Huzzah for Cinematheque. As always, their schedule of upcoming films fills me with anticipation and delight.
Sure, there's lots of stuff I think is skipable (films by Maurice Pialat) if not downright pap (films by overrated humbug Jean-Luc Godard), and the usual series of short films by experimental filmmakers (more proof of the synonymity of “avant garde filmmaker” with “tosser”). And Cinematheque just doesn't seem to grasp the fact that Dogme is bad.
Bad, Dogme! Bad!
But there are gems here, too. There are the Manly He-Man films of Samuel Fuller, for instance (and a chance to test my theory that all his films are really about the hero as sociopath).
There are also four showings of a Danish film called The Five Obstructions that I've really wanted to see since I first heard about it late last year. Let's hear it for Cinematheque and it's ability to read my mind.
Speaking of which, they're also re-showing La Jetee, which I missed last time around. Huzzah again.
aside:
In case you haven't heard about this one, it sounds like a pip. It takes place after the Third World War. German scientists trap a man in the catacombs below Paris and subject him to experiments to force him to confront the moment of his death on a “pier” at Orly Airport. It was later remade (after a fashion) by Terry Gilliam as 12 Monkeys.
end of aside
They're even showing G. W. Pabst's Pandora’s Box, because there is no way to make any sense of the phrase “too much Louise Brooks.”
For those playing the Carrington Home Game, here are the correct answers to Question 17b:
-
The Big Red One by Samuel Fuller
Saturday, October 16, 2004 6:30 PM
(Restored director's cut; with lecture by Richard Schickel) -
Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin by Richard Schickel
Sunday, October 17, 2004 1:00 PM
(Presented by Richard Schickel) -
Forty Guns by Samuel Fuller
Monday, October 18, 2004 6:30 PM -
Pickup on South Street by Samuel Fuller
Tuesday, October 19, 2004 6:30 PM -
Shock Corridor by Samuel Fuller
Thursday, October 21, 2004 6:30 PM -
Underworld USA by Samuel Fuller
Thursday, October 21, 2004 8:30 PM -
The Five Obstructions by Jorgen Leth & Lars von Trier
Friday, October 22, 2004 6:30 PM
Saturday, October 23, 2004 8:45 PM
Tuesday, October 26, 2004 6:30 PM
Thursday, October 28, 2004 8:30 PM -
Fixed Bayonets by Samuel Fuller
Sunday, October 24, 2004 1:00 PM -
Park Row by Samuel Fuller
Monday, October 25, 2004 6:30 PM -
Godzilla by Ishiro Honda
Friday, November 5, 2004 8:30 PM
(Not the bastardized U.S. release) -
F for Fake by Orson Welles
Friday, November 19, 2004 6:30 PM -
The Court Jester by Norman Panama & Melvin Frank
Saturday, November 20, 2004 2:00 PM -
Pandora’s Box by G. W. Pabst
Tuesday, November 30, 2004 8:30 PM -
Wings by William A. Wellman
Thursday, December 2, 2004 8:30 PM -
La Jetee by Chris Marker
Saturday, December 4, 2004 6:30 PM
(We would have also accepted “The good ones” for half marks.)
