STUNTS
dir. Mark Lester, 1977
United States. 89 min.
In English.
THURSDAY, JULY 2 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 10 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, JULY 18 – 10 PM
MONDAY, JULY 27 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 31 – 7:30 PM
Director Mark Lester (CLASS OF 1999, COMMANDO, FIRESTARTER) blends murder mystery and stunt reel in a film that sits comfortably next to HOOPER and STUNT ROCK. Featuring Robert Forster (MEDIUM COOL, TWIN PEAKS) and Ray Sharkey (a great back-to-back run on CRIME STORY and WISEGUY) as a stuntman and a reporter trying to figure out who is murdering film’s greatest stuntpeople, it’s got everything from slow-motion footage of cars flying end-over-end, a breezy drive-in vibe, multiple helicopter gags, dirtbikes for days and did I mention STUNTS?
A FEAST OF MAN
dir. Caroline Golum, 2017
United States. 82 min.
In English.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 1 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, JULY 5 – 5 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 11 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 24 – 5 PM
In celebration of Caroline Golum’s new feature film REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE, we are honored to bring back A FEAST OF MAN, which enjoyed a successful premiere run at Spectacle in 2017.
Caroline Golum’s rosé-refracted debut feature A FEAST OF MAN is a hilarious drawing-room comedy that pushes its audience to ask unspeakable questions of itself, performing a ruthless re-exhumation of THE BIG CHILL by way of Whit Stillman, Henry James and a pinch of Bette Gordon. Laurence Joseph Bond stars as Gallagher, a wealthy ne’er-do-well sitting on preciously guarded millions; when Gallagher dies in an untimely accident (kept mysteriously offscreen), his valet James (Zach Fleming) summons the late aristocrat’s closest friends (a murderer’s row of a cast including Frank Mosley, Marleigh Dunlap, Chris Shields and Katey Parker) to the family home in upstate New York, where he presents them with Gallagher’s final will and testament via videoconference. It’s revealed that the tony young codger will bequeath his fortune to the group, split evenly, but only if they agree, unanimously, to eat his corpse. A weekend of flashbacks, double-crosses and coastal-elite hand-wringing ensues: some characters retreat further into forced juvenilia while others, remembering all the slights and jealousies of their near/post-adolescent years, find an opportunity to avenge their lost youth. But throughout, the clock ticks with one question: will they go through with it?
A FEAST OF MAN is not like other movies: Golum’s screenplay (co-written by the prolific Dylan Pasture) is at once laden with one-liners and hijinks, yet keeps the audience guessing how blackened its heart really is, how low its comedy of rich people’s poor manners can, and will, go.
WHO IS BOZO TEXINO?
dir. Bill Daniel, 2005
United States. 57 min.
In English.
SUNDAY, JULY 5 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 10 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 31 – 5 PM
Shot in 8mm and 16mm over 16 years, the infamous WHO IS BOZO TEXINO? is an experimental documentary searching for the identities and stories behind the ubiquitous and yet esoteric art of hobo graffiti found on the sides of boxcars, grainers and train bridges spanning North America from coast to coast. Landing somewhere between outsider art and subculture minutiae—utilizing the conjecture, half-truths, tall tales and mythology that occupies the jungles and campfires—Daniel interviews an array of old timers, hobos and rail workers as well as streak and moniker heavyweights like Herby, The Rambler, and Colossus of Roads.
THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE (EL TRIANGULO DE ORO)
aka LA ISLA FANTASMA
dir. Jairo Pinilla, 1984
Colombia. 93 mins
In Spanish with English subtitles.
FRIDAY, JULY 3 – 5 PM
THURSDAY, JULY 9 – 10 PM
MONDAY, JULY 20 – 10 PM
Presented in collaboration with Petroglyph Media, which has been dedicated to preserving and restoring the works of Jairo Pinilla. Anthony Napolitano of Petroglyph will be at the theater for an introduction on July 9th, and Blu-rays of Pinilla’s FUNERAL SINIESTRO—which also contains THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE—will be available for purchase, in anticipation of our screening the restoration of FUNERAL SINIESTRO in August.
An ostensibly straightforward mystery thriller riffing on a bygone generation’s worth of toxic whispers about the Bermuda Triangle, this film (also released as LA ISLA FANTASMA) uses the Panama Canal Zone as a jumping-off point, from whence a young girl and her father vanish out on the high seas. Jack Mendelson, her swollen uncle (who may also be a mercenary/private detective?) decked out in a leather vest and ripped bell-bottom jeans, goes searching for them, with the remaining nephew in tow. Their axes form a puzzle, leading them to a moss-ensconced island housing a mythic miniature pyramid made of solid gold – but the triangle is treacherous, and exposure to it begins to cost Jack his sanity.
Well before a man-eating plant has taken center stage, you’ll agree that EL TRIANGULO DE ORO is one of the wildest and most imaginative horror movies ever made, including at least one set piece that should be legendarily famous: a showstopping martial arts throwdown between Jack and a cadre of shady characters in a seaside cantina. The bar patrons’ horrified reactions teeter between tragedy and farce, another example of Pinilla’s surprisingly un-rushed editing style: Pinilla builds mystery through gorgeous location photography, decking each scene out with more telephoto zooms than you’ll find in most contemporaneous Hollywood thrillers. Speaking of which: both films in this series betray Pinilla’s penchant for overlaying snatches of music from overhyped American movies of the day. An insaniack final twist (complete with flashing strobes and bedraggled first-person long takes tiptoeing through walls of ivy, reeking with death) adopts the perspective of a child, played by Pinilla’s real-life son Jorge, to dreamy, haunting and hilarious effect.
Thanks to Anthony Napolitano and Jairo Pinilla.
THE GOLD OF LOVE (DAS GOLD DER LIEBE)
dir. Eckhart Schmidt, 1983.
West Germany. 86 min.
In German with English subtitles.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 8 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 17 – 5 PM
TUESDAY, JULY 28 – 10 PM
Schmidt’s follow up to DER FAN plays a bit like the same film detuned to a harsher register. The palatable pop of new wave superstar “R” is replaced by the raucous tremors of actual rock band D.A.F. (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft), whom teen Alexandra Curtis (yes, half-sister of Jamie Lee) harbors an unhealthy obsession. While the horror of Der Fan came from its chillingly slow descent towards a maniacally bleak outcome, the follow-up pretty much starts in a post-punk underworld with no hope of escape — tears of blood run down the protagonist’s face within the first half an hour, after she finds herself without any cash to gain entry to D.A.F.’s show. The rest of the film chronicles her attempts to see the group at any possible cost, traversing a zonked-out, eternally nocturnal Vienna in the process.