Cure in 4K

Academy Museum

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Steven Spielberg directed this powerful, realistic re-creation of WWII’s D-day invasion and the immediate aftermath.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount

COUNTRY: USA

Memorial Day Screening Free screening for active-duty military, veterans, reserves and National Guard; tickets available at box office.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

Aero Theatre

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Cantonese with English subtitles.*

A Hong Kong hitman accidentally blinds an innocent woman during a hit. He is determined to get her surgery to help her regain her sight but he needs to complete one more hit first. He completes the job but then is ambushed as he tries to escape: someone wants him dead. Meanwhile a resourceful, unorthodox police detective is hot on his trail.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Shout! Studios

COUNTRY: Hong Kong

Co-presented by 36 Cinema Special thanks to the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research for the print ‘Cinematic Void’

Cinematic Void Presents THE KILLER

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

A cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent into the past to protect Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and her teen son John (Edward Furlong) from a new advanced model cyborg T-1000 (Robert Patrick) in a bid to stop a future war between humans and the intelligent machine SkyNet.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Rialto Pictures

COUNTRY: USA

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY in 35mm

Los Feliz Theatre

The Victors

New Beverly Cinema

**Producers**: Diane Ademu-John,  Carl Deal,  Tia Lessin,  Karen Ranucci,  Caren Spruch, Tony Tabatznik

Fiercely independent journalist Amy Goodman has spent three decades holding the powerful to account, reporting from war zones and the *Democracy Now!* newsroom. In *Steal This Story, Please!*, Oscar-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin craft a riveting portrait of journalism’s power – and peril – in an era of corporate control and political attacks on truth.

Undeterred by armed soldiers, evasive politicians, and riot police, Amy Goodman has reported some of the most consequential stories of our time. *Steal This Story, Please!* is a gripping account of the trailblazing journalist whose unwavering commitment to truth-telling spans three decades of turbulent history. From the frontlines of global conflicts to the organized chaos of her daily news show *Democracy Now!*, Goodman amplifies stories and voices too often silenced by commercial media.

Oscar-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (*Trouble the Water, Citizen Koch, The Janes*) take us behind the scenes with the warm, wisecracking granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi — raised in a tradition of asking hard questions – as she navigates a media landscape reshaped by technology, corporate consolidation, and political assaults on the press and on truth itself. Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, *Steal This Story, Please!* is both a call to action and a celebration of resistance, posing the question: what happens to democracy when the press stops challenging power?

Steal This Story, Please!

**Screenwriter**: John Michael Hayes

**Producer**: Alfred Hitchcock

An all-time classic, Alfred Hitchcock’s delightful, voyeuristic thriller, starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly, is endlessly watchable, perfect for a film that is itself all about watching. Stuck in his apartment with a broken leg and telescopic lens, a photojournalist (Stewart in one of his defining roles) distracts himself by observing the neighbors across the way. Most are just living normal lives — the newlyweds, a lady with her dog, a dancer with lots of boyfriends — but what’s going on in the Thorwald’s place? The bedridden Mrs. Thorwald seems to have mysteriously disappeared, and Mr. Thorwald is acting mighty suspicious. Enlisting help from his socialite girlfriend (the dazzling Kelly) and his physical therapist (much love to Thelma Ritter), our voyeuristic hero tries to make sense of what he’s seen — or at least what he thinks he’s seen.

**Picks from the Video Store**

Take home more solid gold gems from the filmography of Hollywood&#8217;s truest Princess, Grace Kelly!

*High Society, The Swan, The Country Girl*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Rear Window

**Screenwriters**: Nick Kocher,  Brian McElhaney

**Producers**: Kelly McCormick,  David Leitch,  Aram Tertzakian,  Nick Spicer,  Guy Danella, Lee Kim

We want your Memorial Day weekend getaway to Vidiots to be a bloody good time, so we booked you a cabin in the woods to relax, unwind, and survive a half dozen murder plots! When miserable couple Dan and Lisa retreat to a remote cabin for a romantic reset, each arrives with a secret plan to kill the other. However, their carefully plotted traps and counterplots quickly unravel when strangers crash the weekend with plans of their own. As the toxic getaway spirals into chaotic carnage, Dan and Lisa must soon figure out if they want to save their marriage or survive it.

Over Your Dead Body

**Screenwriters**: Michael Crichton, David Koepp, Malia Scotch Marmo

**Producers**: Kathleen Kennedy, Gerald R. Molen

Hop in scientists and dino-philes, we&#8217;re heading on a prehistoric thrill ride to the world&#8217;s hottest new amusement park! In Steven Spielberg&#8217;s massive blockbuster based on the Michael Crichton best-selling novel, a group of scientists are among the first visitors to a theme park with an enormous, prehistoric twist. After extracting ancient DNA, billionaire John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough) has brought to life an island full of dinosaurs. When the safety precautions fail and the dinos are loose, can this rag-tag bunch of sexy scientists and pre-teens live through the night and outwit and outrun these vicious predators? Be a clever girl and find out!

**Picks from the Video Store**

Need to take home more Jeff Goldblum? We&#8217;ve got all the hits, and these deep cut gems!

*Vibes, Deep Cover, Hideaway*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Jurassic Park on 35mm

**Screenwriter**: Ildikó Enyedi

**Producers**: Reinhard Brundig,  Mónika Mécs,  Nicolas Elghozi,  Meng Xie

At the heart of a German university grows a majestic ginkgo tree, its lifespan measured in centuries. As the years pass, the distinguished plant bears witness to the private lives of those who seek shade under its boundless branches, forming a nexus that connects three generations of students and teachers across time and space. In 2020, a visiting neuroscientist conducts a series of experiments into the possibilities of botanical consciousness. In 1972, a young student is profoundly changed by studying the behavior of a simple geranium. And in 1908, the university’s first female student’s photographic inquiries reveal sacred patterns of the universe hidden within the humblest of plants. Over time, each is transformed by the quiet, enduring, and mysterious power of nature.

From Ildikó Enyedi, the director of Academy Award-nominated *On Body and Soul, *comes* Silent Friend*, an epic, awe-inspiring exploration of the natural world. Featuring an ensemble cast that includes Tony Leung, Léa Seydoux and Venice Prize-winning newcomer Luna Wedler, Enyedi crafts a thoughtful meditation on the essential question of what it means to be human.

Silent Friend

**Screenwriters**: William Shakespeare, Craig Pearce, Baz Luhrmann

**Producer**: Baz Luhrmann, Gabriella Martinelli

Baz Luhrmann gives Shakespeare his signature razzle-dazzle in this opulent rendition of a time-honored classic. In this contemporary take on William Shakespeare&#8217;s classic tragedy, the Montagues and Capulets have moved their ongoing feud to the sweltering suburb of Verona Beach, where Romeo and Juliet fall in love and secretly wed. Though the film is a visually striking modern spectacle, the bard&#8217;s dialogue remains.

**Picks from the Video Store**

We&#8217;ve got a huge section for Shakespearean adaptations! Take home these treasures and more tonight!

*10 Things I Hate About You, Macbeth (x4), Much Ado About Nothing*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Romeo + Juliet

Vidiots

Hostel/ Hostel: Part II

Vista Theatre

### **ABOUT THE EPISODE:**

**Episode 101, Dir. Karyn Kusama, 47 Mins.**

Pepper is defending his girlfriend when he’s arrested and committed for an involuntary 72 hour psycho hold.

