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

sun. jul. 7

john c. reilly & tom brosseau @ golden west church
once upon a time in america 8 PM @ silent movie theater


mon. jul. 8

the hunt FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc ray stark
women experimentalists FREE 6 PM @ documental @ unurban
a band called death 7:45 10:00 PM @ silent movie theater
zombie, doctor butcher m.d. @ grindhouse film fest @ new beverly


tue. jul. 9

exploding flowers, the blank tapes @ bootleg
a band called death 7:45 10:00 PM @ silent movie theater
zombie, doctor butcher m.d. @ grindhouse film fest @ new beverly
the shop around the corner FREE 1:30 PM @ skirball


wed. jul. 10

the road warrior 9:30 PM @ coming back cinema @ los feliz 3
cortaud & bobtail @ the smell
crystal fairy & the magical cactus FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc ray stark
dressed to kill (1928) @ the silent treatment @ silent movie theater
a band called death 10:00 PM @ silent movie theater
sonatine, zatoichi (2003) @ new beverly


thu. jul. 11

upsilon acrux (9:45) @ los globos
the haunting (1963) FREE @ old pasadena film fest @ pasadena central park
son of frankenstein, frankenstein meets the wolf man, man made monster @ egyptian
the nutty professor (1963), who's minding the store? @ aero
the act of killing FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc ray stark
this is the city @ moca grand ave
iceberg slim: portrait of a pimp @ silent movie theater
a band called death 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
sonatine, zatoichi (2003) @ new beverly


fri. jul. 12

clueless @ oscars outdoors
the pleasure garden @ the hitchcock 9 @ lacma
easy virtue 9:30 PM @ the hitchcock 9 @ lacma
the fantastic mr. fox FREE @ old pasadena film fest @ one colorado courtyard
flash gordon (1980), barbarella @ egyptian
badlands @ aero
american gigolo, light sleeper @ ucla film archive
iceberg slim: portrait of a pimp 4:40 PM @ silent movie theater
l'avventura 7 PM @ silent movie theater
pusher, pusher ii, pusher iii @ new beverly
brent weinbach @ club ding a ling @ echo country outpost
bill & ted's excellent adventure FREE 8 PM @ friday night flicks @ pershing square
the blank tapes FREE @ space 1520


sat. jul. 13

the princess bride @ electric dusk drive-in
king kong (1933) @ oscars outdoors
shaun of the dead, hot fuzz @ street food cinema @ exposition park
stephen steinbrink & the french quarter @ lot 1
the farmer's wife 5 PM @ the hitchcock 9 @ lacma
blackmail @ the hitchcock 9 @ lacma
mildred pierce FREE @ old pasadena film fest @ pasadena central park
pusher, pusher ii, pusher iii @ new beverly
pangea, meat market, chad and the meatbodies @ satellite
raging bull @ aero
scream @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
max davidson films @ silent salon @ villa aurora
black sea (3:30), corners (8:00), drinking flowers (8:45), froth (9:30), blackfeet braves (10:15) FREE @ lolipop records shoppe
cat people (1982), dominion: prequel to the exorcist @ ucla film archive
iceberg slim: portrait of a pimp 3:45 PM @ silent movie theater
l'avventura 6 PM @ silent movie theater


sun. jul. 14

may they rest in revolt FREE 7 PM, the fragments @ ucla film archive
winged migration 8 PM @ silent movie theater
iceberg slim: portrait of a pimp 10:40 PM @ silent movie theater
j. mascis FREE 5 PM @ amoeba
pusher 3:30 PM, pusher ii, pusher iii @ new beverly
john c. reilly & becky stark & tom brosseau @ bootleg
the interview FREE 7 PM @ reel grit @ afi


mon. jul. 15

hardcore, light of day @ ucla film archive
l'avventura @ silent movie theater
iceberg slim: portrait of a pimp 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
dead poets society, reality bites @ new beverly
the graduate FREE 8:30 PM @ poolside monday movie nights @ roosevelt hotel


tue. jul. 16

a raisin in the sun (1961) 1 PM @ lacma
l'avventura 3 PM @ silent movie theater
le samourai @ silent movie theater
iceberg slim: portrait of a pimp 10:40 PM @ silent movie theater
dead poets society, reality bites @ new beverly


wed. jul. 17

colleen green, corners, froth @ the smell
l'avventura 4 PM @ silent movie theater
iceberg slim: portrait of a pimp 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
x: the man with the x-ray eyes MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
the place beyond the pines, blue valentine @ new beverly
the spectacular now FREE @ indie focus @ laemmle noho 7


thu. jul. 18

mystery of the wax museum, doctor x @ egyptian
hors satan, la vie de jesus @ lacma
l'avventura 10:30 PM @ silent movie theater
the place beyond the pines, blue valentine @ new beverly
tomorrow's tulips, dream boys @ el cid
punk in africa 9 PM @ downtown film festival @ downtown independent


fri. jul. 19

a clockwork orange MIDNIGHT @ nuart
point break @ oscars outdoors
true grit (1969) FREE @ old pasadena film fest @ one colorado courtyard
solaris (1972) @ egyptian
blade runner FREE 7 PM @ getty center
patty hearst, auto focus @ ucla film archive
eraserhead MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
sonic boom @ casbah (SD)
sunset blvd. @ summer movie series @ natural history museum


sat. jul. 20

coming to america @ eat|see|hear @ santa monica high school
fancy space people (9:45) @ hm157
the third man FREE @ old pasadena film fest @ pasadena central park
ocean's eleven (1960) FREE @ old pasadena film fest @ one colorado courtyard
powerdove (10:30), clair cronin & ezra buchla (9:30) @ pehrspace
the sacrifice, the mirror @ egyptian
storm surfers 3d @ aero
taxi driver @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
silent & classics movie night (films TBA) @ heritage square
stan brakhage: the pittsburgh documents @ ucla film archive
tell them willie boy is here 7 PM, busting, macho callahan @ quentin tarantino presents the films of robert blake @ silent movie theater
camper van beethoven @ troubadour
chinatown 8:30 PM @ downtown film festival @ union station
telecaves, jonathan silberman @ sync space


sun. jul. 21

nostalghia @ egyptian
storm surfers 3d 4:00 PM @ aero
enter the dragon 8 PM @ cinerama dome
affliction 7 PM, blue collar @ ucla film archive
electra glide in blue 4 PM, corky, etc @ quentin tarantino presents the films of robert blake @ silent movie theater
the sting 5:30 PM, slap shot @ new beverly
gasland ii FREE (RSVP) 6:30 PM @ cbs radford screening room


mon. jul. 22

the grandmaster @ a salute to wong kar wei @ ampas samuel goldwyn
the walker @ ucla film archive
the sting, slap shot @ new beverly
eraserhead 10:45 PM @ silent movie theater
the big sleep @ poolside monday movie nights @ roosevelt hotel


tue. jul. 23

the graduate 8 PM @ arclight hollywood
them! @ silent movie theater
the sting, slap shot @ new beverly


wed. jul. 24

eraserhead 8 PM @ silent movie theater
autopsy, torso @ grindhouse film fest @ new beverly


thu. jul. 25

no age FREE @ santa monica pier
young frankenstein FREE @ old pasadena film fest @ pasadena central park
captain blood, secret of the blue room @ egyptian
up in smoke @ lacma
left bank bookseller @ beyond baroque
manhattan murder mystery 8 PM @ arclight hollywood
sex lies and videotape, king of the hill (1993) @ new beverly
special effect, time farmers @ silent movie theater


fri. jul. 26

jon brion @ largo
blazing saddles @ oscars outdoors
sleeper FREE @ old pasadena film fest @ one colorado courtyard
colleen green, sonny & the sunsets @ detroit bar
2001: a space odyssey @ egyptian
solaris (1972) @ aero
airplane! MIDNIGHT @ nuart
the incredible melting man MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
sex lies and videotape, king of the hill (1993) @ new beverly
l.a. story @ summer movie series @ natural history museum
three amigos FREE @ cinema on the street @ third street promenade
get out of the car, schindler's houses FREE (RSVP) @ lacma


sat. jul. 27

women on the verge of a nervous breakdown @ oscars outdoors
monty python & the holy grail @ street food cinema @ la state historic park
allah-las, colleen green, sea lions, tomorrow's tulips, you me & us, etc @ viva pomona @ glass house
groundhog day FREE @ old pasadena film fest @ one colorado courtyard
the night of the hunter FREE @ old pasadena film fest @ pasadena central park
our man in havana 3 PM @ egyptian
the wild bunch @ egyptian
andrei rublev @ aero
caddyshack @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
max linder films @ silent salon @ villa aurora
silent & classics movie night (films TBA) @ heritage square
noah's ark @ ucla film archive
perform chinatown (5:00-10:00 PM) @ chung king road
cruel summer FREE @ permanent records
miracle mile 5 PM @ lacma
blade runner (director's cut) @ lacma


