Popcorn & Candy is DCist’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
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The AFI Silver’s William Castle series continues this weekend with a 35mm print DCP of director Roman Polanski’s classic psychological thriller about an infantilized young wife (Mia Farrow) and her struggling actor husband (John Cassavettes). Producer William Castle mortgaged his home to get the rights to Ira Levin’s novel and hoped to direct the film himself, but he had to settle for a cameo. See what the film’s New York shooting locations look like today at Scouting NY.
View the trailer.
Friday, October 31 and Tuesday, November 4 at the AFI Silver.
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(Courtesy of GKIDS)
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
A baby found growing inside a bamboo stalk claims to be from the Kingdom of the Moon, serving time on Earth as retribution for her crimes. Studio Ghibli cofounder Isao Takahata (who directed Grave of the Fireflies) uses gorgeous hand-drawn animation for his adaptation of a 10th century Japanese folktale considered an example of proto-sci-fi. The English-language version includes the voice talents of James Caan as an old bamboo cutter, Mary Steenburgen as his wife and Chloë Grace Moretz as the princess. I didn’t get a chance to preview the film, but the buzz, as is typical for Studio Ghibli product, is excellent.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at Regal Gallery Place.
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(Courtesy Photofest)A blind widow lives in seclusion with her four children, three of whom are epileptic. This weekend the National Gallery of Art launches a series dedicated to the films of Italian director Marco Bellocchio with a 35mm print of his first feature, a 1965 film that “heralded the student rebellions of the late 1960s.” The film, which will be screened at the National Portrait Gallery, will be introduced by introduced by critic Frank Tomasulo. The series Morality and Beauty: Marco Bellocchio will be co-presented with the AFI Silver, which will be screening 35mm prints of his films Slap the Monster on Page One (November 1 and 3 at the AFI) and Devil in the Flesh (November 2 and 5 at the AFI) next week.
View a clip.
Fists in the Pocket screens Saturday, November 1 at 4:30 p.m. at the National Portrait Gallery, McEvoy Auditorium. Free.
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The Freer launches its series, Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien, on Sunday with a 35mm print of the New Tawian director’s 1986 drama. Judy Bloch writes, “In Hou’s films, exile, like death, draws family members together as it casts them apart. Dust in the Wind is the story of two young people who quit school and move from their mountain village to find jobs in Taipei. They expect to marry, but typical of Hou’s tender distance, we never see them being lovers; we see them being young, vulnerable, and extremely delicate. He finds work with a printer, she as a seamstress, but neither finds happiness or heart in Taipei.” The Freer will also screen a 16mm print of the director’s 1982 film The Green, Green Grass of Home (Sunday, November 2 at 3:30 p.m.).
Dust in the Wind screens Sunday, November 2 at 1 p.m. at the Freer, Free.
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Sewer City Productions presents a triple (digital) bill of Halloween horrors tonight at the Passenger, starting with director Frank LaLoggia’s 1988 film based on the legend of a ghost who supposedly searches for her daughter in Rochester, N.Y. The late Roger Ebert wrote that the movie, “depends more on style and tone than it does on story, and after awhile [sic] it’s the whole insidious atmosphere of the film that begins to envelop us.” Scheduled titles are Lady in White at 7:15 p.m., Trick Or Treat at 9:15 p.m. and Halloween III: Season of the Witch at 11 p.m.
View the trailer for Lady in White.
Tonight at 7:15 p.m. at The Passenger, 1021 7th Street NW.
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Also opening this week, Jake Gyllenhaal stars as the very persistent Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler. We’ll have a full review tomorrow.
