<<< July & August 2007 >>>

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Thursday, July 5 – 7:30 PM

Summer Shark Attack!

JAWS, 1975, Universal, 124 min. Director Steven Spielberg rocketed to the head of the class with this terrific mixture of suspense, humor and modern Americana, based on the Peter Benchley best-seller. Roy Scheider is excellent as a New England sheriff confronting crowds of sunbathers, self-serving local politicians and -- most importantly -- a monstrous Great White Shark over a July 4^th weekend. With Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss.

Wednesday, July 18 – 7:30 PM

Kevin Thomas' Favorite – Bastille Day Celebration:
GRAND ILLUSION (LA GRANDE ILLUSION), 1937, Rialto Pictures, 114 min. Dir. Jean Renoir. Along with Jean Renoir's RULES OF THE GAME (1939), his GRAND ILLUSION, this has become a staple of all-time great film lists. With his usual deceptive simplicity, Renoir introduces us to a group of French officers who have been taken prisoner during World War I. They include an aristocratic career officer (the dashing Pierre Fresnay), and two lieutenants: Jean Gabin, the eternal Everyman of the French cinema, and Marcel Dalio, a witty Jew unashamed of his nouveau riche background. Like RULES OF THE GAME, GRAND ILLUSION is at once an elegant farewell to Europe’s ancient aristocracy and a profound warning against another world war that Renoir surely sensed was inevitable. Both films have a tremendous sensitivity to class, which in a lesser artist might have lapsed into mere elitism, or at the other extreme, sentimentality. At the core of the film is the friendship that the German commandant (Erich von Stroheim, the very definition of noblesse oblige) extends to Fresnay. - Kevin Thomas. Film critic Kevin Thomas will introduce the screening.

July 19 - 22

At the Aero Theatre for four days, THE chance for the west side to dive into the latest surrealistic-experimental David Lynch feature film! Independently produced and distributed, David Lynch had full control over his artistic choices and took two-and-a-half years to complete his vision. The film was shot entirely in digital video and transferred to film.

INLAND EMPIRE, 2006, 518 MEDIA INC, 172 min. Dir. David Lynch. "A Story of a mystery...A mystery inside worlds within worlds...Unfolding around a woman...A woman in love and in trouble." After taking the lead in a film directed by Kingsley (Jeremy Irons), Hollywood star Nikki Grace (an intense performance by Laura Dern) learns the script is based on an old Polish film in which the two leading performers were murdered. Falling for her co-star Devon (Justin Theroux), she realizes that her life is beginning to mimic the fictional film, and Nikki's imagination runs riot. But this aforementioned plot description is only one interpretation of many of this cinematic Rubik’s Cube. And what do those soap opera segments with the giant rabbits (voiced by Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Scott Coffey) really mean? With Harry Dean Stanton, Laura Harring, Grace Zabriskie, Diane Ladd, with special appearances by Nastassja Kinski, William H. Macy and Ben Harper.

"The great eroto-surrealist David Lynch has gone truffling for another imaginary orifice of pleasure, with results that are fascinating, sometimes very unwholesome, and always enjoyable". -- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian UK

"INLAND EMPIRE opens and contracts in your imagination while you watch it -- and you're still watching it well after it's left the screen." -- Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com

"It's an experience. Either you give yourself over to it or you don't. And if you do, don't miss the end credits." -- J. Hoberman Village Voice

INLAND EMPIRE, 2006, 518 MEDIA INC, 172 min. Dir. David Lynch. Discussion following with guest to be announced. [See description July 19 – Aero]

INLAND EMPIRE, 2006, 518 MEDIA INC, 172 min. Dir. David Lynch. Discussion following with guest to be announced. [See description July 19 – Aero]

Sunday, July 22 – 7:30 PM

Last Chance! INLAND EMPIRE, 2006, 518 MEDIA INC, 172 min. Dir. David Lynch. Discussion following with guest to be announced. [See description July 19 – Aero]

Thursday, July 26 – 7:30 PM

Special 25^th Anniversary!

FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, 1982, Universal, 92 min. A raunchy and painfully-funny look at Southern California high school students by director Amy Heckerling (CLUELESS). Writer Cameron Crowe (ALMOST FAMOUS) adapts his own semi-autobiographical book. A strange launching pad for three future Academy Award-winning Best Actors Forest Whitaker, Nicholas Cage, and Sean Penn (in a career-making turn as pothead surfer, Jeff Spicoli). Also starring Jennifer Jason Leigh in her first major role, as a vulnerable teenager anxious about losing her virginity. A truly iconic film from the hilarious rogues’ gallery of regular guys (Judge Reinhold), teen-queens (Phoebe Cates), hustlers (Robert Romanus) and stoners. Also featuring Eric Stolz, Anthony Edwards, the original Sherman Oaks Galleria (where the species known as The Valley Girl was born), Santa Monica Place and the immortal Ray Walston as Mr. Hand. Classic soundtrack music by Tom Petty, Joe Walsh, The Cars, Led Zeppelin and more. Guest to be Announced.

Tuesday, August 14 – 7:30 PM

Geek Monthly Sneak Preview!

SUPERBAD, 2007, Sony Pictures, min. The highly anticipated High School comedy of this summer, from producers Judd Apatow and Shauna Robertson (THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN), screenwriters Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogen ("Da Ali G Show"), and director Greg Mottola ("Arrested Development"). Two co-dependent, socially inept high school seniors are forced to deal with separation anxiety after their plan to stage a booze-soaked party goes awry. Evan (Michael Cera) is sweet, smart, and generally terrified, Seth (Jonah Hill) is foul-mouthed, volatile, and all-consumed with the topic of human sexuality. Discussion following with cast and crew, guests to be announced.

ART DIRECTORS GUILD HALL OF FAME

Born in Budapest and originally an art student in Paris, Alexandre Trauner (1906-1993) was invited to Hollywood by director Billy Wilder to work on THE APARTMENT (1960) for which he won an Academy Award. His career as a production designer began in the late 1920’s as assistant to Lazare Meerson. Meerson was the creator of "poetic realism," a cinematic style of art direction using studio sets over real locations and a metaphorical style, which mirrored character and action. Trauner was an advocate of this style throughout his career. Trauner (who was Jewish) went into hiding when the Nazis invaded France, but still worked uncredited on films. This is when he began his collaborations with Marcel Carne, a leading French director. He received an Academy Award nomination for THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (1975). Trauner won Cesar Awards for MONSIEUR KLEIN (1976), DON GIOVANNI (1979) and SUBWAY (1985), and received nominations for COUP DE TORCHON (1981), LA TRUITE (1982), TCHAO PANTIN (1983) and ’ROUND MIDNIGHT (1986). Trauner was inducted into the ADG Hall of Fame in 2006.

’ROUND MIDNIGHT (AUTOUR DE MINUIT), 1986, Warner Bros., 131 minutes. Director Bertrand Tavernier’s love letter to American jazz is not only one of the best films of the 1980’s but one of the greatest movies ever made about the life of a musician. Real-life jazz legend Dexter Gordon plays a black American saxophonist who lives and works in Paris in the 1950’s; there he befriends a French fan who tries to protect him from his own self-destructive tendencies. The relationship is loosely based on that of Bud Powell and Lester Young, but the storyline is really just an excuse for Tavernier to celebrate one of the greatest musical genres ever invented: Oscar-winning composer Herbie Hancock and other participants provide one stunning piece of jazz after another, and Tavernier gets under the skin of musicians’ rituals and sacrifices like no director before or since. The movie covers a lot of subjects including culture, race, and friendship, but ultimately it’s all about the music. No one loves American cinema or American jazz more than the French, and Tavernier proves it in this masterpiece that represents both art forms at their highest level. Discussioin following film about the career of Alexandre Trauner.