Popcorn & Candy: Father of Invention
DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
The Amazing Mr. Bickford and Does Humor Belong in Music?
Frank Zappa and Congress are no strangers. It was over 20 years ago that the musician testified before a Senate subcommittee largely representing the interests of their wives and their little killjoy club, the Tipper Gore-led Parents' Music Resource Center. Thankfully, at least one member of the Gore household ended up finding worthwhile dangers to devote time and energy towards. But in 1985, it was dirty language that was going to destroy the world, and Zappa, while not the most popular, certainly ranked high among the legions of the potty-mouthed. There is, then, a certain poetic justice in the fact that Congress' very own library is now celebrating the man's truly bizarro cinematic work with a mini-film festival.
Zappa never did anything quite like anyone before (or since), and his few forays into filmmaking bear the same try-anything sense of eclectic experimentalism that informed his music. This week the Library of Congress screens two hour-long selections. The first, The Amazing Mr. Bickford, may be familiar to those who've seen one of the few Zappa films readily available for home viewing, Baby Snakes. Mr. Bickford features the animation of Bruce Bickford, some of which also appeared in Snakes. It is essentially a series of claymation music videos for a series of Zappa compositions, and is as evocative of altered states of mind as one would expect. The second, Does Humor Belong in Music?, is essentially a concert film. Zappa, ever the innovator, actually recorded the visuals digitally, not such a common medium in 1985. These are both extremely difficult to find on any medium, so this LOC screening is a pretty rare event. The festival concludes a week later, December 8, with a screening of Zappa's best known film, 200 Motels.
Watch some clips from The Amazing Mr. Bickford.
Monday at 7 p.m. at the Library of Congress' Mary Pickford Theater. Free, though reservations are recommended to guarantee seats to popular programs (202. 707.5677).
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Gus Van Sant's last couple of historically-influenced films have been marked (and criticized by the short-sighted) more for their departures from the events they were inspired by than any commitment to verisimilitude. But what made Elephant's tragically beautiful depiction of Columbine and Last Days' more problematic (yet still evocative) look at Kurt Cobain's suicide work was their impressionistic bending of reality. The question surrounding Milk is whether Van Sant can make as good a film when hewing closer to the truth. Also in question is whether, after the near-decade of self-imposed exile in avant-garde auteurism that followed the rightly maligned mess of Finding Forrester, the director can step back into mainstream filmmaking. All signs point to yes, as his biopic of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician to attain elected office in the U.S., has quickly jumped into Oscar front-runner status. Sean Penn plays the title role with a supporting cast all decked out in the best 70s perms, but it's not just the period-accurate feel that's pulling in the accolades for the film. Van Sant may be poised to receive the highest honors of his career for this one, no small feat considering the large shoes it must fill in living up to the incredible 1984 documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk.
View the trailer.
Now playing at E Street and Bethesda Row
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Determined to leave filmmaking on top—and well worn out by the intimidatingly prolific pace of his career to that point—Ingmar Bergman retired from the big screen at the relatively young age of 62 (though he did return some 20+ years later). His final film was to be an autobiographical epic, but not just that; in knowing that it was to be his last, Bergman was determined to make it a summation of every theme and existential question that had dogged his quietly thoughtful films for decades. And to do so in a way that would appeal to a massive audience on television. The result, Fanny and Alexander, was dismissed by some critics as far too mainstream, but hailed by others as the perfect capstone to Bergman's life in the movies. The story centers on a young boy (Alexander) in early 20th century Sweden growing up in a theater family filled with lovable eccentrics and actors, and the tumult his life is thrown into after his father dies and his mother takes up with a strict clergyman much like Bergman's own father. It was edited into a three-hour form for theatrical release (and was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one, for Best Foreign Film, in that form), but to truly experience the expanse of the work, it's best to see the original TV cut, which clocks in at nearly five and a half hours. For those without that kind of cinematic stamina, the AFI has been kind enough to screen the film as two parts, with three screenings of the whole thing. So catch the first part one day, and the second a day or two after.
View the trailer.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the AFI. The theater is screening the film as two parts (with separate admissions), with Part 1 to begin at 1 p.m. each day, and Part 2 at 4:20. If you stay for both, expect to be at the theater from 1 to nearly 7.
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A Christmas Tale
So you loved Mathieu Almaric in The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, but were sorely disappointed to see him wasted in Quantum of Solace. So were we. Whose idea was it to put the tiny evil genius into a fist fight with Bond and call it a climax, anyway? Sorry, we're still stewing about that. But if you want to redeem your vision of Almaric, and see some fresh work from the always lovely Catherine Deneuve to boot, one of the toasts of Cannes this year was A Christmas Tale, this darkly comedic holiday story of a family that's bound to have more problems than whichever one you're stuck hanging out with this weekend. And if 6 hours at the AFI watching Bergman work out his family dysfunction isn't quite enough for you, another 2.5 hours of bitter laughs at Bethesda Row should do the trick. Almaric plays the estranged son who no one wants around, but who may be the only hope for life for his ailing mother (Deneuve), who is in need of a bone marrow transplant for which he's the only match. See, after this, dealing with that annoying brother-in-law is going to seem like a piece of cake.
View the trailer.
Now playing at Bethesda Row.
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Extracts From the Life of Beethoven
The Goethe Institut is in the midst of their "Artists In Film" series, which screens film biopics of artists, both real and fictional. This little-seen film about Beethoven concentrates on his career from 1813-1819, during which his deafness became nearly total, as did his fame. The film was made in East Germany in the 1970s, and then pulled from circulation after the authorities deemed some parts of the film critical to the Socialist Party.
Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Goethe Institut, $6 ($4 for Senior/Student/Friends).