AFS Announces Its November/December 2024 Program Calendar
October 9, 2024, AUSTIN, TX— The Austin Film Society announces its calendar for November and December of 2024 featuring signature programs, special screenings and events and a new, diverse lineup of films from around the globe that filmgoers can only see at the AFS Cinema. The full calendar and more information can be found at www.austinfilm.org.
The Austin Film Society will present two new series of Essential Cinema, the first of which in November is called The Eyes of Peter Lorre. The month-long series features four films that showcase notable performances by the iconic actor, including a screening of Fritz Lang’s M in 35mm. Then throughout December, AFS Essential Cinema continues with Early Bresson, highlighting three works by the legendary French filmmaker, among them the acclaimed Au Hasard Balthazar. During the weekend of December 6–9, the Austin Film Society will present a Shelley Duvall Tribute honoring the late actress with screenings of Thieves Like Us and 3 Women (both directed by Robert Altman) as well as a program showcasing Duvall’s visionary children’s show, Faerie Tale Theatre, as a part of its History of Television series. New French Cinema Week — a partnership with the Premiers Plans Festival of Angers, France (Austin’s French sister city), Unifrance (including its Young French Cinema program) and Cultural Services of the French Embassy — returns to AFS Cinema on November 17–20 with a new lineup of six films from across the Francophone world. More information on this annual AFS festival will be forthcoming. At the end of December, AFS will show its annual Home for the Holidays series, including returning favorites Eyes Wide Shut and The Thin Man alongside other non-traditional seasonal films, like Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread. AFS’s partnership with Alienated Majesty Books, Paper Cuts, returns with two films — Barbara Loden’s Wanda and India Song by Marguerite Duras — each with complementary book pairings which can be purchased at a pop-up shop at the AFS Cinema after each screening. As a part of Queer Cinema: Lost & Found, AFS will show Ed Wood’s Glen or Glenda and The Rubber Gun directed by Allan Moyle (Times Square, Empire Records), each preceded by a video introduction by series programmer Elizabeth Purchell. AFS Cinema will host Ivan Peycheff, head archivist at the American Genre Film Archive, who will show a series of 16mm Satanic Panic-era clips, trailers and the film Satanageddon II on December 13. AFS will also welcome comedian Connor Ratliff and his popular stage show with Griffin Newman (of the Blank Check podcast), The George Lucas Talk Show, on December 5.
Calendar highlights in detail:
From November 5–30, AFS Essential Cinema will present The Eyes of Peter Lorre, a series of 35mm screenings dedicated to the electrifying performances of an actor known for his side roles in films like Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. The series begins with the lauded and influential Fritz Lang masterpiece M on November 5 and 9, featuring Lorre in only his third on-screen performance. Following this will be Mad Love on November 12 and 14, starring Lorre as a demented surgeon; Island of Doomed Men on November 21 and 23, with Lorre playing a sadistic prison superintendent; and the horror film The Beast With Five Fingers on November 26 and 30, Lorre’s final film with Warner Brothers.
The Austin Film Society will showcase several of the greatest works by French writer-director Robert Bresson in Essential Cinema: Early Bresson. Seven of Bresson’s films appeared on the highly regarded 2012 Sight & Sound critics’ poll, and the three chosen for the AFS series, made between 1951–1967, highlight the filmmaker’s emotional sensitivity and minimalistic tendencies. The series begins on December 3 with screenings of Au Hasard Balthazar (1966), which follows a donkey’s journey over the course of its life in what Roger Ebert called Bresson’s “most heartbreaking prayer.” Then, on December 10 and 14, AFS will show Diary of a Country Priest (1951), Bresson’s third feature film as a director about its title character trying to integrate himself into a small town while struggling with a stomach disease. The series finale, Mouchette (1967), will begin screening in 35mm on December 17 and depicts the coming-of-age of a young girl whose parents struggle with alcoholism and illness.
The Fort Worth-born actress Shelley Duvall passed away in July of this year, and to honor her legacy and impact on the film world, the AFS Cinema will host a Shelley Duvall Tribute over the weekend of December 6–9. Duvall, well known for her collaborations with Robert Altman and her performance as Wendy Torrance in The Shining, was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in 2020 alongside the film Brewster McCloud (recipient of the Star of Texas Award), which includes her first feature-film appearance. The Austin Film Society will show two of her films with Altman, Thieves Like Us in 35mm (with Duvall appearing alongside Keith Carradine) and 3 Women (which co-stars Janice Rule and Sissy Spacek, a fellow Texas Film Hall of Fame honoree). On December 8, AFS will also show two episodes of Faerie Tale Theatre — a TV show hosted and executive produced by Duvall — as a part of its History of Television series, which will be accompanied by an on-stage presentation providing context and background on the show.
Each year, AFS programs an eclectic assortment of titles — from cinema classics to unexpected seasonal favorites — to play at the end of December for its Home for the Holidays series. Returning to the AFS Cinema will be The Thin Man, the beloved, boozy Dashiell Hammett adaption, and Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut. This year, the series will also include Tokyo Godfathers, an animated take on the parable of the Three Wise Men by Satoshi Kon (dir. Millennium Actress, Perfect Blue); Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and scored by Jonny Greenwood (member of Radiohead and The Smile); and Fanny and Alexander, a semi-autobiographical film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman.
Paper Cuts, AFS’s series with Alienated Majesty Books, returns with two new screenings, each paired with a book to complement its respective film. On November 10, Barbara Loden’s Wanda will be paired with a book about the filmmaker, Nathalie Léger’s Suite for Barbara Loden. The film, about a Pennsylvanian woman who accidentally finds herself keeping company with a thief, was significant enough to have been chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress in 2017. AFS will then show India Song by Marguerite Duras on December 21, about a French diplomat overseas, which will be paired with My Cinema, a collection of Duras’ writings about her own work. Each event will include a post-film discussion and a pop-up shop in the AFS Cinema lobby where audiences can purchase the books paired with each screening.
The full November/December lineup continues below, and a complete list of all film screenings announced to date and special events are on the AFS website at austinfilm.org. Ticket prices range from $11 to $13.50, with discounts for AFS members. Special pricing is noted if applicable.
AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER CALENDAR
ESSENTIAL CINEMA: THE EYES OF PETER LORRE
A small, rounded man with bulging eyes and a lugubrious manner of speaking, Peter Lorre was an actor who was born to be impersonated. He was also an absolute master of his craft who understood the assignment. In a serious film, he could evoke a somber mood, and in a silly movie, he could play it for laughs. In this series, we get a bit of both, sometimes in the same film. Join us in celebrating an actor who always gives you something memorable to take home.
M
Fritz Lang, Germany, 1931, 35mm, 110 min. In German with English subtitles.
11/5, 11/9
Peter Lorre gives a performance that Pauline Kael describes as “touched by genius” in Fritz Lang’s stomach-clenching thriller about a child murderer who is pursued simultaneously by police and by an ad hoc vigilante force. One of the greatest films ever made, anchored by one of the greatest actors ever, our man Peter Lorre. In 35mm.
MAD LOVE
Karl Freund, USA, 1935, 35mm, 68 min.
11/12, 11/14
When a gifted pianist’s hands are crushed in an accident, his fiancée, a beautiful actress in the Grand Guignol Theatre, reaches out to her biggest fan, a gifted but twisted surgeon (Peter Lorre, of course), in hopes that he will repair the man’s musical fingers again. An absolute showcase for Lorre’s histrionic abilities and a wonderful example of the German expressionist influence on classic horror. In 35mm.
ISLAND OF DOOMED MEN
Charles Barton, USA, 1940, 35mm, 67 min.
11/21, 11/23
An implausible story that veers into wild camp, this film stars Peter Lorre as the dandyish superintendent of a hellish island prison camp who keeps his lavish lifestyle and glamorous wife through less-than-legal means. Lorre is amazing here, wrenching entertainment value from every ludicrous line. In 35mm.
THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS
Robert Florey, USA, 1946, 35mm, 88 min.
11/26, 11/30
We’re not sure why Peter Lorre is in multiple horror films about severed hands, but we’re also not complaining. In this one — based on a novel by Curt Siodmak, directed by sometimes-avant-garde filmmaker Robert Florey, and with possible uncredited assistance in the story department from Luis Buñuel — the hand is what’s driving Peter Lorre into a highly entertaining mental health crisis. By this point in this series, you should know how unmissable that is. In 35mm.
ESSENTIAL CINEMA: EARLY BRESSON
It is difficult to place the great French writer/director Robert Bresson within the context of Cinema history because he exists so far outside the normal models of commercial cinema and even art cinema. His films are more like devout prayers than mere stories, and his means of obtaining his effects — such as his use of non-actors and his deeply ascetic approach to storytelling — make his films “hit different,” as the kids say. Here, we collect three of Bresson’s earliest and greatest works.
AU HASARD BALTHAZAR
Robert Bresson, France, 1966, DCP, 95 min. In French with English subtitles.
12/3–12/7
“The world in an hour and a half.” —Jean-Luc Godard
With exquisite gentleness and care, Robert Bresson exposes us to transcendent emotions in telling the story of a donkey as he passes from owner to owner during the course of his life. There is something higher and more refined here than any ordinary film can give us. Prepare yourself for a work of art that will never leave your heart.
DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST
Robert Bresson, France, 1951, DCP, 115 min. In French with English subtitles.
12/10, 12/14
“Luminous! One of Bresson’s loveliest films!” —New York Magazine
It’s repetitive to use the word masterpiece when referring to Robert Bresson’s films because nearly all of them meet the criteria. This one, about a clergyman who assumes his post in a small village, takes us through faith, grace, doubt, and mortification — high aspirations for any film but achievable only by an artist with Bresson’s remarkable sensitivity and perceptiveness.
MOUCHETTE
Robert Bresson, France, 1967, 35mm, 81 min. In French with English subtitles.
12/17–12/21
“A masterpiece: a Bresson film pure and simple with its extraordinary correspondences between sound and gesture to evoke the unspoken and the unseen.” —Sight & Sound
“In short, a film that is Christian and sadistic.” —Jean-Luc Godard
Mouchette (the name means “little fly”) is a child who endures an unhappy life with her alcoholic father and terminally ill mother in a remote village. Robert Bresson tracks the ups and downs (mostly downs) of her life with a closeness of perspective that seems almost telepathic. As with all of Bresson’s films, this is not what you should choose for a diverting night’s entertainment. It is tough, it is demanding, but it’s the real thing. In 35mm.
SHELLEY DUVALL TRIBUTE
THIEVES LIKE US
Robert Altman, USA, 1974, 35mm, 123 min.
12/6
One of Shelley Duvall’s best performances and a favorite of her many fans, this Robert Altman film stars Duvall and Keith Carradine as star-crossed lovers in the 1930s. Altman is interested in capturing the real look and feel of the era more so than providing an homage to the films of the time. In 35mm.
3 WOMEN
Robert Altman, USA, 1977, DCP, 124 min.
12/7, 12/9
Robert Altman’s examination of the intersecting orbits of three socially outcast women — Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Janice Rule — operates in a wholly unique narrative sphere as the three titular women huddle together as a de facto alternative family unit until certain events cast a nightmarish light over the trio. Co-written by Altman and Patricia Resnick. Free Member Monday — free admission for all AFS members on Monday, December 9.
HISTORY OF TELEVISION: FAERIE TALE THEATRE
Various, 120 min.
12/8
Join us for a free presentation of one of Shelley Duvall’s proudest triumphs, a television show that she created, produced, and sometimes starred in. FAERIE TALE THEATRE is fondly remembered by Gen X kids who appreciated the care and intelligence that went into each episode. With top stars, directors, and writers attached, this is a show that deserves to sit on that high shelf with the greatest children’s television shows ever made.
