The Cinema of Scientology (feat. rare docs & panel discussion)
Welcome all wogs, squirrels, SPs, apostates, Ron’s Org-ers and curious Scientologists to a collaboration between Tongue And Groove LA and Cinefamily, surveying one of the Twentieth Century’s most bustling new religions. Come get your needle floating, as we kick off by watching two extremely rare docs from Britain’s Granada Television: Scientology: A Faith For Sale and The Shrinking World of L. Ron Hubbard. Insightful and penetrating, these two late-’60s TV programs are both marvelous time capsules, and incredible overviews for the layman. Plus, we conclude the evening by exploring the mystery, the myth, and the pageantry of the Church of Scientology’s efforts across the universe of cinema — with a panel of special live guests, including the screenwriter of Battlefield Earth!
THE MIDNIGHT MAFIA: The Brain That Wouldn't Die
“Alive — without a body — fed by an unspeakable horror from hell!” It’s been twenty years since this campfest made its legendary appearance on MST3K — now it’s time to experience this freaky-deaky slab of Atomic Age weirdness in 35mm for the first time! Featuring Virginia Leith looking very Joan Crawford-esque as the iconic “Jan In The Pan” (the disembodied head containing the titular Brain), The Brain That Wouldn’t Die is a gas, with its perfectly ridiculous arrogant scientist/decapitated fiancée/medical experiment troika in full bloom. Scuzzy strip clubs, telepathic powers, snaggle-toothed mutants caged in the basement, a growing resentment of asshole husbands — what else could they possibly have crammed into this, c’mon now! Fun with a capital FUN.
Dir. Joseph Green, 1962, 35mm, 81 min.
Watch the trailer for “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die”!
MEMBERS-ONLY: A Band Called Death (sneak preview!)
NOTE: This show is free (first-come, first-serve). To help us track attendance and limit waiting line size, you must pre-register for “first-come, first-serve” admission. One registration per person. All current Cinefamily members get first entry. Your registration does not guarantee you a seat. Early arrival is highly recommended. Doors will open 30 min. before showtime. No one will be admitted after the film has begun.
Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death. Punk in attitude, spirit and volume before “punk” existed, these three teenage brothers played a few local gigs in the mid-’70s and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed — but in the era of Motown and emerging disco, record companies found both their lightning-in-a-bottle tunes and their intimidating band name too much to handle, and Death disbanded before they’d ever really started. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family love story, A Band Called Death chronicles the band’s incredible fairy-tale journey, when, decades after breaking up, a dusty vintage demo tape made its way out of the attic and into the ears of a rabid new audience several generations younger. Finally receiving their long overdue recognition as the first black punk band — hell, one of the first punk bands! — Death continues to shake the house down, as this deeply touching doc shows off in droves.
The Wrong Man
“The closest Alfred Hitchcock ever came to making an art film. This is a highly personal and even religious expression of Hitchcock concerning the vicissitudes of fate.” — Jonathan Rosenbaum
The Wrong Man shows off a lean, mean Hitchcock on the cold, hard streets of New York — it’s the ‘hood verisimilitude of Sidney Lumet and the gritty, near-documentary B&W approach of the Italian neo-realists, both coupled with surprising amounts of restraint and emotion, all rolled into one densely packed crime drama burrito. Hewing closely to the somber real-life story of Manny Balestrero — an innocent nightclub musician mistakenly identified as the creep responsible for an insurance office robbery — Hitch gives us his noir version of a CSI-style procedural. Henry Fonda is fantastic in the lead, thoroughly losing himself in the role of a quiet, humbled, scared-witless Italian-American everyman. And, as the grim tension ratchets up with every passing scene, we know our hero is completely screwed, yet we’re in awe of Hitch’s myriad maestro touches: every clanking footstep on linoleum, every damp concrete sidewalk, the white-noise roar of every passing subway train, and each terrifying, grimy baby step down the corridors of the archaic NYC justice system.
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1956, 35mm, 105 min.
Watch the trailer for “The Wrong Man”!
FRIDAY NIGHT FRIGHTS' "Sam Neill Madness Trilogy": Event Horizon
In space, no one can hear Sam Neill scream! Amongst a somewhat uneven period for filmic horror (the late-’90s), one titanic thrillride still stands outlandishly tall, in a knee-deep puddle of viscera: 1997’s Event Horizon, the Hellraiser-meets-Alien mashup. A strong turn from schlockmeister Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil), the film catapults the simple haunted house concept into, space and executes it arguably more effectively than most space opera horror films, including some of the later Alien sequels. Featuring an interstellar cast led by sinister and increasingly insane science officer Sam Neill (are you seeing a pattern here?), Event Horizon concerns a mysteriously returned starship, and a dimensional rift which may or may not be a doorway to Hell. The images Anderson conjures are truly frightening, and as Sam & Co. unravel under the ship’s malevolence, the zero-G gore flies free in some of the most warp-driven setpieces of the decade. Reserve your seat now on this space-ride to terror you won’t soon forget; there’s horror on the Horizon!
Dir. Paul W.S. Anderson, 1997, 35mm, 95 min.
Watch Cinefamily’s original trailer for the “Sam Neill Madness Trilogy”!
Watch the trailer for “Event Horizon”!
Foreign Correspondent
Almost immediately upon touching down on American soil at the dawn of the Forties, Hitchcock firmly established himself as an integral part of the native filmmaking landscape, with 1940 seeing the rapid release of both Rebecca and this sobering, yet high-spirited spy romp. The brawny, bullish Joel McCrea stars as a newspaper man, who, at the outbreak of a fictitious (and prescient) version of WWII, is given what he at first imagines is a cush, low-key overseas bureau assignment — rapidly, he finds out that, after witnessing a brutal public assassination and dealing with a James Bond level of intrigue, it’s a bit more screwy than he anticipated. This is fast-paced fun from top to bottom; building upon the “suave solutions to deadly serious problems” model of Young & Innocent, Hitch puts McCrea’s adventure-craving big boy through some complex, stylish paces, including the clenched-throat, foostep delicacy of the legendary “windmill” sequence, and the plane crash finale, featuring outstanding cutting-edge special effects decades ahead of their time. Nominated for a half-dozen Oscars alongside Rebecca’s simultaneous eleven nods, this is Hollywood dream factory fodder at its finest.
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1940, 35mm, 120min.
Watch Hitchcock on the Dick Cavett Show, speaking about “Foreign Correspondent”!
HEAVY MIDNITES presents a Neon Slime Triple Feature: "Angel", "Vice Squad" & "Savage Streets"!
