It’s hard to believe there are only two weeks left for the Fall International Film Series program. This week there are five different films on tap; a German sci-fi epic, a black-and-white archive print featuring Dennis Hopper in his first leading role, two music-related documentaries (one is about the ska-funk band Fishbone, the other a riveting look at a piano tuner – and, no, I’m not being facetious, it will have you on pins and needles), and then we top things off with the Boulder premiere of a film that looks at the life of infamous Jewish-singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.
World on a Wire by Werner Fassbinder comes to us courtesy of a new 35mm print struck by Janus Films. It originally aired in 1973 as a two-part miniseries made for German television and was long thought unavailable until a restored version was shown at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival. Who should check this out? Anyone who likes Stanley Kubrick, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, or tales of cybernetics engineers uncovering massive corporate/government conspiracies. It’s being hailed by many as a film that beat The Matrix to the punch by several decades – but here in retro/future cool. Because of its length, it only screens once on Saturday (at 7pm), and once again on Sunday (as a matinee show at 2pm). If anyone wants to come watch the first half on Saturday, and the second half on Sunday, they are welcome to do so – just keep your ticket stub handy.
Night Tide by Curtis Harrington was released in 1961 and is, like last week’s screening of Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie, and ultra-rare 35mm print that has been made available to us thanks to the kind help of the Academy Film Archive along with support from The Film Foundation and Curtis Harrington. It’s been over 20 years since I’ve seen this film, but I remember being entranced by it’s particular spell and its beautiful black-and-white cinematography. I’m also a sucker for carnivals, freakshows, and – specifically – mermaids. Mermaids are the original femme fatale, and Lord knows I’ve dated enough of those to feel a kinship with all the sailors that have been lured to their doom. This time out the sailor is played by Dennis Hopper, and adding to the attraction is the fact that Night Tide was inspired by “Annabel Lee,” a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe. Producer and screenwriter Tod Davies will be present for an intro and question-and-answer after the film. Davies wrote the script for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but long before that she was assigned the task of writing up a sequel to Night Tide, and she knew Curtis Harrington personally. Any film students who are interested in screenwriting should be sure not to miss this screening on Wednesday at 7pm only.
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is a biopic of French singer Serge Gainsbourg. He counted Brigitte Bardot among his ardent lovers and is the father to actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! This film won three Cesar Awards this year, along with many other nominations here in the U.S. This film traces his life growing up in the 1940′s Nazi-occupied Paris, on through the hedonism and song-writing success of the swingin’ sixties, and all the way to his death in 1991 at the age of 62. The film screens on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 10 & 11, at both 7pm & 9:30pm.
All the above screenings take place in the Muenzinger Auditorium, which has 400 seats, and reel-to-reel projectors (which allow for the rare archive prints to show there). The other two screenings happening this week take place in a new alternative venue we are using that can be found in the basement of the Visual Arts Complex on the C.U. campus in Boulder, just north of the Euclid Autopark. This venue has 200 seats, and everything in there is new, with a great screen and sound-system. Eventually this space will be fitted to show every media format possible (including reel-to-reel 35mm projectors), but for now we are focusing on H.D. digital presentations.
I’m still trying to figure out how to increase the visibility of this venue to our customers, and we clearly have a long way to go. I was especially shocked to see that our screening of a documentary about women artists (titled !Women Art Revolution) only had seven people in attendance. It’s a bit crazy for me to pay $450 for the public rights performance exhibition fees (nevermind the rest of our overhead) to this film if we’re only going to recoup about $40. When I booked the film I was sure it was a perfect fit for a new venue located in a building dedicated to the visual arts, but clearly much more needs to be done to get the word out. The last two films that we will screen for the fall in the V.A.C. Auditorium will hopefully fare better as we shift gears from visual arts to look at the concert world.
Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone, the alternative rock band that’s been around since 1979, and still kickin’ it! As fate would have it, Fishbone recently added a bunch of tour dates, including one in Denver the week after our screening of this documentary. (They are playing at Cervantes’ Other Side on Nov. 17th). The bad news is that Everyday Sunshine director Chris Metzler, who was originally slated to come out for a Q&A, just informed me two days ago that he’ll be unable to attend due to an unexpected conflict. The good news is that he’ll try to make amends to our audience by letting me give out four guest-list spots to the Denver Fishbone concert, along with other freebies. Everyday Sunshine was one of the better gems screened at the SXSW Film Festival, and has its Boulder Premiere this Thursday at 7pm only.
Pianomania is a documentary about a piano-tuner; Stefan Knüpfer. Stop. I know what you’re thinking; that sounds like a total snooze-fest. It’s not. The hint that it’s not can be found in this sentence on the distributor’s website: “Stefan Knüpfer is dedicated to the unusual task of pairing world-class instruments with world-famous pianists. Juggling the demands of the pianist, the piano, and the piece to find the perfect match requires boundless enthusiasm, but also endless patience and nerves of steel.” This is a film about craftsmanship, about passion, perfectionism, and also a little bit of madness. It opened today in NYC, and here we are in Boulder following its illustrious east-coast premiere only one week later! It screens Friday, Nov. 11th, at 7pm only.
