Scene from Paris Vu Par, courtesy SIFF

• As regular readers are fully aware, I’m terribly fond of the French New Wave and will plug showings of films in this genre any chance I get. If you’ve always wondered what the big deal is, Paris Vu Par, starting Friday at SIFF Cinema is an excellent introduction to this very influential movement in the form an anthology of stories about Paris during the 1960’s with contributions by such major directors as Godard, Chabrol, and Douchet presenting romance, comedy, suspense, and dark drama.
• NWFF presents another view of the 1960s with Monks, a documentary about the Monks, a pre-punk band formed as a conceptual art piece in the form of a pop group labelled the “anti-Beatles”. Five American GIs stationed in Germany formed a band attired in black robes and Franciscan monk haircuts who played music “heavy on feedback, nihilism and electric banjo”. Starts Friday.
• Also starting Friday at NWFF: The Romance of Astrea and Celadon, Eric Rohmer’s latest lyrical romance, a beautifully filmed adaptation of a 17th century French novel of romance and sensuality.
• Friday kicks off The Grand Illusion’s offering of a double shot of classic Jack Arnold sci-fi/horror flicks from the 1950’s. The Creature from the Black Lagoon made a splash on its original release with its nifty 3D optical effects, but the movie doesn’t need gimmicks to entertain you with its story of the titular monster and his murderous attempts to get his scaly hands on a hot female scientist. An amateur astronomer and his fiancee see a mysterious creature emerge from a spaceship that’s just crashed in the desert in It Came from Outer Space, but no one believes him, at least at first. Based on a story by sci fi legend Ray Bradbury, It Came from Outer Space has been called “campy” and “cliched” but its treatment of the alien concept is extremely unusual for its time and earned a film a spot in the list of sci fi film classics.
• Midnight at the Egyptian this weekend: Outlaw roadtrip Thelma and Louise. Somewhat controversial at the time of its original release, the much-hyped violence in the film was tame even for its time and made notable only by the lead characters being women. All these years later that’s not quite as startling but the movie remains entertaining and the characters sympathetic.
• With all the rain we get around these parts, it can be hard to remember sometimes that there’s a global water supply crisis. Flow, opening Friday at the Varsity is a documentary that exposes the issues tied to this crisis and suggests that we’re heading for a time when only those who can afford to buy water will survive.
• Hank and Mike are downsized Easter bunnies who discover that they’re not very good at anything else so they’d better fight to get their jobs back. Starts Saturday at Central Cinema.

Frances Farmer in a Paramount publicity still

Frances Farmer was a beautiful and talented actor born in Seattle back in 1913. After studying drama at the UW, Farmer tried for a theater career in New York but ended up in the movies in Los Angeles. With her elegant good looks and charismatic acting style, Farmer was soon a star who did her best to buck the oppressive studio system of the day, but she’s remembered most these days for her tumultuous personal life which included years of involuntary committment at Western State Hospital.

The Admiral Theater in West Seattle, where Farmer once worked, is presenting Frances Farmer’s Revenge, a two-day festival on Friday and Saturday, that pays tribute to the “Bad Girl of West Seattle” with a cocktail reception, a talk on sensationalized biographies of the actor, and screenings of Farmer films Come and Get It and Rhythm on the Range, along with a screening of biopic Frances, with Jessica Lange in the title role.

In just two days, Bumbershoot takes on Seattle for another epic showdown of endurance and sensory overload. The festival at Seattle Center is a sprawling, multi-headed beast of entertainment and memory-making fun. We fired up the Recommend-o-Tron and collected a list of suggestions from Team Metblogs to help you sort through the overstuffed lineup to make the most of the long weekend. Be sure to fill the comments letting us know what we missed, what we should skip, and what you’re most excited to see.

