Twin Cities Film 4/9 - 4/15

Hitchcock at the Trylon and the Riverview
Take-Up's "Alfred Hitchcock: Across the Decades" continues this week with The Lady Vanishes Friday and Saturday at the Trylon and Notorious Monday at the Riverview. The Lady Vanishes (1938) is an early Hitchcock film that is one-thirds mystery and two-thirds witty, peculiar charm. Notorious (1946) is a totally different Hitchcock creature: stylish and refined with an edge of elegance that can only be brought to a film by the likes of Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. It's a lavish film experience.

Buy your tickets in advance, especially for The Lady Vanishes at the Trylon. (Three of the five shows last weekend sold out!) The Lady Vanishes screens five times at the Trylon: Friday 7 & 9pm, Saturday 5, 7 &9pm. Notorious screens Monday 7:30pm at the Riverview. I'll be projecting Saturday night at the Trylon, so stop by and say hi. (Click poster below for more information or tickets.)

Jewish Film Festival
The ambitious Jewish Film Festival kicked off last night and continues through March 18. With a rich selection of dramas and documentaries, you really can't go wrong. With the exception of the opening night, all films will be screened at the Sabes JCC. (Click below for more info and a full list of films.)

Views from Iran at the Walker
The Walker's "Views from Iran" starts today and runs over the next few weekends with some exciting screenings and events. In addition to the seven films included in the series, the Walker will host two visiting filmmakers, Shirin Neshat and Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, who will present their new films. In light the recent arrest of award winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi in his home country of Iran, the series offers a unique opportunity to understand the issues and constraints that many Iranian artists face. The premiere of Asghar Farhadi's About Elly plays tonight, Friday, at 7:30pm and there is a lecture with journalist Laura Secor Tuesday at 7pm.

Opening This Week in the Twin Cities

Three films open at the various Landmark Theaters this week and hoping to catch all three before hell breaks loose with the MSPIFF. The Most Dangerous Man in America and Vincere, both at the Lagoon, are first in line. The Most Dangerous Man in America is the story of Daniel Ellsberg, a high-level Pentagon official and Vietnam War strategist, who attempted to expose the lies told by the government about the Vietnam War. The trailer looks amazing and I expect there will be some relevance, even if it is indirect, regarding the lies of the previous administration on the Iraq War. The Most Dangerous Man was nominated for an Academy Award but lost out to The Cove. The Greatest opens at the Edina. (Click below for more info.)

Opening in wide release this week is an odd mix of films: Date Night with Steve Carell and Tina Fey, some obscure (and most likely awful) horror film called The Black Waters of Echo's Pond, and the let's-hope-it's-not-as-heavy-handed-as-the-title-but-I-bet-it is Letters to God. Although I probably won't get around to seeing Date Night, if that film isn't a slam dunk, I don't know what is. Titans, you are going down! (Click below for official websites.)

Also worth noting, MFA brings A Town Called Panic back at St Anthony Main. I heard nothing but good things about this strange French animation film but was unable to make it during its one-week run at the Lagoon. Now everyone has a second chance!

And last, but not least, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival is just one week away. The online schedule is up and running and individual tickets are for sale online and at St Anthony Main Theater. Passes and programs should be available this weekend. I'm excited and can't wait to OD on films for two weeks. Will Getafilm and I resurrect the Film Goats? Either way, I'll see you there.

Twin Cities Film 2/26 - 3/4

Special Screenings:


Band of Outsiders (1963) directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Friday and Saturday, February 26 and 27, 7:00 and 8:55pm
Godard's 60s at the Trylon
The last Godard film in the series and one of his best.
"Godard at his most off-the-cuff takes a 'Série Noire' thriller (Fool's Gold by Dolores Hitchens) and spins a fast and loose tale that continues his love affairs with Hollywood and with actress Anna Karina. Karina at her most naive is taken up by two self-conscious toughs ('The little suburban couins of Belmondo in A Bout de Souffle', is how Godard described them), and they try to learn English, do extravagant mimes of the death of Billy the Kid, execute some neat dance steps, run around the Louvre at high speed, and rob Karina's aunt with disastrous consequences. One of Godard's most open and enjoyable films." - Time Out

Gold Film Festival 2010: Oscar Nominated Documentaries
Friday-Sunday, Various Times
Woodbury 10 Theaters
"All five of this year's Academy Award-nominated, feature-length documentary films will be shown over three days. The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers tells the story of a former Pentagon employee who released classified material to the media to try to end the Vietnam War. Food, Inc. exposes the unsavory and highly industrialized process of bringing food to your table. Burma VJ uses footage surreptitiously filmed by protesters who put their lives at risk to document a 2007 uprising led by Buddhist monks against an oppressive regime in Burma. Which Way Home follows the harrowing stories of children trying to migrate through Mexico to reach their parents who have illegally entered the U.S. In The Cove, the former animal trainer who trained dolphins for the TV show Flipper journeys to a remote cove in Japan to document an annual slaughter of dolphins." - City Pages


The Neverending Story (1984) directed by Wolfgang Petersesn
Friday and Saturday, February 26 and 27, midnight Willow Creek 12
Check out that awesome poster. Almost makes me want to go to Willow Creek, where ever that is.
"A fairytale of the very best kind, with luscious effects which include a flying dragon, a rock monster, a fairy princess (mercifully grave and untwee), and a threat in whose vanquishing lies hope. Made at Munich's Bavaria Studios, the film concerns a withdrawn schoolboy, ignored by his businessman father and bullied at school, who steals a book and finds himself in thrall to the point where he is called upon to enter its world and save the magic land of Fantasia. Adapted from the novel by Michael Ende, the film is a mix of German Romanticism (complete with Wagnerian sets and a score in part by Giorgio Moroder) and Syberberg by way of Disney, or perhaps vice versa. There are even moments of moralising which give the twin heroes' quest someting of the steely tone of a Pilgrim's Progress." - Time Out