FORMAT: DCP

### **ABOUT THE SERIES:**

**THE TERROR: DEVIL IN SILVER, 2026, AMC+ and Shudder, USA**

AMC+ & Shudder’s THE TERROR: DEVIL IN SILVER tells the story of Pepper (Dan Stevens) – a working class moving man, who through a combination of bad luck and a bad temper, finds himself wrongfully committed to New Hyde Psychiatric Hospital – an institution filled with the people society would rather forget. There, he must contend with patients who work against him, doctors who harbor grim secrets, and perhaps even the very Devil himself. As Pepper navigates a hellscape where nothing is as it seems, he finds that the only path to freedom is to face down the entity which thrives on the suffering within New Hyde’s walls – but doing so may prove that the worst demons of all live inside him. Judith Light, CCH Pounder and more also star.

Q&A with co-showrunners Christopher Cantwell and Victor LaValle Popcorn, soda and candy courtesy of AMC+ and Shudder

THE TERROR: DEVIL IN SILVER

Fucking Awesome Cherub

Brain Dead Studios

### **ABOUT THE EPISODES:**

**Season 2, Episode 21, “Miss Twin Peaks,” Dir. Tim Hunter, 46 Mins**

Lucy chooses a father for her baby.

FORMAT: DCP

**Season 2, Episode 22, “Beyond Life and Death,” Dir. David Lynch, 50 Mins**

In the series finale, Cooper faces his destiny.

FORMAT: DCP

### **ABOUT THE SERIES:**

**TWIN PEAKS, 1990, Paramount, USA**

A crime drama mixed with healthy doses of the surreal, this series is about FBI Agent Dale Cooper, who travels to the small logging town of Twin Peaks to solve the murder of seemingly innocent high schooler Laura Palmer. Almost nothing is as it seems, however, and the show’s sometimes eerie visuals, oddball characters and wild dream sequences drive the point home.

“Miss Twin Peaks” and “Beyond Life and Death” ‘TWIN PEAKS: The Complete Series’

TWIN PEAKS: Season 2, Ep. 21 and 22

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In French with English subtitles.*

Maurice Pialat’s final film, this searing autobiographical drama continues his lacerating explorations of human relationships in all their messy, emotionally volatile complexity. Gérard (Gérard Depardieu) is the middle-aged, hopelessly self-centered womanizer who is forced to confront his failures—as a father, son and lover—when his ex (Géraldine Pailhas), with whom he has a child (played by the director’s own son, Antoine Pialat), begins a new relationship and his father falls ill.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: France

‘Maurice Pialat: An American Cinematheque Retrospective’

LE GARÇU

We&#8217;re back again with another dose of 16mm celluloid curiosities &#8211; this time we&#8217;re throwing reason out the window and embracing the strange with a program of late 60s, early 70s groovy kids films that sought to open young minds to a world of imagination. In the late 1960s educational filmmakers started getting groovy and psychedelic with films that took a turn towards the far out and whimsical. While the educational standards of don&#8217;t do drugs or accept candy from strangers remained staples, a new form of creative &#8220;purposeless&#8221; films for kids started to emerge with Encyclopaedia Britannica and other educational film distributors. Weird, fun, and nonsensical, these pointless shorts encouraged creativity over morals, whimsy over shock, and through kid-focused stories and animation sought to foster the imagination with plenty of fun movie magic. This program features 5 Encyclopaedia Brittanica shorts from 1969 as well as two magnificent early short films from the great Joan Micklin Silver &#8211; ***The Case of the Elevator Duck** *(1974) and*** The Fur Coat Club*** (1973) both filled with undeniable glee for any age of cinephile, plus bonus shorts for the early birds! You may think you&#8217;ve outgrown children&#8217;s films, but give yourself over to the wonder of the grooviest period in educational film and let your imagination soar! Everything screened on 16mm film!

Sweet 16mm: Kinder Nonsense

**Screenwriters**: Erik Matti,  Michiko Yamamoto

**Producer**:

Co-presented by Community Partners **A Bunch of Savages** and followed by an epic set of karaoke!

This compelling crime drama from filmmaker Erik Matti takes you through the gritty streets of Manila for an audacious conspiracy shocker. This unsung treasure from the Philippines centers on the ambitions and passions of four men trying to make a living, for themselves and their families. It shows the parallels between two prison inmates who are contract killers, and the two agents of the law investigating the murders. As they get caught in a web of machination of corrupt government officials, their jobs lead them on a head-on collision against each other with their loved ones as collateral damage. Based on a true-life corruption scandal, this unflinching glimpse into Manila&#8217;s underbelly is helmed with naturalistic performances that anchor the action and violence for unforgettable cinema!

[**A Bunch of Savages**](https://www.abunchofsavages.com/about) is a creative collective in Los Angeles, California. We are unapologetically Filipino-American with a knack for premium multifaceted storytelling in the arts. Toss your KPIs out the window because we have one bonafide intention &#8211; To do cool sh*t that matters. If anyone asks, we’re a collective of dreamers, filmmakers, writers, and creatives with a commitment to empowering the next generation of artists. Our name comes from a phrase used to describe the Filipinos in 1899 by then Gov. Theodore Roosevelt.

On the Job

Dr. Syn

Castle in the Sky in 35mm

All About Eve in 35mm with Lorraine Nicholson

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Sam, a middle-aged Aboriginal man, works for a preacher in the outback of Australia’s Northern Territory. When Harry, a bitter war veteran, moves into a neighboring outpost, the preacher sends Sam and his family to help Harry renovate his cattle yards. But Sam’s relationship with the cruel and ill-tempered Harry quickly deteriorates, culminating in a violent shootout in which Sam kills Harry in self-defense. As a result, Sam becomes a wanted criminal for the murder of a white man, and is forced to flee with his wife across the deadly outback, through glorious but harsh desert country. A hunting party led by the local lawman Sergeant Fletcher is formed to track Sam down. But as the true details of the killing start to surface, the community begins to question whether justice is really being served.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Samuel Goldwyn Films

COUNTRY: Australia

*Thank you to our airline sponsor Delta Air Lines.*

Q&A with filmmaker Warwick Thornton ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’ and ‘Warwick Thornton: A Bleak Week Retrospective’

SWEET COUNTRY

Come experience a screening of Matt Johnson, Jay McCarrol and Production Team's Commentary Track over the film for the real fedora heads

With intro by So You Did A Thing Podcast's Zed Cutsinger

Synopsis: Matt and Jay's plan to book a show at the Rivoli goes horribly wrong, resulting in them accidentally travelling back to the year 2008.

Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie The Commentary Track Screening

Director Gregg Araki's MYSTERIOUS SKIN, adapted from Scott Heim's acclaimed novel, is an intensely powerful chronicle of childhood innocence lost. The film features starmaking turns from Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception, Looper, The Dark Knight Rises) and Brady Corbet (Thirteen) alongside outstanding performances from co-stars Michelle Trachtenberg (Eurotrip, Ice Princess), Mary Lynn Rajskub (TV's 24) and Academy Award® nominee Elizabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas). At the age of eight, Kansas youngsters Neil and Brian played on the same little league baseball team. Now, ten years later, the two boys couldn't be more different. Neil is a charismatic but emotionally aloof male hustler while Brian is a nervous introvert obsessed with the idea that he has been abducted by a UFO. When the boys' parallel lives inevitably intersect, the pair unearth dark, repressed secrets on a harrowing and unforgettable journey of self-discovery.

Mysterious Skin

Egyptian Theatre

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

A hapless man’s romantic obsession with his ex-wife draws him into a deadly caper in this definitive noir. 

