Lots of good stuff the next couple of months at Coolidge and the MFA. Films I am interested in seeing...
Midnite
Future Animators Of The Future - Sat Oct 19 midnight
Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai
(Japan, 1954) dir. Akira Kurosawa, in Japanese w/subtitles, 3hr. 24min. w/intermission
Opens Fri Sept 13
New 35Mm Print! SEVEN SAMURAI is one of the most influential films of all time, from direct and indirect adaptations (THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN to A BUG'S LIFE); plot elements (bad guys deciding to aid the rebels, assembling the team for a hopeless mission); to editing techniques (slow motion action and pain)... but nothing can top the original. In 16th C. Japan, hungry ronin (samurai without masters) roam the countryside in search of jobs. Manic goofball Kikuchiyo (Mifune), has a burning desire to prove himself a samurai, so he bands together with six others to battle against 40 mounted thieves. The motives of these legendary seven are mixed: loyalty; the urge to swordfight; on-the-job training for an inexperienced rich boy. But they all end up at the same place - the site of some of the most hair-raising battles ever committed to film (the rain-drenched epic finale called for 6 pump trucks to provide the deluge), a graveyard for some, a coming-of-age for others. Kurosawa pulls out all the stops on his signature visuals; Mifune pulls out all the stops for his transformation from jester to hero.
Fritz Lang's Metropolis
(Germany, 1926) dir. Fritz Lang, 2hr. 4min.
75th Anniversary Presentation. New 35Mm Print!
Hot off it's sell-out two week run at the Brattle comes possibly the most famous and influential of all silent films. Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS has been seen only in a variety of truncated versions for nearly 75 years. This complete restoration by the Munich Film Archive brings us as close to the original release print as possible, and features the original orchestral score. With stunningly inventive special effects, Lang's allegorical narrative and architectural vision creates a highly stylized vision of a not-so-unlikely future. In the 21st-Century, Metropolis is a luxurious city of mile-high skyscrapers, flying automobiles, and palatial architectural idylls. But as the elite frolic above the clouds, thousands of miserable workers toil night and day inside the belly of the gigantic machine that runs the entire city. But the workers have a champion in Maria, a wistful young woman who embraces patience and silent strength. When Freder, the son of the sinister authoritarian who runs Metropolis, falls in love with Maria and her ideals, he coerces a mad scientist to kidnap Maria and create an evil robot in her image. As Freder races against time to save Maria, Metropolis is enveloped in chaos and the classes are brought together in a breathtaking and highly moralistic climax.
Spirited Away
Opens Fri Sep 20
(Japan, 2001) dir. Hayao Miyazaki, animated, 2hrs. 5min.
From the director of PRINCESS MONONOKE comes Japan's biggest ever box
office success: SPIRITED AWAY, a delightfully inventive
Alice-in-Wonderland fable like only master animator Hayao Miyazaki could
imagine. There is a world that exists alongside that of humans, and yet
remains undiscovered. It is a world of gods and lesser gods, goblins and
ogres, where a mysterious hot springs invites mystical demons to heal
all manner of ailments - big and small. This world is no place for
humans, and yet, when ten-year-old Chihiro's parents become enchanted,
she suddenly finds herself in this fantastic, incredible, and
frightening place. Chihiro's presence is only tolerated on two
conditions: one, she must work for a mean witch named Yubaba who rules
the great thermal baths. And two, she must give up her name and, hence,
being human. With his usual blend of whimsicality, smooth poetry, and
spiritual depth Miyazaki presents a film that he describes as "not so
much a story in which the characters grow up, as a story in which they
draw on something already inside them. I want my young friends to live
like that, and I think they, too, have such a wish... "
Future Animators Of The Future
Sat Oct 19 midnight
(encore matinee: Sunday, Oct 20 at 3:00pm) The Future Animators of the Future present their 3rd festival of video and animation. Charged with strange sensibilities and often disturbing humor, this is a one-of-a-kind show that promises to entertain - or maybe just offend. Features over 20 new shorts from around the world, including three from the Brothers Chap, an all new version of The Nuclear Strikes, and of course the legendary works of the FAF boys: Public Display Agency, Correcto Incorrecto, and a return of the marshmallow bunnies in the epic Bunnies 2. Every show is a unique experience with great shorts that will not be repeated, and live bits that may not bear repeating. It's a rare opportunity to see fresh independent work that you may have never seen before, or will ever see again.
www.fafcom.com/
Catching Out
Opens Fri Oct 4
(US, 2002) dir. Sarah George, documentary, 1hr. 19min.
The phrase "catching out" describes the act of hopping a freight train. In the documentary film CATCHING OUT, the journey continues, exploring the unconventional terrain of an American sub-culture. A seasoned eco-activist, a young punk nomad, and a tramp couple named Switch and Baby Girl, are featured in three interwoven stories of contemporary trainhopping. As they navigate the seemingly limitless opportunities of the open rails, they must also confront the tension between individual freedom and social conformity. Filmmaker Sarah George combines the thoughts and motives of these modern hobos with passing scenery that floats and blurs across the horizon and a haunting score by Pete Droge, in a way that not only captures a lifestyle, but makes you feel like you're "catching out" right along with them.
Home page
Ciao! Manhattan
Opens Fri Oct 11
(US, 1972) dir. John Palmer, David Weisman, w/Edie Sedgwick, Paul America, Viva, Brigid Berlin, Baby Jane Holzer, Roger Vadim, Allen Ginsberg 1hr. 24min.
"The 'Citizen Kane' of the Drug Generation." - Village Voice Speed. Madness. Flying Saucers. Here is an unsettling peek at the final drugged-out days of Edie Sedgwick. Heiress, fashion icon and Andy Warhol's Factory muse, Sedgwick was the ultimate Superstar of New York's Silver Sixties, and the subject of Bob Dylan's song "Just Like A Woman." Shot over the last four years of her life, CIAO! MANHATTAN is a cinema verite document masked in a "fictional" narrative that follows Edie's journey from the height of being New York's "It Girl" into a drug-ridden haze of delusion. Though Edie required psychiatric permission to finish her role (certain scenes were filmed on location at the mental hospital in California where she received electric shock treatment), it was at her insistence that the film be completed. CIAO! MANHATTAN parallels Edie's glory days, her inevitable downfall and the tragic addiction that would take her life only weeks after filming wrapped. The film serves as a bold and vivid examination of both her eccentric lifestyle and her enduring legacy, and is an incredibly haunting look at the utterly captivating Edie, whose tragic rise and fall embodies the transition of American culture from the fabulous free-love era of the late '60s to the devastating disillusionment of the early '70s. The film also features Warhol Factory luminaries Paul America,Viva, Brigid Berlin, and Baby Jane Holzer; as well as cameos by French directors Roger Vadim & Christian Marquand and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg.