Summer 2003
Drunken Angel
Thursday, June 5th- 7pm & 9pm
Masterful gangster film by Akira Kurosawa.

Toshiro Mifune (as the gangster Matsunaga) appears here for the first time in Kurosawa's work. Mifune impressed Kurosawa with his ferocious energy and his quick reactions. They would make 16 films together, becoming one of cinema's legendary director-actor partnerships. Another Kurosawa regular, Takashi Shimura, plays the doctor, and Kurosawa would go on to pair these two great actors in lead roles for the next decade. (Excerpt by Stephen Prince)

Japan, 1948, Japanese with English subtitles, B&W, 98 min., unrated, 35mm (1.33:1). 

The Hours
Friday & Saturday, June 6th & 7th - 7pm & 9:15pm
Nominated for nine Academy Awards including "best picture."

Based on the Pulitzer-price winning novel by Michael Cunningham, The Hours employs Virginia Woolf’s classic novel and central character Mrs. Dalloway, as its foundation and inspiration. Spanning three different eras, during one day, the film focuses on the parallel lives of three women joined in depression, alienation, and search for love. Nicole Kidman, wearing a prosthetic nose, is virtually unrecognizable as the torture writer Virginia Woolf whose ongoing battle with mental illness eventually let to her tragic suicide in 1941.

USA, 2002, English, Color, 114 min., PG-13, 35mm (1.85:1)

 

Aguirre, The Wrath of God
Sunday, June 8th - 7pm & 9:15pm
Werner Herzog's most acclaimed film.

Based on the journals of Brother Gaspar de Carvajal, Aguirre The Wrath of God is director Werner Herzog’s hallucinatory tale of Spanish colonialists searching for El Dorado, the legendary city of gold, in 16th-century Peru. When the travelers reach an impasse, a scouting party is assembled to search for any traces of the mythical empire. As they attempt to forge their way through the dense jungle, more and more of the party falls ill while their ruthless leader, Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), grows increasingly insane. Programmed by Joel Haertling of the Boulder Public Library Film Program.

Germany/Peru, 1973, German with English subtitles, Color, 100 min., unrated, 35mm (1.85:1)

Stray Dog
Thursday, June 12th - 7pm & 9:30pm
A hardboiled thriller by Akira Kurosawa.

Mifune’s third collaboration with Kurosawa, Stray Dog displays the renown actor’s youthful intensity. Tempering Mifune’s brash character is Shimura’s wise older cop, an endearing figure from his first moment on screen. The student/mentor relationship between the two proves crucial to the film, and elevates it above many crime movies of the era. Sporting excellent photography, a swinging soundtrack, and an increasingly perilous story line, Stray Dog exemplifies a time, place, and genre with startling verve.

Japan, 1949, Japanese with English Subtitles, B&W, 122 min., unrated, 35 mm (1.33:1)

Movern Caller
Friday & Saturday,June 13th & 14th - 7pm & 9pm
From the director of Ratcatcher.

Lynne Ramsay (Rat Catcher) evokes emotion through landscape as Movern and Lana flee the dreary Scottish winter for a Spanish coastal town bathed in sunlight. Working from Alan Warner’s novel, Ramsay uses powerful imagery and a soundtrack vacillating between contemplative silence, abrasive sound effects, and hip music to create a purely cinematic work, avoiding the trappings of an adaptation. With Academy Award Nominee Samantha Morton.

USA, 2002, English, Color, 97 min., unrated, 35 mm (1.85:1)

The Mission
Sunday, June 15th - 7pm & 9:30pm
Starring Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons.

A visually stunning epic, The Mission recounts the true story of two men – a man of the sword (Robert De Niro) and a man of the cloth (Jeremy Irons) – both Jesuit missionaries who defied the colonial forces of mighty Spain and Portugal to save an Indian tribe from slavery in mid-18th-century South America. Mendoza (De Niro) is a slave trader and colonial imperialist who murdered his own brother (Aidan Quinn) and seeks penance for his sins by becoming a missionary at Father Gabriel’s (Irons) mountaintop mission.

