2009
June 11th
The Light Ahead (1939 / 94 minutes) Edgar
G. Ulmer’s Yiddish language movie about an avuncular bookseller
and a blind Jewish man who falls in love with a handicapped girl.
July 9th Point Blank (1967 / 92 minutes) Lee Marvin
is a syndicate hitman back from the grave, seeking money stolen from
him by his girlfriend and her secret lover. With Angie Dickinson and
Carroll O’Connor. Directed by John Boorman. Hit Man (1972 / 91 minutes) George Armitage’s
Los Angeles lensed revenge thriller, sporting a young Pam Grier. Midnight Heat (1983 / 67 minutes) Jamie Gillis is a contract killer holed up in a flop hotel reminiscing about the past which is quickly catching up to him. Directed by Richard Mahler (aka, Roger Michael Watkins).
August 13th HWY: An American Pastoral (1969 / 50 minutes)
Fragments from an experimental film. To quote star Jim Morrison: "Essentially,
there's no plot, no story in the traditional sense; a person, played
by me, comes down out of the mountains and hitchhikes his way through
the desert into a modern city, which happens to be L.A., and that's
where it ends.” Come Back To The Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982 / 109 minutes) Sandy Dennis, Cher, Karen Black and Kathy Bates star in Robert Altman’s movie of Ed Graczyk’s play about a reunion of members of the James Dean fan club twenty years after his untimely death.
September 10th Nightfall (1957 / 79 minutes) David Goodis’ story is brought to life by director Jacques Tourneur and a cast including Aldo Ray, Brian Keith and Anne Bancroft. Cinematography by Burnett Guffey.
October 8th Island of Lost Souls (1932 / 70 minutes)
“TERROR! Stalked the Brush-Choked Island... Where Men Who Were
Animals Sought the Girl Who Was All-Human!” Charles Laughton
is the fiendish, fey doctor in this feverous adaptation of the 1896
H.G. Wells’ classic about genetic experimentation. Directed
by Erle C. Kenton. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996 / 99 minutes)
Marlon Brando is the mad doctor in this over-the-top and totally captivating
take on the Wells legend. Monstrosity (1989 / 89 minutes) Andy Milligan’s loopy punk mash-up of The Golem, Frankenstein and Dr. Moreau.
November 12th Larmar och gör sig till / In the Presence of a Clown
(1997 / 119 minutes) Borje Ahlstedt returns as Carl Akerblom (the
Uncle from Fanny and Alexander) who seeks to make a “living
talking picture” in Ingmar Bergman’s made-for-TV movie. Gigot (1962 / 104 minutes) Jackie Gleason stars as a Charlie Chaplin-like mute in Gene Kelly’s silent film.
December 10th The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover
(1989 / 123 minutes) Peter Greenaway’s dazzling revenge drama
about a kitchen consummated affair and its bloody outcome. With Helen
Mirren, Alan Howard, Michael Gambon and Tim Roth. Being There (1979 / 130 minutes) Peter Sellers is television obsessed man-child, Chance, the gardener in Hal Ashby’s warm film of Jerzy Kosinski’s satiric fable. Co-starring Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas and Jack Warden. |