sun. jul. 28

hippie revolution films FREE 7 PM @ 7 dudley cinema @ beyond baroque
style wars @ oscars outdoors
20,000 leagues under the sea 5:30 PM @ egyptian
across 110th street 5:15 PM, jackie brown @ new beverly
computer chess FREE 6 PM @ silent movie theater
the telephone book 9 PM @ silent movie theater


mon. jul. 29

young lovers @ pehrspace
nostalghia @ aero
prince avalanche FREE (RSVP) 7 PM @ usc ray stark
jackie brown, across 110th street @ new beverly
the telephone book 10 PM @ silent movie theater


tue. jul. 30

richard artschwager: shut up and look FREE @ hammer
robert williams mr. bitchin' @ egyptian
the 5,000 fingers of dr. t 1 PM @ lacma
prince avalanche @ lacma
jackie brown, across 110th street @ new beverly
dracula (spanish version; w/ live score) @ silent movie theater
kes FREE 6:30 PM @ santa monica library montana branch
the breakfast club 7 PM @ los feliz 3


wed. jul. 31

willoughby, thee rain cats FREE (RSVP) @ echo
the flowers of st. francis FREE @ hammer
the spectacular now FREE 8 PM @ silent movie theater


thu. aug. 1

good luck sweetheart FREE 4 PM @ hollywood brazilian film fest @ egyptian
mr. sganzerla: the signs of light FREE 4:30 PM @ hollywood brazilian film fest @ spielberg @ egyptian
jonathas' forest FREE 8 PM @ hollywood brazilian film fest @ egyptian
an evening with phil tippet (feat. dragonslayer) 8 PM @ silent movie theater
annie hardy & the psychos (11:00) FREE @ taix


fri. aug. 2

the dark crystal MIDNIGHT @ nuart
the decameron @ ucla film archive
who framed roger rabbit @ summer movie series @ natural history museum
searching for sugarman FREE 8:30 PM @ outdoor movies @ century city mall
levitation room FREE @ space 1520
mr. sganzerla: the signs of light FREE 6:30 PM @ hollywood brazilian film fest @ egyptian
jonathas' forest FREE 8 PM @ hollywood brazilian film fest @ spielberg @ egyptian
the act of killing @ silent movie theater
deathstalker 10:15 PM, deathstalker ii @ silent movie theater
sullivan's travels FREE 8 PM @ epfc filmmobile @ location TBA
l.a. witch (MIDNIGHT) @ 5 star bar


sat. aug. 3

gentlemen prefer blondes @ oscars outdoors
the wizard of oz (1925)  @ heritage square
little shop of horrors @ electric dusk drive-in
accattone, mamma roma @ ucla film archive
avanti popolo FREE 8:30 PM @ filmforum @ hollywood brazilian film fest @ spielberg @ egyptian
the dark crystal @ cinespia @ hollywood forever
shark toys, lamps FREE @ footsies
hasil adkins tribute @ skylight books
lawrence of arabia (70mm) @ aero
mazes and monsters 10 PM @ silent movie theater
hearkenings presents structural/materialist films 8 PM @ epfc
beyond the bounds: short films by wenhwa tsao FREE 3 PM @ la central library
the act of killing 1:00 3:00 5:00 PM @ downtown independent
shark toys, trotsky icepick @ ham & eggs tavern


sun. aug. 4

pierrot le fou 8 PM @ cinerama dome
mishima: a life in four chapters 7 PM @ ucla film archive
the big fix (1978) 3:00 7:30 PM, the long goodbye (1974) 5:15 9:45 PM @ new beverly
avanti popolo FREE 5 PM @ hollywood brazilian film fest @ egyptian
good luck sweetheart FREE 5:30 PM @ hollywood brazilian film fest @ spielberg @ egyptian
durval records 8:30 PM @ hollywood brazilian film fest @ egyptian
wilde salome 5 PM, salome @ aero
the act of killing 3:45 PM @ silent movie theater
dragonslayer 10 PM @ silent movie theater
a serious man 2 PM @ autry
the act of killing 5:00 11:30 PM @ downtown independent
paul pescador: "1-9" FREE 7 PM @ silent movie theater
bouquet (9:30) @ pehrspace


mon. aug. 5

the canyons @ ucla film archive
the big fix (1978), the long goodbye (1974) @ new beverly
the act of killing 7:30 10:15 PM @ silent movie theater
the act of killing 3:00 5:30 PM @ downtown independen


tue. aug. 6

band of outsiders 8 PM @ arclight hollywood
mr. and mrs. smith (1941) FREE 1:30 PM @ skirball
german army @ los globos
the act of killing 4 PM @ silent movie theater
cinespia salon: a sublime frequencies celebration @ silent movie theater
broadway danny rose FREE 6 PM @ santa monica library ocean park branch
coogan's bluff FREE 6:30 PM @ santa monica library montana branch
the act of killing 2:00 4:30 PM @ downtown independent


wed. aug. 7

imitation of christ FREE @ hammer
diary of a lost girl @ the silent treatment @ silent movie theater


thu. aug. 8

breathless 8 PM @ arclight hollywood
the abyss (cast & crew reunion) @ silent movie theater


fri. aug. 9

safety last @ oscars outdoors
mia doi todd FREE (8:00) @ levitt pavilion (pasadena)
escape from new york MIDNIGHT @ nuart
death of a salesman @ ucla film archive
the battery MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
persepolis FREE 8 PM @ friday night flicks @ pershing square


sat. aug. 10

white fence, jessica pratt @ troubadour
kingpin @ eat|see|hear @ paul revere middle school
monsoon wedding @ oscars outdoors
harold lloyd films @ silent salon @ villa aurora
the defiant ones, the wild one @ ucla film archive


sun. aug. 11

the meditations @ los globos


mon. aug. 12

pigsty, love meetings @ ucla film archive


fri. aug. 16

born in east l.a. @ oscars outdoors
the shining MIDNIGHT @ nuart
generationalpictomusicapolis FREE 8 PM @ hammer


sat. aug. 17

rushmore @ oscars outdoors
the caine mutiny, home of the brave @ ucla film archive
gap dream, the soft pack, etc FREE @ echo park rising


sun. aug. 18

amelie 8 PM @ cinerama dome
the gospel according to matthew 7 PM @ ucla film archive


wed. aug. 21

la ricotta, oedipus rex, medea @ ucla film archive


thu. aug. 22

black angels @ pappy & harriet's
nick waterhouse FREE @ santa monica pier
in the mood for love 8 PM @ arclight hollywood


fri. aug. 23

monty python and the holy grail MIDNIGHT @ nuart
magic MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theater
black angels @ the observatory (santa ana)


sat. aug. 24

the warriors @ eat|see|hear @ la trade tech
cinema paradiso @ oscars outdoors
charlie chaplin films @ silent salon @ villa aurora


sun. aug. 25

the canterbury tales, the arabian nights @ ucla film archive


wed. aug. 28

salo @ ucla film archive


fri. aug. 30

fight club MIDNIGHT @ nuart
the adventures of tintin FREE 8 PM @ friday night flicks @ pershing square


sat. aug. 31

vertigo @ electric dusk drive-in
rushmore FREE 8 PM @ bike-in movies @ marsh park


thu. sept. 5

the princess bride @ silver lake picture show


fri. sept. 6

clueless MIDNIGHT @ nuart
fast times at ridgemont high FREE 8 PM @ friday night flicks @ pershing square


sat. sept. 7

back to school @ eat|see|hear @ santa monica high school


mon. sept. 9

tobacco @ the echo


thu. sept. 12

godspeed! you black emperor @ fonda
white magic, body/head @ the echo
jimmy cliff FREE @ santa monica pier


fri. sept. 13

night of the creeps MIDNIGHT @ nuart
election FREE 8 PM @ friday night flicks @ pershing square
the loons @ black eyed soul club @ satellite


sat. sept. 14

godspeed! you black emperor @ fox theater pomona


sat. sept. 21

lee fields & the expressions, aloe blacc, etc @ beach ball fest @ santa monica pier


sun. sept. 22

u roy, soul syndicate, skatalites, etc @ beach ball fest @ santa monica pier


fri. sept. 27

on the beach @ ucla film archive
clueless FREE 8 PM @ friday night flicks @ pershing square


sat. sept. 28

white fence, real estate, woods, etc @ woodsist desert festival @ pappy & harriet's


wed. oct. 2

jacco gardner, allah-las @ troubadour


sat. oct. 5

eagle rock music festival


fri. oct. 18

quintron & miss pussycat @ satellite


sat. oct. 19

the mr. show experience, zach galifianakis, triumph the insult comic dog, etc @ festival supreme @ santa monica pier


tue. oct. 22

goblin: giallo live, deep red @ egyptian


wed. oct. 23

goblin: giallo live, deep red @ egyptian



WHAT IT IS:


Accattone (Italy, 1961)
Director Pier Paolo Pasolini had distinguished himself as a novelist known for depictions of life among prostitutes and thieves, when his similarly themed first feature appeared.  Concerning the ignominious misadventures of a pimp, bereft after his prostitute’s imprisonment, the film formally resembled neo-realist works of the time, except in its rapt focus on the underbelly of urban Italian life, rather than the promise of Italy’s postwar economic reforms.
Producer: Alfredo Bini. Screenwriter: Sergio Citti, P. Pasolini. Cinematographer: Tonino Delli Colli. Editor: Nino Baragli. Cast: Franco Citti, Franca Pasut, Silvana Corsini, Paola Guidi, Adriana Asti. 35mm, b/w, in Italian with English subtitles, 117 min. 


