Popcorn & Candy: What's Your Favorite Scary Movie?
DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
Repertory: Halloween Screams at the AFI
Perhaps my favorite part of this time of year is the fact that on any given night, you can turn on the television, and somewhere on the dial you can find a movie about things that go bump in the night, creatures from the depths of Hell, or your garden variety psychopathic masked murderer of libidinous teens. It really is the most wonderful time of the year. Let's not forget the pleasure of watching horror movies in big groups in the theater, though. Should the onscreen zombies break through into our world, much better to have a large group of human shields fellow fighters around than to be at home alone.
To that end, the AFI is screening three classics in the lead up to Halloween next week. First up, tomorrow night only, are two screenings of Nosferatu, F.W. Murnau's classic 1922 unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. While later depictions of the Count played up his suave GQ style and way with the ladies, Murnau's vision was far more monstrous, and the face of his Count Orlock has become an iconic horror image. Eighty-five years after its release, it's still a dark and creepy experience. The AFI's screenings also include live music accompaniment from the Silent Orchestra.
Filling out the remaining days until Halloween are two more recent classics, The Wicker Man and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Both of these have been seen as remakes in recent years. The Chainsaw remake was not particularly horrible, just rather pointless, as it ignored the fact that part of the original's fright factor is firmly entrenched in its dim lighting, grainy film stock, and production values that contributed to it feeling less like a movie and more like something that was actually happening in front of you. The glossy sheen of the remake made it into a snoozefest. As for Neil Labute's ill-advised Wicker Man remake of last year, if you had the good fortune to miss it, all you really need to know about the film can be viewed in a handy YouTube condensed version that highlights the unintended hilarity. We suggest getting the bad taste of both of these remakes out of your mouth by catching the originals in the coming days.
Nosferatu trailer. Texas Chainsaw Massacre trailer.
Nosferatu plays two shows tomorrow night only, while Wicker Man and Texas Chainsaw Massacre play Saturday through Halloween night.
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Foreign: C'est Chic D.C. French Film Festival
Tuesday night in Georgetown the C'est Chic French Film Festival had its official kick off with the musical Love Songs (if you missed it, don't worry, there are more screenings later in the festival), and continues through November 1. The 2007 festival presents 16 features and a number of short films, most screening at The Avalon Theatre in Chevy Chase. Highlights include: a "Stars Ceremony" on Saturday night hosted by Arch Campbell, and featuring acclaimed director Claude Lelouch and a dozen of France's best young directors and actors; a women in film event at the National Gallery featuring Emmanuelle Cuau's Trés Bien, Merci followed by a discussion; the local premiere of Hor de Prix, the newest film starring Audrey Tatou, who we'd pretty much watch in anything from a feature film to home movies.
Most programs at the Avalon Theatre, with selected events at E Street Cinema, The National Gallery of Art, and the French Embassy. See the schedule for all times and locations.
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Indie: Kurt Cobain: About a Son
One of the most anticipated films at this year's SILVERDOCS festival was A.J. Schnack's Kurt Cobain documentary, About a Son. Those expecting a traditional rock doc may have been disappointed, but those open to a different kind of experience were richly rewarded. Schnack, in collaboration with Cobain biographer and friend Michael Azzerad, used audio from Azzerad's interviews to essentially have Cobain narrate his own story. As Cobain talks, Schnack puts onscreen montages of the places he's talking about. It's a simple concept, but has been described as "experimental" since it differs so greatly from our usual conception of the music documentary. And, since it's a documentary that is largely about who Cobain was, in his own words, and what made him into the man he became, instead of filling the soundtrack with Nirvana songs, it is instead largely populated by a great collection of the music that shaped him.
Opens Friday at E Street Cinema.
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Dog fighting has been all over the news this year, what with federal and local legislation on the issue, and the high profile conviction of NFL star Michael Vick. Vick did have a high profile defender, in the form of Jamie Foxx, and also Whoopi Goldberg, who stopped short of defending him, but did indicate it shouldn't come as a surprise considering Vick's background. Off the Chain examines that background, not Vick's specifically, but the culture in which dog fighting thrives. It screens as the conclusion to the Black Docs film series tonight, for one night only. The screening is presented by the Humane Society of America, and director Bobby J. Brown will be on hand for a Q&A.
Tonight only at E Street Cinema at 7:30 p.m.
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Major Release: Dan in Real Life
It appears no one wants to compete with the release of Saw IV the weekend before Halloween, so the only other major release for the week is Peter Hedges' Dan in Real Life, a romantic comedy starring Steve Carell as an advice columnist who falls for his tool of a brother's girlfriend (Dane Cook and Juliette Binoche, respectively) and wins her over during the course of a few days spent at a quirky family reunion. Yeah, the setup makes us want to run for the hills, too, but Hedges has a way of making contrived and saccharine sounding setups work surprisingly well, having scripted What's Eating Gilbert Grape and making his directing debut with 2003's excellent Pieces of April.
View the trailer.
Opens at theatres all around the area on Friday.