BIG SCREEN CLASSICS
SOMETHING WILD
Jonathan Demme, USA, 35mm, 1986, 113 min.
11/23, 11/24
“One of the most free-spirited US films of the ’80s.” —Cine-File
“A fun, funky, fast-paced road-movie romance … designed exclusively to entertain.” —The Playlist
Jonathan Demme’s comic masterwork stars Jeff Daniels as a tight-ass yuppie who is caught up in the orbit of the exciting, impulsive “bad girl” Melanie Griffith. It’s all fun and games until Griffith’s dangerous ex-con husband (Ray Liotta in a star-making performance) shows up. A laugh a minute and characteristically cool in the Demme manner. In 35mm.
THE HEARTBREAK KID
Elaine May, USA, 1972, DCP, 106 min.
11/22, 11/23
“A merciless dissection of masculine anxiety and fantasy.” —Film Comment
“A near-peerless comedy of humiliation and dissimulation.” —The Village Voice
Elaine May adapts Neil Simon’s play about a newlywed husband who has some regrets and, in the process, practically invents cringe comedy. With Charles Grodin giving a performance of such surgical precision that it has set the template for low-key comic acting ever since. Cybill Shepherd plays the object of his idealized affection, Eddie Albert is her no-nonsense father, and Elaine May’s daughter, Jeannie Berlin, is hilarious as Grodin’s bride.
HIS GIRL FRIDAY
Howard Hawks, USA, DCP, 1940, 92 min.
12/27–12/29
“One of the fastest of all movies, from line to line and gag to gag.” —Artforum
“It’s a film that makes you want to sharpen your barbs and sling sass with the adults.” —Time Out New York
Howard Hawks’ screwball comedy of remarriage, HIS GIRL FRIDAY, cannot be accused of being a slow, poky old movie. It really moves, by design. As Rosalind Russell, playing star reporter Hildy Johnson, is dragged back into a story on the eve of her honeymoon by her former editor (and former husband) Cary Grant, the quips fly so fast you won’t catch them all. But don’t worry, you’ll catch enough of them to appreciate why this is considered one of the greatest comedies ever made.
DOC NIGHTS
THE HERRICANES
Olivia Kuan, USA, 2023, DCP, 87 min.
11/4, 11/6
A tale of grit in the face of adversity, this film recounts the story of the Houston Hurricanes, a team in the first women’s full-tackle football league in the 1970s. Facing public ridicule and indifference, these women took their hits on and off the field and learned to find support in one another along the way. A true MVP, this winner of the Documentary Spotlight award at the 2023 SXSW Film & TV Festival will inspire you to take what life throws at you and throw it right back. Free Member Monday — free admission for all AFS members on Monday, November 4.
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
TOKYO GODFATHERS
Satoshi Kon, Japan, 2003, DCP, 92 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
12/21–12/26
The late, great Japanese writer/director followed up his epic MILLENNIUM ACTRESS with this unique and moving take on the Three Wise Men parable. Inspired by John Ford’s film THE THREE GODFATHERS, Kon ups the ante by placing the moral dilemma in a modern, urban context. Fair warning, this one is too dark and violent for most kids.
PHANTOM THREAD
Paul Thomas Anderson, USA, 2017, DCP, 130 min.
12/22–12/27
“A battle-of-the-sexes comedy that ruthlessly strips away layers of archetype and artifice.” —Sight & Sound
“A triumph of stitchery, combining disparate colors and textures into an apparently seamless garment. To watch it for the first time is to be continually teased by contradictory possibilities.” —NYRB
Wintry in its setting and perversely frosty in its narrative of an imperious fashion designer (Daniel Day-Lewis) in midcentury London whose relationships with the women in his life mushroom into something beyond his control. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, this is a deeply satisfying and savagely dark film.
FANNY AND ALEXANDER
Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1982, 35mm, 188 min. In Swedish with English subtitles.