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Universal

COUNTRY: USA

‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’

CRISS CROSS

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Swedish with English subtitles.*

Shame was Bergman’s scathing response to the escalation of the conflict in Vietnam. Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann star as musicians living in quiet retreat on a remote island farm, where the civil war that drove them from the city soon catches up with them. Amid the chaos and confusion of the military struggle, vividly evoked by Sven Nykvist’s handheld camera work, the two are faced with uncomfortable moral choices. This film, which contains some of the greatest scenes in Bergman’s oeuvre, shows the devastating impact of war on defenseless individuals.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: Sweden

SHAME

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In French with English subtitles. *

Following a global cataclysm, Anne (Isabelle Huppert) and her family set out for a safe haven at their holiday home. But, when they arrive, the home is already occupied by other survivors. Their hopes for safety are immediately dashed by a violent tragedy, which serves as a lesson to take nothing for granted and expect the worst in this new, harsh landscape. Accompanied by a fierce young boy (Hakim Taleb), the family eventually reaches a train station with the prospect of escaping.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Strand Releasing

COUNTRY: France

*Thank you to our airline sponsor Delta Air Lines.*

Q&A with Isabelle Huppert ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’ and ‘Isabelle Huppert: A Bleak Week Tribute’

TIME OF THE WOLF

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Spanish with English subtitles.*

Aimed at an international audience—and indeed, it was the first Mexican film to be nominated for an Academy Award, as well as Mexico’s entry in the 1960 Cannes Film Festival—MACARIO takes the form of a macabre fable about an impoverished peasant (Ignacio López Tarso) who is kind to a mysterious stranger on the Day of the Dead, and is rewarded with the power to heal the sick. Drawing on a novella by B. Traven (*The Treasure of the Sierra Madre*), Gavaldón and his cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa, create a rich pageant of folkloric imagery.

FORMAT: DCP

COUNTRY: Mexico

Curated in partnership with Cineteca Universidad de Guadalajara ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’

MACARIO

Every 1st Thursday of the month we’ll be hosting a music open mic night for kids and teens.


Our intention is to create a supportive and joyful space where young people can come together, share their love of music, practice performing regularly, make mistakes, try again & grow!

All performers must be under 18 & guardians must be present.

5pm - 7pm

No cover charge

Please email info@scribblecommunity.com with any questions.

Glow Big: Youth Open Mic

Scribble

**Screenwriter**: Sophy Romvari

**Producers**: Ryan Bobkin, Sara Wylie, Sophy Romvari, Gábor Osváth

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island, but their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behavior from the eldest son, Jeremy. At wit’s end, their parents are presented with a shattering choice. Award-winning director Sophy Romvari’s feature debut is a lyrical and profound testament to the things we carry with us, masterfully chronicling the haze of a languid summer and the hyaline clarity of the moments that defined it.

Blue Heron

**Screenwriter**: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Christian Hohoff

**Producer**: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Join us for Rainer Werner Fassbinder&#8217;s straggering queer tragedy of love, money, and loyalty lost. A lottery win leads not to financial and emotional freedom but to social captivity, in this wildly cynical classic of gay German cinema. Casting himself against type, the director himself  plays Fox,  a suggestible working-class innocent who lets himself be taken advantage of by his bourgeois new boyfriend and his circle of materialistic friends, leading to the kind of resonant misery that only Fassbinder could create. *Fox and His Friends* is unsparing social commentary, an amusingly pitiless and groundbreaking if controversial depiction of a gay community in 1970s West Germany.

**Picks from the Video Store**

With a catalog of nearly 40 films, it&#8217;s hard to complete a Fassbinder-a-thon without a video store! Take home more masterpieces tonight!

*Querelle, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, In a Year with 13 Moons*

**Accessibility Options**: Open Captions, Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Fox and His Friends

Rambling Rose/ Music Box

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Belarusian, Russian and German with English subtitles. *

This widely acclaimed film from Soviet director Elem Klimov is a stunning, senses-shattering plunge into the dehumanizing horrors of war. As Nazi forces encroach on his small village in present-day Belarus, teenage Flyora (Aleksei Kravchenko, in one of the screen’s most searing depictions of anguish since Renée Falconetti’s JOAN OF ARC) eagerly joins the Soviet resistance. Rather than the adventure and glory he envisioned, what he finds is a waking nightmare of unimaginable carnage and cruelty—rendered with a feverish, otherworldly intensity by Klimov’s subjective camerawork and expressionistic sound design. Nearly suppressed by Soviet censors who took eight years to approve its script, COME AND SEE is perhaps the most visceral, impossible-to-forget antiwar film ever made.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: Soviet Union

‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair – Year 5’

COME AND SEE

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: A24

COUNTRY: USA

*Thank you to our airline sponsor, Delta Air Lines.*

Q&A with filmmaker Ari Aster ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’ and ‘Ari Aster: A Bleak Week Retrospective’

EDDINGTON

INNER WAVE

SEE YOU WHEN I GET BACK

SCREENING + Q&A

@ BRAIN DEAD STUDIOS

Merch available in the patio

Inner Wave - See You When I Get Back Screening + Q&A

**
[REGISTER FOR THIS SCREENING](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ucla-celebration-of-iranian-cinema-mortician-2025-tickets-1987862782093?aff=oddtdtcreator)**

**Please note**: Registration does not guarantee entry if the event reaches capacity. Admission is granted on a first come, first served basis.

Patrons who have registered will need to obtain their free tickets at the box office, where seating will be assigned. Any seats remaining 15 minutes before showtime will be released to standby patrons.

*Farhang Short Film Festival 2nd prize winner*

A visually striking story of a small town tragedy, *Abraham* follows a local policeman who stumbles into a family secret while investigating the murder of a young man whose body is found in a cave outside the city. 

DCP. Directors/Screenwriters: Elnaz Ghaderpour, Reza Gamini. With: Hamid Pour Azari, Sajad Afsharian, Safoora Khoshtinat.

Winner of the audience-voted Sean Connery Prize at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, *Mortician *is set in Canada where a schlubby émigré, Mojtaba (Nima Sadr), performs Islamic ritual washing of the dead as a cultural service of the Iranian government. When he loses his job he wonders how he’ll continue to send money to his family back home until an enigmatic, exiled pop star (Gola), an outspoken opponent of the regime, hires him to help her with one last public protest. The oddest of couples, they find common ground amidst the cold Canadian winter until their secret is exposed in writer-director Abdolreza Kahani’s slow-burn thriller. 

DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Abdolreza Kahani. With: Nima Sadr, Gola, Pouya Razavi.

Mortician

Hammer Museum

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Swedish with English subtitles.*

A salesman and his son sexually abuse several generations of an indigent family’s women as payment for debt. Janni must see his mother, sister, niece and wife all being exploited, and the family grow with the abuser’s kids.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: Sweden

U.S. Premiere of New Restoration 40th Anniversary ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair – Year 5’

THE SERPENT'S WAY

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Italian with English subtitles.*

Standing tall alongside classic coming-of-age films like SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE and THE 400 BLOWS, MISUNDERSTOOD is a beautiful and heartfelt exploration of the trials of life through the eyes of parents and children. John, having recently lost his wife, chooses to inform his oldest son, Andrew, but requests that he not tell Milo, his sickly younger brother. Forced to take a brave face, Andrew struggles with his impossible burden as Milo grows weaker and John’s grief blinds him to the plights of his son. With its incredible child performances and exquisite direction, MISUNDERSTOOD is a powerful rumination on family crisis and the painful weight of held secrets.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: AGFA

COUNTRY: Italy

60th Anniversary ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair – Year 5’

MISUNDERSTOOD

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Japanese with English subtitles.*

In Kyushu, southwest Japan, one hot summer morning, a municipal bus is hijacked. In the carnage only three people survive: the driver, Makoto, a school girl, Kozue, and her older brother, Naoki. Suffering from trauma, Makoto disappears. The children withdraw in silence. Two years later, their mother has divorced and their father dies at the wheel of his car. They now live alone in the family house. Makoto returns to town and takes up household with the children, who are soon joined by their cousin, Akihiko, a student on vacation from college. The body of a murdered woman is discovered on the river bank; and the police suspect Makoto. Soon after, he buys an old bus; fits it with beds; and invites the three young people to leave on a trip.

