Friday, September 22, 2017

What's Playing in LA on 35mm (or sometimes not)


Here's what’s playing in LA on 35mm (or sometimes not) that’s worth watching, my list!

This is just what's on my personal radar. Browse the LA Film Calendars links on my side bar to find even more! → → →

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As usual, a couple of these choices are tonight, FYI, and not necessarily listed first.


REDCAT w/Los Angeles Film Forum
Dreams of Suitcases and a Blue Lobster
Fri (tonight) Sept 22 7:00 pm
Tonight begins a really unique film series, the first night of which I think is a real eye-catcher: REDCAT (near the Walt Disney Concert Hall) and Los Angeles Film Forum launches Ism Ism Ism: Experimental Cinema in Latin America "an ambitious, five-month film series —the first in the U.S.—that surveys Latin America’s vibrant experimental production from the 1930s to today."  This opening night program is entitled Dreams of Suitcases and a Blue Lobster, an evening of surrealist-influenced shorts from the '30s to the '60s, including one by Raúl Ruiz, plus a film co-directed by Gabriel García Márquez! If you've never gone out to a theater to see an experimental film, it’s fun, expand your mind.

LOS ANGELES FILM FORUM (at MOCA Ahmanson Auditorium)
Raúl Ruiz: Anthropology’s Trembling Images
Thur Sept 28 7:00 pm
Again part of Ism, Ism, Ism: Experimental Cinema in Latin America, this is a screening of rare little known and short gauge films by master filmmaker Raúl Ruiz paired with some of his contemporaries. Such as, below, "The Film To Come" (1997, Raúl Ruiz) (Mostly digital.)
 
REDCAT w/Los Angeles Film Forum
Countercultures and Undergrounds
Sun Sept. 24 6:00 pm
A program spotlighting three significant Latin American experimental filmmakers, including a co-writer of I Am Cuba. This one features a short that the entire five-month program is named after, so I think we have to see it, right? That’s “Ismism” (1979) a short film by Manuel DeLanda, shot on Super 8 film. But all films are “presented as a digital file” Not sure what that means..! But not film, oh, well, very rare stuff.

REDCAT w/Los Angeles Film Forum
Dialogues with Che
Sun Sept 24 8:30pm
About that Che (the only one, right?), it sounds like several films deconstructing iconography and photos in a manner that perhaps has similarities to Godard/Gorin's Letter to Jane

UCLA FILM & TV ARCHIVE
Enamorada (1946, Emilio Fernández)
Sat Sept. 23 7:30 pm
UCLA is featuring three very early films from Mexico in 35mm, beginning Saturday with this pretty famous (and I think very entertaining?) one, starring María Félix in 35mm!

UCLA FILM & TV ARCHIVE
Santa (1932, Antonio Moreno)
and
La mujer del puerto (The Woman of the Port) (1934, Arcady Boytler, Raphael J. Sevilla)
Sun Sept 24 7:00 pm
Plus more from Mexico in 35mm (with English subtitles). These are a great rare screening opportunity. But are they like great films? Hard to say until I go see. But definitely cultural touchstones. There's a few more screenings I haven't listed here (in DCP) but check out their site.



EGYPTIAN
The Red Shoes (1948, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)
Fri (tonight) Sept 22 7:30pm
Yes, it's Powell & Pressburger's masterpiece The Red Shoes (1948), which profoundly influenced Gene Kelly's Singing in the Rain and the entire evolution of musicals, in 35mm and restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Wow! I think I read Christopher Nolan is now attending to intro it and so it may have sold it out, but I don’t know maybe you’ll get lucky.

EGYPTIAN
Pather Panchali (1955, Satyajit Ray)
Aparajito (1956, Satyajit Ray)
Apur Sansar (1958, Satyajit Ray)
Sun Sept 24 5:00 pm
The entire Apu Trilogy (by Satyajit Ray) in one sitting? Maybe too much, but all prints newly restored 35mm, wow. Great format to see a landmark work in.