The Act of Killing
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
Executive Produced by Werner Herzog and Errol Morris
Followed by a Q&A with Joshua Oppenheimer
In this chilling and inventive documentary, executive produced by Errol Morris (The Fog Of War) and Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), the filmmakers examine a country where death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes, challenging them to reenact their real-life mass-killings in the style of the American movies they love. The hallucinatory result is a cinematic fever dream, an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of mass-murderers and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit. Shaking audiences at the 2012 Toronto and Telluride Film Festivals and winning an Audience Award at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, The Act of Killing is an unprecedented film that, according to The Los Angeles Times, "could well change how you view the documentary form."
"I have not seen a film as powerful, surreal, and frightening in at least a decade...it is unprecedented in the history of cinema." – Werner Herzog


THE BATTERY
“There are as many horror fans who loathe zombie movies as there are those who love them. Described as an ‘anti-zombie zombie movie’, ‘The Battery’ is the most reinvigorating take on this overworn subgenre I’ve seen in ages.” – Kier-La Janisse, Fangoria
Accomplished for a staggeringly low $6,000, writer/director Jeremy Gardner’s debut feature re-invents the post-apocalyptic zombie film through sheer simplicity. We follow two former baseball players, Ben (also Jeremy Gardner) and Mickey (Adam Cronheim), cutting an aimless path across a deserted post-zombiegeddon New England. Ben has embraced their feral, lawless, nomadic lifestyle — and Mickey clings to the hope of salvation, dreaming of a bed, a girl, and a safe place to live. Bleak, funny, disturbing, and inventive (like the best no-budget cinema) The Battery succeeds powerfully by turning its limitations into strengths — and in an era where the been-there-done-that cinematic zombie realm is now mostly judged on the quality of its SFX gore and makeup, The Battery is a subversive breath of fresh air.
Dir. Jeremy Gardner, 2012, digital presentation, 101 min.


THE BIG FIX
Richard Dreyfuss plays Moses Wine, an ex-Sixties radical who pays the bills as a private eye. Wine is hired to stem a smear campaign against a popular political candidate. Gradually the plot thickens into a murder case, involving a hippie leader whose values, like Wine's, have been severely compromised over the years - and who plans to blow up a major LA freeway as a protest. Susan Anspach provides a great deal of dramatic (and sexual) tension as Wine's boss. Among the minor players are future stars Mandy Patinkin and F. Murray Abraham. The Big Fix was adapted by Roger L. Simon from his own novel. 1978, USA, 35mm, 108 minutes. 35th anniversary! Not available on DVD. Directed by Jeremy Kagan; written by Roger L. Simon; starring Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Anspach, Bonnie Bedelia, John Lithgow, Ofelia Medina, Nicolas Coster, F. Murray Abraham, Fritz Weaver; music by Bill Conti


Blackmail
1929/b&w/75 min./silent/DCP
Scr: Garnett Weston, Charles Bennett; w/ Anny Ondra, Sara Allgood, Charles Paton, John Longden, Cyril Ritchard Donald Calthrop
The brief flirtation between a shopkeeper's daughter and an artist turns dangerously sour, and finds her Scotland Yard boyfriend pursued by a petty extortionist. Hitchcock’s final silent film also proved to be his first talkie. Made in 1929, during the transition to the sound era, when many theaters weren’t yet equipped to handle talking pictures, Blackmail was commissioned as both a silent and a part-talkie film with music and some dialogue scenes. Richly evoking life in London Town, Blackmail is a masterful thriller hailed by many as Hitchcock’s greatest silent film and the best British picture of the decade. It also offers the first iteration of a trope the director would perfect decades later in Psycho: murder by knife.  Live musical accompaniment by Robert Israel.


CAPTAIN BLOOD
1935, Warner Bros., 119 min, USA, Dir: Michael Curtiz
Director Michael Curtiz directs one of the best swashbucklers ever made, and the film that made Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland stars. Dr. Peter Blood (Flynn), a man unjustly convicted of treason, is exiled to Port Royal, sold into slavery and bought by the lovely Lady Arabella (de Havilland). He and fellow convicts manage to escape and take over a Spanish galleon, and the pirate Captain Blood is born! Lionel Atwill and villainous Basil Rathbone are standouts in the exceptional supporting cast.


CHARLIE CHAPLIN FILMS @ SILENT SALON
Four early Keystone films starring Charles Chaplin. Made in 1914, at the beginning of the legendary comedian’s career, all four were either directed or co-directed by him. Live accompaniment by Dean Mora on organ. “Mabel’s Married Life,” “The Rounders,” “The Masquerader” and “Dough and Dynamite.” Running time: 69 min.


COMPUTER CHESS
“About as perfect a rendering of the era as you could ask for — the acting is uniformly superb: every twitch, every stumble, every stutter is deployed with absolutely plausibility. As an act of cultural archeology I can think of few better.” — Andrew Pulver, The Guardian
Wrapped up in a dense ball of whimsy, vintage tech gear, off-the-cuff surrealism and an Altman-like diagonal wanderlust, Computer Chess marks a breathtaking new direction for indie stalwart Andrew Bujalski, here departing from the mumblecore naturalism of Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation to present a left-field melding of the fantastical and the mundane. Setting the action at a nondescript hotel in 1980, and capturing his images using the unique B&W look of Portapak cameras (the pioneering Seventies portable video format), Bujalski brings together a panoply of old-school computer programmer types ostensibly for a chess tournament pitting circuit board against circuit board. What emerges from this breezy, vignette-laden masterpiece of spirit and comedic tone are quietly brilliant meditations on the nature of A.I., Carter-era optimism and the lingua franca of nerd-dom. No film released in 2013 comes even close to Computer Chess’s wholly unique balance between playful emotional resonance and keen aesthetics — and no other indie film in recent memory evokes the warm feelings of a bygone era with such empathetic zeal. Dir. Andrew Bujalski, 2013, digital presentation, 92 min.


Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus
Written & Directed by Sebastian Silva
Michael Cera plays a callow American in Chile in search of a legendary hallucinogenic cactus, but his mission takes a strange turn when Gabby Hoffman’s hilariously uninhibited Crystal Fairy joins the psychedelic caravan.


The Decameron (Il Decameron) (Italy/France/Germany, 1971)
In-person:  photographer Roberto Villa.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
The first film of director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Trilogy of Life” [including The Canterbury Tales (1972) and The Arabian Nights (1974)], this exuberant feature adapts Giovanni Boccaccio’s allegorical medieval catalogue of human excess and frailty.  Profane actions in the name of the sacred and sins committed openly but artfully abound in this bawdy affirmation of human foibles.  Pasolini himself portrays a painter, struggling to complete a mural. 
Producer: Alberto Grimaldi. Screenwriter: P. Pasolini, based on the stories by Giovanni Boccaccio. Cinematographer: Tonino Delli Colli. Editor: Nino Baragli, Tatiana Casini Morigi. Cast: Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli, Vincenzo Amato, Angela Luce, Silvana Mangano, Pier Paolo Pasolini. 35mm, color, in Italian with English subtitles, 110 min.


DEEP RED (PROFONDO ROSSO)
1975, 106 min, Italy, Dir: Dario Argento
From the opening with a child slashing someone and a bloody knife dropping to the floor, we're plunged into an ever-deepening pool of repressed terrors. David Hemmings is a pianist sucked into an undertow of escalating homicide after he witnesses the murder of psychic Macha Meril. One of Argento's most justly-famous gialli, where something as simple as a lizard writhing on the floor could represent a child's wounded psyche, bound some day to erupt in spectacular fits of murder. The dark and distinctive keyboard-rich soundtrack - the first by prog rockers Goblin - was a major hit in Italy. With Daria Nicolodi.


DIARY OF A LOST GIRL
There’s a reason the name Louise Brooks elicits sighs every time it’s mentioned at the Cinefamily: her ferocious charisma and otherworldly beauty cemented her status as an icon well before she retired from the silver screen, at the age of 32. From her comic role opposite W.C. Fields to multiple turns as troubled, willful heroines in the films of legendary German Expressionist auteur G.W. Pabst, Brooks shines as an actress capable of endless nuance and versatility — as she understood the impact both her inner and outer beauty could bring to the screen. Here, in her second and final collaboration with Pabst, Brooks gives a delicately restrained performance as the naive daughter of a prosperous pharmacist who stuns her clan by becoming pregnant. After being put through the repressive reform school ringer, she escapes to a brothel where she becomes liberated and lives for the moment with radiant physical abandon. Pabst’s escalating nightmares are heightened by Brooks’ sensitive portrayal of a truly lost girl whose hard-earned redemption is as beautiful a vision as the star herself. Dir. G.W. Pabst, 1929, 35mm, 116 min.


