a highly-opinionated selection of things happening around town, and sometimes out of town. this month's page here.
wed. nov. 12
head (40th anniversary special screening) @ egyptian theatre
battle for haditha @ aero theatre
why worry? 8 PM, a sailor-made man @ silent movie theatre
thu. nov. 13
pa.ra.da, the past is a foreign land @ aero theatre
babo 73, no more excuses @ silent movie theatre
chafed elbows 10 PM, moment to moment @ silent movie theatre
dw griffith's first film @ echo park film center
fri. nov. 14
chinatown MIDNIGHT @ fairfax regency theatre
nightmare alley @ egyptian theatre
absence of malice, paris blues @ new beverly theatre
jon brion @ largo
equinox flower, a hen in the wind @ silent movie theatre
deerhoof @ echoplex
sat. nov. 15
streets of fire @ angel city drive-in
moving figures: the animated world of robert breer @ ucla film archive
absence of malice, paris blues @ new beverly theatre
sorcerer MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
the abomination 10 PM, the deadly spawn @ silent movie theatre
the razor's edge @ egyptian theatre
sun. nov. 16
l'eden et apres 7 PM, l'homme qui ment @ ucla film archive
the 7th voyage of sinbad, jason and the argonauts @ new beverly theatre
a certain ratio, pylon, vivian girls, nodzzz, muslims, mika miko, etc @ part time punks festival @ echoplex
mon. nov. 17
sessue hayakawa films FREE @ ucla film archive
an evening with kenneth anger @ redcat
the 7th voyage of sinbad, jason and the argonauts @ new beverly theatre
tue. nov. 18
lynda barry & matt groening 7 PM @ hammer museum
abe vigoda, vivian girls, nodzzz @ the smell
wed. nov. 19
foot village, bipolar bear @ the smell
girl shy 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
sugar minott @ dub club @ echoplex
man on wire, TBA @ new beverly theatre
thu. nov. 20
chafed elbows, moment to moment @ silent movie theatre
babo 73 10 PM, no more excuses @ silent movie theatre
this was pacific electric 8 PM @ echo park film center
man on wire, TBA @ new beverly theatre
fri. nov. 21
bless the beasts & children MIDNIGHT @ nuart theatre
labyrinth MIDNIGHT @ fairfax regency theatre
the unknown, our dancing daughters @ ucla film archive
jon brion @ largo
connie price & the keystones @ the echo
ramonas @ the scene
cult cinema club @ spielberg theatre @ egyptian theatre
pulp fiction, jackie brown @ aero theatre
an autumn afternoon, there was a father @ silent movie theatre
message from space MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theatre
show people @ lacma
naked lunch, eXistenZ @ new beverly theatre
sat. nov. 22
mike watt and the secondmen @ mr. t's bowl
waxwork MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
the maltese falcon 7 PM @ warner grand theatre
the touch @ ucla film archive
missing identity 5 PM @ egyptian theatre
gabriel over the white house 9:15 PM @ lacma
black devil doll from hell 10 PM, tales from the quadead zone @ silent movie theatre
the antarcticans @ the smell
naked lunch, eXistenZ @ new beverly theatre
sun. nov. 23
dance fools dance 7 PM, strange cargo @ ucla film archive
mon. nov. 24
patton oswalt @ largo
ema & the ghosts @ pehrspace
wed. nov. 26
the freshman 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
fri. nov. 28
big trouble in little china MIDNIGHT @ nuart theatre
tokyo story, brothers and sisters of the toda family @ silent movie theatre
mutant (unreleased director's cut) MIDNIGHT @ silent movie theatre
melvins @ troubadour
sat. nov. 29
melvins @ troubadour
holly golightly & the broke-offs @ spaceland
never too young to die MIDNIGHT, action jackson, the last dragon @ new beverly theatre
three stooges stooge-fest 2 PM, 8 PM @ alex theatre
vertigo @ aero theatre
the battle over citizen kane FREE 5 PM @ lacma
alice in wonderland 6 PM @ silent movie theatre
nathan schiff films 10 PM @ silent movie theatre
citizen kane @ lacma
the good earth @ starlight studio screenings
sun. nov. 30
neil hamburger @ spaceland
an evening with don hertzfeldt 7 PM @ silent movie theatre
mon. dec. 1
the times of harvey milk FREE @ ucla film archive
a century ago: the films of 1908 @ ampas linwood dunn
tue. dec. 2
the dot and the line 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
the muslims @ the echo
wed. dec. 3
for heaven's sake 8 PM, the kid brother @ silent movie theatre
jonathan richman @ el rey
thu. dec. 4
the sea and cake @ troubadour
fri. dec. 5
creepshow MIDNIGHT @ nuart theatre
chuck dukowski sextet @ the smell
sat. dec. 6
sudden fear, rain @ ucla film archive
ema & the ghosts @ pehrspace
phase iv MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
sun. dec. 7
secondhand sureshots 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
city lights, speedy @ new beverly theatre
mon. dec. 8
city lights, speedy @ new beverly theatre
tue. dec. 9
strangers on a train 1 PM @ lacma
city lights, speedy @ new beverly theatre
wed. dec. 10
speedy 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
let it burn 7 PM, committee on un-american activities, can the rosenberg case be reopened? @ 7 dudley cinema
fri. dec. 12
mildred pierce, possessed @ ucla film archive
the 39 steps, the lady vanishes @ new beverly theatre
sat. dec. 13
johnny guitar, flamingo road @ ucla film archive
18th dye @ spaceland
nicky katt's smackum-yackum saturday 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
the 39 steps, the lady vanishes @ new beverly theatre
fri. dec. 19
army of darkness MIDNIGHT @ fairfax regency theatre
darker my love @ echoplex
thu. dec. 25
mondo xmas (featuring christmas evil) 8 PM @ silent movie theatre
sat. dec. 27
new year's evil MIDNIGHT @ new beverly theatre
sun. dec. 28
neil hamburger @ spaceland
mon. dec. 29
thurston moore @ the smell
wed. jan. 7
venice west & the la scene, brush with life @ 7 dudley cinema
sat. jan. 17
autolux @ henry fonda
WHAT IT IS:
The Abomination
This perfectly-paired double feature is an all-out goopy-aliens-with-big-teeth blowout! The Abomination is a trippy Texan Super-8 feature that plays like a Robitussin'd nightmare. Poor Momma is feeling ill, and yakks up the biggest lung muffin ever, which she dismisses as just a "tumor", but it's really a parasitic beast that hypnotisizes her doting son into going on a killing spree to feed it, complete with oceans of gornography. Dir. Bret McCormick, 1986, 100 min.
Absence of Malice
Sally Field plays a Miami journalist who writes a story that maligns an innocent man. Paul Newman is the injured party. An intriguing study into the power and privileges of the press written by former reporter Kurt Luedtke. Filmed on location. Strong supporting cast includes Barry Primus, Melinda Dillon, Bob Balaban, Josef Sommer and Wilford Brimley.
ACTION JACKSON
Carl Weathers brandishes a grenade launcher as he goes about busting a Detroit auto tycoon (Craig T. Nelson) and scoring with the man's heroin-hooked hussy (Vanity).
Alice in Wonderland
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
An Autumn Afternoon
Ozu's final film An Autumn Afternoon, (literally translated as The Taste of An Autumn Mackerel), undoubtedly influenced by the death of his mother, is a serene meditation on aging and loneliness as well as a fine display of Ozu's wicked humour. Seeing his only daughter grow up too quickly and wanting marriage, a widower war veteran becomes painfully aware of his advanced age, the changing times around him, and his isolation in the arms of alcohol. Ozu died one year after this salient attempt to concentrate the whole of six decades into an achingly beautiful swan song, his rigorous poetic style honed to perfection. Dir. Yasujiro Ozu, 1962, 35mm, 113 min.
