Friday, October 27, 2017

Superb 35mm LA Film Screening o’ the Week


Here’s what's in store for LA 35mm film screening lovers this week. A lot 35mm and some regular digital.

This is just what's on my personal radar. So browse the LA Film Calendars links on my side bar to find even more!  → → →
(In particular, you may want to note the Taiwanese spotlight at UCLA.)

On mobile displays, you may need to click "Desktop Version" at bottom and then you can see the sidebar.

Sometimes these choices are tonight, FYI, and not necessarily listed first.

New Beverly
Repulsion (1965, Roman Polanski)
and
The Tenant (1976, Roman Polanski)
Tue. Oct. 31 7:30 pm/9:45 pm
A double dose of actual “quality” horror films. More psychological in both cases, and directed by a deft hand at cinema rather than being pure grindhouse. Repulsion is Catherine Deneuve alone with her thoughts and not handling them too well (seeing things?!) and The Tenant is great, kind of overlooked, pretty dark, twisted tale with Polanski himself starring in it with the lovely Isabelle Adjani. I think he's the creepy-ass tenant 'cause it wouldn't be Adjani.


New Beverly
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, Tobe Hooper)
and
Eaten Alive (1976, Tobe Hooper)
Fri. (tonight!) Oct. 27 7:30 pm/9:25 pm
Sat. Oct. 28 7:30 pm/9:25 pm
Great way to see this in 35mm and pay tribute to recently deceased Tobe Hooper. This is on my radar because I haven’t seen the first, quite famous one. The second sounds like a great twofer of exposure to this director of my least favorite genre, but maybe I’ll give it a go.


UCLA Film & TV Archive
Still Walking (2008, Kore-eda Hirokazu)  Kore-eda Hirokazu in person
Fri. (tonight!) Oct. 27 7:30 pm
Kore-eda Hirokazu is a very interesting filmmaker who has carved out a modest spot in the art film director world, periodically playing Cannes and having a smattering of international awards, and this is one of his older good ones. Check it out, plus he’s in person. And it’s 35mm!

UCLA Film & TV Archive
Maborosi (1995, Kore-eda Hirozaku) Kore-eda Hirozaku in person!
Sat. Oct. 28 7:30 pm
Wait there’s another Hirozaku film with him in person! This one might be even better, I remember this one from a while back. Again this is in 35mm, and this is that arthouse director of some note from Korea. Check him out!

UCLA Film & TV Archive
Air Doll (2009, Kore-eda Hirozaku)
Sun. Oct. 29 7:00 pm
I’ll let their description sell this one:
“Unlike anything else in Kore-eda’s filmography, this story of an inflatable sex doll that comes to life in the middle of Tokyo strikes a whimsical tone that renders its reflections on loneliness, love, the movies and what it really means to be human all the more bittersweet.”
Sounds goooood. Plus in 35mm!

New Beverly
The Invisible Man Returns (1940, Joe May)
and
Invisible Agent (1942, Edwin L. Marin)
Mon. Oct. 30 7:30 pm/9:20 pm
Nothing I like more than the curiosity of obscure sequels to some very famous originals. Here we get a double dose of the continuing story of the Invisible Man, now taken over by Vincent Price (from Claude Rains). Interestingly directed by Joe May of German silent films such as Asphalt (1929). The second film has no Vincent Price, but has a World War II propaganda angle, using the invisible man technology, so might be pretty cool (or pretty awful!).


Downtown Independent
La Virgen de la Caridad (1930, Ramón Peón)
and
Casta de roble (1954, Manolo Alonso)
Fri. (tonight!) Oct. 27 7:30 pm
While this just played last week at UCLA, it’s silent film nerd alert again! Wow, a 1930 silent film from Cuba with live musical accompaniment, in 35 mm. Should be unique, definitely rare. The site says:
“This Cuban silent film was highly praised and extremely popular at the time of its release, because of its socially critical view of the plight of peasants, and its religious themes.”

On the second film, the site says:
“A young peasant girl… has a baby by the master of the plantation, which is taken away from her. She marries and has another son, but the loss of the child has scarred her for life. Shot mostly on location in Pinar del Rio, Cuba…”
The difference in location is the downtown screenings are part of showing them in (or near) the original LA venues they played in way back when. Both in 35mm!


Egyptian Theatre
Godzilla: The Japanese Original (1954, Ishiro Honda)
And
The H-Man (1958, Ishiro Honda)
Fri. (tonight!) Oct. 27 7:30 pm
It’s Godzilla without the Raymond Burr American scenes, all in Japanese with English subtitles. H-Man is a gangster film: “genre-blending sci-fi thriller is a mix of detectives, hoods, radioactive goblins and atomic paranoia.” Sounds like The World’s End? I can’t honestly say I recommend this, as I don’t know anything about it. But H-Man is in 35mm, and Godzilla is a nerd-culture phenomenon to maybe check out. (Godzilla is DCP).



