Movies This Week

The upcoming week is absolutely packed with incredible archival screenings to tell you about, and there are a couple of new releases that are worth making time for as well. First up, let's focus on the Austin Film Society, who are continuing their Johnnie To series with 35mm screenings of 1999's Running Out Of Time this weekend. In advance of the upcoming local opening of Computer Chess, AFS is also hosting Andrew Bujalski on Sunday afternoon for a Q&A at a rare 35mm screening of Funny Ha-Ha. Essential Cinema presents the outrageous pre-code Night Nurse with Barbara Stanwyck and Clark Cable in 35mm on Tuesday night while director Matt Wolf is stopping by on Wednesday for a Doc Nights premiere of his new film Teenage. 

The Paramount Summer Classic Film Series has a some tremendously well-programmed 35mm double features on deck this week including Spirit Of The Beehive and Pan's Labyrinth on Sunday, and Chinatown and Sweet Smell Of Success on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. They've also got a special Austin Pride screening of The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Stateside serves up a digital Bergman double feature on Sunday as well with The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries. 

As always, the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz has a little something for everyone booked this week. Broadway Brunch returns tomorrow with the 1954 version of A Star Is Born, starring Judy Garland, in 35mm. Kid-Thing, the latest film from local filmmakers The Zellner Bros., is also screening tomorrow afternoon. On Sunday, there's a 16mm Sprocket Society matinee, another Shintoho Mindwarp double feature and a Karen Black memorial screening of Five Easy Pieces in 35mm. Looking ahead into the week: Music Monday has a print of the stunning Jazz On A Summer's Day that has me strongly considering staying out late on a school night, Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy shows up with a few random 35mm shows from Tuesday to Thursday and Fritz Lang's Rancho Notorious plays on Wednesday night as part of the She Died With Her Boots On Western series. 

It seems as though opening movies on the weekend isn't enough for the studios during the competitive summertime marketplace. Two films this weekend actually were released on Tuesday night (We're The Millers and Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters) to get a jump on their share of the box-office pie. In addition to several wide releases, there's a new Woody Allen comedy and one of the year's best documentaries hitting town. But first, let's take a look at some of the unique repertory screenings that are happening around town over the next week.

Austin Film Society launches their Films Of Johnnie To series tonight with a 35mm booking of The Mission at the Marchesa. That will play again on Sunday night and there are three more Hong Kong classics on deck in the weeks ahead. The Essential Cinema Pre-Code Stanwyck series packed the house last week for a rare look at early talkie Mexicali Rose. This Tuesday night, you won't want to miss Ladies They Talk About, a gritty women-in-prison tale from 1933 that AFS programmer Lars Nilsen calls "one of the glories of pre-code cinema."

If you're looking for something more contemporary, AFS has a special advance screening of Sundance fest favorite In A World... on Thursday night. Director/writer/star Lake Bell will be in attendance at the Marchesa and this gives you a chance to see it before it opens in town later this month. 

The incredible World Cinema Classics portion of this summer's Paramount lineup is in full swing with many highly recommended films that you'll want to savor on the big screen. This Saturday and Sunday, you can take the whole family out to see The Red Balloon, White Mane and The Neverending Story at the Paramount while the Stateside has a more decidedly grown-up double feature on Sunday afternoon of Fellini's Amarcord and De Sica's Umberto D. A fully restored 35mm screening of 1967's groundbreaking documentary Portrait Of Jason is also taking place at the Paramount on Saturday and Sunday evenings, co-presented by Polari. 

This is one of those weekends where I've been actively creating an evolving list for myself to try and figure out how many movies I can realisically fit in over the next few days. While not much is happening in terms of new releases, there is a true embarrasment of riches when it comes to local classic film screenings.

Do you want to see A Clockwork Orange in 35mm at the Alamo Ritz on Saturday? Maybe you'd prefer a Keith Coogan double feature at the Ritz with Adventures In Babysitting and Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead tomorrow evening? How about catching Back To The Future and The Karate Kid in 35mm at the Paramount on Sunday? Those picks alone would fill up your weekend, but then you could try to squeeze in a double feature of digitally restored titles from the new Shintoho Mindwarp series followed by a 35mm screening of Trainspotting at the Ritz. After all of that, I really hope that you got paid this week, because you have a lot of tickets to buy over the next 72 hours alone. 

Looking ahead to mid-week, you're not going to get a break. The Paramount begins an amazing lineup of World Cinema Classics that begins on Tuesday with double features of 8 1/2 and Nights At Cabiria followed by Le Petit Soldat and Max And The Junkmen. Also on Tuesday night, there's a CineBrew event at the Violet Crown. They'll be screening David Lowery's 2009 SXSW favorite St. Nick with Lowery in attendance along with producers James Johnston and Adam Donaghey, and cinematographer Clay Liford. All attendees will be getting a pint of Amarillo Hefe and tastings of Pioneer Yellow Rose with their ticket purchase as well. 