Prepare for a summer scorcher as we flash back to the glittering highs and grimy lows of 1980s Hollywood. Relive the dark underbelly and white hot neon of the star-lined streets with three films that dared show the world our real city, before $20 cocktails and Disney-fied developers dimmed the lights and cleaned the streets. Overflowing with lurid thrills, this is sleazoid excitement at its zenith: a hazy world of hookers, flesh, fame, fashion and boulevard nights.
ANGEL — 8:00pm
An ingenious high concept that launched a franchise and brought exploitation fanatics to their knees: Angel is a high school honor student by day, and a high-class Hollywood hooker by night. Walking the boulevard under the watchful eye of her fellow working girls, she studies hard, gets good grades and picks up safe tricks — but when local ladies of the night are picked off one by one, Angel sets off on a personal quest for vengeance. Angel is bursting with vintage gold: bikers, drag queens, punks & performers line the streets while Return of the Jedi splashes carefree across marquees. Plus, it’s stacked with the most colorful cast a low budget filmmaker could ever dream: television stars Donna Wilkes and Cliff Gorman, Cinefamily fave Susan Tyrrell, screen legend Rory Calhoun and incendiary nightclub comedian Dick Shawn!
Dir. Robert Vincent O’Neill, 1984, 35mm, 94 min.
VICE SQUAD — approx. 10:00pm
“You may think you’ve heard of every sickness and perversion movies like to titter about but there are quite a few in ‘Vice Squad’ you’ve never dreamed possible!” –- Rex Reed.
If you watch only one movie about a killer pimp in your life, Vice Squad is THE ONE: a full-barreled, maximum-potential excitement launcher to the brain, the film that was always missing from your life and the one you always hoped to find. Wings Hauser burst onto the exploitation landscape with his intense, take-no-prisoners role as the ultra-psychotic, cowboy-shirted Ramrod. He’s absolutely fucking incredible here — but not only does he give the performance of a lifetime, he also sings the film’s vicious theme song “Neon Slime.” Helmed by veteran Gary Sherman (Dead & Buried, Poltergeist III) and lensed by the legendary John Alcott (The Shining, Barry Lyndon), Vice Squad is a descent into Hollywood hell — a sociological expedition into the dark, buried heart of the city. On the street, the real trick is staying alive.
Dir. Gary Sherman, 1982, 35mm, 97 min.
SAVAGE STREETS — approx. midnight
When Brenda (Linda Blair, grown up and brutally foul-mouthed), her deaf-mute sister (Return of the Living Dead’s Linnea Quigley) and their crew the Satins aren’t busy having dance aerobic fun, wet T-shirt shower fights or battling the authority of their iron-fisted high school principal (Animal House’s John Vernon, at the height of his beautiful 80s omnipresence), they’re cruising the savage streets of Hollywood, pulling pranks and drinking Schnapps. But when vicious, leather-clad punks push their fun too far, it’s a gang war of the sexes with Blair s suited up in a skintight leather jumpsuit and stacking up lowlife corpses like ham on a deli tray. At a moment in history when antisocial cinema had seemingly reached its apex, Savage Streets burst forward to claim the title of Scummiest Film of the Decade; grimier than a wino’s tongue and crammed full of ridiculously notable quotables (“Go fuck an iceberg!”, anyone?), this is THE SHIT.
Dir. Danny Steinmann, 1984, 35mm, 97 min.
Watch Cinefamily’s original trailer for our “Neon Slime Triple Feature”!
The Trouble With Harry
Death is a terribly funny inconvenience. One of Hitchcock’s most carefree, droll pieces — along with being one of his personal favorites out of his entire filmography, The Trouble With Harry is as colorfully cast and sharply dry-witted as any Wes Anderson or Wodehouse tale. Who is this dead Harry fellow — and will the peculiar inhabitants of an entire countryside town unwittingly implicate themselves in this man’s bothersome demise? Can an absurdly cocky abstract painter and a precocious widow (Shirley MacLaine in her debut film role!) ever find true love — or only true murder?! And what’s behind that squeaky closet door, anyway??? Meeting with poor box office upon its initial release during Hitchcock’s peak, and subsequently vaulted for over 30 years, The Trouble With Harry re-emerges as Hitchcock’s cheekiest comedy. Care for a spot of rigor mortis with your afternoon tea? Then this one’s for you, old chaps!
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1955, 35mm, 90min.
Watch Cinefamily’s original trailer for “The Trouble with Harry”!
Menage
From the fantastically irascible mind of Bertrand Blier comes what’s hands-down his single funniest film — one that explores the limits of sexuality on the knife edge of petty thievery. With its loony verbal buckshot and swirling visual sense, Menage hurls you headfirst down the rabbit hole of a brilliantly cracked Gérard Depardieu, once again playing the blazing centerpiece of Blier’s twisted universe. Here, he’s a brash burglar who monetarily and sexually insinuates himself into the broken lives of a near-homeless couple on the brink of sanity (the always-on-point Michel Blanc, and Going Places’ Miou-Miou.) Blier’s films work best when their frequently harried characters verbally spar from the deepest depths of their id — and on that level, Depardieu’s never been better than in Menage, as he sprays Blanc and Miou-Miou with a non-stop torrent of rapid-fire verbal absurdities that’s both rolling-in-the-aisles hilarious, and somewhat chilling, as he proves how easy it is to manipulate those who have nothing left to lose. With its purposefully plinky jazz-rock score by Serge Gainsbourg, Blier’s ‘80s masterpiece is essential repeat viewing.
Dir. Bertrand Blier, 1986, 35mm, 84 min.
Watch Cinefamily’s original trailer for “Menage”!
DOUG BENSON'S MOVIE INTERRUPTION: Point Break
The next installment of Doug Benson’s Movie Interruption, where Doug and his friends (who, in the past, have included everyone from Brian Posehn to Sarah Silverman and Zach Galifianakis) chill on the front row couches, mics in hand, and say whatever hilarious thing pops into their heads while a movie of their choosing unfolds on the screen. This time, Doug & Co. tackle one of their all-time favorites: 1991′s Point Break!.
Dir. Katherine Bigelow, 1991, 35mm, 123 min.
Watch the trailer for “Point Break”!
FREE SNEAK PREVIEW: 100 Bloody Acres (presented by Friday Night Frights)
NOTE: This show is free (first-come, first-serve). To help us track attendance and limit waiting line size, you must pre-register for “first-come, first-serve” admission. One registration per person. All current Cinefamily members get first entry. Your registration does not guarantee you a seat. Early arrival is highly recommended. Doors will open 30 min. before showtime. No one will be admitted after the film has begun.
