No1: Committed (Tillman/McLauglin, 1984): Close-Up Cinema, 8.30pm
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Lynne Tillman moderated by Gareth Evans
Close-Up Cinema introduction:
To mark the publication of Lynne Tillman’s new selected stories Thrilled to Death, published by Peninsula Press, we will be hosting a rare screening of Committed, her 1984 film, co-directed by Sheila McLauglin. Committed is the story of movie star and leftist iconoclast Frances Farmer.
In 1935, Farmer became an overnight Hollywood sensation; within ten
years she was in a state mental hospital. This highly stylized film
offers a multi-layered look at the life of this culturally defiant woman
that goes beyond the personal story to explore the political and social
attitudes of the time.
Time Out review:
A low-budget independent alternative to the Jessica Lange Frances made
a couple of years earlier, this sees Sheila McLaughlin as Hollywood actress
Frances Farmer, reliving her memories while incarcerated in the mental
institution to which she has been committed, and employs her as a litmus
with which to measure American attitudes to political commitment,
mental health, and strong women. It's become fashionable to regard
Farmer as something of a martyr, and although she was certainly a
talented actress treated abysmally by Hollywood, family and friends, it
is hard now to ascertain the truth behind her downfall. That apart, this
is an original and stylish movie, austere and bitter.
Geoff Andrew
No 2: The Blair Witch Project (Myrick/Sanchez, 1999): Prince Charles Cinema, 5.30pm
This is a 35mm presentation.
Chicago Reader review:
A
pretty impressive horror film in the form of a documentary, supposedly
made up of footage shot by three film students on a trek through
Maryland's Black Hills Forest to investigate legends about a witch. What
gives the film much of its force and its mounting sense of queasy
uncertainty is its narrative method, which ensures that we know no more
about the proceedings than the characters do and that our imaginations
play as active and ambiguous a role as theirs. Written, directed, and
edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez; with Heather Donohue,
Michael Williams, and Joshua Leonard, all of whom do fine jobs.
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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