From Patton: COME SIT IN THE DARK WITH ME
Friday, October 3rd through Thursday, October 16th I’m “curating” my first-ever festival at The New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. Edgar Wright, Seth Green, Joe Dante, Diablo Cody, Quentin Tarantino and other, far more charming individuals than myself have done ‘em, and now it’s my turn.
Please visit http//www.newbevcinema.com for all the showtimes – I’m not going to run them here. In general, there’s two showings on weeknights, plus afternoon matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. Please shut down your social, work and bathing needs accordingly, to make sure you’re there for every single screening. There’s no reason for you to have any sort of life while I’m showing movies.
I will be there in person the first night of each double feature, to introduce the films, maybe chat with guests and give stuff away (I have no idea who’ll be showing up or what kind of goodies I’ll be able to get my grubby hands on – so why not be surprised along with me?)
To make your scheduling needs easier, here are the evenings I’ll be there: Friday, October 3rd; Sunday, October 5th; Wednesday, October 8th; Friday, October 10th; Sunday, October 12th and Wednesday, October 15th
Here’s some programming notes:
The Taking of Pelham 123
and
Charley Varrick
Was there ever a more unlikely – or more perfect – “action hero” than Walter Matthau? This double feature showcases Matthau pitting his slouch, jowls and world-weariness against two of the iciest villains in screen history.
In Pelham, Matthau is the rumpled, cranky Lt. Garber, facing down subway hijacker Robert Shaw and his color-coded band of machine gun-wielding criminals. A gritty, chaotic love letter to an early 70’s New York in decay, complete with an ineffective mayor, whining hostages, and a sardonic Jerry Stiller. Gesundheit.
Charley Varrick is Don Siegel’s follow-up to Dirty Harry, with Matthau roaming the badlands of New Mexico. This time he’s on the other side of the law, as bank robber Varrick, who unwittingly rips off nearly a million dollars of mob money. The cops and mob are soon in pursuit – including an oily John Vernon, Norman Fell in a bulletproof vest and, worst of all, Joe Don Baker as Mr. Molly, described by screenwriter Barry Gifford as a “…flesh and blood Terminator…every day he’s around is Friday the 13th.” Whores are insulted, the hills are filled with explosions, and a pipe cleaning knife is…misused. Plus, John Vernon muses about pliers and blowtorches. Will Matthau prevail?
The Lineup
and
Blast of Silence
15 years before Charley Varrick, Don Siegel directed this lean, brutal crime flick with Eli Wallach as a desperate bag man trying to talk his way out of an execution. There’s unfinished highways, a steam room snuff, and a frightening meeting with “The Man” in a roller rink. A favorite of James Ellroy’s – and the inspiration for a Bob Dylan song. How can you allow yourself to miss it?
Blast of Silence is a no-budget, black-and-white rough draft for Taxi Driver, and – until its recent prestige release by Criterion – the Holy Grail of noir enthusiasts. Writer/director/star Allen Baron is “Baby Boy” Frankie Bono, an Ohio hitman visiting Manhattan at Christmastime to work his work – and wrestle with his past. “You’re cold now.”
American Movie
and
Cars III
Chris Smith brought America the purest portrait of hope in the face of oblivion with his documentary American Movie. Recounting the massive failures and small victories of Wisconsin filmmaker Mark Borchardt, I must have seen this in the theaters five times. “I’m thirty years old, and I’m about to clean up someone else’s shit.” This is Ed Wood in a world of strip malls, child support and credit card debts. Also…it’s weirdly inspiring.
Cars III is having its world premiere at The New Beverly on Wednesday, October 8th. Portland-based no-budget filmmaker Bobby Hacker’s been steadily building a love/hate cult following on YouTube. This is his first feature – a cautionary tale of a used car salesman who rolls the dice with damnation to sell one more car.
Here, check out the short film (which Bobby made to test his homemade green screen) that inspired the feature:
[YOUTUBE]LaAZKtoAFgc[/YOUTUBE](Note: Bobby Hacker will be in attendance for the Wednesday night premiere. *Special thanks to Bobby for letting me premiere his film)
Nighthawks
and
Commando
All y’all haters need to avert your gaze and bow down at the altar of 80’s manliness that was the Austrian/Italian alliance of Stallone/Schwarzenegger.
Here’s my detailed synopsis of each movie:
(Explosion sound and then guitar riff from anything by Judas Priest).
See you there!
The Foot Fist Way
and
Tsui Hark’s The Blade
The Foot Fist Way was the criminally under-appreciated best comedy to be released this year, and the funniest film I’ve seen in a long time. Danny McBride is Fred Simmons, a short-sighted tae kwon do instructor in a North Carolina mini-mall. The self-proclaimed “Master of the Demo”, his life begins to fall apart, no matter how many boards he breaks or bricks he shatters. “Your weakness is disgusting to me.”
Tsui Hark’s The Blade features revenge, love, violence and redemption cranked up to feverish levels. Man Cheuk Ciu is the sardonic, one-armed chain-sword outcast, seeking revenge for the death of his father. Xin Xin Xiong is the scary, tattoed Fei Lung, a shrieking, wild-eyed psycho-killer. The fight sequences give new meaning to the term “ground shaking”. Don’t be a pussy, show up.
(*Special thanks to Quentin Tarantino for loaning me his print of The Blade)
Curse of the Demon
and
F.W. Murnau’s Faust
My festival ends as the days grow darker and Halloween approaches with two of my favorite, moodiest horror flicks.
First up is Jacques Tourneur’s much-debated Curse of the Demon. This is the movie that cinephiles always point to in the ongoing “show or don’t show” argument about movie monsters. Which way is scarier? Whatever side you fall on, Curse of the Demon has plenty of weird, eerie atmosphere, as nearly every scene crawls with menace just out of the frame. Dana Andrews is the skeptical American with a case of -- as the theme for The Rocky Horror Picture Show declared -- the “runes”.
F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu) directed this dark-yet-epic adaptation of Goethe’s immortal novel right before he made Sunrise. But whereas Sunrise was an intimate, touching portrait of love’s struggle in the modern world, Faust is evil and temptation writ large. God and the Devil wager the fate of the world on one disillusioned German doctor, with Emil Jannings having a ball as Mephisto, the Devil’s agent of corruption. No matter how much CGI or Steadi-Cam footage you’ve seen, the shot of Satan enveloping the world in his cape is guaranteed to give you the heebie-jeebies.
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