Egyptian Theatre
Ghostbusters (1984, Ivan Reitman)
Sun. Oct. 29 7:30 pm
In 70mm. Probably worse ways to spend your Sunday.

Aero Theatre
All-Night Horrorthon
Sat. Oct. 28 7:30 pm
You horror nerds can knock yourselves out with another all-night horror marathon. Happily the screening format is 35mm for all films except Death Bed: The Bed That Eats. So that’s a lot of awesome 35mm. Films include An American Werewolf in London (1981, John Landis), Popcorn ( 1991, Mark Herrier), The Tingler (1959, William Castle), Hack-O-Lantern (1988, Jag Mundhra), Shocker (1989, Wes Craven), Brainscan (1994, John Flynn). Plus the 40th anniversary of Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977, George Barry), which sounds interesting:
“After a woman dies on a bed while making love to a demon, the bed comes to life with a hunger for human victims (including the film’s narrator, an artist trapped in a painting). Whatever you do, don’t sleep through this surreal cult favorite!”

UCLA Film & TV Archive
El vampiro negro (1953, Román Viñoly Barreto)
and
Los tallos amargos (1956, Fernando Ayala)
Sat. Oct. 28 3:00 pm
An Argentinian version of Fritz Lang’s M (1931) as part of the ongoing Latin American Cinema in Los Angeles series spearheaded by UCLA. And nicely, both of these are on 35mm. The second is “a film noir tale of paranoia, shot in stark expressionist images” about a journalist who starts a fake journalism correspondence school (fake news?! How timely) but becomes suspicious of his business partner. The cinematography of the second film is highly acclaimed: It was included in the “Best Shot Films” list in American Cinematographer and was “long available only in substandard prints,” this is now finally a restored version by UCLA Film & Television Archive from the original negative found in a Buenos Aires home in late 2014! Both 35mm. Also Free Admission!



UCLA Film & TV Archive
Ahí está el detalle  (You’re Missing the Point) (1940, Juan Bustillo Oro)
and
Calabacitas tiernas (1949, Gilberto Martínez Solares)
Mon. Oct. 30 7:30 pm
This played recently at Downtown Independent, but West side denizens get a chance to see it at UCLA’s Billy Wilder Theater. Two from Mexico here, the first with Cantinflas apparently made him the most bankable star in Mexico, and the plot is apparently too convoluted for words, so it might be funny. Then in Calabacitas tiernas Tin-Tan puts on an international music show to alleviate financial woes. Both in 35mm!


LACMA
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954, Jack Arnold)
Tue. Oct. 31 1:00 pm
More 35mm horror classics at LACMA’s $4 matinees. Great deal for 35mm films if you like these old genre standards.

ACADEMY
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006, Guillermo del Toro)
Mon. Oct. 30 7:30 pm
In 35mm. This is an amazing huge theater run by the Academy and it’s only $5. Great place to see a movie.

Arclight Cinemas (Various)
"It's Alive!" -- film's favorite monsters terrorize the big screen
through Oct. 31
There was a pretty good selection here all month at various Arclights, but only three left!
ARCLIGHT LINK

Coming Next Week

Aero Theatre
Singing in the Rain (1952, Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen)
Sat. Nov. 4 7:30 pm
Oh, darn, it’s in DCP. Well, still great! Always enjoyed seeing a musical on the big screen at the Aero.

UCLA Film & TV Archive
Romance tropical (1934, Juan E. Viguié)
Sat. Nov. 4 7:30 pm
Puerto Rico’s first-ever sound film. More timely than ever, what a wondrous opportunity to go see a historic film from Puerto Rico on 35mm! “The film presents a parable of colonialist exploitation of third world peoples, ironically wrapped in an exotic adventure narrative.”

New Beverly
McQ (1974, John Sturges)
and
Brannigan (1975, Douglas Hickox)
Wed Nov. 8 7:30 pm and 9:50 pm
Thur Nov. 9 7:30 pm and 9:50 pm
This is kind of in the "movies I would never usually watch" category, but in 35mm, and at the super-fun New Beverly, I am interested to see these very late John Wayne movies I never took a gander at before. I guess this is his detective phase. Again, seen zero of those! Plus McQ is an I.B. Technicolor print. (Something which nerdy film people care about A LOT regarding the color process.)



NOTE: The Egyptian and Aero’s listings weren’t super updated and they perhaps may add more, so check their sites.

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