COUNTRY: Japan

EUREKA

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Spanish with English subtitles.*

An old man pays a woman to live with him as if she were his wife, until one day he discovers that she’s sleeping with his son.

FORMAT: DCP

COUNTRY: Argentina

Curated in partnership with Caligari, Argentina ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’

PALO Y HUESO


Attention, students. The bell’s ringing, so grab your seat and don’t get caught in the hallway without a pass. Class is officially in session.

  

Step inside the halls of Willard R. Abbott Elementary for a one-night-only Live Read celebrating the heart, humor, and hustle of everyone’s favorite Philadelphia public school. Join Janine, Gregory, Ava, Melissa, Jacob, Barbara, and Mr. Johnson as they navigate another unforgettable school year where the resources may be limited, but the dedication and chaos are limitless.

  

Our cast of special guests will perform two standout episodes from Season 5 of **Abbott Elementary**, bringing the show’s signature mockumentary style and sharp comedy to the stage.

  

Created by and starring Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary premiered in 2021 to widespread acclaim, earning 30 Primetime Emmy nominations and four wins, including Lead Actress for Brunson.

  

_Special thanks to ABC Entertainment for making this event possible._

  

* * *

**Tickets**  

  

  
$40 for Wallis Subscribers and Film Independent Members  
$50 for General Public

* * *

SAFETY IS OUR PRIORITY: For our most current safety protocols and requirements, please click [here](http://thewallis.org/safety).

LIVE READ: ABBOTT ELEMENTARY

The Wallis

**Screenwriters:** David Mickey Evans, Robert Gunter

**Producers:** Dale De La Torre, William S. Gilmore

*You&#8217;re killing me Smalls!* This much-cherished home run of a family film hits its the Vidiots big screen for a championship screening. During a summer of friendship and adventure, one boy becomes a part of the gang, nine boys become a team, and their leader becomes a legend by confronting the terrifying mystery beyond the right field wall. Bring your teammates and swing for the fences!

**Picks from the Video Store**

Looking for more underdog sports movies? Take home these winners tonight!

*The Bad News Bears, The Mighty Ducks, Little Big League*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

The Sandlot

**Screenwriter**: Amanda Kramer

**Producers**: Jacob Agger,  Miranda Bailey,  Sarah Winshall,  Natalie Whalen,  Jake Agger

With filmmaker **Amanda Kramer** in person on Saturday, June 6th!

Our microcinema is about to get strange with Amanda Kramer&#8217;s latest absurd and surreal vision of material and interpersonal desires as a woman (Juliette Lewis) swaps bodies with a chair, and everyone likes her better as a chair. Upon seeing a gorgeous chair in a showroom, Camille (Juliette Lewis) realizes that she truly envies the life of this perfect piece of furniture. If only she could be someone’s favorite thing. When she and the chair swap forms, Camille learns that she is better liked as an inanimate object than she was as a person: her mother (Betty Buckley) finds her to be a better listener, and her best friends (Samantha Mathis and Robin Tunney) enjoy a newfound, friction-free rapport. As the chair, Camille is unable to speak or move and winds up in the hands of Olivier (Mamoudou Athie), a minimalist bachelor who gradually becomes romantically fixated on his elegant new possession. Narrated by Melanie Griffith, this modern fable celebrates the messiness of female interiority with deadpan humor, surrealist flourishes, and interpretative dance numbers. An absurdist spin on the body-swap comedy, *By Design* is a bold new work from singular filmmaker Amanda Kramer.

By Design

**Screenwriters**: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

**Producers**: Ethan Coen,  Graham Place

With a special introduction by Founding Member **Noah Segan**, writer/director of John Turturro&#8217;s latest film *The Only Living Pickpocket in New York!*

One of the darkest of Joel and Ethan Coen&#8217;s catalogue of brilliant dark comedies, *Barton Fink* is one of the best and strangest retellings of the classic era of Hollywood with monumental performances by John Turturro and John Goodman. Barton Fink is a young New York playwright with a bright future in bleak drama on the Great White Way, when his agent lands him a deal in Hollywood. Adrift in a world of wheelers and dealers, Barton strikes up an acquaintance with his neighbor at his tenement hotel and learns the dark truths of his favorite author and the real way Hollywood works behind the scenes. With some of the best sound design in the history of cinema, remarkable period set design, and a magnificent balance of unnerving bleakness and humor, *Barton Fink* ranks amongst the Coen&#8217;s greatest achievements.

**Picks from the Video Store**

There&#8217;s so much to love about John Turturro! Take home decades worth of stellar performances like these deep cuts tonight!

*Fear X, The Source, Monkeybone*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Barton Fink on 35mm

**Screenwriter**: Robert Rodriguez

**Producers**: Robert Rodriguez, Bill Borden

Antonio Banderas and Robert Rodriguez team up again for an action film like no other! Rodriguez goes balls to the wall with his playful mixture of B-movie elements, beautiful badass stars, and a cacophony of vengeful violence. This time around, El Mariachi plunges headfirst into the dark border underworld when he follows a trail of blood to the last of the infamous Mexican drug lords, Bucho, for an action-packed, bullet-riddled showdown. With the help of his best friend and a beautiful bookstore owner, the Mariachi tracks Bucho, takes on his army of desperados, and leaves a trail of blood of his own.

**Picks from the Video Store**

Take home these deep cut Banderas bangers tonight!

*Matador, The House of the Spirits, Femme Fatale*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Desperado

Join us in the microcinema for a double dose of horror shorts sure to unnerve and mystify: Kiyoshi Kurosawa&#8217;s newly released NFT ***Chime*** and Renee Zhan&#8217;s lauded ***Shé (Snake)***.

***Chime***

**Director**: Kiyoshi Kurosawa **Runtime**: 45 min. **Language**: Japanese with English subtitles

A masterclass in escalating dread and shocking violence, *Chime *reaffirms Kiyoshi Kurosawa as one of modern horror’s most innovative and unpredictable visionaries. During a class, culinary instructor Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka) witnesses the suicide of a young student (Seiichi Kohinata), driven to insanity by what he claims is a chiming sound that controls his mind. Soon, Matsuoka begins hearing it, too, and descends into a mental abyss that warps his perception of reality and gives vent to his darkest impulses. Expertly blending psychological portraiture and hallucinatory mystery, Kurosawa offers a chilling depiction of madness that interrogates the very stability of our everyday existence, with the director’s patented creeping tracking shots and complex sound design fashioning an immersively terrifying and unnerving cinematic experience.

Screening with:

***Shé (Snake)***

**Director**: Renee Zhan **Runtime**: 15 min. **Language**: English and Mandarin

Fei, a 16 year old British-Chinese girl, is the top violinist in an elite youth orchestra. When another Chinese violinist arrives to challenge her place, Fei’s anxieties and internalized racism grow to take monstrous physical form. They whisper to her, urging her to be the best, no matter the cost.