DOCTOR X
1932, Warner Bros., 76 min, USA, Dir: Michael Curtiz
A journalist (Lee Tracy) follows a trail of bodies left by the cannibalistic Moon Killer, eventually arriving at the medical academy run by Dr. Xavier (Lionel Atwill). With no shortage of suspects among his staff, Doctor X and the reporter race to identify the culprit before lovely Joan (Fay Wray) becomes his next victim. Curtiz and many of his cast and crew members soon would reteam for another two-color Technicolor thriller, MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM.


DRACULA (SPANISH VERSION)
“Any decent musician can score a silent film, but it takes a certain audacity — or perversity — to wrap new music around a talkie. [Here,] audaciously perverse Gary Lucas uses two guitars (one acoustic, one electric) and an array of effects pedals to evoke apocalyptic horsemanship, smothering spiderwebs, virgin appetites and the ineluctable cosmic dread of uber-vampyre Carlos Villarias. The old bloodsucker as never seem quite so vital.” — Richard Gehr, Village Voice
Grammy-nominated Gary Lucas, whom Rolling Stone calls “one of the best and most original guitarists in America”, returns to the Cinefamily to perform his solo live score to Dracula, although it’s not quite the same Dracula as you remember it. Unknown to most film-goers — even die-hard horror and fantasy cinema buffs — an alternate (and, many would hold, superior) version was filmed at night on the same sets as the famous Tod Browning/Bela Lugosi classic, with virtually the same script — but with a Spanish-speaking cast, in a production aimed at the burgeoning Latin market. The resulting film boasts more fluid camerawork, more atmospheric lighting, better performances — and, like the original, virtually no music beyond the opening and closing titles, leaving magnificent space for Lucas to musically flow beneath, between and behind this forgotten horror masterpiece’s darkest corners. Dracula (Spanish Version) Dir. George Melford, 1931, 104 min.


DRESSED TO KILL
Worthy of an entire week’s episodes of E! True Hollywood Stories, silent siren Mary Astor (best known for her role in the 1941 classic The Maltese Falcon) remains one of the Twenties’ most ravishing beauties, also with one of the most wicked true-life tales imaginable. Starting off as a popular child star bled dry for her money by her greedy parents, Astor later survived a suicide attempt, alcoholism — and most famously, a morals scandal when it was revealed during a custody battle for her child she’d been unfaithful against the physician husband who’d treated her during her nervous breakdown over the death of her previous husband (whew!) Right before she successfully navigated her career into the realm of talkies, Astor starred in this Jazz Age gangland tale of ritzy nightclubs, shadowy dealings, magnificently coiffed molls and murderous mob flunkies. Plus, the evening kicks off with A Moonshine Feud, the 1920 silent western short starring Texas Guinan, America’s first moviestar cowgirl. Music by resident Cinefamily accompanist Cliff Retallick!
Dressed To Kill Dir. Irving Cummings, 1928, 35mm, 70 min. (Archival print courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art)
A Moonshine Feud 1920, 35mm, approx. 15 min. (Archival print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive)


Easy Virtue
1927/b&w/70 min./silent/DCP
Scr: Eliot Stannard; dir: Alfred Hitchcock; w/ Isabel Jeans, Franklyn Dyall, Ian Hunter, Eric Bransby Williams, Robin Irvine
Based on Noël Coward’s stage hit of the same name, Easy Virtue offers an early example of one of Hitchcock’s favorite themes: the “wrong man” (or in this case woman). After Larita Filton is unjustly accused of having an affair, her hard-drinking husband divorces her. She spirits away to the South of France under a new identity to escape the press. There, she falls in love and hopes to start afresh—until her would-be fiancé’s mother finds out about her past and begins meddling in the couple’s fate. Heavily censored in Britain, Easy Virtue evinces Hitchcock’s interest in voyeurism.
“As adapted by Eliot Stannard, who scripted most of Hitchcock’s silent films, Noël Coward’s play becomes a study of the corrosive effects of being judged guilty by society… Hitchcock’s handling of flashbacks shows impressive narrative flair, as does his frequently imaginative play with point-of-view.” –Geoff Andrew
Live musical accompaniment by Robert Israel.


The Farmer’s Wife
1928/b&w/107 min. /silent/DCP
Scr: Eliot Stannard; dir: Alfred Hitchcock; w/ Jameson Thomas, Lilian Hall-Davis, Gordon Harker, Gibb McLaughlin, Maud Gill.
In a rare venture into romantic comedy, Hitchcock depicts a devoted housekeeper’s attempt to find a suitable bride for her endearing employer from amongst the town’s few remaining spinsters. Shot like a thriller, and adapted from a smash hit West End play, The Farmer’s Wife shuns Hitchcock’s usual ambience of treachery and hazard in favor of bucolic farce. And what rustic English romance wouldn’t be complete without a (raucous) tea party?
Live musical accompaniment Robert Israel.


The Flowers of St. Francis
Like ideal Radical Faeries way avant la lettre, the early followers of Francis of Assisi lived simply and communally in the countryside. Francis dispersed this utopian community so its members could preach the gospel as the disciples did, renouncing all privilege and relying upon the charity of whomever they encountered. A commercial failure on its first release, The Flowers of St. Francis has come to be regarded by many as Roberto Rossellini’s greatest achievement. (1952, Dir. R. Rossellini, 35 mm, b/w, 75 min.)


The Fragments (My Mouth, My Revolt, My Name) [Les Éclats (Ma gueule, ma révolte, mon nom)] (France, 2011)
Directed by Sylvain George
Consisting of outtakes and fragments woven together from May They Rest In Revolt (2010), filmmaker Sylvain George’s follow up to his engrossing first feature stands on its own as a poetic encounter with a group of men set adrift from their homes and their own identities by global political and economic forces.
Producer: Sylvain George. Cinematographer: Sylvain George. Editor: Sylvain George. Blu-ray, b/w, in French, Farsi and English with English subtitles, 84 min.


FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN
1943, Universal, 74 min, France/USA, Dir: Roy William Neill
Cursed to turn into murderous beast with every full moon, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) heads for Frankenstein’s castle, hoping its secrets can bring an end to his misery. Instead, he finds the scientist’s titular creation (Bela Lugosi) encased in ice. Penned by writer Curt Siodmak, this first meeting of the Universal movie monsters includes appearances by horror stalwarts Lionel Atwill, Dwight Frye and Maria Ouspenskaya.


Generationalpictomusicapolis
A celebration of collaborative music and art making, this courtyard soiree features the ramshackle psych-folk of Devin Gary & Ross (Devin Flynn, Gary Panter, Ross Goldstein, joined tonight by Kramer of Bongwater and Shimmy-Disc fame), the barely amplified feel-good vibes of Sun Foot (Ron Burns, Chris Johanson, Brian Mumford) and surprise guests that promise the best in local experimental punk. Limited-edition, collaboratively made posters available for purchase.


Get Out of the Car, by Thom Andersen (2010/color/32 min./16mm)
Two recent films offer piercing and lucid visions of contemporary Los Angeles, including the ongoing influence of its lingering past.
Thom Andersen follows his seminal cine-essay epic Los Angeles Plays Itself with the equally incisive Get Out of the Car. In Andersen's own words, the film is, "a city symphony film in 16mm composed from advertising signs, building facades, fragments of music and conversation, and unmarked sites of vanished cultural landmarks (including El Monte Legion Stadium and the Barrelhouse in Watts)." 


Goblin: Giallo Live
Playing Los Angeles for the first time in their 40 year history, Goblin will perform a full, live set pulled from their most iconic scores, including: Dario Argento's giallo classics Suspiria, Tenebrae, and Deep Red, and George A. Romero's seminal Dawn of the Dead. Immediately following Goblin's performance will be  an incredibly rare 35mm screening of Argento's 1975 masterpiece, Deep Red. The line up for this tour will include original members since 1975 Claudio Simonetti and Maurizio Guarini (keyboards) and Massimo Morante (guitar). The band is rounded out by drummer Titta Tani and bassist Bruno Previtali that joined in 2010.


The Gospel According to Matthew (Il Vangelo secondo Matteo) (Italy/France, 1964)
Director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s technically faithful adaptation of the apostle’s text posits a loving and divine Christ, but with an emphasis on his connection to mankind and participation in the human journey.  Typifying the filmmaker’s lifelong and complicated fascination with Christian tradition, here he locates compelling grace in Christ’s story, which in other quarters might be associated with restrictions of authentic spirituality.
Producer: Alfredo Bini. Screenwriter: Pier Paolo Pasolini.  Based on “The Gospel According to Saint Matthew,” published by Pro Civitate Cristiana, Assisi. Cinematographer: Tonino Delli Colli. Editor: Nino Baragli. Cast: Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini, Marcello Morante, Mario Socrate. 35mm, b/w, in Italian with English subtitles, 137 min.


