting seriously drunk. Binky, another clown, wins the spot on a local kiddie show, which depresses Shakes even more, and his boss threatens him with unemployment if he can't get his act under control. When someone murders Shakes' boss and makes it look like Shakes did it, he goes undercover, posing as a hated mime, and tries to find information that will clear his name. Dir. Bobcat Goldthwait, 1991, 87 mins.
Shinjuku Mad
With a sensationally violent and squelchy opening that sets up the plot of a father searching for his child’s murderer through the Shinjuku underworld, Shinjuku Mad never lets up its relentless assault as the blood flies, the bodies pile and the suffocating alienation multiplies like H1N1 in a school playground, all while Japanese '70s space rock band Food Brain provides harrowing cuts of fuzzy skronk on the soundtrack. The film was embraced by college students, artists and intellectuals upon its release, for its abrasive style and its honest countercultural insight (hippies and bikers are to be equally mistrusted!) Scripted by Wakamatsu’s partner in crime and leftist political radical, Masao Adachi, this film is purportedly one of Wakamatsu’s personal favorites for its "…vicarious portrait of Swinging Shinjuku in its vibrant heyday, making full use of local landmarks…" One of six(!) films Wakamatsu released in 1970. Dir. Koji Wakamatsu, 1970, DigiBeta, 65 min.
THE SICILIAN GIRL (LA SICILIANA RIBELLE), 2009, Prod: R&C Produzioni and EuroFilm, Distributed by Roissy Film, 115 min. Dir. Marco Amenta. Freely derived from actual events, the film follows 17-year-old Rita (Veronica D'Agostino), who is driven to betray her Mafia-connected family. Seeking the truth behind her father's and brother's assassinations, she's rejected by everyone in her Sicilian town and forced into hiding in Rome. Nominated for a Best New Director award at Italy's 2009 David di Donatello Awards.
SKYSCRAPER SOULS, 1932, Warner Bros., 99 min. Dir. Edgar Selwyn. This pre-code gem is a surprisingly modern treatise on sex and money: Warren William plays a married skyscraper magnate who sleeps with his secretary (Maureen O'Sullivan), while another suitor (Norman Foster) tries to win her heart. Look for future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper as William's wife! With Art Deco sets by Art Director Cedric Gibbons.
SLAP SHOT
Paul Newman stars in this rowdy hockey-drama by George Roy Hill (The Sting). A down-and-out coach (Newman) finds his career and morale rejuvenated after the rough-playing, profanity-spewing Hanson brothers join his team. Newman is great is this fun film and the Hanson brothers have become hockey icons for their embodiment of the game's free-for-all attitude. A film that can be appreciated by sports fans and non-fans alike. George Roy Hill---USA---1977---123 mins.
SON OF FRANKENSTEIN
(1939) Directed by Rowland V. Lee
The son of the notorious “Maker of Monsters” (Rathbone) moves with his wife and young son into the ruins of castle Frankenstein (presumably for the good schools) where he becomes obsessed with reviving his father’s experiments. The third installment in Universal’s Frankenstein series features classic chills amid a stripped-down but striking visual style with journeyman director Rowland V. Lee at the helm.
Universal Pictures. Producer: Rowland V. Lee. Screenplay: Willis Cooper. Cinematographer: George Robinson. Editor: Ted Kent. Cast: Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Josephine Hutchinson. 35mm, B/W, 95 min.
THE SPIDER WOMAN
(1944) Directed by Roy William Neill
Holmes (Rathbone) investigates a series of “suicides,” suspecting the male victims were actually killed by a femme fatale. He fakes his own death and assumes the persona of an East Indian officer to get close to suspect Andrea Spedding (Gale Sondergaard). When his cover is blown, Holmes becomes tangled in the spider’s web. Sondergaard, five years from career ruin (owing to her marriage to blacklisted director Herbert Biberman), is in fine form as the scheming villainess.
Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by Hugh Hefner.
Universal Pictures. Producer: Roy William Neill. Screenplay: Bertram Milhauser. Cinematographer: Charles Van Enger. Editor: William Austin. Cast: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard, Dennis Hoey. 35mm, B/W, 62 min.
THE STUFF, 1985, New World, 93 min. Dir. Larry Cohen. A newly popular food - the gooey "stuff" of the title - turns out to contain a deadly virus in Larry Cohen's sly combination of horror movie and social satire. Cohen regular Michael Moriarty stars, along with Garrett Morris, Paul Sorvino, Danny Aiello and, in a cameo, Brooke Adams.