Who says America is the authority on evil hillbillies and rural horror? Sure, we kicked things off with Deliverance, but it doesn’t get any more terrifyingly “backwoods” than Australia — with the vast majority of its mass a spooky, arid wasteland. In the new horror comedy 100 Bloody Acres, brothers Reg (Damon Herriman of Justified) and Lindsay Morgan have stumbled upon a secret “recipe” to help their organic fertilizer business: adding dead car crash victims to their product. Out in the middle of nowhere, no one asks too many questions — but lately, supply has been running low. That is, until Reg stumbles upon three city-slicker travelers stranded on the side of the road, and he decides that maybe the Morgan Bros. should consider using fresh ingredients. Funny, gory and refreshingly clever, 100 Bloody Acres marks the feature debut of a great new talent in the international horror community: brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes.
Dirs. Cameron Cairnes & Colin Cairnes, 2012, digital presentation, 91 min.
Watch the trailer for “100 Bloody Acres”!
Marnie
Marnie brings Tippi Hedren back into harm’s way via Hitchcock, but rather than being at the mercy of lethal feathered friends, this time she’s prey to the most unconventional marriage of the century. A shifty grifter, Marnie makes her money by role-playing, stealing it from unsuspecting corporate offices — that is, until a rich, young Sean Connery, fascinated with her, offers her a most unusual arrangement: if she agrees to let him study her ways like a lab animal, he won’t turn her in. While Hedren had already undergone an excessive amount of physical and psychological anguish during the shooting of The Birds, Hitch’s legendary attempts to mind-game his actresses reached a zenith here, as Hedren constantly seems to be in the grip of a psychosexual fever dream. As well, Marnie’s aversion to the color red recalls Gregory Peck’s similar affliction in Spellbound, but here the Freudian analysis has been dropped in favor of a probing look at two deeply twisted individuals whose only hope is to heal each other. A fascinating entry in Hitchcock’s late-period body of work.
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1964, 35mm, 130 min.
Watch the trailer for “Marnie”!
Frank Henenlotter's "That's Sexploitation!" (WORLD PREMIERE!)
CO-PRESENTED BY THE GRINDHOUSE FILM FESTIVAL
“A wall-to-wall Lazy Susan of tits, ass and hilarity!” — John Waters
From the minds of Something Weird Video and Frank Henenlotter (director of not only such exploitation classics as Basket Case and Frankenhooker, but also the definitive doc Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore), it’s forty years’ worth of sex in the cinema. See rare and lost clips from vintage “adults-only” feature films, shocking short subjects, quaint coin-drop arcade loops, naughty stags and smokers, and graphic sex educationals from days gone by. Archival footage shows the many genres that developed over the decades: sex hygiene, drug scares, glamour, panties and pasties, pretty pin-ups, goona-goona exotica, nudist camp, striptease and burlesque, arthouse sinema, nudie cuties, roughies, sexy psychedelia and pre-hardcore white-coaters. Come trip the nip fantastic with us through this seldom-seen, salacious side of American film history!
Dir. Frank Henenlotter, 2013, digital presentation, 136 min.
Young & Innocent + Frenzy
YOUNG AND INNOCENT — 8:00pm
“In many ways this is the quintessential Hitchcock British film.” — DVD Verdict
With its mix of screwball romantic comedy, highly colorful language and a breezy portrait of small-town English countryside life crammed full of sharp caricatures worthy of the classic Ealing Studios canon, Young And Innocent is possibly the frothiest ol’ Hitch ever got — yet not without a hefty dollop of macabre humor and the signature brand of stylistic pyrotechnics that served him well throughout later decades. In this, one of the last movies Hitch laid down in the UK before heading off to Hollywood at the dawn of WWII, the maestro’s talents are in full effect as he weaves an ultra-brisk yarn involving a murdered actress, the blame put on one of her young lovers, and the constable’s daughter determined to prove his innocence. The grand ambition of this one slides out of its every pore, as the film bursts at the seams with effortless single-take camera crane moves, crazy SFX sequences blending rear projections and model work, intricate human choreography and delicious, delicate, dangling suspense.
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1937, 35mm, 83 min.
FRENZY — approx 9:45pm
“‘Frenzy’ is a kind of nightmare — made up of coincidences so rigorously ordered that they crisscross horizontally and vertically. ‘Frenzy’ is like the design of crossword puzzle squares imposed on the theme of murder.” — Francois Truffaut
Hitchcock’s 54th film in almost as many years marked a gripping return to form for the old master, eager to ditch lavishly overblown Hollywood productions for a brutalist trip through the gutters of contemporary London. More “wrong guy” than “whodunnit” in its nightmarish depiction of a necktie-strangler on the loose, Frenzy shows Hitch elegantly edging towards giallo aesthetics and new levels of chilling sexual perversion with bone-shattering clarity: one of the most graphic kills in the whole Hitch canon baits audiences to avert their eyes, while the next is deftly executed entirely off-screen with still more horrifying results. Returning to his homeland for the first time in two decades and casting relatively unknown TV actors in a spare, seedy and gruesome thriller that keeps twisting through its final seconds, Hitchcock here marries ‘40s style with a ‘70s enthusiasm for gore, producing unexpected humor along with muffled screams, and escaping with his reputation for terror secured.
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1972, 35mm, 116 min.
Watch the masterfully shot “restaurant sequence” from “Young and Innocent”!
Watch the original trailer for “Frenzy”!
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs
Like Laurel and Hardy, Martin and Lewis, or even Astaire and Rogers before them, Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere made for an impossible-to-replicate onscreen duo: a combination of lighter-than-air physicality, ridiculous anarchy, a genuine mutual affection, and individual electric charisma that, when combined together, made every frame of their pairing pop. In Bertrand Blier’s 1974 hit Going Places, they’re enigmatic, lecherous weirdos on the prowl — and in Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, Blier’s 1978 Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language Film, they inhabit a more “adult”, but no less outré joint role. Our humble provocateur filmmaker stages a boorish Depardieu and a faux-sophistico Dewaere as loveable ignoramuses for whom pleasing their tag-team depressive paramour (Carole Laure) is a seemingly Sisyphean task — that is, until a 13-year-old boy genius gets in-between them all and points the true way to her happiness. Equal parts caustically cynical and lovingly tender, Handkerchiefs has more than its share of wry outbursts and satisfying emotional callbacks, even daring to offer a “happy ending” constructed out of the remarkable brand of absurd tragedy Blier pioneered in gems like this.
