Chinatown, playing early Saturday morning on TCM

TCM continues their Oscar-nominated month, bringing us a few choices we haven’t featured before, including Sophie’s Choice, which we all hope we never have to make, plus Bananas, The Graduate, and Chinatown. Also, IFC has a chance to catch up with or re-visit Soderbergh’s Solaris. Some other great repeats, especially on Sunday, when it looks like TCM is trying for a stranglehold on my schedule.

Monday, February 8

9:15am – TCM – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Frank Capra puts on his idealist hat to tell the story of Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), an inexperienced young man appointed as a junior senator because the corrupt senior senator thinks he’ll be easy to control. But Smith doesn’t toe the party line, instead launching a filibuster for what he believes in. Wonderful comedienne Jean Arthur is the journalist who initially encourages Smith so she can get a great story from his seemingly inevitable downfall, but soon joins his cause.
1939 USA. Director: Frank Capra. Starring: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Eugene Pallette, Thomas Mitchell.
Must See

12:15am (9th) – TCM – Sophie’s Choice
Meryl Streep’s second Oscar came for this film, playing an Auschwitz survivor who was forced to make an impossible choice.
1982 USA. Director: Alan J. Pakula. Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol.
Newly Featured!

5:30pm – IFC – Bananas
One of Woody Allen’s earlier films, when he was still in full-on crazy comedy mode. This time around, he rebounds from a bad break-up by heading to South America to become involved in a rebellion in a banana republic.
1971 USA. Director: Woody Allen. Starring: Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalban.
Newly Featured!

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Hopefully you’re not getting too tired of comic book movies yet, because here comes one that looks to be a little off the beaten path. It’s an adaptation of Jacques Tardi’s comic Les Aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec, about an early twentieth-century woman who turns from writing novels to investigating mystical crimes. Luc Besson is directing the film version, and the first trailer has just been released in advance of its April 14, 2010 French release.

Looks like they’re playing up Adèle Blanc-Sec as an adventurer looking into a supernatural danger, with a lot of Indiana Jones-esque touches. The trailer and description make me think a bit of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which doesn’t sound like a good thing if you’re thinking of the craptastic film, but the original comic series is quite good. I certainly hope that Besson is able to make this into a fun, entertaining romp that we’ll be eagerly awaiting on our shores. In any case, I’m always up for adventure/mystery stories with strong female protagonists.

Thanks to Quiet Earth (and Marina!) for alerting us to this. Trailer after the jump.

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One thing we really like around here are stylishly designed fan-made posters, and I just stumbled across a set of eye-catching Tarantino posters done by Ibraheem Youssef. I love they way they grab onto important moments or motifs in each film and foreground that. Simple, yet effective. Here are a few of them, but you can see them all on his site or his Flickr stream.

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We’re blessed here in the Third Row with contributors in several film centers around the world – Toronto, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and others all have thriving film cultures. It’s always fascinating to me to hear what film-going opportunities other cities have on offer – seriously, I used to pick up the New Yorker just to check out what was playing at the Bam Rose Cinema and Film Forum. When I moved out to LA a year and a half ago, I expected to have easy access to all the new releases, both major and arthouse, but I’m not sure I expected to find as diverse a repertory culture as I did. For any readers in Los Angeles wondering where to get beyond the next-big-thing Hollywood mindset and find some hidden gems, here are some good places to start.

Cinefamily @ The Silent Movie Theatre

My personal favorite place to see repertory screenings is Cinefamily, operating out of the old Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax in Hollywood. It ain’t just silent films any more, though they do devote Wednesday nights to the extensive silent film collection they inherited from the previous owners. Programmer Hadrian Belove introduces nearly every film with brief anecdotes about it, silent films are accompanied with live piano and sometimes a live band, weekend shows often include free beer on the back patio in between shows, and though the cinema is hardly the height of technology or comfort, the audiences are among the best in town. My favorite thing about the Cinefamily? You can buy a membership for $25 a month and go to ALL their regular series (as many as 25 films a month) without paying anything extra, as well as get a $4 discount on all special event screenings. Fantastic deal for film discovery.

After the jump, schedules for Cinefamily, the American Cinematheque, the New Beverly Cinema, LACMA, the Nuart Cinema, and more.

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Lawrence of Arabia, playing Monday at 11pm on TCM

This is February, which means Oscars are coming up, which means TCM has launched into their annual 31 Days of Oscar lineup, meaning every film they play in the month of February has been at least nominated for an Academy Award. Now, that could mean it was nominated for Best Costume Design in 1937, but hey. Generally it means a fairly high overall quality of programming, and a number of films they don’t play very often the rest of the year.