SWEET EMMA, DEAR BÖBE
(Édes Emma, drága Böbe)
(1992, Hungary/Germany) Directed by István Szabó
In Hungary’s new, open society, Emma and Böbe, two young female schoolteachers of the formerly compulsory Russian language, suddenly find themselves marginalized by colleagues and students alike. The two friends undergo emotional upheavals as they struggle to reconnect meaningfully with society: Emma, in a hopeless love affair with a colleague, and Böbe in pleasure and the perilous adventure of capitalism. Rich in period detail, the film features searing performances by Johanna Ter Steege and Eniko Börcsök.
Producer: Lajos Óvári. Screenplay: István Szabó. Cinematographer: Lajos Koltai. Cast: Andrea Vészits, Eszter Kovacs, Johanna ter Steege, Enikö Börcsök, Péter Andorai. Presented in Hungarian dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 82 min.
TEMPEST, 1982, Sony Repertory, 136 min. In Paul Mazursky's loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Tempest," John Cassavetes plays an architect who leaves his wife (Gena Rowlands) and moves to a Greek island with his teenage daughter (Molly Ringwald). Complications emerge when Cassavetes falls for Susan Sarandon and his wife shows up on the island with a new lover. Discussion in between films with director Paul Mazursky.
TETRO
As Tetro, Francis Ford Coppola’s baroque genealogical melodrama, reaches its appropriately hysterical denouement, Vincent Gallo fixes his pale gaze on young co-star Alden Ehrenreich and reassures him that “it’s going to be OK — we’re a family.” Gallo’s warmth is not altogether convincing but for writer-director Coppola, Tetro is a cri de coeur, one more from the heart.
Step two in Coppola’s reinvention as a self-financed, off-Hollywood, personal filmmaker, Tetro is a marked advance over the Faustian, time-traveling absurdity Youth Without Youth (2007). A moody job shot in carefully framed widescreen and sumptuous, black-and-white chiaroscuro — with a few gaudy color flashbacks — it more than redeems the arty pretension of Coppola’s 1984 youth film Rumble Fish, not to mention the dismal clunkers that followed (Cotton Club, Gardens of Stone, Tucker, Godfather III, Dracula, Jack, The Rainmaker).
Old-fashioned, if not anachronistic, in its aspirations, this is an art film that might have been made in 1965 — the period when the UCLA-educated Coppola first broke into production. The presiding deities are Orson Welles, Carol Reed and early Fellini — the absurdist Roman Polanski of Cul de Sac would be an analogue — although, in interviews, Coppola has been eager to reference Pirandello, Tennessee Williams and Greek tragedy.
The narrative is a bit labored but, after decades of far more ponderous projects, Coppola has found his way home. However overwrought, Tetro is neither a project nor a package; it exudes enthusiasm and love of cinema. Coming from the 70-year-old who once bestrode Hollywood Boulevard like a colossus, Coppola’s new movie offers best possible evidence of youth without youth. -- J. Hoberman
THIEF
Director Michael Mann's first theatrical feature shows him developing the striking color schemes and high-gloss noir visuals that would mark his influential television work on Miami Vice and Crime Story. James Caan stars as a professional thief driven more by survival instincts than greed. Willie Nelson contributes a strong supporting performance and the cast also includes Tuesday Weld, James Belushi, Dennis Farina and William Petersen. Tangerine Dream performs the memorably moody score. Michael Mann---USA---1981---124 mins.
THIS SPORTING LIFE
Richard Harris stars as a Yorkshire coal miner who turns in his pick and helmet for a rugby uniform. First-time feature director Lindsay Anderson (If...) brings a documentary sensibility to this gritty, realistic, and intense drama about human determination. With Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, Colin Blakely and Arthur Lowe. Nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor (Harris) and Actress (Roberts). Lindsay Anderson---Great Britain---1963---135 mins.
