MeFi IRL

This week: Spike Lee's DO THE RIGHT THING ("The hottest day of the year explodes on-screen in this vibrant look at a day in the life of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Featuring a stellar ensemble cast."). Because it's on a weekday, we're starting a little later: food at 7, movie at 8. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Apr 10, 2013 - 11 comments

This week, we're trying out moving our Criterion night to Thursdays, with: Akira Kurosawa's I LIVE IN FEAR ("his most literal representation of living in an atomic age"). Because it's on a weekday, we're starting a little later: food at 7, movie at 8. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Apr 9, 2013 - 3 comments

Due to some travel we each have planned in the next few weeks, we're taking a two-weekend break from Criterion Sunday - but not to worry! We will return on Sunday, April 7th with: Akira Kurosawa's DODES'KA-DEN ("by turns tragic and transcendant...all of his hopes, fears, and artistic passion are on fervent display"). [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Mar 20, 2013 - 1 comment

This week's film: Jean Renoir's FRENCH CANCAN ("a Technicolor tour de force by a master of modern cinema"). Trailer. Charles Silver, curator of film at MoMA: "If someone asked me to recommend two or three essential or seminal Chaplin or Ford films, I would be less hesitant than I would be with Renoir, whose thoughts and feelings seem universal, and whose films seem to encompass virtually all that is Cinema—and life itself." [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Mar 14, 2013 - 4 comments

This week's film: Ingmar Bergman's SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT. Pauline Kael: "Late in 1955, Ingmar Bergman made a nearly perfect work—the exquisite carnal comedy Smiles of a Summer Night. It was the distillation of elements he had worked with for several years... The film is bathed in beauty, removed from the banalities of short skirts and modern-day streets and shops, and removed in time, it draws us closer." Roger Ebert's Great Movie review. An interview with Bergman about the film. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Feb 25, 2013 - 1 comment

This week's film: Orson Welles' MR. ARKADIN: The Comprehensive Version. Time Out says: "Long unavailable for theatrical screening... Mr Arkadin assumed an equivalent patina of myth and legend to that cultivated by its central character.... Flamboyantly melodramatic, it's a playfully egocentric display of a magician's perverse revelation of his own trickery."

We are back to our regular schedule this week. Potluck dinner from 6pm, movie starts at 7 en punto. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Feb 25, 2013 - 0 comments

As the IFC Center describes it: "David Lynch once described his stunning debut feature simply as 'a dream of dark and troubling things,' but the unclassifiable ERASERHEAD is so much more: an expressionistic headtrip, a Grand Guignol nightmare, a pitch-black comedy of manners, and even a deeply personal allegory about the (post-) nuclear family. Amidst a monochromatic wasteland teeming with smoke and shadows, Jack Nance’s wire-haired wage slave Henry struggles to navigate the horrors of mutant offspring, sinister hallucinations and, most terrifying of all, his new in-laws." How can you resist?

This week there will be no potluck, but feel free to bring snacks to eat during the movie. We're starting a little later than usual. Screening starts at 8pm sharp. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Feb 18, 2013 - 9 comments

This week's film: Douglas Sirk's ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS ("a heartbreakingly beautiful indictment of 1950s small-town America"). Amazing trailer here. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Feb 14, 2013 - 9 comments

Last night's screening of Diabolique was a lot of fun! On to the next Criterion Sunday: each weekend we* will gather for a potluck dinner and watch one of the hundreds of Criterion Collection films available through Roku/Hulu Plus. This week (2/10): Mike Leigh's TOPSY-TURVY, "an unexpected period delight from one of contemporary cinema’s great artists." *ocherdraco and (The Rt Hon.) MP, and friends, including non-mefites [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Feb 4, 2013 - 3 comments

What's the point of having access to the masterpieces of cinema if you never actually watch them? It's time to remedy this sad state of affairs, one movie at a time. Introducing: Criterion Sundays, where each weekend we* will gather for a potluck dinner and watch one of the hundreds of Criterion Collection films available through Roku/Hulu Plus. This week: Henri-Georges Clouzot's DIABOLIQUE, the best Hitchcock film that Hitchcock never got around to making. *ocherdraco and (The Rt Hon.) MP, and friends, including non-mefites [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Jan 27, 2013 - 12 comments