Your Weekly LAist Film Calendar

Photo courtesy of Kunal Sen Animation

If you're a connoisseur of "psychotronic cinema", scanning the New Beverly's weekend line-up just might melt your face. Thursday, the Alamo Drafthouse rolls into town and saddles up some good ol' backwoods sleaze, joining forces with L.A.'s own Grindhouse Film Festival. Friday, those crazed Texans whip out '80s nightmare Surf II (there is no Surf I), in which a mad scientist turns surfers to zombies and everyone grooves to Oingo Boingo. That party lasts all the way to midnight, when whitey goes to bed & the Black Devil Doll (NSFW) comes out to play. Finally, Saturday's "I Will Break You" line-up features Dolph Lundgren fighting African rebels & Russian soldiers, Dolph Lundgren fighting Jean-Claude Van Damme after both come back from the dead, Dolph Lundgren fighting Sylvester Stallone after sending Carl Weathers to the dead, Dolph Lundgren fighting the yakuza, and, should you remain unbroken, Dolph Lundgren fighting a drug dealer from outer space. There are even Dolph Lundgren giveaways. The only thing missing is He-Man.

If you also happen to be a scholar of "world cinema", the Arclight just might allow you to escape with some dignity after that long weekend. Their 21+ series classes it up avec le French historique-musicale-cabaret-comedie Paris 36; enjoy it with a fine wine (or at least a crappy theme cocktail). Even better, hold out for the Indian Film Festival, kicking off Tuesday with the world premiere of existential con-man caper The Fakir of Venice, leading into a week of political potboilers, gutsy documentaries, animated shorts, humanist drama, Bollywood fantasy & even a cowboy comedy. No Tamil cinema though; for that you'll have to trek out to West Hills. Should you wish to continue your cinematic journey across the subcontinent, Laemmle's in Santa Monica & the Downtown Independent host the Japan Film Festival, while the Getty boasts a free screening of two rare jidai-geiki (period film) classics.

Full list appears below. See you at the movies!

Photo courtesy of Black Devil Doll/Shawn P. Lewis

All Week
Ante Up (2009) (Laemmle's Sunset 5) (Limited Engagement)
Gigantic (2009) (Nuart Theatre)

Thursday 4/16
The American Astronaut (2001) (Downtown Independent)
Anvil! The Story of Anvil! (2008) (Nuart Theatre)
Breaking Away (1979) (Free Event) (Hammer Museum) (Bike Night at the Hammer)
Deadline USA (1952) / Chicago Deadline (1949) (Egyptian Theatre) (Deadline: Noir City - 11th Annual Film Noir Festival)
Dr. Strangelove (1964) (The Bay Theatre)
Fast & Furious (2009) (21+ Screening) (Arclight Sherman Oaks)
From the Season with Sakura (2005-2009) (Q&A w/ director Coney Shun) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
The Garden (2009) (Arclight Hollywood) (AFI Uncensored)
Japan Film Festival: Award Winning Shorts (3:30PM) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
Japan Film Festival: Submission Shorts (9PM) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
Julie Darling (1983) / Poor Pretty Eddie (1975) / Psycho From Texas (1975) (New Beverly Cinema) (CINEMAPOCALYPSE!: Los Angeles)
Lemon Tree (2008) (Free Event) (Melnitz Movies)
Live at Hurrah (1980-81) / Crash 'N' Burn (1977) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Post-Punk Junk Series)
Nancy Jean Tucker Presents Animation Nite (2009) (Echo Park Film Center) (w/ Filmmakers)
Paris 36 (2009) (21+ Screening) (Arclight Hollywood)
Whale (2009) (World Premiere) (Q&A w/ director Danny Samit) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
The Woman Next Door (1981) / Read My Lips (2001) (Aero Theatre) (The French Music Composers Go to Hollywood)

Friday 4/17
8 1/2 (1963) (Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) (w/ Robert Rosen, Dean of the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television)
A Long Walk (2006) (Downtown Independent) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
Ayan (2009) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
Black Devil Doll (2009) (New Beverly Cinema) (w/ (Midnight World Premiere)
Deadly Sweet (1967) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Midnight) (The Psychedelic 60s of Tinto Brass Series)
The Fall (2006) (Nuart Theatre) (Cine-Insomnia Midnight Movie)
From the Season with Sakura (2005-2009) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
Gigantic (2009) (Nuart Theatre) (w/ Matt Aselton & Zooey Deschanel)
Japan Film Festival: School Submissions (Downtown Independent) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
Moonstruck (1987) (LACMA) (w/ Cher, Faye Dunaway, Eva Marie Saint, Carl Reiner & other panel guests) (A Tribute to Norman Jewison)
Myra Breckenridge (1970) / Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things (1971) (8PM) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) ('70s Queersploitation Series)
The October Man (1947) / Sleep, My Love (1948) (Egyptian Theatre) (Deadline: Noir City - 11th Annual Film Noir Festival)
Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982) (The Bay Theatre)
Rosalie (1937) (Old Town Music Hall)
Super Troopers (2001) (Regency Fairfax) (Insomniac Cinema Midnight Movie)
Surf II (1984) / Carnival Magic (1981) (New Beverly Cinema) (CINEMAPOCALYPSE!: Los Angeles)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) / Against All Odds (1984) (Aero Theatre) (The French Music Composers Go to Hollywood)
UCLA Festival of Preservation: Gamperaliya (1964) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum)
Vengeance is Mine (1979) (Downtown Independent) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)