Hapax Legomena (1971-72) directed by Hollis Fampton
Part I: Saturday, February 27, 7:30pm Part II: Sunday, February 28, 2pm Expanding the Frame at the Walker
"Gorgeously restored by the Museum of Modern Art and Anthology Film Archives, the seven-part Hapax Legomena investigates the potential of film and its relationship between artist and audience. Frampton’s towering achievement poses complex philosophical questions about the nature of the moving image in a manner that can be challenging, revealing, and at times amusing. Introduced by former Walker film/video curator Bruce Jenkins, who was a close friend of Frampton’s and is a leading scholar of his work and editor of On the Camera Arts and Consecutive Matters: The Writings of Hollis Frampton. Frampton’s (nostalgia), one of the sections of Hapax Legomena, is featured in the Walker’s new exhibition Abstract Resistance."


It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) directed by Robert Hamer
Monday, March 1, 7:30pm Brit Noir at the Heights
"A resolutely downbeat - remarkably so for Ealing Studios - account of a day in the life of Bethnal Green when an escaped convict (McCallum) seeks shelter at the home of a former girlfriend (Withers), now respectably married but bored and waspishly discontented. No attempt is made to elicit easy sympathy for either of the protagonists as they pursue their selfish ends, and the sense of drab squalor, with pursuit ending in the railway yards, is a minor key echo of the poetic realism (also carefully studio-built) of prewar Carné and Renoir. Only slightly compromised by a certain pawkiness in some of the minor Cockney characterisations."


The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights (2010) directed by Emmett Malloy
Wednesday, March 3, 6:00, 7:45 (Sold Out!) and 9:45pm
Sound Unseen at the Trylon
Tickets are going fast. All three shows will sell out.
"In 2007 the legendary American duo White Stripes toured Canada. Besides playing the usual venues they challenged themselves and played in buses, cafés and for Indian tribal elders. Music video director Emmett Malloy followed the band and managed to capture both the special tour, extraordinary concert versions of the band's minimalist, raw, blues-inspired rock songs and the special relationship between the extroverted Jack White and the introspective Meg White - a formerly married couple who for a long time claimed to be siblings. The film makes striking use of the band's concert colors: red, white and black"


Portrait of Jennie (1948) directed by William Dieterle
Thursday, March 4, 7:30pm Jennifer Jones Tribute at the Heights
"A companion piece to the Dieterle/Selznick Love Letters, also starring Jones and Cotten; but where the earlier film remained rooted in superior romantic hokum, this one takes wing into genuine romantic fantasy through its tale of a love that transcends space and time as Cotten's struggling artist meets, falls in love with, and is inspired by a strangely ethereal girl (Jones) whom he eventually realises is the spirit of a woman long dead. Direction and performances are superb throughout, but the real star is Joseph August's camera, which conjures pure magic out of the couple's tender odyssey, from the gravely quizzical charm of their first encounter in snowy Central Park (when she is still a little girl, strangely dressed in clothes of bygone days) through to the awesome storm at sea that supernaturally heralds their final parting. Buñuel saw it and of course approved: 'It opened up a big window for me'." - Time Out


Blood Into Wine (2010) directed by Rayan Page and Christopher Pomeremke
Thursday, March 4, 7pm Riverview Theater
"Blood Into Wine is the widely anticipated documentary that shares the story of Tool/A Perfect Circle/Puscifer front man Maynard James Keenan and his mentor Eric Glomski as they pioneer winemaking in the hostile deserts of Arizona. Maynard’s various musical entities have sold over 30 million records worldwide. His band's have headlined the world’s most prominent music festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and Roskilde while the man himself has reveled in revealing little of his personal life. On stage Maynard dresses in costume and stands in the shadows as an affront to typical rock star theatrics. He even bolted from Los Angeles just as his band began to pay off, leaving behind a potentially lavish lifestyle for the craggy rocks of Northern Arizona, settling into an area of 300 residents and a rumored ghost town. Blood Into Wine gives unprecedented insight into Maynard’s world and his motivations for taking on the arduous task of bringing winemaking to the region’s unforgiving landscape and how winemaking fits into his creative trajectory."


Clandestinos (1987) directed by Fernando Perez
Thursday, March 4, 7:30pm Cuban Movie Festival at St Anthony Main
"Satisfying as both a political thriller and a love story, this feature film by Fernando Pérez is so naturally realized that it avoids being didactic even as it commemorates events of the Cuban Revolution. Anti-Batista activists move from one safe house to another, trying to elude a relentless police commissioner. Their leader (Luis Alberto García), hardened by prison and torture, is suspicious of nearly everyone but gradually falls for his newest recruit, a headstrong idealist (Isabel Santos of El Benny). The climactic rooftop chase is well choreographed and edited, and Edesio Alejandros surging score recalls early Isaac Hayes."

Opening:


The Sun (2005) directed by Aleksandr Sokurov
MFA at St Anthony Main
One more chance to pimp my review: read it here.
"The events surrounding Japanese emperor Hirohito's August 1945 call for a complete cease fire among his troops serves as the subject of Alexander Sokurov's thought-provoking historical drama. In the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito (Issey Ogata) announces to the world that Japan will surrender unconditionally. His declaration was broadcast over the radio on August 15, 1945, and stunned the Japanese people. In this film, Sokurov details not only the events surrounding the emperor's declaration of surrender, but his renunciation of divine status as well."

