DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
What it is: Claude Lanzmann’s definitive documentary film on the Holocaust, a nine-and-a-half hour film composed of interviews with those who witnessed the horror, whether as a survivor, someone who stood by unable to do anything, as well as those who perpetrated these crimes themselves. A new 35mm print of the film, in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the film, arrives at the AFI, split into two parts this weekend and next weekend.
Why you want to see it: Lanzmann makes the daring and unusual choice for a historical documentary to not include any film shot while the Holocaust was happening. Instead, the film is composed exclusively of his interviews, shot over the course of six years during the mid-to-late ’70s, and newly-filmed, quietly reflective footage of the camps and the fields that obscure the mass graves. The massive size and scope of the film is surely daunting, and runs the risk of numbing the viewer to the subject. But instead, it conveys the sheer terrible magnitude of its subject in what Roger Ebert described at its original release as “a 550-minute howl of pain and anger,” and “one of the noblest films ever made.”
View the trailer.
Part 1 screens this weekend, on Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at the AFI, with Part 2 the following weekend.
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Elizabeth Taylor Retrospective
What it is: Four of the best known films from Elizabeth Taylor’s early career, starting with her star-making performance at the age of 12 in 1944’s National Velvet, early ’50s roles in Father of the Bride and A Place in the Sun, and her Academy Award-nominated performance opposite Paul Newman in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Why you want to see it: Just over a week removed from her passing, it’s a fine time to celebrate some of Taylor’s most-loved work.
View the trailer for A Place in the Sun, Saturday night’s opening film.
Two movies Saturday night starting at 7 p.m., and another pair Sunday starting at 3 p.m. at the Atlas Perforaming Arts Center. $5 for each screening, $4 each if you purchase in advance for multiple screenings.
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What it is: On the surface, a bloody medieval horror film about a team of Christian crusaders looking to strike down a rumored necromancer raising the dead and angering God during the worst days of the plague.
Why you want to see it: In the tradition of horror filmmakers like George Romero, director Christopher Smith serves up his bloody violence with a healthy side of social commentary. He uses the plague-inspired flashpoint of medieval religious fervor to issue a scathing critique of the pitfalls of both Christian and Pagan faiths, and demonstrate how fear can make religious leaders both more powerful and more dangerous. Which makes its 663-year-old themes more than relevant today. You can read my complete review over at NPR.
View the trailer.
Friday and Saturday night at midnight at E Street.
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Cherry Blossom Festival Anime Marathon
What it is: Every year, the Freer celebrates Japan’s floral gift to us with a slate of anime films time to coincide with the Cherry Blossom festival.
Why you want to see it: This year’s slate includes one of master animator Hayao Miyazaki’s more kiddie-oriented films, Kiki’s Delivery Service, followed by a film by a director often touted as the Miyazaki’s heir apparent, Makoto Shinkai, closing with the more adult-oriented, dream-like modern classic, Paprika, which Christopher Nolan cited as a direct influence on his own Inception from last year.
View the trailer for Kiki’s Delivery Service.
All day Saturday, starting at 11 a.m. at the Freer. Free.
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What it is: A collection of four documentary films directed by women, about international and indigenous cultures.
Why you want to see it: National Geographic’s All Roads Film Project has a wonderful eye for picking up films for small series like this which screen movies that otherwise would have no local venue. The directors of each of the films will be present for Q&As at the screenings.
View the trailer for Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, tonight’s opening film.
Tonight through Saturday at National Geographic. Check the event page for the complete schedule. $10 per program, or $32 for all four.
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What it is: A dark indie comedy with a great cast including Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon and cult hero Nathan Fillion, about a jilted husband (Wilson) who decides to don a leotard and fight crime with a wrench and a diminutive sidekick (Page).
Why you want to see it: At first glance, this looks like it could easily be a forgettably quirky twee indie. But writer/director James Gunn cut his teeth at schlocky Troma Films, which is sort of like coming up in Roger Corman’s directorial stable in the ’70s — only far, far darker and trashier. Gunn has been trying to get this film made for nearly a decade, as many felt the material’s darker side was too dark to get off the ground.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at E Street.
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What it is: A documentary about a family of artists, the daughter of which, Francesca Woodman, committed suicide in 1981 at the age of 22, becoming hugely famous in the years since her death.
Why you want to see it: DCist’s Charles Downey recommended the film when it played last summer at the Silverdocs festival. You can read his full review here.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at West End.
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Also opening tomorrow is Source Code, director Duncan Jones’ follow-up to his critically-acclaimed debut, Moon. His latest stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an Army helicopter pilot who suddenly wakes up on a Chicago-bound commuter train in someone else’s body with eight minutes to discover who has planted a bomb on the train. And then must repeat that eight minutes again and again, gleaning new information each time. We’ll have more about the film along with an interview with Jones tomorrow.
Insidious, the latest horror flick from original Saw director James Wan also opens tomorrow. (It’s worth noting, in case you’re already wrinkling your nose, that Wan had little to do with that franchise’s six sequels apart from one of those often-meaningless Executive Producing credits.) This one is a good old-fashioned haunting story, only with the evil spirits attached to a person rather than a house. We’ll have a full-length review of this one tomorrow, as well.
