No 1: Numero Deux (Godard, 1975): ICA Cinema, 8pm
This is part of a mini Jean-Luc Godard season at ICA Cinema. Details here.
Chicago Reader review:
Often juxtaposing or superimposing two or more video images within the
same 'Scope frame, Jean-Luc Godard's remarkable (if seldom screened)
1975 feature—one of the most ambitious and innovative films in his
career—literally deconstructs family, sexuality, work, and alienation
before our very eyes. Our ears are given a workout as well; the punning
commentary and dialogue, whose overlapping meanings can only be
approximated in the subtitles, form part of one of his densest sound
tracks. Significantly, the film never moves beyond the vantage point of
one family's apartment, and the only time the whole three-generation
group (played by nonprofessionals) are brought together in one shot is
when they're watching an unseen television set. In many respects, this
is a film about reverse angles and all that they imply; it forms one of
Godard's richest and most disturbing meditations on social reality. The
only full 'Scope images come in the prologue and epilogue, when Godard
himself is seen at his video and audio controls.
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Here is the trailer.
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No 2 Gremlins (Dante, 1984): Prince Charles Cinema, 8.45pm
This is part of the Christmas season at the Prince Charles Cinema and is also being screened on December 6th and 20th. Details here. There's also a 35mm screening of the film at Regent Street Cinema on December 22nd.
Chicago Reader review:
E.T.
with the lid off (1984). At the center of this horror comedy is a tidy
family parable of the kind so dear to the heart of producer Steven
Spielberg: the cute little whatzits who turn into marauding monsters
when they pass through puberty (here gooily envisioned as “the larval
stage”) are clearly metaphors for children, and the teenager (Zach
Galligan) whose lapse of responsibility unleashes the onslaught is a
stand-in for the immature parents of the 80s (Poltergeist).
But Spielberg's finger wagging is overwhelmed by Joe Dante's roaring,
undisciplined direction, which (sometimes through sheer sloppiness)
pushes the imagery to unforeseen, untidy, and ultimately disturbing
extremes. Dante is perhaps the first filmmaker since Frank Tashlin to
base his style on the formal free-for-all of animated cartoons; he is
also utterly heartless. With Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, and more
movie-buff in-jokes than Carter has pills.
Dave Kehr
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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