Day: February 27, 2015

Friday February 27th – Thursday March 5th

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

Samuel Fuller at the Grand Illusion Cinema

The Grand Illusion celebrates one of the most singular Americans of the 20th Century this week: journalist, author, soldier, and movie director Samuel Fuller. Along with a week-long run of a documentary about Fuller directed by his daughter Samantha, they’re also presenting 16mm prints of two of his very best films, Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss. Our Preview.
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Playing This Week:

Central Cinema:

Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1951) Fri-Tues
The Apple (Menahem Golan, 1980) Fri-Tues

SIFF Cinema Egyptian:

The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) Fri-Sat Midnight Only

Century Federal Way:

Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963) Sun Only

Cinerama:

Fists and Fury Festival Program Details Our Preview

Grand Cinema:

Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh) Fri-Thurs
Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne) Fri-Thurs Our Preview
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman) Tues Only Our Preview

Grand Illusion Cinema:

A Fuller Life (Samantha Fuller, 2013) Fri-Thurs Our Preview
Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller, 1963) Mon Only 16mm
The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller, 1964) Wed Only 16mm
The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971) Fri Only
Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-1990) (Scott Crawford) Fri-Sun
Saturday Secret Matinee (The Sprocket Society) Sat Only
Records Collecting Dust (Jason Blackmore) Thurs Only

Landmark Guild 45th Theatre:

Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev) Fri-Thurs
Song of the Sea (Tomm Moore) Fri-Thurs

Cinemark Lincoln Square Cinemas:

Badlapur (Sriram Raghavan) Fri-Thurs
Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963) Sun Only

Northwest Film Forum:

Shredder Orpheus (Robert McGinley, 1989) Fri Only 35mm
Princess Angeline (Sandy Osawa and Yasu Osawa, 2009) Sat Only
The Courage to Love (Paul Ginocchio) Sat Only
Festival of (In)Appropriation Thurs Only

AMC Pacific Place:

Triumph in the Skies (Wilson Yip and Matt Chow) Fri-Thurs
Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal (Peter Pau) Fri-Thurs

Paramount Theater:

Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) Mon Only

Scarecrow Video Screening Lounge:

Electric Dreams (Steve Barron, 1984) Fri Only

Seattle Art Museum:

La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961) Tues Only
Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971) Thurs Only 35mm

Landmark Seven Gables:

Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts  Fri-Thurs
Oscar Nominated Live-Action Shorts Fri-Thurs

SIFF Film Center:

Metalhead (Ragnar Bragason, 2013) Fri-Sun Only
Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne) Fri-Weds Our Preview
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya  (Isao Takahata) Sat-Mon Our Preview

Sundance Cinemas Seattle:

Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg) Fri-Thurs
Red Army (Gabe Polsky) Fri-Thurs
What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi) Fri-Thurs Our Preview

SIFF Cinema Uptown:

Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg) Fri-Thurs
What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi) Fri-Thurs Our Preview 
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) Sun & Tues Only 
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) Fri, Mon & Weds Only 
Sync Music Video Festival 2015 Sat Only

Fists and Fury at the Cinerama

~ Sean Gilman

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This week, the Cinerama is playing what they’ve dubbed their “First Mixed Martial Arts Festival”, a collection of movies, Hong Kong and Japan mostly, in which kicking, punching and/or swordplay is prominently featured. Playing two or three different movies per day, mostly DCP but with some 35mm, its an eclectic mix of masterpieces, curiosities and what amounts to an almost-complete Bruce Lee retrospective.

I don’t think I’ve ever been as mixed about a film series as I am about this mixed martial arts series. On the one hand, and probably most importantly, there are a bunch of great movies playing here, included some films that haven’t played in Seattle since the heyday of Landmark’s Hong Kong repertory run in the mid-1990s. The chance to see Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Toshiro Mifune, Stephen Chow and Jet Li in that gorgeous Cinerama environment is not to be dismissed lightly. Even under less than ideal conditions, like digital projections of DCPs and Blu-Rays, seeing these films is a treat. But there appears to be no rhyme or reason to the way this festival was put together, with many of the best films showing at the most inconvenient times, no clear threadlike connecting the films from different countries or eras and a lot of sub-standard source material for a repertory festival.

Continue reading “Fists and Fury at the Cinerama” →

Samuel Fuller at the Grand Illusion Cinema

~ Sean Gilman

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Playing at the Grand Illusion this week is Samantha Fuller’s 2013 documentary about her father, A Fuller Life. Aside from a short introduction explaining the concept, her movie consists entirely of excerpts from Fuller’s memoir, as read by a variety of his friends, co-workers and fans (generally shot in the kind of propulsive close-ups so recognizable from Fuller’s films). The images we see are a combination of archival footage, clips from Fuller’s movies and never-before-seen 16mm home movies shot by Sam over the decades. It’s a loving account of a remarkable American, one of the unique and definitive personalities of the 20th Century. Beginning his professional life as a newspaper boy in 1920s Manhattan, he quickly worked his way up to teenaged crime reporter. During the Depression he set out across the country, making his living as a freelance journalist and pulp novelist, chronicling the darkest corners of a turbulent decade (an anecdote he relates about a KKK woman is especially vivid). At the end of the 30s, he settled down in Hollywood, making a living as a screenwriter for hire.

Continue reading “Samuel Fuller at the Grand Illusion Cinema” →