<<< January 22 - 31, 2009 >>>

The New Hollywood filmmakers embraced not only the counterculture spirit of the late 1960s with a vengeance but also the grittiness of Italian neo-realism and the British and French New Wave, covering everything from intense, social-realist drama with progressive politics to wickedly offbeat satire, from existential road movies to epic American crime films and more. Ironically, the New Hollywood gave birth to both the blockbuster mentality of the late 1970s and 1980s, and to the beginnings of the independent film movement that would help transform American film a decade later. We’ll be screening some of the most requested titles from the New Hollywood era, including Peter Yates’ hardboiled THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (Robert Mitchum’s best role of the 1970s), Sam Peckinpah’s BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA, Richard Brooks’ adaptation of Truman Capote’s true-crime classic IN COLD BLOOD, Frank Perry’s underrated masterpiece PLAY IT AS IT LAYS (from Joan Didion’s novel), PUZZLE OF A DOWNFALL CHILD, FREEBIE AND THE BEAN, THE STERILE CUCKOO, THE SWIMMER, Joseph Losey’s astonishing modern Gothic SECRET CEREMONY (with Elizabeth Taylor and Mia Farrow), Jerzy Skolimowski’s DEEP END, Hal Ashby’s COMING HOME and, last but not least, a re-premiere of the long-out-of-circulation, super-controversial Vietnam-era classic F.T.A. (aka FREE THE ARMY) starring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland headlining a counterculture USO-type show for the troops. More than half of these titles are still not available on DVD in America.

IN COLD BLOOD, 1967, Sony Repertory, 134 min. This starkly masterful adaptation of Truman Capote’s true-crime classic emerges as one of the finest films by director Richard Brooks (THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, THE PROFESSIONALS). Robert Blake and Scott Wilson etch startlingly vivid portrayals of killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, two small-time thieves whose bungled home- invasion robbery evolved into a slaughter of the helpless Clutter family. Charles McGraw and Jeff Corey are likewise superb as Smith’s and Hickock’s fathers. With John Forsythe as doggedly methodical head investigator Alvin Dewey. Nominated for four Oscars, including Best Director and Screenplay (Brooks), Best Cinematography (Conrad Hall) and Best Music (Quincy Jones). "…worth catching both for its inherent qualities and as a snapshot of Hollywood in transition…" – Andy Klein, City Beat; "This excellent quasidocumentary, which sends shivers down the spine while moving the viewer to ponder…" – Bosley Crowther, The New York Times; "Hall's bleak vision, his gift for working with darkness and rain, rivals classic film noir of the 1940s and '50s in its visual mastery. If seeing GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK made you miss the old days of glorious black-and-white, this is an answer to your prayers." – Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times Trailer | Ebert Review

Friday, January 23 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, 1973, Paramount, 102 min. Director Peter Yates (BULLITT) adapts George V. Higgins’ brilliant slice-of-Boston-low-life crime novel. Robert Mitchum is at his finest as streetwise Eddie Coyle, a blue-collar fence squeezed between the Feds and his hoodlum cohorts, all the while trying to support his family. Cynical young cop Richard Jordan, hep gun dealer Steven Keats, bank robber Alex Rocco and sociopathic bartender Peter Boyle all use Eddie in one way or another for their own ends. And Eddie plays all ends against the middle, trying to survive and pick up a little change on the side. Gritty and grim, shot completely on Boston locations and full of some of the most wonderfully pungent dialogue this side of GOODFELLAS. "…a good, tough, unsentimental movie…beautifully acted…" – Vincent Canby, The New York Times NOT ON DVD

Trailer | Ebert Review

BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA, 1974, MGM Repertory, 112 min. Director Sam Peckinpah’s macabre shaggy-dog story rises to the status of existential masterpiece before the last frame unspools. A ruthless land baron (Emilio Fernandez) offers a huge bounty to find Alfredo Garcia, the father of his daughter’s unborn child. Piano-playing, expatriate loser Bennie (Warren Oates in one of his finest roles) shambles through the hellish backwater villages of rural Mexico on the hunt for easy money, a deadly pilgrimage that could jeopardize Bennie’s one real chance at happiness – the love of his loyal, prostitute girlfriend Elita (Isela Vega). Look for the incomparable Robert Webber and Gig Young as the pokerfaced killers tailing Bennie. Trailer | Ebert Review