All Weekend:

One Reel Film Festival : No matter what time you stop in for the series of short film programs SIFF is showing all festival long, you’re bound to see some excellent filmmaking. Today’s highlights include Films4Families at 1:00pm and Cuisine Art at 7:00pm. Short films made for children have a way of appealing to everyone, regardless of age, and how could a series of films about food be anything other than tasty? [zee] SIFF Cinema, 12:00 - 9:00 pm

One Pot: This may be your best chance to get something really good to eat at Bumbershoot. Dinner is at 6pm each night; go to onepotbumbershoot.blogspot.com for details. [jameson] 6:00 pm, NW Rooms.

ON THE RADIO: KEXP’s annual broadcast from an undisclosed location deep in the heart of Seattle Center will bring you live performances from a diverse selection of the weekend’s darlingest bands. A few lucky people who signed-up ahead of time will be able to watch for themselves, but everyone can tune in to get a taste of Bumbershoot from the comfort of their own home. [kexp]

VISUAL ARTS: All exhibitions are open 11:00 am to 8:00 pm all three days. Highlights include:

the Power of One : A series of photographs that illustrate the powerful impact a single person can have on global society, featuring works by Charles and Ray Earnes, Nina Berman, Phil Borges, Katharina Mouratidi and Jackie Renin; several of the artists will be on hand during the exhbiition. [zee] NW Rooms

FLATSTOCK 18: Your walls are looking a little empty, Seattle. The country’s best rock poster artists fill the Fisher Pavillion with the artistic ephemera created to advertise shows by your favorite bands. While you’re sure to swoon over the Seattle–Tehran poster show in the NW rooms, you can both adore and buy the ones here. Set aside a healthy budget, plenty of time, and a place to stow your purchases. The show runs all weekend, but the best stuff has a way of selling out early. [josh/samantha/zee]

Saturday-specific picks after the jump.

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• Northwest Film Forum continues its Orson Welles series with The Immortal Story. Unavailable on DVD, the film tells the story of Mr. Clay (Orson Welles), a rich old man with plenty of money and time on his hands who decides to alleviate his boredom by playing with the lives of an aging beauty and an inexperienced sailor.
• Also at NWFF: Craig Baldwin is a Bay Area artist who creates movies out of found footage, blending together stock footage in ways wholly different from the intention of the original filmmakers. His latest film Mock Up on Mu combines stock footage with his own live action scenes to present his take on major California industries like the military, entertainment and religion. The film plays Friday and Saturday; Baldwin will be on hand at the theater for a reception Friday after the film.
• SIFF continues its tribute to Jean-Luc Goddard’s great films of the 60s. Friday night see Two or Three Things I Know About Her, a scathing commentary on consumer culture presented in the form of a story about a woman who is both an actor in a film and a housewife who turns tricks in the city to make ends meet. On Saturday it’s Weekend, a dark look at the collapse of civilization that begins with a couple heading out for a weekend in the country while road rage inspires carnage on the streets of the city. Not a film for the squeamish. Sunday brings A Woman Is a Woman, Godard’s first color film, presenting a Zodiac club stripper (played by Anna Karina) whose quest for motherhood involves first her boyfriend then her boyfriend’s best friend.
• Grand Illusion presents Happily Ever After, based on a Japanese comic series about the devoted wife of an unemployed ex-gangster who adores her husband despite his trouble making ways.
• If you’re feeling the need to have a good cry, be sure to head over to Central Cinema for the humorous, dramatic, and emotionally engaging Fried Green Tomatoes.
• Go outdoors for Enchanted in Duvall on Friday, The Iron Giant in Fremont on Saturday, one of my all-time faves, Ghostbusters in West Seattle on Saturday, Hero at Hing Hay Park on Saturday, and The Gang’s All Here Friday night at Cal Anderson Park.

