Cahiers2Cinéma: LA's Ye Old 35mm Film Screenings o' the Week

Here's what's playing in LA theaters on sweet-ass 35mm... (mostly!)

This is just what's on my personal radar. But, wait, you say, could there be even cooler stuff?
Maybe. Just browse the LA Film Calendars links on my side bar for yourself. → → →

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

New Beverly
The War of the Gargantuans (1966, Ishiro Honda)
and
Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965, Ishiro Honda)
Fri (tonight) and Sat. Sept 2 7:30pm/9:30pm
We're really in mega-fanboy territory here, but it's in 35mm (and second film is in 16mm), a joy to behold with an appreciative crowd. Russ Tamblyn's in the first one, so kind of fun. From the director of the original Godzilla (Gojira) (1954).
NEW BEVERLY LINK

CINECON (held at Egyptian Theatre)
A Plethora of Ultra-rare Silent/Sound Screenings
Fri (today) - Mon Sept 4
9:00 am - Midnight
all day long each day (Except Monday ends early around 8pm)
CINECON continues! The fanfare actually started Thursday, so you missed just a tad, but continues all this Labor Day weekend as it does every year. (This takes place at the Egyptian but is a separate entity).

This is on my radar, but be warned, this is strictly a power-nerd outing for people who like really old extremely rare films that no one has shown on TCM or perhaps even anywhere since they came out, including at least 40% to 50% super-rare silent films.

Often the films suck. Sometimes there's gems. I mean, among many others, they're showing a super-rare Lon Chaney film from 1914, a 1920 silent with Constance Talmadge (She's great! A big silent film star no one knows), a 1926 silent western starring "Hoot" Gibson, plus Josef von Sternberg's rare (although very occasionally shown) The Salvation Hunters from 1925.

Plus if you like 35mm, have you heard of nitrate? The far-higher-in-silver-content version of 35mm that existed in cinema's classic era (and is extremely flammable so it's hard to preserve, and only very reputable theaters can screen it due to FIRE risk!), which glistens on the screen because of the extra silver? So, yeah, they have a special nitrate night as well.

It's nothing short of amazing—well, for the truly nerdy.

Are these films good? Not necessarily!
Are they rare? Yes!
Get the picture?

It's a treasure chest of humanity's industrial entertainment of a bygone era.
People even fly in from out of town to see this.

You'll see individual silent feature films (some shorts) from these years:
1914
1917
1918
1920 (two films)
1923 (two films)
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929

That's 13 silent films, plus some additional shorts.

There are even excellent dealer rooms over at the Loews Hollywood Hotel full of nerdy super-old film memorabilia. I've been before, it's fun.

If you don't go whole hog with the full festival pass, the smallest thing you can buy is a day pass.

Seriously, this is well worth a dabble for at least one day to see where the darkest, dustiest cabinets of cinephilia reach, and who lives there. This is where the bottom of the cinephile well is, and where I used to live. So see what my life was like.
CINECON LINK TO SCHEDULE
CINECON LINK TO PASS INFO
(Passes at door also very easily. Link has day pass info at bottom. Day pass is the least you can buy.)

Constance Talmadge

LACMA
The Red Shoes (1948, Powell & Pressburger)
Sat. Sept 2 2:00pm
Here's a special screening (special because they rarely show stuff ) of the great classic The Red Shoes. In a theater on 35mm? Worth it. This is the film that had basically the first musical sequence of a backstage musical to "pretend" the dance sequences were no longer stagebound, which Gene Kelly apparently saw and was inspired by for, you know, Singing in the Rain. The mad quest for art in this one is truly inspiring.
LACMA LINK

New Beverly
Alligator (1980, Lewis Teague) Robert Forster in person
and
Jackie Brown (1997, Quentin Tarantino)
Tues Sept. 5 7:30pm/9:30pm
Grindhouse night? How about Grindhouse month? Everything is Grindouse with double features in honor of the 20th anniversary of Jackie Brown paired with choice Grindhouse-type selections. So here we have both starring Robert Forster (appearing in person!). There are a plethora of great pairings with Jackie, check them all out at the site. I mean, it's hard to pick the best one. Both these in 35mm, of course!
NEW BEVERLY LINK

New Beverly
Jackie Brown (1997, Quentin Tarantino)
and
Junior Bonner (1972, Sam Peckinpah)
Wed Sept 6 7:30pm/10:35pm
Well, okay another one really grabs my attention because here you get to see a Sam Peckinpah film in 35mm along with Jackie Brown. I literally forgot this was a Sam Peckinpah film, and maybe it's because this is an off-the-beaten path film for Peckinpah? I can't recall actually, is it really bad, or did I not see it? Well, time to rectify that! Because the director of The Wild Bunch and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia with yet another Steve McQueen vehicle shown properly in 35mm along with the Tarantino film is not to be trifled with!
NEW BEVERLY LINK