Babo 73
Welcome to The United Status, a country lead by President Taylor Mead. Say what? The ribald satire Babo 73 focuses on Mead's blundering administration at the very brink of oblivion. Among their many problems, it seems, is that the Red Siamese have hatched a plan to flood the market with contraceptives in an effort to bring down the birthrate and debilitate the nation. The President and his crooked cabinet must plot counter-actions and defense maneuvers, as well as deal with dissension among their ranks. They spend most of their time wandering around Washington D.C., or hanging out on the beach (where all decisions of national importance should be made). As silly as it is serious, Babo 73 takes no prisoners.
Babo 73 Dir. Robert Downey, 1964, 35mm, 59 min.
BATTLE FOR HADITHA, 2008, 97 min. A film ripped from the newspaper headlines: It's a powerfully raw and plausible verite-style reconstruction of a skirmish during which a U.S. Marine was blown up and, in retaliation, 24 Iraqi civilians were shot. "BATTLE FOR HADITHA is a searing eye-opener of a docu-style drama - an often brilliant attempt by Nick Broomfield to reveal the war, from both sides, at ground level. We see the nuts and bolts of how desperate insurgents plant and detonate a roadside bomb, and then we see the U.S. retaliation, as Broomfield re-stages one of the war's notorious calamities, a slaughter of civilians in Haditha." - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly Discussion following with director Nick Broomfield.
The Battle Over Citizen Kane
1996/color/108 min./Digital projection | Scr: Richard Ben Cramer, Thomas Lennon; dir: Michael Epstein, Thomas Lennon; w/ Peter Bogdanovich, Jimmy Breslin, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Ruth Warrick, Robert Wise.
This excellent, Academy Award nominated documentary produced for WGBH/The American Experience tracks Citizen Kane's passage from script stage, through early previews (Hedda Hopper called it "a vicious and irresponsible attack on a great man") up to its release and devastating aftermath. In the words of director Lennon: "Hearst 76 and Welles 24 were proud, gifted, and destructive–geniuses each in his way. The fight that ruined them both was thoroughly in character with how they'd lived their lives."
Free screening.
Black Devil Doll From Hell
Who is the hell is Chester Turner? Easily the the most mysterious auteur to emerge from the ‘80s camcorder underground, Turner shocked unsuspecting video renters with these two notorious and demented visions. Black Devil Doll From Hell features a Bible-thumping virgin who buys a creepy dreadlocked dummy, to find that it walks and talks. After an astonishingly extended, and awkwardly artificial rape sequence, our poor heroine is unable to find another "man" to satisfy her. Trust us, you won’t be prepared enough for this grimy, foul, and incredibly quotable taboo-buster ("I've slept with many men--several, to be exact."). Dir. Chester N. Turner, 1984, 70 min.
Bless the Beasts and Children
Six teenage boys at summer camp attempt to save a herd of buffalo from slaughter at a national preserve. Based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout. With Billy Mumy, Barty Robins, Miles Chapin, Darel Glaser, Bob Kramer, Ken Swofford, and Jesse White. The title song was nominated for an Oscar.
Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
One of Ozu's first homeland box-office hits, The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, also deals with family neglect, as "wealthy" Mr. Toda dies of a heart attack, leaving his large clan deep in debt as they discover that his faulty business dealings have left them penniless. Dir. Yasujiro Ozu, 1941, 35mm, 105 min.
BRUSH WITH LIFE -The Art Of Being Edward Biberman ('07, 83m) Jeff Kaufman's (in person) portrait of Biberman, who was the first and foremost delineator of Southern California's urban landscape in the medium of painting. Brother of writer-producer Herbert, great heart and one of the Hollywood Ten, Edward's talent led him on an artistic ody ssey from Paris and Berlin in the 20s, to New York, New Mexico, and then to the "cultural wasteland" of 1930s Los Angeles. Portrait painter to the stars (Joan Crawford and Lena Horne among them), muralist (Venice Post Office) in the time of Rivera, friend of Paul Robeson, Frida Kahlo, Isamu Noguchi, Alexander Calder, Georgia O'Keefe, Martha Graham a nd Dashiell Hammett, Biberman was also a social activ ist in concert with the love of his life, Sonia Dahl-Biberman, who, along with her husband's paintings, invests this wonderful film with its vibrant spirit.
CAN THE ROSENBERG CASE BE REOPENED? (1975 - 90min) The Rosenberg "Atomic Espionage" Case, among the most controversial Cold War episodes of the early 1950s, despite the passage of decades, continues to raise serious doubts as to: The reliability of the testimony? The Judge's relationship with FBI Director Hoover & the prosecution? The legality of the sentence? The rush to electrocute the only Americans ever executed for espionage?
A Century Ago: The Films of 1908
The Academy celebrates the year 1908 and its developmental contributions to motion pictures with a program of selected films in “A Century Ago: The Films of 1908” at the Linwood Dunn Theater.
In 1908, three years after local storefront nickelodeons began a period of dramatic expansion, a new generation of filmmakers that included D.W. Griffith, Émile Cohl and Max Linder were pushing “theatrical” conventions into more purely cinematic forms. By the end of that year, however, film companies and other key industry participants had founded the Motion Picture Patents Company, a business trust that sought to monopolize motion picture production.
“A Century Ago: The Films of 1908” will offer a sampler of the year’s entertainments and artistic achievements, such as Edison’s RESCUED FROM AN EAGLE’S NEST, featuring a performance by D.W. Griffith; Biograph’s AFTER MANY YEARS, in which director Griffith experiments with parallel cutting and camera movement; Vitagraph’s trick film THE THIEVING HAND; Gaumont’s sensational FANTASMAGORIE, animated by Émile Cohl; Essanay’s A DISASTROUS FLIRTATION; Pathé’s comedic TROUBLES OF A GRASS WIDOWER, starring Max Linder; and one of the earliest Italian productions LE FARFALLE (BUTTERFLIES), presented from a hand-tinted print. Most films will be screened from 35mm prints drawn from the collections of the Academy Film Archive, the Library of Congress, and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, among others. Michael Mortilla will provide live musical accompaniment for the films.
Chafed Elbows
In Chafed Elbows, hapless Walter Dinsmore undergoes his annual November breakdown at the 1954 World’s Fair, has a love affair with his mother, recollects his hysterectomy operation, impersonates a cop, is sold as a piece of living art, goes to heaven and becomes a rock star--but not necessarily in that order. Downey shot this ground-zero satire of his Greenwich Village bohemian scene with a still 35mm camera (a la La Jetee), and had the film processed at Walgreens.
Chafed Elbows Dir. Robert Downey, 1966, 35mm, 57 min.
COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES- (1962 - 45min) The first film by a US citizen which criticizes a US Government committee, includes 1930s footage of House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) Chairman Martin Dies (D) of Texas attacking "subversives" in labor unions; the 1947 Hollywood Witch Hunts; the Cold W ar black listings; & the 1960 San Francisco hearings where police turned fire hoses on student protestors inside the City Hall. The film contains an analysis of how the HUAC subpoened the newsfilms of the City Hall protests from TV stations KRON & KPIX & used federal facilities to edit them into "Operation Abolition," a falsified film a ttacking the HUAC'S critics; thousands of copies of which were then sold for private profit throughout the USA, including to the Armed Forces. Revelation of "Operation Abolitions" untruths led to the Pentagon banning it from all military bases. FBI files obtained under the Freedom of Information Act in 1975 revealed that,=2 0in direct violation of the First Amendment, Bob Cohen was investigated by the HUAC for daring to make this film. In 1977 it was Certified by the US Information Agency (USIA) as being of an "International Educational Character."
CULT CINEMA CLUB
In the ensuing months since our last installment, Cult Cinema Club has been taking it slow at the Egyptian’s Spielberg Theatre because we’ve been deluged by a surplus of cult delicacies served up in our main Rigler Theatre. Now join us for screenings of two rare Spanish cult films, a bizarre juvenile delinquent gang vs. serial killer giallo starring Sue Lyon and directed by Eloy de la Iglesia, and a Paul Naschy werewolf movie co-starring Franco favorite Jack Taylor. Neither are available on DVD in America. Both will be screened from a digital video source. Approx. 190 min.