Saturday, January 24 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

FREEBIE AND THE BEAN, 1974, Warner Bros., 113 min. This cop-buddy action film directed by Richard Rush (THE STUNT MAN) was mercilessly savaged by critics who found it disturbingly offensive – but it packed them in at the box office. Contrary to most then-current reviews, Rush’s approach is so insanely over-the-top, so remorselessly profane and politically incorrect, it transcends into an anarchic, anything-goes, live-action cartoon universe. Sensitive though hot-tempered Latino cop Alan Arkin is repeatedly provoked by his abusive, foul-mouthed partner James Caan as they wreck most of San Francisco in a nonstop demolition derby trying to capture mobster Jack Kruschen. Valerie Harper is a standout as Arkin’s put-upon wife. "…rife with racism, homophobia and sexism. That it entertains rather than appalls is down to James Caan and Alan Arkin's brilliant badinage which, together with some excellent action sequences, ensure director Richard Rush's movie gets away with its detours into bad taste." – Channel 4 Film (U.K.) NOT ON DVD

Trailer | More on this Film

HICKEY & BOGGS, 1972, MGM Repertory, 111 min. Dir. Robert Culp. An uncompromisingly realistic detective noir with two world-weary private eyes -- Robert Culp and Bill Cosby – whose search for a missing girl opens a Pandora’s box of death and destruction in smoggy, sunbaked L.A. Audiences didn’t know what to make of Culp and Cosby’s movie effort, many expecting a lighter, more humorous entertainment a la the pair’s long-running team-up on popular 1960s TV show "I Spy." Sharp, sardonic dialogue peppers Walter Hill’s violent screenplay. Look for young Michael Moriarty and James Woods as particularly slimy villains. More on this Film

Sunday, January 25 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

PLAY IT AS IT LAYS, 1972, Universal, 99 min. Director Frank Perry (DAVID AND LISA) delivered many edgy psychological classics, and none is more deserving of rediscovery than this rarely screened adaptation of Joan Didion’s bestseller, with a screenplay by Didion and her late husband, John Gregory Dunne. Tuesday Weld is at her best as fiercely intelligent Maria, an ex-model on the verge of a nervous breakdown. In-the-closet producer Anthony Perkins is her only friend and Adam Roarke her estranged director husband trying to jumpstart his career out of the biker-film ghetto. A scathing stream-of-consciousness portrait of Hollywood in the early 1970s. NOT ON DVD

More on this Film

PUZZLE OF A DOWNFALL CHILD, 1970, Universal, 105 min. Jerry Schatzberg (SCARECROW, THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK), who at one time had worked as a high-fashion photographer, directed this intimate portrait of a supermodel near the end of her tether. Holed up at a cottage by the sea, Lou Sand (Faye Dunaway) recalls her past in the fast lane in a fractured-time kaleidoscope of bittersweet memories. Excellent Dunaway is supported by a formidable cast, including Roy Scheider, Viveca Lindfors, Barry Primus, Barry Morse. NOT ON DVD More on this Film

Thursday, January 29 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

THE STERILE CUCKOO, 1969, Paramount, 107 min. Director Alan J. Pakula adapts John Nichols’ novel into this bittersweet story of awkward first love in the college world of upstate New York. Liza Minnelli is Pookie, a needy, neurotic young girl who attaches herself to retiring bookworm Jerry (Wendell Burton). Gradually, she seduces him with her offbeat, abrasive humor, her sweetness and tireless pursuit. But Jerry proves only a fuzzy symbol of what Pookie needs and is not ready or able to supply the love-starved girl with constant validation. "…an affecting film about a vulnerable girl…who hides behind a facade of outrageous kookiness… Pakula, in his directorial debut, gives unobtrusive support to Liza's highly charged performance which in one scene - on the telephone to the boy while he makes lame excuses - is a tour de force…" – Channel 4 Film (U.K.) NOT ON DVD Trailer | More on this Film