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009) directed by Werner Herzog
MFA at St Anthony Main
"Based on a harrowing true story centered around policeman Hank (Willem Dafoe), who is called to a bungalow in a respectable San Diego neighborhood where a man named Brad (Michael Shannon) has barricaded himself in his house and taken two hostages. Across the street, Brad's mother (Grace Zabriskie) lies dead, found sprawled in a pool of blood, the victim of a sword wound. The son is suspected of the murder. As Hank uneasily prowls the sunlit street outside the bungalow, a string of Brad's friends arrive on the scene, among them his girlfriend and a director pal. Slowly the bizarre pieces of the story are placed in front of the cop, who tries to make sense of it all. Not only has the suspected murderer never been the same since he returned from a kayaking trip to Peru, but he also seems to be suffering from a strange mother complex. To deepen the psychosis even further, Brad has been rehearsing one of Sophocles' plays that has a lot to do with mothers!"


44 Inch Chest (2009) directed by Malcolm Venville
Lagoon Theater
"From the writers of Sexy Beast comes a powerful drama of a wronged husband trying to regain his self respect, in this spectacularly foul-mouthed acting tour de force. Colin (Ray Winstone) lies sobbing in a wrecked room, his wife of 21 years, Liz (played with Mirren-like sensuality by Joanne Whalley) has left him. He calls his mate, Archie (Tom Wilkinson), who’s just settling in on the sofa with his aged mum, to gather up the rest of the sometime-gang: Old Man Peanut (John Hurt), Meredith (Ian McShane), and Mal (Stephen Dillane). The motley crew of old friends rallies to his aid, though their plot to kidnap the lover and push Colin into taking revenge is misguided in conception and inept in execution. Hurt is hilarious as the old con telling the story of Samson and Delilah, complete with clips from the Victor Mature film. A provocative and darkly funny study of masculinity at its most troubling, it gives the actors full rein to explore the male ego pushed to its limits, and this wonderful ensemble certainly rises to the task."


The Crazies (2010) directed by Breck Eisner
Area Theaters
"As a toxin begins to turn the residents of Ogden Marsh, Iowa into violent psychopaths, sheriff David Dutton (Olyphant) tries to make sense of the situation while he, his wife (Mitchell), and two other unaffected townspeople band together in a fight for survival."


Cop Out (2010) directed by Kevin Smith
Area Theaters
"A comedy about a veteran NYPD cop whose rare baseball card is stolen. Since it's his only hope to pay for his daughter's upcoming wedding, he recruits his partner to track down the thief, a memorabilia-obsessed gangster."

Programmer Rick Hansen talks Sound Unseen 10

Fall inevitably means better offerings in the theaters and right now you don't have to look far to find interesting film choices in the Twin Cities. But next week the 10th edition of Minneapolis' own Sound Unseen kicks off and will far outweigh the other distractions in town. Half music, half film and all fun, Sound Unseen starts Monday with nothing other than Rock n' Bowl at Memory Lanes. It's your chance to get a team together and show your skills against local bands such as Switzerlind, Magic Castles, Total Babe, Lucy Michelle and The Velvet Lapelles, So It Goes, Poor Weather Club, Look Book, Communist Daughter and more. What follows is six days of films, music and parties hosted at various venues around town (Cedar Cultural Center, The Trylon, Oak Street, Walker Art Center, Kitty Cat Club and MacPhail Center for Music) that is sure to sooth any culture vulture's soul.

I will probably find myself sitting in a theater all day, living off soda, popcorn and candy and maybe even burning some midnight oil in order to catch some of these films. (I can't really miss a midnight screening of a documentary about black metal, now can I?) Presenting 11 features and two shorts programs, the films are as thematically diverse as they are stylistically divergent. Although most festivals are likely to boast about the variety of their films, Sound Unseen takes a narrow range—film connected to music—and explores the far reaches of that definition. Beyond the obvious entertainment value, as a voracious music consumer I look forward to learning about artists I know nothing about, specifically Trimpin (Friday, October 2, 7pm at the Trylon) and Ed Thigpen (Sunday, October 4, 1pm at the Oak Street.)

For the inside scoop, program coordinator and ultimate Sound Unseen insider Rick Hansen was kind enough to answer a few questions of this inquiring mind to share with other inquiring minds:

Q: How long have you been programming for Sound Unseen?

A: This is my second year as Director of the festival, but I've had involvement almost right from the beginning.

Do you coordinate the live music as well as the movies?

I've got an outstanding (predominately) volunteer staff who help me with each aspect of the festival. It's strange how things happen, as sometimes it's me who gets excited to book a band or a film, and other times staff members like Music Coordinator Karrie Vrabel gets things going, or Director of Programming Jim Brunzell sees a cool film at Sundance or Seattle, of maybe SU fest producer Vilay Dethluxay has a great angle on something fun...we all just kind of coalesce into one big good idea after another, then everyone takes responsibility for that idea's execution. That's a long answer to a simple question, so yes, I do coordinate all aspects of the festival, but it's not without the help and the bright ideas of the others around me.

There are a couple big buzz films in the line-up, specifically the world premier of R.E.M: This is Not a Show (Tuesday, September 29, 7pm at the Cedar) and the local premier of Ondi Timoner's We Live in Public (Sunday, October 4, 7:30pm at the Cedar). Was there a lot of blood, sweat and tears getting these two lined up?

This is a fun question, because it has a funny answer...One of the films you mentioned was the easiest booking we ever had and the other has been the hardest. I'll let you wonder which one was which!

