Weekend Film Agenda July 11
By Zee Grega
July 11th, 2008 @ 12:21 PM
film
- SIFF screens Love and Honor, the final film of director Yoji Yamada’s samurai trilogy. Lower level samurai Shinnojo dreams of opening his own kendo dojo but his dreams are crushed when he goes blind after being poisoned while testing his shogun’s food. Complicating matters, his devoted wife begins an affair with a higher-ranking samurai in an attempt to secure her husband’s financial future, an affair which inspires the blind samurai to challenge his rival for a duel.
- Saturday at 10 am check out SIFF’s first selection in their Films4Families series, one of the best-known and best-loved films ever, The Wizard of Oz, a movie which is excellent on its own but even better when seen with an auidence.
- Speaking of SIFF selections, Garden Party, a 2008 festival selection, opens at the Varsity. A businesswoman bent on success by any means necessary and three young people trying to find themselves and their own paths are bound together by interwoven stories of the quest for success in up- and down-scale LA. Also at the Varsity are two other 2008 SIFF films: Encounters at the End of the World and Up the Yangtze.
- Midnight at the Egyptian: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the film adaptation of the legendary Hunter S. Thompson’s legendary book. Enhance your experience of the film by going to see it after you’ve seen the documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson at the Harvard Exit first.
- Northwest Film Forum continues their run of The Gits, a powerful documentary on the influential titular NW punk band.
While most everyone knows the story of lead singer Mia Zapata’s brutal murder, the fim does an excellent job of showing that Zapata and her surviving band mates deserve to be remembered at least as much for their great music as for their tragic history.
- Also at NWFF is a new 35mm print of Charlie Chaplin’s film Monsieur Verdoux, possibly his most underrated movie and definitely one of his most brilliant, a dark comedy in which Chaplin plays the title character as an unemployed bank worker who turns to marriage and murder for profit.
- Enjoy your films outdoors: Friday at South Lake Union Cinema on the Lawn is the brilliant black comedy, Heathers, still easily one of Winona Ryder’s best performances in a film. Saturday night is “Outer Space Night” at Fremont Outdoor Cinema where they are screening Project Moonbase.
