DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.

Blow-Up

Michelangelo Antonioni made three English-language films during the course of his career. These three were made from 1966-1975, as part of a contract with MGM undoubtedly designed to try to cash in on his popularity in the foreign art-house circles by making some higher-profile pictures with bigger English and American stars. And it worked with the first of the three efforts, as Blow-Up became one of the decade-defining films of the 1960s. The film stars David Hemmings as a London fashion photographer who snaps more than he bargained for when he takes pictures of two lovers in a park, and comes to believe he may have evidence of a murder on his hands, though his image, when blown up, is indistinct.

The film is probably one of Antonioni's most accessible, even though it would be a mistake to characterize it as anything approaching a traditional narrative. It's still self-aware enough to be off-putting to many audiences, but that didn't stop it from being a pretty big success upon release. The celebrity cameos, glamorous swinging London fashion-world setting, and copious amounts of model nudity, including the first instances of full-frontal to ever appear in a British feature, probably didn't hurt its receipts. Tomorrow begins a week of Blow-Up screenings at the AFI, which is doing a retrospective of all three of Antonioni's English works over the next two weeks. Zabriskie Point, and the Jack Nicholson-starring The Passenger will follow. Tomorrow night's premiere is followed by a party sponsored by our friends over at Brightest Young Things.

View the (marginally NSFW) trailer.
Opens tomorrow at the AFI and plays for most of the next week. BYT party follows tomorrow's screening for all ticket holders.

---

Into the Fire

Every year The Avalon observes September 11 with a special screening of a film with a tie to the tragedy. This year they'll show Bill Couturié's History Channel documentary about firefighters, Into the Fire. Like any profession with such potential for drama, firefighting has seen plenty of treatments in narrative films, but seeing the lives of actual firefighters up close and personal, the day to day operations of and interactions in the firehouse is more of a rare opportunity. The screening is also a benefit for HEROES, a D.C.-based charity that assists the widows and children of firefighters and police who have been killed in the line of duty. The D.C. Firefighters Association and Ward 3 D.C. Council representative Mary Cheh are sponsoring the event, and Cheh will be on hand with filmmaker Aviva Kempel and a panel who will discuss the film after the screening.

View the trailer.
Thursday, September 11 at 8 p.m. at The Avalon. Proceeds benefit HEROES

---

Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections

David Earnhardt's documentary on voting irregularities arrives a little late to the party. 2004, after all, was the big year for nakedly biased leftist political docs. Whether because of limited appeal or the zeitgeist moving on, as a genre they seem to have fallen largely out of favor. More elegant liberal-leaning films like Alex Gibney's work aside, the quicker & dirtier agitprop docs just don't seem to be flowing quite like they were in advance of the 2004 election. And it's that election, along with 2006, that is the main focus of Earnhardt's work, which takes a critical look at those elections both from the technological perspective of the reported (and demonstrated) irregularities in automated voting, and its demoralizing effect on voters who feel disenfranchised. Which is sure to make for dramatic viewing, but as is often the case with docs of this ilk, it has caught flak for lacking some balance. Still, for choirs looking to be preached to, it's the sort of inspirational pep talk that can motivate people to make sure they're not getting screwed by the system, and there's nothing wrong there. Next week's screening at the AFI is a special one-night-only event presented by SILVERDOCS, and will feature a panel discussion after the movie with the director and others.

View the trailer.
Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the AFI, followed by a panel discussion with director David Earnhardt and special guests.

---

Cinema Effect Part II: Realisms

The Hirshhorn's ambitious exhibit on the moving picture, Cinema Effect, has occupied the museum for the bulk of 2008. Anyone who's been to see either parts can tell you that it's a fascinating and hypnotic show, combining elements of both the usual gallery experience with the movie theater to showcase film in an entirely unusual way. It's easy to get so caught up in it that one loses track of time and suddenly realizes that two or three hours have slipped by as one watches the flickering lights. Part II of the exhibit has been running all summer, taking as its focus the relationship between reality and filmed reality. How does the transfer of the moving image from the real world to this medium change it? The Cinema Effect has been the museum attraction of the year for nearly anyone I've talked to who's seen it. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and this weekend is the last for the exhibit, so if you've been putting off checking it out, now's the time. And it's probably the perfect activity to while away the rainy Saturday afternoon we're in for.

Currently on display at the Hirshhorn during regular museum hours (10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.), closes on Sunday.

---

Running Fence

The Maysles Brothers had a long-standing relationship with Jean-Claude and Christo, documenting nearly a half dozen of their massive, transformational works over the years. The artists are in town this weekend, and as was the case earlier this year when they visited, a local museum is using their visit as an opportunity to screen one of the Maysles' films as a prelude to a discussion with the artists. In this case, it's "Running Fence", the 40 kilometer fence of flowing fabric that the artists erected in the hills of northern California in the mid-70s. Jean-Claude and Christo appearances always seem to be mob scenes, so if you want in, be sure to show up early.

Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's McAvoy Auditorium, to be followed by a discussion with Jean-Claude and Christo. Free.