I can safely tell you though that each of the films and events takes a great deal of research, persistence, luck, and flat out hustle to get into the line-up. Jim Brunzell and Steve Holmgren, our two film programmers this year, have literally trotted the globe to see films for the festival. I went to Berlinale this year, saw a number of films that I wanted and came back entirely empty handed as far as film titles that landed in the fest. I've been clocking a film that I absolutely must have for more than 2 years now...still not sure if I will get it. Not everything is that tough, but we've got our film feelers out at spots around the world.

I've been pouring over the synopses of all the films trying to prioritize. Can you give us some of the highlights of the more under-the-radar films that you've chosen?

For sure. Guy and Madeline On A Park Bench (Saturday, October 3, 6:45pm at the Trylon) is probably my personal favorite. It just absolutely represents the type of filmmaking I enjoy most. Simple, beautiful, smart, elegant, quiet with very unique execution. I'm not the only person to think that way either. Amy Taubin wrote a glowing review of the film in Film Comment, and the film screened at the very prestigious Tribeca Film Fest earlier this year.

I also love Non-Stop: Gogol Bordello (Sunday, October 4, 3pm at the Cedar) because it really gives you insight into this great band's mojo. I love them and their live show is a mind blower, and the film does an excellent job capturing that. Plus a bunch of the live shots were taken when they were at The Cabooze outdoor stage a couple of years back, so it's fun to recognize a local place in an international film.

Stingray Sam (Friday, October 2, 9:30pm at the Oak Street) is another of my favorites. Mostly because I love the way Cory McAbee, who will be present for almost the entire extent of the fest and accepting an award from us, makes films. His way. Period. And really well. Easily the most innovative and interesting filmmakers in America today. Plus it makes me laugh EVERY time I see a man get slapped in the face by another man.

The subject matter of the films are all over the map. The narratives and documentaries touch upon almost every corner of the musical universe! Is it your intention to keep it diverse or do things just sort of fall in place that way?

We want to cover that wide range, always. But the range changes from year to year depending on what's out there and what's available and compelling. We've made it our mission to always try to come in with some things that we know are unique and may not be the most familiar or even comfortable types of musical styles, but we think it's important to screen these types of films for all the right reasons. For this year's fest I've made the joke that we've got titles from Beethoven to Black Metal. We got a little Jazz push this year, because I'm personally very into what is going on with that on the the local music level. I genuinely believe that there are Jazz musicians in town who are completely and totally pushing the bounds of that music genre into some incredible new places...and the world is going to find out about our scene here very soon.

How did Sound Unseen start? What's some of the folklore?!

10 years ago a very smart and hard working young man named Nate Johnson founded the festival. He and I worked together a bit at U Film Society. He approached me about maybe co-producing it even way back then..I ended up going in a different direction, but Nate got it off to an incredible start with some really great programming and smart events. I looked back really closely to our history as it is our 10 year anniversary and I wanted to understand where we've been and I could not believe some of the things I missed. Name anyone of the now Major Label bands that have risen out of Minneapolis and they have been on the Sound Unseen roster in one way shape or form. No joke..Atmosphere, Tapes N Tapes, Solid Gold, DOSH, Doomtree, what used to be Lifter Puller...I could go on and on..all had some sort of relationship with Sound Unseen. 10 years at the heart of the Minneapolis music scene! Are you kidding me? Legends were born in SU's past. That's folklore.

Okay, so I have to ask: can you give us any other hints on the secret screening other than the two letters M and J?

(coyly) mmnn..i don't know..? MICHAEL JACKSON! ...or something...and you ain't seen it before.

As in "like you've never seen him before".....? I guess we will just have to wait and see!

Check out the full program and events to map out your week at soundunseen.com. I'll see you there!

The nine lives of the Oak Street Cinema

Let's just forget the Phoenix metaphor; nothing rises from the ashes this many times. I'm going to peg the Oak Street as a gentle, but aloof, stray cat that is working through its nine lives. Open again for business, the Oak, once again, has a pretty exciting slate of films coming up. You could call it Best of the Fest Plus, but I mean it from the bottom of my heart when I say that the Twin Cities really really needs an alternative theater playing films like this.

At a screening last week, Al Milgrom said that the Oak would be open for business until the beginning of July, when they would assess the situation. Part of 'the situation' will no doubt be regarding the developer who was interested in the real estate (not the theater), but I'm sure another part of it will be whether or not business is good enough to sustain operations. Can we have some sort of rally cry for the Oak again? In the end, will it matter? I'm willing to commit to seeing every film the Oak screens and to bringing a friend to at least half of those screenings. And maybe, just maybe, I won't see a single summer blockbuster. (So far, I'm doing pretty good.)

Here's the schedule so far, and I don't see a clunker in there:

Tuesday, May 12 - Thursday, May 14 @ 7pm & 9pm
Harvard Beats Yale 29 - 29 (2008) directed by Kevin Rafferty

Forget that it is about football, this is a documentary about one of the most unbelievable games in the history of sports. I'm no football fan, by a long shot, but just reading the facts about this 1968 game is fascinating. With just the title, I needed some convincing too.
Check out the trailer here.
Manohla Dargis' review in the New York Times.
Kenneth Turan's review in the Los Angeles Times.
J.R. Jones' review in the Chicago Reader.

Friday, May 15 - Monday, May 18 @ 7pm & 9pm (Sat, Sun early show @ 4:30pm)
Lola Montès (1955) directed by Max Ophüls

Is this something I should have seen by now? I don't know. After you go to Art-a-Whirl in beautiful NE Minneapolis, you can also enjoy some rep theater just a couple miles away. I'm excited to see this, even if it is not my cup of tea.
Check out the trailer here.
Robert Ebert's review in the Chicago Sun Times.
Chris Wisniewski's review at Reverse Shot.
Fernando F. Croce's review at Slant Magazine.
Ryland Walker Knight's essay at the Auteurs.

