Pioneer
Theater
East
Village / Lower East Side Movies
January 2006
| Get our weekly schedule: | |
Calendar style schedule - Pioneer Theater front page
THE LITTLE FOXES (dir. William Wyler, 112 mins, 1942) THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (dir. William Wyler, 172 mins, 1946 Double bill! |
WILLIAM
WYLER THE
LITTLE FOXES An esteemed film adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play involving the corrupt machinations of a wealthy Southern family. Vicious queen bee Regina Giddens (Bette Davis) and her two greedy brothers scheme mercilessly in their attempt to make a fortune on a new cotton mill. In the process Regina is more than willing to crush anyone who stands in their way-- including her own husband. (synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes) THE
BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES ".
. .the best American movie about returning soldiers I've ever seen--the
most moving and the most deeply felt. It bears witness to its times and
contemporaries like few other Hollywood features, and Gregg Toland's deep-focus
cinematography is one of the best things he ever did." Perhaps the most memorable film about the aftermath of World War II in the U.S., it unfolds with the homecoming of three veterans to the same small town. The leads all touch emotional truths: Myrna Loy seems able to express longing, joy, fear and surprise - mostly with her back turned - in a particularly poignant welcome home. The movie never glosses over the reality of altered lives and the inability to communicate the experience of war on the front lines or the home front. A landmark achievement. WWII vet Russell, who lost his hands in the war, is the only person to win two Oscars for the same role, Best Supporting Actor and a special Oscar "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance." (synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes) |
Bizarro
Monday Double Bill! (dir. Warren Disbrow, 2006) Double
bill! Tix
for the double bill This is a "Bizarro Monday" program. Every Monday at 7pm the Pioneer presents the finest (and trashiest) in horror, sci-fi, freakshow, exploitation, martial arts, genre, b-movies, z-movies, and just plain weird stuff. |
Troma Presents: A Tromatic New Year Double Bill! TOUCH ME IN THE MORNING: The movie opens in a ramshackle Texas trailer park, where drunken, beerbellied rednecks ramble on in heavily slurred speech. We eventually meet Coney Island (Giuseppe Andrews) a skinny kid in his late teens or early 20s. He wears a straw cowboy hat and Elvis glasses. Coney's hobbies include riding toy horses at the playground and singing upbeat pop songs to the elderly, (Andrews also wrote and performed all the music) accompanied by his electronic keyboard. The old folks don't seem to notice that Coney's lyrics are laced with profanities. Coney tells his life story through voice-over narration. His parents are older, as they were middle-aged when he was born. His mom plays with a sock puppet and has several lovers, including a disheveled homeless guy called Harmonica Pete. Coney's father, Daddy Bill, (Bill Nowlin) is a philandering gigolo doing time in prison. Coney has an uncle who is a heroin addict and looks like a skeletal concentration camp victim. He likes to take baths in motel pools. [synopsis adapted from troma.com] SCARLET MOON: |
|
(dir. Neil Abramson, 90 mins, 2005) Tues Jan 3 7pm - buy tix This is a Tuesdays@7 program. Every Tuesday at 7pm features special guests presenting their film, and is followed by a beer and pizza reception for ticket holders. |
BOB SMITH, U.S.A. is a hilarious new documentary film by Neil Abramson, that provides a view into American culture through the eyes of seven men named Bob Smith. The
filmmakers traveled across the United States documenting the lives of
all the Bob Smiths. Despite their common names, the men vary greatly in
profession, age and religion - from septic tank repairman to yoga instructor;
from twenty eight to eighty-eight years old; from Evangelical Christian
to Evangelical Atheist. As each man’s story unfolds in his own words,
intimate portraits are drawn; creating a poetic, non-judgmental and highly
entertaining document of American life. |
|
(dir. Dominic J. DeJoseph, 55 mins, 2005) Tues Jan 3 9pm - buy tix
|