DANCE FOOLS DANCE
(1931) Directed by Harry Beaumont
In this typical, Depression-era riches-to-rags story, Crawford plays Bonnie Jordan, a carefree socialite who is forced to go to work on a newspaper when her father dies during the 1929 stock market crash. Meanwhile, her weak-willed brother Rodney (William Bakewell) falls in with a vicious bootlegger (Clark Gable, in one of his early tough guy roles) and his gang. The story is developed with many pre-Code flourishes, beginning with a scene in which Crawford and her society friends strip to their underwear for a moonlight swim. Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards (best remembered today as the voice of Jiminy Cricket) received good notices for his sympathetic performance as a veteran reporter who befriends Bonnie.
Screenplay: Aurania Rouverol. Cast: Joan Crawford, Lester Val, Cliff Richards. 35mm, 80 min.
The Deadly Spawn
The Deadly Spawn, a rare case where the monster is actually as awesome as the one depicted on its VHS cover art. Perfectly capturing the sleepy small-town it was shot in, this low-budget wonder easily delivers the goods, giving us an unforgettable horde of slimy man-chomping menaces (with entire heads made of super-sharp teeth) who land near a farmhouse and proceed to shred everyone in sight. Dir. Douglas McKeown, 1983, 35mm, 78 min.
The Dot and the Line
Co-Presented by L.A. Filmforum
Here at Cinefamily, one of our favorite genres of experimental film, or any film for that matter, is "Visual Music"--abstract films that find the synaesthetic union of visuals and audio, an effect both delightful and exciting for the eye and the ear. The Dot and The Line (Punto Y Raya) is a traveling film festival continuing this tradition of experimental animation by compiling some of the very best contemporary works in the genre, made by artists from Germany, Japan, Spain, the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom. The competition accepts any film under nine minutes containing lines and dots but avoiding all figuration and narrative, with plain (or plane!) colored backgrounds, and using any kind of illustration or animation technique. From the pen to the stylus, from the analogical·dot to the digital·pixel, even charcoal, chalk and crayon are considered. You'll be shocked how diverse and fun these dancing dots and vibrant lines can be--come experience one of the! purest pleasures of cinema!
DW GRIFFITH’S FIRST FILM: THE ADVENTURES OF DOLLY
The most neglected centennial in film history, D.W. Griffith's first film as director, THE ADVENTURES OF DOLLY, became 100 years old this summer. Echo Park Film Center is proud to rectify the error, presenting DOLLY and an outstanding program of Griffith's legendary Biograph productions to mark this important anniversary. From 1908 to 1913 Griffith made over 400 short films, raising the craft of narrative filmmaking to the level of art. This chronological program of little-known films, most of which are not available on video or DVD, illustrate the development of filmmaking as an art form and as outstanding entertainment, showcasing a wide range of subject matter, from classic Victorian melodrama to contemporary social dramas on subjects like cocaine addiction and illegitimate birth. With important silent films stars like Florence Lawrence, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Arthur Johnson, Blanche Sweet, Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, and Lillian Gish. From the 8mm/16mm collection of Tom Barnes. CURATOR TOM BARNES IN ATTENDANCE!
Equinox Flower
In 1958, Ozu made his first color film, Equinox Flower, which focuses on a young woman (the ravishing Fujiko Yamamoto) who wishes to choose her own husband against her father's wishes. As time goes on, the father's feelings on the situation turn, as he ruminates on how his own arranged marriage has affected his life. Ozu's use of color greatly enhances the tone of the film, mirroring the change and renewal of the seasons, as the younger generation finds it has more control over their own lives while the elders’ influence recedes. Dir. Yasujiro Ozu, 1958, 35mm, 118 min.
An Evening With Don Hertzfeldt
At the young age of 32, Don Herzfeld has amassed a body a of work unparalleled in modern animation. His meticulously crafted hand-drawn and -animated shorts, produced without the use of computers, continues to amaze and inspire audiences globally, and on Nov. 30th, Herzfeld will be in-person at the Cinefamily to introduce the L.A. premiere of his latest short, I Am So Proud Of You. His longest piece to date, the 22-minute film was nearly two years in the making, as its special effects were meticulously created directly on film, using traditional double exposures, in-camera mattes, and innovative experimental techniques. This film is also the eagerly-anticipated second chapter to Everything Will Be OK, winner of the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Award in Short Filmmaking and named by many critics as one of the "best films of 2007". The screening will be immediately followed by a live on-stage interview and audience Q&A with Hertzfeldt.
An Evening with Kenneth Anger: Dangerous Cinema
"Anger forged a body of work as dazzlingly poetic in its unique visual intensity as it is narratively innovative." Senses of Cinema
A towering figure of American avant-garde cinema since the mid-1940s, Kenneth Anger has posited himself at the junction of pop culture, queer underground, occultism and rock music. Tonight's screening presents an array of works in which Anger subjects different ideologies and subcultures to his incisive vision and the uncanny re(de)constructive power of his editing skills. Ich Will (2007, 35 min.) montages newsreels from the Nazi era to Bruckner's music. Mouse Heaven (2005, 12 min.) "does for Mickey Mouse what Scorpio Rising did for neo-Nazi biker gangs," according to the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Elliott's Suicide (2007, 15 min.) is an elegy for the late Elliott Smith, while I'll Be Watching You (2007, 4:52 min.) and Foreplay (2008, 7 min.) explore two different forms of male bonding: sex in an underground parking structure and a soccer team's training session. The program concludes with the seminal Scorpio Rising (1963, 29 min., 35mm), whose hallucinatory and campy communing with pop culture fetishes (chrome-trimmed choppers, James Dean, zippers, Jesus) has been an enduring avant-garde crowd pleaser.
In person: Kenneth Anger
FLAMINGO ROAD
(1949) Directed by Michael Curtiz
Four years after their Oscar-winning success for Mildred Pierce, Crawford and director Michael Curtiz reunited to make this curious political melodrama. Crawford was 44 years-old at the time of the film's release. Cast in a role intended for a woman twenty years her junior, Crawford plays Lane Bellamy, a former dancer for a two-bit traveling carnival. While trying to make due in a small, backwater Southern town, Lane becomes increasingly entangled in the seedy machinations behind political corruption.
Producer: Jerry Wald . Screenplay: Robert Wilder. Cinematographer: Ted McCord. Cast: Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Sydney Greenstreet. 35mm, 94 min.
For Heaven's Sake
Lloyd alternated between making character-driven and "thrill"-driven pictures, and For Heaven's Sake ranks as one of his best gags-for-gags'-sake films. Lloyd plays a wealthy man who funds a homeless mission, falls for a volunteer worker, is kidnapped by his rich friends offended by his breaching of class, and must escape their clutches to “make it to the church on time”. His ensuing escape on a double-decker bus remains one of Lloyd’s finest chase numbers.
For Heaven's Sake Dir. Sam Taylor, 1926, 35mm, 58 min.
The Freshman
Widely regarded as Lloyd's masterpiece, The Freshman was hugely popular upon its 1920s release, and is also a scathing satire of what was then a pop culture fad: interest in the "college life". Skewering his usual "everyman" persona, Lloyd plays a middle-class kid obsessed not with career, but with becoming a Big Man On Campus, and once he's enrolled at Tate College, his inability to hit that mark is a expert mix of comedy and pathos. Eager to get recognition of any kind, Lloyd zeroes in on an impossible goal: to lead the school's football team to victory for its final big game. As usual, the film is worth seeing for its epic setpieces alone: a superbly choreographed number in which Lloyd's falling-apart cheap suit is constantly re-stitched by his stealthy tailor during a college dance, and the climactic football game, partially filmed at the Pasadena Rose Bowl.
Dirs. Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor, 1925, 35mm, 76 min.
Gabriel Over the White House
1933/b&w/87 min. | Scr: Carey Wilson; dir: Gregory La Cava; w/ Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone.
Cosmopolitan Productions released numerous non-Davies films but this Depression fantasy about a new President who is miraculously transformed from a laissez-faire party stooge into a populist activist was closely supervised by Hearst. The film, variously described as left-wing propaganda and proto-fascist, reflects Hearst's complex political views–a supporter of the New Deal, he drifted right during the 30s–while suggesting fascinating parallels with American politics today.