Dir. Bertrand Blier, 1978, 35mm, 108 min.
Watch Cinefamily’s original trailer for “Get Out Your Handkerchiefs”!
OFF-SITE: A Tribute To Roger Ebert (feat. "Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls") @ SABAN THEATER
PRESENTED BY CINESPIA.
Location: Saban Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA, 90211.
In loving memory of beloved film critic Roger Ebert, Cinespia has partnered with The Cinefamily to host a screening of the Ebert-penned cult classic, Beyond The Valley of The Dolls, at the newly-restored 1930s Art Deco movie palace The Saban Theatre! Ebert’s passing in April reminded film fans everywhere of his prolific contributions to popular criticism, TV entertainment and film advocacy — but no tribute would be complete without a salute to Ebert the screenwriter as well, so we’ve got for you a rare archival 35mm print of the landmark 1970 Russ Meyer camp-tastic carnival of carnal freakouts. Plus, guest of honor Chaz Ebert will present “Siskel & Ebert” memories and outtakes, ‘60s psych rockers The Strawberry Alarm Clock will reunite to perform live, Beyond bombshell Erica Gavin and the film’s groovy music team Stu Phillips and Igo Kantor will be in-person, and we’ll have DJs, booze and dancing. It’s not just a tribute, it’s a HAPPENING!
Beyond The Valley of the Dolls Dir. Russ Meyer, 1970, 35mm, 110 min.
Watch the trailer for “Beyond The Valley of the Dolls”!
ANIMATION BREAKDOWN: Persistence of Vision
“An amazing film about an amazing artist. Rush out and see ‘Persistence of Vision’.” – Bill Plympton
Striving to make the crowning visionary masterpiece of his career, acclaimed animator Richard Williams spent nearly three decades of his life toiling away on The Thief And The Cobbler (a radical new project started in the Sixties, but finally slated for completion only after Williams’ Oscar for 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit), only to have it torn from his hands at the very last minute. Re-cut, re-voiced and re-drawn, the final product is a shadow of what “could have been” — and Thief’s tumultuous offscreen saga is the stuff of legend amongst historians, animation fans and film lovers. Using incredible footage from Williams’ lost epic, rare archival footage and interviews with Thief crew members, director Kevin Schreck brings this legendary chapter of cinema history to the screen for the very first time. Called a “Herculean accomplishment” (indieWIRE) and a “fascinating slice of film history” (Variety), this is the gripping story of the greatest animated film never made. Stick around for special bonus material to be screened at the midnight hour!
Dir. Kevin Schreck, 2012, digital presentation, 83 min.
Watch the trailer for “Persistence of Vision!”
A Band Called Death (6/28, Death in person for LIVE SET!)
Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death. Punk in attitude, spirit and volume before “punk” existed, these three teenage brothers played a few local gigs in the mid-’70s and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed — but in the era of Motown and emerging disco, record companies found both their lightning-in-a-bottle tunes and their intimidating band name too much to handle, and Death disbanded before they’d ever really started. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family love story, A Band Called Death chronicles the band’s incredible fairy-tale journey, when, decades after breaking up, a dusty vintage demo tape made its way out of the attic and into the ears of a rabid new audience several generations younger. Finally receiving their long overdue recognition as the first black punk band — hell, one of the first punk bands! — Death continues to shake the house down, as this deeply touching doc shows off in droves. DEATH will be here in person for both a Q&A and a live set after the screening!
Dirs. Jeff Howlett & Mark Covino, 2012, digital presentation, 98 min.
Watch the trailer for “A Band Called Death”!
HEAVY MIDNITES: Buffalo '66
“Gallo’s battle cry makes for a fiercely humorous slice of unreality that soars even when it’s crawling in the gutter and puking on itself.” – Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle
It’s been fifteen years since Vincent Gallo’s powerhouse feature filmmaking debut splashed across theater screens, and in 2013, it still retains every last bit of its amazingness through its electric writing and direction, pitch-perfect casting and performances, a killer soundtrack and all-time cinematography by indie hero Lance Acord. A semi-autobiographical tragicomedy, Gallo plays an ex-con fresh out of the clink: alone, desperate, and in dire need of a restroom. When he kidnaps doe-eyed ballerina Christina Ricci, he may have finally found the perfect date to bring home to Mom and Pop — if only he can get that shifter car to work first. Part of what really makes this festival sensation so memorable are the mesmerizing flourishes (stand-out moments like a Ben Gazzara pantomime, and Ricci’s tap dance number), and a stellar supporting cast that includes Anjelica Huston, Kevin Corrigan, Jan-Michael Vincent and Mickey Rourke. Buffalo ’66 is a modern classic that spans time to remain moving, beautiful and the epitome of absolute cool.
Dir. Vincent Gallo, 1998, 35mm, 110 min.
JERRY BECK'S CARTOON MATINEE: Persistence of Vision (plus Richard Williams rarities!)
The show kicks off with Richard Williams rarities from his career in title design advertising and short films! Striving to make the crowning visionary masterpiece of his career, acclaimed animator Richard Williams spent nearly three decades of his life toiling away on The Thief And The Cobbler (a radical new project started in the Sixties, but finally slated for completion only after Williams’ Oscar for 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit), only to have it torn from his hands at the very last minute. Re-cut, re-voiced and re-drawn, the final product is a shadow of what “could have been” — and Thief’s tumultuous offscreen saga is the stuff of legend amongst historians, animation fans and film lovers. Using incredible footage from Williams’ lost epic, rare archival footage and interviews with Thief crew members, director Kevin Schreck brings this legendary chapter of cinema history to the screen for the very first time. Called a “Herculean accomplishment” (indieWIRE) and a “fascinating slice of film history” (Variety), this is the gripping story of the greatest animated film never made.
Dir. Kevin Schreck, 2012, digital presentation, 83 min.
Watch the trailer for “Persistence of Vision!”
A Band Called Death (6/29, Death in person for LIVE SET!)
Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death. Punk in attitude, spirit and volume before “punk” existed, these three teenage brothers played a few local gigs in the mid-’70s and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed — but in the era of Motown and emerging disco, record companies found both their lightning-in-a-bottle tunes and their intimidating band name too much to handle, and Death disbanded before they’d ever really started. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family love story, A Band Called Death chronicles the band’s incredible fairy-tale journey, when, decades after breaking up, a dusty vintage demo tape made its way out of the attic and into the ears of a rabid new audience several generations younger. Finally receiving their long overdue recognition as the first black punk band — hell, one of the first punk bands! — Death continues to shake the house down, as this deeply touching doc shows off in droves. DEATH will be here in person for both a Q&A and a live set after the screening!