With a dry wit and self-effacing humor, as well as an endearing eccentricity, John Hyrns gives voice to his life and dreams in Dominic J. DeJoseph’s hour-long documentary, narrating a journey that traverses much of the West Coast by 1930’s Pullman car. The camera is silent witness to a monologue delivered by 40-something Hyrns, whose job as a porter on a dying breed of luxury train endowed him with his nickname, Johnny Berlin. A sad-eyed wanderer with a quick tongue, who counts punk rock and among his main influences, Johnny still hasn’t figured out what to do with his life. In trying to do so, however, he has managed to do quite a bit, which he describes as he goes about his never-ending tasks of changing sheets and battling dust. Johnny is engaging on just about any topic, from his love for strawberry milk to his somewhat-lacking love life, and his tales of get-rich-quick schemes are particularly hilarious: a deadpan Johnny details the slightly morbid story of once trying to increase his father’s life insurance plan to garner himself a more robust inheritance. With big dreams of finishing his novel about a man who decides to roll across the United States, Johnny is a gravel-voiced, diamond-in-the-rough character, assuming literary proportions of his own. The low-fi, talking-head documentary style of the piece—a departure for music video director DeJoseph, whose credits include videos for R.E.M. and Tilly and the Wall—allows the charismatic, melancholy central figure to take center stage. Executive produced by Michael Stipe and Jim McKay. |
|
Newfest presents VIDEO
REMAINS with Weds Jan 4 7pm - buy tix |
NewFest LGBT Film Festival presents a highlight from their 2005 festival. VIDEO
REMAINS: MATEO'S
TATTOO: This is an LGBT Wednesdays program. At 7pm on the First Two Wednesdays of every month, NewFest presents highlights from their festival. Other Wednesdays at 7pm often, though not always, feature LGBT programming. |
|
(dir. Akira Kurosawa, 89 mins, 1950) |
This highly acclaimed film, set in feudal Japan, presents an intriguing tale of violent crime in the woods, told from the perspective of four different characters - a bandit (Toshirô Mifune), a woman (Machiko Kyô), her husband (Masayuki Mori), and a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura). Only two things about the incident seem to be clear - the woman was raped and her husband is now dead. However, the other elements radically differ as the four participants and/or witnesses relate their own stories (with the dead man, eerily enough, speaking through a medium). As each account is revealed, what seemed black and white turns to various hues of gray, leading to surprising - and confounding - relevations. |
|
Doors Art Foundation presents films from Croatia FINE DEAD GIRLS (dir. Dalibor Matanic, 77 mins, 2002) Croatian with English subtitles. Thurs Jan 5 7pm - buy tix A Cultural Thursdays program. At 7pm on the First Thursday of the month, the Doors Art Foundation presents a film from Croatia. Other Thursdays at 7pm often feature programming presented with other ethnic and cultural groups. |
49th
annual Pula film festival: Iva and Marija, a lesbian couple, rent an apartment in a seemingly quiet building in Zagreb, but what initially appears as a safe love haven, quickly turns into a nightmare that is loosely based on Balzac’s novel PERE GORIOT. Among the couple’s neighbors are a hack gynecologist, a prostitute, a former soldier suffering from PTSD, and a controlling landlady, Olga, who is obsessed with her son Danijel. When Olga finds out that Danijel has a secret crush on Iva, her fury is inevitable and the fate of the lesbian couple sealed. A winner of the Best Croatian Movie Award in 2002, FINE DEAD GIRLS (Fine Mrtve Djevojke) has been named one of the best Croatian movies of the last decade, and has garnered much attention due to its controversial subject matter. |
|
EL CARRO (dir. Luis Orjuela, 90 mins, 2003) Thurs Jan
5 9pm - buy
tix |
“Winning,
consistently funny comedy, with lively script by veteran Colombian producer/scribe
Dago Garcia ("Maximum Penalty"), THE CAR is driven by unusually
sharp helming from newcomer Luis Orjuela, and a dynamite ensemble cast.” EL CARRO, one of the biggest Colombian box office hits in the country’s history, follows the travails of the Velez’s, a typical middle-class family from Bogotá, as they buy their first car in an attempt to move up the local social ladder. After the father accidentally gives away a winning lottery ticket for a new car to the neighbors, the Velez’s decide to save face and buy their neighbor’s old car - a 1950´s cherry red Chevy convertible – spending their entire nest egg. First-time director Luis Orjuela manages to create a hilarious social farce which portrays such quintessential Colombian experiences as a daughter’s quinceañera (15th birthday party), Christmas, and the lottery craze with a rare balance of sympathy and humor. |
DR.
STRANGELOVE (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 93 mins, 1964) Fri Jan 6 7pm - buy tix |
GEORGE W. BUSH, DICK CHENEY, DONALD RUMSFELD, CONDOLEEZZA RICE, AND PAUL WOLFOWITZ ALL RECEIVE FREE ADMISSION, AND ARE INVITED TO DO Q&A AFTER THE FILM. "The most
shattering sick joke I've ever come across." "It's
one of the greatest - and undoubtably the most hilarious - antiwar statements
ever put to film. See it before the world ends." DR.
STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB is Stanley
Kubrick's Cold War masterpiece. Based on the novel RED ALERT by Peter
George, the film is set at the height of the tensions between Russia and
the United States, when all it would take to destroy the world was one
push of a button. And General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) is just
the man to do it. |
|
DIE YOU ZOMBIE BASTARDS! (dir. Caleb Emerson, 98 mins, 2005) Fri Jan 6 10:45pm - SOLD OUT |
Starring: Tim Gerstmar, Pippi Zornoza and Geoff Mosher - One Man Band Rockabilly Legend Hasil Adkins and Adult Film Superstar Jamie Gillis "Die You Zombie Bastards! is gory, tasteless, no-budget comedy at it's best!" - The Boston Phoenix Featuring One Man Band Rockabilly Legend Hasil Adkins and adult film superstar Jamie Gillis along with Zombies, Ninjas, Robots and Mosquito Warlords! All of the over-the-top madness aside, it is, more than anything else, a character-driven melodrama with a lot of heart. . .and there are quite a few rubber dicks in it, too. |
|
LAST TANGO IN PARIS (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 129 mins, 1972) Sat Jan 7
10:45pm - buy
tix |
"The
feelings of love, anguish, and despair that erupt all over the place in
Bernardo Bertolucci's new film, LAST TANGO IN PARIS, are so intense, so
consuming, that watching the film at times comes close to being an embarrassment.
. .Brando, like Bertolucci, has pulled out all the stops without fear
of looking absurd. . . LAST TANGO IN PARIS is a beautiful, courageous,
foolish, romantic, and reckless film and Bertolucci is like a diving champion,
drunk on enthusiasm, who dares dive from the high board knowing well that
the pool is half empty." A young Parisian woman begins a sordid affair with a middled-aged American businessman whom lays out ground rules that their clandestine relationship will be based only on sex. Bring a stick of butter, get a free buttered popcorn! |
|
Chicago City Limits First Sundays Comedy Films First Sundays Sun Jan 8 7pm - buy tix filmmakers & special guests will attend! This is a Sunday Shorts program. At 7pm on many Sundays, the Pioneer presents programs of short films. |
Part stand-up comedy act, part film festival, part party, First Sundays is a monthly festival featuring the best in short comedy films from around the world. Each screening features new films, audience and judges awards, and an after party sponsored by Stella Artois. |
|
BEAUTY
AND THE BEAST (dir. Jean Cocteau,
93 mins, 1946) Mon Jan 9 7pm - buy tix This is a "Bizarro Monday" program. Every Monday at 7pm the Pioneer presents the finest (and trashiest) in horror, sci-fi, freakshow, exploitation, martial arts, genre, b-movies, z-movies, and just plain weird stuff. |
"One
of the most magical of all films." "A
magnificent fairy tale."
