Summer 2010

Jean Renoir, 1931 • Renoir's early sound film thoughtfully observes the vagaries of desire and the random incidents that transform lives. An unhappily married bookkeeper who finds solace in painting, Maurice (Michel Simon), encounters a prostitute (Janie Marese as Lulu) struggling with her pimp and rescues her. The besotted Maurice then installs Lulu in a love-nest where he keeps his own paintings, unaware of Lulu's treacherous plans. Anticipating Renoir's later films in the realist vein, La Chienne is a deeply considered work about the unforeseeable turns in life. Archival 35mm

Warren Sonbert, 1971 • Warren Sonbert hit the late-'60s New York scene as a promising young film diarist in the style of Jonas Mekas, until he uncovered uncharted territory with this masterpiece, a sweeping travelogue encompassing treks across four continents. Described by Sonbert as a "jig-saw puzzle of postcards to produce varied displaced effects," the project playfully challenges Eisenstein's foundational montage theories. Individual images are sutured across time and space to create a multiplicity of possible relations, rather than a politically monolithic whole. 16mm

Edgar G. Ulmer, 1949 • A rarity indeed is a big-budget Ulmer film, and The Pirates of Capri delivers in spades. Louis Hayward stars as Captain Sirocco, the swashbuckling pirate with a heart of gold at the head of a band of merry revolutionaries. Will the dastardly Baron von Holstein, head of the secret police, discover Sirocco is really Count Amalfi in disguise, courtier to the Queen herself? Will Sirocco find true love in the form of the Countess de Lopez? Find out as Ulmer brings a characteristically baroque and rich oneiric atmosphere to this tale of larger-than-life love, hatred, and adventure! 16mm

Ernst Lubitsch, 1946 • Set in late-1930s England, Lubitsch's final film is a spirited comic satire that mocks musty class conventions. Cluny (Jennifer Jones) wants to follow her heart's desire and become a plumber, but is pushed instead into maid service for the Carmels, a family of bumbling aristocrats. Along the way, she befriends a free-thinking Czech intellectual, Adam Belinski (Charles Boyer), and falls into a romantic triangle with the Carmel heir. Lubitsch's pointed criticism of prewar British society is leavened by the beguilingly eccentric Cluny, who ends up breaking all the rules of the game. 35mm

Stan Brakhage, 1991 • The first part of a series of works collectively titled the "Vancouver Island Quartet"--the rest of which will be gracing the DFG in the near future--this feature-length landscape film found its subject matter in a visit to Marilyn Brakhage's birthplace in British Columbia. Taking inspiration from the modernist poetry of Ronald Johnson and Charles Olson, Brakhage crafted an epic meditation on memory, consciousness, and the genesis of life itself, out of the prosaic ordinary of his wife's childhood backyard and a few views of the sea. 16mm

Allan Dwan, 1922 • One of the most extravagant productions of its day, Dwan's adaptation of the Robin Hood myth is a feat of astonishing ingenuity and vision. The film's Sherwood Forest and castle were the most colossal sets of the silent era, surpassing even Intolerance's Walls of Babylon. Dwan, a technical wizard who pioneered the use of dolly and crane shots, built a trampoline that enabled star Douglas Fairbanks to cross the castle moat in one leap. A famously ebullient physical performer, Fairbanks is the most compelling Robin Hood to ever grace the big screen (er, Flynn who?). 16mm

Craig Baldwin, 1999 • "Fellow earthlings," this film announces at its outset, "there is a spectre haunting the planet": the New Electromagnetic Order, an organization that supposedly plans to erase everyone's memories. And only BooBoo, child, telepath, and epileptic, can stop it. Watch as she travels back in time to discover the origins of telecommunications! Marvel as Nikola Tesla receives messages from Mars! Gasp in awe as the conspiracies are revealed! All this and more in a film made from footage scavenged from forgotten TV shows, low-budget sci-fi escapades, and instructional movies. 16mm

Alfred Hitchcock, 1956 • Among the pictures Hitchcock produced during his major creative period, The Wrong Man is simultaneously one of his least remembered and one of his greatest films. Loosely based on the wrongful arrest of a New York bass player for a battery of armed robberies, the film is that rare thriller which manages to keep one foot firmly planted in the realm of the drab and drearily plausible, while stabbing into the shadowy fabric of the strange. Henry Fonda and Vera Miles star as Manny and Rose Balestrero, an ordinary working class couple perched over a metaphysical abyss. 35mm

Andre de Toth, 1953 • A most overlooked auteur is Andre de Toth, the grouchy eye-patched Hungarian who would pop up here and there at film festivals throughout the nineties. But when de Toth was at his best, as he was here in this leanest of westerns starring Broderick Crawford, he produced, on the level of Ford or Hawks, terse potboilers possessed of a primal honesty about the vagaries of human treachery. Here, the soldier and civilian survivors of a massacre search desperately for shelter in a desert, while renegade Comanches encroach at their tail. The rub: neither side has water. Archival 35mm

Hans Richter, 1947 • Both a parody of and contribution to the influence of the European avant-gardes on American cinema, Richter's film features a nobody who discovers that he can spy on his dreams through the mirror in his new apartment. Soon he is overwhelmed by clients demanding entry into their dream lives. Each of the seven visions was made with a different group of collaborators, from Duchamp to Ernst to Léger, and as we watch the desolate customers and their fabulous, beautiful dreams, it becomes clear that the film is a dirge for the artistic revolution that never came, and a call-to-arms to begin anew. 16mm

Joseph H. Lewis, 1942 • This early B-film in Lewis's career is interesting mainly because it anticipates themes and characters later developed in The Big Combo. Secrets is the story of a love triangle with spoiled rich college girl Brenda (Tina Thayer), who discovers that she "feels things" with her mobster (Rick Vallin) that she's never known with her proper upper-crust boyfriend. In a parallel deception, Tina's father, James Reynolds (Otto Kruger) a wealthy, seemingly respectable lawyer, is actually a secret mob boss. Watch for an astounding six-minute-long take of the camera moving through a courtroom. 16mm

Frank Borzage, 1944 • A sumptuous Technicolor melodrama filmed at B-studio Republic after Borzage had become famous for his sublime romances, I've Always Loved You encapsulates Borzage's fascination with the ineffable power of love. Catherine McLeod debuts as Myra, a gifted pianist who struggles with her tyrannical maestro. As the rivalry between student and teacher intensifies, it threatens to overwhelm their feelings for each other. Through lyrical images and crosscutting that evokes the lovers of L'Atalante, Borzage shows that the bonds of love transcend both distance and individual ego. Print courtesy of UCLA. Archival 35mm

Richard Blackburn, 1973 • In small-town America circa 1930, young and innocent Lila Lee, the daughter of a gangster, receives a message from a mysterious woman named Lemora, who instructs Lila to visit her and see her dying father, who has just been injured in a shoot-out. Lila leaves for Lemora's isolated villa, only to discover her host is a beautiful lesbian vampire in need of the blood of a pure virgin--Lila. A haunting adult fairytale as only Hollywood could tell it, Lemora is a visual feast which calls to mind a 1930s' Gothic horror in super-saturated Technicolor. 16mm

Robert Flaherty, 1934 • Twelve years after Nanook of the North, pioneering documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty made a film about the people of the Aran Islands (located in the west of Ireland) that creatively melds documentary and fictional narrative. Attempting to capture the traditional life of the islanders with a meticulous eye for daily rites, Flaherty creates a moving fable out of the struggles of a fisherman and his family. With exquisite black-and-white photography, Man of Aran illuminates the epic drama that arises from the contest between man and the forces of nature. 16mm

Satyajit Ray, 1966 • Unsuccessful at finding an available flight, famous film actor Arindam is forced to embark on a cross-country journey to collect a prestigious acting award. His mood further worsens as he sees reports of his public quarrel in the news. In this condition he meets a young female journalist, who, motivated by contempt for him, decides to take advantage of his vulnerability for a story. Through the course of their conversations, a bond develops between the two. This film was directed by Satyajit Ray during a period when he examined contemporary issues in India to international praise. 35mm

Anthony Mann, 1947 • Dennis O'Keefe plays an undercover treasury agent who infiltrates a counterfeiting ring in Detroit. Though detractors have accused Mann of being cold, impersonal, and all-too-fixated on style, at the heart of his best work is a very violent, unsettling loneliness. That tone is already established in Mann's early noirs, T-Men and Raw Deal being among the strongest. Creating menace through bizarre low-angle shots and expressionistic lighting (courtesy of John Alton), Mann draws us into a world that explodes into chaos without warning. Restored print courtesy of the Library of Congress. Archival 35mm

Don Siegel, 1956 • Remade three times (in 1978 by Philip Kaufman, in 1993 by Abel Ferrara, and the 2007 Nicole Kidman vehicle - not counting the 1976 German/feminist reworking Invisible Adversaries), Don Siegel's allegory of cultural totalitarianism still remains the most frightening, though there's not really much of a contest. Employing virtually no special effects other than giant pods (from which the pod people come and, hey, even you could be one of them!), Siegel's low-budget masterpiece seems miles ahead of everything else going on in '50s sci-fi, and features one of the most claustrophobic uses of widescreen to date. 16mm

Ewald André Dupont, 1928 • Ewald Dupont's final silent film tells the story of a love triangle between a nobleman, his betrothed, and her actress mother. Filmed in part at the Lido de Paris, the film is sociologically interesting, as it offers an inside look at Parisian nightlife at the time. Andre (Jean Bradin) falls for Parysia (Olga Tschechowa), an actress, and more importantly, the mother of his clueless girlfriend, Margaret (Eve Gray). Tschechowa shines in stunning close-ups, offering a glimpse at the face that charmed Hitler. The film's impressive camerawork and brilliant acting make it one of Dupont's best. 16mm

King Vidor, 1934 • Echoing the critique of society in his earlier film, The Crowd, Vidor's Depression-era story about a co-op responds to working-class anger with a sharp protest against capitalism. On the verge of destitution, John and Mary Sims decide to move from the city to a neglected farm. Once settled in the country, the couple allow anyone to stay in exchange for labor, and quickly enough, they have a thriving commune with people from all walks of life. When their utopian kibbutz is endangered by both foreclosure and drought, the inhabitants heroically unite to preserve their way of life. 16mm

Fritz Lang & Werner Klingler, 1960 & 1962 • Directed by the great Austrian visionary Fritz Lang, The Thousand Eyes is a thrilling crime noir that takes place within a hotel built by Nazis with the intention of spying on the international leaders staying there. Terror is a cold-war era remake of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, Klingler's follow-up to The Thousand Eyes. In this installment, the evil doctor is securely behind the bars of his mental asylum but still seems to have a supernatural control over events. These films are both exemplify what would eventually become quintessential noir. 16mm & 35mm

Fritz Lang, 1956 • Enterprising newspaper publisher Sidney Blackmer takes it upon himself to pony up his prospective son-in-law Dana Andrews for a social experiment in which he is framed for the murder of a nightclub dancer in an attempt to expose the alleged ineptitude of the city's dim-witted district attorney and prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence. He likes the guy, really. This was Lang's last American film before he hightailed it back to Germany to finish his career with The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse. 16mm

Jerome Hill, 1957 & 1965 • Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1958, Hill's Albert Schweitzer is a poignant account of the humanitarian doctor's life in the African wild. Hill follows Schweitzer as he cares for his patients in the jungle settlement of Lambarene, his devoted compassion a testament to his motto, "reverence for life." The short companion piece, Schweitzer and Bach, documents Schweitzer's passionate exploration of the composer's works--many of which Schweitzer, a talented musician, recorded himself. 16mm

