Results tagged “filmseries”

As the yearlong 69 film series soldiers on, tonight is your last chance to see one of Francis Ford Coppola's first films, The Rain People.

The documentary Rem Koolhaas: A kind of architect (at NWFF through March 12, tickets $9) is supposed to be okay with puffy-eyed, jug-eared Koolhaas, a former film critic. It's difficult to make sense of at first viewing, full of art-school horseshit like introduced video and audio distortions, which no doubt have some intellectual justification but mainly serve as reminders of the film's creators' existence, like that TV show's producer's credit where the little kid V.O. says, triumphantly, "I made this!"

KEEP ON 69-ING: The Northwest Film Forum's yearlong film series highlighting the wide breadth of movies that came out in 1969 continues with two fine American features. Sydney Pollack's Depression-era dance marathon They Shoot Horses Don't They? was nominated for nine Oscars (winning one), while John Schlesinger's gigolo drama Midnight Cowboy is still the only X-rated film to win Best Picture. Both films play through Thursday with the former running at 6:15 and the latter at 8:30 every night.

INAUGURATION PRE-FUNK: On this most hallowed Inauguration Eve, head to Neumo's and raise a mighty yawp for Obama with Orkestar Zirkonium. They'll bring the party with their local take on Eastern European brass and drums. Also on the bill: the funkdefied r&b grooves of Emerald City Soul Club and the urban Latin flavor of Picoso.

Of all the quintessentially American genres, hardboiled crime fiction is the one that's lasted the longest, but in a strange twist of cultural fate, that longevity owes at least as much to the French as it does to the people here at home. The attraction to noir (they even gave it the name!) is pretty obvious: These are the stories of the American urban wasteland, born of the early- to mid-twentieth century cities, teeming with immigrants in bitter competition, ruled by corrupt political machines, manipulated by a dark underworld of gangsters. While the middle class could live in a comfortable world of increasing prosperity with the option of deluding themselves with happy, moral stories that reinforced that worldview, noir represented the popular dissent. Good doesn't always win, women aren't always virtuous, things are essentially bad and not subject to change, and heroes are frequently less than heroic.

OH THE HORROR: Every Monday in January is a different silent movie, complete with Dennis James on The Paramount's mighty Wurlitzer organ. This time around, Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays features scary silent classics from the '20s, kicking off with tonight's showing of Lon Chaney in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Tonight's the final night of the final film in the Northwest Film Forum's Hal Ashby series, and it's a good 'un. Being There is the story of Chance the Gardener, a simple man whose straight-forward innocence charms everyone he encounters in upper crust Washington D.C. As played by Peter Sellers, television-loving Chance hews closely to Kirk Lazarus' sage advice that an actor should never go "full retard." Shirley MacLaine and Melvyn Douglas also turn in solid performances as the D.C. power couple who take Chance in to their palatial estate after a minor car accident. Though it came out in 1979, the film's satirical look at politics, the press, high society, and media hypersaturation is just as relevant now, if not moreso. Think Forrest Gump with more dark wit and less aw-shucks, and then get yourself to the Northwest Film Forum tonight for Being There's final two screenings.

Last night the Northwest Film Forum had a line out the door with moviegoers eager for some classic European cinema. As previously mentioned, the Italian sex comedy Divorce--Italian Style (and its follow-up, Seduced and Abandoned) are showing in the small theater through tomorrow, leaving the big one to hold the main event, the NWFF's latest film series, Duel of the Cool.

There's just a little bit of time left before SIFF 2008's opening night, and in between now and then, SIFF Cinema is hosting the United Artists 90th Anniversary film series. To celebrate the studio's 90th birthday next year, the touring tribute covers films from the mid-'50s to 1980, the decades when UA was at the height of its powers. Not like right now, when the relaunched studio's attempt at a comeback (Tom Cruise's Hitler-killing Nazi drama Valkyrie) has just been delayed for the second time, which has everyone in the industry proclaiming UA 2.0, the film, and the couch-jumper himself all but dead.

The above globe-trotting, film-splicing trailer is for the Global Lens Series, starting up at SIFF Cinema this weekend. The series of ten films from nine countries runs now through April 3rd, highlighting the work from several countries not exactly known for their film industries, like The Philippines, Lebanon, and Argentina.