Escape From New York (screens Oct.13 and Oct. 15 at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK screens Friday October 13th at 7:30 pm and Sunday October 15th at 9:50 pm at the Cleveland Cinemathque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

All his career John Carpenter has told folks that he’s really only wanted to make “westerns.” Yet he has consistently delivered horror and science-fiction and the occasional one-off nonconformist like a good TV biopic of Elvis Presley (featuring Kurt Russell) or the police thriller ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, which is regarded as a partial remake of RIO BRAVO. Okay, but not since his student-film days, if I’m not mistaken, has the dude actually delivered a genuine western.

Maybe he’s doing one of those things from The Little Prince, in which there’s a drawing of a lamb that is so perfect it’s just the box in which the lamb resides; you will never actually see a lamb, but you can still just imagine how the drawing is exactly right (sort of like my career). Same with John Carpenter and his “westerns.”

Carpenter’s 1981 flick ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, at least, does have the DNA of a proper Hollywood-studio western, in the Howard Hawks no-funny-business filmmaking style (most recently personified by Clint Eastwood’s work behind the cameras), hitched to a high-concept dystopia plot.

Nosferatu (October 6th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[NOSFERATU screens Friday October 6th at 9:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque. Live musical accompaniment by The Invincible Czars.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

For those who don't already know, F.W. Murnau's silent horror classic NOSFERATU is in reality a very thinly disguised and very much unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'. Stoker's heirs were not pleased and tried to have every copy of the film destroyed, but like any good movie monster NOSFERATU managed to rise from the grave. It is now considered one of the undisputed classics of the horror genre, one of those films that film historians and critics will tell you that you simply have to see in order to have an appreciation for the development of cinematic art, blah, blah, blah. And they're right, of course, but that's not why you should watch it. You should watch NOSFERATU because, even at almost a century old, it's still fun to watch.

The Girl Without Hands (September 21st and 22nd at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[THE GIRL WITHOUT HANDS screens Thursday September 21^st at 8:50 pm and Friday September 22^nd at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

It’s a given in fairy tales that when someone makes a deal with a supernatural being, be it a witch or whatever the heck Rumplestiltskin is, there’s going to be a catch. In THE GIRL WITHOUT HANDS a poor woodsman trades “what is behind [his] mill” to an incognito Devil for wealth, thinking all he is giving up is his apple tree. What the woodsman doesn’t realize is, at the time the deal is struck, his daughter is in said apple tree, making her part of the package.

As is often the case with fairy tales in their purer forms (and this adaptations sticks fairly close to the Brothers Grimm text), this one is probably too dark and loaded with subtext to qualify as children’s fare. The idea of a father lopping his daughter’s hands off to make good on his deal with the Devil is certainly nightmare fuel. And when the handless girl eats pears from a Prince’s garden, it certainly seems suggestive of something else. Or maybe my mind’s just in the gutter, and sometimes a cigar (or pear) really is just a cigar (or pear).  

Repost: Halloween (September 21st and 22nd at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[HALLOWEEN screens Thursday September 21st at 6:45 pm and Friday September 22nd at 9:10 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Has it been 35 years? Really, THIRTY-FIVE YEARS! since I heard locker-room whispers around the NE Ohio high school I attended that there was a new movie out called HALLOWEEN, by that maverick director John Carpenter who had previously done that attention-getting, whacko low-budget science-fiction flick DARK STAR (a film-school project that had won bonus re-release to cash in the success of STAR WARS).

And HALLOWEEN was talked up by my youthful classmates as the coolest thing ever; all the guys on the football team were going to get stoned with their skank girlfriends and see it again on the weekend.

I took that rave with a slight bit of skepticism. Much as I admired DARK STAR, this was the late 1970s, remember. And Ohio kids would get stoned to go see a roadshow return engagement of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, as long as someone brought the keg and the dope and the skank girls. 

Kekszakullu (September 7th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[KEKSZAKULLU screens Thursday September 7^th at 6:45 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

The best scene in KEKSZAKALLU, and the one that best encapsulates what the film is about, is its very first. It takes place on the diving board of a public swimming pool, where we watch several adolescent boys enthusiastically launch themselves into the water below. Then an adolescent girl walks to the end and pauses, contemplating what it is she is about to do. She hesitates, and looks back. We never do find out if she takes the plunge.

The scene is a metaphor for the uncertainty that comes with the transition from childhood to adulthood, which this film seems to argue is more difficult and ambivalent for females than males. Various vignettes follow a small group of young women as they navigate this transition. There is little concern with traditional narrative or story, focusing more on creating an atmosphere in which to explore its central theme.

