Film and Video

It’s a big film weekend in the Twin Cities. Our Joel and Ethan Coen series continues with screenings of Fargo; Intolerable Cruelty; O Brother, Where Art Thou; No Country for Old Men; and The Ladykillers.

With all of our screenings, we’ve certainly had the newest from the Coens, the locally filmed A Serious Man, on our minds.  That one, a sort of unofficial, off-site appendage to our series, opens exclusively at the Uptown Theater this Friday, October 2.

As if that weren’t enough, if you didn’t catch the screening of No Impact Man at the Walker, it too opens up this Friday, exclusively at the Landmark Lagoon Cinema.

Also, the 10th anniversary Sound Unseen Film Festival continues.

See you at the movies!

Despite the fact that his internship long since lapsed, he has been immersed in post production on his own feature film, and puts in 40-60 hours every week at his day job, our friend Evan Drolet Cook was kind enough to put together this trailer for the Joel and Ethan Regis Retrospective that opens here at the Walker on September 18th with a screening of Blood Simple.  Take a look:

John Hughes

I have to admit that the news about john Hughes’ death yesterday hit me like a swift punch in the gut.  We can talk about the “greatest” films, the “best” filmmakers, and it’s likely that John Hughes and the films he made may never come up in those conversations.  However, I can think of few filmmakers that had as big an impact on me personally as Hughes did. I know I’m not alone in this.  I was in Junior high when he was making the work that would define his career.  His Shermer, Illinois didn’t seem much different than the suburbs I grew up in.  He had an incredible knack for putting these teenage characters on the screen with all of their anxieties, issues, and flaws without being condescending, superficial, or pandering — this is no small task.  He gave kids like me characters we could identify with, characters that could make us feel normal even when we were feeling weird and alone like every teenager does. Unlike most any other filmmaker, he was able to capture and present what felt like the true essence of what it really felt like to be a kid growing up in the 80s. John Hughes may not be considered a great or important artist, per se, but I can think of few filmmakers that did so much to define a generation. In many ways, he made my generation’s Rebel Without a Cause. and for that I will always be grateful.

Fargo

The Walker celebrates the 50th Regis Dialogue and Retrospective with Minnesota’s own Joel and Ethan Coen in the 25th-anniversary year of their stunning debut, Blood Simple, and prior to the release of their 14th feature, the locally filmed A Serious Man.

A Regis Retrospective will run from September 18 – October 17 and feature 35mm prints of all 13 films the Coens have written, edited and directed, including: Blood Simple; Raising Arizona; Miller’s Crossing; Barton Fink; The Hudsucker Proxy; Fargo; The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou; The Man Who Wasn’t There; Intolerable Cruelty; The Ladykillers; No Country for Old Men; and Burn After Reading.

More information can be found here.  The complete retrospective schedule (as well as tickets for all of the screenings) will be available there by August 18.

I couldn’t resist sharing some of the incredible pictures shot by Walker staff pohotographer Cameron Wittig at last Monday’s Music and Movies in the Park.  Come out next Monday for Roma di Luna and Hud. Click on the thumbnail below to see a full-size image.

If you are too excited to wait for Queer Takes to open tomorrow night with a screening of Nacho Velilla’s Chef’s Special, you’re in luck. Here are the details:

In celebration of Gay Pride, the Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival and St. Paul Jewish Community Center present the Minnesota premiere showing of an Israeli GLBT documentary, Stefan Braun. Fabulous archival footage of Tel Aviv’s gay life from the 1950s immerses us in the world of society furrier Stefan Braun and the man who loved, worshipped and stood by him for 39 years, Eliezer Rath. Braun’s charisma and zest fascinated not only Israel’s wealthy matrons, chic models, and his many lovers, but also his extended family for whom he was a patriarch and benefactor.

The short film, A Trip to Prague, will also play at this event in case you missed is this March at the festival. Click here for a synopsis.

Discussion on Project 515 and marriage equality following films!

Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival and St. Paul JCC Present Stefan Braun Monday, June 22, 7 pm St. Paul JCC (1375 St. Paul Avenue), $6 St. Paul and Sabes JCC members/$9 public

via the Wexner blog

The Quay Brothers

Stephen and Timothy Quay (Regis Dialogue honorees in 1996) are known for the incredibly inventive, other-worldly, films that meld objects and people from real life with the stuff of nightmares and fantasy. Over their careers, they developed an unmistakable aesthetic that somehow manages to inspire, confound, and often disturb their viewers. Parsons in New York is going to be offering a rare glimpse into the reality behind the Quay’s fantasies. In an exhibition opening on July 16, Parsons will display eleven of the Quay’s miniature sets along with flim clips. I certainly wish I could catch it.

Street of Crocodiles (Photo: Dave Filipi - Wexner Art Center)

Who Are You, Polly Magoo?

As Rob Nelson mentioned earlier this week, the Walker has held a sizeable portion of William Klein’s films in our Ruben and Bentson Film and Video Study Collection. Some of the prints often go out on loan to other organizations, but there are several cans of film that have remained fairly untouched on the shelves for quite some time. We have a can of film in our archives here that we have long understood to include clips and camera tests from some of William Klein’s feature films. Heading into the Regis Retrospective, we decided to take a closer look at the content of this particular can. What we discovered was not the clips and tests we expected, but actual theatrical trailers for several of Klein’s features, and they are in excellent condition with perfect color. Film trailers can often be interesting in their own right, but in the case of someone like William Klein, they can take on a life of their own. Klein involves himself in every aspect of his films. From the actual photography all the way through the graphic design of the promotional materials, his hand is intrinsically there. These trailers amplify that phenomenon incredibly and become films of their own in some fascinating ways. If you were able to catch Tulpan last weekend, you likely caught the trailer for Who Are you, Polly Magoo? We’ll show that one again before the screening of Mr. Freedom this Friday. The trailers for Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther and Muhammad Ali the Greatest will be played before the screenings of Who Are You and Messiah this weekend. These trailers are such a treat, and they will knock your socks off. As rare as William Klein screenings are, these trailers are even moreso. Don’t miss them.

We are down to our last two screenings of Steve McQueen’s remarkable film Hunger. It’s been an incredible honor for us to present this landmark work of Cinema for its exclusive Twin Cities engagement. For me personally, it was an intense and transcendent cinematic experience, and one that actually surpassed my incredibly high expectations.

Our intern, Emily Hanson had some interesting observations on the film, and I tend to agree that the less you know about this film going into it the better, but you’re here and likely quite aware of what’s been said and written as I was. That said, for further background on the film and filmmaker, you can hear an excellent interview with director Steve McQueen from the CDC/Radio-Canada’s Q podcast. The McQueen portion begins about two thirds of the way into the mp3 file. (Thanks to our amazing (and Canadian) Visual Arts Fellow Andria Hickey for the link.)

We would love to hear your thoughts on the film as well, please let us know by posting a comment.

Sam Fuller's Park Row

Last Friday evening, I found myself enjoying a beverage at a cafe on the river on possibly the nicest day of the year thus far, surrounded by some of the Twin Cities’ illustrious film folk — journalists, bloggers, and fanatics alike. With print media, and especially the film criticism within, struggling to stay afloat, it’s not surprising that the discussion turned a bit to newspapers, and — with the films State of Play (featuring Russell Crowe as an investigative newspaper journalist) and The Soloist (with Robert Downey Jr. taking a turn as a L.A. Times columnist) hitting multiplexes — the newspaper movie. There certainly have been some great ones — His Girl Friday, The Paper, and Sam Fuller’s Park Row are among my personal favorites. It’s no coincidence that Patrick Goldstein of the L.A. Times published an interesting piece on this very topic in yesterday’s paper. (Thanks to David Bordwell for the link.) Mr. Goldstein seems to postulate that the gravity once found in the greatest newspaper films, perhaps like the printed papers themselves, may not find a strong footing with the younger audiences that studios seem to depend on at the box office. It’s an interesting concept to ponder. The mainstream film industry, much like the newspaper business, has an incredible history and deep connections to the American psyche. Both have done so much to shape our culture. In many ways it’s difficult to see both of these industries — though perhaps newspapers more so — struggle to adapt and maintain their ability to define our times, and see the badges of honor that their histories and working methods have earned them become a boat anchor of sorts holding them back.