Film
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2015 Oscar-Nominated Short Films The final lineup to this twofold collection-animated and live-action-always seems to be written in pencil, not ink. Surprised by their good fortune, directors and distributors scramble to include their prints in time for this omnibus, from which I was able to preview a half-dozen titles. On the animated side (10 titles, 82 minutes), I particularly liked Me and My Moulton, a girl’s recollection of life in 1965 Norway. The middle daughter (of three), our narrator forever wears a large No. 2 on her blouse, but leads the negotiation as the three girls try to convince their carless bohemian parents to buy them a bicycle. (A Moulton turns out to be a fancy imported English bike.) The colors radiate warm hues from Klee and Kandinsky, and the linework by director Torill Kove evokes both Peanuts-style innocence and a dawning beatnik awareness (an effect aided by West Coast jazz with a cool Wes Montgomery timbre).
On the live-action side (five titles, 118 minutes), look for Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky, Blue Jasmine) as a meek, defeated woman working the suicide-prevention hotline. Directed by Mat Kirkby and James Lucas, the 21-minute The Telephone Call is one of those very old-fashioned but effective “Keep talking!” kind of dramas, as poor Heather begs, beseeches, and cajoles her caller-who’s overdosed on pills-to see the few redeeming bits of happiness left in life (and, by extension, in hers as well). Who voices the unseen caller? It took me 10 minutes to guess the 2001 Oscar winner. You’ll have to wait for the end credits. (Through Thurs.) Seven Gables, 911 N.E. 50th St., 632-8821. $10.50. See landmarktheatres.com for showtimes. Brian Miller Seven Gables, 911 N.E. 50th St., Seattle, WA 98105 $10.50 Friday, January 30, 2015
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Naked Lunch & The Burroughs: The Movie This two-fer tribute comes slightly overdue, since 2014 was the centennial of William S. Burroughs’ birth (he died in 1997). Still, David Cronenberg’s amusingly deadpan 1991 adaptation of Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch gets the tone right, and Peter Weller is quite marvelous as Bill, the droll authorial stand-in. The film, running second tonight, is packed full of pert supporting performances from Judy Davis, Roy Scheider, Julian Sands, and Ian Holm. Much more seldom seen is Howard Brookner’s 1983 doc Burroughs: The Movie, made over a half-dozen years and including Burroughs cronies like Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Lucien Carr, and Terry Southern. But the star attraction, of course, is Burroughs himself, who discourses upon his artistic methods, discusses the accidental shooting of his wife, and enacts a passage from Naked Lunch. Surprising to some will be the sad presence of his son, William Jr., an addict who died during the long course of the film’s production. The author, worshipped by so many young acolytes, rarely spoke of him afterward. (Through Sun., Jan. 31.) Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, grandillusioncinema.org. $5-$9. 7 & 9 p.m. BRIAN MILLER Grand Illusion Cinema, 1403 N.E. 50th St, Seattle, WA 98105 $5-$9 Friday, January 30, 2015
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Scott Freiman The Beatles are dropping like flies. While John and George are gone, Paul and Ringo are profitably filling stadiums and will likely continue touring until they drop. (Their work ethic was established early in the pubs and bars of Liverpool and Hamburg.) After they’re gone, however, the number of recordings and scholarly studies is only likely to increase; like Shakespeare, the Beatles’ compact body of work will keep academics publishing for years to come. One such scholar is Freiman, most recently the editor of All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release. Yet he’s no musty campus intellectual, since his preferred lecture hall is the cinema. His touring program Deconstructing the Beatles has a popular following among fans of the group-which is to say almost every living American, from boomer to millennial. During this year’s visit, he’ll expound upon the Beatles’ early recordings (at 5 p.m.) and Revolver (at 8:30 p.m.), with the White Album and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band also on the schedule. Additionally, SIFF will screen a digitally restored edition of A Hard Day’s Night (Sat.