THE SWIMMER, 1968, Sony Repertory, 94 min. One of the most unjustly neglected figures of the New Hollywood, director Frank Perry made 10 low-key, razor-sharp dissections of modern morals and relationships between 1962 and 1975. Based on John Cheever’s acclaimed novel, THE SWIMMER follows vigorous, middle-aged, upper-middle-class Burt Lancaster on a metaphoric journey swimming from backyard pool to backyard pool in his lush, upscale suburban neighborhood, headed towards a "home" that may no longer exist. A nostalgic portrait of regret and despair lying beneath the gemlike surface of suburbia – here represented by the sprawling, outlying suburbs of Connecticut -- featuring one of Lancaster’s finest performances. Trailer | More on this Film

Friday, January 30 – 7:30 PM

Re-Release Premiere! Ultra-Rare! F.T.A. (aka FREE THE ARMY aka FUN, TRAVEL, ADVENTURE), 1972, Displaced Films, 97 min. Dir. Francine Parker. The years 1971 and 1972 saw stars Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland lead a kind of mutant USO troupe on a tour of American West Coast military bases as well as outposts in the Pacific. Fonda reportedly referred to the tour as "political vaudeville," and we see performances of a number of sketches and musical numbers in front of live audiences of the U.S. armed services. There are also a multitude of interviews with soldiers, sailors and marines, soliciting their opinions on the Vietnam conflict F.T.A. was originally released by American-International but pulled from distribution after only one week, with rumors of pressure from the Pentagon. It has been almost impossible to see ever since. "…a fascinating slice of a fractious period in American history. Having a filmed record of the discontent of that era makes this an important documentary…the rare production to question the Vietnam War at a time when Hollywood preferred to look the other way." – Phil Hall, Film Threat NOT ON DVD More on this Film

COMING HOME, 1978, MGM Repertory, 126 min. Dir. Hal Ashby. As timely as ever, this moving and uncompromising film about the Vietnam War and the brutal struggle at home won Best Actor and Actress Oscars for stars Jane Fonda and Jon Voight. Fonda is left alone for the first time as her husband, Bruce Dern, is fighting in Vietnam. She falls in love with Voight, a paraplegic vet whom she had known briefly in high school. Highlighted by one of the most tender and emotional love scenes in film history, with performances so real you almost want to look away from the screen. Nominated for eight Academy Awards and winner of three, it also took home a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Nancy Dowd, Waldo Salt and Robert C. Jones (who was also Ashby’s longtime editor). Beautifully shot by legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Also featuring Robert Carradine and Penelope Milford. Discussion in between films with F.T.A. performers Michael Alaimo, Holly Near and Rita Martinson. Trailer | More on this Film

Saturday, January 31 – 7:30 PM

Rare! SECRET CEREMONY, 1968, Universal, 109 min. Director Joseph Losey’s bizarre psychological suspenser features Mia Farrow as a disturbed, orphaned young woman and Elizabeth Taylor as the prostitute who pretends to be her mother. At first, the two find only a superficial resemblance to lost loved ones (as Farrow also looks like Taylor’s daughter), but gradually the pair assume their roles for real. However, when Robert Mitchum as Farrow’s stepfather is stirred into the brew, things get considerably stranger. Everyday habits and household items gradually assume a ritual significance, and Taylor and Farrow’s weird relationship lurches toward a frightening and uncertain future. A creepy modern Gothic, impeccably fine-tuned by director Losey’s customary attention to character detail. With Peggy Ashcroft and Pamela Brown. "…makes for a memorable film." – Time Out Film Guide; "Joseph Losey's best film in years…" – Renata Adler, The New York Times NOT ON DVD More

Rare! New 35mm Print! DEEP END, 1971, Paramount, 88 min. One of the great lost films of the early 1970s, from Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski, captures the sense of impending dread and spiritual breakdown at the end of the ‘60s like no other movie. John Moulder-Brown stars as an innocent teenage psychopath working in a public bathhouse who becomes obsessed with doe-eyed Jane Asher, with shocking results. Terrific score by krautrock great Can and British songwriter Cat Stevens. "Jerzy Skolimowski’s directorial career…began with this offbeat tale of obsessive, destructive love…haunting…An increasingly tense, dreamlike drama from an…uncompromising filmmaker." – Steven Puchalski, Shock Cinema NOT ON DVD More