| Mods &
Rockers 2007
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Mods & Rockers also screens at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood!
Our Mods & Rockers Festival returns stronger than ever for its 8th
annual edition. This year at the Egyptian is a special focus on films that document the
manifold delights of rock and pop culture – indeed the series could be sub-titled
"We Will… We Will… DOCU!" We are presenting an exciting mixture of
World, US and West Coast premieres (such as the Maysles 1964 Beatles docu, WHAT’S
HAPPENING!), screenings of rarely-seen cult classics (SKIDOO) and a slew of
events celebrating significant anniversaries – the 40th of the Monterey
Festival, the 50th of Stax Records and the 60th of Atlantic Records.
Visiting filmmakers being saluted in-person include the legendary D.A. Pennebaker
(82-years-young!) from New York with MONTEREY POP, GIMME SHELTER, DON’T LOOK BACK,
’65 REVISITED and ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE and Britain’s iconoclastic Tony
Palmer with the very belated US premiere of his 1968 masterpiece ALL MY LOVING
featuring unseen (in the US) performances of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd
and Cream. The festival includes salutes to rock filmmaker Peter Whitehead (TONITE
LET’S ALL MAKE LOVE IN LONDON; "Pink Floyd London ‘66-‘67"
and the West Coast Premiere of his 1970 LED ZEPPELIN LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL),
to Leiber & Stoller (In-Person!) and tributes to iconic figures such as Harry
Nilsson and Ahmet Ertegun. Music-makers scheduled to attend various festival
screenings include: Michelle Phillips, Grace Slick, Eric Burdon, Ravi Shankar, Scott
McKenzie, Donovan and members of many bands who performed at the Monterey, Woodstock
and Altamont festivals 1967-1969. There will also be exhibits at the Egyptian of the
artwork of Grace Slick, Janis Joplin and Ronnie Wood. Original and limited
edition artwork will be available for sale - and on July 19th Grace Slick
will be present to talk with collectors and personalize or dedicate artwork that is
purchased. There will also be an exhibit by official Monterey photographer Henry Diltz.
And at the Aero, there will be screenings of A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, SKIDOO, ROCK
AROUND THE CLOCK, PETULIA, the docu JANIS and more! Full details and updates
on celebrity attendance on the Mods & Rockers website – www.ModsAndRockers.com
The Mods & Rockers Film Festival is presented with support
from our Sponsors and Promotional Partners. SPONSORS: Shout Factory
• Virgin-America • Sunset Marquis Hotel & Villas
• Gibson Guitars • High Technology Video • PROMOTIONAL
PARTNERS: Atlantic Records • KCRW "Morning Becomes Eclectic"
• Razor & Tie • Criterion Collection • Concord Music Group • Rhino
Entertainment • Area Arts • Morrison Hotel Gallery
Friday, July 27 – 7:30 PM
Double Feature:
JANIS, 1974, Universal, 96 min. Arguably the greatest
female rock singer of her generation, Texas-born Janis Joplin invested her records
and concert performances with a ferocious, heartbreaking intensity, before her tragic
death from a drug overdose in 1970. Director Howard Alk’s excellent portrait
of Joplin (made with her family’s cooperation) features volcanic concert footage of
her from 1966 - 1970, performing "Ball And Chain," "Piece Of My
Heart," "Tell Mama" and other classics.
PETULIA, 1968, Warner Bros., 105 min. Dir. Richard
Lester. Truly one of the great overlooked films of the late 1960’s, PETULIA stars
George C. Scott as a middle-aged physician who finds himself drawn into the mad,
idealistic and desperately sad whirlwind life of unhappily married Julie Christie
at the height of San Francisco’s Summer of Love. Beautifully photographed by Nicolas
Roeg, and featuring brief, ultra-rare appearances in their prime by Janis Joplin
(with Big Brother & The Holding Company) and The Grateful Dead, PETULIA
captures both the sunshine optimism of the 60’s and the melancholy afterglow soon to
come when the Summer of Love faded away…
Saturday, July 28 – 7:30 PM
Take Your Kids to The Beatles on the Big Screen!
A Double Dose of Lennon!
Richard Lester Double Feature:
A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, 1964, Miramax, 85
min. Director Richard Lester's brilliant, carefree comedy captured the early
Beatles at their best, clowning (as one respected reviewer said) like the new Marx
Bros. and set the tone for the Sixties revolution. From the restless, handheld camerawork
and slight-of-hand jumpcut editing, writer Alun Owen's surreal day-in-the-life script and
George Martin's sprightly score (both Oscar-nominated) to the Beatles themselves -
exuberantly singing "Can't Buy Me Love," "She Loves You" and ten other
Beatles classics -- this is the essence of the monochromatic early Sixties.