The Queen of Spain (September 1st at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[THE QUEEN OF SPAIN screens Saturday September 1^st at 7:00 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

A mix of cinematic nostalgia, farcical comedy, and political intrigue, Fernando Trueba’s THE QUEEN OF SPAIN never really congeals into a satisfying whole. The main plot concerns glamorous Spanish actress Macarena Granada (Penelope Cruz) returning to her home country after becoming a star in America only to find that her presumed dead lover Blas Fontiveros (Antonio Resines) is alive. Blas gets a job on the film Macarena is starring in, a biopic about Spain’s Queen Isabella, but quickly runs afoul of his ex-wife’s new beau, an officer in the Franco regime.  

Blas is sent off to do hard labor, and at the urging of his ex-wife, Macarena goes to visit him. As it becomes increasingly apparent that someone wants Blas not just imprisoned, but dead, Macarena hatches a plot with the cast and crew of the film to help Blas escape.

Repost: Kedi (August 26th and 27th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[KEDI screens Saturday August 26th at 8:15 pm and Sunday August 27th at 8:25 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Attention cat lovers, your movie of the year has arrived. The documentary KEDI takes audiences on an exotic journey to Istanbul, where felines are given free reign of the city. These are not feral cats, keeping their distance from humans and surviving on the fringes. Nor are they pets in the usual sense of the word. Instead, they exist somewhere between those two points, enjoying food and attention from humans while still maintaining a level of independence and staying true to their animal nature.

Directed by Ceyda Torun, the film is part travelogue, part nature film, part history lesson, and part study of human nature as it susses out the various reasons why Turks have chosen to co-exist with cats in this way. Sure, the cats get food and love, but the relationship is symbiotic as humans benefit, too. But then, if you're a cat lover, you already knew that.

I Am The Blues (August 18th and 20th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[I AM THE BLUES screens Friday August 18^th at 9:30 pm and Sunday August 20^th at 6:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Following 81 year old bluesman Bobby Rush as he hits the road, I AM THE BLUES captures what’s left of a dying generation of American musicians.

In the bad old days of segregation, black musicians had their own network of clubs called the “Chitlin’ Circuit”. These black owned juke joints and roadhouses gave the early blues musicians a place to play, often for little more than a drink and some food. Many of the old establishments are gone, but not all of them, and as Rush goes on tour we get to see some of the surviving venues.

We also get to see many of Rush’s contemporaries who, like him, can still kill it live regardless of age. Among the featured performers are Barbara Lynn, Freddie King, and Lil’ Buck Sinegal. They and the other musicians featured here may not be household names now, but they made substantial contributions to music history.

Tomorrow (August 11th and 12th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[TOMORROW screens Friday August 11^th at 9:30 pm and Satuday August 12^th at 6:45 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

The scientific consensus regarding climate change being real and, at least to a large degree, caused by human activity is near unanimous. Some people still choose to bury their heads in the sand for reasons of politics or profit, but most of the world accepts the reality of the situation. And it’s a reality that, when you really think about it, is kind of terrifying.

The international community (minus, sadly, the United States) is working on solving this problem under the auspices of the Paris Climate Accord. But is there anything that can be done on a smaller, more local level? Plenty, as it turns out.

Harmonium (August 10th and 13th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[HARMONIUM plays at the Cleveland Cinematheque on Thursday, August 10 at 8:50 p.m. and Sunday, August 13 at 8:15 p.m.]

Review by Eric Sever

The creeping destruction of a suburban Japanese family provides ripe territory for suspense in Koji Fukada’s slow-burning thriller HARMONIUM.

Toshio (Kanji Furutachi) is a husband and father with a past that comes back to haunt him in the form of an old acquaintance. When Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano) appears at Toshio’s workshop one day, the father hires the former friend, freshly out of prison, and even lets him move in.

Yasaka eventually ingratiates himself with Toshio’s daughter, teaching her how to perfect her harmonium playing, but when he begins a simmering flirtation with Toshio’s wife Akie (Mariko Tsutsui), the friendship begins to undermine the structure of the family.

Dawson City: Frozen Time (August 3rd and 6th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME screens Thursday August 3^rd at 8:30 pm and Sunday August 6^th at 3:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Part time capsule and part tone poem. A piece of history but also a work of art. That’s what director Bill Morrison has crafted in his documentary feature DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME.

First and foremost, the film tells the fascinating story of how a treasure trove of silent film reels was discovered buried beneath the ground in the small Canadian town of Dawson City in 1978. These reels, from the 1910s and 1920s, were used as landfill. Tossed away like garbage. And ironically, it was that fate that saved them from deteriorating or bursting into flame like so many silent era films that utilized nitrate film stock.

Cinematheque celebrates 31st anniversary with special movies by Tarantino, Lynch, Lang, et al.

[Press release from the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque celebrates its 31^st anniversary between August 3 and 6 with a weekend of special movies for film buffs. All have been programmed by the Cinematheque’s co-founder and 31-year Director, John Ewing.

