DCist’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
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Franco NeroA drifter (Franco Nero) wanders around a lawless countryside dragging a closed coffin. It’s a simple set up for what is one of the more influential spaghetti westerns, and jazz afficionados who recognize the name may have a hint at the anti-hero’s fate. Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained borrows the title song and font, as well other elements, from Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 spaghetti western, and the variations that the new film makes on the old make them an interesting pair to watch together. If only Tarantino had borrowed Corbucci’s efficiency. The original Django led to a few dozen sequels (only once of which, the 1987 Django Strikes Back, was an official sequel) and has inspired Tarantino ever since Reservoir Dogs. You can see a dubbed copy of the 1966 Django in its entirety on YouTube, but this weekend E Street’s Midnight Madness series is showing a digital restoration in Italian with English subtitles.
View the trailer.
Friday and Saturday at midnight at E Street Landmark Cinema.
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Sara Rue and Elliott Gould in DORFMANWashington Jewish Film Festival
This celebration of the Jewish experience in cinema is now in its 23rd year. Festival highlights include documentaries about Jews in Nigeria (January 8 at the DCJCC), The Velvet Underground (January 9 at the DCJCC), outsider artist and poet Jesse Bernstein (January 5 at the Atlas, January 7 at the 14th St Busboys & Poets) and Roman Polanski (January 6 at the Carnegie Institute, January 13 at the JCC of Greater Washington in Rockville). Special showcases include opening night film Paris Manhattan (January 3 at the US Navy Memorial; January 9 at the AFI), about a pharmacist obsessed with Woody Allen; and Dorfman, about a twenty-something accountant in the San Fernando Valley. Elliott Gould co-stars, and will appear with the film on January 8 at the Avalon.
View the trailer for Paris Manhattan.
January 3-13 at various locations. See the festival website for a complete schedule.
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Way of PassionSixpack: The Austrian Experiment
This weekend the National Gallery of Art introduces Washington audiences to Sixpack Film, a non-profit distributor that promotes Austrian avant-garde and documentary filmmakers. Way of Passion documents a Good Friday procession in Trapani, Sicily that goes back 400 years. Tlatelolco looks at a Mexico City neighborhood whose volatile history reflects the nations: it was the site of Aztec temples, a 16th century cathedral, and violent demonstrations before the 1968 Olympics.
Way of Passion screens Sunday, January 6 at 2:00 pm. Tlatelolco screens Sunday, January 6 at 4:00 pm. At the National Gallery of Art. Free.
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The Avalon’s Lions of Czech cinema presents a madcap riff on “Wichita Lineman,” 21st century Czech style. Two young technicians visit a small village to scout out locations for a cell tower. The promise of money and technology send the villagers into a frenzy. Note: While the Avalon is one of the last remaining theaters in the Washington area showing 35mm prints (their runs of Les Mis and Silver Linings Playbook are projected from film, not a digital source), this will be a digital presentation from BluRay.
View the trailer.
Wednesday, January 9 at 8:00 at the Avalon.
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The Washington Psychotronic Film Society begins a month-long celebration of Women in Cinema with this 1973 exploitation that follows the ribald, kick-ass adventures of Tara B. True. Starring Joyce Jillson, who went on to some notoriety as a television astrologer/psychic, and with John Carradine as creepy old guy into S&M. Don’t let your safe word be “stewardess” if you plan to see it.
View the trailer.
Monday, January 7 at 8:00 pm at McFadden’s.
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Opening this week: the 1960s coming-of-age drama Not Fade Away, directed by Sopranos mastermind David Chase. We’ll have a full review tomorrow.
