LAist Film Calendar: Whose House? Mafia's Grindhouse!

Head's up! | Photo courtesy of Janus Films

It's only March, but I can already guarantee House is the weirdest film you'll see in a theater this year. The slice of '70s pscyhedelia takes a band of Japanese school-girls, sends them to an old house, and severs all ties to sanity. House deftly melds art-house tricks with gore and slapstick, and turns on a dime. There's new-wave editing, laser ghost cats, gorgeous lighting, dancing skeletons, faux newsreel footage, martial arts, haunting melodies and a series of deaths so outrageous I don't even know how to put them to words. It opens at the New Beverly on Friday, where it plays for an entire week. And considering all the amazing films the Bev only screens a couple nights...

If scary cats and surrealism are your thing, there's Alice at the Downtown Independent. Leave the glasses at home - this is the 2D Czech import from stop-motion master Jan Svankmajer. If scary cats and surrealism aren't your thing, take the cannoli to the Egyptian Theatre for a double dose of mafioso. Grindhouse Releasing world-premieres their exhaustive (15 years in the making!) reconstruction of Gone With The Pope, documenting a sleazy scheme to kidnap The Pope for a dollar ransom from every Catholic in the world. The one-off program includes a Q&A with unnamed cast and crew, as well as the ultra-violent Godfather cash-in Massacre Mafia Style. The current DVD is sourced from a tape master, so this may be your only chance to see all the gritty details fully restored in 35mm!

Full list appears below. See you at the movies!

Pimp's up, gunned down! | Photo courtesy of Grindhouse Releasing

All Week
Ajami (2009) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
American Radical: The Trials Of Norman Finkelstein (2009) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
The Art of the Steal (2009) (The Landmark) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Sunset 5) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
Children of Invention (2009) (Downtown Independent)
Cry of the Owl (2009) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
Mother (2009) (The Landmark) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
Mystery Team (2009) (Nuart Theatre)
Ondine (2009) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
Surviving Crooked Lake (2008) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
Toe to Toe (2009) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
The White Ribbon (2009) (Laemmle's Royal Theatre)
The Yellow Handkerchief (2008) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
The Young Victoria (2009) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)

Thursday 3/11
Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009) (w/ director Jessica Oreck) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (What's Up, Docs?)
Beyond the Years (2006) (free event) (Korean Cultural Center)
Brooklyn's Finest (2009) (Arclight Sherman Oaks) (21+ screening)
Collaborative Dreams: Videos by David Finkelstein (w/ David Finkelstein) (Echo Park Film Center)
The Crazies (2010) (Arclight Hollywood) (21+ screening)
Four Friends (1981) / Eyewitness (1981) (Egyptian Theatre)
Harmony and Me (2009) (free event) (Melnitz Movies)
Key Largo (1948) / Murder My Sweet (1944) (Aero Theatre)
Lady Vengeance (2005) (Downtown Independent)
Plan 9 From Outer Space (1958) (w/ live comedy by L.A. Connection) (Laemmle's Royal Theatre)
A Prophet (2009) (Arclight Hollywood) (21+ screening)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943) / Saboteur (1942) (New Beverly Cinema)

Friday 3/12
Alice (1988) (Downtown Independent)
American Radical: The Trials Of Norman Finkelstein (2009) (w/ Norman Finkelstein at first evening show) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
The Art of the Steal (2009) (w/ director Don Argott, producer Sheena Joyce and executive producer Lenny Feinberg at 7:20pm show) (The Landmark)
The Bed Sitting Room (1969) / A Boy and His Dog (1975) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Post-Apocalypse Now!)
The Big Lebowski (1998) (Nuart Theatre) (Cine-Insomnia Midnight Movie)
Carnival Atl‚ntida (1952) / O Cangaceiro (1953) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Brazilian Films of the 1950s)
Gone With the Pope (1976) / Massacre Mafia Style (1978) (world premiere w/ special guests) (Egyptian Theatre)
House (1977) (New Beverly Cinema)
San Francisco (1936) (Old Town Music Hall)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) (Art Theatre of Long Beach) (Mondo Fridays)
Toe to Toe (2009) (w/ filmmaker Emily Abt at 7:10pm show) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
Toni (1935) / Swamp Water (1941) (LACMA) (The Films of Jean Renoir)
Vertigo (1958) (Aero Theatre) (Larger Than Life: 70MM)
Who Was Walter Ruttman? / Berlin: The Restoration of a City (1927) (w/ discussion led by Stefan Droessler of the Munich Film Museum) (Echo Park Film Center) (Los Angeles Filmforum)

Saturday 3/13
Ajami (2009) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
The Art of the Steal (2009) (w/ director Don Argott, producer Sheena Joyce and executive producer Lenny Feinberg at 7:20pm show) (The Landmark)
Broken Embraces (2009) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Dark Passage (1947) / Dead Reckoning (1947) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Here's Looking at You, Humphrey Bogart)
French Cancan (1955) / The Golden Coach (1953) (LACMA) (The Films of Jean Renoir)
The Girl on the Train (2009) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
The Graduate (1967) / Games (1967) (w/ Katherine Ross) (Aero Theatre)
House (1977) (New Beverly Cinema)
Idiocracy (2006) (w/ Peruvian/Japanese fusion food truck Lomo Arigato) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (HFS: Stoopid Futures)
The Outsiders (1983) (Regency Academy) (Insomniac Cinema Midnight Movie)
The Messenger (2009) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Sins O' The Flesh Midnight Show) (Nuart Theatre)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Midnight Insanity Midnight Show) (Warner Grand Theatre)
San Francisco (1936) (Old Town Music Hall)
Sansho the Bailiff (1954) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Masters of the Long Take)

Sunday 3/14
Ajami (2009) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Broken Embraces (2009) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
David Finkelstein: Marvelous Discourse (Egyptian Theatre) (Los Angeles Filmforum)
Deadline-U.S.A. (1952) / The Enforcer (1951) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Here's Looking at You, Humphrey Bogart)
Freebie and the Bean (1974) (w/ Michael Cera) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
The Girl on the Train (2009) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Mo
House (1977) (New Beverly Cinema)
The Messenger (2009) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Raging Bull (1980) (The Bay Theatre)
San Francisco (1936) (Old Town Music Hall)
Taking Off (1971) / Catch-22 (1970) (w/ Buck Henry) (Aero Theatre)
Top Hat (1935) / Roberta (1935) (Egyptian Theatre)

That's all for this week. Next week, we conquer Tokyo! I've got 8 plans that are the bees' knees!

Compiled, as always, by the amazing and diligent Edward Yerke-Robins (and family!)