Chime and Shé (Snake)

Basic Instinct

The Doors

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

This fascinating follow-up to 1978’s landmark WATERSHIP DOWN follows lab test dogs Snitter and Rowf, who jailbreak from their torture in a secret facility only to find that the outside world’s even more bleak. Since the dogs accidentally broke a vial used by plague researchers on their way out, the human world launches a lethal hunt. Here is a world where animals are not a blank slate for our ideals and morality, but are the direct expression of the animals themselves; Humanity’s the bad guy, and the audience is not left off the hook. Featuring a slew of top-tier British voice talents: John Hurt, Nigel Hawthorne, Judy Geeson and Patrick Stewart.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: AGFA

COUNTRY: UK/USA

THE PLAGUE DOGS

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

What happened in that town in 1948 should have been a “love story.” A socially awkward high school girl is taken advantage of by teenagers in a rural Southern town… until the most popular boy at school starts to date her. Their fragile relationship becomes increasingly threatened by gossip, cruelty, and violence, leading to a tragic ending.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Zephina Media

COUNTRY: USA

Q&A with actor Robert Englund. Moderated by Larry Karaszewski. World Premiere of New Restoration ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’

BUSTER AND BILLIE

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Skipping back and forth through time, we open with a catatonic Theresa Russell undergoing a mysterious operation while Art Garfunkel(!) looks on and recalls their stormy relationship in the city of Vienna, beginning with a chance meeting at a party and soon degenerating into a series of psychologically violent games that treat sex and power interchangeably. Harvey Keitel(!) also makes a surprise appearance as the police detective tasked with figuring out just what exactly happened. Critically lambasted upon its release, this off-the-cuff study in obsession is still capable of wildly polarizing viewers.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: AGFA

COUNTRY: UK

Q&A with actor Theresa Russell. Moderated by Xan Cassavetes. ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’ and final screening of ‘Watch Local: Z Channel’

BAD TIMING

In 1930s Prague, a Czech cremator who firmly believes cremation relieves one from earthly suffering is drawn inexorably to Nazism.

The Cremator

Ignacio, a disrespected cook at a Mexican monastery, can barely afford to feed the orphans who live there. Inspired by a local wrestling hero, he decides to moonlight as the not-so-famous Luchador &#8220;Nacho Libre&#8221; to earn money for the monastery &#8212; not to mention the admiration of beautiful nun Sister Encarnación.

Nacho Libre

Gardena Cinema is the oldest and only vintage single-screen stand-alone movie cinema in Southwest Los Angeles.

Max and his sister move to Salem, where he struggles to fit in before awakening a trio of diabolical witches killed in the 17th century.

HOCUS POCUS (1993)(PG) Live Cast Commentary In-Person 2:30pm

Gardena Cinema

The latest film in Getty’s Artist Dialogues series features Ofelia Esparza and her daughter, Rosanna Esparza Ahrens, whose multigenerational practice of creating *ofrendas*, or altars, weaves together memory, customs, and community. Long recognized for their role in helping establish and sustain Día de los Muertos traditions in the city, the Esparzas have shaped the practice as both a communal ritual and a contemporary art form. In the short film, *Ofelia and Rosanna Esparza: Made to Remember* (11:55 min), they reflect on the ofrenda as both cultural obligation and art: a bridge between the living and the dead, and between the stories of generations past and those yet to come.

Ofelia, born in East Los Angeles in 1932, learned the practice from her mother, who brought her traditions from Huanimaro, Mexico. She has spent decades building elaborate ofrendas that honor ancestors through handmade paper flowers, textiles, photographs, objects and layered narratives grounded in the conviction that to be forgotten is the most final death of all. Rosanna carries this legacy forward, exploring how the making itself, the gathering, the storytelling, the shared labor, is as much the offering as the altar it produces.

Together, Ofelia and Rosanna illuminate the ofrenda as a form of ephemeral art: carefully composed with attention to focal point, dimension, and material, yet always temporary by design. Here, conservation carries different meaning than it typically does in cultural heritage contexts. Rather than relying on permanence, the artform is sustained through intergenerational continuity, carried forward by storytelling, teaching and community solidarity. 

Following the screening, Ofelia and Rosanna Esparza will join Los Angeles County's Civic Art Conservation and Collections Manager Laleña Vellanoweth for a conversation on the conservation of their work and audience Q&A. 

----------


Artist Dialogues is part of the Getty Conservation Institute's Art in L.A. project, exploring art, conservation, and Los Angeles' cultural heritage. This film was conceived in collaboration with independent curator jill moniz.



Ofelia and Rosanna Esparza: Film Screening and Artist Q&A

Getty Center

**
[REGISTER FOR THIS SCREENING](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ucla-celebration-of-iranian-cinema-inside-amir-2025divine-comedy-2025-tickets-1987863374866?aff=oddtdtcreator)**

**Please note**: Registration does not guarantee entry if the event reaches capacity. Admission is granted on a first come, first served basis.

Patrons who have registered will need to obtain their free tickets at the box office, where seating will be assigned. Any seats remaining 15 minutes before showtime will be released to standby patrons.

After his girlfriend emigrates to Italy with the expectation that he will soon follow, bike messenger Amir (Amirhossein Hosseini) is still neither fully committed to leaving nor fully clear on what the future holds if he stays in Iran. Instead, he spends his in-between days hanging with friends who have themselves settled into a life of drift, playing poker, cooking meals together and biking around the city and country. Nothing ever really happens, which is precisely the point of writer-director Amir Azizi’s warm and loving portrait of a generation that has learned to embrace simple freedoms and pleasures where they can find them in a world where even that can feel like an act of resistance. 

DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Amir Azizi. With: Amirhossein Hosseini, Hadis Nazari, Nader Pourmahin.

Iranian writer-director Bahram Ark (*Skin*, *Animal*) plays Bahram, an Iranian writer-director who has achieved fame on the international festival circuit but has yet to have one of his films screened in Iran. After his latest is again denied a permit, he and his producer Sadaf (Sadaf Asgari) set out on her moped determined to find a way to get it on screen with the help of a hodgepodge of decidedly eccentric characters. Bahram’s situation is all too familiar to co-writer-director Ali Asgari (*Terrestrial Verses*) and his regular collaborators here, who use romantic comedy tropes to illuminate the absurdities — and dangers — faced by filmmakers in Iran. 

DCP. Director: Ali Asgari. Screenwriter: Alireza Khatami, Bahram Ark, Bahman Ark, Ali Asgari. With: Bahram Ark, Sadaf Asgari, Hossein Soleimani.

Inside Amir / Divine Comedy

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

A paranoid man embarks on an epic odyssey to get home to his mother in this bold and ingeniously depraved film from writer and director Ari Aster.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: A24

COUNTRY: USA

*Thank you to our airline sponsor, Delta Air Lines.*

BEAU IS AFRAID

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Spanish and Italian with English subtitles.*

When his long-lost brother resurfaces, Jacobo, desperate to prove his life has added up to something, looks to scrounge up a wife. He turns to Marta, an employee at his sock factory, with whom he has a prickly relationship.