This week is one of intriguing new releases. As a perpetual Pedro Almodóvar groupie, I can't help saying I'm so excited about I'm So Excited. I'm even more excited about Fruitvale Station; I've never met a gritty, thought-provoking urban drama about poverty and racism I didn't like. The To Do List also has my attention, if only because the hilariously deadpan Aubrey Plaza tops my current list of fantasy friends with benefits.

No less intriguing are the special screenings. At the Marchesa Hall & Theatre, the Austin Film Society presents three movies from Austin's own Drafthouse Films. The terrorism comedy (yes, you read that right) Four Lions (pictured above) screens on Friday, the dark Australian classic Wake in Fright screens on Sunday, and The Act of Killing -- a startlingly imaginative statement against genocide -- screens on Wednesday.

Hitchcock fans, this is your week: the Paramount Summer Classic Film Series offers four nights (Monday through Thursday) of Hitchcockian double features. Among the eight classics are The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rear Window, Dial M for Murder and, of course, Psycho, so every night promises to be a ... wait for it ... good evening. Refer to the Paramount calendar for details.

When you combine all of the titles that are opening wide in theaters this weekend with the specialty screenings in Austin, you have almost an overwhelming amount of titles to choose from at the movies. Hopefully, this summary will help you nail down a schedule and get out there to see as much as humanly possible. 

For my money, the most exciting choice in town is the Austin Film Society booking of Louis Malle's Viva Maria! You'll get the beauty of Bridget Bardot and Jeanne Moreau in 35mm as members of a cabaret act who accidentally invent the striptease. Upon its original American release in 1965, the film was dubbed in English, but these screenings will be in French with English subtitles. This is one I've always intended to see and I can't imagine a better way to catch it for the first time than in a 'Scope print at the Marchesa. It's playing tonight and again on Sunday evening. 

This week's selections for the Paramount Summer Film Series include The Pink Panther and A Shot In The Dark on Saturday and Sunday. The early show on Saturday features a Scavenger Hunt that gets underway at 11:30 am. A double feature dubbed "Naughty, Bawdy 1933" also takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday with Dinner At Eight and Design For Living. All titles at the Paramount are presented in 35mm. 

[Editor's note: Please welcome our newest contributor to Slackerwood, Matt Shiverdecker.]

There's an incredibly diverse slate of repertory films in town over the next week, starting with the continuation of the Traveling Circus series from the Austin Film Society. You'll want to head to the Marchesa for Max Ophuls' Lola Montes, a gorgeous Cinemascope spectacle bursting with colors that will leap off the screen in 35mm, tonight and Sunday night (Elizabeth's preview). For those of you who recently watched HBO's Love, Marilyn documentary, you won't want to miss out on Tuesday night's Essential Cinema selection of The Prince And The Showgirl, also screening at the Marchesa in 35mm.

The Paramount's Summer Film Series continues to serve up an eclectic batch of films over the next week including Wim Wenders' Wings Of Desire and a digital screening of Truffaut's new wave classic The 400 Blows at the Stateside, both happening tonight. Also on deck, an Audrey Hepburn double feature Saturday and Sunday with Breakfast At Tiffany's and Roman Holiday. If that's not enough for you, they have a "Swingin' Britons of the 1960's" theme Tuesday and Wednesday nights with Casino Royale and What's New Pussycat, and the lesser-known Pulp and The Ipcress File on Thursday. All Paramount screenings are in glorious 35mm.

The Alamo's Beasts Vs. Bots series brings you multiple options this weekend at the Ritz, including the 1955 creature feature It Came From Beneath The Sea on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, a 35mm screening of Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah on Sunday afternoon and late night Monday and even a rare 35mm screening of the animated Transformers: The Movie from 1986 on Sunday night. If you're looking for a Ritz experience with decidely less monster action, you may want to have a drink or two at Sunday's Cinema Cocktails booking of Billy Wilder's The Apartment (which will be presented in a new digital restoration).

If you've had enough fireworks and barbecue and outdoor holiday fun, perhaps you'd like to spend some time in a nice air-conditioned movie theater. You've got all kinds of choices, luckily.

This is an excellent week to catch Austin movies. On Saturday afternoon, Austin Film Festival hosts a special screening of family-friendly Holes, which local author Louis Sachar adapted from his novel, at the Texas Spirit Theater in the Texas State History Museum. Trash Dance (Don's review), the delightful doc about the choreographed Austin Waste Services project (pictured above), screens at Alamo Ritz on Tuesday night. And AFF teams up Wednesday night with the Texas Film Commission to screen the locally made film Holy Hell (AFF 2009 review) at the Texas Spirit Theater, as part of the Made in Texas series.

