<<< February 2008 >>>

HERE IS ALWAYS SOMEWHERE ELSE, 2007, American Scenes/VPRO Television, 70 min. A superb documentary about the life and work of Dutch/Californian artist Bas Jan Ader, who in 1975 disappearred under mysterious circumstances at sea in the smallest boat to ever attempt an Atlantic crossing. As seen through the eyes of his fellow emigrant filmmaker Rene Daalder, the picture becomes a sweeping overview of the contemporary art world as well as an epic saga of the transformative powers of the ocean. Featuring artists Tacita Dean, Rodney Graham, Marcel Broodthaers, Ger van Elk, Charles Ray, Chris Burden, Fiona Tan, Pipilotti Rist and many others. Made in association with VPRO Television in Amsterdam and Boijmans van Beuningen Museum Rotterdam. Preceded by: various film shorts by Bas Jan Ader. Discussion following film with director Rene Daalder.

VICTOR VICTORIA, 1982, Warner Bros., 132 min. Dir. Blake Edwards. Oscar season is upon us so it is only appropriate to celebrate awards fever with a screening of seven-time Oscar-nominated musical VICTOR VICTORIA, winner for Best Original Song Score in 1982. It’s the 1930s in Paris, and singer Victoria Grant (Julie Andrews) finds herself struggling to make ends meet. In a moment of self-preservation, Victoria agrees to pose as a man impersonating a woman, taking on her friend and co-conspirator Toddy (Robert Preston) as her gay lover. But this perfect plan only goes so far when super straight Chicago gangster (James Garner) senses something is amiss when he starts falling for "Victor". Co-starring Leslie Ann Warren. Discussion with Leslie Ann Warren to follow.

Sunday, February 10 - 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
KPCC 89.3 FM’S ‘FILM WEEK’ OSCAR PREVIEW, 90 min. FilmWeek on AirTalk records its annual Academy Awards Preview in front of a live audience. Host Larry Mantle will be joined by FilmWeek critics Andy Klein, of CityBeat, Lael Loewenstein of Variety, Wade Major of boxoffice.com and CityBeat, Jean Oppenheimer of Village Voice Media, Claudia Puig of USA Today, Peter Rainer of the Christian Science Monitor, Henry Sheehan of HenrySheehan.com, and Charles Solomon, animation critic for amazon.com as they discuss their Oscar picks. The program will be broadcast on Friday, Feb. 22 on 89.3 KPCC-FM, Southern California Public Radio. Free to American Cinematheque Members. Show your card at the box office to obtain a ticket. Free tickets are not available online.

Wednesday, February 13 – 7:30 PM

Sneak Preview: DIARY OF THE DEAD, 2007, The Weinstein Company, 95 min. Shot over a short 23 day schedule, director George Romero bleeds new life into the DEAD franchise with this unnervingly realistic recreation of events, depicted as they unfold. Student filmmakers shooting their own horror movie are caught in the middle of the zombie invasion and turn their cameras on the reanimated corpses, documenting the sudden dire calamity that threatens to destroy civilization as we know it. A cast of unknowns adds to the realism. With Michelle Morgan, Joshua Close, Shawn Roberts, Amy Lalonde. "…one of the most daring, hypnotic and absolutely vital horror films of the past decade… Outlandish, expressionistic and absolutely, disorientingly alive, DIARY OF THE DEAD is the movie that Romero’s legion of cultists—this critic included—have been screaming for: a fascinating, almost art-house railing against a mad, mad world." – Chris Alexander, Fangoria Discussion following with director George Romero.

HELL ON WHEELS, 2007, CrashCam Films, 90 min. Dir. Bob Ray. The ass-kicking documentary film telling the story of a group of Texas women who band together to resurrect roller derby for the 21st Century. Emerging from the Austin music and arts scene, these women create a rock-and-roll-fueled version of all-girl roller derby that has spawned the derby craze that's sweeping the nation. Chronicling the creation of the first modern-era rollergirl league Bad Girl, Good Woman Productions (BGGW, later renamed as Texas Roller Derby / Lonestar Rollergirls) and the breakaway league the Texas Rollergirls. Filmed from the trenches, this documentary delivers the struggles and eventual success of the rollergirls as they construct a new sport and set forth to conquer the globe. "…the kind of twists, drama, cat fights and compound fractures that only happen in real life…the story is extremely compelling, sometimes laugh-out-loud outrageous and above all inspiring." Ain’t It Cool News Discussion following with director/cinematographer Bob Ray.

Tuesday, February 19 – 7:30 PM

Digital Restoration And DVD Premiere Screening!

