A Hodgepodge of Filmery
You've got all kinds of options for films this week rather than going to see The Amityville Horror---and please people, for the love of God, do not pay to see movies like that...it only encourages Hollywood to trot out yet another completely unnecessary horror flick remake.
Instead, you could check out Chinatown at the Northwest Film Forum, playing through Thursday at 7pm and 9:45pm. Seattlest wouldn't exactly call it the "greatest film of all time," but it's well worth a viewing or two, especially with a brand-new 35mm print. Meanwhile in the U District, the Grand Illusion (who just celebrated their one-year-under-current-management-iversary) is showing John Frankenheimer's oft-overlooked paranoia-fest Seconds through Thursday at 7pm and 9pm. This is the last feature in the their film series "Rock Discovered, Rock Defined, and Rock Re-made," a celebration of Rock Hudson, Seattlest's second-favorite closeted movie star ever (you'll always be #1 to us, Tom Cruise).
Speaking of film series, the SAM is showing a French film noir every Thursday night (7:30pm) through June 9th in the Plestcheeff Auditorium. Somehow, we missed out on the first two (Casque d'Or, aka Golden Marie, and Pépé le Moko), but there's still eight remaining, including Rififi, the archetypal heist film, and Diabolique, which has genuinely crafted suspense up the wazoo and was also, unfortunately, the victim of a terrible American re-imagining. If you already know you want to go see 'em all, call up the box office and purchase the entire package for $48 ($42.40 for SAM members). Tickets may also be purchased through the box office a la carte ($6 per film, $5.30 for SAM members) and they're $8 at the door.
Or you can wait till Friday to see The Interpreter (roughly translated: meh), A Lot Like Love (a lot like no), or Kung Fu Hustle (yes! yes! yes!). Don't even get us started on XXX: State of the Union....