12/22–12/27
“Marvelously engrossing.” —Time Out
“Bergman’s grandest achievement, a sweeping, lovingly detailed bildungsroman of memorable characterizations, embracing every theme close to his heart, etching a vivid portrait of his childhood, and invoking his fascination with theater and cinema with its very first shot.” —Artforum
Ingmar Bergman’s magical, mystical prism of childhood includes what must be one of the greatest family Christmas sequences in Cinema history. In it, you’ll feel the wonder of the season and the deep mysteries of familial connection. In 35mm.
EYES WIDE SHUT
Stanley Kubrick, USA, 1999, DCP, 159 min.
12/28, 12/30
“Maybe we should suspend the reductive question, ‘Is it any good or not?’ and acknowledge that it’s a fascinating, tantalizing film that will continue to be argued about.” —New Statesman
“Above all, a masterpiece of sustained tone, a tightrope act that pays off in rich and unexpected ways.” —AV Club
Stanley Kubrick’s dark comedy of sex and secrets — starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman — garnered mixed reviews upon release, but in the decades since, it has become recognized as a modern classic.
THE THIN MAN
W.S. Van Dyke, USA, 1934, DCP, 93 min.
12/23–12/25
“A marvelous blend of marital familiarity and constant courtship, pixelated fantasy, and childlike wonder. None of the five sequels that followed (1936-47) recaptured quite the same flavour.” —Time Out
William Powell and Myrna Loy star as one of the screen’s most effervescent couples as they navigate a Christmas in New York and try to solve a murder in this adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s sly, gin-soaked novel. Pure fun.
MODERN MASTERS
GREEN BORDER
Agnieszka Holland, Poland/France/Czech Republic/Belgium, 2023, DCP, 152 min. In Polish, Arabic, English, and French with English subtitles.
11/29, 12/1
“A humanitarian masterpiece.” —Deadline
“Unforgettable in all senses of the word.” —Vulture
“More films like this need to be made and seen.” —Los Angeles Times
Master filmmaker Agnieszka Holland (EUROPA EUROPA) returns with a provocative statement about the tyranny of borders. Based on the facts of the humanitarian crisis at the Belarus/Poland border where immigrants are cynically exploited for personal gain and kept from making safe passage by the authorities. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and a flashpoint for political controversy in Poland and elsewhere, this is a film that demands to be seen by everyone.
WORLD CINEMA CLASSICS
CINEMA PARADISO
Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy/France, 1988, 155 min. In Italian with English subtitles.
12/18–12/23
“A rhapsodic elegy to the thrall of filmgoing.” —The Telegraph
“If ever a movie came from the heart, it was CINEMA… PARADISO… It’s a real experience and a classic.” —The Guardian
CINEMA PARADISO is a movie about devotees of the Cinema made for devotees of the Cinema. Through flashbacks, a famous movie director relives his childhood and young adulthood, watching (and later projecting) films at his neighborhood theater under the tutelage of the longtime projectionist. If you love the Cinema and the people who make it happen, this film is guaranteed to grab you.
ZOUZOU
Marc Allégret, France, 1934, DCP, 85 min. In French with English subtitles.
11/25, 11/27
“Josephine Baker is a phenomenal presence — mugging for the camera, winking at us, playing up the humor in delightfully unpredictable ways. Her singing is marvelous, her dancing so loose and free that you start to forget the plot and just lose yourself in her moves.” —Vulture
Developed as a star vehicle for Josephine Baker, already a sensation in Europe, ZOUZOU marks the talking debut for the icon and puts her charm, wit, and confidence on display in a variety of musical numbers while showcasing her acting chops as a laundress who saves a chorus show.
FRIGHT CLUB
BLACK CHRISTMAS
Bob Clark, Canada, 1974, DCP, 98 min.
12/18, 12/20
“Unwittingly lays down all the conventions for a subgenre that did not yet exist.” —Little White Lies
If you’re a horror movie fan, you’ve probably developed a bit of a tolerance when it comes to scares — you see most of the shocks coming around the corner. BLACK CHRISTMAS, directed by the great Bob Clark, manages to head those expectations off before the pass, delivering genuinely shocking set pieces within an atmospheric boarding school milieu. With Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin, and John Saxon. This one will get to you.