Friday, May 22 - Sunday, May 24 @ 7:15pm (Sat, Sun early show at 5pm)
Three Monkeys (2008) directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

More people need the chance to see this film, so I'm glad they brought it back from the Fest to play for a few more days. A moody, plot driven film that is a little unusual for Ceylan, but stylistically all Ceylan. Admittedly not his best reviewed film, but who cares. Great framing and interesting editing gives Three Monkeys a unique space. Don't miss it on the big screen.
Check out the great trailer here.
Official website.
A.O. Scott's review in the New York Times.
Jonathan Romney's review in The Independent.

Friday, May 22 - Sunday, May 24 @ 9:30
The Chaser (2008) directed by Na Hong-jin

If I stick by my word, it will be my third viewing of The Chaser. But unlike other films, I expect to enjoy it and will probably see things I didn't see in the first or second viewing. I've been ruminating on a review of this film that I will have up in the next week or so. Awesome double feature with Three Monkeys.
Check out the trailer here. (Hate the movie man narration in that.)
Here's the UK official website for the movie.
Kyu Hyun Kim's review at KoreanFilm.org

Friday, May 29 - Monday, June 1 @ 7:15pm & 9:30pm (Sat, Sun early show @ 5pm)
Il Divo (2008) directed by Paolo Sorrentino

A film that I sadly missed at the Film Fest and I'm glad I'm getting another chance. I've heard enough about this film to know I better know the background of this infamous Italian politician. Everyone refers to the speed in which information gets thrown at you during the film, to the point that you can't keep up. A little wiki research will certainly not spoil this movie.
Check out the trailer here.
Official website.
Stephen Holden's review in the New York Times.
Bill Weber's review on Slant Magazine.
Peter Bradshaw's review in the Guardian.
Dave Calhoun's review at Time Out London.

Friday, June 5 - Sunday, June 7 @ 7:15pm
Silent Light (2007) directed by Carlos Reygadas

This had a one night screening at the Walker over a year ago. This is an amazing film set in a Mexican Mennonite community. Slow, thoughtful and beautiful, Silent Light focuses on one family and the patriarch's illicit affair with another woman. The images of the film still linger in my mind a year later, and I will gladly refresh them. If you haven't seen Japón or Battle in Heaven, check those out too.
Check out the trailer here.
Official website.
Manohla Dargis' review in the New York Times.
Roger Ebert's review in the Cicago Sun Times.
J.R. Jones' review in the Chicago Reader.

Whoa. That's a lot of linkin'. Keep your eye on the Oak's calendar for changes and/or additions.

SPIDER BABY @ the Turf Club

Tonight! Monday, March 23 at 10:30.

For those of you that have been around town for five years or so, you may remember a group showing films at the University under the moniker Trash Film Debauchery. The titles almost always lived up to the name. The Debauchery has graduated and moved from campus to bar, and tonight they present Jack Hill's Spider Baby or The Maddest Story Ever Told (1968) at the Turf Club in St Paul.

"In a dilapidated rural mansion, the last generation of the degenerate, inbred Merrye family lives with the inherited curse of a disease that causes them to mentally regress from the age of 10 or so on as they physically develop. The family chauffeur looks out for them and covers up their indiscretions. Trouble comes when greedy distant relatives and their lawyer arrive to dispossess the family of its home."

I can't imagine a better place to show this film, allowing views to indulge in a beer or two and to be a little more rowdy than one might be in a theater. Movie is free. Beer is not.

Keep track of Trash Film Debauchery's schedule on MySpace or become a fan on Facebook.
The Turf Club is located at 1601 University Avenue in St Paul.

Barry Kryshka of Take-Up Productions talks Universal Noir

If you have been an active movie-goer in the Twin Cities the past two years, chances are you have attended a film programed by Barry Kryshka of Take-Up Productions. Those screenings include such diverse offerings as Fantastic Voyage at the Bell Museum, Dolemite at the Riverview and the classic Sunset Boulevard at the Parkway. Take-Up has filled a void for those craving repertory screenings in the Twin Cities. The void-filling continues next week as Take-Up begins a 7-film, 5 week series at the Heights Theater, "From the Vaults of Universal: Seven Classic Film Noirs." The series kicks off this Monday, February 16 with This Gun for Hire (1942) and continues for the next five Mondays, which includes two double features.

In an attempt to liven up the natter I provide, I decided to ask Barry a few questions about the upcoming Universal Noir series, the state of rep cinema n the Twin Cities, and why drinking at home is never as much fun as drinking at a bar:

How long have you been programing as Take-Up Productions?

Take-Up started in 2006 when MN Film Arts ended the full time repertory programming they'd done so well. At first we worked on festivals (like Sound Unseen and the Bicycle Film Festival) to raise the money we'd need to start producing series programming. The first series we did was at the Parkway in October 2007. The Killing, Kiss Me Deadly, Gilda, Pickup on South Street and The Big Sleep.

I was a pretty big fan of the Richard Widmark series at the Parkway this summer, mostly because it was a handful of films I knew very little about. How hard is it to dig up some of these films?

Widmark was actually one of the easier series to arrange, because he was under contract to Fox for much of the 40s and 50s, so we could get all 5 films from a single studio. The hard part comes when you're renting the theater, like we do, and you need to make sure that compatible equipment is in place to show older films in various formats. We're putting a Hitchcock series together now, and Hitchcock shot in pretty much every format and worked with just about every studio, so that's more difficult to piece together.