The Paramount and Stateside movie calendar is full this week. One of my all-time favorite movies screens Tuesday at the Paramount: the 1940 film Ball of Fire, starring Barbara Stanwyck -- directed by Howard Hawks and written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. I can't recommend it enough. It's on a double-bill with the 1932 Marx Brothers movie Horse Feathers. And the lovely and amazing Wings of Desire, a film I adore, screens next Friday nighs, a double-feature with Bicycle Thieves. (Originally I had written that it screens on Thursday night too, but it has been pre-empted by a preview of The Conjuring. Imagine my reaction.)

Austin Film Society has a treasure-trove of programming this week. In a circus mood? The French comedy Yoyo screens Sunday at the Marchesa as part of the Traveling Circus series. Want Marilyn Monroe? Catch Bus Stop Tuesday night at Alamo Village. Or you might enjoy the 2012 documentary Bert Stern: Original Mad Man on Wednesday night at the Marchesa. And Thursday night, AFS brings the indie drama About Sunny to Austin as part of its Best of the Fests series.

Our friends at Drafthouse Films bring us this week's most promising new release, an indie documentary about a groundbreaking but overlooked band with an unmarketable name. Punk and Seventies music fans shouldn't miss A Band Called Death (really, not such a great name), a film in the vein of Searching for Sugar Man.

The Independence Day holiday week is a slow one for special screenings. But martial-arts film fans might find the Austin Film Society's Old School Kung Fu Weekend intriguing, especially because the five-film lineup is top secret. If you're an adventurous moviegoer, check out the screenings on Friday and Saturday night at the Marchesa Hall & Theatre to see what surprises special guest programmer Dan Halsted (of Portland's Kung Fu Theater) has in store.

Film noir fans should head for the Paramount and Stateside on Tuesday and Wednesday for double-feature screenings of classics from three decades. Humphrey Bogart and Elliott Gould play two very different Philip Marlowes in The Big Sleep (1946) and The Long Goodbye (1973) at the Paramount. The Stateside presents two Eighties hallmarks of the genre, Body Heat (1981) and the inimitable Austin classic Blood Simple (1984).

My greatest hope for the coming week in cinema is that Joss Whedon's intriguing modern-day adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing will do boffo box office. Whedon's huge and famously obsessive fan base could make this happen; if he made a film about dryer lint, his devotees would gladly watch it. As long as they're familiar with Shakespeare's play before seeing the movie -- which retains the play's original and often impenetrable Elizabethan English dialogue -- they'll enjoy this unique bit of cinema as much as I did.

Austin offers plenty of special screenings this week. The Austin Film Society is especially busy. The AFS Summer Free for All series features Beau Travail, French auteur Clair Denis' story of French Foreign Legionnaires stationed in coastal Africa, where the film focuses on the inner world of a cruel legion task master. Beau Travail screens for free (yes, that's why the series is called the Summer Free for All) tonight and Sunday at the Marchesa Hall & Theatre.

Another AFS screening is Variety, a 1983 film in which a Manhattan porn theater ticket seller can't escape the sleaze of her job when she goes home. Variety screens Wednesday at the AFS Screening Room. AFS also presents the 1953 classic How to Marry a Millionaire (pictured above), starring Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall as three gold-digging New York models on the prowl for wealthy husbands. How to Marry a Millionaire screens Tuesday at the Alamo Drafthouse Village. [Jette butts in here to gush over this delightful movie ... plus you can see Rory Calhoun, standing and walking.]

This weekend finishes up the East/West selections of the Paramount summer classic film series, with two fantastic movies for Sunday at Stateside: Wong Kar Wai's heartbreakingly beautiful In the Mood for Love (pictured above) paired with the impeccably sweet romance of Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding. Come say hi if you spot me at the Monsoon Wedding screening.  

Four Daniel Day-Lewis films show Monday and Tuesday, split between the Paramount and Stateside venues. The Paramount Theatre is actually hosting a blood drive to coincide with the Monday night screening of There Will Be Blood. Check it out!

As part of their "summer free-for-all," Austin Film Society will screen A Hero Never Dies on Friday and Sunday evenings (free, but you should RSVP). Tuesday night continues the AFS Marilyn Monroe series with tense drama Niagara [tickets]. Monroe and Joseph Cotten star as mismatched honeymooners.

"As if!" Girlie Night at the Alamo Ritz Tuesday night features the '90s classic Clueless.  You can quote along with Tai (the late Brittany Murphy) as she calls Cher (Alicia Silverstone) "a virgin who can't drive."  Plus, cutie Paul Rudd!