THE GRANDMASTER (2013)
The Academy’s summer celebration of kung fu continues with a salute to writer-director Wong Kar Wai and a special advance screening of “The Grandmaster,” his new film about the instructor who trained Bruce Lee.
Hong Kong-based filmmaker Wong Kar Wai is known for his unique sense of style and emotionally resonant work. The first Chinese director to win the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his 1997 film “Happy Together,” Wong has been called a “poet of time” by Sight & Sound and “perhaps the most revered and singular of Hong Kong auteurs” by The New York Times.
“The Grandmaster” tells the story of martial arts grandmaster Ip Man (Tony Leung), who trained Bruce Lee. As he seeks to perfect his practice of the fighting style Wing Chun, Ip Man collides with another determined kung fu master, Gong Er (Ziyi Zhang), during the Japanese invasion of China in 1936 and the tumultuous years that follow. The cast also includes Wang Qingxiang, Chang Chen, Xiao Shengyang and Song Hye Kyo, as well as hundreds of Asia’s top martial artists.


HAROLD LLOYD FILMS @ SILENT SALON
Four films starring ingenious comedian Harold Lloyd, an icon of the silent film era. Live accompaniment by organ artist Christoph Bull. “Young Mr. Jazz” (1919), “The Big Idea” (1918), “Never Weaken” (1921) and “Number, Please?” (1920). Running time: 70 min. 


Hors Satan (Outside Satan)
2011/color/110 min./Scope/35mm
Scr/dir: Bruno Dumont; w/ David Dewaele, Alexandra Lematre.
A philosophy professor turned filmmaker, France’s Bruno Dumont has created one of the most controversial filmographies of recent decades. His stark, gnomic films owe a debt to the sobriety and sparseness of Robert Bresson. Precisely rendering a puzzling modern world rife with bestial desires, surreal enigmas, sublime vistas, and deafening silences, Dumont’s films offer a primal vision of humanity as an eternal roundelay on the edge of the void. His characters, almost always portrayed by non-professional actors, are outliers to authority or morality who abide only to their own, often paradoxical and mystical, perspectives to dangerous ends.
Dumont distills his enigmatic vision of humanity’s struggle with transcendence into a minimalist, hypnotic allegory set amid the rough-hewn, windswept Cote d’Opale. An unnamed and gruff vagrant, with a double-barrel shotgun and a pale goth-tinged waif at his side, proves a fateful presence for this rugged hamlet. Is he ridding the village of evil? Or is he evil itself? Is he performing miracles or senseless violent crimes? Devoid of a musical score, Hors Satan is completely attuned to the rustling ambient sounds of its settings and characters. Rife with ravishing open-air panoramas shot by longtime Dumont cinematographer Yves Cape (also responsible for the crystalline look of Claire Denis’ White Material and Gianni Amelio’s The First Man). Hors Satan is “a sight to behold with an elemental formal vocabulary mainly comprised of wide establishing shots (a strata of horizontal landscapes) and close-ups (faces and hands) that conspire in an entrancing monumental minimalism bathed in the sort of mystical crepuscular and early-morning light famously featured in Dutch genre painting. It’s [Dumont’s] most formally precise film… With a striking refinement and reduction of his palette, and a sly sense of humour, Dumont has reached a new level in his filmmaking.”—Andrea Picard, Cinema Scope.


THE HUNT
Directed and co-written by Thomas Vinterberg, the film is a disturbing depiction of how a lie becomes the truth when gossip, doubt and malice are allowed to flourish and ignite a witch-hunt that soon threatens to destroy an innocent man’s life.
Mads Mikkelsen (NBC’s Hannibal, A ROYAL AFFAIR, CASINO ROYALE) won the Best Actor Award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival for his penetrating portrayal of Lucas, a former school teacher who has been forced to start over having overcome a tough divorce and the loss of his job. Just as things are starting to go his way, his life is shattered when an untruthful remark throws his small community into a collective state of hysteria. As the lie spreads, Lucas is forced to fight a lonely fight for his life and dignity.
Co-founder of the Dogme movement and director of award-winning international hit FESTEN (THE CELEBRATION), Vinterberg, this year’s President of the Jury for Un Certain Regard at Cannes, delivers yet another powerful drama that is sure to leave its mark.THE HUNT premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, was a Special Presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival and screened at Telluride. Co-written by Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm (whose credits also include A HIJACKING, which he co-wrote and directed), THE HUNT won the Best Screenwriter prize at the 2012 European Film Awards, and was nominated for prizes in a number of other categories, including Best Film, Director and Actor. Running time: 111 minutes. In Danish, with English subtitles.


ICEBERG SLIM: PORTRAIT OF A PIMP
Nearly every single gangster MC and every blaxploitation film committed to celluloid owes an overwhelming debt to Iceberg Slim, the notorious ex-pimp and author of groundbreaking, hard-hitting ‘70s novels such as Pimp and Trick Baby — but few people have had knowledge of what this shadowy literary icon was really like away from the pages of his pulpy paperbacks until now. Awash with fast-paced commentary from authors, scholars, friends, family and heavyweights like Ice-T and Snoop Dogg, this brand-new doc provides a riveting tapestry reconciling Slim’s towering persona with the fragile realities of his undiscovered private life. Starting with a whirlwind tour down the path of Slim’s knife-edge origins as he developed his “managerial skills” on the streets of Chicago, and moving to an intimate portrayal of his later life in Los Angeles as a struggling father of four, living in poverty while his game-changing books sold millions of copies around the world, Portrait Of A Pimp deftly pries open the lid on the many fantastical myths surrounding the baddest dude on the planet.  Dir. Jorge Hinojosa, 2012, digital presentation, 89 min.


Imitation of Christ
A beautiful misfit grievously damaged by drugs (Patrick Tilden-Close) is the central figure of Andy Warhol’s Imitation of Christ. The young man’s parents (Brigid Polk and Ondine) shoot amphetamines in bed while arguing about their son, who constantly talks to himself yet makes little sense, and whose girlfriend (Andrea Feldman) is something of a problem child herself. During moments of calm, the family maid (Nico) reads aloud from the young man’s favorite book, De imitatione Christi by Thomas à Kempis. (1967, Dir. A. Warhol, 16 mm, 105 min.)


THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN
A gleefully gonzo and gooey gross-out, The Incredible Melting Man is a singular theatrical experience that truly lives up to its crazed, pulpy title. Originally intended as an homage to the great “atomic age” horrors of the Fifties, William Sachs’s clever satire was recut by its original distributor to cash in on the horror craze, imbuing the insanity concerning an astronaut exposed to outer space radiation with a legitimate feeling of dread possibly otherwise lost in the edit. The centerpiece here is the sublimely icky make-up work by Rick Baker, the SFX genius on the cusp of breaking big with An American Werewolf In London and numerous other unforgettable ‘80s films. The titular Melting Man is a truly revolting sight, and you can imagine Baker giggling behind the camera as the character devolves and dissolves with every passing scene. Scream Factory is releasing this beautiful slab of mayhem on stunning Blu-Ray on July 30th — come celebrate this exultant occasion with us, as we hold an extremely rare 35mm showing in all its face-melting resplendence!
Dir. William Sachs, 1977, 35mm, 84 min.


THE INTERVIEW
Craig Monahan made his directorial debut with this Australian police drama in which unemployed, poverty-stricken Eddie Rodney Fleming (Hugo Weaving), after losing his wife and home, is dragged from his apartment by police and subjected to a brutal interrogation. Eventually, it becomes terrifyingly apparent to Eddie that the police consider him a serial-murder suspect. Detective Sgt. John Steele (Tony Martin) and his assistant, Detective Sgt. Constable Wayne Prior (Aaron Jeffrey), make audiotapes of their efforts to get Fleming to confess... Gordon Davie, Monahan's co-scripter and the film's technical consultant, was a police officer with the Victoria Crime Squad for 16 years. 1998, 1 hr. 43 min.


IT’S A GIFT
1934, Universal, 73 min, USA, Dir: Norman Z. McLeod
Considered by some to be the Great Man’s greatest film, this short, sweet W.C. Fields vehicle is little more than a series of zany sketches loosely tied to his desire to move to California and grow oranges. Includes the legendary "Mr. Muckle" and "Carl LaFong" scenes, as well as the hanging mirror and sleeping porch routines. Jean Rouverol, who co-wrote THE FIRST TIME, plays Fields’ daughter.


La Ricotta (Italy/France, 1963)
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
A segment from the anthology film RO.GO.PA.G, director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s absurdist scenario concerns a staging of the Passion Play, in which a poor extra, addicted to curd cheese, is cast as the Savior and perishes due to the indifference of others assembled; an oblique reference by Pasolini to the bankrupt ostentation of the Church.
Producer: Alberto Barsanti, Alfredo Bini, Angelo Rizzoli. Screenwriter: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cinematographer: Tonino Delli Colli. Editor: Nino Baragli. Cast: Orson Welles, Mario Cipriani, Laura Betti, Edmonda Aldini, Vittorio La Paglia. 35mm, b/w and color, in Italian with English subtitles, 35 min.