You mean like different 35mm formats?

Modern films come in two sizes. 1.85:1 is roughly the same as a widescreen television, and 2.35:1, which is Cinemascope, the super wide format. Think Star Wars or Lawrence of Arabia, which play back with black bars even on a widescreen TV.

Originally, movies were 1.33:1, the same shape as the 35mm film itself. As a reaction to television, Hollywood went wider and wider, first to 1:66:1, and then to the formats we have today. So all together, there are four common formats, and most of today's theaters are set up to handle only the two modern ones. We needed to install lenses when we first ran film noir at the Parkway, to handle 1.66 and 1.33. Lenses are pretty expensive, and it can be tough convincing a theater to invest in running old formats.

What was the impetus for the Film Noir series coming up at the Heights?

I've been wanted to do this series from the start, Universal holds some of the all time classic noir titles, but they're very careful about the equipment they allow to project their prints. That's good, because it means their collection is in great shape, but we couldn't get approval to show the films we wanted at the Parkway or most other Twin Cities theaters. When Tom Letness took over at The Heights in 1998, he installed the dual projector system needed for archive film prints, so when the chance came to do a series there, I knew right away what we were going to run.

They all look great. Can you give us some of your personal highlights of the series?

My favorites are the double features. I've been dying to show some Veronica Lake films, and we have three in this series, including a double of The Blue Dahlia and The Glass Key; neither is available on DVD. Our other double feature is a pair of Burt Lancaster films directed by Robert Siodmak: Criss Cross and The Killers.

Both pairs make great double features, they're quick, sharp films, about 90 minutes each. And like a real double feature, one ticket gets you two.

Also, I'm just a huge fan of The Big Clock. Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester, and Harry Morgan as a heavy.

It was starting to look very bad for repertory cinema there for a while with Minnesota Film Arts falling apart and seemingly no one there to pick up the pieces. But there has been a pretty nice balance of rep screenings in the past year between the series you have been doing and the occasional rep screenings at the Heights and the Walker. What do you think is a realistic future for rep cinema in the Twin Cities?

I got a peek at Tom's plans for rep programming at the Heights this year, which includes some great stuff, and the 3D series at the Parkway looks very interesting. What I want back is a dedicated repertory cinema venue. For ten years, Oak St screened five or six different films each week and because of the McKnight Foundation and the State Arts Board and a committed community of audience members, the theater thrived. I think the Twin Cities can support that kind of theater, and I want to see that happen.

The death of cinema has been talked about since the invention of the television. There is certainly evidence here and everywhere else that getting people out to the movies is becoming harder and harder. But is it all that dire?

I don't think it's dire at all. We've seen the progression of TV, VHS, DVD, NetFlix, iTunes and so on...but people will always enjoy being in a room with an audience that shares their interests. You can buy liquor and drink at home alone, but that doesn't mean bars are going away.

Excellent point. What's coming up for you after the Universal Noir series?

We've got the Hitchcock series nearly pinned down. If it all comes together, we'll open with a Thursday night screening at the Heights, then move to the Riverview for five Mondays. The Riverview is our largest venue yet, with 700 seats, so it's a bit of a gamble, but people love that theater so much that I'm expecting we'll see our largest audiences ever.

The Riverview is celebrating their 60th anniversary this year, and I think it's appropriate to celebrate by bringing back a series of films that probably screened during the theater's first decade.

I'm excited already! What Hitchcock titles have you confirmed?

Not quite confirmed, but the titles that are nearly certain include North by Northwest, Rear Window, Rope, To Catch A Thief and Vertigo.

We're still working on Strangers on a Train (I think we'll get it), and trying to find a way to include The Trouble With Harry and The Lady Vanishes.

If someone gave you a theater decked out with everything you might need and a boatload of money, what would you program?

Last year we passed on a huge series commemorating the 90 year history of United Artists. There were brand new prints of films from Martin Scorsese, Billy Wilder, Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, Blake Edwards, John Huston, Richard Lester, John Sturges, Robert Altman. And some James Bond films, too.

It was a fantastic series, and would have run for 3 weeks solid! That's the kind of programming I want back in the Twin Cities.


Full schedule for the Heights Film Noir series:

February 16 7:30 This Gun For Hire (1942)
dir Frank Tuttle, starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake
Hit man Philip Raven, who's kind to children and cats, kills a blackmailer and is paid off by traitor Willard Gates in "hot" money. Meanwhile, pert entertainer Ellen Graham, girlfriend of police Lieut. Crane (who's after Raven) is enlisted by a Senate committee to help investigate Gates. Raven, seeking Gates for revenge, meets Ellen on the train; their relationship gradually evolves from that of killer and potential victim to an uneasy alliance against a common enemy.

*February 23 BURT LANCASTER DOUBLE FEATURE (2 films for 1 $8 ticket)*
7:30 Criss Cross (1949)
dir Robert Siodmak, starring Burt Lancaster and Yvone De Carlo
Romantic, obsessive Steve Thompson is drawn back to L.A. to make another try for Anna, his former wife. However, Anna belongs now to the L.A. underworld. Steve believes he can rescue her, ignoring the advice and warnings of people who would try to save him.
9:15 The Killers (1946)
dir Robert Siodmak, starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner
Two professional killers invade a small town and kill a gas station attendant, "the Swede," who's expecting them. Insurance investigator Reardon pursues the case against the orders of his boss, who considers it trivial. Weaving together threads of the Swede's life, Reardon uncovers a complex tale of treachery and crime, all linked with gorgeous, mysterious Kitty Collins.