Saturday 4/18
Always - Sunset on Third Street 2 (2007) (Downtown Independent) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
Blitzkrieg Bop (2006) (Downtown Independent) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
Fiddler on the Roof (1971) (LACMA) (A Tribute to Norman Jewison)
Funuke, Show Some Love You Losers! (2007) (Downtown Independent) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
Gertrud (1964) (7:30PM) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (The Late Works of Carl Dreyer Series)
The Gift From Beate (2005) (w/ producer Chizuko Kuroiwa) (Downtown Independent) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
Hook (1991) (Fine Arts Theatre) (Family Matinee)
Laid to Rest (2009) (Laemmle's Grande 4-Plex)
Lymelife (2009) (The Landmark) (Q&A w/ Derick Martini and Alec Baldwin)
Mary Poppins (1964) (Aero Theatre) (Family Matinee)
The Most HFS Movie of 2008! (2008) (10PM) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
Paris Is Burning (1990) (Studio 528)
Pink Floyd The Wall (1982) (The Bay Theatre)
Princess Yang Kwei-Fei (1955) / The Tale of Genji (1951) (Free w/ RSVP) (Getty Center)
The Prowler (1951) / Chance Meeting (1959) (Egyptian Theatre) (Deadline: Noir City - 11th Annual Film Noir Festival)
Psycho (1960) (11AM) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Town Center 5) (Hi-Def Hitch)
Red Scorpion (1989) / Universal Soldier (1992) / Rocky IV (1985) / The Punisher (1989) / I Come in Peace (1990) (New Beverly Cinema) (I Must Break You: The Films Of Dolph Lundgren)
Retribution (2007) (Downtown Independent) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Sins O' The Flesh Midnight Show) (Nuart Theatre)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Midnight Show) (Warner Grand Theatre)
Rosalie (1937) (Old Town Music Hall)
Things to Come (1936) (Egyptian Theatre) (Lecture w/ Walter Nelson)
The Tingler (1959) (Fine Arts Theatre) (Midnite Madness)
UCLA Festival of Preservation: News of the Day Vol. 19, No. 257 (1948) / Popular Science, Vol. J6-5 (1947) / Ruthless (1948) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (w/ Arianne Ulmer Cipes)
Witness (1985) / The Mosquito Coast (1986) (Aero Theatre) (The French Music Composers Go to Hollywood)

Sunday 4/19
252: Signal of Life (2008) (Downtown Independent) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
The Battery (2007) (Downtown Independent) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
Common Ground: Four Films (Egyptian Theatre) (Presented by the Los Angeles Filmforum)
Julia (1977) / The English Patient (1996) (Aero Theatre) (The French Music Composers Go to Hollywood)
Passage to Suez (1943) / My Winnipeg (2007) (Free Event: Tribute to Ann Savage) (1:30PM) (Egyptian Theatre) (Deadline: Noir City - 11th Annual Film Noir Festival)
Pink Floyd The Wall (1982) (The Bay Theatre)
Rosalie (1937) (Old Town Music Hall)
Spartacus (1960) (New Beverly Cinema)
UCLA Festival of Preservation: Gretchen Comes Across (1938) / Barcarolle (1934) / The Buccaneer (1938) (Matinee) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum)
UCLA Festival of Preservation: Legacies From the ONE Archives (2007) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum)
Vacation (2008)(Downtown Independent) (Japan Film Festival Los Angeles)
Walk Softly, Stranger (1950) / Chicago Syndicate (1955) (7:30PM) (Egyptian Theatre) (Deadline: Noir City - 11th Annual Film Noir Festival)

Monday 4/20
In Search of the Bene Israel (2009) (w/ Filmmaker Sadia Shepard) (Skirball Cultural Center)
Joanna Priestly: Fighting Gravity (2009) (w/ Joanna Priestly) (REDCAT - Roy & Edna Disney Calarts Theater)
Pink Floyd The Wall (1982) (The Bay Theatre)
Spartacus (1960) (New Beverly Cinema)
Young Frankenstein (1974) (Arclight Sherman Oaks)

Tuesday 4/21
The Fakir of Venice (2008) (World Premiere) (Arclight Hollywood) (Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles)
Iron Maiden: Flight 666 (2009) (Mann's Chinese 6)
Rudo y Cursi (2008) (Free Event) (Melnitz Movies)
Taxi Driver (1976) / Hardcore (1979) (New Beverly Cinema)
Vivacious Lady (1938) (LACMA) (Matinee)

Wednesday 4/22
Air India 182 (2008) (Arclight Hollywood) (Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles)
The Barefoot Contessa (1954) (Arclight Hollywood)
Indian Film Festival Shorts Program 1 (2007-2008) (Arclight Hollywood) (Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles)
Firaaq (2008) (Arclight Hollywood) (Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles)
Fuel (2009) (Fine Arts Theatre)
Pink Floyd The Wall (1982) (The Bay Theatre)
Psycho (1960) (7:30PM) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Town Center 5) (Hi-Def Hitch)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Buster Keaton Series)
Sikander (2009) (World Premiere) (Arclight Hollywood) (Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles)
Taxi Driver (1976) / Hardcore (1979) (New Beverly Cinema)

That's all for this week. Love it or Netflix it.

Compiled as always by the amazing and diligent Edward Yerke-Robins