UK, 1986, English, Color, 126 min., PG, 35mm (1.85:1)

Seven Samurai
Thursday, June 19th - 7pm only
Among Kurosawa's most celebrated films.

Widely considered to be the greatest Japanese film ever made, Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is also credited with pioneering the modern action movie. This notion is especially evident in thrilling scenes such as Kambei’s rescue of a kidnapped child, Kyuzo’s duel, and Kikuchiyo’s intensive theft of an enemy gun. Although the film clocks in a t more than three hours, the story remains consistently engaging and slowly heightens the tension while providing action, drama, comic relief, and character development.

Japan, 1954, Japanese with English subtitles, B&W, 200 min., unrated, 35mm (1.33:1)

Two Evenings with Trent Harris in Person

The Beaver Trilogy

Friday, June 20th only - 7pm & 9:30pm
Q&A with director Trent Harris in person. A chance meeting in 1979 evolves into something starring Crispin Glover.

Beaver Trilogy is a series of three pieces about the same subject, a young man from a small town called Beaver who is obsessed with Olivia Newton John. The first piece is a documentary. The second piece is a dramatic work based on the documentary starring Sean Penn. The third piece is yet another dramatic work, this time starring Crispin Glover.
This trilogy includes: BEAVER KID, BEAVER KID 2, and ORKLY KID.
"A rivetingly strange, multilayered inquiry into celebrity, obsession and serendipity."
New York Times - A.O. Scott
"By far the most exciting and heart-breaking piece of cinema this critic has seen in years."
IndieWIRE - Aaron Krach
"Of all the films that have ever been or will be, nothing compares to Beaver Trilogy."
Sundance Film Festival
"A stunning and complex exercise, an elaborate karaoke-upon-karaoke that snaps right into place with contemporary obsessions."
New York Press - Ed Halter
"I would strongly recommend your taking a look at Trent Harris’s Beaver Trilogy, a work that’s as strange and rare as a fire-dwelling salamander."
The Nation Magazine - Stuart Klawans
"Beaver Trilogy is so perfect, so odd, and so affecting that you will feel you’re in the presence of a minor miracle or some strange form of beatitude."
New York Video Festial - Lincoln Center


Rubin and Ed
Saturday, June 21st only - 8pm only
Q&A with director Trent Harris in person. Crispin Glover needs to find the perfect spot to bury his dead cat.

Ed is a desperate real estate groupie who bribes Rubin to attend a get rich quick seminar. But, when Rubin hijacks Ed for an impromptu funeral for his beloved cat, they end up stranded in death valley looking for the perfect gravesite, suffering from sunstroke and hilarious hallucinations. This is a complex tale about two republicans hell-bent on burying a frozen cat.
"More psychedelic fun than a barrel of monkeys on mushrooms!" Details Magazine
Critics have called the films of Trent Harris as absurd, pointless, hysterical, brilliant, and one of a kind. Independent Film and Video Magazine called Harris, "One of America’s premier cult directors."
The River's Edge
Sunday, June 22nd- 7pm & 9:15pm
Starring Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, and Dennis Hopper.

Based on a real life incident and asset in a small rural town where the local clique of slacker teens is pulled apart when Samsori (Daniel Roebuck) kills his girlfriend on the bands of the river and then callously shows off the dead body to his friends. The teens are so numb and ambivalent to the reality of their situation that they remain relatively unphased by the murder. Crispin Glover is brilliant as the drugged out paranoid, Layne, who sympathizes with the killer, and plots to hide him at the house of an eccentric recluse (Dennis Hopper), who is rumored to have committed a similar crime in the 1960s.

USA, 1986, English, Color, 99 min., R, 35mm (1.85:1)

I Live in Fear
Thursday, June 26th - 7pm & 9:15pm
Kurosawa's look at paranoia of nuclear war.