THE LAST EMPEROR, 1987, 164 min. Director Bernardo Bertolucci’s ravishing, Oscar-winning epic of the life of Pu Yi (John Lone), from 3-year old emperor of China to humble Peking gardener. Literally a film about before -- and after -- the Revolution, LAST EMPEROR is an elegiac swan song to the end of one era, and the beginning of another. Winner of nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Art Direction. Co-starring Peter O’Toole. This will be a digital presentation from the new, Criterion Collection-produced high definition master of the original theatrical release of the film, supervised by the film's Academy Award-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. Discussion with actresses Joan Chen and Vivian Wu and producer Jeremy Thomas will follow the screening.

Thursday, February 21 – 7:30 PM

Special Screening – Director Mitsuo Kurotsuchi In-Person!

THE SAMURAI I LOVED (SEMISHIGURE), 2005, 131 min. Novelist Shuhei Fujisawa has had several of his emotionally complex samurai novels (including filmmaker Yoji Yamada’s THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI) translated to the screen. Here, director Mitsuo Kurotsuchi beautifully adapts Fujisawa’s saga of teenage samurai, Bunshiro (Somegoro Ichikawa), whose father (Ken Ogata, of VENGEANCE IS MINE) is embroiled in a political conspiracy that results in the patriarch’s forced ritual suicide. Banished from their farm home, Bunshiro and his mother end up residing in a hovel. But several years later, Bunshiro’s family is re-instated, and, in a surprise move, the clan leader appoints the young swordsman as the provincial magistrate. Complicating matters, Bunshiro discovers that his childhood sweetheart, Fuku (Yoshino Kimura), has been forced into becoming one of the lord’s concubines. Her accidental pregnancy by the nobleman will spur a profound, overlapping impact on Bunshiro and ignite a new plan to discredit the young man and his family. With Mieko Harada. Discussion following with director Mitsuo Kurotsuchi.

GONE WITH THE WIND, 1939, Warner Bros., 222 min. Dir. Victor Fleming. Coquettish, infuriating Southern vixen Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) only has eyes for sensitive Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) -- but wise-cracking hellraiser Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) is determined to win her heart, even if it takes surviving the burning of Atlanta, the destruction of Scarlett’s beloved Tara, and the overthrow of the Old South itself. Considered by many the high point of grand, Hollywood style filmmaking, and -- despite its sometimes questionable depiction of blacks during the Civil War - still one of the most irresistible American epics ever put on screen. Brilliantly mounted by producer David O. Selznick based on Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling novel, with an unforgettable score by Max Steiner. With Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel (the first African American to win an Academy Award), Thomas Mitchell, Butterfly McQueen, Evelyn Keyes. In addition to McDaniel, it also won Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actress (Vivien Leigh) and Screenwriter (Sidney Howard).

CULT CINEMA CLUB INAUGURATION – TWO GIALLO GEMS! (Approx. 175 min.)

Join us tonight for these inaugural screenings of The American Cinematheque’s Cult Cinema Club -- once-a-month double bills in our Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian. These cult films are almost impossible to see! We’ll be screening all movies on DVD, and the titles will usually not be revealed beforehand. We’ll describe the films, sometimes giving director and actor credits, in our monthly print calendar schedules and on our website. The majority of films we’ll be screening will be genre pictures -- horror, crime, martial arts and spy thrillers, spaghetti westerns and even quirky (but never boring!) arthouse films, mostly hailing from Europe and sometimes from Asia. Keep an eye out for these transgressive gems, at the Egyptian! Our initial offerings are two offbeat, Italian giallo rarities, both with the word "DEATH" in their titles, with such stars as Jean-Luis Trintignant, Robert Hoffmann and Susan Scott. Neither film is available on DVD in the United States. Both are dubbed in English.

Saturday, February 23 - 10:00 AM
"INVISIBLE ART, VISIBLE ARTISTS" Seminar
Presented by the American Cinema Editors (A.C.E)
You saw their names in the opening credits. Then you saw their names in Variety. Now discover how they went from dailies to Oscar-nominated films. An open discussion with all of this year's Oscar-nominated editors: "The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal): Christopher Rouse; "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn): Juliette Welfling; "Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment): Jay Cassidy;
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roderick Jaynes; "There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Dylan Tichenor. Free Admission. Tickets available on day of seminar only at box office. No online ticketing. Doors open at 9:00 AM.

Presented by the Art Directors Guild and Set Decorators Society of America

The American Cinematheque in association with the Art Directors Guild and the Set Decorators Society of America present a panel discussion with this year’s Academy Award-nominated Art Directors and Set Decorators. Art Directors Guild President Thomas A. Walsh will moderate the event that will include screening of excerpts from the five films nominated by the Academy. "American Gangster" (Universal)
Art Direction: Arthur Max
Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino "Atonement" (Focus Features)
Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood
Set Decoration: Katie Spencer "The Golden Compass" (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners)
Art Direction: Dennis Gassner
Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Art Direction: Dante Ferretti
Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo "There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Art Direction: Jack Fisk
Set Decoration: Jim Erickson
Free Admission. Tickets available on day of seminar only at box office. No online ticketing.