Dirs. Jeff Howlett & Mark Covino, 2012, digital presentation, 98 min.
Watch the trailer for “A Band Called Death”!
Prince Rama's "Never Forever" (L.A. premiere!) + The Apple
CO-PRESENTED BY DUBLAB
“[L]ooks to be full of the campiest costumes and makeup and jewelry this side of ‘The Cremaster Cycle’.” — The Fader
Fresh from their gig at the FIGAt7th downtown festival, Paw Tracks recording artists Prince Rama join us to present the L.A. premiere of their brand-new extended music video Never Forever. Full of zombies, jacuzzis of blood, sci-fi disco, muscle men and exotic animals, director Lily X. Wahrman’s new work is one big hyper-dimensional pile of synthy, saturated crazy. Plus, after the premiere, it’s the one film that completes the most perfect double feature possible with Never Forever: the gaudy, futuristic rock musical The Apple. Set in “1994”, this absurd-o Biblical allegory concerns the perils of a young couple discovered by an all-powerful fascistic funk band’s Satanical manager, who exploits them for his own ungodly gain. If that already sounds like a hoot, toss into the mix gay henchmen, bad accents, chorus-girl fire squads, circus acts, disco odes to amphetamines, hippies, sequined jockstraps, kvetching yentas, clothed orgies, Carpenters rip-offs, flying Cadillacs and a jivin’ production number set in the depths of Hell — all brought to you by director Menahem Golan, also responsible for Over The Top and The Delta Force!
Never Forever Dir. Lily X. Wahrman, 2013, digital presentation, 15 min.
The Apple Dir. Menahem Golan, 1980, 35mm, 86 min.
Watch the trailer for Prince Rama’s “Never Forever”!
Watch the trailer for “The Apple”!
A Band Called Death (6/30)
Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death. Punk in attitude, spirit and volume before “punk” existed, these three teenage brothers played a few local gigs in the mid-’70s and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed — but in the era of Motown and emerging disco, record companies found both their lightning-in-a-bottle tunes and their intimidating band name too much to handle, and Death disbanded before they’d ever really started. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family love story, A Band Called Death chronicles the band’s incredible fairy-tale journey, when, decades after breaking up, a dusty vintage demo tape made its way out of the attic and into the ears of a rabid new audience several generations younger. Finally receiving their long overdue recognition as the first black punk band — hell, one of the first punk bands! — Death continues to shake the house down, as this deeply touching doc shows off in droves.
Dirs. Jeff Howlett & Mark Covino, 2012, digital presentation, 98 min.
Watch the trailer for “A Band Called Death”!
Calmos
The Zardoz of French sex farces, Calmos is a bullet train ride through the absurd gnarliness of male menopause, gilded by deliberately ridiculous and supremely provocative fantasy sequences for which you’re almost certainly unprepared. With vigilant feminism as the target of his surrealistic buckshot satire, director Bertrand Blier follows a disaffected gynecologist and his newly-minted traveling buddy (Jean-Pierre Marielle and Jean Rochefort, two of the greatest French actors of their generation) as they desperately try to escape the clutches of an increasingly ravenous female population by running to the countryside, stuffing their faces like pigs and calling up their fellow brothers to arms in a sexual mutiny. As Calmos’s narrative delirium winds evermore inward, Blier continually mutates the film from a comedy of manners to a road movie, and then onto a war film, and finally dystopian sci-fi — all with a breathtaking nonchalance, and culminating in a Hall of Famer WTF finale you’ll desperately want to hit “rewind” on and view multiple times in a row. In true iconoclastic fashion, Blier burnt to the ground every newfound budgetary bridge afforded him after the huge commercial success of 1974′s Going Places, in order to unfurl this exuberant cry of artistic terrorism — and every penny is up on the screen for all to see, in what’s easily the most ambitious creation from our favorite French cinematic shit-stirrer.
Dir. Bertrand Blier, 1976, 35mm, 107 min.
Watch Cinefamily’s original trailer for “Calmos”!
Persistence of Vision (7/1)
“An amazing film about an amazing artist. Rush out and see ‘Persistence of Vision’.” – Bill Plympton
Striving to make the crowning visionary masterpiece of his career, acclaimed animator Richard Williams spent nearly three decades of his life toiling away on The Thief And The Cobbler (a radical new project started in the Sixties, but finally slated for completion only after Williams’ Oscar for 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit), only to have it torn from his hands at the very last minute. Re-cut, re-voiced and re-drawn, the final product is a shadow of what “could have been” — and Thief’s tumultuous offscreen saga is the stuff of legend amongst historians, animation fans and film lovers. Using incredible footage from Williams’ lost epic, rare archival footage and interviews with Thief crew members, director Kevin Schreck brings this legendary chapter of cinema history to the screen for the very first time. Called a “Herculean accomplishment” (indieWIRE) and a “fascinating slice of film history” (Variety), this is the gripping story of the greatest animated film never made.
Dir. Kevin Schreck, 2012, digital presentation, 83 min.
Watch the trailer for “Persistence of Vision!”
A Band Called Death (7/1)
Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death. Punk in attitude, spirit and volume before “punk” existed, these three teenage brothers played a few local gigs in the mid-’70s and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed — but in the era of Motown and emerging disco, record companies found both their lightning-in-a-bottle tunes and their intimidating band name too much to handle, and Death disbanded before they’d ever really started. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family love story, A Band Called Death chronicles the band’s incredible fairy-tale journey, when, decades after breaking up, a dusty vintage demo tape made its way out of the attic and into the ears of a rabid new audience several generations younger. Finally receiving their long overdue recognition as the first black punk band — hell, one of the first punk bands! — Death continues to shake the house down, as this deeply touching doc shows off in droves.
Dirs. Jeff Howlett & Mark Covino, 2012, digital presentation, 98 min.
Watch the trailer for “A Band Called Death”!
A Band Called Death (7/2)
Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death. Punk in attitude, spirit and volume before “punk” existed, these three teenage brothers played a few local gigs in the mid-’70s and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed — but in the era of Motown and emerging disco, record companies found both their lightning-in-a-bottle tunes and their intimidating band name too much to handle, and Death disbanded before they’d ever really started. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family love story, A Band Called Death chronicles the band’s incredible fairy-tale journey, when, decades after breaking up, a dusty vintage demo tape made its way out of the attic and into the ears of a rabid new audience several generations younger. Finally receiving their long overdue recognition as the first black punk band — hell, one of the first punk bands! — Death continues to shake the house down, as this deeply touching doc shows off in droves.