FORMAT: DCP

COUNTRY: Argentina/Germany/Spain/Uruguay

Introduction by filmmaker Fede Álvarez Co-presented by Cinemateca Uruguaya ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’

WHISKY

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

When the record book closed on Boston Red Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersall’s career, it showed 17 seasons in the major leagues and an impressive lifetime batting average of .272. But before he racked up those numbers, Piersall faced a foe much tougher that a 90-m.p.h. fastball: mental illness. Anthony Perkins stars as Piersall in this powerful true story. FEAR STRIKES OUT also marks the filmmaking debut of Alan J. Pakula and Robert Mulligan, the team whose credits include TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. From top to bottom, the film fields a stellar lineup of talent. And the result is a drama of unflinching force and effectiveness.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount

COUNTRY: USA

World Premiere of New 4K Restoration ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair – Year 5’

FEAR STRIKES OUT

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In French with English subtitles.*

The most controversial film of Bresson’s career, THE DEVIL, PROBABLY was off-limits to viewers under the age of 18 in France as an incitement to suicide. A film that caused Rainer Werner Fassbinder to threaten to walk off the Berlin Film Festival jury if his support for it was not made public, it traces the last six months in the life of a young Parisian in search of his own demise, who rejects the conventional solutions offered by politics and religion, saying “My sickness is that I see clearly.”

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: The Film Desk

COUNTRY: France

THE DEVIL, PROBABLY

**Screenwriters**: Rita Hsiao, Chris Sanders, Philip LaZebnik, Raymond Singer, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer

**Producer**: Pam Coates

Why be a princess when you can be a warrior? As her father faces certain death in the army, a young woman poses as a man and takes his place, becoming an enduring heroine for the Chinese people throughout the ages. Based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, with beautiful animation, great songs, and an empowering message, this is the perfect film to share with your little warrior.

Mulan

**Producer**: Richard Schmiechen

A true twentieth-century trailblazer, Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world. The Oscar-winning *The Times of Harvey Milk,* directed by Robert Epstein and produced by Richard Schmiechen, was as groundbreaking as its subject. One of the first feature documentaries to address gay life in America, it’s a work of advocacy itself, bringing Milk’s message of hope and equality to a wider audience. This exhilarating trove of original documentary material and archival footage is as much a vivid portrait of a time and place (San Francisco’s historic Castro District in the seventies) as a testament to the legacy of a political visionary.

**Picks from the Video Store**

Take home more incredible queer documentaries tonight on fabulous physical media!

*Portrait of Jason, The Queen, Kamikaze Hearts*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

The Times of Harvey Milk

**Screenwriters**: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon

**Producer**: Lawrence Bender

*How do you like them apples?* School may be out for summer, but we&#8217;re giving you the chance to audit one of the great masterclasses in acting of the 1990s &#8211; Gus Van Sant&#8217;s heartfelt ode to unsung genius and working-class heroes, written by and starring then up-and-comers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck with earnest and magnificent performances by Stellan Skarsgård and Robin Williams. Will Hunting is the most brilliant janitor you&#8217;ve ever met, but his hot temper is holding him back. With the help of an empathetic psychology professor and the love of a good woman, maybe he can break through to the life his mind deserves. With nine Oscar nominations and wins for Robin Williams and Affleck and Damon for original screenplay and a soundtrack that includes Elliot Smith, this moving drama is in a class by itself!

**Picks From the Video Store**

Our Gus Van Sant director&#8217;s section is stocked with the indie legend&#8217;s whole ouevre &#8211; take home more bangers tonight!

*Mala Noche, Elephant, My Own Private Idaho*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

Good Will Hunting

**Screenwriter**: Stephen Peters

**Producers**: Steven A. Jones,  Rodney Liber

Your Saturday night is about to get a whole lot sexier and twistier when we dive into the late 90s cult classic thriller *Wild Things*. When teen debutante Kelly (Denise Richards) fails to attract the attention of her hunky guidance counselor, Sam (Matt Dillon), she cries rape, igniting a scandal that results in his arrest. Sam appeals to Ken (Bill Murray), a hack personal-injury lawyer who has never handled a case that couldn&#8217;t be helped by a prop neck brace. Soon, a second victim, Suzie (Neve Campbell), comes forward, and Detective Duquette (Kevin Bacon) discovers that the unfolding case is far from what it seems.

Wild Things

L.A. Story

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Los Angeles Filmforum presents *Filmforum 50, program 13: Celluloid Improvisations 2026: An Evening with Mark Cantor.*

∆

A fantastic array of jazz films, presented by Mark Cantor, who did his first public programs of his jazz film collection at Pasadena Filmforum in February 1977!

Celluloid Improvisations is an archive of jazz (and jazz influenced and/or related) music preserved on 16mm sound film, videotape, laserdisc, DVD and various digital formats. The collection includes more than 4,000 separate performances, and while the archive’s holdings focus on jazz, they also include such related forms of American music as blues, Swing, Western Swing, “pop,” rhythm and blues, country-western, vernacular dance, vaudeville and variety arts, etc.

Selections to be announced, including performances by:

- Rahsaan Roland Kirk
- World Saxophone Quartet
- Dizzy Gillespie and Helen Humes
- Miles Davis
- Art Ensemble of Chicago
- Phil Woods (recreating Bird with Strings)
- Blind Boys of Mississippi
- Duke Ellington
- Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five
- Dinah Washington

And more rarities!

Complete program notes at: https://www.lafilmforum.org/schedule/

Filmforum 50: An Evening with Mark Cantor

2220 Arts + Archives

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

An exquisite, richly layered adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s *Tess of the d’Urbervilles*. A strong-willed peasant girl (Nastassja Kinski, in a gorgeous breakthrough) is sent by her father to the estate of some local aristocrats to capitalize on a rumor that their families are from the same line. This fateful visit commences an epic narrative of sex, class, betrayal, and revenge, which Polanski unfolds with deliberation and finesse. With its earthy visual textures, achieved by two world-class cinematographers—Geoffrey Unsworth (Cabaret and Ghislain Cloquet (Au hasard Balthazar)—TESS is a work of great pastoral beauty as well as vivid storytelling.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: France/UK

TESS

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

SOUTHLAND TALES is an ensemble piece set in the futuristic landscape of Los Angeles, as it stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental disaster. Boxer Santaros (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is an action star who’s stricken with amnesia. His life intertwines with Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), an adult film star developing her own reality television project, and Ronald Taverner (Seann William Scott), a Hermosa Beach police officer who holds the key to a vast conspiracy.

FORMAT: Digital

DISTRIBUTOR: Sony

COUNTRY: USA/Germany

Q&A with filmmaker Richard Kelly Cannes Cut 20th Anniversary ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’

SOUTHLAND TALES

Broke, with his vintage Nash convertible repossessed, private eye Mike Hama is reduced to combing the mean streets of the Yokohama waterfront on a borrowed bicycle. But when Lily, a beautiful stripper from out of Hama&#8217;s past, returns to town, the fuse is lit on a criminal powder keg set to blow the lid off the Yokohama underworld.

The Stairway to the Distant Past

Set in a barren, futuristic Tokyo of highways and wastelands, a rowdy group of punk bands and their fans gather to protest slow, boring, Japanese living.

Burst City

**
[REGISTER FOR THIS SCREENING](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/iranian-cinema-between-dreams-and-hope-the-great-yawn-of-history-tickets-1987863605556?aff=oddtdtcreator)**

**Please note**: Registration does not guarantee entry if the event reaches capacity. Admission is granted on a first come, first served basis.

Patrons who have registered will need to obtain their free tickets at the box office, where seating will be assigned. Any seats remaining 15 minutes before showtime will be released to standby patrons.