Girl Shy
Girl Shy highlights two of Lloyd's major strengths: the sweetness and warmth of his shy, sensitive persona--and the high energy of his elaborate trademark chase sequences, of which Girl Shy ranks as his greatest. Lloyd stars as a country fellow who's extremely nervous around women, yet has written a seduction self-help book! On his way by train to meet a publisher, he chats up Mary (Jobyna Ralston), who proves to be the girl of his dreams, but is on her way to marry a man who's totally wrong for her. After they meet up once more with her sleazy suitor in tow, Lloyd realizes he must save Mary from the mistake of her bad marriage. His ensuing madcap race to stop the wedding is a phenomenal avalanche of setpieces, a stream of vehicular chaos so crazed and masterfully handled that it will leave you breathless.
Dirs. Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor, 1924, 35mm, 80 min.
The Good Earth
Pearl Buck's novel of famine and the fight for survival in pre-revolution China was transformed into one of Hollywood's greatest films, featuring excellent performances by Paul Muni and Oscar-winner Best Actress Luise Rainer. The locust plague sequences are still memorable examples of cinematography.
HEAD, 1968, Rhino, 86 min. Join Monkees Davy Jones and Peter Tork plus other key cast and crew celebrating the 40th Anniversary of this head-tripping psychedelic delight, written and produced by Jack Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson. The film succeeded in demolishing The Monkees mythology and in creating its own, fracturing their cheeky TV image (and anticipating much of MTV Music Television) with this insane collage of surreal sketches and visual jokes. Features a mind-blowing gallery of 1960s icons -- including Annette Funicello, Timothy Carey, Sonny Liston and Frank Zappa, not to mention a bizarre cameo by Victor Mature! With Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, Davy Jones. Preceded by the theatrical premieres of the never-televised Monkees TV series pilot and rare versions of four Monkees episodes unseen since 1973, plus other rarities! Discussion following with Davy Jones and Peter Tork, plus songwriter Tommy Boyce! New 35mm Print!
A Hen In The Wind
A Hen in the Wind, by far the rarest film in the series and one of the most unique in Ozu’s entire oeuvre, details the harrowing plight of an impoverished dressmaker awaiting her soldier husband’s return, as her young son falls ill. Ozu's portrayal of her desperate leap into prostitution in order to pay the bills is both severe and touching, and elevates the material beyond simple tear-jerker status into something wholly transcendent. Dir. Yasujiro Ozu, 1948, 35mm, 84 min.
Jason and the Argonauts
Special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen provided the effects for this mythological adventure, which stars Todd Armstrong as the sailor and explorer who returns to the kingdom of Thessaly after a 20-year voyage, to make his rightful claim to the throne, but who must first find the magical fleece. Bernard Herrmann wrote the score.
JOHNNY GUITAR
(1954) Directed by Nicholas Ray
Arguably the most baroque of all Hollywood Westerns, Johnny Guitar is also a gender-bender of a genre classic. Sterling Hayden plays the title character, a former gunfighter recruited by saloon-owner Vienna (Crawford) to protect her from the belligerent locals determined to drive her out of town. Famous for its gleeful upending of conventional sex roles, Crawford, as the steely and opportunistic Vienna, is the real hero, while her nemesis is the power-mad and aggressively butch Emma (McCambridge). The film is also a formal wonder, distinguished by a painterly use of color, expressive mise-en-scène and a conspicuous strain of anti-McCarthyite sentiment.
Producer: Nicholas Ray. Screenplay: Philip Yordan. Cinematographer: Harry Stradling. Editor: Richard L. Van Enger. Cast: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady, Ward Bond. 35mm, 110 min.
The Kid Brother
One of Lloyd's most visually elegant pictures. He plays the meek youngest son of a rural sheriff, whose family is accused of stealing town funds. The real culprits are layabouts employed by a traveling medicine show, and it's up to Lloyd to right their wrongs. This picture's fantastic epic chase takes place on a creaky grounded frieghter, as Lloyd and a simian(!) companion track down the heavies at a 45-degree angle.
The Kid Brother Dir. Ted Wilde, 1927, 35mm, 84 min.
THE LAST DRAGON
Motown's Berry Gordy produced this musical kung-fu film featuring pop singer Vanity. The plot involves a young kung-fu enthusiast portrayed by Taimak, who fights the evil "Sho-Nuff, Shogun of Harlem". With music by Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Vanity, El Debarge, and more.
L'EDEN ET APRES
(Eden and After)
(1970, France/Czechoslovakia) Directed by Alain Robbe-Grillet
Robbe-Grillet's first film in color is an erotic and labyrinthine tale of murder and vampirism set somewhere between the fictitious landscapes of the Marquis de Sade and Lewis Carroll. In Café Eden, a group of bored students who engage in a series of baroque parlor games are visited by a mysterious stranger whose presence evokes new menacing fantasies. In L'Eden Et Apres, the author deliberately questions the principles of logic, rational cognition, narrative and drama.
Cinematographer: Igor Luther. Editor: Bob Wade. Cast: Catherine Jourdan, Pierre Zimmer, Richard Leduc, Lorraine Rainer. 35mm, 98 min.
LET IT BURN (1968 - 60min.) Bob Cohen's (in person) Dares Salaam interview of FBI hunted US Army & Marine Corps veteran Robert Franklin Williams, th e leading advocate of armed self-defense in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Williams tells how his "Guard" of some 300 armed and organized Blacks chased the KKK out of town. But then, in 1961, when they agreed to either participate unarmed or stay away from demonstrations by pro-integration "Freedom Riders," the Klan returned in force. The Freedom Riders were beaten and then jailed. Members of the Guard prepared to march on the jail. Arson and gunfire erupted. Events escalated, and with Alabama National Guard tanks ad vancing on the Black section of Monroe, North Carolina, Williams escaped, first to Canada, and then to Cuba, where he was welcomed by Fidel Castro and permitted to have the only private radio program and newsletter in the country. Williams tells how, due to actions taken by certain political factions to suppress his broadcasts, he decided he had to leave Cuba and move to China, where he was personally welcomed by Mao Tze-Tung. Hav ing predi cted the ghetto uprisings of the mid-1960s, Williams calls for Black soldiers in Vietnam to return home an d turn their weapons against the racists. He declares that, unless White America ceases racist oppression, the USA will go up in flames.
L'HOMME QUI MENT
(The Man Who Lies)
(1968, France/Czechoslovakia) Directed by Alain Robbe-Grillet
Shot on location in Czechoslovakia, L'Homme qui ment is the Kafkaesque story of a soldier, who after supposedly being shot down by the Germans, recounts his story as a French Resistance fighter, though he may actually be a traitor. Exploiting the sympathies of the townspeople (and the local women) the protagonist invents his own character and past as he goes along. Featuring no shortage of erotic scenes, including a voyeuristic depiction of a lesbian affair between a maid and her sister, and a typically obscured narrative, the film garnered Robbe-Grillet an award for Best Screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival.
Producer: Jan Tomaskovic. Screenplay: Alain Robbe-Grillet. Cinematographer: Igor Luther. Editor: Bob Wade. Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Dominique Prado, Sylvie Bréal. 35mm, 95 min.
Man on Wire
"The artistic crime of the century." That's what people said about Philippe Petit's illegal, not to mention insane, tightrope walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center on August 7, 1974. Although he was arrested and taken for psychiatric evaluation, his feat was a dancing success, as is this Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary from James Marsh (Wisconsin Death Trip). In addition to filming reenactments and interviewing Petit and associates about the planning, the event, and the aftermath, Marsh also incorporates the French daredevil's own footage captured back in 1974. "Thorough, understated and altogether enthralling" (The New York Times).