Kiichi Nakajima, an elderly foundry owner, is so frightened and obsessed with the idea of nuclear extermination that his family decides to have him ruled incompetent. Nakajima’s fervent wish is for his family to tjoin him in escaping from Japan to the relative safety of South America. Harada, a civil volunteer in the case, sympathizes with Nakajima’s conviction, but the old man’s irrational behaviour prevents the court from taking his fears seriously.

Japan, 1955, Japanese with English subtitles, B&W, 103 min., Unrated, 35mm (1.85:1)

Daughter of Danang
Friday & Saturday, June 27th & 28th - 7pm & 9pm
Nominated for an Academy Award.

In 1975, as the Vietnam War was ending, thousands of orphans and Amer-Asia children were brought to the United States as part of “Operation Babylift.” Daughter From Danang tells the dramatic story of one of these children, Heidi Bub (a.k.a Mai Thi Hiep), and her Vietnamese mother, Mai Thi Kim, separated at the war’s end and reunited 22 years later. Heidi, now living in Tennessee – a married woman with kids – had always dreamt of a joyful reunion. When she ventures to Vietnam to meet her mother, she unknowingly embarks on an emotional pilgrimage that spans decades and distance.

USA, 2002, English/Vietnamese, Color, 75 min., R, 35mm (1.85:1)

Apocalypse Now Redux
Sunday, June 29th - 7pm only
Coppola's classic revisited.

Burnt out Captain Willard is sent into the jungle with orders to find and kill Colonel Kurtz who has set up his own army within the jungle. As he descends into the jungle he is slowly over taken by the insanity surrounding him. As Willard continues his journey he begins to become more and more like the man he was sent to kill.

USA, 2001, English, Color, 173 min., R, 35mm (1.85:1)

Throne of Blood
Thursday, July 3rd - 7pm & 9:15pm
Kurosawa's transposition of MacBeth to medieval Japan.

After a great military victory, Lords Washizu and Miki are lost in the dense Cobweb Forest, where they meet a mysterious old woman who predicts great things for Washizu and even greater things for Miki’s descendants. Once out of the forest, Washizu and Miki are immediately promoted by the Emperor. Washizu, encouraged by his ambitious wife, plots to make even more of the prophecy come true, even if it means killing the Emperor.

Japan, 1957, Japanese with English subtitles, B&W, 110 min., unrated, 35mm (1.33:1)
Seņorita Extraviada
Saturday, July 5th only - 7pm & 9pm
Gripping doc on disappearing women.


Seņorita Extraviada (Missing Young Women), a new documentary by Lourdes Portillo, unfolds like the unsolved mystery that it examines: the kidnapping, rape and murder of over 230 young women in Juarez, Mexico. Visually poetic, yet unflinching in its gaze, the film unravels the layers of complicity that have allowed these brutal murders to continue. The result is a shocking and brutal portrait of Ciudad Juarez, “The City of the Future.”

USA, 2002, Spanish/English, Color, 74 min., unrated, 35mm (1.85:1)

Black Robe
Sunday, July 6th- 7pm & 9:15pm

An adventure through the rugged mountains of northern Quebec.

In the 17th century a Jesuit priest and a young companion are escorted through the wilderness of Quebec by Huron Indians to find a distant mission in the dead of winter. The Jesuit experiences a spiritual journey while his young companion falls in love with the Huron chief’s beautiful daughter underneath the imposing and magnificent mountains. Dread and death follows them upriver.

Canada/Australia, 1991, English/Latin, Color, 101 min., R, 35mm (1.85:1)

Hidden Fortress
Thursday, July 10th
- 7pm only
Kurosawa's film rumored to be the inspiration for STAR WARS.