*Farhang Short Film Festival Audience Choice Award winner*

In a village in remote Iranian Kurdistan, an old mother waits for her son to return from military service. When he doesn’t arrive as expected, she sets out to find him only to discover a truth about his identity that will change their lives forever. 

DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Saman Hosseinpuor. With: Maryam Boubani, Kurosh Ahmadi, Kianoosh Farzin.

A frequent collaborator with filmmaker Ali Asgari, writer-director Farnoosh Samadi centers the inequity and injustices faced by Iranian women in much of her work. In her second feature behind the camera, Samadi expands her frame to include Azad (Fereshteh Hosseini), a trans man, longing to start his life with his lover Nora (Sadaf Asgari), but who must confront his estranged father before he can. Hosseini and Asgar (another Asgari film regular) deliver deeply affecting performances in a story that is by turns tender and harrowing about the power of love over hate. 

DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Farnoosh Samadi. With: Fereshteh Hosseini, Sadaf Asgari, Hooman Rahnemoon.

Part adventure story, part mystical allegory, director Aliyar Rasti’s *The Great Yawn of History* begins with an eccentric job interview. Beitollah (Mohammad Aghebati) drops dollar bills with his contact information around the city, then interviews anyone who calls about their belief system. Answering that he believes in nothing, Shoja (Amirhossein Hosseini) gets the gig: following Beitollah deep into the Iranian desert to find a box of gold coins he saw in a vision. Rasti’s debut feature won the Special Jury Award in the Encounters section of the Berlin International Film Festival for its exploration of faith and greed set against the hardscrabble landscapes of a depopulated rural Iran. 

DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Aliyar Rasti. With: Mohammad Aghebati, Amirhossein Hosseini, Saber Abar.

Between Dreams and Hope / The Great Yawn of History

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Spanish with English subtitles.*

Carlos Saura’s international breakthrough is a tour de force of psychological tension in which three men, all veterans of the Spanish Civil War, reunite in the village of Castille for a day of drinking and rabbit hunting. There, under the sun’s hot glare, the rifts between the men begin to make themselves known, and barely repressed resentments are exposed, culminating in a shocking explosion of violence. Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival and cited by Sam Peckinpah as a major influence, THE HUNT is a searing exorcism of Spain’s political demons.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: Spain

U.S. Theatrical Premiere of New 4K Restoration 60th Anniversary ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair – Year 5’

THE HUNT

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

Edward G. Robinson stars as the ruthless newspaper editor who will go to any length, use any means—and destroy anyone—to get a paper-selling headline for the Five Star Final. Facing declining circulation, Joseph Randall decides to dig up a 20-year-old killing. He sends reporter Vernon Isopod (Boris Karloff) undercover as a clergyman to get a photograph of Nancy Townsend (Frances Starr) as she prepares for her daughter’s (Marian Marsh) wedding. Now a pillar of society, Townsend shot her lover two decades ago. And when Randall publishes the current photo of Townsend with the lurid photos and story of the shooting, Townsend commits suicide and her daughter’s fiancé’s family tries to call off the wedding. But even after he destroys so many lives in his quest for newspaper sales, will Randall feel remorse for the damage he has caused? 

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Park Circus

COUNTRY: USA

95th Anniversary 35mm print preserved by the Library of Congress ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair – Year 5’ and ‘Sunday Print Edition’

FIVE STAR FINAL

### **ABOUT THE FILMS:**

*In Japanese with English subtitles.*

Firebrand auteur Nagisa Ōshima offers a devastating vision of moral rot within postwar Japanese society in the form of a hauntingly sad family tragedy. Inspired by a scandalous true story, Boy follows ten-year-old Toshio (Tetsuo Abe, an orphan whose real life mirrored the tumultuous upbringing of his character) whose grifter parents use him as a pawn in a scheme to stage car accidents and then extort money from the drivers. As the family crisscrosses Japan in an increasingly desperate attempt to elude the law, Toshio escapes into an imaginary world of science fiction fantasy and space aliens that he dreams will deliver him from his harrowing existence. Applying the blistering stylistic experimentation of his earlier Japanese New Wave touchstones with newfound restraint, Ōshima adopts a relatively sober docudrama approach that proves no less shocking and subversive in its emotionally annihilating portrait of a stolen childhood.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: Japan

U.S. Theatrical Premiere of New 4K Restoration ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’

### **ABOUT THE ANTHOLOGY:**

CASTRATION MOVIE is a multi-part postmodern epic by visionary auteur Louise Weard. 

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

In CASTRATION MOVIE CHAPTER III: JUNIOR GHOSTS—PREMORPHIC DRIFT; A FRAGMENTARY PASSAGE, Izzy (Avalon Fast) does everything in her power to stop her partner (Henri Gillespi) from transitioning.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Muscle Distribution

COUNTRY: Canada

Q&A with filmmaker Louise Weard. Moderated by Vera Drew. L.A. Premiere ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’

CASTRATION MOVIE CHAPTER III: JUNIOR GHOSTS—PREMORPHIC DRIFT; A FRAGMENTARY PASSAGE

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

*In Russian with English subtitles.*

In the aftermath of nuclear holocaust, a group of intellectuals crave to find hope in the pale and colorless new world. Among them, a history teacher tries to contact via letters his missing son.

FORMAT: DCP

COUNTRY: Soviet Union

40th Anniversary ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair — Year 5’

LETTERS FROM A DEAD MAN

A *very rare* screening of Gisaburō Sugii’s anime classic — a gorgeous, strange, quietly ambient, and deeply philosophical work of art!

NIGHT ON THE GALACTIC RAILROAD (1985) — A Celestial Anime Masterpiece!

Philosophical Research Society

**Screenwriters**: Sherwood Schwartz,  Laurice Elehwany,  Rick Copp,  Bonnie Turner,  Terry Turner

**Producers**: David Paul Kirkpatrick,  Lloyd J. Schwartz,  Sherwood Schwartz

Watch your nose &#8211; the Bradys are back and they&#8217;re taking over the 1990s! In this hilarious big screen reimagining of America&#8217;s favorite television blended family, the whole Brady Clan are thrust &#8211; in all their wholesome 70s glory &#8211; into a new decade with a whole new set of problems, while still dealing with flying balls, sibling rivalry, and the chaffing of their polyester duds. A brilliant big screen send off with *bunches* of laugh out loud moments and an incredibly funny cast including the fabulous Shelley Long and director Betty Thomas (in a mini *Troop Beverly Hills* reunion) orchestrating a pitch-perfect comedy, you&#8217;ll want to join the Brady family yourself &#8211; especially when they put on their musical act to raise enough money to save their iconic house!

**Picks from the Video Store**

We love Shelley Long! Take home these classics and get ready for a *Long* hilarious night!

*The Money Pit, Outrageous Fortune, Troop Beverly Hills, Night Shift*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

The Brady Bunch Movie

**Screenwriters**: B. Traven,  John Huston

**Producer**: Henry Blanke

Join Humphrey Bogart on an epic treasure hunt in John Huston&#8217;s classic tale of cunning, greed, and paranoia. Three down-and-out Americans—two hard-luck drifters (Bogart and Holt) and a grizzled prospector (Huston)—pool the meager resources they have to follow a rumor of gold ore to be found somewhere in the Sierra Madre mountains. While the three friends agree to split everything equally, once they discover a fortune in gold ore, greed and paranoia set in. Winner of three Oscars, including two for John Huston and one for his son, with a spot on the American Film Institute’s Top 100 American Films list reaffirming the film&#8217;s legacy as a universally acclaimed classic.