Monday, February 1

8:55am – Sundance – Metropolitan
If Jane Austen made a movie in 1990 and set it among entitled Manhattan socialites, this would be it. The film follows a group of such entitled teens from party to party, focusing especially on the one outsider, a boy from the blue-collar class who has to rent a tux and pretend he likes to walk to avoid letting his new friends know he has to take the bus home. Though they find out soon enough, they keep him around because his intellectual nattering amuses them. In fact, it’s quite amazing that this film is interesting at all, given the amount of pseudo-intellectual nattering that goes on, from all the characters. But from start to finish, it’s both entertaining and an incisive look at the American class structure.
1990 USA. Director: Whit Stillman. Starring: Edward Clements, Chris Eigeman, Carolyn Farina, Taylor Nichols, Dylan Hundley.
(repeats at 3:40pm and 10:30pm, and 5:45pm on the 6th)

8:00pm – TCM – Funny Girl
Barbra Streisand tied Katharine Hepburn, no less, to win an Oscar for her role as Ziegfeld comedienne Fanny Brice. I’m neither a big Brice fan nor a big Streisand fan, so I haven’t seen it, but maybe I’ll get around to it one day.
1968 USA. Director: William Wyler. Starring: Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford, Anne Francis, Walter Pidgeon.

11:00pm – TCM – Lawrence of Arabia
Most epics are over-determined and so focused on spectacle that they end up being superficial – all big sets and sweeping music with no depth. The brilliance of Lawrence of Arabia is that it looks like an epic with all the big sets and sweeping music and widescreen vistas, but at its center is an enigmatic character study of a man who lives bigger-than-life, but is as personally conflicted as any intimate drama has ever portrayed.
1962 UK. Director: David Lean. Starring: Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Jose Ferrer.
Must See
Newly Featured!

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Animal Collective have been been one of the most talked-about bands of last year, with their album Merriweather Post Pavilion ending up on many, many top ten lists, and they’re not content with that. They’re premiering their “visual album,” directed by Danny Perez, at Sundance this year – a couple of screenings have already happened, but I think there are a couple more tomorrow. Anyway, from all reports, it’s a trippy, bizarre, mood-driven piece made up of musical motifs and psychedelic images broken up by some short narrative sequences. (A couple of reviews are here and here.) Pretty much what I’d expect out of Animal Collective, actually. It’s unlikely we’ll see this at a theatre near us, but what do you think? Something you’ll hope to find on DVD some day?

The brief, seizure-inducing trailer for the film is after the jump:

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We’re all about film (mostly) over here on Row Three, but we indulge our love of other areas of pop culture over on MorePop. Here’s some of the things we’ve been looking at over there recently.

• The iPad: Drool-worthy, or useless disappointment?
• Perhaps prescient Literary Quote of the Week from J.D. Salinger
• Music video for “Kandi” by One Eskimo [video]
• Live sessions with A.A. Bondy [video]
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Skeletons” gets a silent-film-esque video [video]
• Phoenix cover Dylan’s “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” [MP3]
• Upcoming New Pornographer’s album titled, dated
• Geeky clock! Because geeks rule the world

[/shameless cross-promotion]

A few months ago Andrew posted a Lady Dior promotional video with Marion Cotillard in a noirish story. The end of the video promises that “Lady Rouge” would be coming soon, and that new phase of the campaign launched a few days ago. It’s not a video this time, but a song written and performed by Brit rock outfit Franz Ferdinand, with the lovely Ms. Cotillard providing vocals. It’s not a secret that we think pretty highly of Cotillard around here (she ended up on both Andrew’s and Kurt’s Top Ten female performances lists for her role in Public Enemies, and I thought she easily outshone her many costars in Nine), so it’s always fun to see her doing new things, even if those things are endorsements. Honestly, I actually like the song, too.

The new song, entitled “The Eyes of Mars,” is streaming over at Lady Dior now, along with some behind the scenes video and fashion photography.

The Ladykillers, playing on TCM on Monday at 3:15pm

We were just speaking about The Ladykillers in the comments of a recent Film on TV post, and here it is, playing on TCM on Monday. It’s like they’re reading our minds. Not a lot of other newly featured stuff, though I did throw in some lower-level MGM musicals. Because I like musicals. And I can. Still a lot of great stuff among the repeats, and a lot of variety, too.

Monday, January 25

3:15pm – TCM – The Ladykillers
One of the most delightful of the Ealing comedies, with Alec Guinness leading a bunch of crooks (including a young Peter Sellers) whose bankrobbing plans get flustered by an unlikely old lady.
1955 UK. Director: Alexander Mackendrick. Starring: Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers.
Must See
Newly Featured!

Tuesday, January 26

7:05pm – IFC – Blow Out
Sound man John Travolta is recording sound samples one night, and may have accidentally recorded a murder occurring. As he tries to investigate, he’s drawn into a dangerous conspiracy. Inspired to some degree by Antonioni’s photography-based Blow-Up, but this is definitely DePalma’s film all the way.
1981 USA. Director: Brian DePalma. Starring: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz.

