Category Archives: FILM

MIRANDA JULY AND SPIKE JONZE IN CONVERSATION

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My feeling is that, regardless of how we grew up socioeconomically, most of us grew up sort of siloed. We grew up within these constructions that we couldn’t really see were constructions—they seemed like the whole world. I guess I leaned into the righteousness that arises when we’re siloed in that way. There’s a nasty, villainous, slightly evil righteousness to this particular family [in KAJILLIONAIRE], but I think even the most well-meaning righteousness ultimately fails children. I mean, your parents will have misinformed you because they can only speak about life as they knew it, and you will betray them because you will not continue to live the way that you once lived as a child in that family. The inherent betrayal in that, and the resulting heartbreak, is what I was writing from. I tore through the first draft of the script never once thinking about my own family. They’re not literal, but for me they’re more resonant because of that. There’s this kind of ache. — Miranda July*

Join Miranda July and Spike Jonze in virtual conversation as they discuss July’s new film KAJILLIONAIRE.

To r.s.v.p. for this event—presented by the American Cinematheque—see link below.

MIRANDA JULY and SPIKE JONZE IN CONVERSATION

Monday, September 28.

7:30 pm on the West Coast; 10:30 East Coast.

KAJILLIONAIRE

Now playing in select cinemas.

*Miranda July, interview by Nick Haramis, Interview, September 18, 2020.

Miranda July, Kajillionaire (2020), from top: Evan Rachel Wood; Gina Rodriguez (left) and Wood; Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger (center), and Wood; Wood; Rodriguez; Kajillionaire U. S. poster; Wood; Rodriguez and Wood; Jenkins, Winger, and Wood; Miranda July. Images courtesy and © the filmmaker, the actors, and Focus Features.

MOU TUN-FEI — THE END OF THE TRACK

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LACMA, the Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles, and the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute present a rare virtual screening of THE END OF THE TRACK, the second feature by Mou Tun-fei.

Unreleased in its day and unseen for decades, The End of the Track now takes its rightful place as an early landmark of Taiwanese queer and independent cinema.*

The film will be preceded by Mou’s I Didn’t Dare Tell You. A post-screening conversation will include Ryan Pin-Hung Cheng and LACMA film curator Adam Piron.

THE END OF THE TRACK*

Friday, September 25, from 10 am to 10 pm, PDT.

Mou Tun-Fei, The End of the Track (1970), images courtesy and © the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute.

ULRIKE OTTINGER IN CONVERSATION

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REDCAT presents a virtual screening of the documentary EXILE SHANGHAI, followed by a Q & A with its director Ulrike Ottinger.

Shot by Ottinger herself, the film conjures memories of Jewish immigrant lives in Shanghai—from Sephardim in the mid-19th century, to Russian emigrés escaping pogroms, to Europeans fleeing the Shoah. Unexpected versions of utopias emerged—such as the existence of a queer scene or the opening of Viennese-style pastry shops in the ghetto where the community was confined during the Japanese occupation.*

This event is curated by Bérénice Reynaud. See link below for details.

ULRIKE OTTINGER—EXILE SHANGHAI*

Saturday, September 19.

4:30 pm on the West Coast; 7:30 East Coast.

Intermission: 7 pm on the West Coast; 10 pm East Coast.

Screening resumes at 7:30 pm PDT, followed by the Q & A.

From September 19 at 4:30 pm PDT, EXILE SHANGHAI will be available to stream for 72 hours

Ulrike Ottinger, Exile Shanghai (1997). Film images (8) and Ottinger portrait (2010) courtesy and © Ulrike Ottinger Filmproduktion.

CHARLIE KAUFMAN IN CONVERSATION

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The American Cinematheque celebrates I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS—Charlie Kaufman’s wonderfully destabilizing meditation on memory and aging—with a director’s virtual Q & A, moderated by Tony Gilroy.

The film—now screening on Netflix—stars Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, Toni Collette, and David Thewlis.

See link below to register for details.

CHARLIE KAUFMAN Q & A

American Cinematheque

Saturday, September 12.

5 pm on the West Coast; 8 pm East Coast.

I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS

Now streaming on Netflix.

Charlie Kaufman, I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020), from top: Jessie Buckley (left) and Jesse Plemons; Plemons (left), Buckley, Toni Collette, and David Thewlis; I’m Thinking of Ending Things poster; Plemons and Buckley; Buckley (left). Images courtesy and © Netflix.

CLAIRE DENIS — BEAU TRAVAIL RESTORED

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BEAU TRAVAIL was a very small budget and very few days of shooting, it was a completely free experience. Also free because the French army that was really training in Djibouti was opposed to the fact that we were doing the movie, and therefore we had to keep in mind that the script should be able to change day by day in case they stopped the movie. I always told my producer that I was ready to finish shooting in hotel rooms, in case they would stop us from going outside. So we did rehearse in Paris. We rehearsed a long time. We knew everything we wanted to do, and then in Djibouti it was like free jazz, you know? It was like being free and every day we could shoot. — Claire Denis

With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville’s novella, Claire Denis firmly established herself as one of the great visual tone poets of our time. Amid the azure waters and sunbaked desert landscapes of Djibouti, a French Foreign Legion sergeant (Denis Lavant) sows the seeds of his own ruin as his obsession with a striking young recruit (Grégoire Colin) plays out to the thunderous, operatic strains of Benjamin Britten. Denis and cinematographer Agnès Godard fold military and masculine codes of honor, colonialism’s legacy, destructive jealousy, and repressed desire into shimmering, hypnotic images that ultimately explode in one of the most startling and unforgettable endings in all of modern cinema.

The 4K restoration of Denis’ masterpiece—supervised by the cinematographer—is now streaming via Janus Films. See link below for details.

BEAU TRAVAIL

Now playing.

Laemmle, Los Angeles

Claire Denis, Beau Travail (1999), from top: Grégoire Colin; Beau Travail (4); Denis Lavant; Nicolas Duvauchelle (second from right) and Colin (left); Beau Travail. Images courtesy and © the filmmaker, the actors, the photographers, and Janus Films.