FRI., 2/27, 5 p.m.
Owen Kline’s Mystery Reel
90 min.
Buckle-up for a secret and mind-bending assortment of short films, avant-garde classics, 16mm television ads, trailers, animation, and other so-called ephemera. The fun and wild program has been curated by filmmaker Owen Kline as a prelude to our screening of Funny Pages. Titles will be revealed at showtime!
FRI., 2/27, 7 p.m.
FUNNY PAGES
USA | 2022 | 35mm | 85 min.
Director: Owen Kline
Cast: Daniel Zolghadri, Matthew Maher, Josh Pais
A gifted but self-absorbed teenage cartoonist bails on his comfortable suburban life to pursue his artistic passion straight into the gutter. Subletting a scary apartment in Trenton, he enters a cracked milieu of freaks and weirdos who seem ripped from the pages of his beloved underground comics. Full of memorable New Jersey misfits and produced by Ronald Bronstein and the Safdie brothers, this charmingly scrappy indie carries on the acerbically witty tradition of classic comix artists. Writer/director Owen Kline will appear in person to present a special 35mm print of Funny Pages, his feature debut, and answer questions in a post-screening discussion. (MK)
SAT., 2/28, 12 p.m.
THE FOOL KILLER
USA | 1965 | 16mm | 100 min.
Director: Servando Gonzalez
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Edward Albert, Salome Jens
12-year-old George Mellish (Albert) flees his abusive foster parents after the Civil War and journeys through the rural South, encountering eccentric strangers and frightening tales of a mythical axe-wielding murderer. His path leads him to Milo (Perkins), a traumatized drifter whose mysterious past makes George fear he may actually be “The Fool Killer.” Shot in moody black-and-white and unfolding like a dark folkloric fable, the film echoes The Night of the Hunter in its child’s-eye view of a threatening, dreamlike America and its blend of innocence and menace. The rare 16mm print screens courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
SAT., 2/28, 2:30 p.m.
THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS
USA | 1956 | 35mm | 95 min.
Director: Melville Shavelson
Cast: Bob Hope, Milly Vitale, James Cagney
This fun and nostalgic show biz bio shows how vaudeville star Eddie Foy (Hope) transforms from a carefree song-and-dance man into the devoted—if still hapless—father of seven spirited performers. The scrappy charm of old vaudeville is evoked by the sets, costume, and cast, including Cagney, reprising his Oscar-winning Yankee Doodle Dandy performance as George M. Cohan. An original 35mm Technicolor print, courtesy of the Chicago Film Society, will be screened.
SAT., 2/28, 7 p.m.
WITHNAIL & I
UK | 1987 | 35mm | 105 min.
Director: Bruce Robinson
Cast: Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths
In 1969, Withnail (Grant) and Marwood (McGann) are London flat mates, unemployed actors living in an alcohol and drug-fueled squalor. Desperately seeking a change of scenery, the pair embark on a sojourn to a countryside cottage owned by Withnail’s Uncle Monty. Once in the country, the fish-out-of-water pair find themselves woefully ill-equipped at keeping themselves warm and well fed, managing to offend everyone they meet. Things go from bad to worse when Uncle Monty (a sublime Griffiths) shows up with amorous intentions towards Marwood. Robinson’s directorial debut is a seriously besotted comedy, filled with big laughs and scenery almost too lush to chew. (BR)
SUN., 3/1, 12 p.m.
FISTS IN THE POCKET
Italy | 1965 | DCP | 108 min. | Italian with English subtitles
Director: Marco Bellocchio
Cast: Lou Castel, Paola Pitagora, Marino Mase
Alessandro (Castel) is an epileptic young man trapped in a decaying provincial household, whose resentment drives him toward a violent “solution” for his dysfunctional, dependent family. Bellocchio’s ferocious debut (at age 26) uses dark humor to expose the hypocrisies of middle-class Catholic respectability. An explosion in post-neorealist Italian cinema, I pugni i tasca foreshadows the radical energies that would soon reshape Europe’s filmmaking and cultural politics.
SUN., 3/1, 2:30 p.m.
LONELY ARE THE BRAVE
USA | 1962 | 35mm | 107 min.
Director: David Miller
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, Walter Matthau
Douglas plays Jack Burns, a hard-living, old-fashioned cowboy in a very modern world. When Burns is busted and escapes from jail, he and his magnificent horse Whiskey attempt to elude a posse (who use helicopters) through rugged Southwestern territory. Like Spartacus, Lonely Are the Brave features a screenplay by the formerly blacklisted Dalton Trumbo.
SUN., 3/1, 5 p.m.
LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND
UK, Canada | 1997 | 35mm | 93 min.
Director: Richard Kwietniowski
Cast: John Hurt, Jason Priestley, Fiona Loewi
Reclusive British writer Giles De’Ath (Hurt) becomes unexpectedly captivated by young Hollywood heartthrob, Ronnie Bostock, after viewing Hot Pants College II, one of Ronnie’s films, at a local multiplex. As Giles embarks on a quirky, obsessive journey to learn more about his idol, he finds himself stepping out of his long-guarded solitude and into a world that challenges his notions of beauty, obsession, and self-discovery. “Hurt brings a dignity to Giles De’Ath that transcends any snickering amusement at his infatuation” (Roger Ebert).
SUN., 3/1, 7 p.m.
MADAM SATAN
USA | 1930 | 35mm | 115 min.
Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Cast: Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, Lillian Roth
Member of the upper-crust Angela (Johnson), fearing she’s losing her husband Bob (Denny) to the carefree showgirl Trixie (Roth), reimagines herself as the alluring “Madam Satan” to win him back. Her transformation is completed during a wildly extravagant costume party aboard a colossal dirigible. When a real storm strikes and the airship begins to fail, acts of sacrifice reveal the true devotion of the main characters. This dazzling and quintessential look at sin in society from legendary director DeMille is an unforgettable pre-code delight.