**Picks from the Video Store**

Hey man, *do* Bogart your night with these classics!

*Key Largo, The Big Sleep, In a Lonely Place*

**Accessibility Options**: Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

**Screenwriters: **Chung Seo-kyung, Park Chan-wook

**Producers:** Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim

You’re not going to want to miss this lurid, labyrinthine thriller, full of shifting alliances, shocking plot twists, and diabolical villains. In 1930s Korea, while the country is occupied by Japan, a con man posing as an aristocrat (Ha Jung-woo) hatches a plot to rob a Japanese heiress named Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee). A female pickpocket (Kim Tae-ri) gets roped into the plan by acting as a maid in Hideko’s household, but can she trust either the con artist who’s using her or the heiress she might be falling in love with? Probably not, but you’ll just have to watch this movie yourself and see how its twisty plot keeps you guessing all the way to a stunning ending.

**Picks from the Video Store**

Take home all of Park Chan-wook&#8217;s dark masterpieces from his director&#8217;s section

*Oldboy, Thirst, Lady Vengeance*

**Accessibility Options**: Open Captions, Amplified Audio, please see the box office for devices.

The Handmaiden

Frequently throughout the year we will be highlighting a few titles that are considered to be "stuck" on VHS, with no physical releases since the format (discounting video transfers on DVDs, etc.) for various reasons, i.e. legal ownership disputes, music licensing issues, or perhaps just perceived lack of interest.

‍This month brings us HEARTS AND ARMOUR, a strangely psychedelic, and wonderfully cheap Italian sword & sorcery flick that was distributed by Warner Bros on VHS yet has still never seen a physical release since.

‍

## From the back of the box:

‍

In a titanic clash of cultures, noble warriors follow their hearts while wielding their sowrds because they live in a world of *Hearts and Armour*. There, codes of honor become codes of conflict... and high ideals are prey to a thousand human weaknesses.

‍

Tanya Roberts (the former Charlie's Angel whose *The Beastmaster*, *Sheena*, and *A View to Kill* make her one of the hottest tickets on the entertainment scene) heads a cast of talented newcomers in this sword-clanging epic of magic, armour and valiant knights. The ravishing Roberts brings an exotic blend of softness and savagery to her role of Angelica, a Moorish princess trapped in the turmoil of brutal combat between Christians and Moors in the Middle Ages.

‍

But the passions of war cannot eclipse love's passion. Christian warrior Orlando (handsome *Gentleman's Quarterly* model Rick Edwards in his screen debut) seeks victory over the Moors... and the hand of the captive Angelica. His Christian comrade, *femme-fatale*-in-armour Bradamante (popular Italian actress Barbara De Rossi), loves Ruggero (Ron Moss), the Moorish prince determined to free Angelica. Bradamante, knowing the prophets have fortold that Orlando will someday slay Ruggero, is torn between love and loyalty. The conflicting passions of war and love hurtle to a final showdown, where terrifying combatants like the Mongol, the Human Weapon and the Black Warrior clash in a battle to the death.

‍

In the spellbinding tradition of *Excalibur*, which focused on Arthurian legends of the north, *Hearts and Armour* brings to the screen the medieval myths of sun-drenched southern Europe. There, in a rhapsody of swordplay, lavish spectacle, searing passions and hellbent barbarians in stylized armour, men and women play out their entangled destinies... and become legends.

‍

‍

‍

**dir. Giacomo Battiato, 1983***Italy, VHS projection*98 min

‍

## SUNDAY, 6/77:30P DOORS8:00P SCREENING

Special ticket prices! $6 general admission, $5 members.

‍

‍

*Whammy! is located in the REAR unit of 2514 Sunset Blvd, entrance access is via Rampart Blvd.*

Stuck on VHS: HEARTS AND ARMOUR (1983)

WHAMMY!

Hollywood Entertainment is proud to host director Henry Hanson and star Milo Talwani for the LA premiere of *Puppygirl*, the remarkable hyperpop docu-porn-madness, presented alongside their beloved comedy, *Dog Movie*! Their bright and beautifully lo-fi digital tales of deranged intracommunal dynamics are bracing and funny slices of intricately weaponized discomfort. In their condensed runtimes, they provoke us with brutal and brilliant observations about bad friends, boundaries, queer community and sexuality, porn, dogs, and so much more.

### Dog Movie

*Release Year:* 2023

*Run Time:* 56 mins

A passive-aggressive tenderqueer couple sends their household into a quiet tailspin when they adopt an elderly dog who shares the same name as the unemployed couch surfer they just can’t seem to confront in *Bros Before* filmmaker Henry Hanson&#8217;s improvised microbudget debut feature, which he/they describe as “the trans *Curb Your Enthusiasm*.”

### Puppygirl

*Release Year:* 2025

*Run Time:* 55 mins

A semi-delusional trans woman (Milo Talwani) embarks on a shocking, bizarre, and oddly touching personal odyssey to undo years of sexual repression by performing in puppygirl fetish porn in Henry Hanson&#8217;s new gonzo documentary.

Dog Movie + Puppygirl

### **ABOUT THE FILMS:**

**PADDINGTON, 2014, Dir. Paul King, 95 Mins, Lionsgate, UK/France**

A young Peruvian bear travels to London in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone at Paddington Station, he meets the kindly Brown family, who offer him a temporary haven.

FORMAT: DCP

**PADDINGTON 2, 2017, Dir. Paul King, 104 Mins, Warner Bros., UK/France/Luxembourg**

Paddington, now happily settled with the Brown family and a popular member of the local community, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy’s 100th birthday, only for the gift to be stolen.

FORMAT: DCP

**PADDINGTON IN PERU, 2025, Dir. Paul King, 106 Mins, Sony Pictures, UK/France/USA**

Full of Paddington’s signature blend of wit, charm, and laugh-out-loud humor, PADDINGTON IN PERU finds the beloved, marmalade-loving bear lost in the jungle on an exciting, high-stakes adventure. When Paddington discovers his beloved Aunt Lucy has gone missing from the Home for Retired Bears, he and the Brown family head to the wilds of Peru to look for her. The only clue to her whereabouts is a spot marked on an enigmatic map. Determined to solve the mystery, Paddington embarks on a thrilling quest through the rainforests of the Amazon to find his aunt…and may also uncover one of the world’s most legendary treasures.

FORMAT: DCP

‘Paddington’s Bleak Week Marmalade Chaser – Chapter 5’

PADDINGTON / PADDINGTON 2 / PADDINGTON IN PERU

The Silent Partner/ Narrow Margin

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

A prequel to the smash hit TV series, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME follows Agent Dale Cooper as he investigates a murder in the final days of the infamous Laura Palmer’s life. In this small town, teens trade drugs and soap opera one-liners while a phantasmagoric serial killer is on the loose. Featuring a beloved score from Angelo Badalamenti and a soulful collaboration with “Falling” songstress Julee Cruise.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: USA

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME

### **ABOUT THE FILM:**

A feature film which presents deleted scenes from TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (1992) assembled together for the first time in an untold portion of the story’s prequel.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films

COUNTRY: USA

Cure in 4K

2:30 PM

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

7:30 PM

Cinematic Void Presents THE KILLER

7:00 PM

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY in 35mm

10:00 PM

The Victors

7:30 PM

Steal This Story, Please!

12:45 PM

Rear Window

1:00 PM

Over Your Dead Body

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Jurassic Park on 35mm

4:15 PM

Silent Friend

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Romeo + Juliet

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Hostel/ Hostel: Part II

7:00 PM