-Sun.), released in 1964 to help launch the eponymous album. Not only does the film include signature hits (“Can’t Buy Me Love,” “She Loves You,” etc.), but it’s a tremendously enjoyable romp-directed by Richard Lester, written by Alun Owen, indebted to both the English music hall and French New Wave-that established each moptop’s persona in the public imagination. And now, Freiman will argue, they can never be forgotten. (Through Sun.) SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net. $10-$15. 5 & 8:30 p.m. T. BOND SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109 $10-$15 Friday, January 30, 2015
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Internet Cat Video Festival While Seattle’s famous existential kitty, Henri le Chat Noir, will not be attending this second edition of the popular traveling highlights reel, his owner, Will Braeden, will be on hand instead. It’s all for the best: Henri eschews the limelight to observe his daily life and its rituals-feeding, napping, using the kitty door-quietly, cynically, alone. “While I’m sure the thieving filmmaker will spread his usual lies about me,” Henri says, “I do support any event where people gather to worship cat videos.” Braeden, creator of the Henri YouTube series and a bestselling book, Henri, le Chat Noir: Musings of an Angst-Filled Cat, personally curated the reel-from the main festival at Minneapolis’ Walker Arts Center-and will again host this year’s event. Admission includes a light snack and access to KAC’s ongoing group show, Imaginature. Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., 425-822-7161, kirklandartscenter.org. $25. 7 p.m. (plus 3 p.m. Sat., 7 p.m. Sun.) Gwendolyn Elliott Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033 $25 Friday, January 30, 2015, 7 – 8pm
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Naked Lunch & The Burroughs: The Movie This two-fer tribute comes slightly overdue, since 2014 was the centennial of William S. Burroughs’ birth (he died in 1997). Still, David Cronenberg’s amusingly deadpan 1991 adaptation of Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch gets the tone right, and Peter Weller is quite marvelous as Bill, the droll authorial stand-in. The film, running second tonight, is packed full of pert supporting performances from Judy Davis, Roy Scheider, Julian Sands, and Ian Holm. Much more seldom seen is Howard Brookner’s 1983 doc Burroughs: The Movie, made over a half-dozen years and including Burroughs cronies like Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Lucien Carr, and Terry Southern. But the star attraction, of course, is Burroughs himself, who discourses upon his artistic methods, discusses the accidental shooting of his wife, and enacts a passage from Naked Lunch. Surprising to some will be the sad presence of his son, William Jr., an addict who died during the long course of the film’s production. The author, worshipped by so many young acolytes, rarely spoke of him afterward. (Through Sun., Jan. 31.) Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, grandillusioncinema.org. $5-$9. 7 & 9 p.m. BRIAN MILLER Grand Illusion Cinema, 1403 N.E. 50th St, Seattle, WA 98105 $5-$9 Saturday, January 31, 2015
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Frank Capra Restored We film critics have ambivalent feelings about Capra (1897-1991), one of the most successful writer/directors of the 1930s and ‘40s. He won all the awards, he sold millions of tickets, but then he suddenly became obsolete in the postwar period-totally square. Baby boomers in particular were dismissive of his conservative values and coerced sentimentalism (“Capracorn” is the enduring shorthand slight). He was an auteur before the Cahiers du Cinema crowd coined the term, but American critics shuddered to grant him such status. Apart from that holiday perennial It’s a Wonderful Life (which has played for 44 consecutive years at the Grand Illusion), his canon has fallen out of favor. So here’s a chance, with five 4K digital restorations running Tuesdays through February 24, to appreciate the craftsmanship in his very populist oeuvre.