Dirs. Jeff Howlett & Mark Covino, 2012, digital presentation, 98 min.
Watch the trailer for “A Band Called Death”!
Persistence of Vision (7/2)
“An amazing film about an amazing artist. Rush out and see ‘Persistence of Vision’.” – Bill Plympton
Striving to make the crowning visionary masterpiece of his career, acclaimed animator Richard Williams spent nearly three decades of his life toiling away on The Thief And The Cobbler (a radical new project started in the Sixties, but finally slated for completion only after Williams’ Oscar for 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit), only to have it torn from his hands at the very last minute. Re-cut, re-voiced and re-drawn, the final product is a shadow of what “could have been” — and Thief’s tumultuous offscreen saga is the stuff of legend amongst historians, animation fans and film lovers. Using incredible footage from Williams’ lost epic, rare archival footage and interviews with Thief crew members, director Kevin Schreck brings this legendary chapter of cinema history to the screen for the very first time. Called a “Herculean accomplishment” (indieWIRE) and a “fascinating slice of film history” (Variety), this is the gripping story of the greatest animated film never made.
Dir. Kevin Schreck, 2012, digital presentation, 83 min.
Watch the trailer for “Persistence of Vision!”
A Band Called Death (7/3)
Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death. Punk in attitude, spirit and volume before “punk” existed, these three teenage brothers played a few local gigs in the mid-’70s and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed — but in the era of Motown and emerging disco, record companies found both their lightning-in-a-bottle tunes and their intimidating band name too much to handle, and Death disbanded before they’d ever really started. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family love story, A Band Called Death chronicles the band’s incredible fairy-tale journey, when, decades after breaking up, a dusty vintage demo tape made its way out of the attic and into the ears of a rabid new audience several generations younger. Finally receiving their long overdue recognition as the first black punk band — hell, one of the first punk bands! — Death continues to shake the house down, as this deeply touching doc shows off in droves.
Dirs. Jeff Howlett & Mark Covino, 2012, digital presentation, 98 min.
Watch the trailer for “A Band Called Death”!
THE MIDNIGHT MAFIA: Mario Bava's "Shock"
A claustrophobic gut punch that drags the viewer straight down into the mind of a woman going completely mad, Mario Bava’s 1977 suckerpunch Shock, featuring a score by ex-members of Goblin, is a psychologically devastating little chamber piece, not to mention a strangely appropriate final film for the maestro. After Dora (Argento’s muse Daria Nicolodi) and her new husband move into a new house along with her son from a previous marriage, strange events immediately plague the household, with the cute little boy prone to such homilies as “I’m going to have to kill you, mommy.” Is the kid possessed by his dead drug addict father, or is Dora besieged by her own insanity? Either way, soon the boy’s doing nasty tricks with razor blades, while Dora experiences horrific visions from beyond the grave. Nicolodi delivers the best performance of her career, beginning as a sweet and maternal figure but gradually shattering into a completely hysterical wreck. A rare but prime example of Bava’s style, Shock pulls off so many magnificent little flourishes that even the most demanding Eurofanatics will be gleefully pleased.
Dir. Mario Bava, 1977, 35mm, 90 min.
Watch the trailer for “Shock”!
Lost & Found Film Club! (July 4th, 2013)
IT’S A SPECIAL INDEPENDENCE DAY LOST & FOUND FILM CLUB!
Join us as we fire up the BBQ on our patio and screen a proudly patriotic marathon of 16mm short films like it’s our national duty. Lost & Found Film Club, our monthly showcase of ephemeral, industrial, and educational 16mm films, is honored to salute some of the things that make this country great: Burgers? Check. Sparklers? Check. Amber waves of film grain from sea to shining sea? Double check. This Lost And Found program will cover such uniquely American themes as: Hawaiian vacations, used car salesmen, college drinking, and our national anthem — plus animation, children’s films, advertisements, documentaries & experiments. And, in true democratic fashion, we’ll have the audience vote to select a film that even we haven’t seen for viewing! This show promises more fun than the Indoor Plumbing Act of 1953 at a better bargain than the Louisiana Purchase. Come see what slipped through the splices and wound up in the Cinefamily’s 4th of July “LOST & FOUND!”
Note: We’ll supply the grill and some classic foodstuffs, but feel free to B.Y.O.M. (bring your own meat!)
Once Upon A Time In America (7/5)
“Seen today, this rise-and-fall chronicle will make you nostalgic — for an era when giants walked the earth and made excessive epics with scope, substance and a true sense of cinematic grandeur, once upon a time.” — Time Out New York
“Killers burst into a puppet theater looking for Robert De Niro, who’s actually zoning out in a Chinatown opium den — and a phone starts ringing — bullet-ridden corpses are laid out on a rain-splashed street, De Niro slinks out of a speakeasy to make a call — the phone keeps ringing — and as a hand reaches out to pick up a receiver, the ringing suddenly stops. That’s just the opening of Sergio Leone’s gangster epic with De Niro and James Woods: growing up poor, bootlegging in the ‘30s, and De Niro decades later, heavy with regret, intercut via flashbacks and flash-forwards — or is it all just an opium dream? Famously shorn of 90 minutes upon its original U.S. release, this is one of the most complex works of popular (or any other) cinema, yet Leone’s hypnotic style and lavish production values make it a puzzle that’s got to be solved.” – Film Forum. DCP restoration of European cut!
Dir. Sergio Leone, 1984, DCP, 227 min.
Watch the trailer for “Once Upon A Time In America”!
FRIDAY NIGHT FRIGHTS' "Sam Neill Madness Trilogy": Possession
Capturing the energy generated when two people whose lives are so intensely fused and woven are forcibly split, Possession is an emotional nuclear explosion. If all we were given were its operatic and shamanistic performances by leads Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, its impossible-to-describe music by Andrzej Korzynski, and its masterful, hyper-kinetical ballet of camera choreography — all delivered with the force of a long-repressed traumatic memory — then Possession would already be the best film about divorce ever filmed. But when the angels and demons of our inner nature are literally incarnated in phantasmagorical form — the kind requiring the talents of Oscar-winning creature FX master Carlo Rambaldi (who, instead of making a cutey-pie “E.T.”, concocts a tentacled Lovecraftian octo-sex-demon) — you have the kind of explosively cathartic and entertaining experience that leads to movie-lover nirvanic bliss. Welcome to Possession, your new favorite movie.