Visionary
filmmaker and poet Jean Cocteau responded to the terrors and creative
constraints of occupied France with this elaborately realized take on
the classic fairy tale BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Suggested by his longtime
collaborator and muse, French actor Jean Marais, the cinematic version
of the fable first penned by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont became
Cocteau’s most celebrated film. Cocteau renders the story of a gentlehearted
beast in love with a simple and beautiful girl in the style of the luminous
paintings of Dutch master Vermeer. From the quaint and humorous scenes
of Beauty’s happy home to the ominous surreal spectacle of the Beast’s
enchanted estate, Cocteau transforms the simple tale of tragic love into
a surreal vision of death, desire, and beauty. Marais is chilling as the
lonely and tormented beast, projecting a wounded love for the glacial
yet endearing Beauty (Josette Day), whose simple request for a rose from
her father brings tragedy crashing down on her whole family. Cocteau expands
upon the cinematic inventiveness first seen in his masterpiece BLOOD OF
A POET with mirrors made of water, living statues, and candelabras fashioned
from living arms, transforming a children’s fable into a complex
and radiant cinematic classic. |
|
presented by SKYY Vodka Different, disenfranchised, or just "not from here" - they are "outsiders"... Tues Jan 10 7pm - buy tix This is a Tuesdays@7 program. Every Tuesday at 7pm features special guests presenting their film, and is followed by a beer and pizza reception for ticket holders.
|
The Independent Feature Project presents a program of short films. Earnie Street
Kid Void
Brooklyn
02 Giant
Sized The
Debt |
|
Newfest presents FAG
HAGS: (dir. Eric Smith, 23 mins, 2004) Weds Jan 11 7pm - buy tix |
NewFest LGBT Film Festival presents a highlight from their 2005 festival. FAG
HAGS: IRENE
WILLIAMS: QUEEN OF LINCOLN ROAD This is an LGBT Wednesdays program. At 7pm on the First Two Wednesdays of every month, NewFest presents highlights from their festival. Other Wednesdays at 7pm often, though not always, feature LGBT programming. |
|
(dir. Matt Pizzolo, 80 mins, 2005) Thurs Jan
12 7pm - tickets no longer for sale
|
"The
epitome of DiY filmmaking!" "Fierce
emotions have yielded a fervid film called THREAT. The film shows what
adults portraying kids never seem to be able to portray: their complexity.
THREAT's triumph is that it avoids scenester naivete. Every subculture
is interrogated equally by the poetic script - black, white, straightedge,
drinker, gangster, city kid, suburban kid - which turns the film into
a whirling meditation on youth, city, and future." Homeless punk-rocker Jim and hip-hop artist Fred are two unlikely friends who find themselves at the nexus of chaos in this blisteringly furious film that mixes street philosophy with ultraviolence. When these two friends bring their vastly different street tribes together, neither is prepared for the vicious intolerance that explodes into a brutal riot. As violence tears through the NYC streets, threatening not only Jim and Fred’s kinship but also their lives, the duo must find a way to quell the chaos or else be consumed by it. THREAT was created by filmmaking team Katie Nisa & Matt Pizzolo and their Kings Mob Productions media militia, a team of nearly 200 creative young people in their late teens and early twenties. |
|
LIBERTY
STREET: (dir. Peter Josyph, 118 mins, 2005) Thurs Jan
12 9pm - buy
tix |
"LIBERTY
STREET: ALIVE AT GROUND ZERO should be required viewing by all Americans.