The Threee Geniuses:
The Re-Death Of Psychedelia
Rightfully dubbed “The most intentionally psychedelic show on cable TV” (LA Weekly), The Threee Geniuses utilizes no pre-production, no post-production -- just pure unadulterated production. The show is conceived, written, acted, edited, sound-mixed and shot in real-time -- it's the ultimate televised freak-out free-for-all. Through a major loophole of their patron cable company’s public access policy, the Geniuses have seized the means of production, as the cast becomes the crew and vice versa. The Geniuses are completely unafraid of letting the show glitch-out, descend into octuple exposure or go way beyond the FCC color-spectrum allowances, and at times, the program’s switching is so rapid that it has caused non-epileptics to go into convulsions! Plus, the show’s audio is run through a vintage Revox reel-to-reel machine multiple times to create a nearly infinite tape echo, which one TV critic described as “what one hears when listening to the sound of one hand clapping while shooting up large quantities of superglue.” This best-of program features such superstars as Stangelyne (the late, great transvestite bodybuilder with Tourette’s), public access queen Francine Dancer, Germs drummer Don Bolles, and, of course, the original Threee Geniuses: Dan Kapelovitz, Jon Shere and Tim “Mr. X” Wilson. The revolution has been televised; experience the birth, death, re-birth and, yes, “The Re-Death of Psychedelia." Live guests for the evening's multimedia performance to be exploded in front of the video presentation include David Liebe Unger Hart (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job), Don Bolles, Francine Dancer, Go-Go Giddle Partridge (from singing duo Giddle And Boyd) and legendary record producer/singer/songwriter Kim Fowley!
TRASH HUMPERS
In an unnamed city as deliberately banal as the action is outrageous, a loose circle—a cult, perhaps?—carries on with all sorts of crazed, indescribable games and antics. All but the youngest in this strange family wear rubber masks that both conceal their identity and transform them into theatrical creatures, frequently singing and chanting in a way that makes your bones rattle and give you nightmares. While the movies have always contained a powerful means to tap into the id, Harmony Korine’s TRASH HUMPERS does more than tap. Using an aging videotape camera, he drills down until there seems to be no bottom, no limit to the madness. Wait until the end, when one of the “creatures” expounds on their “superiority” to their faceless neighbors, and it becomes clear that Korine has made his most indelible film yet exploring the outskirts of American life.
–Robert Koehler
A Tribute To Fred Wolf
“Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?” The world may never know -- but the man behind this classic commercial does, and will be here to explain it all. Animator Fred Wolf collaborated with Harry Nilsson to create The Point, with Frank Zappa to produce 200 Motels, and with Peter Yarrow to make Puff The Magic Dragon. He’s the man behind the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series, Marlo Thomas’ TV special Free To Be You And Me, the animated feature The Mouse And His Child, and won an Oscar for his short The Box. He even hand-animated the iconic opening sequence to The Flintstones! Animation historian Jerry Beck will present a tribute to Wolf, with rare clips from his movies, TV shows and vintage 1960s commercials, and present a live on stage interview with Wolf himself, as he discusses his career in film, and his relationships with his famous collaborators. The first 100 admissions will receive a free DVD of The Point, Fred Wolf's classic collaboration with Harry Nilsson -- and every admission will receive a free Tootsie Pop!
UNHOLY ROLLERS
(from IMDB)
Karen wants more action out of life and quits her job at the cannery to become a skater in the roller derby. She encounters friction from the other skaters - especially Mickey, the current number one star of the team. Karen proves herself a feisty competitor but refuses to be a team player. As she skates her way to roller stardom, she incurs the wrath of jealous team members and the owner of the team. Dir. Vernon Zimmerman, 1972, 88 mins.
United Red Army
"Consensus is boring." -- Koji Wakamatsu
For 35 years, director Koji Wakamatsu has been mulling over what happened to the idealism and moral imperative of the far left Japanese student movement that left a rash of dead bodies and unanswered questions, and his latest film is as close to his heart as Schindler's List was for Spielberg. In the unflinchingly violent United Red Army, Wakamatsu dramatizes the self-immolation of the fiercest of Japan's underground paramilitary groups, who, in the early '70s, after internal strife led to the murders of fourteen of its own twenty-nine members, fled to a remote mountain location and instigated a police standoff which lives in infamy to this day. No stranger to radical politics, Wakamatsu not only drew from interviews with surviving URA members, but also from his own street-level experiences with the URA and other subversive organizations at the time -- affiliations which landed him on the U.S. State Department's no-visa blacklist, where he remains to this day. Backed by a searing psych rock score by former Sonic Youth member Jim O'Rourke, United Red Army is a film that doesn’t pretend to have the answers, but is instead an epic dissection of ideology can trump reason.
