| Special One Night Events &
Limited Engagements in March & April:
Discuss this series with other film fans on:
http://www.myspace.com/americancinematheque
Wednesday, March 19 – 7:30 PM
Audrey Tautou Sneak preview:
PRICELESS (HORS DE PRIX), 2008, Samuel
Goldwyn, 104 min. Jean (Gad Elmaleh), a shy young bartender, is mistaken for a
millionaire by a beautiful, scheming opportunist named Irene (Audrey Tautou). When
Irene discovers his true identity, she abandons him, only to find that a love-struck Jean
has no intention of letting her get away. Jean’s comical attempts to gain her
affections gradually evolve into setting himself up as a gigolo at a luxury hotel, until
Irene finally starts to warm to her persistent, persuasive suitor. Against the wildly
atmospheric backdrop of the French Riviera, Pierre Salvadori (APRÈS-VOUS) directs
this sexy and thoroughly charming romantic comedy, which is a fresh reimagining of the
cinema classic BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S.
AMELIE, 2001, Miramax, 120 min. Director
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s marvelous poetic fantasy about a wide-eyed young Parisian
waitress (played by the sensational Audrey Tautou) who manages to influence the destinies
of all who meet her. Filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz (LA HAINE) co-stars as Amelie’s
would-be boyfriend.
Sunday, April 13 – 3:00 PM
THE FERUS GALLERY: A PLACE TO BEGIN
Co-presented with Los Angeles Art Weekend and C magazine.
Part of Los Angeles Art Weekend, a new visual art festival
highlighting the city’s vast array of creative talent, this program is hosted by Kristine
McKenna, widely published art critic and journalist for the Los Angeles Times, Artforum,
The New York Times, Artnews, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post and
Rolling Stone Magazine. Andy Warhol’s "Tarzan and Jane
Regained...Sort of" (1963, Andy Warhol Museum) and other short films by artists
will be shown.
Screenings
include a clip from Andy Warhol's TARZAN AND JANE (5 min)
featuring brief appearances by artist Wallace Berman, Dennis Hopper, Claes
Oldenburg, and John Altoon (a southern Calif. artist who died young and is revered by
those who knew him). Andy Warhol's "Elvis at Ferus" (1967, 4 min); "Marcel
Duchamp: A Game of Chess" (1963, 56 min) about his 1963 retrospective at the
Pasadena Art. As well as "The Work" (2008, 47
min). Jackson Price and Bryan Law' s work in progress is a cohesive film featuring
artists Ed Moses, Tony Berlant, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha, Chris Burden and Larry Bell.
Discussion to follow with Kristine McKenna and various artists
to be announced.
Tuesday, April 15 – 7:30 PM
Sneak Preview!
DARK MATTER, 2007, First Independent Pictures, 90
min. The elegant feature film debut of renowned opera and theater director
Chen Shi-Zheng delves into the world of Liu Xing (Chinese for "Shooting Star"),
a Chinese science student pursuing a Ph.D. in the U.S. in the early 1990s. Driven by
ambition, yet unable to navigate academic politics, Liu Xing (Liu Ye) is inexorably pushed
to the margins of American life, until he loses his way, and things come to a violent
head. With an ending reminiscent of BONNIE AND CLYDE or THE WILD BUNCH. With Aidan Quinn
and Meryl Streep. Based on a real event. Sundance Film Festival Winner of the Alfred P.
Sloan Prize for Best Feature Film. Official
Website with trailers & more. Discussion following film
with producer Janet Yang.
Wednesday, April 16 – 7:30 PM
Kevin Thomas’ Favorites:
THE SEARCHERS, 1956, Warner
Bros., 119 min. John Ford's masterpiece, and one of the great American films
of all time. John Wayne gives the performance of his career as Ethan Edwards, a
deeply troubled Civil War veteran who heads off in search of his kidnapped niece (Natalie
Wood) and becomes more obsessive and irrational as his journey progresses. Through
Wayne's character, Ford explores the contradictions and dark side of the American
frontier, in an elegiac tone that is as nostalgic as it is unrelentingly harsh. This
classic inspired imagery and storylines in dozens of later landmark films, from TAXI
DRIVER to STAR WARS. Film critic Kevin Thomas will introduce
the screening.
