DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
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Photo by Marion S. Trikosko. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection.King: A Filmed record … Montgomery to Memphis
What it is: A free Martin Luther King Day celebration at the AFI.
Why you want to see it: This 1970 documentary compiles footage of Dr. King’s inspiring life between the titular cities. The three-hour film was originally screened for one night only, and was out of circulation for 40 years until it was re-released in 2011. See footage from the Montgomery bus boycott; the “I have a dream speech” at the Lincoln Memorial; and King’s fateful visit to Memphis. Bridging sequences were directed by Hollywood stalwarts Sidney Lumet and Joseph Mankiewicz, and include readings by Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, James Earl Jones, Charlton Heston, and Burt Lancaster.
Monday, January 16 at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. at the AFI. Free.
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2009 Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn Press Conference. Photo: Tracy Collins What it is: One man’s fight for his neighborhood, now shortlisted for the Oscars.
Why you want to see it: Filmed over eight years and culled from 500 hours of footage, this critically acclaimed documentary looks at one Brooklyn neighborhood – and one man’s – fight against a corporate Goliath. The Atlantic Yards project currently under construction in Prospect Heights razed a New York neighborhood to build a ginormous mixed-use development, the centerpiece of which is a shiny new home for the New Jersey Nets. Though released before Occupy Wall Street, the documentary “captures the cultural zeitgeist that has people revolting against big banks in the Occupy Wall Street movement.” The case is also a poster child for the problems with eminent domain, which allows the state to seize private property. Could it happen here?
View the trailer.
Friday, January 13 through Sunday, January 15 at the Artisphere. $7. Directors Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky as well as central figure Daniel Goldstein will be on hand for Q&A at each screening.
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Robin Hood (Etienne Arnaud and Herbert Blache, 1912, 35 mm, 35 minutes). Courtesy National Gallery of Art.What it is: A one-hundred year old filmed operetta of our hero of the 99%
Why you want to see it: Saturday afternoon the National Gallery presents Paris to Fort Lee: French Filmmakers and the American Industry, which looks at how the early days of the American movie industry was shaped by the French. Film historian Richard Koszarski will introduce two silent films, both with piano accompaniment by Andrew Simpson. Robin Hood, a thirty-minute film based on an operetta by Reginald de Koven, will be shown with Alias Jimmy Valentine, directed by Maurice Tourner from a story by O. Henry. Tourneur made the trip from France to Fort Lee, New Jersey to start up the Éclair studio’s American outpost. Sunday, the Gallery will be showing Accusée, Levez-Vous! one of the films Tourneur made upon returning to France in the 1930s. “Gaby and André, a knife-throwing duo of music-hall artists in the Folies Bergères, are torn apart when Gaby is accused of murdering Yvette Delys, the show’s star attraction. “ Ladies, please remove your hats.
View a clip from Accusée, Levez-Vous!
Robin Hood screens Saturday, January 14 at 2:30 p.m. Alias Jimmy Valentine screens January 14 at 4:00 p.m. Accusée, Levez-Vous! screens Sunday, January 15 at 4:30 p.m. At the National Gallery of Art. Free
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Courtesy of the Freer.What it is: A Turkish film about the universal drudgery of work and claustrophobia.
Why you want to see it: The dramatic potential of a cramped tollbooth may seem limited. It has inspired a beloved children’s classic, a 90s black comedy starring Fairuza Balk and little else. But can the extremity of this upright coffin inspire a comic turn? The Global Film Initiative and Global Lens 2012 presents a film about Kenan (Serkan Ercan), “a taciturn 35-year-old tollbooth attendant shuffling between a suffocating home with his ailing but domineering father and the monotony of the traffic-hounded box where he spends his working life.” It sounds like a recipe for experimental theater, but reports are the elegant cinematography and witty script make this study of urban anomie, Turkish-style worth seeing on the big screen. Director Tolga Karaçelik, will introduce the screening.
View the trailer.
Saturday, January 14 at 2:00 p.m. at the Freer. Free.
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Photo by Chantal Thomine-Desmazures, courtesy IFC Films.What it is: Single mother meets Monsieur Moneybags in the Avalon’s French Cinémathèque series.
Why you want to see it: Director Cédric Klapisch (L’Auberge Espagnol and Russian Dolls) takes the global economic crisis and finds the kind of sophisticated romantic farce that the French do so well, or do anyway. If all you’ve read so far is, blah blah blah PIE,” you may be disappointed, as the titular slice is financial. “After losing her job at a local factory, a single mother enrolls in a housekeeper training program, soon landing work cleaning the Paris apartment of handsome but cocky power broker.” The Avalon’s synopsis may promise no pastries, but NPR critic Mark Jenkins calls it “sweet-natured,” so bring a can of whipped cream just in case.
View the trailer.
Wednesday, January 18 at 8:00 p.m. at the Avalon. Digital Projection.
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What it is: When Steven Spielberg meant danger, not ponies.
Why you want to see it: The Washington Psychotronic Film Society continues its 1970s streak with Spielberg’s second and last made-for-tv movie. Something Evil is a lesser-known by-product of William Peter Blatty’s best-seller The Exorcist, made before Linda Blair and split-pea soup sent audiences into a demonic frenzy. It’s not as well-regarded as Spielberg’s claustrophobic tv-movie debut Duel, but it’s worth watching as a rare and less sentimental look at the mindset of the blockbuster filmmaker. Starring Sandy Dennis, Darren McGavin, and Ralph Bellamy.
View the trailer.
Monday, January 16 at 8:00 p.m. at McFadden’s. Free.
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Also opening this week, Corman’s World, a documentary about the king of exploitation films. We’ll have a full review later today.