La Vie de Jesus (The Life of Jesus)
1997/color/96 min./Scope/35mm
Scr/dir: Bruno Dumont; w/ David Douche, Marjorie Cottreel, Kader Chaatouf, Sébastien Delbaere.
Dumont’s directorial debut was one of the most acclaimed first films of the past fifteen years, receiving the prestigious Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the Jean Vigo prize and other accolades. Set in a rural, Northern backwater (Bailleul, Dumont’s hometown) similar to the coastal hamlet of Hors Satan, this menacing feature follows a gang of ne'er do well bikers, chiefly epileptic skinhead Freddy, as they loaf over a listless, searing summer. Dumont’s style—contemplative, elliptical, clinical—is as fully formed as is his expansive vision of a world at once contemporary in its banalities and timeless in its perils and rhythms.


L'AVVENTURA
The controversial winner of the 1960 Cannes Jury Prize returns in a stunning new 35mm print — and the existential riddles of modern existence never looked better. In the indifferent world of L';Avventura, when a woman goes missing, Michelangleo Antonioni (director of Blow Up, Zabriskie Point, The Passenger and La Notte) dares to ponder: “So what?” A highly intellectualized meditation on impermanence, and the film that catapulted Antonioni and lover/star Monica Vitti to international arthouse superstardom, L'Avventura rewrote film grammar and shattered accepted conventions of plot and character with its deft depiction of ennui among the idle rich. Gasp as cinematographer Aldo Scavarda takes you to film school in under three hours. Swoon for the early feminist bombshells of Italia. Thrill as they look for meaning across breathtaking island vistas and cavernous, lavishly adorned mansions. Wonder what the hell it all means, joining a cinephile tradition of over half a century! A richly rewarding rite of movie passage, L'Avventura has lost none of its power to challenge and inspire.  Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960, 35mm, 143 min.


LEFT BANK BOOKSELLER
Shot on location in New York in July 2011, Left Bank Bookseller re-creates the literary milieu of 1920s Paris when American ex-pat Sylvia Beach opened the legendary Shakespeare and Company bookstore. Her shop quickly became a mecca for the literary elite of the era including Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound, Joyce, and T.S. Eliot.


Light of Day (1987)
Writer-director Paul Schrader returns to the working class, midwestern milieu of Blue Collar (1978) and Hardcore (1979) for one of his most personal films in which a brother and sister struggle to find their own identities under the disapproving glare of their domineering mother (Gena Rowlands).  Joan Jett brings grit to the role of black sheep daughter Patti, a single mom and the lead singer of a bar band with dreams of becoming a rock star.
TriStar Pictures. Producer: Doug Claybourne, Rob Cohen, Keith Barish, Alan Mark Poul. Screenwriter: Paul Schrader. Cinematographer: John Bailey. Editor: Jacquline Cambas. Cast: Michael J. Fox, Gena Rowlands, Joan Jett, Michael McKean, Thomas G. Waites.  35mm, color, 107 min.


Light Sleeper (1992)
Filmmaker Paul Schrader revisits the mean streets of New York he first assayed in his script for Taxi Driver through the eyes of another drifting voyeur, this time, John LeTour, a middle-aged drug courier (Willem Dafoe).  Facing an uncertain future after his boss (Susan Sarandon) announces she’s quitting the business, LeTour grows increasingly anxious in his search for some kind of mooring—attempting to reconnect with his ex-lover (Dana Delany), pouring out his thoughts into journals, consulting a psychic—until he stumbles upon a final, clarifying act.    
Fine Line Features. Producer: Linda Reisman. Screenwriter: Paul Schrader. Cinematographer: Ed Lachman. Editor: Kristina Boden. Cast: Willem Dafoe, Susan Sarandon, Dana Delany, David Clennon, Mary Beth Hurt.  35mm, color, 103 min. 


Love Meetings (Comizi d'amore) (Italy, 1964)
Filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini himself conducts interviews in cinéma vérité style, inquiring of Italians in various locations about their attitudes toward sexuality.  The resulting film paints an alarming portrait of the Italian psyche, and reveals an incisive Pasolini in search of a disappointing truth.
Producer: Alfredo Bini. Screenwriter: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cinematographer: Mario Bernardo, Tonino Delli Colli. Editor: Nino Baragli. 35mm, b/w, in Italian with English subtitles, 90 min.


MAGIC
There is nothing more truly terrifying than the dead, soulless gaze of a ventriloquist dummy, and in the pantheon of dummy horror, 1978's Magic remains the big-screen standard-bearer. Ever since 1945’s Dead of Night, stories of malevolent dummies have been a consistently effective means of creeping out viewers simply by having a dummy slowly turns its head or speak of its own accord — but Magic has more on its mind. Directed by Richard Attenborough (whose follow-up film was the bone-shattering Gandhi), and starring a young Anthony Hopkins as the madness-descending ventriloquist “Corky”, Magic takes the inherently creepy motif and turns it into a study of derangement worthy of Hitchcock’s Psycho. Rounding out the cast are Burgess Meredith as Corky’s long-suffering agent, and Ann-Margret as Corky’s soon-to-be-suffering girlfriend, but the real star of the show here is “Fats”: a cartoonish, unsettling carved Hopkins facsimile with a strangulated voice reminiscent of the Cryptkeeper. With its unrelenting creepiness and slow-burn suspense, Magic is a chillfest for the ages — so don your coattails, top hat and best monocle and join us, dummy!
Dir. Richard Attenborough, 1978, 35mm, 107 min.


Mamma Roma (Italy, 1962)
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
A longtime prostitute attempting a second go at life reunites with her teenage son who has been raised in the country.  Her hopes fade when, upon learning of her past, the disillusioned son drifts to a life of petty theft, whereupon his mother’s former pimp reappears, demanding she return to her old life.  Filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini’s compassionate tale posits an Italian society mired in intractable social breakdown.
Producer: Alfredo Bini. Screenwriter: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cinematographer: Tonino Delli Colli. Editor: Nino Baragli. Cast: Anna Magnani, Franco Citti, Ettore Garofolo, Silvana Corsini, Luisa Loiano. 35mm, b/w, in Italian with English subtitles, 111 min.


MAN MADE MONSTER
1941, Universal, 59 min, USA, Dir: George Waggner
In one of his first horror roles, Lon Chaney Jr. plays a man whose immunity to electrocution attracts the interest of two scientists - one of whom (Lionel Atwill) hopes to use the discovery to create an army of electrified killers. A shockingly effective B-movie!


MAX DAVIDSON FILMS @ SILENT SALON
Three films featuring Max Davidson, an actor whose heyday came in the late 1920s when he starred in a series of Jewish comedies produced at the Hal Roach Studios. Live accompaniment by conductor, pianist, violinist and composer Günter A. Buchwald.  “Jewish Prudence” (1927), “The Boy Friend” (1928) and “Pass the Gravy” (1928). Running time: 66 min.


MAX LINDER FILMS @ SILENT SALON
Five films starring Max Linder, who delighted international audiences and influenced numerous filmmakers with his sophisticated, pre-World War I comedies. Live accompaniment by Dean Mora on organ. “Max Takes a Picture” (1913), “Love’s Surprises” (1915), “Troubles of a Grass Widower” (1912), “Max Sets the Style” (1914) and an excerpt from “Be My Wife” (1921). Running time: 55 min.


May They Rest in Revolt (Figures of War) (Qu'ils reposent en révolte) (France, 2010)
Directed by Sylvain George
This FIPRESCI prize winner at the 2011 Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI) leaves policy debates about European immigration aside in favor of a piercing, immersive encounter with the migrant experience itself.  French documentarian Sylvain George spent three years recording in black and white the daily grind of the inhabitants, all men, from the Middle East and North Africa, of a makeshift refugee camp in the French port of Calais.  By turns poetic and blunt, George’s montage connects us intimately to bodies and voices battered by waves of hunger, fear, anger, hope, boredom and isolation—culminating in the camp’s destruction by police.
Producer: Sylvain George. Cinematographer: Sylvain George. Editor: Sylvain George. Blu-ray, b/w, in French, Arabic and English with English subtitles, 150 min.


Medea (Italy/France/Germany, 1969)
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Medea, the wife of legendary hero Jason, thrown over by him for a more politically expedient marriage in a new land, exacts revenge, murdering Jason’s children and issuing curses from the flames of her destruction.  Director Pier Paolo Pasolini frames the classical tragedy as a commentary on a clash of cultures, and the dangers inherent in abandoning a way of life, metaphorizing his key critique of post-WWII Italy.
Producer: Franco Rossellini, Maria Cicogna. Screenwriter: P. Pasolini, based on Euripides’ tragedy. Cinematographer: Ennio Guarnieri. Editor: Nino Baragli. Cast: Maria Callas, Massimo Girotti, Laurent Terzieff, Giuseppe Gentile, Margareth Clémenti. 35mm, color, in Italian with English subtitles, 110 min.


Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
In-person: director Paul Schrader.
Writer-director Paul Schrader’s dazzling bravura biopic of infamous Japanese author Yukio Mishima is a masterpiece of psychological depth and literary adaptation.  One of the most important Japanese artists of the 20th century, Mishima was obsessed with the aesthetic transformation of the body and reality as the ultimate expression of the artist’s will.  Schrader weaves together scenes from Mishima’s novels and life, culminating in the author’s ritualistic suicide, to create one of the best American films of the 1980s.  
Warner Bros. Producer: George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Mata Yamamoto, Tom Luddy. Based on the novels “Temple of the Golden Pavilion,” “Kyoko’s House” and “Runaway Horses” by Yukio Mishima. Screenwriter: Paul Schrader, Leonard Schrader, Chieko Schrader. Cinematographer: John Bailey.  Editor: Michael Chandler, Tomoyo Oshima. Cast: Ken Ogata, Naoko Otani, Yasosuke Bando, Kenji Sawada, Toshiyuki Nagashima.  35mm, color, 121 min.


MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM
1933, Warner Bros., 77 min, USA, Dir: Michael Curtiz
Remade in 1953 as HOUSE OF WAX with Vincent Price, this horror thriller was one of the last films shot in two-color Technicolor. Lionel Atwill stars as Ivan Igor, a crippled sculptor who opens a wax museum in New York City peopled by figures that are disturbingly lifelike. As a woman who nearly winds up on display as Marie Antoinette, Fay Wray proves she doesn’t need a giant ape to scream convincingly.


Noah's Ark (1929)
In-person:  author Alan K. Rode.
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Warner Bros.' dazzling Biblical epic from the transition era features a Vitaphone music and effects track with dialogue scenes added during the production.  As with D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), a parallel modern story frames the Old Testament tale, shot with exacting realism by director Michael Curtiz.  (Legend has it that several extras drowned during the shooting of the flood sequence.)  A roadshow version, now lost, ran 135 minutes but tonight we present the general release version, restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive in 2006.
Warner Bros. Screenwriter: Anthony Coldeway. Cinematographer: Hal Mohr. Editor: Harold McCord. Cast: Dolores Costello, George O’Brien, Noah Beery, Louise Fazenda, Guinn “Big Boy” Williams. 35mm, b/w, silent with sync sound, 100 min.


Oedipus Rex (Edipo Re) (Italy/Morocco, 1967)
Director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s lyrical telling of the classical tragedy has a strangely personal quality, in its intricate construction of its doomed hero’s subjectivity, and his abject fall upon learning that he has not outrun his terrible destiny.  Modern episodes of a mother giving birth in Fascist Italy complete the director’s suggestion that Oedipus’ inheritance of doom is also his own.
Producer: Alfredo Bini. Screenwriter: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cinematographer: Giuseppe Ruzzolini. Editor: Nino Baragli. Cast: Silvana Mangano, Franco Citti, Alida Valli, Carmelo Bene, Julian Beck.
35mm, color, in Italian with English subtitles, 104 min. 


OUR MAN IN HAVANA
1959, Sony Repertory, 111 min, UK, Dir: Carol Reed
Directed by Carol Reed (THE THIRD MAN) and adapted from Graham Greene's novel, this amusingly droll soufflé of a film received only lukewarm reviews upon its initial release, but is more impressive with each passing year. Alec Guinness is single father Jim Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman in pre-Castro Cuba trying to bring up his teenage daughter. When asked by fellow Englishman Hawthorne (Noel Coward) to spy for his country, the strapped-for-money Jim accepts, but proves inept at recruiting contacts. On the advice of a friend (Burl Ives), he comes up with a list of made-up characters - and before he knows it, pleased UK bosses send him a secretary (Maureen O’Hara), and rival Soviet agents begin trying to eliminate him. A great, knowing satire about the unreliability of intelligence-gathering, something more prescient today than ever. With the great Ernie Kovacs as the smoothly sinister captain of police.
The International Coalition of Art Deco Societies held their 12th congress in Havana, Cuba in March 2013. The L.A. based delegates will share some architectural highlights and stories from their visit, followed by a screening the 1959 satire OUR MAN IN HAVANA, directed by Carol Reed (THE THIRD MAN) and shot on location in Havana just months after the revolution!


Patty Hearst (1988)
Directed by Paul Schrader
The strange, true saga of kidnapped heiress-turned-urban-guerilla fighter, Patty Hearst, seems ready made for director Paul Schrader, given his recurring fascination with the instability of identity and impassive characters pushed to their breaking points.  Schrader devises a series of ingenious aesthetic solutions to the problem of telling a story in which the main character remains a polarizing enigma, even to herself.  
Atlantic Releasing Corporation. Producer: Thomas Coleman, Michael Rosenblatt, Marvin Worth, Linda Reisman. Based on the book “Every Secret Thing” by Patricia Campbell Hearst. Screenwriter: Nicholas Kazan. Cinematographer: Bojan Bazelli. Editor: Michael R. Miller. Cast: Natasha Richardson, William Forsythe, Ving Rhames, Frances Fisher, Jodi Long.  35m, color, 108 min.


Pigsty (Porcile) (France/Italy, 1969)
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
In this two-part work from director Pier Paolo Pasolini, the human tendency to degradation is explored.  A man is forced to cannibalism and comes to love it; another, facing blackmail over his son’s sexual predilection for pigs, finds common ground with the blackmailer: a Nazi.
Producer: Gian Vittorio Baldi. Screenwriter: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cinematographer: Tonino Delli Colli, Armando Nannuzzi, Giuseppe Ruzzolini. Editor: Nino Baragli.  Cast: Pierre Clémenti, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Alberto Lionello, Ugo Tognazzi, Anne Wiazemsky. 35mm, color, in Italian with English subtitles, 98 min. 


The Pleasure Garden
1926/b&w/90 min./silent /DCP
Scr: Eliot Stannard; dir: Alfred Hitchcock; w/ Virginia Valli, Carmelita Geraghty, Miles Mander, John Stuart, Nita Naldi
Alfred Hitchcock’s directorial debut—made when he was just 25—crystalizes many of his obsessions from its very first frame: a cascade of chorus girls’ legs tripping down a spiral staircase. Set in the lower depths of London’s nightclub circuit (though shot at UFA’s studios in Munich), The Pleasure Garden follows the divergent fates of two dancers—one a major star, the other a country mouse. Rife with exotic locales, The Pleasure Garden is also the first of many Hitchcock pictures about a woman marrying a man she doesn’t really know, to perilous effect.
Live musical accompaniment Robert Israel


PUNK IN AFRICA
Three chords, three countries, one revolution...PUNK IN AFRICA is the story of the multiracial punk movement within the recent political and social upheavals experienced in three Southern African countries: South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. (82 minutes) Directors/Writers: Keith Jones, Deon Maas.


Richard Artschwager: Shut Up and Look
Filmed over eight years, Shut Up and Look provides an intimate portrait of this extraordinarily gifted artist, who late in life abandoned a reclusive lifestyle to allow the filmmakers into his studio and personal life. Interviews with artists, collectors, and friends reveal the personal side of a very quirky, irreverent man who confounded critics by redefining his work and influencing a new generation of artists. (2012, Dir. M. Kavaliauskas, 57 min.) 


ROBERT WILLIAMS MR. BITCHIN’
2013, Cinema Libre, 89 min, USA, Dir: Mary C. Reese, Doug Blake, Nancye Ferguson, Michael LaFetra, Stephen Nemeth
This new documentary profiles Robert Williams, whose rise from hot rod/underground comics illustrator to hotly collected conceptual realist offers a fascinating perspective on the contemporary art scene.
Discussion after the film with Robert Williams, Suzanne Williams and co-directors Nancye Ferguson and Stephen Nemeth, followed by a signing with Robert Williams.


Schindler's Houses, by Heinz Emigholz (2006/color/99 min./35mm)
Two recent films offer piercing and lucid visions of contemporary Los Angeles, including the ongoing influence of its lingering past.
The forty extant single-family residences designed by the Austro-American modernist architect Rudolph Schindler built between 1921 and 1952 in and around Los Angeles are the subject of Heinz Emigholz's meditative Schindler's Houses. Schindler's innovative, striking designs are venerated by Emigholz's attentive framing and given life by his immersive sound design. When Emigholz's films were first presented to Los Angeles audiences five years back, Scott Foundas in LA Weekly wrote, "Emigholz does more than just film buildings: He immerses you in entire social and architectural environments— a structure as it relates to its surroundings, and those surroundings as they relate to the larger city beyond." 


SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM
1933, Universal, 66 min, USA, Dir: Kurt Neumann
In this atmospheric and underrated mystery, three suitors converge on a castle to seek the hand of a young woman (Gloria Stuart). There’s a door at the estate that has been locked for many years; when asked about it, the girl’s father (Lionel Atwill) explains that the blue room was the scene of three strange deaths. In a show of bravery, the young men each volunteer to spend a night there – but they don’t all make it to the morning.


