Month: March 2017

Friday March 31 – Thursday April 6

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

After Hours at the Grand Illusion

SAM’s got Yasujiro Ozu’s unimpeachable Early Summer playing on 35mm Thursday night, and the Central Cinema has a fine double feature for our times of Nazi-punching and conspiratorial malevolence with Raiders of the Lost Ark and They Live, but if I’m going to a movie this April Fool’s Day, it’s gotta be Martin Scorsese’s After Hours on 35 at the Grand Illusion. Griffin Dunne plays a mild-mannered office drone who in his more or less innocent quest to just meet a nice girl gets sucked through the looking glass into a nightmarish world of a city that refuses to operate by conventional standards of decency and logic. With Teri Garr, Linda Fiorentino, Rosanna Arquette, Catherine O’Hara and more as the agents of his doom, it’s tremendously fun. One of the great director’s best and most underrated films.

Playing This Week:

AMC Alderwood:

Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas) Fri-Thurs Our Review
The Last Word (Mark Pellington) Fri-Thurs
Wilson (Craig Johnson) Fri-Thurs
Katamarayudu (Kishore Kumar Pardasani) Fri-Thurs
John Wick: Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi) Fri-Thurs Our Review
The Prison (Kim Rae-won & Han Suk-kyu) Fri-Thurs

Ark Lodge Cinemas:

A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs

Central Cinema:

Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1982) Fri-Mon, Weds
They Live (John Carpenter, 1988) Fri-Weds

SIFF Egyptian:

Raw (Julia Ducournau) Fri-Thurs

Century Federal Way:

The Prison (Kim Rae-won & Han Suk-kyu) Fri-Thurs
Raab Da Radio ( Harry Bhatti & Tarnvir Singh Jagpal) Fri-Thurs
North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) Sun & Weds Only

Grand Cinema:

Kedi (Ceyda Torun) Fri-Thurs
A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs
The Red Turtle (Michaël Dudok de Wit) Fri-Thurs
The Last Word (Mark Pellington) Fri-Thurs
Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001) Sat Only
Alamar (Pedro González-Rubio, 2009) Mon Only
1984 (Michael Radford, 1984) Tues Only
Deconstructing the Beatles: Revolver (Scott Freiman) Thurs Only

Grand Illusion Cinema:

Paterson (Jim Jarmusch) Sat-Mon, Weds & Thurs Our Review Our Other Review
After Hours (Martin Scorsese, 1985) Fri, Sat & Tues Only 35mm
San Francisco Cable Cars (Strephon Taylor) Sun Only Filmmaker in Attendance

Landmark Guild 45th:

Trainspotting 2 (Danny Boyle) Fri-Thurs
Kedi (Ceyda Torun) Fri-Thurs

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

Raajakumara (Santhosh Ananddram) Fri-Thurs
Katamarayudu (Kishore Kumar Pardasani) Fri-Thurs
Wilson (Craig Johnson) Fri-Thurs
For Here or To Go? (Rucha Humnabadkar, 2015) Fri-Thurs
Guru (Sudha K Prasad) Fri-Thurs
Naam Shabana (Shivam Nair) Fri-Thurs
North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) Sun & Weds Only

Regal Meridian:

Trainspotting 2 (Danny Boyle) Fri-Thurs

Northwest Film Forum:

Contemporary Color (Bill Ross IV & Turner Ross) Fri-Sun
The Films of Daichi Saito Sat Only Filmmaker in Attendance
Strike a Pose (Ester Gould & Reijer Zwaan) Weds Only
Cinemania (Angela Christlieb & Stephen Kijak, 2002) Thurs & Fri Only 35mm
I Called Him Morgan (Kasper Collin) Starts Thurs

AMC Oak Tree:

Wilson (Craig Johnson) Fri-Thurs

AMC Pacific Place:

Song to Song (Terrence Malick) Fri-Thurs
The Last Word (Mark Pellington) Fri-Thurs
Wilson (Craig Johnson) Fri-Thurs
La La Land (Damien Chazelle) Fri-Thurs Our Review
The Devotion of Suspect X (Alec Su) Fri-Thurs

Regal Parkway Plaza:

Song to Song (Terrence Malick) Fri-Thurs
The Last Word (Mark Pellington) Fri-Thurs
Wilson (Craig Johnson) Fri-Thurs
Northern Lights: A Journey to Love (Dondon S. Santos) Fri-Thurs

Seattle Art Museum:

Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu, 1951) Thurs Only 35mm Our Podcast

Landmark Seven Gables:

Frantz (François Ozon) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Film Center:

Deconstructing the Beatles: Revolver (Scott Freiman) Fri-Sun Only
Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk, 1954) Tues Only

Sundance Cinemas:

Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
The Last Word (Mark Pellington) Fri-Thurs
Wilson (Craig Johnson) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Uptown:

Frantz (François Ozon) Fri-Thurs
Trainspotting 2 (Danny Boyle) Fri-Thurs
1984 (Michael Radford, 1984) Tues Only

Varsity Theatre:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Land of Mine (Martin Pieter Zandvliet) Fri-Thurs
North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) Weds Only

Friday March 24 – Thursday March 30

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

Song to Song at the Pacific Place

Surprisingly absolutely no one, the latest film from Terrence Malick has proven to be divisive among critics and audiences. If you happen to be one of those people who think that not only are his early films (Badlands and Days of Heaven) great, but so are his middle films The Thin Red Line and The New World) and his late films (The Tree of Life, To the Wonder and Knight of Cups), and we here at Seattle Screen Scene most definitely are in that camp, then the unheralded release of Song to Song, opening with no advance publicity at the Pacific Place this week, is a cause of both extreme consternation and great excitement. If Malick, or just late Malick, is not your cup of tea, then by all means do not miss the next film up in SAM’s Ozu series, Late Spring, playing on 35mm on Thursday. The rest of us will be happily twirling twirling twirling into the AMC.

Playing This Week:

AMC Alderwood:

Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas) Fri-Thurs Our Review
The Last Word (Mark Pellington) Fri-Thurs
Wilson (Craig Johnson) Fri-Thurs
Katamarayudu (Kishore Kumar Pardasani) Fri-Thurs
John Wick: Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski) Fri-Thurs Our Review
La La Land (Damien Chazelle) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Split (M. Night Shyamalan) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Central Cinema:

Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950) Fri-Weds
Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999) Fri-Weds

Century Federal Way:

Katamarayudu (Kishore Kumar Pardasani) Fri-Thurs
Phillauri (Anshai Lal) Fri-Thurs
The Karate Kid (John G. Avildsen, 1984) Sun & Weds Only

Grand Cinema:

Kedi (Ceyda Torun) Fri-Thurs
A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs
The Sense of an Ending (Ritesh Batra) Fri-Thurs
The Last Word (Mark Pellington) Fri-Thurs
Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997) Sat Only
Wolf Totem (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 2015) Mon Only
Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) Tues Only
The Fog of War (Errol Morris, 2003) Thurs Only

Grand Illusion Cinema:

Paterson (Jim Jarmusch) Sat-Mon, Weds & Thurs Our Review Our Other Review
Suntan (Argyris Papadimitropoulos) Fri-Thurs
Saturday Secret Matinees: Presented by the Sprocket Society (Various directors & years) Sat Only 16mm
A Tale of Two Cities: Portland & Seattle Tues Only

Landmark Guild 45th:

Trainspotting 2 (Danny Boyle) Fri-Thurs
The Sense of an Ending (Ritesh Batra) Fri-Thurs
Kedi (Ceyda Torun) Fri-Thurs

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

Badrinath Ki Dulhania (Shashank Khaitan) Fri-Thurs
Katamarayudu (Kishore Kumar Pardasani) Fri-Thurs
Wilson (Craig Johnson) Fri-Thurs
The Karate Kid (John G. Avildsen, 1984) Sun & Weds Only

Northwest Film Forum:

The Land of the Enlightened (Pieter-Jan De Pue) Fri-Sun
Homeland: Iraq Year Zero (Abbas Fahdel, 2015) Sat & Sun Only
Strike a Pose (Ester Gould & Reijer Zwaan) Weds & Thurs Only
Contemporary Color (Bill Ross IV & Turner Ross) Thurs-Sun

AMC Oak Tree:

Wilson (Craig Johnson) Fri-Thurs

AMC Pacific Place:

Song to Song (Terrence Malick) Fri-Thurs
The Last Word (Mark Pellington) Fri-Thurs
Wilson (Craig Johnson) Fri-Thurs
La La Land (Damien Chazelle) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Seattle Jewish Film Festival Fri-Sun Only Full Program

Regal Parkway Plaza:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Slamma Jamma (Tim Chey) Fri-Thurs
The Sense of an Ending (Ritesh Batra) Fri-Thurs
The Last Word (Mark Pellington) Fri-Thurs
Wilson (Craig Johnson) Fri-Thurs
Katamarayudu (Kishore Kumar Pardasani) Fri-Thurs

Seattle Art Museum:

Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949) Thurs Only 35mm

Landmark Seven Gables:

Land of Mine (Martin Pieter Zandvliet) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Film Center:

The Lure (Agnieszka Smoczynska) Fri-Sun Only Our Review
Post Alley Film Festival Sat Only Full Program

AMC Southcenter:

Sword Art Online The Movie – Ordinal Scale (Tomohiko Itō) Fri-Thurs
The Red Turtle (Michaël Dudok de Wit) Fri-Thurs

Sundance Cinemas:

Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
The Last Word (Mark Pellington) Fri-Thurs
Wilson (Craig Johnson) Fri-Thurs
All Nighter (Gavin Wiesen) Fri-Thurs
Donald Cried (Kristopher Avedisian) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Uptown:

Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Trainspotting 2 (Danny Boyle) Fri-Thurs
The Salesman (Asghar Farhadi) Fri-Thurs
Kedi (Ceyda Torun) Fri-Thurs
Seattle Jewish Film Festival Mon-Thurs Only Full Program

Varsity Theatre:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review

In Wide Release:

Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi) Our Review

Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)

~ Ryan Swen ~ 1 Comment

personal shopper

For a film as surprisingly dense and multi-faceted as Personal Shopper, it is first important to consider exactly what comprises the work. It is at once a subtle exploration of grief and a glimpse into the unknown, a thriller at times bordering on horror and a relentlessly lowkey experience that borders on parodying the cliches of a normal viewer’s notion of a French arthouse film, and a movie that both embraces and rejects what ultimately becomes the film’s driving principle: spiritualism. Yet it manages to reconcile these differences to some degree or another, and the credit must be given to two incredibly well-matched collaborators: director and writer Olivier Assayas and his new muse Kristen Stewart.

It should be noted that this is Assayas’s second film with Stewart, following his previous film Clouds of Sils Maria (2014). There, Stewart played the assistant and essential foil to Juliette Binoche’s veteran actress, but in this movie she stands alone, quite literally by herself for much of the narrative. Her character is Maureen, a personal shopper living in Paris for a diva model named Kyra who is often heard (through handwritten notes) but only seen in one short sequence. Maureen is also an amateur medium, introduced in the opening minutes wandering the home of her recently deceased twin brother in the hopes of receiving a sign from the other side.

Continue reading “Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)” →

Friday March 17 – Thursday March 23

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

Beau travail at the Northwest Film Forum

For two days in the middle of this week (Tuesday and Wednesday to be exact) the Northwest Film Forum is showing a 35mm print of the best film from that very fine movie year 1999, Claire Denis’s Beau travail. An adaptation of Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd, it stars Denis Levant as the commander of a French Foreign Legion troop stationed in Djibouti. He becomes increasingly obsessed with a beautiful new recruit, played by Grégoire Colin, understandable given the oppressive heat and the gorgeousness of Agnès Godard’s images of soldiers at work. The plot ends in tragedy, but the movies ends with the rhythm of the night.

Playing This Week:

Admiral Theater:

Shoulder Arms (Charles Chaplin, 1918) Weds Only
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) Weds Only
American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973) Weds Only

AMC Alderwood:

Bluebeard (Lee Soo-yeon) Fri-Thurs
The Sense of an Ending (Ritesh Batra) Fri-Thurs
Split (M. Night Shyamalan) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Central Cinema:

Aliens (James Cameron, 1986) Fri-Tues

Century Federal Way:

Jindua (Navaniat Singh) Fri-Thurs
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992) Sun & Weds Only

Grand Cinema:

Kedi (Ceyda Torun) Fri-Thurs
A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs
The Sense of an Ending (Ritesh Batra) Fri-Thurs
Neruda (Pablo Larraín) Fri-Thurs Our Review
ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982) Sat Only Free
The World’s End (Edgar Wright, 2013) Sat Only
All the Best (Snjezana Tribuson) Mon Only
Things to Come (Mia Hansen-Løve) Tues Only Our Review Our Other Review

Grand Illusion Cinema:

Paterson (Jim Jarmusch) Fri-Thurs Our Review Our Other Review
Saturday Secret Matinees: Presented by the Sprocket Society (Various directors & years) Sat Only 16mm
A Tale of Two Cities: Portland & Seattle Tues Only

Landmark Guild 45th:

The Sense of an Ending (Ritesh Batra) Fri-Thurs
Kedi (Ceyda Torun) Fri-Thurs
Tickling Giants (Sara Taksler) Tues Only

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

Badrinath Ki Dulhania (Shashank Khaitan) Fri-Thurs
The Sense of an Ending (Ritesh Batra) Fri-Thurs
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992) Sun & Weds Only

Northwest Film Forum:

Mr. Gaga (Tomer Heymann, 2015) Fri-Sun, Weds-Thurs
The Challenge (Yuri Ancarani) Sat Only
Uncertain (Ewan McNicol & Anna Sandilands) Fri-Sun Only Director Q&A Sat
Beau travail (Claire Denis, 1999) Tues & Weds Only 35mm Our Podcast

AMC Oak Tree:

Mean Dreams (Nathan Morlando) Fri-Thurs

AMC Pacific Place:

The Sense of an Ending (Ritesh Batra) Fri-Thurs

Regal Parkway Plaza:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Jindua (Navaniat Singh) Fri-Thurs
The Sense of an Ending (Ritesh Batra) Fri-Thurs

Seattle Art Museum:

The Only Son (Yasujiro Ozu, 1936) Thurs Only 35mm

Landmark Seven Gables:

A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Film Center:

You’re Killing Me Susana (Roberto Sneider) Fri-Sun Only
Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki, 2011) Weds Only Plus wine and pastry

AMC Southcenter:

Sword Art Online The Movie – Ordinal Scale (Tomohiko Itō) Fri-Thurs

Sundance Cinemas:

Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas) Fri-Thurs Our Review
I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review

SIFF Uptown:

Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas) Fri-Thurs Our Review
The Salesman (Asghar Farhadi) Fri-Thurs
Kedi (Ceyda Torun) Fri-Thurs

Varsity Theatre:

Fittest on Earth: A Decade of Fitness (Heber Cannon, Ian Wittenber, Marston Sawyers & Mariah Moore) Fri-Thurs
Wolves (Bart Freundlich) Fri-Thurs

In Wide Release:

The Great Wall (Zhang Yimou) Our Review
John Wick: Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski) Our Review
Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi) Our Review
Fences (Denzel Washington) Our Review
La La Land (Damien Chazelle) Our Review
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)  Our Review

Friday March 10 – Thursday March 16

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

Fire Walk with Me at the Seattle Art Museum

Kicking off a Lynchian spring here in Seattle (SIFF’s retrospective launches in April) is the Seattle Art Museum’s presentation of the prequel to David Lynch’s acclaimed television series Twin Peaks. It’s playing two nights only (Friday and Saturday), the first night with a handful of special guests: Wendy Robie, Gary Hershberger, and Sheryl Lee, who gives one of cinema’s all-time great performances in the film as the doomed Laura Palmer. We talked about it last year on the first ever episode of The Frances Farmer Show, and Ryan’s got a review of it here as well.

Playing This Week:

Ark Lodge Cinemas:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Central Cinema:

Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) Fri-Weds
Serenity (Joss Whedon, 2005) Fri-Weds

Century Federal Way:

The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952) Sun & Weds Only

Grand Cinema:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review
A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs
Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright, 2007) Sat Only
Cool & Crazy (Knut Erik Jensen, 2001) Mon Only
Sophie and the Rising Sun (Maggie Greenwald) Tues Only
West Side Story (Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins, 1961) Weds Only
I, Claude Monet (Phil Grabsky) Thurs Only

Grand Illusion Cinema:

Apprentice (Boo Junfeng) Fri-Thurs
Saturday Secret Matinees: Presented by the Sprocket Society (Various directors & years) Sat Only 16mm
Sword Art Online The Movie – Ordinal Scale (Tomohiko Itō) Sun & Mon Only

Landmark Guild 45th:

A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs
Kedi (Ceyda Torun) Fri-Thurs

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

Badrinath Ki Dulhania (Shashank Khaitan) Fri-Thurs
The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952) Sun & Weds Only

Northwest Film Forum:

Happy Hour (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi) Part II Friday Only
Festival of (In)appropriation #9 Fri Only Curator in Attendance
3rd Annual Seattle Web Fest Sat Only
Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939) Sun Only 35mm
Mr. Gaga (Tomer Heymann, 2015) Starts Weds
The Challenge (Yuri Ancarani) Thurs & Sat Only

Regal Parkway Plaza:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review
My Ex and Whys (Cathy Garcia-Molina) Fri-Thurs

Seattle Art Museum:

Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch, 1992) Fri & Sat Only 35mm Our Review Our Podcast 
Night of the Shooting Stars (The Taviani Brothers, 1982) Thurs Only

SIFF Film Center:

My Life as a Zucchini (Claude Barras) Fri-Sun Only
The Freedom to Marry (Eddie Rosenstein) Sat Only

AMC Southcenter:

Sword Art Online The Movie – Ordinal Scale (Tomohiko Itō) Fri-Thurs
A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs

Sundance Cinemas:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review

SIFF Uptown:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Weds Our Review
The Salesman (Asghar Farhadi) Fri-Thurs
Kedi (Ceyda Torun) Fri-Thurs

Varsity Theatre:

Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade) Fri-Thurs Our Review Our Other Review

In Wide Release:

The Great Wall (Zhang Yimou) Our Review
John Wick: Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski) Our Review
Split (M. Night Shyamalan) Our Review
Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi) Our Review
Fences (Denzel Washington) Our Review
La La Land (Damien Chazelle) Our Review
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)  Our Review

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (David Lynch, 1992)

~ Ryan Swen

fire walk

Considering his cemented status in film culture as one of the great American directors, David Lynch has had a far more divisive, controversial reception from film to film, often for good reason. The cinephiles who mostly know him from his three most popular films Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Drive (though even Eraserhead doesn’t fit neatly into the “most popular” designation) would likely be shocked to see the fragmentation of Lynch’s oeuvre, a nervy bundle of obsessions, hang-ups, and looming iconography that infects everything from the immensely straightforward (The Straight Story) to the near-abstract (Inland Empire). Speaking as an avowed Lynch fanatic, his movies always conjure an ineffable mix of pity, fear, and absolute awe within, but perhaps no film in his filmography illustrates that more hauntingly than Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

It is difficult to designate one film in such a contentious oeuvre in this manner, but it seems more and more apparent with each passing year that Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is David Lynch’s ultimate film maudit. Infamously, it was booed viciously during its premiere at Cannes, and Quentin Tarantino declared that Lynch had “disappeared so far up his own ass”, a statement echoed by many during its initial release. It had sunk to the bottom of Lynch’s filmography, long regarded as the least of Lynch’s “uncompromised” works (which only leaves out his even more misunderstood adaptation of Dune) until recently, when it underwent a drastic reappraisal and is regarded by a small but vocal contingent as one of the legendary director’s finest works.

[SPOILERS FOR THE TWIN PEAKS SHOW FOLLOW]

Continue reading “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (David Lynch, 1992)” →

Yourself and Yours (Hong Sangsoo, 2016)

~ Sean Gilman ~ 3 Comments

yourselfandyours_06

Yourself and Yours isn’t the latest film from South Korean director Hong Sangsoo, that would be On the Beach at Night Alone, which premiered a few weeks ago at the Berlin Film Festival (where it picked up a Best Actress award) and which Evan wrote about here last week (Evan has also written here about both Yourself and Yours and its trailer). Yourself and Yours may still come to Seattle Screens, Hong’s Right Now, Wrong Then played here last summer, almost a year after its festival premiere in 2015. It’s probable that if it does, it won’t be until after another new Hong movie plays the Cannes Film Festival, as his Claire’s Camera is rumored to be finished by that time. With a director this prolific (since taking a year off in 2007, Hong has directed thirteen feature films in ten years) it’s easy for a film here or there to get lost in the mix, especially given the lethargic pace at which films today move from the festival circuit to the theatrical art house. The system simply isn’t designed, at present, for a director who releases a new film every nine months. This isn’t unique to Hong (the similarly prolific Johnnie To has had equally haphazard distribution) nor is it unique to the present (take a look sometime at the distribution schedule of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960s period). But don’t let these institutional vagaries obscure the fact that Hong is in the midst of one of the great cinematic winning streaks, a frenetic burst of creative energy that comes along only a few times in a generation. And Yourself and Yours, seemingly already forgotten though it premiered just six months ago, epitomizes the greatness of that streak as well as anything.

Continue reading “Yourself and Yours (Hong Sangsoo, 2016)” →

Friday March 3 – Thursday March 9

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

Anatahan at the Grand Illusion

Josef von Sternberg’s final film, long unavailable in anything like a proper form in the US, has been newly restored and its playing this week at the Grand Illusion. Based on a true legend about a dozen Japanese sailors who are stranded on a remote island in 1944 and remain there for seven years, where their struggles for dominance and the island’s lone woman (daughter of a plantation owner) play out in lush, lurid dementia. Shot entirely outside the studio system on an artificial jungle set, it’s a harrowing vision of a world gone Sternberg, society reduced to its most basic urges and plays for power, yet twisted just enough to create an uncertain self-awareness of its own artificiality. It doesn’t have a Dietrich, but it might be the great director’s greatest film. We talked about it a few years ago on the Josef von Sternberg episode of They Shot Pictures.

Playing This Week:

AMC Alderwood:

Headshot (Timo Tjahjanto & Kimo Stamboel) Fri-Thurs
The Red Turtle (Michaël Dudok de Wit) Fri-Thurs

Ark Lodge Cinemas:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Central Cinema:

Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson, 2009) Fri-Tues
Snatch (Guy Ritchie, 2000) Fri, Sat, Mon-Weds

SIFF Egyptian:

The Great Muppet Caper (Jim Henson, 1981) Sun Only Free Admission & Popcorn for Kids

Century Federal Way:

All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) Sun & Weds Only

Grand Cinema:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review
A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs
Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004) Sat Only
Sweet Bean (Naomi Kawase) Mon Only
Fire at Sea (Gianfranco Rosi) Tues Only
Deconstructing the Beatles: Sgt. Pepper (Scott Freiman) Thurs Only

Grand Illusion Cinema:

Anatahan (Josef von Sternberg, 1953) Fri-Thurs Our Podcast
Saturday Secret Matinees: Presented by the Sprocket Society (Various directors & years) Sat Only 16mm

Landmark Guild 45th:

A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs
Kedi (Ceyda Torun) Fri-Thurs

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

Kittu Unnadu Jagratha (Vamsi Krishna) Fri-Thurs
Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai (Keshhav Panneriy) Fri-Thurs
Commando 2 (Deven Bhojani) Fri-Thurs
A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs
All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) Sun & Weds Only

Northwest Film Forum:

The Dazzling Light of Sunset (Salomé Jashi) Fri & Sat Only
Enemy Mine (Wolfgang Petersen, 1985) Fri Only Live Score
XX (Roxanne Benjamin, Sofia Carrillo, Annie Clark, Karyn Kusama, & Jovanka Vuckovic) Fri-Sun
The Road to Nickelsville (Derek McNeill) Sun Only Filmmaker in Attendance
Happy Hour (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi) Weds Only Part One Weds, Part Two Friday

AMC Pacific Place:

A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs

Paramount Theatre:

The Dragon Painter (William Worthington, 1919) Mon Only Live Wurlitzer

Regal Parkway Plaza:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai (Keshhav Panneriy) Fri-Thurs
My Ex and Whys (Cathy Garcia-Molina) Fri-Thurs

Seattle Art Museum:

The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1948) Mon Only 35mm Thelma Schoonmaker in Attendance
The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1983) Tues Only 35mm Thelma Schoonmaker in Attendance
City of Women (Federico Fellini, 1980) Thurs Only

SIFF Film Center:

The Brand New Testament (Jaco Van Dormael) Fri-Sun Only

AMC Southcenter:

The Red Turtle (Michaël Dudok de Wit) Fri-Thurs
A United Kingdom (Amma Asante) Fri-Thurs

Sundance Cinemas:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review

SIFF Uptown:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Weds Our Review
The Salesman (Asghar Farhadi) Fri-Thurs
Kedi (Ceyda Torun) Fri-Thurs

Varsity Theatre:

All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) Weds Only

In Wide Release:

The Great Wall (Zhang Yimou) Our Review
John Wick: Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski) Our Review
Split (M. Night Shyamalan) Our Review
Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi) Our Review
Fences (Denzel Washington) Our Review
La La Land (Damien Chazelle) Our Review
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)  Our Review

On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sang-soo, 2017)

~ Evan Morgan

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First, what On the Beach at Night Alone is not. And because Hong often, though not always, makes films in pairs that profit from their proximity, let’s take Yourself and Yours as the template from which to trace the variations. Yourself and Yours arguably employed Hong’s loopiest structure in some time: there’s no intradiegetic scaffolding—a la Hill of Freedom—to guide the narrative’s many double helixes and it lacks the log-line neatness of Right Now, Wrong Then, with its rewind-to-be-kind backpedaling. By comparison, this newest work is not a labyrinthine construct. Yes, On the Beach at Night Alone redeploys the bifurcation that defined Hong’s biggest hit, but it hardly counted as innovation when he used it there either; Hong has long displayed an affinity for warped mirror halves. And anyways, the chapters that split On the Beach at Night Alone in two are, if taken at face value, drawn more sharply on geographical and temporal lines than metaphysical or meta-fictional divisions (though more on that later).

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