Sunday, April 20 – 7:30 PM
Claude Lelouch In Person! Double Feature:
French filmmaker Claude Lelouch is a true renaissance man of
cinema: a writer, director, actor, cinematographer and editor who has worked in
documentaries, shorts and narrative features. He became known around the world for his
1966 Palme d'Or winner A MAN AND A WOMAN, and in subsequent films has continued to explore
romantic relationships (as well as other topics including politics and crime) with great
sensitivity. Join us for a screening of Lelouch, most famous masterpiece, as well as a
sneak preview of his latest film.
Sneak Preview! ROMAN DE GARE, 2008, Samuel Goldwyn Films, 110 min. Best
selling author Judith Ralitzer is researching unlikely places to find characters for her
next bestseller. As luck would have it, a serial killer with a penchant for magic tricks
has just escaped from a high-security prison, providing the perfect source material for an
intricately plotted, moody mystery. Deceptively layered and intriguingly misleading, this
highly anticipated new film from Oscar-winning director Claude Lelouch stars Dominique
Pinon and Fanny Ardent as an unlikely pair caught up in a game with high stakes
– and deadly consequences.
A MAN AND A WOMAN, 1966,
Warner Bros., 103 min. This Oscar-winning love story is a model of simplicity and
fluidity. A young widow meets a widower at the boarding school that both of their children
attend. He is a race car driver. The scenery, race car sequences and score all serve to
complement their friendship as it slowly emerges into a romance. Winner of the 1966 Cannes
Film Festival. With Anouk Aimee, Jean-Louis Trintignant. Discussion in
between films with director Claude Lelouch. In association with COLCOA, A week of French
Film Premieres in Hollywood. www.colcoa.org.
Reduced ticket price for Cinematheque members to the screenings at the DGA.
Thursday, April 24 – 7:30 PM
Adam Rifkin In-Person! Double Feature:
THE DARK BACKWARD, 1991, New Line Cinema, 101 min. Dir.
Adam Rifkin. Judd Nelson and Bill Paxton head up an eclectic cast (it
also includes Rob Lowe, Wayne Newton, and James Caan) in this offbeat cult
favorite. Nelson is Marty Malt, a garbage man who dreams of becoming the next Jay Leno;
the only problem is, his very strange buddy (Paxton) is the only person who finds his
jokes funny. When Marty grows an arm on his back, however, the new appendage works its way
into his act and brings him a strange sort of comic success.
DETROIT ROCK CITY, 1999, New Line Cinema, 95
min. Adam Rifkin pays tribute to the teenage love of rock and roll in this ode to
Kiss, the 1970's, and ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. Edward Furlong heads up a
group of four boys who get more and more desperate to see their favorite band in concert
every time someone or something tries to stop them. As they attempt to get to a Kiss show,
they undergo various rites of passage, all to the tune of a killer rock soundtrack. Discussion in between films with director Adam Rifkin and Bill Paxton.
Friday, April 25 – 7:30 PM
Double Feature:
CADDYSHACK , 1980, Warner Bros., 98 min. Harold
Ramis's directorial debut (hot on the heels of his work as a co-writer on ANIMAL
HOUSE) is a hilarious assault on the establishment. Michael O'Keefe plays
a teenage caddy at a snooty country club who is faced with a number of difficult choices
as he heads into adulthood. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for the audience, his
father figures on the golf course are Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy
Chase, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray--a
motley crew of comedy icons who give this classic more laughs per minute than any film
this side of DUCK SOUP.
New 35mm Print!
GROUNDHOG DAY, 1993, Sony Repertory, 101 min.
Self-absorbed, egocentric weatherman Bill Murray gets caught in a freakish time
loop where he is doomed to repeat the same day (Groundhog Day) over and over again until
he gets things right. Director Harold Ramis achieves that impossibly rare thing in
cinema – an existential comedy about karma and spiritual and emotional growth that is
both extremely funny and intelligent, and resonates with a wide mainstream audience. With Andy
McDowell, Chris Elliot.