 

Showing during the four days will be:

 

(1)    FLOORSHOW, a shot-in-NE Ohio, 1978 16mm feature by the region’s pre-eminent independent filmmaker, Richard Myers.

(2)    DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME, the latest found-footage assemblage by early cinema archaeologist Bill (DECASIA) Morrison. Cleveland premiere.

(3)    Quentin Tarantino’s RESERVOIR DOGS, shown in a new 35mm color & scope print struck for the film’s 25^th anniversary.

(4)    INDUSTRIAL SYMPHONY #1 & RABBITS, two rarities by David Lynch that were never released to movie theaters.

(5)    Archival 35mm prints of GO WEST with the Marx Brothers and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s SANTA SANGRE.

(6)    A new digital restoration of Fritz Lang’s two-part, 1922 German silent crime epic DR. MABUSE, THE GAMBLER.

 

Detailed descriptions are below.

 

All will show in the Peter B. Lewis Theater of the Cleveland Institute of Art, 11610 Euclid Avenue in the Uptown district of University Circle. Unless noted below, admission to each film is $10; Cinematheque members and those age 25 & under $7. Free parking for filmgoers is available in Lot 73 and in the Institute Annex Lot, both located off E. 117^th Street from Euclid Avenue. For further information, visit cia.edu/cinematheque, email cinema@cia.edu, or call (216) 421-7450.

 

Cinematheque programs are supported by a grant Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

 

Manifesto (July 28th and 30th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[MANIFESTO screens Friday July 28^th at 7:30 pm and Sunday July 30^th at 8:25 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Conceived as an art installation in which 13 short films each played on their own screen, writer/director Julian Rosefeldt’s MANIFESTO has been edited by Bobby Good into a feature film that can play on just one screen. As one might guess, this is very much a conceptual art film. The concept in this case being that various artistic manifestoes (Dadaism, surrealism, Dogme 95, etc.) are given voice by actress Cate Blanchett playing a variety of characters.

Blanchett’s performances turn what could have been a dry, intellectual exercise into something human and relatable. Her characters include a scruffy beareded street person, an inebriated rocker, a woman giving a eulogy, a housewife saying grace, a factory worker, and dual TV reporters. Sometimes the characters seem like perfect compliments to the philosophies they’re espousing, other times they’re just the right juxtaposition.

Repost: The Dance of Reality (July 29th and 30th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[THE DANCE OF REALITY screens Saturday July 29th at 8:35 pm and Sunday July 30th at 3:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

After being absent from theater screens for 23 years, cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky finally returns with THE DANCE OF REALITY, a vividly colorful surrealist spectacle that is the first film I've seen this year worthy of being called a masterpiece. The title refers to Jodorowsky's idea that each person creates their own reality in a “dance” with their imagination. So while DANCE is ostensibly autobiographical, covering Jodorowsky's childhood in Chile and the evolution of his father from a hyper masculine petty dictator into a more caring and spiritual being, one shouldn't necessarily take it at face value.

Endless Poetry (July 21st and 22nd at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[ENDLESS POETRY screens Friday July 21^st at 9:20 pm and Saturday July 22^nd at 6:55 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Not so much a sequel as it is part of the same film, surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ENDLESS POETRY picks up right where his previous film, THE DANCE OF REALITY, left off. Leaving his childhood behind, ENDLESS POETRY finds Jodorowsky as a young man (Adan Jodorowsky) living in Santiago, Chile.

Although Alejandro’s father Jaime’s (Brontis Jodorowsky) attitude seemed to soften somewhat by the end of THE DANCE OF REALITY, he’s back to being a stern figure as ENDLESS POETRY begins. This is a man who hires a little person to dress up like Hitler and stand outside his store to drum up business, and he definitely has no sympathy for shoplifters. He also wants his son to become a doctor rather than follow his muse to become an artist, a profession Jaime believes is reserved for homosexuals.

Repost: The Love Witch (July 22nd and 23rd at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[THE LOVE WITCH screens Saturday July 22nd at 9:25 pm and Sunday July 24th at 6:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Eric Sever

Simultaneously garish and cheap, the exploitation films of the late Sixties and early Seventies - particularly gothic European horrors -- were filled with lusty, bloody women, who were almost always relegated to being prey for some creature (often with strong sexual overtones) or to being villainous eye candy.

In THE LOVE WITCH, writer/director Anna Biller reimagines that later femme fatale archetype, lovingly throwing in all the old Satanic film tropes - tarot cards, candles, potions, pentagrams, black robes, and nude altars.

The young, witchy heroine Elaine (played by the gorgeous Samantha Robinson) is seductive, dangerous, and sexually aggressive, but she is also a woman who operates from an outdated "Stepford Wives" standard of femininity. She uses her powers almost exclusively to find and to please men. She believes that this should be the ultimate goal for any woman.