Princess Yuki Akizuki (“Yukihime” in Japanese) is to be led through enemy territory, where she may rebuild her kingdom with gold that she has in her caravan. She is assisted by her trusted general, Rokurota Makabe, who insists that she masquerades as a mute farmer. Two minions, Tahei and Matashichi help unknowingly, as they believe they will get a piece of the gold if they help the princess attain her goals.

Japan, 1958, Japanese with English Subtitles, B&W, 139 min., unrated, 35mm, (2.35:1)

Russian Ark
Friday & Saturday, July 11th & 12th- 7pm & 9pm

A milestone in Russian cinematography.

Told in one fluid shot, this tale floats like a dreamlike journey through the majestic spaces of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, engaging real and imagine characters from Russian and European history. The nameless protagonist, a 19th-century French diplomat, guides the audience through a lost, sumptuous dream that was the Enlightenment period. The film, stages among some of the Western Art tradition’s greatest masterpieces, climaxes in a pageant of color, motion, and music. For director Sokurov, the Hermitage – home to generations of Romonovs and repository of so much Russian history – is the ark of the Russian soul, guarding it affectionately until the world sees better days.

Russia/Germany, 2002, Russian with English Subtitles, Color, 96 min., unrated, 35 mm (1.85:1)

Dead Man
Sunday, July 13th - 7pm & 9:30pm

Jim Jarmusch's Western with Crispin Glover and Johnny Depp.

Dead Man is the story of a young man’s journey, both physically and spiritually, into very unfamiliar terrain. William Blake travels to the extreme western frontiers of America sometime in the 2nd half of the 19th century. Lost and badly wounded, he encounters a very odd, outcast Native American, named “Nobody,” who believes Blake is actually the dead English poet of the same name. The story, with Nobody’s help, leads William Blake through situations that are in turn comical and violent. Contrary to his nature, circumstances transform Blacke into a hunted outlaw, a killer, and a man whose physical existence is slowly slipping away.

USA, 1995, English, B&W, 121 min., R, 35mm (1.85:1)

The Bad Sleep Well
Thursday, July 17th - 7pm only

Kurosawa's modern transposition of Hamlet.

Toshiro Mifune stars as Koichi Nishi, the secretary to the president of a housing corporation, who seeks revenge for his father’s murder. At Koichi’s marriage to Kieko (Kyoko Kagawa), the president’s daughter, memories of death are stirred, and soon corruption within the organization is exposed. Unknown to the officials, Koichi is the hidden force behind the mysterious happenings that begin to weigh on their consciences and ruin their lives.

Japan, 1960, Japanese with English subtitles, B&W, 151 min., unrated, 35mm (1.85:1)

The Quiet American
Friday & Saturday, July 18th & 19th - 7pm & 9:15pm

From the director of Rabbit Proof Fence.

Nothing, and no one, is at it seems, in this adaptation of Graham Greene’s classic and prophetic story of love, betrayal, murder and the origin of the American war in Southeast Asia. Saigon, 1952, a beautiful, exotic, and mysterious city caught in the grips of the Vietnamese war of liberation from the French colonial powers. New arrival Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser) befriends London Time correspondent Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine), both get swept up in a tempestuous love triangle that leads to a series of startling revelations.

USA/Germany/Australia, 2002, English/French/Vietnamese, Color, 101 min., R, 35mm (1.85:1)

Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made
Sunday, July 20th - 7pm & 9:15pm

Mika Kaurismaki's documentary on Sam Fuller.

In 1993, Sam Fuller and Jim Jarmusch on a trip into Brazil’s Mato Grosso, up the River Araguaia to the village of Santa Isabel Do Morrow, where 40 years before, Zanuck had sent Fuller to scout a location and write a script for a movie based on a tigrero, a jaguar hunter. Sam hopes to find people who remember him, and he takes film he shot in 1954.

Brazil/Finland/Germany, 2002, English/Portuguese/Karaja, B&W & Color, 75 min., unrated, 35mm (1.85:1)

Yojimbo
Thursday, July 24th - 7pm & 9:15pm.