QUEER CINEMA: LOST & FOUND
GLEN OR GLENDA
Ed Wood, Jr., USA, 1953, DCP, 65 min.
11/14
Clean-cut Glen seemingly has everything a man could ever want. He has a good job, friends he shares certain hobbies with, and a loving fiancée. But there’s a problem: there’s another woman in Glen’s life who threatens to ruin it all … himself! Famously made to cash in on the media circus surrounding Christine Jorgensen, GLEN OR GLENDA wound up being something else entirely — a nakedly personal plea for acceptance and a masterpiece of accidental avant-garde. Screening with a video introduction by Queer Cinema: Lost & Found programmer Elizabeth Purchell.
THE RUBBER GUN
Allan Moyle, Canada, 1977, DCP, 86 min.
12/16
The charismatic leader of a pansexual drug commune unwittingly becomes the subject of a shy young sociology student’s thesis in this feature debut from future TIMES SQUARE and EMPIRE RECORDS director Allan Moyle and SCANNERS star Stephen Lack. A unique mix of cinéma vérité documentaries and hard-boiled crime thrillers with an earworm-filled original soundtrack by Lewis Furey, THE RUBBER GUN is a rarely-seen classic of ’70s independent queer cinema that’s been newly restored by Canadian International Pictures. Screening with a video introduction by Queer Cinema: Lost & Found programmer Elizabeth Purchell.
LATES
FELIDAE
Michael Schaack, Germany, 1994, DCP, 78 min. In German with English subtitles.
11/22–11/24
Death cults! Murder! Sex! What is FELIDAE? Answer: both the scientific name for cats and the title for this nightmare-inducing neo-noir about a kitty who gets his paws dirty while on the hunt for a killer with a taste for feline blood. One of the strangest and most unforgettable animated films you’ll ever see, it’s catnip for any weirdo who’s ever pondered the possibilities of an R-rated Don Bluth movie. As the narrator purrs, “This activity was beyond THE ARISTOCATS.” Featuring the voices of Mario Adorf (DEADLOCK), Klaus Maria Brandauer (MEPHISTO), and a theme song by Boy George! Newly restored.
THE CATHEDRAL OF NEW EMOTIONS
Helmut Herbst, Germany, 2006, DCP, 60 min. In German with English subtitles.
12/6, 12/7
On a shortlist with BELLADONNA OF SADNESS and FANTASTIC PLANET as one of the most surreal, psychedelic, and truly cosmic animated features ever made, German director Helmut Herbst’s utterly insane THE CATHEDRAL OF NEW EMOTIONS follows a commune of Berlin stoners and intellectuals in 1972 who set adrift in space inside a packing container clutched in a giant flying hand. Various interstellar flotsam smashes into the windshield – enormous insects, Mighty Mouse, a Bird Man from FLASH GORDON – while hypnotic krautrock drones in the background moaning “Where am I??” and a naked man bounces up and down off a massive red pepper. Newly Restored and available for the first time in the US.
PAPER CUTS
WANDA
Barbara Loden, USA, 1970, DCP, 103 min.
11/10
“I believe there is a miracle in WANDA.” — Marguerite Duras
“[WANDA] was the first time I had seen a heroine impelled entirely by what she didn’t want to do as opposed to being led by deep desires or passions. She drifts rather than strays.” —Durga Chew-Bose
“I can’t imagine such a film ever having been made by a man. But [Barbara] Loden did make it, and she did everything.” —Isabelle Huppert
Wanda has left her husband, abandoned her children, and hit the road — not in search of herself, not in search of really anything at all. This is the first and only film from writer-director Barbara Loden, here as the eponymous Wanda, a heroine of profound influence and fascination for everyone from Isabelle Huppert to Rachel Kushner, Kate Zambreno, and Durga Chew-Bose — as well as French writer Nathalie Léger, who penned Suite for Barbara Loden, the chronicle of her own obsession and desire “to get closer to the film and its maker.”