8:00pm – Sundance – Oldboy
Ultra-violent revenge films don’t get much better than this. A man is inexplicably locked up in a room for several years then just as inexplicably released, at which point he seeks revenge. A bloody and at times disturbing film, but with an underlying thoughtfulness that sets it apart.
2003 Korea. Director: Park Chan-Wook. Starring: Min-sik Choi, Ji-tae Yu, Hye-jeong Kang.
(repeats at 3:10am on the 27th)

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(4/5)

This film should come with a warning label: “Do not watch if you are already in a suicidal state.” Seriously, I’ve seen some downer movies in my time, but as far as gutwrenching, exhausting, draining, and depressing movies go, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? has to be up near the top of the list. That’s not to say it’s not good; in fact, if it weren’t tightly scripted, memorably shot, and compellingly performed, it wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it is at provoking the kind of visceral disgust that it does – there are images and themes and lines of dialogue that I still can’t wrest from my brain a month later, even though, in some cases, I would like to.

It’s the 1930s, the height (or depth) of the Depression, and a bunch of desperate people gather in Los Angeles to compete in a dance marathon. Whichever couple can manage to stay on their feet the longest without passing out and getting tapped out by the judges will win $1500 – not to mention that the radio station sponsoring the event is providing three meals a day to the contestants, not too shabby an incentive itself. At least at first.

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Away from Her, playing on IFC on Tuesday, January 20

Among the new offerings this week: A pair of “great teacher” movies on Monday with Blackboard Jungle and To Sir, With Love, the classic and not very often screened Max Ophuls film Lola Montes late Sunday night, and Sarah Polley’s highly impressive directorial debut Away from Her on Wednesday. Not a lot of new stuff, but what’s there is good.

Monday, January 18

3:45pm – Sundance – Man on Wire
One of last year’s most highly-acclaimed documentaries tells the story of high-wire walker Philippe Petit as he embarks on perhaps his most dangerous stunt yet.
2008 UK/USA. Director: James Marsh. Starring: Philippe Petit, Jean François Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau.

4:00pm – TCM – Blackboard Jungle
Glenn Ford is the teacher who takes on rowdy inner-city kids in one of the earlier “heroic teacher” films. A young Sidney Poitier is one of the students, and a scene in which a record of “Rock Around the Clock” is played is reputed to be the first time rock n’ roll appeared in a film.
1955 USA. Director: Richard Brooks. Starring: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Sidney Poitier.
Newly Featured!

6:00pm – TCM – To Sir, With Love
Twelve years after being the troubled student in Blackboard Jungle, Sidney Poitier takes on the role of the teacher, trying to take hold of a bunch of bored, acting-out London teenagers.
1967 UK. Director: James Clavell. Starring: Sidney Poitier, Judy Gleeson, Christian Roberts, Suzy Kendall, Lulu.
Newly Featured!

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I‘ve toyed on and off (mostly off) with the idea of working with film preservation – actually physically restoring aging films frame by frame before time and the elements destroy them. Theoretically film is timeless – it captures a moment in time and preserves it forever, allowing us to see actors, public figures, and our families and friends forever ageless. But physically, film is very delicate indeed; the nitrate stock used in non-digital film is highly flammable and prone to disintegration if not stored carefully. It’s estimated that over half of all films made before 1950 have been lost forever, and as many as 80-90% of silent-era films will never be seen again. With my love of classic film, those numbers horrify me. And while I haven’t actually gone into film preservation myself, Ferdy on Films and The Self-Styled Siren are setting up the opportunity to raise awareness and interest in it with an upcoming blogathon dedicated to the film preservation efforts of the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Here are a couple of paragraphs (copied from Ferdy on Film, copied from the NFPF’s site) about the NFPF:

The NFPF raises money, awards grants, and organizes cooperative projects that enable archives, libraries, museums, historical societies, and universities to work together to save American films. Since opening our doors, we have helped preserve more than 1,560 films and assisted organizations in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. In 2009, we partnered with the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia to preserve and make available on the Internet several American silent films that no longer survived in the United States; another such project will be announced later in 2010.

A two-year study prepared by the Library’s National Film Preservation Board documented that American films are disintegrating faster than archives can save them. The types of motion pictures most at-risk are documentaries, silent-era films, avant-garde works, ethnic films, newsreels, home movies, and independent works. These are not Hollywood sound features belonging to the film studios, but ‘orphans’ that fall outside the scope of commercial preservation programs and exist as one-of-a-kind copies in archives, libraries, museums, and historical societies.

Because it is where the need is highest, the NFPF focuses on films that aren’t well-known, that don’t belong to a major studio, and that you’ve probably never heard of. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t important – these are the films that belong to the counterculture, to the individual, and to the world. These are films that will show the future that film doesn’t only belong to the big corporations, but to anyone who wants to make a film. And these are the films that preserve our history and our culture – but that won’t if they aren’t preserved themselves.

The blogathon starts officially in about a month, on February 14th. Keep an eye on Ferdy on Films and the Self-Styled Siren for more, as well as the site specifically set up for the blogathon, For the Love of Film. Thanks go to Greg of CinemaStyles for putting that together and creating the promotional banners. I’m not sure yet what the Third Row will end up contributing, but I for one at least am excited to see what everyone else comes up with.