This is a brilliant work of art and a crucially important film." Profile of director Peter Josyph, from DOWNTOWN EXPRESS Welcome to the new neighborhood. . . Best of Fest - Feature Documentary - Putnam Valley Film & Video Festival In LIBERTY STREET: ALIVE AT GROUND ZERO, loyal Downtowners who ran for their lives from the collapse of the Twin Towers return with a resolve to restore their world to order. Determined not to be cowed by the specter of terrorism, the people of Liberty Street are part of a ghost world that has vanished now forever. At a time when the Ground Zero neighborhood was highly restricted, LIBERTY STREET pries into the corners of chaos as the camera searches for clues with which to envision that morning and interpret its impact. LIBERTY STREET is a tribute to the spirit of resilience in the American character. |
|
Cine-Poetry
on the Web: Sun Jan 15 7pm - buy tix Charlene Rule in person! This is a Sunday Shorts program. At 7pm on many Sundays, the Pioneer presents programs of short films. |
A special evening of short films by Charlene Rule, the videomaker behind ScratchVideo.TV, the popular online "vlog" (video blog) Cine-Poety on the Web: ScratchVideo.tv is a compilation of work derived from the videoblog created by Charlene Rule. The website is composed of a wide range of short videos, accompanied by text, that contain fragments, sketches, and moments that traverse the gamut of everyday life. Rule shoots and edits a new short video every few days and has been doing so for over a year now. By making aspects of her life into poetic visual shorts, Rule has composed a cumulative novella of unfinished thoughts that feel more raw, subversive, and alive than a completed autobiography.
|
|
Clayton presents Mon Jan 16 7pm - buy tix This is a "Bizarro Monday" program. Every Monday at 7pm the Pioneer presents the finest (and trashiest) in horror, sci-fi, freakshow, exploitation, martial arts, genre, b-movies, z-movies, and just plain weird stuff |
Clayton Patterson from the Clayton Gallery and Outlaw Art Museum presents a program of his choosing, drawing from his enormous Lower East Side / East Village archives. Showing mid 80's Pyramid Club- Drag nights and Whispers. Dressing Room, Eichelberger, Ethyl (1945-1990), International Crysis (1951-1990), Hapi Phase, Adora Van Davonport, Tabboo, Wendy Wild (R.I.P.), Olympia, and others. Come to the show, but also buy Clayton's book. It's incredible! |
Mormonsploitation! NEW YORK DOLL (dir. Greg Whiteley,78 mins, 2005) Weds Jan 18
7:15pm - buy
tix
|
"As
journeys go, this is one to treasure." "Greg
Whiteley's small, tender documentary portrait looks at life after rock
'n' roll as experienced by the original bassist for the New York Dolls." A recovering alcoholic and recently converted Mormon, we first meet mild-mannered Arthur Kane on the LA bus he takes most days to his job at the Family History Center library. No one would connect the shy 55-year-old in the suit and tie to Arthur "Killer" Kane, statuesque bassist for the legendary '70s rock band, The New York Dolls. Arthur became the bass player for the Dolls in 1971 and helped form, in rocker Morrissey's words, "one of the most raucous, notorious bands in musical history." Decked out in platform heels, skin-tight pants, smeared lipstick and hair a mile high, the Dolls' gender-bending stage antics belied a ferocious sound that presaged punk and influenced a generation of musicians. But drug abuse and inner-band bickering led to a split in 1975, with Arthur himself bottoming out. In the early spring of 2004, Morrissey, former President of the New York Dolls fan club and curator of the 2004 Meltdown Festival in London, asked the Dolls to reunite for two shows. Arthur was ecstatic. But how would it all turn out? (synopsis adapted from RottenTomatoes) |
|
THIRD
I NY presents Thurs Jan 19 7pm - buy tix A Cultural Thursdays program. Thursdays at 7pm often feature programming presented with ethnic and cultural groups. |
**Portion
of Proceeds to go to Earthquake Relief in Pakistan.** Your
Beautiful World, Manizhe Ali, 2 mins |
|
24 HOURS ON CRAIGSLIST (dir. Michael Ferris Gibson, 82 mins, 2005) Thurs Jan
19 9pm - buy
tix |
one
city, one day, one website, no limits “It’s
an absolute blast. . .24 HOURS ON CRAIGSLIST is the ultimate people zoo.” “a whirlwind
tour. . .a colorful mosaic. . .crowd-pleaser. . .engaging. . .zippy. .
.sharp” “Hilarious” “fun
and titillating. . .mesmerizing. . .this film is poignant” You know Craigslist-- it's the secret engine that drives the local economy, the place you likely found your last job, apartment, car, couch, bandmate, dance lesson, bankruptcy attorney or Friday-night date. Everybody's got a Craigslist story, and filmmaker Michael Ferris Gibson came up with an ingenious idea to find a few of them: he set out to document one random day on Craigslist. What he delivers is a rollicking portrait of the urban experience in all its eccentric glory - a cross section of folks doing everything from selling 250 pairs of women's army-surplus pants to everything-they-own (to finance a trip around the world); guys looking for roommates or wives; an Ethel Merman impersonator looking for a back-up band and a strange fellow hoping some hot chicks will show up for his basement sex party. Looking for a support group for your diabetic cat? Need to rent a husband, find a horny poodle, a gay sperm donor or a pre-op transsexual escort? Maybe you need a movie crew (that's right - Gibson's cast, crew and music were all found through Craigslist). Gibson even found what can only be called the Ultimate Craigslist Story, which you've just gotta hear. There may be Craigslists all over the globe at this point, but Craigslist will always be a uniquely American creation, and Gibson's terrific movie is a giddy celebration of total freedom and everything we love and hate about it. Find a date on Craigslist, and come and see it! |
|
GAY SEX IN THE 70s (dir. Joseph Lovett, 67 mins, 2005) Fri Jan 20
10:30pm - buy
tix
|
"Lovett
employs bittersweet but blissful recollections of men who can only be
described as survivors." "The
director, Joseph Lovett, wants us to ask if there's such a thing as too
much freedom, and he has the sobriety to say yes - and no." Documentary producer/director Joseph Lovett focuses his lens on the unbridled sexual passion and exploration that marked the twelve years from Stonewall (1969) to the first reported cases of AIDS (1981). With access to a filmic and photographic treasure trove of erotic life on New York's West Side Piers, trucks, bars, dance clubs, baths and beaches, Lovett's cast of storytellers takes us from the remarkably repressed pre-Stonewall period to an era of sexual excess unparallelled since ancient Rome. Straightforward, funny and titllating at the same time, they tell their stories with remarkable wit, humor and perspective. For younger people - those who became sexually active after the age of AIDS - this film may be a startling revelation of what everyday life was like when American youth were cutting loose from Puritanical values and ascribing to the watchword of the time, "If it feels good, do it." |
CONFIDENTIAL
REPORT (dir. Orson Welles, 100 mins, 1955) Sat Jan 21 7pm - buy tix
|
"Suspenseful
and bizarre. . .as provocative as anything Mr. Welles has ever attempted.
. .[Welles himself as] Arkadin is less a performance than a presence,
and, on screen or off, it overwhelms a film, which, for all its strangeness,
is seldom less than brilliant." "For
all of the film's perversity, there is greatness in it." A dying man's final words send two people to Gregory Arkadin (Orson Welles), a mysterious and much-feared billionaire who lives in a Xanadu-like castle. In Welles's noirish MR. ARKADIN, Robert Arden stars as Guy Van Stratten, an adventurer and fortune hunter who is interested in Arkadin's money--and his daughter, Raina (Paolo Mori). Arkadin, overprotective of his daughter, has his "secretaries" prepare a damaging dossier on Van Stratten--entitled "Confidential Report." But Arkadin then makes a deal with Van Stratten--he will pay the young man for preparing a similar file on him, for Mr. Arkadin says he remembers nothing about his past and does not know where he came from. Even his name is a mystery. Van Stratten's search for the truth about Arkadin's past--which takes him throughout Europe and to Mexico and features encounters with a variety of fabulously colorful characters--is highly reminiscent of Thompson's search for Rosebud in CITIZEN KANE. Shot in black and white, filled with elegant, cosmopolitan party scenes, and extraordinary close-ups, MR. ARKADIN is a visually stunning film. The camera angles and movement, the exotic sets, the playful music, and the quick cuts - as well as the extremely entertaining and metaphorical stories that Arkadin tells - all help make MR. ARKADIN a sublime treat. |