New Beverly
Strangers on a Train (1951, Alfred Hitchcock)
Wed Sept 6 2:00pm
This is intriguing: This week the New Beverly starts showing major Hitchcock classics in 35mm at 2:00 PM on Wednesdays. Why? No idea. (Retiree crowd?) So if you're a loser with no job (or a lovely nice retired person), you'll feel happy. (In future weeks: Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Rebecca.)
NEW BEVERLY LINK

Aero Theatre
2001: A Space Odyssey (that Kubrick guy) in 70mm
Sept. 1 7:30pm
This was actually shot in 70mm. They're showing it in 70mm. 'Nuff said. Kind of a weird movie though, right?!
AERO THEATRE LINK

The Academy (AMPAS)
To Sleep with Anger (1990, Charles Burnett)
Thur Sept 7 7:30pm
The Academy (as in the Oscars) has a stupendous theater on Wilshire Blvd (and very low ticket prices) that I've been eager to highlight as soon as they show something. Not quite yet, but they finally have something at their equally extravagant theater, the Linwood Dunn Theater (inside the Mary Pickford Center) on Vine just by the Arclight. So here they are showing Charles Burnett's To Sleep with Anger (1990) starring Danny Glover, along with a lecture on Charles Burnett's cinematic oeuvre from a film scholar. It's currently sold out, but there will be a stand-by line with numbers given out starting at approximately 5:30 pm, they say.
THE ACADEMY LINK

Aero Theatre
The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola)
and
The Godfather Part II (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)
Sat Sept 2 7:30pm
Why? You've probably seen it on TV. That's not right! See it on the big screen. And both at once! This is a cinematic joy overload. This is going to be a far superior way to see this on Aero's nice big screen. (This screening DCP.)
AERO THEATRE LINK

Aero Theatre
Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003, Thom Anderson) Director in person
Sun Sept 3 7:30pm
Well, this is on my radar because I still haven't seen it! Shame on me. He's actually re-edited this, it's even longer, so go see it! It's basically a film comprised of a pictorial history of Los Angeles told through so many of the movies shot here. Although I clearly can't state that accurately, since, again, I'm the idiot who hasn't seen it.
AERO THEATRE LINK

New Beverly
Demons (1985, Lamberto Bava)
and
Anguish (1987, Bigas Luna)
Sat Sept 2 midnight (11:59pm)
Bigas Luna has always made interesting films (like Golden Balls (1993) starring Javier Bardem), and I never saw a horror film by him yet. Demons also sounds cool, even if not directed by Dario Argento (just presented by). Bit late-night, but for the adventurous, this should be a pretty damn cool screening, both in 35mm!
NEW BEVERLY LINK

Aero Theatre
One Day You'll Understand (2008, Amos Gitai)
Thur Sept. 7 7:30pm
This film kicks off a week of Jeanne Moreau tribute screenings at the Aero. And it's in 35mm. Great start! Of this film, Aero says:

"In 1987, as the trial of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie unfolds on television, French businessman Victor Bastien (Hippolyte Girardot) finds a distressing 'Aryan declaration' authored by his late father among family documents. His mother, Rivka (the legendary Jeanne Moreau), keeps a stubborn silence."

AERO THEATRE LINK

Eye on the Future
The New Beverly Hitchcock Wednesdays matinee series continues with Rear Window (1954) Sept. 13 and one more Jackie Brown pairing catches my eye, which is Sheba, Baby (1975, William Girdler) with Jackie Brown on Fri Sept 8 (6:30pm/8:30pm). Oh, great, they also have Coffy (1973, Jack Hill) with Jackie Brown Sept 9, how are we to choose?!? I guess just see Jackie Brown 11 times. Lastly, they're bringing back the original Grindhouse (Planet Terror and Death Proof) starting Sun Sept 10 and playing all that week.

The Egyptian has a sweet double feature of The Barefoot Contessa (1954, Joseph L. Mankiewicz) w/Ava Gardner and Humphrey Bogart with The Killers (1946, Robert Siodmak) w/Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster Sunday Sept 10. The Barefoot Contessa rarely gets enough love, so I think in 35mm (which both these are) on the big screen will really bring its magic to light, you won't regret it. Plus you get one nice Technicolor film and one black and white film noir. Nice!

The amazing Jeanne Moreau tribute continues at the Aero Theatre with an incredible double feature of La Notte (1961, Michelangelo Antonioni) and Diary of a Chambermaid (1964, Luis Buñuel) on Friday Sept 8 (this screening DCP), then it's Jules et Jim (1962, François Truffaut) and Bay of Angels (1963, Jacques Demy) on Saturday Sept 9 (DCP screening) and more.

Plus Aero also has The Shining (1980, Stanley Kubrick) on Thur Sept 14 (DCP screening).

The Old Town Music Hall will be back on my radar yet again with their super Laurel & Hardy Festival, a regular tradition there Sept 8-10, usually mixing their brilliant lesser-seen silent short films with their brilliant sound short films. Rarely have I had as much fun as at this Old Town Music Hall tradition.

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