SPECIAL EFFECT
Video/performance artist Peter Burr hosts Special Effect, a live imaginary TV show inspired by "The Zone", the mysterious destination within Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film Stalker. Combining 18 shorts that utilize a wide swath of cutting-edge techniques, original music from Lucky Dragons and Seabat, and a live performance by Burr involving laser beams, greenscreens and a webcam, Special Effect transports us to a warped impression of Tarkovsky's cryptic, off-limits realm of hope, possibility and desire. Commissioned by video label Cartune Xprez, the 30-second works onscreen throughout the show were crafted by underground animators from across the globe. Approx 70 mins., live and digital presentation.
Contributors include: James Duesing, Amy Lockhart, Yoshi Sodeoka, Billy Grant, Michael Bell-Smith, Ola Vasiljeva, Jacob Ciocci, Andrew Benson, Jeff Kriksciun, Chad VanGaalen, Philippe Blanchard, E*Rock, Luke Painter, Brandon Blommaert, Stu Hughes, Devin Flynn, Michael Robinson, Sabrina Ratté, and Brenna Murphy. Show written by Peter Burr, Maya Lubinsky, and PFFR. Costumes by Diana Joy. Computer programming by Mike Heavers.


SONATINE
Takeshi "Beat" Kitano wrote, directed and stars in this "brutal, brilliant crime thriller" (Chicago Tribune) about several yakuza from Tokyo who are sent to Okinawa to end a gang war. Kitano himself plays the middle-aged yakuza gangster thinking about retirement, in a film in which violence explodes in scenes of stillness -- a film both haunting and hypnotic. With Tetsu Watanabe, Aya Kokumai and Masanobu Katsumura. 1993, Japan, 35mm, 93 minutes. Written and directed by Takeshi Kitano; starring Beat Takeshi, Aya Kokumai, Tetsu Watanabe; in Japanese with English subtitles


SON OF FRANKENSTEIN
1939, Universal, 99 min, USA, Dir: Rowland V. Lee
The third atmospheric installment in Universal’s FRANKENSTEIN franchise and inspiration for Mel Brooks' YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN finds Henry Frankenstein’s grown-up son, Wolf (Basil Rathbone), returning to the family estate with his wife and son (Josephine Hutchinson and Donnie Dunagan) after many years. The laboratory is in ruins - nevertheless Wolf soon becomes enmeshed in his family’s nefarious legacy when he finds the dormant monster (Boris Karloff) being looked after by a vengeful gallows survivor, the crook-necked Ygor (a very creepy Bela Lugosi). Universal was firing on all cylinders with its bolt-necked creature when it released this exceptionally entertaining tall tale. Watch for Lionel Atwill as the one-armed police chief (he lost his missing appendage to a previous encounter with the monster).


Stan Brakhage: The Pittsburgh Documents
In-person:  Werner Herzog (schedule permitting).
Without question one of cinema’s most influential and prolific artists, Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) created a monumentally significant and expressive body of work that spanned 50 years and over 350 films.  For five decades, Brakhage worked in a highly distinctive, individualistic vein, mining celluloid cinema and--at least in his hands--its seemingly limitless potential for the articulation of raw subjective experience and pre-linguistic vision.  The Academy Film Archive has been actively preserving and restoring Brakhage’s body of work since his collection was deposited there in 2004.  In a career loaded with countless visionary works, Brakhage’s The Pittsburgh Documents (often called The Pittsburgh Trilogy) are a trio of acknowledged masterworks, and represent a radical approach to the concept of a cinematic document (as opposed to documentary) rooted in subjective observation.  By training his eyes and the film medium on three subjects he felt were elusive, inscrutable, even fearful in their universality, Brakhage sought to gain some empathic foothold--if not an understanding--in these realms of authority (police), illness (hospital) and death (morgue).
This screening features the World Premiere of new preservations by the Academy Film Archive.  UCLA and the Academy are honored to be joined by filmmaker Werner Herzog (schedule permitting), friend and admirer of Brakhage, to discuss The Pittsburgh Documents, cinematic truth and Brakhage the artist with Academy preservationist Mark Toscano.
The Pittsburgh Documents--eyes (1971), Deus Ex (1971), The Act of Seeing with one’s own eyes (1971)--were preserved by the Academy Film Archive with support from The Film Foundation. 
Total running time of program:  approx. 160 min.


STORM SURFERS 3D
2012, 6ixty Foot Films, 95 min, Australia, Dir: Chris Nelius, Justin McMillan
This visually stunning documentary follows surfing legends Tom Carroll and Ross Clarke-Jones as they chase the massive swells formed by ocean storms. Narrated by Toni Collette, the film takes specially designed 3-D cameras on a four-month journey across the Great Southern Ocean as these old friends take on waves that are as dangerous as they are awe-inspiring.


TENEBRAE
1982, 110 min, Italy, Dir: Dario Argento
Dario Argento's mastery of the giallo is clear in this stylish thriller, which is among the writer-director's most violent - and erotic. In Rome to promote his new novel, a murder mystery writer (Anthony Franciosa) learns that his work has inspired a serial slasher who targets women. As the author teams with the police to find the killer, the blood flows as freely as the plot twists in this oft-censored "video nasty," which includes some of Argento's most dazzling set pieces. Goblin keyboardist Claudio Simonetti, guitarist Massimo Morante and bassist Fabio Pignatelli reunited to create the suspenseful soundtrack. With John Saxon and Daria Nicolodi.


TIME FARMERS
Having just finished her 2-D, hand-drawn film Lord I: The Records Keeper, acclaimed illustrator/animator Lori Damiano has gathered new shorts from some friends to accompany her newly-completed creation on a motorcycle-bound U.S. road trip - and it just so happens that her friends are some of North America's leading independent contemporary animators. The result is Time Farmers, a diverse showcase of unconventional animated art - and we're proud she's made Animation Breakdown her L.A. pitstop! Approx 60 mins., digital presentation.
FILMS TO BE SCREENED:
Chapter Three by Jo Dery
Rebellious Bird by Jennifer Levonian
Wee Wee Attractors by Leif Goldberg and Ursa Goldenrose
Like A Lantern by Lilli Carre
Move Mountain by Kirsten Lepore
Blanket Statement No. 1: Home Is Where The Heart Is by Jodie Mack
Edible Rocks by Stefan Gruber
Inside The Weeping Volcano by Trixy Sweetvittles
Sleeping Beauty by Amy Lockhart
Night Moves by Takeshi Murata & Billy Grant
Lord I: The Records Keeper by Lori Damiano


This is the City
Programmer Madison Brookshire in Person!
Los Angeles is perhaps the most photographed, yet least understood city in the world. For all of the countless images, it is as though few people have actually seen the city well enough to depict it. Coinciding with A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture from Southern California, Los Angeles Filmforum at MOCA presents a program of recent films that break this mold, and in so doing document the changing landscape of the city in the 21st century. Thom Andersen, Alexandra Cuesta, and Clay Dean use poignant and at times even poetic images of buildings, immigrant neighborhoods, deteriorating signage, and readymade still lifes to give us a sense of place as well as the uncanny. Serving as an elegiac prologue to this recent efflorescence of observational cinema is Kent MacKenzie’s heartbreaking Bunker Hill 1956, a rich documentary memorializing the site whose destruction preceded downtown’s current incarnation as a corporate office block (and home to MOCA).


The Walker (2007)
Writer-director Paul Schrader returns to the outsider figure of Taxi Driver (1976), American Gigolo (1980) and Light Sleeper (1992), placing him this time in the tony milieu of George Bush-era Washington D.C.  Woody Harrelson is Carter Page, an independently wealthy Southern gay dandy who escorts the elite wives of D.C. to various social functions.  His proximity to the center of power and its network of secrets only underscores his ultimate exclusion from the community--making him the perfect fall guy for a murder.
THINKFilm. Producer: Deepak Nayar. Screenwriter: Paul Schrader. Cinematographer: Chris Seager. Editor: Julian Rodd. Cast: Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Ned Beatty, Moritz Bleibtreu.  35mm, color, 108 min.


ZATOICHI
Takeshi Kitano reimagines a Japanese institution with this stellar entry in the Zatoichi canon. The action follows the blind master swordsman, played by Kitano, as he helps two geishas seek revenge on the men who killed their parents. Dispatching enemies in a whirl of artfully choreographed, stylized violence, Zatoichi eventually comes face-to-face with the gang's mastermind (Tadanobu Asano, Ichi the Killer), a man as skilled as Zatoichi with the blade. Cartoonishly bloody and violent, Zatoichi also possesses a humorous heart, best typified by the tap-dance musical number at the finale. 2003, Japan, 35mm, 116 minutes. Written and directed by Takeshi Kitano; story by Kan Shimozawa (novel); starring Beat Takeshi, Tadanobu Asano, Yui Natsukawa; in Japanese with English subtitles