Message From Space
Recorded in “Super Space Sound” with a “Special Flying Objects Technical Unit,” this stupefying Japanese imitation of Star Wars by way of Seven Samurai is one of the wackiest entries in the filmography of Kenji Fukasaku--better known for violent yakuza pictures and the exceptionally lurid Battle Royale than for family-friendly space operas. Martial arts badass Sonny Chiba expands his range (beyond breaking bones) and here appears in disco warlord drag and silver face paint as the evil Rocksaia XII, a fascistic ruler bent on persecuting the peaceful planet Jilucia. In desperation, the Jilucians send a bunch of mystical glowing walnuts into space as homing pigeons to retrieve the only ragtag group of outsiders who can save them, including a visibly intoxicated Vic Morrow as a furry-coated ex-pilot with an unquenchable thirst for scotch. This, coupled with an intergalactic disco, lost-at-sea American actors coping with an onslaught of dubbing, and a sassy, back-talking little robot, and you've got George Lucas-ploitation at its richest.
Dir. Kinji Fukasaku, 1978, 35mm, 105 min.
MILDRED PIERCE
(1945) Directed by Michael Curtiz
Combining classic elements of film-noir and melodrama, Mildred Pierce features Crawford in the title role as a resilient mother fanatically devoted to her status-seeking, narcissistic daughter, Veda (Ann Blyth). Working tirelessly to provide for Veda's expensive tastes, Mildred builds an empire only to suffer ruinous downfall for her unwavering, maternal love. Mildred Pierce marked the resurgence of Crawford's film career. Deemed a bad investment by MGM, Crawford left the studio in 1943 to sign a contract with Warner Brothers. The film was her first starring role for the studio, and though Crawford was not their first pick, her performance won over audiences and critics alike, garnering her an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Based on the novel by James M. Cain. Producer: Jerry Wald . Screenplay: Ranald MacDougall. Cinematographer: Ernest Haller. Editor: David Weisbart. Cast: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth. 35mm, 111 min.
MISSING IDENTITY (CINE POR LA IDENTIDAD), 2008, Telefé Contenidos, 90 min. Dir. Miguel Colom. What if you were not who you think you are? During the late 1970s, a military dictatorship ruled Argentina with an iron fist. No political rights were granted to the general public, and the government implemented a plan to exterminate all opposition. Left-leaning citizens were detained and tortured in illegal detention centers with no official acknowledgement that these operations were being held. Between 1976 and 1983, the military regime was responsible for 30,000 disappeared persons. An estimate of 500 children were born in captivity and given illegally to adoptive parents, in many cases linked to the perpetrators of their parents’ murder. Although the children were not aware of their identity, their relatives were, especially their biological grandparents, who never gave up looking for them. This docudrama, adapted from a popular Argentine mini-series, explores these stories.
Moment To Moment
Moment To Moment is both highly personal and completely illogical, and stars the great Elsie Downey, the director’s then-wife, who drives the film with her boisterous performance in more than ten roles. Shot and edited piecemeal over a few years, this sketch film is a collage of everything from staged scenes to home movies, and features a soundtrack by the legendary Jack Nitzsche and David Sanborn. No matter what you call it, this film is Downey at his most avant-garde and absurd.
Moment To Moment Dir. Robert Downey, 1975, DigiBeta, 73 min.
Mondo Xmas (featuring Christmas Evil)
When December comes, connoisseurs of cracked cinema have reason to be jolly, for 'tis the season for holiday schlock to flood the TV screen and choke the movie theaters. Once again, Cinefamily is going to spoil you rotten with all kinds of goodies, including verité footage of department store Santas, misguided movie tie-ins, exhumed cartoons and aborted holiday specials. Finally, we'll unwrap Christmas Evil, which John Waters calls "the greatest Christmas movie ever made". This oddball mixture of whimsy and anti-corporate rage follows one extremely unfortunate holiday in the life of Harry, a toy factory worker forever warped after injuring himself while watching his parents copulating with the aid of a Santa outfit. Harry has taken Christmas to frightening extremes, even compiling his own naughty-or-nice neighbors list--with nasty punishments in mind! Director Lewis Jackson will be in attendance, with rare outakes and his very own 35mm print which he's going to retir! e after this screening. Last call! Come celebrate the holidays with the only family that knows what you really want--the Cinefamily. Yule be glad you did.
Moving Figures: The Animated World of Robert Breer
"Breerworld is homey but tumultuous, filled with sudden shifts in color and scale, flash frame jolts, and a steady back-beat of good-natured apocalypse... he towers over a field where gimmicks are common currency and cuteness is as virulent as malaria in the tropics..." J. Hoberman, American Film
Robert Breer, one of America's foremost filmmakers for more than 50 years, pays a rare visit to Los Angeles to attend a multi-venue celebration of his work. A close colleague of Rauschenberg, Oldenburg and many other seminal artists of the '50s and '60s, Breer brought a comparably imaginative and rigorous appreciation for collage and pure form to the art of cinema. Throughout a body of more than 40 animated, and in ways "anti-animated," films, Breer celebrates cinema as a unique way of seeing, and the act of drawing as an endlessly expressive and unpredictable personal gesture. The program features 14 masterworks spanning four decades, gorgeously restored by Anthology Film Archives for the first time on 35mm: Recreation (1956), A Man And His Dog Out For Air (1957), Jamestown Baloos (1957), Eyewash (1959), Eyewash (Alternative Version, 1959), Blazes (1961), Fist Fight (1964), 66 (1966), 69 (1969), 70 (1970), Fuji (1974), 77 (1977), Swiss Army Knife With Rats And Pigeons (1981) and Bang! (1986). In person: Robert Breer
Mutant (unreleased director's cut)
Mutant is the most joyfully exploitive Space Junk film of them all. It's got the ultimate Heavy Metal magazine aesthetic: a badass space cowboy joins a group of scientists, beds the Playboy Channel-esque babes (are those clear high heels and pink jumpsuit regulation?), and battles a man-made monster with super-powered saliva that reduces its prey to throbbing gristle while the soundtrack pumps great tunes. Longtime Corman editor Allan Holzman brought some tripped-out '70s rock n' roll editing and a healthy sense of humor to his directorial debut, only to have Corman cut over eight minutes of comedy when test audiences rightfully screeched with laughter, not just terror. We're showing it with every gory guffaw intact, and Holzman will be here to regale us with tales, so come enjoy every nudity-filled, slimy minute of the best Alien rip-off ever made!
Dir. Allan Holzman, 1982, 35mm, 90 min.
NATHAN SCHIFF
If home movie gorenography is a religion, then Nathan Schiff is its Pope. Starting while still in high school, Schiff produced absurdly gory, indiosyncratic and indulgent micro-masterpieces were made for no intended audience other than the friends and family who made them with him. Shot with no money and lots of heart, these plasma-spattered Super-8 labors of love are a snapshot of horror history long gone, filled with fetid atmosphere, cribbed music, and homegrown special effects. Full of ingenious solutions to no-budget problems, Schiff's films helped to pioneer the DIY homemade horror craze which continues in our digital, straight-to-DVD era. Schiff's first film at the age of 16, Weasels Rip My Flesh, appalled his fellow high school students with its rampaging killer weasels and deliriously absurd finale, while the relentless Long Island Cannibal Massacre exposes Nathan’s East Coast home turf as a breeding ground for rampaging psychopaths as a determined cop hunts down some bloodthirsty lepers. Eventually, Schiff started to play these films occasionally for club audiences, having to mix the soundtracks live with favorite rock songs by the likes of the Beatles and the Who. Now is your first and only chance to see jack-of-all-screams Nathan present these two milestones in person, with their original makeshift music soundtracks that couldn’t be cleared for their home video release. When you hear the phrase "teenage home movie horror", Nathan Schiff's films are everything you dreamed they would be. Nostalgic, warm, dazed and confused masterpieces of lo-fi goodness, with lots and lots and lots and lots of blood and guts.
Weasels Rip My Flesh Dir. Nathan Schiff, 1979, 67 min.
Long Island Cannibal Massacre Dir. Nathan Schiff, 1980, 95 min.