Repost: Jodorowsky's Dune (July 13th and 15th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[JODOROWSKY'S DUNE screens Thursday July 13th at 6:45 pm and Saturday July 15th at 8:50 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

One of the more famous movies never made was an adaptation of Frank Herbert's science fiction novel Dune that was kicking around in the mid seventies. Cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky wrote the screenplay and would have directed, with Michael Seydoux producing. It got pretty far along in pre-production, but ultimately no studio was willing to come up with the necessary budget to make the film and it fizzled out.

And yet the legend of the film persisted among science fiction fans and admirers of Jodorowsky. The idea of the man responsible for visually stunning acid-head epics like EL TOPO and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN tackling one of the avowed classics of science fiction literature is a tantalizing “what if?” that will never really be answered. Thanks to director Frank Pavich's documentary JODOROWSKY'S DUNE, however, we at least get some idea of what such a film might have been like.

July/August 2017 schedule for the Cleveland Cinematheque

[Press release from the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

 

Alejandro Jodorowsky, the Marx Brothers, and Sweden’s Arne Sucksdorff are the subjects of three film series showing in July and August at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque.

 

“Endless Poetry: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky” (July 13 – August 25) consists of seven films by the Chilean-French surrealist best known for EL TOPO and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN. Included is his brand new feature, ENDLESS POETRY.

 

“Late Marx Brothers” (July 28 – August 31) consists of the rarely-revived-in-theaters last six features by the famous comedy team.

 

“Divided Worlds: The Films of Arne Sucksdorff” (July 6-16) consists of three programs of stunningly shot shorts and features by the late, great, Oscar-winning Swedish nature filmmaker who was born 100 years ago.

 

Screenings of numerous first-run films (including new works by Werner Herzog  and Bill Morrison) and classics (including David Lynch’s THE STRAIGHT STORY, INDUSTRIAL SYMPHONY NO. 1, and RABBITS) will supplement the movies in the above three series. The complete two-month Cinematheque lineup is below.

 

All  films will show in the Peter B. Lewis Theater at the Cleveland Institute of Art, 11610 Euclid Avenue in the Uptown District of University Circle. Unless noted, admission to each program is $10; Cinematheque members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $7. An added film on the same day costs an additional $7 (or the member price for that film).

 

Free parking for filmgoers is available in Lot 73 and in the CIA Annex Lot, both accessed from E. 117^th Street off Euclid Avenue. Cinematheque programs are supported by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

 

For further information, visit cia.edu/cinematheque; send an email to cinema@cia.edu; or call John Ewing or Tim Harry at (216) 421-7450.

 

The Straight Story (July 1 & 2 at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[THE STRAIGHT STORY screens Saturday July 1st at 5:00 pm and Sunday July 2nd at 6:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

A few odd weeks in 1999 it seemed like the movie values system had turned upside down, most agreeably so. First, Cleveland native Wes Craven, synonymous with gore and horror, delivered MUSIC OF THE HEART, a wholesome, PG-rated music drama, based on fact, starring Meryl Streep (Craven said he finally wanted to direct a film that his conservative parents could see). Then David Lynch, a name equated with extreme, transgressive and positively diseased themes in cinema, made a deliberately G-rated all-ages feature THE STRAIGHT STORY. Released by Disney, in fact.

Whether Lynch also had underaged or prudish family members is unknown to me, and it did seem to me that THE STRAIGHT STORY’s MPAA label wasn't a little bit of a marketing ploy, dangling in front of the art-school pseudointellectuals and cult viewers who comprised the Lynch fanbase the question of what can the creator of BLUE VELVET possibly

get away with under a G rating?

Twilight Zone: The Movie (June 23 at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE screens Friday June 23rd at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Rod Serling’s revered TV half-hour anthology The Twilight Zone, aired originally from 1959 to 1965, told different sci-fi and fantasy-tinged morality plays each week. It’s long shadow inspired this Warner Brothers big-budget movie anthology that made its theatrical debut in 1983 – an era when the blockbuster box-office returns of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg fantasias led the entertainment rackets to lavishly remake, relaunch and reboot all the way-out properties they owned the rights to. Whether the studios “got it” or not.

Three parts of the four installments in TWILIGHT ZONE – THE MOVIE remake favorite TZ episodes, but the first, directed by John Landis (hot after AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON) is an original. It's about a bigoted businessman (Vic Morrow), ranting about losing a job promotion to a Jew, who instantly finds himself cruelly knocked about the whole 20th century, suffering the same persecutions as blacks in the Jim Crow South, Jews in the Holocaust, and Indochinese during the Vietnam War. This was the featurette in which actor Morrow (and two child actors) died in an on-camera accident, perishing beneath a crashing helicopter while filming the Vietnam section. The horrific waste made even more disappointing by the segment itself, a one-note bashing of a nasty guy that feels like something whipped up by slumming liberal Hollywood film-school students.