March 2 7:30 The Big Clock (1948)
dir John Farrow, starring Ray Milland and Charles Laughton
Crime magazine editor Richard Stroud (Ray Milland) is framed for murder when the owner of his magazine's syndicate (Charles Laughton) kills his mistress in this classic "New York Noir" suspense film.

*March 9 ALAN LADD / VERONICA LAKE DOUBLE FEATURE (2 films for 1 $8 ticket)*
7:30 The Blue Dahlia (1946)
dir George Marshall, starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake and William Bendix
Ex-bomber pilot Johnny Morrison and his buddies George and Buzz return from the war to their home town of Hollywood, for what turns out to be a fairly rude homecoming.
9:15 The Glass Key (1942)
dir Stuart Heisler, starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake
Paul Madvig, a crooked politician has decided to give up his corrupted past to team up with the respectable candidate Ralph Henry for the ongoing election. This is the film remade by the Coen Brothers in 1990 as Miller's Crossing.

March 16 7:30 The Phantom Lady (1944)
dir Robert Siodmak, starring Franchot Tone, Ella Raines and Elisha Cook
Unhappily married Scott Henderson spends the evening on a no-name basis with a hat-wearing woman he picked up in a bar. Returning home, he finds his wife strangled and becomes the prime suspect in her murder.

Take-Up's website.
The Heights Theater website.
Secrets of the City on Take-Up.
MnDialog on "Ready for Our Close-Up: 50 Years of L.A. Noir."
Star Tribune on "Playing the Villian: The Films of Richard Widmark."

The Dance Film Project @ Intermedia Arts

Friday, December 12 and Saturday, December 13 at 7pm.
John Koch, filmmaker and enterprising owner of Cinema Revolution, has pulled together 13 local filmmakers and choreographers to present seven short films that will be shown this Friday and Saturday at Intermedia Arts. The Dance Film Project is just one of the unique ways that John chose to celebrate Cinema Revolution's fifth anniversary, showing his commitment to the local arts at a very grassroots level. Dreamy local sound magician's To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie will perform after the show Saturday.

Following are descriptions of the shorts from Cinema Revolution's website:

"Reverb" by director Katie Ritchey and filmmaker Garrett Tiedemann. Four women search the echoes of space and time. While compelled forward through programmed behaviors and a maintenance of group dynamics an underlying curiosity keeps them tracing peripheries of unknown origin.

"4-Frame Dance Project" by choreographer Justin Jones and filmmaker Kevin Obsatz. Obsatz runs four digital cameras simultaneously, each facing in toward the center of a square to capture a single choreography and displayed on the screen simultaneously in a four-square layout. The dance relates to the placement of the cameras, resulting in disorienting and surprising effects produced by this particular method of capturing and displaying choreography. The technique is repeated by 8 different dancers each giving their unique take on the perspective. Featuring performances by Justin Jones, Anna Shogren, Laurie Van Wieren, Mad King Thomas (Theresa Madaus, Tara King, Monica Thomas), Charles Campbell, Kristin Van Loon, Elliott Durko-Lynch and Megan Mayer.

"Coarse Confluence" by choreographer Megan Mayer and filmmaker Kevin Obsatz. Megan Mayer, a dance artist/choreographer and photographer based in Minneapolis, is the solo performer in this site-based dance film, which is the result of an interest in the intersection between movement and film. Megan performs in an array of natural landscapes, her dance interacting with and reflecting upon her surroundings.

"throne/thrown" conceptualized by choreographer/director Vanessa Voskuil and filmmaker John Koch. Taking its impetus from W.B. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming," "throne/thrown" explores the search for the position in one's life by which to conduct one's authority over it. Directed and conceived by Vanessa Voskuil (2006 Sage Award for Outstanding Design) and John Koch (Cinema Revolution store owner and filmmaker), "throne/thrown" strives to create a frenetic, visually compelling, and cinematically moving experience.

"Alongside Sympathetic Neurons" by choreographer Mandy Herrick and filmmaker Dustin Nelson. Herrick and Nelson explore site-based dance, investigating particular locations and how they can be perceived differently through changing the typical movement, behavior, time, and perspective of each site. The exploration and movement inspired by the body-site, within the context of a geographical-site, illustrates a parallel in both body and place.

"Cuddle" by choreographer/filmmaker Erica Pinigis. Stop-motion is used to show the dance of two lovers lying together, suspended in black space and bound by a single bed sheet, as their bodies intertwine, merging, coming apart and back again, exploring the movement and gesture of romantic love.

"I'll be on the dock in a minute" choreographed and conceived by Mad King Thomas and filmmaker Katinka Galanos. Sally Rousse, co-founder of James Sewell Ballet, stars in this semi-biographical dance, filled with both truths and fictions about her life. Sally tells a story about being run over by a truck when she was a small girl, featuring peculiar and fantastic interview footage mixed with live-action reenactments/re-interpretations of the events. The following themes are informing the work: the scale of human bodies (over time and between individuals), rewriting history, investigating the function of truth vs. fiction, and the dynamics of tangential conversations.

For more information go to Cinema Revolution.

50 Years of L.A. Noir @ the Parkway

Film Noir returns to the Parkway for the next five Mondays. Take-Up Productions presents "Ready for Our Close-Up: 50 Years of L.A. Noir," offering five films that span from 1945 to 2005. The series will offer a much needed escape from the end of the season Oscar battles and holiday Hollywood hoopla. Replete with the Parkway's couches and cold beer, the series is not to be missed. All films will be screened from 35mm prints at the Parkway Theater. Tickets are $5 or you can buy a five film punch card for $20, good for any of Take-Up's presentations. (All reviews below are taken from Time Out.)