NEVER TOO YOUNG TO DIE
(from IMDB)
George Lazenby plays secret agent Drew Stargrove who is brutally murdered by the ruthless Van Ragnar (Gene Simmons) in this fast-paced, action-filled entertainment, with lots of explosions, battles, chases and romance. In this action-packed Bond-style thriller, the murdered secret agent's son, Lance Stargrove (John Stamos) is thrust into the dangerous and intriguing world of secret agents and espionage when he seeks revenge against Van Ragnar. Danja Deerling (Vanity) teams up with Lance as his sidekick and love interest.
NEW YEAR'S EVIL
(from IMDB)
During a New Year's Eve celebration, a punk-rock singer gets a phone call saying that when New Year's strikes in each time zone, someone will be murdered--and she will be the last one.
Nicky Katt's Smackum-Yackum Saturday
We've discussed in the past the mutual maniacal movie mono-focus of one Nicky Katt, and one Cinefamily movie organization. And if you don't remember, what Nicky and us like to do is get together and watch a freakin' big load of movies, preferably of the mug-melting variety. In the past, our only complaint has been that it's taken us weeks to recover from these movie benders. Luckily, we're about to take a vacation, so what better way to end the Cinefamily calendar year than with the biggest movie orgy we can concoct--that means movies on 35mm, 16mm, bootleg VHS, and an ever-ready grill to cook your meat on. BYOHD: Bring Your Own Hot Dogs. Come at six, leave when you wimp out--we're staying all night, and when we wake up the next morning, we're even gonna watch a kiddie matinee of William Witney's incredible The Golden Stallion. If you just wanna see The Golden Stallion and have your children stare at our hungover faces, come by on Sunday at 1PM, and enjoy the hangover special (free coffee)!
NIGHTMARE ALLEY, 1948, 20th Century Fox, 110 min. Dir. Edmund Goulding (DARK VICTORY). An ambitious carnival barker (Tyrone Power) moves from a mind-reading act with carny veteran Zeena (Joan Blondell) to performing the same act in an upscale nightclub with his new, ex-carny wife (Coleen Gray). He consequently becomes involved in scamming a wealthy man with the help of a duplicitous psychiatrist (Helen Walker). Widely regarded today as a classic noir thriller, NIGHTMARE ALLEY was Power's own project and gave the actor his best role. He was up to the task, delivering the greatest performance of his career. Unfortunately, his boss, Darryl F. Zanuck, panicked when he saw the leading man he had so carefully made into a superstar playing a low-life. He gave the film no publicity, never pushed the film or actors for any awards and quickly withdrew it from circulation. The film was ahead of its time – its grit and cynicism are perfect for today's audience. Preceded by the short "Tyrone Power: The Prince of Fox" (2008, 18 min.) Discussion following with actress Coleen Gray.
No More Excuses
No More Excuses is the rowdiest of Downey’s early films (which is saying a lot), and interweaves five scenarios into one raucous amalgamation. A dazed Yankee Civil War soldier (Downey) mysteriously awakens in modern NYC where, naturally, he heads to Yankee Stadium; Alan Abel, Director of the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, speaks of his crusade to clothe all animals; a killer repeatedly bungles an assassination of President James Garfield; a priestly perv and a chimp hit up a plus-sized lover; and, Downey visits the seriously swinging singles scene that is the original T.G.I. Friday’s on the Upper East Side. No More Excuses is unhinged, downright funny, and art brut to the max.
No More Excuses Dir. Robert Downey, 1968, 35mm, 44 min.
OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS
(1928) Directed by Harry Beaumont
Our Dancing Daughters cemented Crawford's status, along with Clara Bow, as the quintessential flapper--a liberated, dance-crazy young woman in short skirts and bobbed hair who, for many, embodied the spirit of the Jazz Age. For all her wildness, Joan is sincerely in love with handsome Johnny Mack Brown, but loses him temporarily when Brown impulsively marries a blonde fortune-hunter. (Anita Page, who died September 6 at the age of 98). Reviewers at the time the film was released were divided on the merits of the synchronized track, which combined music, sound effects, and occasional snatches of off-screen dialogue but lacked any true all-talking sequences.
Screenplay: Josephine Lovett. Cast: Joan Crawford, John Mack Brown, Nils Asther. 35mm, 84 min.
PA.RA.DA, 2008, Rai Films, 100 min. Dir. Marco Pontecorvo. Directed by the son of filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo (BATTLE OF ALGIERS), this film recounts the true story of French-Algerian street clown Miloud Oukili, who arrived in Romania in 1992 to reach out to the street children of Bucharest. Unflinching and devoid of sentimental traps.
Paris Blues
Martin Ritt's highly personal essay on Americans abroad. The story concerns two expatriate jazz musicians (Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier) who are caught up in the transcendent energy of Paris' Left Bank. Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll play their respective romantic interests. The film features a moody, evocative Duke Ellington score. Special appearance by Louis Armstrong. With Serge Reggiani.
THE PAST IS A FOREIGN LAND (IL PASSATO E’ UNA TERRA STRANIERA). 2008, Italy. Fandango. 127 min. Dir: Daniele Vicari. Rome and London Film Festivals. A slacker movie updated for the generation who wants luxury without working for it, thrills without consequences; a cautionary tale of how the weak are consumed by the strong, seduced by the aura of danger and left for dead in the endgame. "Based on a best-selling novel by Gianrico Carofiglio, this is a compulsive thriller about the dangerous relationship that begins between a young law student, Giorgio and an unscrupulous card shark, Francesco. Initially, the pair team up to play poker and make extra money but gradually they move into deeper criminality, rigging all their games and, as the money gets bigger, their lifestyle becomes more outlandish and the opportunity for bigger scams appears. As the prospect of drug dealing opens up, Giorgio becomes more and more estranged from his comfortable middle-class family and Francesco begins to reveal a darker, much more disturbed, violent side to his personality. Giorgio, played brilliantly by Elio Germano (one of Italy's top actors, as seen last in My Brother is an Only Child) is matched, scene for scene, by the wonderful, if relative newcomer, Michele Riondino as Francesco and it is their relationship which lifts this intriguing story into something special. Directed with skill and aplomb by Daniele Vicari (whose film Maximum Velocity made an impact when selected by the Venice Film Festival in 2002). The Past is a Foreign Land is a clever example of very effective crime fiction." -- Adrian Wootton, BFI With Chiara Caselli.
PHASE IV
(from IMDB)
Desert ants suddenly form a collective intelligence and begin to wage war on the desert inhabitants. It is up to two scientists and a stray girl they rescue from the ants to destroy them. But the ants have other ideas.
PIECES
(from IMDB)
Juan Piquer Simon's "Pieces" is one of the most hilarious slasher movies ever made.In the early 1940s a little boy is caught by his mother while he is assembling a puzzle with a naked lady on it.The boy gets mad when his mother takes his puzzle, so he kills her with an axe. 40 years later somebody butchers random college chicks with a chainsaw. "Pieces" is a highly entertaining gore trash filled with enough blood to satisfy horror fans.
POSSESSED
(1947) Directed by Curtis Bernhardt
Crawford plays a dazed woman who collapses in the street and is taken to a psychiatric ward. Flashbacks reveal the torturous path that led her to schizophrenia. Reviewing this film in The Nation, James Agee conceded that "it is not quite top grade," but insisted that "the weaknesses in this unusual movie do not greatly matter beside the fact that a lot of people who have a lot to give are giving it all they've got." He found it to be "uncommonly well acted," praising Van Heflin's performance in an unsympathetic role, newcomer Geraldine Brooks (who later had a long career in television and delivered one of the eulogies at Crawford's funeral), and Crawford's "desperate beauty and her fine, florid movie personality."
Screenplay: Silvia Richard, Ranald MacDougall. Cast: Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Raymond Massey. 16mm, 108 min.
RAIN
(1932) Directed by Lewis Milestone
Crawford gave an intense, stylized (some would say grotesque) performance as Sadie Thompson, a prostitute driven from Honolulu to a remote South Sea island, where she attracts the attention of a lecherous missionary. This was the second film version of John Colton and Clemence Randolph's once notorious play adapted from a story by Somerset Maugham. Although the film received a critical drubbing and Crawford herself later said that she gave a bad performance, many critics today consider this the best film version of Maugham's story.