Dir. Andrzej Zulawski, 1981, 35mm, 123 min.
Watch Cinefamily’s original trailer for the “Sam Neill Madness Trilogy”!
Watch the legendary excerpt of Isabelle Adjani going bat-shit crazy in “Possession”!
Once Upon A Time In America (7/6, 3:00pm)
“Seen today, this rise-and-fall chronicle will make you nostalgic — for an era when giants walked the earth and made excessive epics with scope, substance and a true sense of cinematic grandeur, once upon a time.” — Time Out New York
“Killers burst into a puppet theater looking for Robert De Niro, who’s actually zoning out in a Chinatown opium den — and a phone starts ringing — bullet-ridden corpses are laid out on a rain-splashed street, De Niro slinks out of a speakeasy to make a call — the phone keeps ringing — and as a hand reaches out to pick up a receiver, the ringing suddenly stops. That’s just the opening of Sergio Leone’s gangster epic with De Niro and James Woods: growing up poor, bootlegging in the ‘30s, and De Niro decades later, heavy with regret, intercut via flashbacks and flash-forwards — or is it all just an opium dream? Famously shorn of 90 minutes upon its original U.S. release, this is one of the most complex works of popular (or any other) cinema, yet Leone’s hypnotic style and lavish production values make it a puzzle that’s got to be solved.” – Film Forum. DCP restoration of European cut!
Dir. Sergio Leone, 1984, DCP, 227 min.
Watch the trailer for “Once Upon A Time In America”!
Once Upon A Time In American (7/6, 7:30pm)
“Seen today, this rise-and-fall chronicle will make you nostalgic — for an era when giants walked the earth and made excessive epics with scope, substance and a true sense of cinematic grandeur, once upon a time.” — Time Out New York
“Killers burst into a puppet theater looking for Robert De Niro, who’s actually zoning out in a Chinatown opium den — and a phone starts ringing — bullet-ridden corpses are laid out on a rain-splashed street, De Niro slinks out of a speakeasy to make a call — the phone keeps ringing — and as a hand reaches out to pick up a receiver, the ringing suddenly stops. That’s just the opening of Sergio Leone’s gangster epic with De Niro and James Woods: growing up poor, bootlegging in the ‘30s, and De Niro decades later, heavy with regret, intercut via flashbacks and flash-forwards — or is it all just an opium dream? Famously shorn of 90 minutes upon its original U.S. release, this is one of the most complex works of popular (or any other) cinema, yet Leone’s hypnotic style and lavish production values make it a puzzle that’s got to be solved.” – Film Forum. DCP restoration of European cut!
Dir. Sergio Leone, 1984, DCP, 227 min.
Watch the trailer for “Once Upon A Time In America”!
Once Upon A Time In America (7/7)
“Seen today, this rise-and-fall chronicle will make you nostalgic — for an era when giants walked the earth and made excessive epics with scope, substance and a true sense of cinematic grandeur, once upon a time.” — Time Out New York
“Killers burst into a puppet theater looking for Robert De Niro, who’s actually zoning out in a Chinatown opium den — and a phone starts ringing — bullet-ridden corpses are laid out on a rain-splashed street, De Niro slinks out of a speakeasy to make a call — the phone keeps ringing — and as a hand reaches out to pick up a receiver, the ringing suddenly stops. That’s just the opening of Sergio Leone’s gangster epic with De Niro and James Woods: growing up poor, bootlegging in the ‘30s, and De Niro decades later, heavy with regret, intercut via flashbacks and flash-forwards — or is it all just an opium dream? Famously shorn of 90 minutes upon its original U.S. release, this is one of the most complex works of popular (or any other) cinema, yet Leone’s hypnotic style and lavish production values make it a puzzle that’s got to be solved.” – Film Forum. DCP restoration of European cut!
Dir. Sergio Leone, 1984, DCP, 227 min.
Watch the trailer for “Once Upon A Time In America”!
Once Upon A Time In America (7/8)
“Seen today, this rise-and-fall chronicle will make you nostalgic — for an era when giants walked the earth and made excessive epics with scope, substance and a true sense of cinematic grandeur, once upon a time.” — Time Out New York
“Killers burst into a puppet theater looking for Robert De Niro, who’s actually zoning out in a Chinatown opium den — and a phone starts ringing — bullet-ridden corpses are laid out on a rain-splashed street, De Niro slinks out of a speakeasy to make a call — the phone keeps ringing — and as a hand reaches out to pick up a receiver, the ringing suddenly stops. That’s just the opening of Sergio Leone’s gangster epic with De Niro and James Woods: growing up poor, bootlegging in the ‘30s, and De Niro decades later, heavy with regret, intercut via flashbacks and flash-forwards — or is it all just an opium dream? Famously shorn of 90 minutes upon its original U.S. release, this is one of the most complex works of popular (or any other) cinema, yet Leone’s hypnotic style and lavish production values make it a puzzle that’s got to be solved.” – Film Forum. DCP restoration of European cut!
Dir. Sergio Leone, 1984, DCP, 227 min.
Watch the trailer for “Once Upon A Time In America”!
Once Upon A Time In America (7/9)
“Seen today, this rise-and-fall chronicle will make you nostalgic — for an era when giants walked the earth and made excessive epics with scope, substance and a true sense of cinematic grandeur, once upon a time.” — Time Out New York
“Killers burst into a puppet theater looking for Robert De Niro, who’s actually zoning out in a Chinatown opium den — and a phone starts ringing — bullet-ridden corpses are laid out on a rain-splashed street, De Niro slinks out of a speakeasy to make a call — the phone keeps ringing — and as a hand reaches out to pick up a receiver, the ringing suddenly stops. That’s just the opening of Sergio Leone’s gangster epic with De Niro and James Woods: growing up poor, bootlegging in the ‘30s, and De Niro decades later, heavy with regret, intercut via flashbacks and flash-forwards — or is it all just an opium dream? Famously shorn of 90 minutes upon its original U.S. release, this is one of the most complex works of popular (or any other) cinema, yet Leone’s hypnotic style and lavish production values make it a puzzle that’s got to be solved.” – Film Forum. DCP restoration of European cut!
Dir. Sergio Leone, 1984, DCP, 227 min.
Watch the trailer for “Once Upon A Time In America”!