An enterprising samurai matches wits with two brawling clans.


In director Akira Kurosawa’s comedic Yojimbo, a masterless samurai, Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune), wanders into a town divided by two warring clans. After displaying his formidable swordsmanship before both clans in a brawl with street thugs, Sanjuro offers his services to the highest bidder. When one clan conspires against him, the clever warrior switches his allegiance to the other side, with the ultimate goal of tricking the two equally despicable and foolish clans into exterminating each other.

Japan, 1961, Japanese with English Subtitles, B&W, 110 min., unrated, 35mm (2.35:1)

Bend it Like Beckham
Friday & Saturday, July 25th & 26th - 7pm & 9:15pm

The latest film from the director of Bhaji on the Beach.

A comedy about bending the rules to reach your coal, Bend It Like Beckham explores the world of women’s football, from kick-abouts in the park to freekicks in the Final. Set in Hounslow, West London and Hamburg, the film follows two 18 year olds with their hears set on a future in professional soccer. Heart-stopping talent doesn’t seem to be enough when your parents want you to hang up your football boots, find a nice boyfriend, and learn to cook the perfect chapatti.

UK/Germany, 2002, English/Hindi/Punjabi, Color, 112 min., PG-13, 35mm (1.85:1)

Tuvalu
Sunday, July 27th- 7pm & 9pm

A quirky German homage to Chaplin and Keaton.

A small town indoor pool and the limitless mind of one of the pool employees make the setting for this stunning comedic fantasy. The pool is where local residents go to escape the daily grind and enter a fantastical dream world. Adrift in these daydreams, the Anton (Denic Lavant) finds Eva (Chulpan Hamatova), a beautiful woman who has the power to take this working class visionary into a strange, surreal world to live together in love.

Germany, 1999, None, B&W/Color, 101 min., unrated, 35mm (1.85:1)

Sanjuro
Thursday, July 31st - 7pm & 9pm

Mifune reprises his Yojimbo samurai character for another comedic adventure.

Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo was such a success that the director decided to make another film in the same comedic-adventure vein. Once again Mifune is in fine form, portraying Sanjuro as a gruff character who would rather laze about and drink sake than fight for justice. Constantly suspicious of the irreverent swordsman, his nine clean-cut followers slowly begin to look past his outward appearance and discover Sanjuro’s deep, if unconventional, sense of honor.

Japan, 1962, Japanese with English subtitles, B&W, 96 min., unrated, 35mm (2.35:1)

Divine Intervention
Friday & Saturday, August 1st & 2nd - 7pm & 9pm

A political satire from Palestine.

Divine Intervention writer-director Elia Suleiman has been compared to Woody Allen and Charlie Chaplin, presumably because he has Allen’s intelligent, self-deprecating humor and Chaplin’s gift for silent comedy. Divine Intervention is not a silent film, but an intensely quiet comedy about daily life in the West Bank and Israel. Suleiman provides a series of not-altogether-related vignettes of people chocked with boredom and drained of compassion, such as an angry mob of adolescents stabbing Santa Claus, or the neighbor who throws garbage onto the property next door (and complains when it is thrown back), or the checkpoint soldiers who sing and dance, and look mincing doing so.

France/Morocco/Germany/Palestine, 2001, Arabic/Hebrew/English, Color, 92 min., unrated, 35mm (1.85:1)

Chinatown
Sunday, August 3rd - 7pm & 9:30pm

Roman Polanski's classic tale of water and corruption.

Director Roman Polanski's classic neo-noir detective story is set during a heat wave in 1930s Los Angeles, where residents suffer from a water shortage due to an ongoing drought. With stellar contributions from composer Jerry Goldsmith and screenwriter Robert Towne, whose script recalls the hard-boiled cynicism of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, Chinatown is a complex and superbly crafted period drama that has become Polanski's most critically acclaimed film.