Tonight, the road comedy It Happened One Night (1934) was just the tonic we wanted during the Great Depression. Clark Gable, as a wisecracking journalist, perfectly embodied the ideal American response to hard times: flippant, jaunty, indefatigable, never discouraged, always game for a new adventure or a new dame-the latter of course being escaped heiress Claudette Colbert, whom he rescues from snootiness and dull fortune. Capra loved to celebrate the common man, without airs or pretensions; yet that same noble everyman was also fundamentally a Hollywood construct. We bought the fantasy for a time, then grew tired of it as Capra kept pushing the same product. (Following are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.) SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net. $7-$12. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109 $7-$12 Tuesday, February 3, 2015
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Cinema Italian Style 2014 was a quiet past year for new Italian movies; the well-reviewed Human Capital, which arrives here in February, didn’t even make the Oscar short list. So maybe it’s time for a repertory glance back at past peninsular glories with this nine-film series, running most Thursdays through March 19. In addition to proven classics like Luchino Visconti’s 1963 The Leopard, it includes new additions to the canon-notably last year’s Oscar winner, The Great Beauty. Beginning the retrospective tonight is Ossessione, Visconti’s 1943 adaptation of the James M. Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, with its timeless themes of adultery and murder. That noir tale was filmed here in 1946 and ‘81, and there’s even a French take from 1939, but Visconti’s version-his first feature-wasn’t seen for decades in the U.S. because he didn’t clear the copyright. (Whether he had Cain’s verbal permission is another matter.) Only in 1977 did it get a stateside release, when critics noted a far more class-conscious treatment than the 1946 Lana Turner-John Garfield version: neorealism layered atop the noir. And another fun fact: This 35 mm print belongs to Martin Scorsese, that champion of film preservation and Italian cinema. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $63-$68 series, $8 individual Thursday, February 5, 2015, 7:30 – 8:30pm
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Frank Capra Restored We film critics have ambivalent feelings about Capra (1897-1991), one of the most successful writer/directors of the 1930s and ‘40s. He won all the awards, he sold millions of tickets, but then he suddenly became obsolete in the postwar period-totally square. Baby boomers in particular were dismissive of his conservative values and coerced sentimentalism (“Capracorn” is the enduring shorthand slight). He was an auteur before the Cahiers du Cinema crowd coined the term, but American critics shuddered to grant him such status. Apart from that holiday perennial It’s a Wonderful Life (which has played for 44 consecutive years at the Grand Illusion), his canon has fallen out of favor. So here’s a chance, with five 4K digital restorations running Tuesdays through February 24, to appreciate the craftsmanship in his very populist oeuvre.
Tonight, the road comedy It Happened One Night (1934) was just the tonic we wanted during the Great Depression. Clark Gable, as a wisecracking journalist, perfectly embodied the ideal American response to hard times: flippant, jaunty, indefatigable, never discouraged, always game for a new adventure or a new dame-the latter of course being escaped heiress Claudette Colbert, whom he rescues from snootiness and dull fortune. Capra loved to celebrate the common man, without airs or pretensions; yet that same noble everyman was also fundamentally a Hollywood construct. We bought the fantasy for a time, then grew tired of it as Capra kept pushing the same product. (Following are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.) SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net. $7-$12. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109 $7-$12 Tuesday, February 10, 2015
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Cinema Italian Style 2014 was a quiet past year for new Italian movies; the well-reviewed Human Capital, which arrives here in February, didn’t even make the Oscar short list. So maybe it’s time for a repertory glance back at past peninsular glories with this nine-film series, running most Thursdays through March 19. In addition to proven classics like Luchino Visconti’s 1963 The Leopard, it includes new additions to the canon-notably last year’s Oscar winner, The Great Beauty. Beginning the retrospective tonight is Ossessione, Visconti’s 1943 adaptation of the James M. Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, with its timeless themes of adultery and murder. That noir tale was filmed here in 1946 and ‘81, and there’s even a French take from 1939, but Visconti’s version-his first feature-wasn’t seen for decades in the U.S. because he didn’t clear the copyright. (Whether he had Cain’s verbal permission is another matter.) Only in 1977 did it get a stateside release, when critics noted a far more class-conscious treatment than the 1946 Lana Turner-John Garfield version: neorealism layered atop the noir. And another fun fact: This 35 mm print belongs to Martin Scorsese, that champion of film preservation and Italian cinema. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $63-$68 series, $8 individual Thursday, February 12, 2015, 7:30 – 8:30pm
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Frank Capra Restored We film critics have ambivalent feelings about Capra (1897-1991), one of the most successful writer/directors of the 1930s and ‘40s. He won all the awards, he sold millions of tickets, but then he suddenly became obsolete in the postwar period-totally square. Baby boomers in particular were dismissive of his conservative values and coerced sentimentalism (“Capracorn” is the enduring shorthand slight). He was an auteur before the Cahiers du Cinema crowd coined the term, but American critics shuddered to grant him such status. Apart from that holiday perennial It’s a Wonderful Life (which has played for 44 consecutive years at the Grand Illusion), his canon has fallen out of favor. So here’s a chance, with five 4K digital restorations running Tuesdays through February 24, to appreciate the craftsmanship in his very populist oeuvre.