Once Upon A Time In America (7/10)
“Seen today, this rise-and-fall chronicle will make you nostalgic — for an era when giants walked the earth and made excessive epics with scope, substance and a true sense of cinematic grandeur, once upon a time.” — Time Out New York
“Killers burst into a puppet theater looking for Robert De Niro, who’s actually zoning out in a Chinatown opium den — and a phone starts ringing — bullet-ridden corpses are laid out on a rain-splashed street, De Niro slinks out of a speakeasy to make a call — the phone keeps ringing — and as a hand reaches out to pick up a receiver, the ringing suddenly stops. That’s just the opening of Sergio Leone’s gangster epic with De Niro and James Woods: growing up poor, bootlegging in the ‘30s, and De Niro decades later, heavy with regret, intercut via flashbacks and flash-forwards — or is it all just an opium dream? Famously shorn of 90 minutes upon its original U.S. release, this is one of the most complex works of popular (or any other) cinema, yet Leone’s hypnotic style and lavish production values make it a puzzle that’s got to be solved.” – Film Forum. DCP restoration of European cut!
Dir. Sergio Leone, 1984, DCP, 227 min.
Watch the trailer for “Once Upon A Time In America”!
THE SILENT TREATMENT: Dressed To Kill (1928)
Description coming soon…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)
Once Upon A Time In America (7/11)
“Seen today, this rise-and-fall chronicle will make you nostalgic — for an era when giants walked the earth and made excessive epics with scope, substance and a true sense of cinematic grandeur, once upon a time.” — Time Out New York
“Killers burst into a puppet theater looking for Robert De Niro, who’s actually zoning out in a Chinatown opium den — and a phone starts ringing — bullet-ridden corpses are laid out on a rain-splashed street, De Niro slinks out of a speakeasy to make a call — the phone keeps ringing — and as a hand reaches out to pick up a receiver, the ringing suddenly stops. That’s just the opening of Sergio Leone’s gangster epic with De Niro and James Woods: growing up poor, bootlegging in the ‘30s, and De Niro decades later, heavy with regret, intercut via flashbacks and flash-forwards — or is it all just an opium dream? Famously shorn of 90 minutes upon its original U.S. release, this is one of the most complex works of popular (or any other) cinema, yet Leone’s hypnotic style and lavish production values make it a puzzle that’s got to be solved.” – Film Forum. DCP restoration of European cut!
Dir. Sergio Leone, 1984, DCP, 227 min.
Watch the trailer for “Once Upon A Time In America”!
HEAVY MIDNITES: Turtle Power Pizza Party (feat. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & The Secret of The Ooze)
It’s time to get totally tubular with our favorite turtles: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo. Aside from a blissful mutual affection for nunchucks and sewer grates, we’ve got something else in common with the world’s most fearless fighting teens — for the heroes in a half-shell share our insatiable love for the food of the gods: PIZZA! Prepare to get blazingly radical with two big-screen slices of ‘90s nostalgia, plus a nearly endless celebration of our favorite food group.
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES – 10:00pm
By 1990, the legend of these subterranean vigilantes could no longer be contained in comic books, cartoon shows or action figures. These masked crime fighters were headed for the big screen to kick some serious butt, in turtle suits designed by the magicians at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. When four sewer-discarded turtles are exposed to a mysterious mutagen, they grow into lean, green, pizza-eating machines, tutored in the ancient art of Ninjitsu and set loose on the mean streets of New York City. Partnering with news reporter/fashion icon April O’Neil and badass Casey Jones (Atom Egoyan favorite Elias Koteas!), our lovable heroes must stop a city-wide crime wave to rescue their mentor from the evil grasps of the villainous Master Shredder and his lethal Foot Clan.
Dir. Steve Barron, 1990, 35mm, 93 min.
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES II: THE SECRET OF THE OOZE
Go ninja, go ninja, go! The pepperoni-scarfing foursome returns in an even more pizza-obsessed adventure — and this time they’re after the glowing canister that started it all. Aided by their bodacious new bud Keno (Surf Ninjas’ Ernie Reyes, Jr.), the turtles must dive into action to defeat the evil Shredder and his devious Foot Clan once and for all. Powered by a pulse-pounding soundtrack (preaching world peace, staying in school, environmentalism and other hot-button subjects of the era), the green guys are coming out of their shells, cracking heads while cranking up the comedic banter (and their dance moves) as the film quickly propels our heroes to an all-out battle for mutant supremacy. Prepare to be shell-shocked; this is the one with Vanilla Ice freestyling his classic Ninja Rap!
Dir. Michael Pressman, 1991, 88 min.
Watch the trailer for “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”!
Watch the trailer for “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze”!
GREG PROOPS FILM CLUB: Le Samourai (rare 35mm print!)
Full description coming soon…
Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville, 1972, 35mm, 105 min.
Q: Does Greg talk over the movies, like the Doug Benson Movie Interruption?
A: No. It is a recording of his podcast, followed by a screening of the film.
Watch the trailer for “Le Samourai”!
DRESS UP: Wonderwall (extremely rare 35mm print!)
Description coming soon…
Wonderwall Dir. Joe Massot, 1968, 35mm, 92 min.
Reflections On Love Dir. Joe Massot, 1966, digital presentation, 14 min.
Watch the trailer for “Wonderwall”!
HEAVY MIDNITES: Eraserhead
David Lynch’s infamous debut mindscraper is the full embodiment of pure cinema, and, thirty-five years later, has lost none of its primal power to shock, amaze and engage. A key player in the original midnight movie revolution of the Seventies, and one of those rare films that truly deserves its cult status, Eraserhead is horrifyingly original: a nightmarish landscape where stunning B&W cinematography, groundbreaking industrial sound design and a singular hallucinatory vision — one brimming with images of bodily assault and decay, sexual revulsion and unidentifiable mechanical constructions — all melt into a glorious subconscious abyss. Which is to say the film’s completely badass, a landmark jawdropper in the realm of the weird ‘n wild. A surprisingly thorough primer in the visual motifs that would come to dominate both Lynch’s later film and television work, Eraserhead is a must-see touchstone for all cinematic explorers, and is midnight viewing of the absolute highest importance.
Dir. David Lynch, 1977, 85 min.
Watch the trailer for “Eraserhead!”
FRIDAY NIGHT FRIGHTS: The Incredible Melting Man (Blu-Ray release party!)
PRESENTED BY SCREAM FACTORY
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.
Watch the trailer for “The Incredible Melting Man”!
THE SILENT TREATMENT: Louise Brooks in "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.
FRIDAY NIGHT FRIGHTS: 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.
Watch the original freaky-deaky teaser trailer for “Magic”!