Saturday, April 26 – 7:30 PM
Double Feature:
BACK TO THE FUTURE , 1985, Universal,
117 min. Director Robert Zemeckis provides a pitch-perfect combination of
sharp satire and warm sentiment in this ingenious time travel comedy. Michael J.
Fox plays a teenager whose mentor (a manic and brilliant Christopher
Lloyd) invents a time machine that takes the kid back to the 1950's. When he
inadvertently gets in the way of his teenage parents' relationship (and causes his future
mother to develop a crush on him!), Fox has to figure out how to get them back together to
insure his own eventual existence. Funny, touching, and suspenseful, this love letter to
American pop culture is one of the most entertaining films of the 1980's.
BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II,
1989, Universal, 108 min. Rather than rest on their laurels, Robert
Zemeckis and writing partner Bob Gale completely reinvented the BACK TO THE
FUTURE franchise with this audacious follow-up. In a bit of experimentation worthy of the
French New Wave, Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd return for a sequel
that spends most of its running time not before or after the original story but at the
same time. As series of complex time travel complications send hero Marty McFly and
partner Doc Brown back to the 1955 of the first film, after a mishap in 2015 generates a
parallel universe. Even more elaborately plotted than the original, this highly ambitious
sequel allows Zemeckis even more opportunities for witty satire and cutting-edge special
effects. Discussion between films with cinematographer
Dean Cundey (Parts I-III) & production designer Rick Carter (Part II) - Eric
Lichtenfeld will moderate the discussion.
Sunday, April 27 – 5:30 PM
Art Director Series: Tribute to Wiard Ihnen.
*Note: our calendar accidentally went to print with the
wrong showtime. The showtime listed here is the correct one.
Born in 1897 in New Jersey, Wiard Ihnen studied architecture at Columbia, Paris
Ecole des Beaux Arts and under his father, Henry S. Ihnen. Wiard designed manor houses in
New Jersey and Pelham Manor in NY. He entered into films in 1919. Wiard married Edith
Head, the industry’s top costume designer whom he met while they both were working on
Cradle Song; both have assembled an impressive array of Academy Awards. Ihnen has designed
and built set s for Goulding, Preminger, Dupont, Lang, Leisen, Hathaway, McCarey, Ford,
Mamoulian, Lubitsch, Walsh King, Dorothy Arzner, Cromwell, Von Sternberg and a dozen other
directors of note. His is a staggering list of major credits on important and beautifully
designed films including If I HAD A MILLION (1932), SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932, DUCK SOUP
(1933), STAGECOACH (1939), TOMORROW IS FOREVER (1946), KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE (1950), ONLY
THE VALIANT (1951), THE INDIAN FIGHTER (1955).
BLONDE VENUS, 1932, Universal, 93 min. Dir. Josef
Von Sternberg. Marlene Dietrich is Helen, a former nightclub entertainer
married to scientist Herbert Marshall. Their idyllic family life is shattered when
he becomes disabled and she must return to the stage to support him and their son (Dickie
Moore). Enter millionaire Cary Grant, a man who will lavish any amount of money
on what (or who) he wants. Dietrich is luminously hypnotic here, whether swimming nude or
singing "Hot Voodoo" in a gorilla suit! One of the best of the Von
Sternberg/Dietrich collaborations, milking every bit of charisma from its two gorgeous
stars and miraculously steering the high-voltage melodramatics into poignant revelation by
the last frame. "The Paris cabaret in Blonde Venus, A bizarre collaboration
between Sternberg and designer Wiard Ihnen... the baroque extravagance of her(Marlene
Dietrich’s) number... a figure in glittering white tailcoat reviewing with Lesbian
arrogance a group of veiled beauties, strolling as she sings among leaning gothic arches,
crouching monsters and nude female torsos." – John Baxter, The Cinema of
Josef von Sternberg. Discussion following with production
designers Bob Boyle, J. Michael Riva and other guests. A clip show featuring the work of
Wiard Ihnen will precede the film. |