Based on a play by John Colton and Clemence Randolph. Producer: Joseph M. Schenck. Screenplay: Maxwell Anderson. Cinematographer: Oliver Marsh. Cast: Joan Crawford, Walter Huston, Frederic Howard, Ben Hendricks, William Gargan. 16mm, 94
THE RAZOR’S EDGE, 1946, 20th Century Fox, 145 min. Dir. Edmund Goulding. A young man returns from World War I and searches for the meaning of life while surrounded by his unhappy and more materialistic friends. Based on the novel of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham, this was Tyrone Power's first film after his return from WWII. It was to serve as a signal to him that the head of the studio, Darryl F. Zanuck, was going to allow him to do more serious roles. The signal proved false. Also starring Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb, John Payne and Anne Baxter (who won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award). THE RAZOR'S EDGE was the biggest grossing film for 20th Century Fox in 1946 and nominated for three other Oscars, including Best Picture. Preceded by the short, "My Dad, Tyrone Power" (2008, 12 min.). Discussion preceding and following the screening with Romina, Taryn and Tyrone Power Jr., plus Terry Moore, Jayne Meadows, Coleen Gray, Piper Laurie and Robert Horton.
A Sailor-Made Man
Originally conceived as a simple two-reeler, an expanded A Sailor-Made Man became Lloyd's lavish first feature. Lloyd portrays a wealthy slacker who joins the Navy, and finds intrigue by the armful as he rescues his girl from the clutches of a Turkish harem.
The Sailor-Made Man Dir. Fred. C. Newmeyer, 1921, 35mm, 47 min.
Secondhand Sureshots
In 2006, our friends at Dublab sent four Los Angeles-based beatmakers (Daedelus, J.Rocc, Nobody and Ras G) on a secret mission to create new musical magic from the dusty remains of thrift store vinyl. Secondhand Sureshots documents their exciting process, detailing their obsessive record shopping habits, their first reactions after listening to the raw material, and the sculpting of the final tracks. The film offers fresh insight into the thrill of the hunt, that elusive search for the perfect breakbeat--as well as giving us a sharp portrait of four of L.A.'s most charismatic beatmakers. This special unveiling of Secondhand Sureshots will also feature a bonus music video screening, and live performances in the conceptual spirit of the film.
SESSUE HAYAKAWA FILMS
These three previously "lost" films star the great Japanese-American actor Sessue Hayakawa and were produced by his own company, in conjunction with director William Worthington. Hayakawa starred in over 50 films between 1914 and 1919, but became an American superstar after Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat (1915). Only a handful of Hayakawa's films survive. Elif Rongen, from the Nederlands Filmmuseum, will discuss the restoration of these important films, two of which remain fragments.
HIS BIRTHRIGHT
(1918) Directed by William Worthington
Screenplay: Frances Guihan. Cinematographer: Robert Newhard. Cast: Sessue Hayakawa, Marin Sais, Howard Davies, Mary Anderson, Tsuru Aoki. 35mm, silent.
THE COURAGEOUS COWARD
(1919) Directed by William Worthington
Screenplay: Frances Guihan. Cinematographer: Dal Clawson. Cast: Sessue Hayakawa, Tsuru Aoki, Toyo Fujita, George Hernandez. 35mm, silent.
THE MAN BENEATH
(1919) Directed by William Worthington
Screenplay: L.V. Jefferson. Cinematographer: Frank D. Williams. Cast: Sessue Hayakawa, Helen Jerome Eddy, Pauline Curley, Jack Gilbert, Fountain La Rue. 35mm, silent.
In person: Elif Rongen, Film Collections Project Manager, Nederlands Filmmuseum.
Live musical accompaniment by Michael Mortilla.
TRT: 126 min.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
Ray Harryhausen's special visual effects enliven this spirited fantasy/drama which pits Sinbad against a cruel and sadistic magician who's reduced the beautiful princess Parisa to microscopic size. Full of imagination and verve, with a musical score by Hitchcock's brilliant collaborator, Bernard Herrmann. With Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn Grant, Torin Thatcher and Richard Eyer.
Show People
1928/b&w/82 min. | Scr: Agnes Christine Johnston, Laurence Stallings; dir: King Vidor; w/ Marion Davies, William Haines. | Live musical accompaniment
Considered Davies greatest silent film, Show People is a Hollywood satire in which Georgia-born Polly Pepper transforms herself from slapstick extra in the Keystone Cops into Patricia Pepoire, dramatic actress. Inspired by the career of Gloria Swanson, the film features uncredited appearances by stars of the period among them Mae Murray, John Gilbert, Norma Talmadge and Douglas Fairbanks.
SORCERER
William Friedkin's American remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic The Wages of Fear concerns four fugitives trapped in a nightmarish Latin American town who agree on a suicidal mission, transporting trucks filled with nitroglycerine, to gain their freedom. With Roy Scheider, Francisco Rabal, Ramon Bieri and Amidou.
Speedy
Lloyd's final silent film, Speedy, offers up humorous stakes laid on the struggle between the ol' horse-drawn trolley and the upcoming urban rail system--a clever metaphor for the transition from silents to talkies. Lloyd plays an underemployed baseball fanatic whose sweetie's grandfather is about to lose his trolley to evil rail kings. To save the business, Lloyd must keep the train running, no matter what, including interference from the rail thugs. Shot mostly on location in The Big Apple without the rear projection technique of later Hollywood car chases, Speedy's risky chase sequences feature a cab-driving Lloyd delivering Babe Ruth (in a cameo apperance) to Yankee Stadium, and a climactic gallop through the crowded streets of Manhattan. As well, the film offers a frenzied, impressive look at a bustling 1920s New York City and Coney Island, sneaked with the era's equivalent to "guerrilla filmmaking."
Dir. Ted Wilde, 1928, 35mm, 86 min.
STRANGE CARGO
(1940) Directed by Frank Borzage
In this Christ-like allegory, Crawford plays a dance hall girl who falls in with a group of hard-boiled convicts, lead by Clark Gable, after they escape from Devil's Island into the South American jungle. Among the gang is an enigmatic prisoner (Hunter) whose spiritual presence transforms their quest for freedom into a last chance for redemption. The last, and arguably best, of the eight films that Crawford and Gable made together, Strange Cargo was condemned by The Catholic Legion of Decency and the film was banned in many cities upon its release.
Based on a novel by Richard Sale. Producer: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Screenplay: Lawrence Hazard. Cinematographer: Robert Planck. Cast: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Ian Hunter, Peter Lorre, Paul Lukas. 35mm, 105 min.
Streets of Fire
Director Walter Hill followed up the massive success of 48 Hrs. with this underrated action film. Rock singer Ellen Aim (Diane Lane) is taken hostage by a motorcycle gang during a concert, prompting her manager to hire a mercenary (Michael Pare) to find and rescue her. This unusual melding of 1950's rock and roll and futuristic sets features many familiar actors including Rick Moranis, Amy Madigan, and Robert Townsend as a member of The Sorels.
SUDDEN FEAR
(1952) Directed by David Miller
In this stylish psychological thriller, Crawford plays Myra Hudson, an heiress and successful playwright. After being seduced into marrying an actor (Palance) she had once rejected as the lead in one of her plays, Myra discovers a plot against her life. In the shadows of Myra's lavish mansion and through the precipitous dark alleys of San Francisco--evoked in bold chiaroscuro by cinematographer Charles Lang--Crawford does well to showcase her emotional range as a fear-stricken woman desperate to save herself. Like Mildred Pierce, Sudden Fear was Crawford's first film with a new studio, having left Warner Bros. for RKO, and, as with Pierce, Crawford won accolades for her performance, earning her a third and final Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
Producer: Joseph Kaufman. Screenplay: Lenore Coffee, Robert Smith. Cinematographer: Charles B. Lange. Editor: Leon Barsha. Cast: Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Bruce Bennett, Virginia Huston. 35mm, 110 min.