• When I was a little kid, I thought of Orson Welles as “that guy from the wine commercials”. Discovering that he was also a brilliant writer, actor and director was one of the first steps on my path to becoming a film devotee. Northwest Film Forum is screening an Orson Welles series from August 1 to August 15 entitled The Transitional Orson Welles: Late Work and Adaptations that illustrates aptly just how brilliant he was. The first film in the series is The Trial, a 1962 noir-ish adaptation of Franz Kafka’s notable novel of the same name. Welles himself called The Trial “the finest work I have ever done”. Anthony Perkins stars as the besieged Josef K trapped in a nightmarish pursuit of justice. The Trial plays August 1 - 3.
• Also at NWFF: The Silence Before Bach, co-presented by the Henry Art Gallery, a film about importance of composer J.S. Bach whose eternal legacy is the enduring influence his work has on music and history.
• Over at SIFF Cinema, they’re showing the charming documentary A Man Called Pearl. The Pearl of the title is a black man named Pearl Fryar whose bigoted white neighbors worried that he might not keep his yard up after moving into their neighborhood. Fryar didn’t worry himself much over his neighbor’s opinions, but he did keep up his yard and then some, devoting his free time to creating beautiful, elaborate topiary so delightful that his yard has become a major tourist destination.
• The Grand Illusion screens Kenny, a film about a man whose job stinks, literally. Kenny Smyth delivers porta-loos all over Australia, facing many a septic challenge with good humor and high spirits.
• Zombie fans: It’s “Zombie Night” at Fremont Outdoor Cinema Saturday as they screen the relentlessly creepy Omega Man. Sidewalk Cinema screens Raiders of the Lost Ark in Edmonds Friday and the charming human/toon hybrid mystery Who Framed Roger Rabbit? on Saturday. Seattle Center’s Movies at the Mural has The Princess Bride Friday and Juno Saturday. Three Dollar Bill Cinema gives you creepy, campy cautionary tale Frogs Friday night at Cal Anderson Park.
• Midnight at the Egyptian: Cry Baby John Waters’ seriously fun spoof of 50’s juvenile delinquent films starring Johnny Depp, Traci Lords, Ricki Lake, Patti Heart and Iggy Pop.

The thought that this coming weekend marks the close of SIFF makes me feel bittersweet. On the one hand, parting is always such sweet sorrow (on the bright side, I’ve seen the calendar of programming for SIFF Cinema post-festival and it’s rather impressive). On the other hand, by the end of the festival I find myself very, very tired of sitting and prefer activities that allow me to move around at least a little bit more.

If I weren’t going to be spending the weekend saying goodbye to the festival, I’d totally be moving myself down to these events:

• The Bell Harbor Classic Weekend takes place in Bell Harbor Marina here in Seattle from June 13 through June 15 and is one of the biggest gatherings of pre-war motorized yachts that there is. On Friday the 13th, many of the boats will gather on the waterfront and parade into the harbor as a group starting at 5 pm. On Saturday and Sunday, members of the public are welcome to go down and visit the boats up close and personal. Some boats even allow visitors to board. (Wear soft-soled shoes, please). These boats are all really interesting and cool and admission is free!!
• The Central Area Chamber of Commerce sponsors the Juneteenth Freedom Festival & Parade 2008 which takes place from June 13 through June 15 at Pratt Park at 20th & E. Yesler in Seattle. Juneteenth is a celebration that commemorates the enforcement of the emancipation proclamation in Texas, the last state to free its African American slaves. The celebration includes a parade, food and entertainment including a petting zoo for kids.
• The Bat N Rouge softball extravaganza pits the drag queens versus the dykes in a lively sporting event that raises funds in support of drug and alcohol addiction recovery services. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Knights of Malta and the Rainbow City Renegayde Pep Band are among the special guests who add some oomph to the already exciting game. Washington State Rep. Jamie Pederson throws out the first pitch. Saturday, June 14th, 5:00 to 8:00 pm at Call Anderson Park’s Bobby Morris Play Field at 1th & Pine in Capital Hill.
• Head north of Seattle for the Edmonds Arts Festival. Edmonds is an awesome town; sure, you could argue that it’s just another suburb, but Edmonds has its own unique and artsy vibe. Their arts festival starts June 13 and ends June 15 and encompasses visual arts, performing arts, a food court, a wine bar and a very fun kids creative corner.
• Head south of Seattle for the 30th annual Super Saturday at Evergreen State College, a festival featuring arts and crafts of all sorts and live music and dance. (It might be worth noting that The Whole Bolivian Army, who are playing the Edmonds Arts Fest on Friday are playing Super Saturday.) I know ALL the summer festivals offer handmade and artisan jewelry but this one has some of the very best.
• As long as you’re in Olympia anyway, head over to the Olympic Flight Museum for the Olympic Air Show (June 14 and 15) giving you an exciting upclose look at seventy years worth of aircraft, three hours of aerial performances, a USO show, and the beer garden you will need to utilize to cool yourself down from all the hotness.