Featuring a post-film discussion and a pop-up shop on Sunday, November 10. Suite for Barbara Loden is available for purchase at Alienated Majesty Books, in-person or online here.
INDIA SONG
Marguerite Duras, France, 1975, DCP, 105 min. In French with English subtitles.
12/21
“Marguerite Duras’ most perfectly realized film, the most feminine film I have seen, a rarefied work of lyricism, despair, and passion, imbued with a kind of primitive emotional hunger that is all the more moving for its austere setting.” –Molly Haskell
In 1930s India, off-screen gossip narrates the downfall of Anne-Marie Stretter (Delphine Seyrig, JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES), the French ambassador’s wife who is driven by boredom and her own affliction (a “leprosy of the soul”) into the arms of the disgraced French vice-consul. A hypnotic haunting from “La Duras.”
Featuring a post-film discussion and a pop-up shop on Saturday, December 21. My Cinema by Marguerite Duras is available for purchase at Alienated Majesty Books, in-person or online here.
PARTNER EVENTS
BURDEN OF DREAMS
Les Blank, USA, 1982, DCP, 95 min.
11/3
“One of the most remarkable documentaries ever made about the making of a movie.” —Roger Ebert
“A fascinating portrait of a filmmaker pushed to the outer edge of sanity.” —All Movie Guide
Here the great documentarian Les Blank profiles his good friend, filmmaker Werner Herzog, as the German director fights the elements (and his lead actor) to make the epic FITZCARRALDO. Featuring a post-film panel by Austin Community College. Newly restored.
FITZCARRALDO
Werner Herzog, West Germany/Peru, 1982, DCP, 157 min. In German/Spanish/Asháninka with English subtitles.
11/3
“FITZCARRALDO is one of the great visions of the cinema and one of the great follies.” —Roger Ebert
“Few motion pictures have captured the frenzied power of obsession with as much veracity.” —Deep Focus Review
“The preeminent testament of Herzog’s labor as a filmmaker.” —Slant
One of the screen’s great portraits of obsession. Klaus Kinski plays Fitzcarraldo whose dream of building an opera house in the middle of the Peruvian jungle to rival Europe’s best leads him to try and make one big score. One sequence in the film was so insanely difficult to achieve that the whole enterprise becomes charged with a madness akin to that of the story’s protagonist.
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
SATANAGEDDON II
Various
12/13
AGFA’s Head Archivist Ivan Peycheff returns with ultra-rare slices of 16mm Satanic Panic-era madness — plus trailers, cartoons, and shorts that we’re 98.9% sure you’ve never seen before!
THE GEORGE LUCAS TALK SHOW LIVE ON STAGE
12/5
Join us for a live, on-stage performance of The George Lucas Talk Show, a long-running cult talk show based in New York City. Comedian Connor Ratliff hosts the show as George Lucas, the creator of STAR WARS, and he interviews real guests as themselves in a panel format. He is flanked by sidekick Watto, played by Griffin Newman (of the Blank Check podcast), and producer Patrick Cotnoir.
NEWLY RESTORED
THE SACRIFICE
Andrei Tarkovsky, Sweden, 1986, DCP, 145 min. In Swedish with English subtitles.
11/2–11/7
“Andrei Tarkovsky’s last film is a grand, unworldly, even anti-worldly religious vision.” —The New Yorker
“The first and penultimate shots—ten-minute takes that are, in very different ways, remarkable and complex achievements—manage to say more than most films do over their entire length.” —The Chicago Reader
“Hang on to the very end and you may find yourself moved as you have never been moved before.” —Andrew Sarris, The Village Voice
Andrei Tarkovsky’s final film, about a family anticipating an apocalyptic war, is both an ode to the work of Ingmar Bergman and Tarkovsky’s crowning study of light and darkness in mankind. New 4K restoration.
Will Stefanski
Will@austinfilm.org