USA, 1974, English, Color, 131 min., R, 35mm.(1.85:1)

High and Low
Thursday, August 7th - 7pm & 9:30pm

Based on a crime novel by Ed McBain.

Based on King's Ransom, a crime novel by Ed McBain, High and Low stars Toshiro Mifune as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy, hardworking businessman. As Gondo plans a coup that will secure his position as the head of his Yokohama shoe company, he is contacted by a criminal who informs him that he’s kidnapped his son. The crook demands a huge ransom for the boy's return – an amount that has taken Gondo 30 years of labor to amass.

Japan, 1963, Japanese with English subtitles, B&W/Color, 143 min., unrated, 35mm (1.85:1)

City of God
Friday & Saturday, August 8th & 9th - 7pm & 9:30pm

Nominated for two Academy Awards.

Cidade de Deus (City of God) is a housing project built in the 1960s that – in the early '80s – became one of the most dangerous places in Rio de Janeiro. The tale tells the stories of many characters whose lives sometimes intersect. However, all is seen through the eyes of a singular narrator; Busca-Pe, a poor black youth too frail and scared to become an outlaw but also too smart to be content with underpaid, menial jobs. He grows up in a very violent environment. The odds are all against him. But Busca-Pe soon discovers that he can see reality differently than others. His redemption is that he;s been given an artist’s point of view as a keen-eyed photographer.

Brazil/France/USA, 2002, Portuguese with English subtitles, Color, 130 min., R, 35 mm (1.85:1)

Deliverance
Sunday, August 10th - 7pm & 9:15pm
John Boorman's classic river adventure.

Director John Boorman’s adaptation of James Dickey's best-selling novel stars Burt Reynolds as the hypermasculine Lewis Medlock. Obsessed with Hemingway-vintage notions about achieving true masculinity by challenging nature, Lewis cajoles three of his friends, Bobby Trippe (Ned Beatty), Drew Ballinger (Ronny Cox), and Ed Gentry (Jon Voight), into joining him on a white-water canoe trip down an uncharted river in the Appalachians, although only Ed has had any similar experience. The rare screening of this archive print was made possible by Turner Classic Movies.
USA, 1972, English, Color, 109 min., R, 35mm (1.85:1)

Red Beard
Thursday, August 14th - 7pm only
Kurosawa and Mifune's last film together.

Truly the end of an era, Red Beard marks the dissolution of the Kurosawa/Mifune partnership and also Kurosawa's las black-and-white production. Although surprisingly little ahs been written about the rift between Mifune and Kurosawa, it's likely that tensions were largetly due to the film’s grueling two-year shoot. Despite the drama behind the camera, Red Beard remains on of Kurosawa's underrated classics.

Japan, 1965, Japanese with English Subtitles, B&W, 199 min., unrated, 35mm (1.85:1)

Spellbound
Friday & Saturday, August 15h & 16th - 7pm & 9:15pm

Nominated for an Academy Award.

Who would have thought that the toughest, most rousing and suspenseful of all televised competitions would resolve around a bunch of 14 year-old honor students who are hooked on words? Spellbound, the highly praised, award-winning film, proves that the annual National Spelling Bee is just that – a breath-bating, nail-biting face-off among hundreds of teens who train as rigorously as any Olympic athlete and who are every bit as heroic in their quest for glory.

USA, 2002, English, Color, 95 min., G, 35mm (1.85:1)

The Edge
Sunday, August 17th - 7pm & 9:30pm
Written by David Mamet and starring Anthony Hopkins.

An aging billionaire (Hopkins) and a fashion photographer (Alec Baldwin) having an affair with the rich man's wife must struggle against the elements – including a man-eating bear – after their plane goes down in the Alaskan wild. An unusually dense and cerebral wilderness thriller, penned by literatus David Mamet and helmed by Lee Tamahori ("Once Were Warriors").

USA, 1997, English, Color 117 min., R, 35mm (1.85:1)