Tales From The Quadead Zone
Chester N. Turner's follow-up omnibus to Black Devil Doll From Hell, Tales From The Quadead Zone, with Ms. Jones as a bereaved mom who entertains her invisible ghost son with two spooky stories, which involve rednecks fighting over sandwiches and a dead body getting dressed up as a clown. As Shocking Videos said, "Difficult to endure, impossible to forget, and loads of fun to discuss afterward." Dir. Chester N. Turner, 1987, 62 min.
There Was A Father
There Was A Father, produced during the war, was one of Ozu’s personal favorites. A widowed high school teacher sacrifices everything for his son’s education, only to bring about a permanent and irreversible separation between them. This bittersweet tone poem about familiar duty coming before emotions was one of Ozu's first satisfying attempts at honing his trademark visual style. Dir. Yasujiro Ozu, 1942, 35mm, 94 min.
THIS WAS PACIFIC ELECTRIC
In 1902 Southern California was a collection of small farm towns. It was waiting for something to pull it together. That something was The Pacific Electric. This Was Pacific Electric is the story of the rise and fall of the “The World’s Greatest Electric Railway.” It is a complete history starting in 1872 with L.A.’s first horse car line and continuing through the last Red Car in 1961. The story is told using rare film footage, hundred of photographs, animated maps and extensive interviews. In fact, the PE Red Cars operated along Glendale Boulevard right outside of this facility and today, LARHF has installed a mini-museum open to the public in the Belmont Station Apartments located at the south end of Glendale Blvd. where the PE tracks used to disappear into a subway tunnel leading to the Subway Terminal Building on Hill and 4th Streets. Presented by the Los Angeles Railroad Heritage Foundation
THREE STOOGES STOOGE-FEST
This year's event, PARDON MY AMNESIA, is a brand new collection of bona-fide Stooges Classics that we have somehow forgotten in our past screenings. This is a great line-up of guaranteed laffs, presented on the Alex Theatre’s Big Screen!
The titles chosen by our blue ribbon panel for 2008 are:
IN THE SWEET PIE AND PIE (1941)
THREE LITTLE BEERS (1935)
PUNCH DRUNKS (1934)
FRIGHT NIGHT (1947)
DISORDER IN THE COURT (1936)
We are excited that this year’s bonus features include a very rarely seen 1974 INTERVIEW WITH LARRY FINE, provided to us by his family. Larry talks about his early career, the Stooges vaudeville years and how the trio developed their film personalities and wacky brand of knock-about comedy. As we have each year, we’ll also present a clip from a “lost” Stooges short or feature film.
Fun? Soitenly! Running time approximately 2 hours.
THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK
(1984) Directed by Rob Epstein
In 1978, San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by a former city politician. Milk was the first openly gay official elected to any major government office in the United States and thus an instant martyr to the cause of gay rights. Rob Epstein's 1984 memorial won an Oscar for best documentary, but the original materials in 16mm had seriously degraded over the years, leading the UCLA Film & Television Archive to make the film a preservation priority. Preservationist Ross Lipman will discuss the complicated restoration to 35mm, which involved tracking down numerous original sources for Epstein's compilation.
In person: Ross Lipman, Film Preservationist, UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Producer: Richard Schmiechen. Screenplay: Judith Coburn, Carter Wilson. Cinematographer: Frances Reid. Editor: Rob Epstein, Deborah Hoffmann. 35mm (blow-up from 16mm), 90 min.
TOKYO STORY
Tokyo Story is widely regarded as being the crown jewel of Ozu’s career, as its consistent placing on all-time top ten film lists around the world along with Citizen Kane, Rules Of the Game and Vertigo will attest. An elderly couple visits their busy, self-absorbed offspring in Tokyo and are met with an indifference that only serves to reveal permanent emotional differences--which the parents gracefully meet with quiet resignation and then return home. Deceptively simple, Tokyo Story finds Ozu's use of ellipsis at its most impactful, as major plot points are left out to accrue a gradual effect all the more potent. Dir. Yasujiro Ozu, 1953, 35mm, 136 min.
THE TOUCH
(Beröringen)
(1971, Sweden/United States) Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Gould plays an emotionally scarred American archeologist in Sweden who seduces the wife of a friend into his rapidly disintegrating orbit. Under Bergman's direction and in the cold, pale light of Sven Nykvist's photography, Gould plunges relentlessly into an unforgiving role as the manipulative, violently unstable David Kovac opposite Bibi Andersson's compelling turn as a woman driven to doubt herself and her happiness. Long overlooked, The Touch is ready for a reassessment.
In person: Elliott Gould, Curtis Hanson.
Producer: Ingmar Bergman. Screenwriter: Ingmar Bergman. Cinematographer: Sven Nykvist. Editor: Siv Kanälv-Lundgren. Cast: Elliott Gould, Bibi Andersson, Max von Sydow, Sheila Reid, Barbro Hiort af Ornäs. 35mm, 115 min.
THE UNKNOWN
(1927) Directed by Tod Browning
Perhaps no film in history has exploited the metaphoric potential of the human arm to the extent that The Unknown does. Crawford stars as Nanon, the beautiful daughter of a traveling circus owner with a fanatical abhorrence to men's hands. In love with the circus strongman, Malabar (Norman Kerry), yet uncontrollably repulsed by his touch, Nanon naturally finds solace in Alonzo (Lon Chaney), a criminal assuming the guise of an armless knife thrower. The threat of exposure leads Alonzo to commit murder, and his love for Nanon leads to a disturbing conclusion. The Unknown is a truly haunting masterpiece, traversing scarcely believable events into a realm of melancholic horror, beauty and suspense.
Live musical accompaniment by Michael Mortilla.
Screenplay: Waldemar Young. Cinematographer: Merritt Gerstad. Cast: Lon Chaney, Norman Kerry, Joan Crawford, Nick De Ruiz, John George. 35mm, silent, 63 min.
VENICE WEST & THE LA SCENE - Swinging in the Shadows Part One ('06, 58m) Mary Kerr's engaging documentary on the early Ferus, Syndell Studio, Gas House, and Venice West Café (now Sponto Gallery) connecting art and poetry. What took place in these spaces, studios and in the "pads" in Venice and LA were the roots of what developed into a very professional; but still, energetic Los Angeles art scene. The surviving poets, most20still living in poverty, remain true to the uncompromising spirit they forged in the 50s. "The myth of the muse set our spines straight directed" -Tony Scibella
WARGAMES, 1983, MGM Repertory, 114 min. Gentlemen, please: no video-gaming in the war room. For Matthew Broderick's seminal teen computer hacker, coming of age, saving the world and getting Ally Sheedy means accidentally triggering World War III (and causing big headaches for the likes of Dabney Coleman and Barry Corbin). Director John Badham's tale of a boy, his modem and Armageddon is as suspenseful -- and unnerving -- as ever. Both films scored by Arthur Rubinstein. Discussion in between films with director John Badham and film historian Eric Lichtenfeld.
WAXWORK
(from IMDB)
Wealthy slacker college student Mark, his new girlfriend Sarah, and their friends are invited to a special showing at a mysterious wax museum which displays 18 of the most evil men of all time. After his ex-girlfriend and another friend disapear, Mark becomes suspicous. What he doesn't know is that they have been made a part of the exhibit, by first living out the scene and then being murdered in it.
Why Worry?
In Why Worry?, hypochondriac Lloyd arrives on a South American island vacation, to find himself caught up in the locals' political revolution, which at first, he doesn't even notice! Mistaken for a freedom fighter and jailed, he meets the giant Colosso, and together they plan an escape and an end to the island's violence. The film benefits from a breathtaking abundance of non-stop gags and the eye-catching presence of giant Johan Aasen as Lloyd's sidekick, a device not unlike Andre The Giant's turn in The Princess Bride. As well, Why Worry? marked the first appearance of Jobyna Ralston in a Lloyd film, who was to be his romantic foil in five subsequent features.
Why Worry Dirs. Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor, 1923, 35mm, 63 min.