Dir. Koji Wakamatsu, 2008, 35mm, 190 min.
Violated Angels
One of Koji Wakamatsu’s more infamous productions (and inspired by the real-life case of Richard Speck's 1960s student nurse killing spree in Chicago,) Violated Angels is a compact celluloid acid trip into one man’s derangement as he kills a group of nurses and regresses to a child-like state. Acting more as a protest piece than Grand Guignol debauchery -- although it strongly delivers the goods in that department, with shocking deaths filmed in lurid color by Hideo Ito (In The Realm of the Senses), and a bevy of ravaged beauties -- the film draws a strong analogy between the man’s dehumanized actions and the Vietnam War protest movement going on concurrently with its production in 1967. Filmed Corman-style in less than one week in order to seize upon the wave of publicity wafting off of the Speck murders, this melancholy mini-masterpiece plunges the viewer headlong into ice-cold madness. Dir. Koji Wakamatsu, 1967, DigiBeta, 56 min.
Violent Virgin
Easily the most divisive film in this series, Violent Virgin is guaranteed to bewilder, titillate and spark debate in the theater lobby. Shot on a punishingly low budget and tight schedule, the film follows the bizarre ritual of a group of Yakuza and their female companions, who all go to the countryside to punish their boss’s unfaithful mistress and her chinpira (low-level Yakuza) lover. A simple-enough scenario for your average twisted pink film, but Wakamatsu, never one to take the straight and narrow path, grabs the material by its neck and yanks it into a Jodorowsky-esque realm of Christ symbology, dream logic and all-around bat-shit insanity. As well, it's all couched inside another nod to underground political struggles, as the Japanese title, Shojo Geba Geba (reportedly suggested by Nagisa Oshima) refers to the German word "Gewalt", linked specifically to violence from student protestors. Filled with sex and cruelty, as well as Wakamatsu's trademark fantastic eye for black-and-white images, Violent Virgin is one of the headiest and rawest works in all of late '60s Japanese cinema. Dir. Koji Wakamatsu, 1969, DigiBeta, 66 min.
THE VISITANTS
(from IMDB)
This is a real gem from writer/director Rick Sloane who wrote and directed Hobgoblins and the six-part Vice Academy series. Sloane is a B-Movie wizard who made quality 35mm films for little money. Visitants was first released during 1989 and far outshines earlier genre exploitation films by Roger Corman. I guess plot matters but an inane premise mixed with zippy dialogue in this sci-fi comedy will put many smiles on your face. Some sets were originally constructed for a Michael Jackson music video and add good production value. Dir. Rick Sloane, 1986, 92 mins.
VITTORIO D, 2009, Prod: Surf Film and LA7, 92 min. Dir. Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri. Intl sales: Surf Film, Dirs. Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri. Seventy years after his first film and 35 years after his death, Vittorio De Sica's name still resonates as one of the greatest director and actor of Italian cinema. This poignant documentary portrays the master of Italian neorealism in a wholesome, funny and enlightening way. The film includes interviews with De Sica's children and many directors and actors, such as Clint Eastwood, Shirley MacLaine, Woody Allen, John Landis, Ken Loach, Paul Mazursky and Dino De Laurentiis.
VOILA LA LIBERTÉ
(Itt A Szabadsagi)
(1991, Hungary) Directed by Péter Vajda
Péter Vajda’s ironic, dark comedy illustrates a common story from the period after the opening of Hungary’s border with Austria. A man sets out for Vienna (newly possible since the collapse of the Iron Curtain), with friends, seeking to launder black-market currency and buy luxury items for re-sale in Hungary. Joining a human tide of Hungarians on similar missions, the sojourners meet with misadventure at every step, returning home enlightened, to say the very least!
Screenplay: Péter Vajda, András Salamon. Cinematographer: Sándor Kardos. Editor: Teri Losonci. Cast: Péter Andorai, Evdokija Germanova, Sándor Fabri. Presented in Hungarian dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 92 min.