NEW BEVERLY
Machine Gun McCain (1969, Giuliano Montaldo)
and
Wipeout! (aka The Boss) (1976, Fernando Di Leo)
Tue Sept 26 7:30pm/9:35pm
There’s still more choice grindhouse fare than you can shake a stick at, at the New Bev this week. Standing out for me is Machine Gun McCain since it’s starring John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands (!) in an I.B. Technicolor 35mm print (!). Wipeout! (aka The Boss) has (always glowering?) Henry Silva and Richard Conte. Together, this sounds like a completely awesome double feature.


NEW BEVERLY
Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971, Roger Vadim)
and
Revenge of the Cheerleaders (1976, Richard Lerner)
Mon Sept 25 7:30 pm/9:30 pm
I love the looks of this double feature, even though my friend warned me they're bad!


NEW BEVERLY
Rebecca (1940, Alfred Hitchcock)
Wed Sept 27 2:00pm
The New Bev’s Hitchcock 2:00 pm matinee Wednesdays continue with Rebecca in lovely 35mm. It's a Hitchcock film I haven't seen, so I should probably go see it in fricking 35mm!

UCLA FILM & TV ARCHIVE
Duck Soup (1933, Leo McCarey)
Sun Sept 24 at 11:00 am (free admission!)
Oh, just a little Marx Brothers film in 35mm, for free!

The Academy
Zoot Suit (1981, Luis Valdez)
Mon Sept 25 7:30 pm
This is a cultural landmark that kind of flew under the radar of most of America, starring a captivatingly insane Edward James Olmos and a stellar cast with big beautiful musical numbers. Learn a lot of L.A. Spanish lingo. Also, note the Academy’s theater and screen are just huge, it’s one of the best places to see a movie. And tickets are only $5! The old "coming to VHS" trailer below, although murky, I think gives some of the awesome flavor of this film.

REDCAT w/Los Angeles Film Forum
“Camera-Less” or “Direct” filmmaking
Sat Sept 23 7:00 pm
A survey of South American “Camera-Less” or “Direct” filmmaking, in which figures are painted, scratched, or inked directly onto film leader, should appeal to any Stan Brakhage fans out there. (I hope that's more than none?)
 
REDCAT w/Los Angeles Film Forum
Films of Willie Varela
Sat Sept 23 at 9:00 pm
Here they spotlight filmmaker Willie Varela, an El Paso-based Chicano media artist. Image below from "Becky's Eye" (1977).

Coming next week
Friday, Sept 29, the Beyond Fest starts. I don’t like anything there, and some things that are DCP (even if 4k restorations) I’d just rather see on film like they were shot on. And mainly I’m more into artsy than fangirl/fanboy, but you can check it out.

Sat. Sept 30 they'll have a lovely Lolita (1962, Stanley Kubrick)/Dr. Strangelove (1964, Stanley Kubrick) double feature (albeit DCP).

UCLA Film & TV Archive 
Two Spanish-language film releases of the 1930s (!) from Fox, something you maybe weren't aware of, in UCLA's continuing Latin American Cinema in Los Angeles series. 
¡Asegure a su mujer! (Insure Your Wife!) (1935, Lewis Seiler)
and 
Nada más que una mujer (1934, Harry Lachman)
Sun Oct 1 7:00 pm 
Both 35mm.

LACMA
Phantom of the Opera (1925, Rupert Julien)
Tue Oct. 3 1:00 pm
Silent film nerd alert! In 35mm. 'Nuff said. If you haven't seen something silent, maybe this is the one for you. If you've seen tons and seen this one before, maybe not the most lovable one to rewatch a bunch of times, but it has its audience... And I guess it's appropriate for October. 

Lolita

Dr. Strangelove



¡Asegure a su mujer! (Insure Your Wife!)



Nada más que una mujer  


Phantom of the Opera
 

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