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When Natalie Portman introduced Jean Dujardin at Sunday's Academy Awards, she said The Artist was his introduction to America. This is only true of audiences who missed the Oscar winner's wonderful OSS 117 films released a few years back. If you don't recognize the call letters, OSS 117 (played by Dujardin) is the French 007, only thicker-headed. Like The Artist, these films share an exquisite attention to period detail. Besides serving as a love letter to 60s spy capers, they offer a wry satire of European colonialism and perceived superiority. A dashing lead isn't the only Oscar name the OSS 117 films and The Artist share: there's a winning director (Michel Hazanavicius) and composer (Ludovic Bource), as well as nominated cinematographer (Guillaume Schiffman) and supporting actress (Bérénice Bejo). Both OSS 117 films, Cairo Nest of Spies (set amid a "bazaar" Middle Eastern plot) and Lost in Rio (a send-up of Nazi refugees and tropicalia) screen this weekend at the New Beverly.
The Oscar and commercial success of Martin Scorsese's Hugo prove there's a renewed interest in preserving film history. The Cinefamily has the real deal all week long - a restored print of the silent version of Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush (featuring The Tramp's endearing "dancing dinner rolls" scene, among many others). Decades before director's cuts enabled creative "fixes", and well before the George Lucases and James Camerons of the world would convert existing releases to play in new formats, Chaplin recut, redubbed, retimed and rescored his 1925 comedy The Gold Rush as a talkie in 1942. This version saw great success (including nominations for music and sound at the 1943 Oscars), but the original was quietly withdrawn from circulation to languish in public-domain hell. The Criterion Collection (known for their definitive DVD/Blu-Ray releases of the classics) spent over 500 hours restoring the film for this 35mm re-release. Be among the first to see it at the Silent Movie Theatre's exclusive engagement.
It's a very different Silent House at the Aero. Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) stars in the haunted house chiller. Like the Uruguayan film it was remade from, the film is presented in real time as a single take. The film will be released wide next weekend, but Saturday's program is a special preview, featuring married directing team Chris Kentis and Laura Lau for a Q&A. Then, it's more terror in tight spaces, with Kentis and Lau's previous feature Open Water. Tracking two divers left adrift in shark-infested waters, the film's all-digital, home video style preceded the wave of full-on found footage films that mark of today's low-budget horror.
All Week
Being Flynn (2012) (The Landmark) (Arclight Hollywood)
Falling Away (2010) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
The Forgiveness of Blood (2011) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
The Gold Rush (1925) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
In Darkness (2011) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Let the Bullets Fly (2010) (Laemmle's Noho 7)
London Paris New York (2012) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
Monday Morning (2012) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
Pina 3D (2011) (Downtown Independent) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
Possession (1981) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
Ranchero (2008) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
A Separation (2011) (Art Theatre of Long Beach) (Laemmle's Noho 7)
This is Not a Film (2010) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012) (Nuart Theatre)
The Turin Horse (2011) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
Thursday 3/1
Broke* (2011) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Cast Me If You Can (2010) (free event w/ director Atsushi Ogata & producer Eriko Miyagawa) (USC School of Cinematic Arts)
Dish and the Spoon (2011) (w/ Q&A and afterparty) (Downtown Independent)
A Man Escaped (1956) / Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971) (LACMA) (Film Independent at LACMA: Spotlight on Robert Bresson)
No Room For Rockstars (2012) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) / OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009) (New Beverly Cinema)
The Virgin Spring (1960) / The Hour of the Wolf (1968) (Aero Theatre) (Through a Lens Darkly: The Films of Ingmar Bergman)
The Vow (2012) (Arclight Hollywood) (21+ show)
Friday 3/2
The Bloody Child (1996) (w/ Nina Menkes) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Nina Menkes: Cinema as Sorcery)
Cries and Whispers (1972) / Autumn Sonata (1978) (Aero Theatre) (Through a Lens Darkly: The Films of Ingmar Bergman)
Dead Alive (1992) (Nuart Theatre) (Cine-Insomnia Midnight Movie)
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) / OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009) (New Beverly Cinema)
Playtime (1967) (LACMA) (Ellsworth Kelly Selects)
Possession (1981) (w/ opening night party) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
Sun Valley Serenade (1941) (Old Town Music Hall)
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012) (w/ Tim and Eric at 7:30pm & 9:50pm shows) (Nuart Theatre)
Saturday 3/3
Animation Breakdown: Seussapalooza (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
Equator: Reef of Riches (Ramo Auditorium @ Caltech) (Science Saturdays)
Kino-Week (1918) / Vertov Filmed in Person (1922-30) / Vertov Interviews (1935) (w/ special guest) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Kino-Eye: The Revolutionary Cinema of Dziga Vertov)
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) / OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009) (New Beverly Cinema)
Red River Valley (1936) / Mule Train (1950) (Autry National Center)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Live Shadowcast Midnight Show) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Sins O' The Flesh Midnight Show) (Nuart Theatre)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Midnight Insanity Midnight Show) (South Coast Village Regency Theaters)
Showgirls 2: Penny's From Heaven (2011) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (HFS: 2011)
Silent House (2011) / Open Water (2003) (w/ directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau) (Aero Theatre)
Streets of Fire (1984) (New Beverly Cinema) (New Beverly Midnights)
Sun Valley Serenade (1941) (Old Town Music Hall)
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012) (w/ Tim and Eric at 7:30pm & 9:50pm shows) (Nuart Theatre)
Sunday 3/4
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972) (free event) (Hammer Museum) (Family Flicks)
Captains Courageous (1937) / Boys Town (1938) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Spencer Tracy: That Natural Thing)
Fanny and Alexander (1982) (Aero Theatre) (Through a Lens Darkly: The Films of Ingmar Bergman) Grease (1978) (The Bay Theatre)
Leave It On the Floor (2011) (free event w/ producer Sheldon Larry) (USC School of Cinematic Arts) (Alumni Screening Series)
Material Concerns (w/ filmmakers) (Los Angeles Filmforum) (Egyptian Theatre)
Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow (2010) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
Sun Valley Serenade (1941) (Old Town Music Hall)
To Whom Much is Given (2011) (free event w/ director Cory Lutz & producer Dr. Andrew Manley) (USC School of Cinematic Arts) (Alumni Screening Series)
White Wash (2011) (free event w/ director Ted Woods & other guests) (USC School of Cinematic Arts) (Alumni Screening Series)