Tonight, the road comedy It Happened One Night (1934) was just the tonic we wanted during the Great Depression. Clark Gable, as a wisecracking journalist, perfectly embodied the ideal American response to hard times: flippant, jaunty, indefatigable, never discouraged, always game for a new adventure or a new dame-the latter of course being escaped heiress Claudette Colbert, whom he rescues from snootiness and dull fortune. Capra loved to celebrate the common man, without airs or pretensions; yet that same noble everyman was also fundamentally a Hollywood construct. We bought the fantasy for a time, then grew tired of it as Capra kept pushing the same product. (Following are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.) SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net. $7-$12. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109 $7-$12 Tuesday, February 17, 2015
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Cinema Italian Style 2014 was a quiet past year for new Italian movies; the well-reviewed Human Capital, which arrives here in February, didn’t even make the Oscar short list. So maybe it’s time for a repertory glance back at past peninsular glories with this nine-film series, running most Thursdays through March 19. In addition to proven classics like Luchino Visconti’s 1963 The Leopard, it includes new additions to the canon-notably last year’s Oscar winner, The Great Beauty. Beginning the retrospective tonight is Ossessione, Visconti’s 1943 adaptation of the James M. Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, with its timeless themes of adultery and murder. That noir tale was filmed here in 1946 and ‘81, and there’s even a French take from 1939, but Visconti’s version-his first feature-wasn’t seen for decades in the U.S. because he didn’t clear the copyright. (Whether he had Cain’s verbal permission is another matter.) Only in 1977 did it get a stateside release, when critics noted a far more class-conscious treatment than the 1946 Lana Turner-John Garfield version: neorealism layered atop the noir. And another fun fact: This 35 mm print belongs to Martin Scorsese, that champion of film preservation and Italian cinema. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $63-$68 series, $8 individual Thursday, February 19, 2015, 7:30 – 8:30pm
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Frank Capra Restored We film critics have ambivalent feelings about Capra (1897-1991), one of the most successful writer/directors of the 1930s and ‘40s. He won all the awards, he sold millions of tickets, but then he suddenly became obsolete in the postwar period-totally square. Baby boomers in particular were dismissive of his conservative values and coerced sentimentalism (“Capracorn” is the enduring shorthand slight). He was an auteur before the Cahiers du Cinema crowd coined the term, but American critics shuddered to grant him such status. Apart from that holiday perennial It’s a Wonderful Life (which has played for 44 consecutive years at the Grand Illusion), his canon has fallen out of favor. So here’s a chance, with five 4K digital restorations running Tuesdays through February 24, to appreciate the craftsmanship in his very populist oeuvre.
Tonight, the road comedy It Happened One Night (1934) was just the tonic we wanted during the Great Depression. Clark Gable, as a wisecracking journalist, perfectly embodied the ideal American response to hard times: flippant, jaunty, indefatigable, never discouraged, always game for a new adventure or a new dame-the latter of course being escaped heiress Claudette Colbert, whom he rescues from snootiness and dull fortune. Capra loved to celebrate the common man, without airs or pretensions; yet that same noble everyman was also fundamentally a Hollywood construct. We bought the fantasy for a time, then grew tired of it as Capra kept pushing the same product. (Following are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.) SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net. $7-$12. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109 $7-$12 Tuesday, February 24, 2015
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Cinema Italian Style 2014 was a quiet past year for new Italian movies; the well-reviewed Human Capital, which arrives here in February, didn’t even make the Oscar short list. So maybe it’s time for a repertory glance back at past peninsular glories with this nine-film series, running most Thursdays through March 19. In addition to proven classics like Luchino Visconti’s 1963 The Leopard, it includes new additions to the canon-notably last year’s Oscar winner, The Great Beauty. Beginning the retrospective tonight is Ossessione, Visconti’s 1943 adaptation of the James M. Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, with its timeless themes of adultery and murder. That noir tale was filmed here in 1946 and ‘81, and there’s even a French take from 1939, but Visconti’s version-his first feature-wasn’t seen for decades in the U.S. because he didn’t clear the copyright. (Whether he had Cain’s verbal permission is another matter.) Only in 1977 did it get a stateside release, when critics noted a far more class-conscious treatment than the 1946 Lana Turner-John Garfield version: neorealism layered atop the noir. And another fun fact: This 35 mm print belongs to Martin Scorsese, that champion of film preservation and Italian cinema. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $63-$68 series, $8 individual Thursday, February 26, 2015, 7:30 – 8:30pm