|
FearsMag.com presents One Dark and Stormy Night Mon Jan 23 7pm - buy tix filmmakers & special guests will attend This is a "Bizarro Monday" program. Every Monday at 7pm the Pioneer presents the finest (and trashiest) in horror, sci-fi, freakshow, exploitation, martial arts, genre, b-movies, z-movies, and just plain weird stuff. |
|
|
Cinewomen NY Tues Jan 24 7pm - buy tix This is a Tuesdays@7 program. Every Tuesday at 7pm features special guests presenting their film, and is followed by a beer and pizza reception for ticket holders. |
a program of short films presented by the Cinewomen, NY filmmaker group "Our Bodies: Our SELVES" Films include: Crimes of The
Heart, directed by Robyn Hughan - 7 minutes AKA 048494####,
directed by Pei-lin Kuo - 3 minutes Everybody’s
Pregnant, directed by Debra Solomon - 6 minutes Abortion Diaries,
directed by Penny Lane - 30 minutes Confessions
Of A Black Woman directed by Tamiko Joye Ball -26 minutes Love Story
directed by Signe Baumane - 3 minutes |
|
(dir. David M. Rosenthal, 82 mins, 2004) Fri Jan 28
7pm - buy
tix |
SEE THIS MOVIE is the comic story of aspiring filmmakers Jake Barrymore (Seth Meyers) and Larry Finkelstein (John Cho), who con their way into the Montreal World Film Festival with a masterpiece that doesn't exist. With no money or script, they race to shoot and edit a film at the festival in time for their screening. |
|
(dir. Akira Kurosawa, 207 mins, 1954) Sun Jan 29 5:30pm - buy tix
|
"Rich
in detail, vivid in characterization, leisurely in exposition, this 207-minute
epic is bravura filmmaking—a brilliant yet facile synthesis of Hollywood
pictorialism, Soviet montage, and Japanese theatricality that could be
a B western transposed to Mars." Set in 16th Century Japan, the epic SEVEN SAMURAI follows the plight of a defenseless farming village that lives in constant fear of marauding bandits. The farmers know that when their crops are harvested, the thugs will attack, so four men go to town in hopes of employing samurai to fight for them. However, the poor villagers can merely offer payment in the form of shelter and a daily bowl of rice, and initially only Kambei (Takashi Shimura), a brave elder samurai, and his eager young apprentice, Katsushiro (Isao Kimura), take up their cause. Encountering various nomadic warriors on the streets, they slowly put together his team of swordsmen, recruiting Shichiroji (Daisuke Katô), Gorobei (Yoshio Inaba), Heihachi (Minoru Chiaki), and Kyuzo (Seiji Miyaguchi). Finally, Kikuchiyo (Toshirô Mifune), a scruffy wanderer who has been trailing them, completes the small band of ronin. However, upon reaching the village, the samurai learn that the farmers fear them as much the enemy. Despite the tensions, Kambei and his men slowly train the peasants to defend their village. Eventually the warriors launch a preemptive strike against the bandits, and begin a series of intense conflicts that culminates in a rain-soaked final battle--without a doubt, one of the most stunning sequences in cinema history. |
Tuesdays@7
presents Tues Jan 31 7pm - buy tix This is a Tuesdays@7 program. Every Tuesday at 7pm features special guests presenting their film, and is followed by a beer and pizza reception for ticket holders. |
A rare screening of The Playhouse of the Ridiculous's 1968 performance of Kenneth Bernard's play "The Moke Eater" with a television interview of John Vaccaro. John Vaccaro changed the face of American theatre with his performance group The Playhouse of The Ricidulous, New York's seminal queer, glitter/glam, rock and roll, political theatre that influenced everyone from Jack Smith, to Andy Warhol, to Charles Ludlam, to The Cockettes, to Hair, to David Bowie, to The Rocky Horror Show. Far from underground in the 1960's, Vaccaro's work with The Playhouse was reviewed in NEWSWEEK, the NEW YORK TIMES and international journals. It is contemporary academia that has long ignored the work by the master of theatrical spectacle. Followed by a live talk with John Vaccaro hosted by Penny Arcade |
Pioneer Theater