Wait Until Dark
1967/Technicolor/108 min. | Scr: Robert Carrington, Jane-Howard Carrington; dir: Terence Young; w/ Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. | Technicolor print courtesy the Academy Film Archive
In his hit Broadway play Wait Until Dark (Lee Remick was the lead on stage) Frederick Knott, the screenwriter of Hitchcock's 1954 thriller Dial M for Murder, returned to the theme of a woman alone and under attack by an intruder in her home and tightened the screws in two important ways: the terrorized heroine was blind, and the man trying to kill her was a psychopath. In the film version, Hepburn brings the full force of her acting skills, both technical and emotional, to the role of Suzy Hendrix, the "number one blind lady" who gradually realizes that a cache of heroin has been hidden in her Greenwich Village apartment and that the various men who keep coming to her door are ruthless thugs who will stop at nothing to get their stash. Alan Arkin in his first dramatic role is a taunting sarcastic villain who takes pleasure in provoking Suzy's rising hysteria, and the deadly cat and mouse game that Hepburn and Arkin play in the dark, claustrophobic apartment provides a finale that had audiences literally on the edge of their seats.
WAKE IN FRIGHT
(from IMDB)
WAKE IN FRIGHT is also known Internationally as OUTBACK. The absolutely brutal sunbaked world of the inland 'scrub' is unflinchingly shown for every part of it's harsh reality. The bozo behavior of local men lubricated with endless alcohol and cruel boredom gets a mighty serve as well. A lot of media and tourist execs of the time were suitably outraged as were the conservative older establishment, and there were opposing films made to soften the blow (SUNSTRUCK, for example). However, WAKE IN FRIGHT is a major achievement as is Roeg's equally devastating WALKABOUT made around the same time. Recently THE TRACKER and RABBIT PROOF FENCE go into the same cinematic territory and deliver equally pungent views. WAKE IN FRIGHT will soon stand among the greats of Australian international cinema and rightfully so. Dir. Ted Kotcheff, 1971, 114 mins.
War and Peace
1956/color/208 min./VistaVision | Scr: Bridget Boland, Robert Westerby, King Vidor, Mario Camerini, Ennio De Concini, Ivo Perilli, Irwin Shaw; dir: King Vidor; w/Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer, Vittorio Gassman. | Archive print courtesy George Eastman House
The long and distinguished career of director King Vidor was launched in 1924 with the success of the The Big Parade, an epic film about World War I, and came to a close in a new era of epics with War and Peace and Solomon and Sheba, two big-budget international co-productions that were Hollywood's wide screen answer to television. Set during the Napoleonic Wars between 1805 and 1812, Tolstoy's novel chronicles the fates of a group of aristocratic Russians engulfed by the forces of history, and is rich in battle scenes, balls and duels at sunrise, all of which Vidor and cinematographer Jack Cardiff brought to the screen in a series of stunning compositions. The emotional center of the film is Natasha, a naïve young woman romantically torn between two friends—the officer Prince Andrei and the intellectual Pierre—and who, in Vidor's words, "permeated the entire novel as the archetype of womankind… If I were to reduce the whole story of War and Peace to some basically simple statement, I would say that it is a story of the maturing of Natasha… My main memory of that picture is of Audrey Hepburn giving a wonderful performance. I used to see it over and over again in the dubbing and music cutting, and I never tired of it. I always found something new that she did."
WIN! (VINCERE), 2009, Prod. Rai Cinema, Offside, Celluloid Dreams; Distr: IFC, 128 min. Dir. Marco Bellocchio. This offbeat historical drama rests on a little-known event, rarely mentioned in history books (and reportedly undisclosed for more than half a century): Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini (Filippo Timi) conceived an illegitimate son with a woman named Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). The director of FISTS IN THE POCKET proves to be as fiery as ever in his depiction of Dalser's long, passionate struggle for recognition. Discussion following with director Marco Bellocchio and actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno.
WORLD'S GREATEST DAD
(from IMDB)
Robin Williams stars as Lance Clayton, a man who has learned to settle. He dreamed of being a rich and famous writer, but has only managed to make it as a high school poetry teacher. His only son Kyle (Daryl Sabara) is an insufferable jackass who won't give his father the time of day. He is dating Claire (Alexie Gilmore), the school's adorable art teacher, but she doesn't want to get serious -- or even acknowledge publicly that they are dating. Then, in the wake of a freak accident, Lance suffers the worst tragedy and greatest opportunity of his life. He is suddenly faced with the possibility of all the fame, fortune and popularity he ever dreamed of, if he can only live with the knowledge of how he got there. Dir. Bobcat Goldthwait, 2009, 99 mins.