Weekly Movie Picks: Viridiana, Santa Sangre, Su Friedrich, Grindhouse & More!

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Grindhouse
The week kicks off with a pair of rarely screened gems of black 1970s cinema, Brotherhood of Death about a group of black Vietnam vets who fight back against the Ku Klux Klan, and Johnny Tough, a coming-of-age movie about a troublesome teenager. That's followed by a dose of Italian horror, Autopsy and Eyeball.

Then it's a trio of bizarre wonders: Coonskin, a Ralph Bakshi-directed animated blaxploitation spoof about a trio of animals (Philip Michael Thomas AKA Detective Tubbs on Miami Vice is Brother Rabbit and Barry White is Brother Bear) who rise to the top of the Harlem underworld;Shame of the Jungle, an adult cartoon from France about an ape man whose girlfriend is kidnapped by a gang of giant penises at the behest of their queen, a 14-breasted bald woman; and Tunnel Vision, a 1976 spoof of what uncensored television might look like in the dark, distant future of 1985.

WHEN: Mon., March 19 - Sun., March 25; various times
WHERE: The New Beverly: 7165 Beverly Blvd. (1 block West of La Brea Ave.)

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Su Friedrich
Avant-garde, New York-based, queer filmmaker Su Friedrich pays a rare visit to the West Coast for the Los Angeles premiere of two recent works, Seeing Red (2005), a 27-minute film about her personal evolution as an artist, and The Head of a Pin (2004), a comic look at how city dwellers respond when faced with nature. These will be screened alongside Sink or Swim, Friedrich's 1990 film about the tense relationship between a workaholic father and his wounded daughter.

Friedrich will also be at the American Cinematheque on Wednesday as part of Outfest's 25th anniversary screening series, where she will screen two of her older films, Damned If You Don't and Hide and Seek.

WHEN: Tues., March 19, 2007
WHERE: REDCAT: 631 W. 2nd St. (at Hill St. in downtown LA)

WHEN: Weds., March 21, 7:30pm
WHERE: American Cinematheque, Spielberg Theatre at The Egyptian Theater: 6712 Hollywood Blvd., (1 block East of Highland Ave. in Hollywood)

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Leslie Hall
Visual artist and performer Leslie Hall -- the creator of the Mobile Gem Sweater Museum -- will screen her music videos and present a live show with her pal DJ Dr. Laura.

WHEN: Weds., March. 21 at 8:00pm
WHERE: The Hammer: 10899 Wilshire Blvd. (at Westwood Blvd.)

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Santa Sangre
Complementing the double bill of El Topo and Holy Mountain that have been screening this past week, the Nuart hosts a midnight screening of Alejandro Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre, a psychedelic horror film about a young man who as a child saw his father cut off his mother's arms of his mother before committing suicide. The traumatized young man escapes from the mental hospital where he is confined, rejoins his mother and unwillingly becomes her arms on a murderous revenge spree.

WHEN: Fri., March 23 at midnight
WHERE: Nuart Theater: 11272 Santa Monica Blvd. (at Sawtelle Blvd. in West LA)

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Viridiana
Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel's controversial 1961 film, which was denounced by the Vatican and banned in his native country for 16 years, remains as beautiful as it is ferocious. More than 45 after its debut Viridiana resonates as a parable about the unholy seduction of organized religion by political forces. Bunuel was excoriating the Roman Catholic Church and their complicity with Francisco Franco's regime, but the cautionary fable at the heart of Viridiana might just as easily be applied to the United States today.

Viridiana stars Silvia Pinal as a young novitiate who stops to visit her uncle on her way to the convent. Don Jaime (Fernando Rey) tries to seduce Viridiana, fails, drugs her, considers raping her, decides against it and confesses the whole sordid affair to her the next morning begging her forgiveness. Disgusted, Viridiana leaves but is soon led back to the house by the police, where she learns that Don Jaime has committed suicide. In his will he has bequeathed his property to his bastard son, Jorge, along with Viridiana.

Installed as the lady of the manor, Viridiana turns the estate into a waystation for beggars while Jorge concentrates on modernizing the farm's methods. When the pair leave for a short trip, a passel of beggars breaks into the house, holds a great feast and then trashes the place. Upon their return, Jorge and Viridiana are set upon by one of the beggars who ties up Jorge and tries to rape Viridiana. But Jorge saves her by offering another beggar money to kill the rapist.

*Viridiana is followed by a showing of Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water at 9:10 p.m..

WHEN: Sat., March 24 at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: LACMA: 5905 Wilshire Blvd., (three blocks East of Fairfax Ave.)