<<< November 2007 >>>

ANDY KAUFMAN PLAYS CARNEGIE HALL, 1979, 77 min. Andy Kaufman's legendary sold-out Carnegie Hall performance, featuring all of Kaufman's classic routines, including Foreign Man, Elvis, conga drums, plus Andy wrestling women and even taking on a real male wrestler! Also appearing is a menagerie of Kaufman's collection of human oddities, including the infamous Tony Clifton, The Love Family (a sub-Partridge Family singing group who do a bang-up version of "The Age of Aquarius" complete with synchronized dance movements), Grant Bowman the "Happy New Year Man" (straight from Times Square, where Andy found him), "cowgirl" Eleanor Cody Gould and an uncredited, surprise big name guest as Andy’s grandmother. Bob Zmuda appears as Andy's referee, and at the end of the show, Andy takes the entire audience out for milk and cookies. NOT ON DVD Discussion following with I’M FROM HOLLYWOOD filmmaker Lynne Margulies, wrestler Jerry Lawler, CARNEGIE HALL producer Charles Braverman. A limited number of new I’M FROM HOLLYWOOD DVDs will also be given away by the world’s oldest living wrestler, The Aztec Mummy!

Jean Rouch, Master of Ethnography filmmaking: In February 2004, the film director and ethnographer Jean Rouch died on the roads of Niger that he loved so much. He left behind a vast and atypical body of cinematographic work, including more than 120 films. He discovered ethnology in Niger working as an engineer in road construction and maintenance. His passion for cinema - Flaherty, Vertov, among others - led him to choose a camera as a tool to discover the world. His work, both intuitive and inspiring, covers all genres: the documentary, ethno-graphy, sociology, "direct cinema", fiction and so on. Join us to discover - or rediscover - the work of a man who was free, curious and deeply humanist.

"The Mad Masters" (Les Maitres Fous), 1955, 36 min. Dir. Jean Rouch. This film, shot in a single day, shows the rituals of a religious cult. Hauka worshippers, workers who have travelled from along the Niger to Accra, meet for their great annual ceremony. On the "concession" of the high priest Mountbyéba, following public confessions, the spirit possession ritual begins. Foaming at the mouth, trembling, panting: these are signs of the arrival of the "spirits of power", the symbolic personification of colonial rule: the corporal of the guard, the governor, the doctor, the captain’s wife, the locomotive driver, and others. The ceremony reaches its climax with the sacrifice of a dog later to be eaten by those possessed by the spirits. The next day, the cult’s initiates return to their daily routine.

CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER: PARIS, 1960 (CHRONIQUE D’UN ETE), 1960, 90 min. Dirs. Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin. In the summer of 1960, Edgar Morin, a sociologist, and Jean Rouch conducted an enquiry into the daily lives of young Parisians in an attempt to understand their concept of happiness. This experimental film follows, over a period of a several months, both the investigation itself and the development of its main characters. The initial question "How do you live ? Are you happy ?" very quickly raises others on a number of key issues: politics, hopelessness, boredom, solitude... The interviewees eventually meet as a group at the first showing of the film, to discuss and approve or disapprove of it ; the two co-authors are confronted with the reality of this cruel but exciting experiment in "cinema-vérité".

MOSSO, MOSSO, JEAN ROUCH – LET’S PRETEND, 1998, 78 min. Dir. Jean-André Fieschi. This core of this encounter with Jean Rouch lies in the appropriateness of the "comme si" - "let’s pretend", in which he describes what has become for him both a rule to live by and a rule to make films by: "By pretending something is true, you get much closer to reality". And as Jean Rouch, with his greatest friends, Damouré and Tallou, by his side, pretends to be making a film called "La Vache merveilleuse" (The Fabulous Cow), Jean-André Fieschi succeeds in defining the man and his method, creating here a moving homage imbued with the spirit of Rouch the film-maker. It is in his relationship, close and respectful, with his greatest African companions, Damouré and Tallou, that we discover the full personality of this man of the cinema - an improviser, a chameleon, at one with Africa. Co-presented in association with IDA and the French Film and TV Office, French Consulate, Los Angeles.

Monday, November 19 – 7:30 PM

Sneak Preview:

THE MIST, 2007, The Weinstein Company, Three-time Oscar-nominee Frank Darabont (THE GREEN MILE; THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) reunites with horror-master Stephen King to write and direct this chilling adaptation of the author’s original short story. Following a violent thunderstorm, artist David Drayton and a small town community come under vicious attack from creatures prowling in a thick and unnatural mist. Local rumors point to an experiment called "The Arrowhead Project" conducted at a nearby top-secret military base, but questions as to the origins of the deadly vapor are secondary to the group’s overall chances for survival. Retreating to a local supermarket, Drayton and the survivors must face-off against each other before taking a united stand against an enemy they cannot even see! With a cast including Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher, Alexa Davalos, William Sadler and Laurie Holden. Discussion following screening with cast & crew. Director Frank Darabont will not be able to attend as was previously announced.

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, 1962, Sony Repertory, 216 min. Peter O’Toole was catapulted to stardom as the tortured Man Who Would Not Be King, T. E. Lawrence, who helped the Arabs revolt against European and Ottoman hegemony. Director David Lean’s epic is a timeless masterpiece – as close to perfect as a film can get. Featuring one of the finest casts in any motion picture: Omar Sharif (in his first major English-speaking role), Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, Claude Rains and Alec Guinness as Prince Faisal. Director of Photography Freddie Young’s 70mm photography is rightly considered to be a work of genius, matched by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson’s screenplay, Maurice Jarre’s stirring score and John Box’s production design. Winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. "The word ‘epic’ in recent years has become synonymous with ‘big budget B picture.’ What you realize watching LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is that the word ‘epic’ refers not to the cost or the elaborate production, but to the size of the ideas and vision." – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, 1962, Sony Repertory, 216 min. Dir. David Lean. [see description 11/23 – Egyptian]

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, 1962, Sony Repertory, 216 min. Dir. David Lean. [see description 11/23 – Egyptian]

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, 1962, Sony Repertory, 216 min. Dir. David Lean. [see description 11/23 – Egyptian]

ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT REELS

Founder/organizer Norwood Cheek is back again with Flicker's 7th Annual Attack of the 50 Foot Reels! This year, 20 filmmakers will have the task of shooting a documentary film entirely on one 50 foot cartridge of super 8mm film. The hook this time is, it has to be a documentary. All the editing is done in camera and the filmmakers will be in attendance to see their work for the first time.