REEL UNDERGROUND

FILM REVIEWS
AND CALENDAR
BY ANDREA HELM




First, I gotta get a couple of corrections outta the way. Last month, I incorrectly wrote that Wim Wenders was the animation guy responsible for the singing raisins (see May 7 listing under The Varsity for two of Wenders' real films). However, as everybody but me knows, it's not Wenders but Will Vinton (who does film when he's not hawking overpriced modeling clay at the Disney Store). And, as everybody but me also knows, four shots of Nyquil are more than enough to get a head cold through a Tournee of Animation. Reminds me of a line in The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (based on a Dr. Seuss story): "Gosh, Pop, I musta doped off!"
Second, in last month's listing, I identified Adolfus Mekas as the director of Hallelujah the Hills and founder of Film Culture magazine. Well, I received a lovely letter from a Mr. H. Wagner [see letters to the editor, this ish]. Wagner was kind enough to point out that I was errantly giving to Adolfus Mekas credit that which belonged to his brother, Jonas (see this listing's event on April 7-8 at the Pike Street Cinema). For the edification of Reel Alternative regulars, here's one of Wagner's observation:
"...Adolfus Mekas is himself a parasite living off of his older brother's reputation and slowly drinking himself into oblivion at Bard College, where he is considered a rather petulant joke."
Since I'm not an expert on film but I play one in this column, and since I just ain't got the time to attend every film in town or go to the Downtown Homeless and Loony-Bin Repository Center (aka Seattle Downtown Library) and pore through dusty film anthologies, I often rely on information provided to me by schedulers, film distributors, friends, etc. Either someone gave me bogus info, or I channeled Adolfus during my last film-guide typing session.
Thanks, H. Wagner, for keeping me honest. Mea culpas about the wrong background info stuff. In any event, lesson learned: four shots of Nyquil are definitely my limit for coherent film guide production.

Bring Back the Neptune!
Since The Neptune reopened around the first of the year, they've shown two films, Grumpy Old Men and The Hudsucker Proxy. Why hog up the Neptune with such mainstream fare, and for six weeks at a time?
When The Neptune had its line-up of second-run and underground/cult films, sometimes the line would be around the block. I pass by the Neptune quite frequently, and I never see people waiting to get in these days.
Meanwhile, down at The Varsity, the line reaches almost to, well, to The Neptune. Is this something anyone besides myself gives a shit about? Write me. Call The Neptune and ask to speak to the bonehead what made this decision. Bitch at The Varsity people. I'm doing my part: Until further notice and/or until The Varsity's lineup reverts to its former status, The Neptune is hereby excluded from Reel Alternative.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show at The Varsity?! Good God, it's just a jump to the left (down the block) and you're back to The Neptune, where you - and alternative cinema - belong.

The Guild 45th
2115 N. 45th - 633-3353

March 30-?
Four Weddings and a Funeral, from the director of Enchanted April. This one stars enchanting Andie MacDowell, who is Roddy MacDowell's sister. Not really. I made it up to see who was following along. Anyway, it's a magical romantic comedy and we just don't have enough of those to see, now do we?

