Tuesday, May 22, 2007
The Big Screen: 5/22/07
So remember that column I posted about Noel Lawrence and Other Cinema? Noel sent me an email over the weekend announcing that he'll be in L.A. this week to present a few screenings. Tonight, he'll be at The Hyperion Tavern, screening weird stuff at the Club Ding-A-Ling night hosted by L.A. punk legend Don Bolles. Tomorrow, he'll be presenting weird found film at Thrift Store Movies, an event taking place at the Hammer Museum's Billy Wilder Theater. And on Friday, there will be a rare screening of J.X. Williams' film Peepshow, (which I wrote about in the above-linked column) along with some rare Williams shorts and a slide show presentation on Williams' life, at The Showcave on Temple Street downtown. More fun screening information can be seen by clicking on the clickety thing!
The Billy Wilder Theater is also the home of the UCLA Film and Television Archive, which will be presenting the documentary A Pervert's Guide to Cinema on June 4. The title is enough to sell me, but it sounds like a fascinating documentary, with philosopher Slavoj Zizek deconstructing films and examining the psyches of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch from key film locations.
Guy Maddin's newest film, Brand Upon the Brain, will screen for a week, from June 8 through June 14, at The American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Seeing one of Maddin's flights of cinematic fancy on the big screen could be a lot of fun, but if you go see it over the weekend, you'll get what promises to be a fantastic show. To quote the ad copy, "In an unprecedented act of faith in the enduring power of the theatrical experience, Brand Upon the Brain! is being presented as an expansive live event in select cities, featuring an 11-piece "live" orchestra, a 3-person "Live" Foley (sound effects performed onstage) team, and a "live" celebrity narrator, and onstage Castrato supplementing the filmic image, to comprise a one-of-a-kind cinematic spectacle." Yes, it says "castrato." Apparently they still exist. Maddin will be there in person to introduce the film. If you aren't familiar with Maddin's work on features like The Saddest Music in the World, check out his short film The Heart of the World:
...or The Eye Like A Strange Balloon:
Cinespia has started up their summer season of graveyard screenings. If the idea of seeing classic films projected onto a crypt in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, surrounded no doubt by the ghosts of the Hollywood legends buried there, appeals to you, this is the series for you. Vertigo screens this Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Conservancy continues its Last Remaining Seats series through June. This is a rare chance to see some great movies at the city's classic movie palaces, including The Orpheum, The Los Angeles Theater, The John Anson Ford Ampitheater, and The Alex in Glendale, where Howard Hawkes' 1932 version of Scarface will screen on Saturday, June 27. Here's my suggestion: get a cheap steak and a couple mai tais at one of L.A.'s last surviving vintage tiki bars, Damon's, then spend an hour or so shopping for used books at Brand Books and Bookfellows, then go see Scarface in this magnificent theater (see above), and finish up with the insanely tasty dulce de leche crepes at El Morfi. Sounds like a great night out to me.
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Labels: Brand Upon the Brain, Noel Lawrence, Peepshow, Scarface, The Big Screen, Vertigo
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