Thomas Reichman, 1968 • This frank, intimate portrait of trailblazing jazz bassist and composer Charlie Mingus pays tribute to Mingus's musicianship through cinema verite techniques. On the night before his eviction from his Bowery home, Mingus speaks openly about racism, his parents and family life, and sex. Generously interspersing footage of Mingus's heartstopping performances with his interview, this documentary confirms his status as one of the giants of jazz. In the words of Mingus himself: "My music is alive and it's about the living and the dead, about good and evil." 16mm

John Ford, 1958 • Duty is elevated to greatness in this overlooked crime drama about a dogged Scotland Yard inspector. On this particular day, George Gideon gives the profession a good name, catching up to robbers, murderers, and even a corrupt colleague. Yet his family wants for attention; Gideon's Kate is as long-suffering as any homesteader's wife when she tells her daughter never to marry a policeman. The mundane comforts of family contrast with the confusion of a post-war London imagined in lurid color in the full-length original of Ford's only British production. Archival 35mm

Douglas Sirk, 1944 •* Considered by its director to be one of his strongest works, Douglas Sirk's first Hollywood film is an underrated work of impressive nuance and moral gravity. Based on a Chekhov novel, Summer Storm follows a small-town judge, Fedor (George Sanders), as he grows dangerously obsessed with a femme fatale. After he covers up a crime, his fiancee hands him an ultimatum: either claim responsibility for his actions or lose her love. Made with unprecedented directorial freedom and brilliantly shot by Eugen Schüfftan (Metropolis), Summer Storm is a masterful study of moral choice and free will. 35mm

D.W. Griffith, 1924 • Like The Birth of a Nation, Griffith's America is a monumental staging of a key historical moment--in this case, the Revolutionary War. Independence fighter Nathan Holden (Neil Hamilton) and his lover Nancy struggle against her royalist family's disapproval. Later, in Mohawk Valley, Nathan must find a way to defeat enemy Indians and save Nancy from a villainous British general played by a diabolical Lionel Barrymore. Alternating between large-scale scenes of battle and family drama, Griffith magnifies the intersection between individual lives and the tide of events that forged a nation. 16mm

Victor Fleming, 1931 • Douglas Fairbanks, the "King of Hollywood" in the 1920s, takes viewers on a globetrotting tour. He travels to China, India, Japan, and the Philippines, where he performs the dramatic and athletic feats he was known for. On returning to Hollywood, Fairbanks released the film through United Artists, the studio he co-founded in 1919 with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford (later his wife), and D.W. Griffith. At once a vanity picture and a travelogue of the past, the film is both a portrait of the land and the charismatic, larger-than-life actor. 16mm

Billy Wilder, 1945 • Director Billy Wilder's keen observation of an alcoholic writer's (Ray Milland) descent over three bleak days received four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Based on the controversial novel by Charles R. Jackson, the film was lauded for its honesty, but it eliminated the protagonist's conflicted motivation for drinking. Instead of the charges of homosexuality that the novel grapples with, the film offers no explanation for his abuse. Skirting the line between authenticity and oversimplification, Wilder both expertly foreshadows the realist movement and quietly betrays it. 35mm

Richard Linklater, 1993 • As school lets out for the summer of '76, students at a Texas high school await the yearly hazing ritual, wherein the incoming freshmen are victimized by the rising seniors. After the mayhem, an American Graffiti-esque series of events occur, rife with teenage angst, uncertainty, anticipation, and bliss. The film follows the characters as they hang out at the pool hall, hamburger joint, football field, and cruise in their cars. Despite its lack of structure, Dazed and Confused is generally heralded as comic or goofy, ultimately true to the people and era that it portrays. 35mm