Now that our long national nightmare of striking writers has ended, we can once again look forward to the pageantry, bad jokes, long speeches, and the death montage at the Academy Awards telecast next Sunday. But before you fill out your Oscar Pool [defectiveyeti] maybe you’d like to pretend to be one of the voting members of the academy and watch all of the nominees?

The Varsity comes to your rescue for the short films category. They’re screening all of the live action and animated shorts this weekend. Each program runs an hour and a half; so in the time it would take you to watch There Will Be Blood (which should take best picture, if I had anything to say about it.) you can watch ten short films and then be prepared to cheer along when the winners are forced to accept their statue from some hidden corner of the Kodak Theater.

Animated films at 2:15 & 7:00; live action at 4:15 & 9:00. A list of the nominees [magpictures]; Advance tickets [landmark]

p.s. to see all five best picture nominees, marathon-style, you’ll have to make the trek out to Kent on Saturday the 23rd. [amc]

“What do you get when you fall in love?” Inlaws & Outlaws wants to know. Playing this weekend at Central Cinema., Inlaws & Outlaws is a warm-hearted and thoughtful look at love as experienced by singles and couples, gay and straight telling their own true stories.
• Curious about the short films nominated for Academy Awards this year but worried that you won’t get a chance to see them all before the big night? The Varsity has solved that dilemma for you by offering up two programs that start February 15 and run for the next week, The 2007 Academy Awards Nominated Animated Short Films and The 2007 Academy Award Nominated Live Action Short Films. Watch both programs and then try to predict which films will win.
• When I was just a kid, I saw Rosemary’s Baby for the first time not long after its initial release and thought it was just about the scariest film I’d ever seen. Several years and many, many scary movies later, I watched it again thinking some of the chill would’ve lessened, but, no, it was still just as spooky as ever. Check out this creepy classic this Friday and Saturday at the Egyptian at midnight.
• The only Best Foreign Film Academy Award winner never to be released on video is the 1970 classic film from Italy called Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion. Directed by Elio Petri, fhe film tells the story of a corrupt police chief who plants false evidence into the investigation of his murdered mistress to throw detectives off the track of the real killer. At the Grand Illusion Friday through Thursday.
  Late night at the Grand Illusion this weekend is Pets, another unavailable on video film from the 70s, although if this film’s a “classic”, it’s a different breed of classic altogether. Two amoral women seek ever more dangerout thrills on a cross country spree of sex and violence.
• SIFF continues their Noir City series with The Prowler and Gun Crazy on Friday, High Sierra and The Hard Way on Saturday, and Moonrise with The NIght Has a Thousand Eyes on Sunday., The series continues through Thursday.
• There’s more from the Finnish New Wave at NWFF: On Friday, Summer Rebellion takes a look at 1969 Finland through the eyes of young, rebellious teens touring the country. Saturday’s The Diary of a Worker is the final film of Risto Jarva, about a factory working trying to balance his home and work life in a changing new world. Poor Maria on Sunday is the sad story of a businesswoman falling apart from the stress of a failed romance, a lost job and family difficulties.

