Film Series

This month's Girlie Night selection at Alamo Drafthouse is the 1999 film Cruel Intentions, a contemporary teen version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillipe, and Reese Witherspoon. Girlie Night has been selling out in recent months so we recommend you get tickets in advance.

Happy Together, the 1997 film from Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai, screens as part of the "Desire" film series AFS and the Blanton are co-sponsoring in conjunction with the museum's related exhibition.

Spike Lee's first feature film, She's Gotta Have It, screens as part of the "Desire" film series that AFS and the Blanton are co-sponsoring in conjunction with the museum's related exhibition.

What better film for anyone to watch on Valentine's Day than Pedro Almodovar's crazy, chaotic comedy from 1988, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, starring Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas. If only the Blanton allowed drinks in the theater, they could serve gazpacho.

Let's see what Lars has to say about this week's Weird Wednesday selection, Cry of a Prostitute:

"American tough guy Henry Silva carved out quite a career in Italian crime films. His inscrutable, masklike face could suggest a gamut of emotions from rage to merciless psychosis. Here he adds another portrait to his gallery of unstoppable super killers as Tony Aniante, a Sicilian thug trained in the efficient crime methods of the U.S. mafia. When rogue mobsters develop a new technique of smuggling heroin in the bodies of dead children, Silva is brought in by the syndicate to clean up. He insinuates himself into the households of two rival Sicilian capos, then waits for is opportunity. By the time the blood finally stops flowing, both families are crippled and Silva reveals his true motivation. If you think the plot has very little to do with crying prostitutes, you're correct. The title refers to the wife of one of the bosses, a former streetwalker from the Bronx played by the beautiful Barbara Bouchet. Her brutal mistreatment at the hands of Silva pretty much destroys any audience sympathy for him, but he doesn't seem to mind. He still kills everyone in sight and looks cooler than Chet Baker smoking menthol cigarettes in a red Ferrari. From the director of BURIAL GROUND, STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER and MALABIMBA: THE MALICIOUS WHORE."

This month's Austin Film Society Documentary Tour selection is a 1996 film from the Netherlands, O Amor Natural. It's about the 20th century Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade. His erotic poetry is a good fit for Valentine's Day.

Only Terror Tuesday programmer Zack Carlson could tempt me to see something with a title like Devil Fetus. Here are his notes on the 1983 film:

"Sometimes two simple words -- like 'true' and 'love' -- can combine to create a spellbinding, lyrical beauty that transcends mere language and touches the human heart. Such is the case with DEVIL FETUS!! A blazing bedlamathon that had no right to ever be made, this cinematic felony is fortified with enough unrepentant wildness to challenge the fortitude of even the most stalwart exploitationeer. Incestuous transvestitism, countless beheadings, featherweight bestiality, white-knuckle black magic showdowns and hardline electrofunk-powered rumpshaking are among the delights unearthed when a woman has consensual relations with the supernatural beast that lives in a vase she bought at a swap meet. Gird your loins for an epic whirlwind of lust, gore and animal cruelty in this 200-ton barrel of lowbrow DYNAMITE! Could this be the most offensive Hong Kong movie of the 80s? YES! Honestly, the only possible reason you would NOT watch DEVIL FETUS would be that you are a complete ass. Well? ARE YOU AN ASS??!"

Austin Public Library continues Lights. Camera. Austin., its monthly series of locally shot films, with the 2006 feature Chalk. The comedy about a school year from the point of view of teachers won the Best Feature and an audience award at Austin Film Festival -- I saw it there and every screening was sold out. The film was later picked up by Morgan Spulock Presents for distribution. Check out my Cinematical review for more details about this very funny film (especially for teachers).

Writer Chris Mass, who also plays one of the teachers in the film, will hold a Q&A after the screening.

I didn't know horror filmmaker Larry Cohen (It's Alive) directed a blaxploitation film in 1973, but leave it to Weird Wednesday to dig it up and show it. Here's what programmer Lars Nilsen has to say about Black Caesar:

"When writer/director Larry Cohen and star Fred Williamson set out to make a blaxploitation gangster movie they could scarcely have known how successful the fusion of genres would be. The fused figure of mobster and black avenger has become a cultural touchstone and echoes of BLACK CAESAR still resonate loudly today, especially in the indulgent crime fantasies of gangster rap. But even today, Fred Williamson's character Tommy Gibbs stands tall as the coolest mob boss of them all. BLACK CAESAR is a classical tragedy played out on the streets of Harlem, with Williamson bringing the swagger of James Cagney to the story of a kid with a chip on his shoulder who rises to the top of the heap to take the reins of his neighborhood crime syndicate, only to reach just a little bit too far. Williamson exudes pride and swagger - he has the magnetism of a great screen star - and he's a good enough actor to bring off the sufferings of a man who could rule the world but can't convince his mother to take his ill-gotten money. With a ridiculously brilliant score by James Brown, including the theme song 'Down & Out In New York City'. If you miss this, you're dumber than you look."

I have to say, I'm intrigued to find out whether the 1976 zombie/voodoo film J.D.'s Revenge, set in New Orleans, was actually shot in New Orleans. But let's hear what Terror Tuesday programmer Zack Carlson has to say about the film itself:

"'I'll HAVE my REVENNNGE!' The most shocking black horror film of the '70s! Glynn 'Aretha Franklin's husband' Turman stars as Ike, a lovable law student/cabbie who's possessed by the spirit of an assassinated '40s criminal when a voodoo lounge act goes awry. As his mind and body is devoured by the retribution-hungry ghost of J.D. Walker, Ike goes on a wild spree of lady-chasin', face-slashin' and zoot suit-wearin'! Soon, the spectral insanity reaches a fever pitch, leaving no one in Ike's life unscathed by the blazing wrath of a paranormal criminal bent on gettin' what's his. Turman assaults his challenging multi-personality role with a true fever, behaving by the climax of the film like a violent schizophrenic dunked in a vat of boiling urine. Blaxploitation filmmaking icon Arthur Marks (DETROIT 9000, FRIDAY FOSTER) burns with an equal brightness, throwing caution to the wind as his on-screen creation reduces New Orleans to blood-soaked, topless shrapnel. Miss this show and wake up dead."