Repost: The Visitor (December 7th at the Cedar Lee Theatre)

[THE VISITOR screens Saturday December 7th at 11:59 pm at the Cedar Lee Theatre. One show only!]


Review by Bob Ignizio

Much is being made in the publicity for the theatrical re-release of THE VISITOR about how the world of 1979 just wasn't ready for such an out-to-lunch epic. The truth is, it feels perfectly at home alongside other Eurotrash imports of the late 70's/early 80's with Italian filmmakers wrangling international casts of fading stars. Like Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND or Enzo G. Castellari's 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS, Giulio Paradisi (aka “Michael Paradise”)'s THE VISITOR takes ideas from recent hit films and adds the sort of stylish visuals and batshit incoherency that lets you know within the first five minutes that is the hallmark of Italian exploitation films of this vintage.

Rare John Huston film commemorates 50th anniversary of JFK assassination

[Press release from the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Note that the Cinematheque is commemorating the 50^th anniversary of JFK’s assassination with this John Huston rarity:

 

Thursday, November 21, at 8:30 pm &

Friday, November 22, at 7:30 pm

50^th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination

WE WERE STRANGERS

USA, 1949, John Huston

Lee Harvey Oswald reputedly watched this little-known John Huston film two separate times on TV in the weeks before he shot JFK on 11/22/63. (It "greatly excited" him, according to one historian.) Set in 1933, the movie tells of a group of Cuban revolutionaries who plot to overthrow their country's corrupt dictator. Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, and Pedro Armendáriz star. 35mm. 106 min.

 

Regular admission prices apply: $9; Cinematheque members $7; age 25 & under $6.

The Visitor (November 16th at the Capitol Theatre)

[THE VISITOR screens Saturday November 16th at 11:59 pm at the Capitol Theatre. One show only!]


Review by Bob Ignizio

Much is being made in the publicity for the theatrical re-release of THE VISITOR about how the world of 1979 just wasn't ready for such an out-to-lunch epic. The truth is, it feels perfectly at home alongside other Eurotrash imports of the late 70's/early 80's with Italian filmmakers wrangling international casts of fading stars. Like Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND or Enzo G. Castellari's 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS, Giulio Paradisi (aka “Michael Paradise”)'s THE VISITOR takes ideas from recent hit films and adds the sort of stylish visuals and batshit incoherency that lets you know within the first five minutes that is the hallmark of Italian exploitation films of this vintage.

Casino Royale (1967) (April 6th at the CWRU Film Society at Strosacker Auditorium)

[CASINO ROYALE screens Saturday April 6th at 7:00 pm and 9:30 pm at the CWRU Film Society at Strosacker Auditorioum.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

 

Unless their schedule is seriously in error (and it does happen, damn college students), the Case Western-Reserve University Film Society is pairing the campus showing of the latest James Bond masterpiece, 2012's SKYFALL, this weekend, with a revival of CASINO ROYALE - no, not the critically overpraised 2006 CASINO ROYALE that relaunched the franchise, with Daniel Craig as a tough, realistic Bond, true to the hardboiled prose of Ian Fleming. The CWRU crowd have instead (I hope) impishly programmed the CASINO ROYALE from 1967 - a daffy spoof serious Bond buffs would wish could disappear, like Lucasfans hope could happen to Jar Jar Binks. No kidding, this notorious camp makes the Roger Moore MOONRAKER look like TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY.

The African Queen (April 8th, 9th and 10th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[THE AFRICAN QUEEN screens Friday April 8th at 9 pm, Saturday April 9th at 7:25 pm, and Sunday April 10th at 4 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady Jr.

I think I actually first saw John Huston's romantic-comedy-adventure classic on a big screen as a 16mm treat in elementary school. I fear to think what today's elementary schoolers get to watch at assembly these days. Probably R-rated Judd Apatow-Farrelly Brothers comedies about overly dramatic black transexuals (by stunning coincidence, also entitled THE AFRICAN QUEEN). I can't say I remember how this 1951 great went over with the rest of the juvenile audience, the future Cuyahoga County employees and up-and-coming alcoholics who were my peers. But I sorta liked it then, and with time and maturity I really like it now. It still plays nicely, this legendary, much-imitated romantic adventure teaming Hollywood legends Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn.