Featured Film:

Irma Vep at the Northwest Film Forum

Continuing their miniature festival de Léaud, the Northwest Film Forum this weekend has the new restoration of Jean-Luc Godard’s Le gai savoir, in which Jean-Pierre Léaud and Juliet Berto discourse on language, meaning and learning. It’s one of the few 1960s Godard features I haven’t seen yet. The film it’s paired with, a 35mm print of Olivier Assayas’s Irma Vep, is one of the very best European films of the 1990s. Maggie Cheung plays Maggie Cheung, an actress hired by famous French director Léaud to star in his remake of Louis Feuillade’s silent serial Les vampires. A scathing satire of the state of the French film industry in the ashes of the New Wave, anchored by a brilliant fish out of water performance by Cheung, it’s one of the very best films ever made about making movies. I wrote a bit about it way back in 2011, after we had tried and failed to play it at the Metro.

Playing This Week:

AMC Loews Alderwood:

Titanic (James Cameron, 1997) Fri-Thurs

Central Cinema:

Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988) Fri-Tues
Scrooged (Richard Donner, 1988) Fri-Tues

Century Federal Way:

The Swindlers (Jang Chang-won) Fri-Thurs
Sat Shri Akaal England (Vikram Pradhan) Fri-Thurs
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Stanley Kramer, 1967) Sun & Weds Only

Grand Cinema:

Faces Places (Agnès Varda & JR) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Loving Vincent (Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman) Fri-Thurs
Blade of the Immortal (Takashi Miike) Sat Only
White Christmas (Michael Curtiz, 1954) Sun Weds & Thurs Only
The King’s Choice (Erik Poppe) Tues Only
Alternate Endings, Radical Beginnings (Various) Weds Only Free Screening

Grand Illusion Cinema:

It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) Fri-Mon 35mm, Free on Monday
Christmas Evil (Lewis Jackson, 1980) Fri, Sat & Weds
Potamkin (Stephen Broomer) Tues Only 16mm
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (Paul Mazursky, 1969) Thurs Only 35mm

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

Wonder Wheel (Woody Allen) Fri-Thurs
Jawaan (B. V. S. Ravi) Fri-Thurs
Gruham (U. Milind Rau) Fri-Thurs
Fukrey Returns (Mrigdeep Singh Lamba) Fri-Thurs
Malli Raava (Gowtam Tinnanuri) Fri-Thurs
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Stanley Kramer, 1967) Sun & Weds Only

Regal Meridian:

Daisy Winters (Beth LaMure) Fri-Thurs
Loving Vincent (Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman) Fri-Thurs
My Friend Dahmer (Marc Meyers) Fri-Thurs
Christmas Vacation (Jeremiah S. Chechik, 1989) Sat Only

Northwest Film Forum:

Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 1996) Sat & Sun Only 35mm
La gai savoir (Jean-Luc Godard, 1969) Sat & Sun Only
Perfume of the Lady in Black (Francesco Barilli, 1974) Weds Only
On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sangsoo) Starts Thurs Our Review

Regal Parkway Plaza:

Jane (Brett Morgen) Fri-Thurs
Fukrey Returns (Mrigdeep Singh Lamba) Fri-Thurs
Unexpectedly Yours (Cathy Garcia-Molina) Fri-Thurs

AMC Seattle:

Thelma (Joachim Trier) Fri-Thurs
The Florida Project (Sean Baker) Fri-Thurs Our Review Our Other Review
Loving Vincent (Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman) Fri-Thurs
Wonder Wheel (Woody Allen) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Film Center:

Snowpiercer (Bong Joonho, 2013) Fri-Sun Our Podcast
Home Alone (Chris Columbus, 1990) Fri-Sun

Regal Thornton Place:

Christmas Vacation (Jeremiah S. Chechik, 1989) Sat Only

SIFF Uptown:

Jane (Brett Morgen) Fri-Thurs

Varsity Theatre:

The Square (Ruben Östlund) Fri-Thurs
Tribes of Palos Verdes (Emmett & Brendan Malloy) Fri-Thurs
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Stanley Kramer, 1967) Weds Only

In Wide Release:

Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig) Our Review
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh) Our Review
Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve) Our Review