Pike Street Cinema
1108 Pike (@ Boren) - 628-7064

April 7-8
Jonas Mekas's Guns of the Trees with beat meter magic man (yeah, coooehl, daddy-oh!) Allen Ginsberg.
April 9-10
Leni Reifenstahl's The Blue Light from 1930.
April 14-15
Four of Maya Deren's films.
April 16-17
The Blot, a 1921 film by Lois Weber, one of the most prolific female directors of the silent era.
April 21-22
Three films by Sidney Peterson, an influential underground filmmaker from the '40s. "Great stuff that nobody comes to see," Pike Street Cinema owner Dennis Nyback says of Peterson's films.
April 23-24
The Seashell and the Clergyman by Germaine Dulac, which was banned in England because of its "incomprehensibility." Also on the program is The Smiling Madame Beaudet. Impressionistic visionary stuff better than Man Ray did.
April 27-29
Duke Ellington's birthday is April 29, and Pike Street celebrates it with The Duke's "first to last."
April 30-May 1
Mrs. Wallace Reid's The Red Kimono from 1928. This is an anti-drug/anti-prostitution film inspired by Mrs. Wallace's husband's death from a life of drug fiendism and subsequent overdose.
May 5-6
Corruption of the Damned and Hold Me While I'm Naked, two films which Nyback says are among the the finest of films to come out of the 60s. Directed by George Kuchar.
May 7-8
A series of films made from 1912 to 1930 by Alice Guy Blache, one of the first directors ever and a woman to boot.
Also in April: Every Thursday and Friday night, 7:30 and 9:30, Nyback shows a retrospective titled "Visionary Film: American Avant Garde from 1943 to 1965." $5. Every Saturday and Sunday night, 8 p.m., is Feminist Director Theater with live musical accompaniment by Lori Goldsten. $6. Every Saturday night at midnight (not 11:30, but at midnight), Dennis runs a film about everybody's favorite recently dead hard-drankin' writer. Faulkner, some English Lit student might shoot his or hand up and shout? Nope, wrong and time's up. It's Charles Bukowski. Besides, Faulkner's been dead for years. Just ask Miss Emily.
The film, titled Bukowski, is accompanied by Dennis reading reading letters from Bukoski written to Jack Stevenson, a friend of Dennis's and Bukowski's.

Seattle Art Museum
1334 First Avenue - 625-8997

Love Crimes: 50 years of French Film Noir. One film per week, April 7 through June 9. Ooh-la-la! Includes PŽpŽ-le-Moko, The Raven, Panique, Bob the Gambler, Elevator to the Gallows, Breathless, The Bride Wore Black, Just Before Nightfall, Clean Slate and Monsieur Hire. In Elevator to the Gallows, hornster Miles Davis created the soundtrack while simultaneously viewing the film. Series tickets for 10 films are $35 for members, $40 for non-members. Don't miss any of these.
Also coming May 6-9: The Seattle Asian-American Film Festival. Films include Pushing Hands (by the director who did the much-ballyhooed The Wedding Banquet), The Dragon Painter and The Kiss.

