Weekend Film Agenda January 29
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Film Festival has two sessions Saturday at Cinerama, brought to you by SIFF and EMP/SFM.
Speaking of sci-fi, SIFF Cinema presents a weekend of Sci-Fi on Blu Ray. Friday night at 7:30 check out Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece: 2001: A Space Odyssey, a movie that scared the bejezus out of me as a kid and remains one of the most compelling films made and is the acknowledged standard against which all serious sci-fi films are measured. It’s pioneering special effects and innovative film and sound techniques tell a story of human evolution, advanced technology, extraterrestrials, and the creepiest computer of all time.
Sunday at SIFF it’s a double feature: Get down there in the early afternoon for the 3:30 screening of The Man Who Fell to Earth, the 1976 Nicolas Roeg-directed film about an alien who comes to Earth to get water for his thirsty planet. While it’s best known because the alien just happens to be played by David Bowie (who is very, very convincing as an alien), it’s worth watching for more than mere gawking at a rock star. It’s been a cult favorite for years due to its surreal imagery and its complex look at society as reflected by the experiences of the ultimate outside. It’s followed by Logan’s Run at 6:00 pm. I’d like to pretend that the reason my brother and I loved this movie so much when we were kids was that we were impressed by its ultimate message of the indomitability of the human nature, but the truth is we liked the flashy special effects. (Oh, and the idea of a world without cranky old folks telling kids to get off their lawn.) Watching it again for the first time in years a few months ago I was struck by how even with some seriously outdated tech and acting that isn’t exactly Academy quality, it still manages to be an exciting movie.
If you lived twice as long as he did, you might someday become half as good as Julius Shulman, the photographer who delivered American architecture to the masses via his work from the 1930s until his death in 2009. During the course of his storied career, Shulman, THE preeminent architectural photographer captured on film such iconic buildings as the Stahl House in Los Angeles and structures built by such luminaries as Charles Eames, Pierre Koenig, and Frank Lloyd Wright. His library of images was so desired that the Getty Center in LA had to do battle to win the right to host his catalog. So vast was his talent that it would be worth a trip to LA just to see some of his photos at the Getty. With such an august figure you might expect that a film about his career would be a little dry–brilliance can be boring–but Visual Acoustics is an intriguing look at an intelligent, likable man who just happened to be an artistic genius. While it may be impossible to do a documentary without any talking heads, director Eric Bricker wisely avoids relying on them too much, keeping his focus on the man and his work. Shulman, and others, talk about his work, the significance of photography to architects and architecture, how architecture influences our lives and our society, and Shulman’s photographic techniques all in a way that’s more friendly conversation that classroom lecture. The visuals on display, needless to say, are stunning. I think I became a better photographer myself just watching this film. At NW Film Forum.
Director Katie Turinski profiles a group of a dozen Portland performance artists who use glitter, booze, and talent to transform themselves into “the kind of drag queens your mother warned you about” in her documentary Sissyboy, a chronicle of the noted drag troupe’s last year. Interviews with the Sissyboy members and looks at the group’s rehearsals and public performances paint a picture of personal freedom through anything-goes artistic expression. On screen at the Grand Illusion.
Who Ya Gonna Call? Ghostbusters, the Midnight Movie at the Egyptian Theater.
Winner of a Cannes Jury Prize and Romania’s official Oscar selection, Police, adjective is a dry comedy about a police officer who has a crisis of conscience when he has choose between getting in big trouble with his big boss or ruining the life of a young man whose made what he thinks is just a minor mistake.