HOW I WON THE WAR, 1967, MGM Repertory, 110 min.
Maverick director Richard Lester (A HARD DAY’S NIGHT and HELP!) recruited John
Lennon (in his first and only solo acting role) for this wildly surreal satire on war
movies, featuring Michael Crawford (THE KNACK) as a blissfully unaware idiot
charged with building a cricket pitch behind enemy lines during World War II. Although
nominally set in the 1940’s, HOW I WON THE WAR exudes 1960’s anti-establishment
tone, featuring abrupt time shifts, jump-cutting and Lester’s patented blend of
biting wit and surreal slapstick that presaged Monty Python. Incidentally - Lester always
chafes when this film is simplistically described as "an anti-war movie". As he
explains: "It’s an ‘anti-WAR-MOVIE’ movie." With Jack
MacGowran.
Sunday, July 29 – 7:30 PM
Psychedelic Sixties Comedies Double Feature:
Blake Edwards In Person!
THE PARTY, 1968, MGM Repertory, 99 min. Dir. Blake
Edwards. For most of its length, THE PARTY is a wonderfully restrained homage to
Jacques Tati, with Peter Sellers in perfect pitch as an awestruck Indian actor who
disrupts a chic Hollywood gathering with the help of French songbird Claudine Longet.
The final 15 minutes prove that any great joke deserves a totally outrageous punchline.
Look for Steve Franken as an inebriated waiter and Denny Miller as a
hilarious rhinestone cowboy. Cinematography by the great Lucien Ballard (THE WILD ONE).
Ultra-Rare Cult Classic Screening!
SKIDOO, 1968, Paramount, 97 min. Dir. Otto Preminger.
This infamous acid-comedy opened and bombed in 1968 but has since become a highly
sought-after cult film - never on video - still not on DVD. Retired mobster Jackie
Gleason is coerced by former colleagues back into business, going to prison to execute
a contract on a crime commission squealer. Co-starring Carol Channing, Burgess
Meredith, Mickey Rooney, George Raft, John Philip Law, Frankie Avalon - and Groucho
Marx (as a gang boss named God!) in his last film. Everyone in prison, including
guards, eventually get dosed with LSD. Features an acclaimed score and cameo by Harry
Nilsson. Several of the cast and crew - including Otto and Groucho - took acid trips
as pre-filming research! With special guests including "Skidoo-ologist" Christian Divine. Discussion
in between films with director Blake Edwards.
MODS AND ROCKERS (SLIGHT RETURN)
October 6 – 7 at the Aero Theatre
Saturday, October 6 - 7:30 PM
Double Feature!
GIMME SHELTER, 1971, Janus Films, 91 min. Dir. Albert
and David Maysles. The celebrated film of The Rolling Stones’ 1969 US tour
that culminated in the cataclysm at Altamont. Conceived as a concert film it became a
riveting document of the Stones’ free concert at the Altamont Speedway in December
1969. The Dionysian downer that sneered at, and ultimately destroyed, the Apollonian highs
of 1967’s Monterey Festival and the 3-day love-fest held at Woodstock just 5 months
prior to Altamont. But the Stones performance is still satanically majestic...
Preceded by a Mystery Sneak
Preview! (120 min.) – An amazing new film on rock ‘n’ roll!
You’ll be telling all your friends you saw it first! Discussion
in following films with producer and longtime Stones associate Ron Shapiro.
Sunday, October 7 - 7:30 PM Sold Out!
Opening this month at the Nuart. Sneak Preview!
CONTROL, 2007, The Weinstein Company, 121 min. The
long-awaited and much-anticipated bio-pic of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, expertly
helmed by veteran rock photographer- turned-filmmaker, Anton Corbijn. Ian (Sam
Riley) has aspirations beyond the trappings of small town life in 1970’s England.
Wanting to emulate his musical heroes, such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop, he joins a band,
and his musical ambition begins to thrive. Soon though, the everyday fears and emotions,
that fuel his music, slowly begin to eat away at him. Married young, with a daughter, he
is distracted from his family commitments by the new love of an outside girlfriend and the
growing expectations of his band. The strain manifests itself in his health. With epilepsy
adding to his guilt and depression, desperation takes hold. Surrendering to the weight on
his shoulders, Ian’s tortured soul consumes him. Samantha Morton is superb as
Ian’s wife Deborah (the film is based on her memoir, Touching From A Distance).
"…Effortlessly revives a British cinematic style that you might call
beautiful realism, reaching back to Christopher Petit's RADIO ON, and further back to Tony
Richardson's THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER and A TASTE OF HONEY."
– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (UK) |