Monday, December 8, 7:30pm
Sunset Boulevard (1950) directed by Billy Wilder
One of Wilder's finest, and certainly the blackest of all Hollywood's scab-scratching accounts of itself, this establishes its relentless acidity in the opening scene by having the story related by a corpse floating face-down in a Hollywood swimming-pool. What follows in flashback is a tale of humiliation, exploitation, and dashed dreams, as a feckless, bankrupt screenwriter (Holden) pulls into a crumbling mansion in search of refuge from his creditors, and becomes inextricably entangled in the possessive web woven by a faded star of the silents (Swanson), who is high on hopes of a comeback and heading for outright insanity. The performances are suitably sordid, the direction precise, the camerawork appropriately noir, and the memorably sour script sounds bitter-sweet echoes of the Golden Age of Tinseltown (with has-beens Keaton, HB Warner and Anna Q Nilsson appearing in a brief card-game scene). It's all deliriously dark and nightmarish, its only shortcoming being its cynical lack of faith in humanity: only von Stroheim, superb as Swanson's devotedly watchful butler Max, manages to make us feel the tragedy on view.

Monday, December 15, 7:30pm
Mildred Pierce (1945) directed by
James Cain's novel of the treacherous life in Southern California that sets house-wife-turned waitress-turned-successful restauranteur (Crawford) against her own daughter (Blyth) in competition for the love of playboy Zachary Scott, is brought fastidiously and bleakly to life by Curtiz' direction, Ernest Haller's camerawork, and Anton Grot's magnificent sets. Told in flashback from the moment of Scott's murder, the film is a chilling demonstration of the fact that, in a patriarchal society, when a woman steps outside the home the end result may be disastrous.

Monday, December 22, 7:30pm
Chinatown (1974) directed by Roman Polanski
The hard-boiled private eye coolly strolls a few steps ahead of the audience. The slapstick detective gets everything wrong and then pratfalls first over the finish line anyway. Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is neither - instead he's a hard-boiled private eye who gets everything wrong. Jake snaps tabloid-ready photos of an adulterous love nest that's no such thing. He spies a distressed young woman through a window and mistakes her for a hostage. He finds bifocals in a pond and calls them Exhibit A of marital murder, only the glasses don't belong to the victim and the wife hasn't killed anyone. Yet when he confronts ostensible black widow Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) with the spectacular evidence, the cigarette between his teeth lends his voice an authoritative Bogie hiss. Throughout, Gittes sexes up mediocre snooping with blithe arrogance and sarcastic machismo. It's the actor's default mode, sure, but in 1974 it hadn't yet calcified into Schtickolson, and in 1974 a director (Polanski), a screenwriter (Towne) and a producer (Evans) could decide to beat a genre senseless and dump it in the wilds of Greek tragedy. 'You see, Mr Gits,' depravity incarnate Noah Cross (Huston) famously explains, 'most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything.' As is Chinatown. The last gunshot here is the sound of the gate slamming on the Paramount lot of Evans' halcyon reign, and as the camera rears back to catch Jake's expression, the dolly lists and shivers - an almost imperceptible sob of grief and recognition, but not a tear is shed.

Monday, December 29, 7:30pm
L.A. Confidential (1997) directed by Curtis Hanson
Dime store detective stories have inspired more great movies than Dostoevsky ever will, but local-boy-made-bad James Ellroy always seemed too tough a proposition for Hollywood to take on. Hanson's adaptation of Ellroy's most complex novel is a towering achievement, probably the finest mystery thriller since Chinatown. Set in the '50s, this punchy cocktail of gangland violence, police brutality, racism and sex-scandal cover-ups feels torn from today's headlines. It operates on the principles of an exposé, highlighting the parallax between image and reality. As Danny DeVito's muck-raising, 'Hush Hush' magazine hack guides us on a gleeful trawl through the seedier, sleazier aspects of this, the last of the frontier towns, we meet three very different lawmen: Spacey's cynical showboat Jack Vincennes; Ed Exley (Pearce), a straight-arrow cop headed for the top; and Crowe's Bud White, the strong arm of the law, brawn to Exley's brains. Contrasting not only their approaches to procedure, justice and respect, but also their vividly etched, distinctly volatile psycho-pathologies, Hanson inexorably draws these three cases to one conclusion: when the trio do take a stand, it's inspired less by idealism than self-disgust. As the emotional nexus, a Veronica Lake lookalike trapped in a web of male desires, Basinger is arguably the pick of a perfect cast. Subtle, shocking, compelling and immensely assured.

Monday, January 5, 7:30pm
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) directed by Shane Black
When Pauline Kael used the phrase ‘kiss kiss, bang bang’ to describe the visceral appeal of most movies, it was with a sense of despair – still, Shane Black (creator of the ‘Lethal Weapon’ franchise and writer of ‘Last Action Hero’ and ‘The Long Kiss Goodnight’) has never been one to court critical kudos. But while his directorial debut has its share of sex and shoot-outs, it’s also an ultra-knowing exercise in genre deconstruction, and something of a charmer to boot. Visually it’s consistently engaging, from a Kodak-coloured childhood flashback to natty Saul Bass-style credits, and the casting is spot-on: Kilmer inflects Perry’s sarcasm with an undertow of pastoral care for Downey’s Harry, whose amiable haplessness also meshes well with Harmony’s world-weariness. (Monaghan also impresses despite being a decade too young.) The film’s knowingness is natty window-dressing that lets a genre tale have its dry martini and drink it; it’s the assured characterisations that have you wishing it good health.