DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
—
New York, 1980, as seen in Just Imagine.Things to Come: The City Imagined on Film
What it is: The future of the city as seen at the movies.
Why you want to see it: City living has been the stuff of mankind’s dreams and nightmares, depending on the vision. In conjunction with the National Building Museum exhibit Unbuilt Washington, the AFI presents futuristic visions of the city as both Utopian dream and cautionary tale. The series begins Saturday with Just Imagine (1930), a song and dance movie set in a New York where air travel replaces cars and humans are known by numbers. Maureen O’Sullivan, also known as Mrs. Tarzan and Mia Farrow’s mother, stars as LN-18. Forgotten vaudeville star El Brendel plays a man who died in 1930 only to waken in a strange new world: 1980. One of the film’s most chilling predictions is remarked upon in a 1930 New York Times review: “It is set forth that in 1980 New Yorkers were still expecting to have light wines and beer.” Future titles in the series include Metropolis, with live accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra (Feb. 24), the 132-minute cut of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (Feb 25, 28, and March 1), a return engagement of Jacques Tati’s masterpiece Playtime (March 3 and 4 alas, not in 70mm), and the cult classic Logan’s Run (March 31, April 1, 4 and 5).
View “The Drinking Song” from Just Imagine.
Saturday February 11 at 2:45 at the AFI.
—
Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly.What it is: One of the all-time great musicals, and one of the greatest movies about the movies ever made.
Why you want to see it: Oscar favorite The Artist pays homage to the age of silent movies, but is there a better movie about silent movies than Singin’ in the Rain? Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) is a silent star threatened by the onset of the talking picture and the demands of diva Lina Lamont (the hilarious Jean Hagen). It’s the fluffiest of entertainments, from the exuberant singing and dancing of its stars to the vibrant colors and fluid camerawork. But for all that thrilling artifice and surface decoration, the movie is finally about the kind of inspiration that makes one sing in the rain — and about the creative process. Stop suffering and write that symphony.
View the trailer.
Feb 10-12, 14 and 16 at the AFI.
—
Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart. In a Lonely Place
What it is: Valentine’s Day counter-programming in the AFI’s Nicholas Ray series
Why you want to see it: “I was born when you kissed me. I died when you left me. I lived a few weeks while you loved me.” These oft-quoted lines from Nicholas Ray’s great film noir sum up its doomed love story. Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) is a screenwriter whose volatile temper would get him into trouble even if he wasn’t suspected of murder. Laurel Grey (Gloria Grahame) is the neighbor who falls for him despite his deep seeded anger. But can she trust him? Tense relationships behind the scenes informed the action onscreen: Ray’s marriage to Grahame was falling apart, and the couple would separate during the making of the film. Bogart’s friends recognized the violent demons of Dixon Steele as an extension of the actor himself. For more Nicholas Ray this weekend, the AFI is showing Born to be Bad (Feb. 12-15), starring Mel Ferrer and Robert Ryan in a catty tale of class consciousness that the AFI likens to All About Eve. For more Bogey, see him pair up with Katherine Hepburn in John Huston’s The African Queen (Feb 10, 12 & 13), in the AFI’s Screen Valentine’s Series.
View the trailer.
Sun-Mon February 11-12 and Wednesday-Thursday February 15-16 at the AFI.
—
Noodles and a Movie at the Freer
What it is: A celebration of Taiwan’s food culture and film.
Why you want to see it: Ring in the Chinese Lunar New Year with food and film at the Freer. Guest Chef Hou Chun-sheng, winner of the 2011 Taipei Beef Noodle Soup Competition, will serve his staple dish before a screening of Eat Drink Man Woman. The title of Taiwan native Ang Lee’s 1994 film may sound like something the Incredible Hulk would say, all the more apropriate when you remember Lee’s ill-received sensitive superhero Hulk. In this early film Lee looks at the family and food dynamic of a group headed by an elderly chef.
View the trailer for Eat Drink Man Woman.
Wednesday February 15 at 6 pm at the Freer. Free.
—
‘Wild Life.” Directed by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby. Produced by Marcy Page and Bonnie Thompson. Photo taken from the production. © 2011 national Film Board of Canada. All rights reserved.Oscar Nominated Shorts
What it is: Homework for the February 26 telecast.
Why you want to see it: This weekend Landmark E Street and the West End Cinema give the dedicated Oscarphile a chance to see all the nominated short films. Everybody knows the Academy loves to honor Big Inspirational Pictures. This plays out on the small scale as well, with three of the nominees for animated short feature larded with the kind of swelling music the orchestra launches into when talky winners are hurried off the stage. Standard bearer Pixar’s “La Luna” may offer the loveliest imagery among the animated nominees, but the sentiment that skirts the edge of maudlin in their feature films dives fully into it here. I hope the Oscar goes to the painterly technique and dry humor of “Wild Life.” E Street also screens the nominated live action shorts, while West End Cinema fields Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts.
View the animated shorts “Wild Life.”
Oscar Nominated Animated and Live Action Shorts opens at E Street. Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts opens at the West End Cinema.