The Varsity
4329 University Way NE - 632-3131

April 3
Much Ado About Nothing. With an "all-star" cast, how could it be anything else? Double-billed with Cyrano, guys with phallic noses jousting with phallic swords to see whose is bigger, all for the love of a woman!
April 4
Fearless, by Peter Weir (director of Dead Poet's Society and Witness). Jeff Bridges and Rosie Perez survive a plane crash without even getting to eat the dead to survive. "New-Age tripe," says my movie-going friend Average Joe. Double-billed with The Fisher King, by Monty Python survivor Terry Gilliam. An excellent film with Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges and that chick who won an Oscar for her performance as Jeff Bridges' character's girlfriend.
April 5
Household Saints, a look at three generations of the lives of women, one of whom is played by Tracey Ullman. Double-billed with Ruby in Paradise, a soul-searching "personal independence" film with Ashley Judd. This one took the Grand Prize winner at the Sundance Film Festival.
April 6-May 4
The "Great Directors" series begins on 4/6 with Alexander Hevsky, a documentation of the Russians kicking a little German butt in the 13th century. Double-billed with October, a realistic documentary of the taking of the Winter Palace during the Revolution. 4/13: The Seventh Seal and The Magician, two by Ingmar Bergman. 4/20: Jules and Jim and Two English Girls by Francois Truffaut. 4/27: Fellini and DeSica take the stage with La Strada and The Bicycle Thief. 5/4: Two more by Fellini: 8-1/2 and La Dolce Vita, two of his most famous works. 8-1/2 is Fellini's surrealistic homage to himself as a film director juggling women and work. La Dolce Vita chronicles a "third-rate newsman's increasingly immoral interest in the sweet life." Hey, pass the Nyquil!
April 7-21
The Festival Hong Kong
4/7: Once Upon a Time in China III. A corrupt Empress and her favorite eunuch (?) hold a martial arts contest. The film's hero returns to defend his father's school against a rival. I suppose there's more, too, but I can't tell from the promo. Double-billed with A Better Tomorrow II, which is the "thrilling sequel" to, one supposes, A Better Tomorrow I. Underworld kingpin goes "straight" (?) and helps his brother, a police detective, crack a massive criminal conspiracy. 4/14: Drunken Master, double-billed with Once a Cop. A martial arts cop comedy (slapstick, get it?) and a "pumped-up sequel to Supercop." Michelle Khan recreates her role as a "head-kicking policewoman racing to head off an elaborate and inventive heist." Pass. 4/21: Twin Dragons, an action comedy about twins separated at birth, one of whom becomes a famous conductor and the other a famous garage attendant. A Prince and the Pauper with an ethnically sensitive cast. Double-billed with The Heroic Trio, a futuristic thriller with three women and "no man can stand in their way!" Hey, asshole, down in front.
April 10-12
Highway Patrolman, the story of an "idealistic young policeman" and his infiltration into the corrupt inferno of Mexico's interior. The cop has to develop his own situation ethics to stay alive. Sounds like another ethnically correct offering by the director of Repo Man (Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole. Not like you.) and Sid & Nancy.
April 15-16
Half Japanese: The Band that Would Be King. True story of Jad and David Fair, two brothers who started a band, Half Japanese, and went on to be called "The World's Greatest Band." Called that by whom, the promo don't say.
April 17-18
One Nation Under God, an examination of the brainwashing inflicted on gay people to try to turn 'em as God intended. Reminds me of a bumper sticker I once saw in North Carolina: "God Me Straight." Yeah, straight to hell for condemning everybody else to fall short of your uptight morality.
April 19
Daffy Delights with that craaaaaazy black (sheep) duck, Daffy. There's Elmer! Porky Pig! Bugs, Sylvester, Tweetie, Lulu Roman and the whole Hee-Haw Gang!
April 22-May 5
Suture, A Thriller Where Nothing is Black and White.This first-film effort won Best Cinematography at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival. Here's the story: twin brothers, one black, one white. The fact that the brothers are not of the same race is noticed only by the audience, for the film's characters are of the reality that the brothers are identical. Filmed in stunning black and white, naturally.
May 6
Sex Is ... (adults only). Well, yeah, sure, XXX-cept in Mississippi, where a girl's legal age of consent is 14. And first cousins is legal. Gay sex attitudes in the '90s in the face of AIDS, HIV and red rubbers.
May 7
Faraway, So Close, double-billed with Wings of Desire. Two by Wim Wenders, who is not the creator of the singing raisins. Angel stories. Is this in any way coincidental to recent mainstream meanderings about the exponential viability and/or existence of angels?

Upcoming Events

The Seattle International Film Festival runs May 20-June 12. Box office opens May 12 at the Broadway Market on Capitol Hill. In its 20th year, the film series kicks off with a Gala Opening Night at the 5th Avenue Theater on May 20. 324-9996 for more information, and watch next month's Reel Alternative for the rundown.
Because of the Seattle International Film Festival, both The Varsity and that other place will be showing "first-run" stuff May 20 til mid-June. Your movie dollars will be much more well worth spent supporting the film festivals elsewhere.
Hey Grand Illusion, Pinhole Cinema, 911 Media Arts Center and Room 608, I need your events listings. Please send me your listings (as far in advance as possible) to Andrea Helm, Reel Alternative, 1463 East Republican #178, Seattle WA 98112. I can't list 'em if you don't assist 'em!



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Contents on this page were published in the April/May, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1994 WFP Collective, Inc.
Andrea Helm