  Also at NWFF is the Seattle Human Rights Film Festival , presented by the Amnesty International Puget Sound. Films include The Prisoner, or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair, Yahoo in China, and Bombhunters, see website for complete film listings.

• The Egyptian’s Midnight Movie this weekend is the extended (12 additional minutes) European version of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, a film about a civil servant in an Orwellian future who escapes into fantastic daydreams in between bouts of trying to escape from a nightmarish bureaucracy.

• Is it just me or have there been a lot more musicals being released than normal lately? I’m not complaining, I’m (usually) a big fan of musicals. I also very much enjoy the work of Kate Winslet, who stars in Romance & Cigarettes as the illicit lover of James Gandolfini who is forced to choose between her and his wife, played by Susan Sarandon. The film is directed by John Turturro and opens Friday at the Varsity.

• Around the corner at the Neptune they’ve got Juno starring the charming Ellen Page as a pregnant teenager who thinks she’s found the “perfect” parents to adopt her child.
• If you’ve never seen the wonderfully horrible Santa Claus Conquers the Martians do yourself a favor and get to the Central Cinema Friday or Saturday night to see it. Saturday evening they’re hosting a SIFF poster auction, so you could always go early for the auction then stick around and enjoy a pizza and a beer as you watch a film so shamelessly awful that it makes Ed Wood look like Stanley Kubrick.
• Speaking of Kubrick, everyone knows he made a film version of Anthony Burgess’s novel A Clockwork Orange, but did you know that Andy Warhol made one, too? Inspired by Warhol and in conjunction with the Northwest Film Forum, the Seattle School are making their own version, as well: A Clockwork Reduction remakes Waholl’s Vinyl by disassembling it into parts with the assistance of a great deal of audience participation in three separate studios. When the film ends there will be waffles and cool whip. Ticketholders from Friday and Saturday are invited back on Sunday for a free special screenings of the completed films.
• Just in time for holiday rejoicing, the Grand Illusion is back in business. As has become tradition, they are celebrating the season with showings of Bad Santa and It’s a Wonderful Lilfe. If you can’t make it this weekend, or even if you can, stop by Tuesday and Wednesday night for free showings of It’s a Wonderful Life with free food, drink, and good cheer.

• The film in which Jane Fonda lets it all hang out and which loaned a name to one of the best-known New Wave bands of the 80s, Barbarella, is the midnight film this weekend at the Egyptian.
• For one week only, the Varsity is screening The Future is Unwritten, the highly-praised documenatary about Joe Strummer, the legendary frontman of The Clash.
• Also for one week only at the Varsity is The Bubble, a film about life and love and the challenges thereof in Tel Aviv’s hippest neighborhood.
• One more one week only film at the Varsity is Terror’s Advocate, a documentary that seeks to discover what drives French lawyer Jacques Vergès, a man who has defended the likes of Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, Carlos the Jackal, Magdalena Kopp, Roger Garaudy and Klaus Barbie.
• The Grand Illusion hosts this weekend week two of their WTF? series, this weekend featuring Get Mean, “the most insane spaghetti western ever made”. Less WTF and more deeply affecting is In Between Days in which a young Korean girl struggles to find love and herself. If you can’t make it to the theater this weekend, swing by sometime Monday through Thursday to catch Crossing the Line, the story of the last American defector in North America. And go ahead and mark your calendars now for next weekend when they’ll be showing the gloriously WTF masterpiece, Surf II, one of the very few films featuring zombies that I recommend people go see.
• From Friday, November 9 through Thursday, November 15, SIFF is showing a series of films by Polish filmmaker Lech Majewski. Check their page about the series [SIFF] for film details and times.
• Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is widely recognized as one of the master’s greatest works and for good reason. The film keeps you wondering “what’s going to happen next?” from beginning to end and features brilliant performances not only by leads James Stewart and Grace Kelly, but by every character that appears on screen. The cinematography is excellent, giving you the feeling of being right there with Stewart’s character trying to solve what appears to be a diabolical mystery while trapped in his apartment, unable to do more than watch, plot, and give direction to his varying degrees of helpful associates. Sure, I’m a little biased because I am a big Hitchcock fan but I think this is one of the most brilliant films ever made. Even people who don’t normally like Hitchcock like Rear Window. And this weekend you can take in this brilliant fliick with beer and great pizza at Seattle’s Central Cinema
• NWFF features the Seattle premiere of Quixotic, a modern take on the famous story of Don Quixote.

There are a million things happening at Bumbershoot (ed: or 77) on any given day this weekend. Here are some of the acts that your pals at Metroblogging Seattle are most excited about seeing on Saturday. Let us know what we’ve missed, what we should skip, and what you’re most looking forward to checking out. For the sake of the locals, we’ve used the common name for the stages rather than the annually-shifting sponsored names.



Salon of Shame (12:00p, Leo K) Tickets always sell out before you can blink? Maybe this is your chance.

Flatstock (all weekend) Prepare to hand over your bank account stocking up on originals and prints from the country’s best rock poster artists. This is consistently one of my favorite parts of Bumbershoot and I’ve never been able to leave empty-handed. The show runs all weekend, but go early for the best selection. The only problem is finding a place to stash your purchases during the rest of the day.

Carrie Akre (12:00pm, Mural) With a band or without, one of the strongest voices (both literally and metaphorically) to emerge from the local music scene.

FOUND (1:45 pm, Leo K) People send all sorts of discarded urban artifacts to Davy Rothbart — shopping lists, windshield wiper notes, polaroids — and he collects them into an insightful and revealing magazine. He and his brother Peter turn the highlights reel into an engaging live show.

the Shins (2:30p, Memorial Stage) Every year, Bumbershoot’s programmers take sick pleasure in forcing pale indie fans to drag themselves to Seattle Center during the peak hours of sunlight to catch a venerable indie act. Last year, it was Spoon and the New Pornographers. This year, the Shins are the reason that you’ll be coating yourself with sunscreen, shaking off your Friday night exploits, and taking over Memorial Stadium as Crowded House fans filter out.

St. Vincent (2:30p, Broad Street) The first of two ex-Illinoisemakers (Sufjan Stevens’ 2005-6 touring band) to play this year, and by far the most talented, Annie Clark can play just about every instrument and write and sing more like Kate Bush than Kate Bush. (It would have been a Sufjan trifecta had Rosie Thomas not cancelled.)

I Love Led Zeppelin (3:45p, Bagley Wright) If you haven’t yet seen Ellen Forney’s hilarious audiovisual performance, it’s must-see. Rumor has it that there will be a live acoustic performance of “Stairway to Heaven” as accompaniment. Even if you’ve already experienced the show, this is a great excuse to escape the elements.

The Saturday Knights (4:00p, Fisher Green) Have these guys ever put on a bad show? No. And they’re always at their best when they’ve got room to move around.

the Lashes (4:15p, Broad Street) Even if this wasn’t Eric Lashes’s triumphant return to the stage after a terrible accident this spring and months of ensuing rehab, these hometown power pop sensations would be worth checking out.

Menomena (6:00p, Broad Street) Portland high-tech collage rock!

The Gourds (6:45p, Mural) Savory mash-up of spicy zydeco, Tex-Mex, country and rock, takes the traditional and twists it into exciting experiments that remain accessible.

Grand Archives (9:30p, EMP) Is it possible to heap too much praise on Grand Archives? Is there a better new local band this year? No & no. Can’t wait to see them peforming in a venue with a gigantic wall of LEDs and a top-notch light show, just for the incongruity of it all.

–

perhaps you’ve noticed a theme — Broad Street and the Mural Amphitheater? — not only do these two stages have stellar festival-of-their-own-worthy lineups, they’re among the easiest to check out at a moment’s notice and from a distance. There’s goodness aplenty at indoor venues, but it requires a little more goodness, a lot more commitment, and a healthy amount of line zen to tip the balance in their favor.