Just a quick program note. The 4pm screening of Chaplin's The Circus on Sunday has been canceled. In its place, we're showing the Buster Keaton classic Steamboat Bill, Jr.
The feature will be preceded by a shorts program and will feature live musical accompaniment by the legendary Bob Mitchell. Buy advance tickets here!
Tonight! Les Blank in person & Charles Bronson in THE MECHANIC
At 7:30pm
Les Blank Program Three
Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Cajun and Creole Cooking
Blank’s talent for making our mouths water hits another high point with this spicy whirlwind tour of Cajun and Creole culture. Once again, the marriage of sensory pleasures takes center stage—music and food are depicted with equal reverence as Blank delves deeper into the heart of French-speaking Louisiana.
Always for Pleasure
"One critic said about Always for Pleasure that it looked like it was shot by a guy wandering through New Orleans with a bottle of beer in one hand and a camera in the other," says Blank. What the camera captures is glorious and trance-inducing. The filmmaker’s loose, intimate style comes through wonderfully in this document of New Orleans' singular celebrations: Second-line parades, Mardi Gras, and Jazz Fest. Features live music from Professor Longhair, the Wild Tchoupitoulas, the Neville Brothers and more.
We'll be serving red beans & rice and hosting Les Blank in person!
At 10:30pm
Charles Bronson in THE MECHANIC The Mechanic
Among hard-core Bronson fans, many feel this is one of his best. Directed by Michael Winner (who also helmed all three of the Death Wish films, as well as Chato’s Land and other Bronson flicks), this gritty crime thriller has Bronson as an aging hitman “The Mechanic” who fixes things for an all-powerful “Organization.” His specialty is doing every job differently and always making his kill look like an accident. The film has a terrific 16-minute opening where there is no dialogue as Bronson patiently plans a hit. Jan-Michael Vincent also stars as a young apprentice and Keenan Wynn and Jill Ireland (married to Bronson) add terrific supporting work. The script was written by Lewis John Carlino – who went on to write and direct the underrated Robert Duvall drama, The Great Santini. See Bronson in all his 70s squinting glory as The Mechanic!
Our March calendar is now online for your perusal. Aside from the festivals I already told you about, we got a kick-ass Bronson fest, some Les Blank food-films, Busby Berkeley dreams, and America’s sweetheart—Mary Pickford. But I must digress:
I’ve been trying to tell people how almost exhaustingly weird Darktown Strutters (playing this Saturday) is. Written by George Armitage (cult director of Miami Blues & Grosse Pointe Blank), directed by William Witney (a 70-something year old former studio man who worked on Tex Ritter Westerns in the 40’s), and cartoonishly production designed by Jack Fisk (you know, the guy who did Phantom of the Paradise & Mulholland Drive), this is easily the most jaw-dropping thing I’ve ever seen. I mean your jaw will drop. I’m personally gonna stand near the front of the theatre, so I can watch a whole crowd full of jaws collectively drop. But I can’t possibly communicate it to you in text. You know the cliché a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, I could try and describe an evil Colonel Sanders in a bunny suit, but what’s the point? So we put together this little “trailer”.
