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Vampire Lovers

You’ll really sink your teeth into this tale of a sexy vampire who targets young, rich women in 18th century Germany. This Live Sound Cinema event features a live score by the electronic duo a place both wonderful and strange.

Lush, buxom, and a glorious mix of the Victorian-era meets the 1960s, no one does vampire movies quite like Hammer Films. In Vampire Lovers, the sexy late Ingrid Pitt plays not one but three characters as the lady-leaning vampire who has come to suck the life out of the rich in 18th century Germany. Targeting the bosoms of young and beautiful woman (she only bites men when absolutely necessary), she begins to leave a lot of bodies in her wake. Bring in Peter Cushing as the vampire expect (echoing his Van Helsing roles in the earlier Dracula Hammer Films) to save the town from an undead mess.

a place both wonderful and strange is Russ Marshalek, formerly of Brooklyn’s Lynch-influenced electronic duo Silent Drape Runners. After touring that project across the country for a string of sold out re-soundtracking shows over a year and a half, the duo parted ways, with Marshalek continuing to make smeary, dark Twin Peaks-y electronic dance pop music. Live, a place both wonderful and strange features the post-apocalyptic futurist ingenue Ghost Cop on vocals. 

 

Evocateur Morton Downey Jr

On Wednesday, October 2 join talk-show icon Richard Bey, Mort’s bodyguard David Giegold, Lloyd Kaufman, and the three-headed monster responsible for directing Évocateur:  The Morton Downey Jr. Movie for its DVD release party and screening!

Before entire networks were built on populist personalities; before reality morphed into a TV genre; the masses fixated on a single, sociopathic star: controversial talk-show host Morton Downey, Jr. In the late ’80s, Downey tore apart the traditional talk format by turning debate of current issues into a gladiator pit. His blow-smoke-in-your-face style drew a rabid cult following, but also the title “Father of Trash Television.” Évocateur:  The Morton Downey Jr. Movie dissects the mind and motivation of television’s most notorious agitator.

 

Drinking Buddies

Beer, friends, and complicated relationships. Sound familiar?

Luke and Kate are co-workers at a Chicago brewery, where they spend their days drinking and flirting. They’re perfect for each other, except that they’re both in relationships. Luke is in the midst of marriage talks with his girlfriend of six years, Kate is playing it cool with her music producer boyfriend Chris. But you know what makes the line between “friends” and “more than friends” really blurry? Beer.

Vice Squad

Sleaze it up this September with THE DEUCE hits its new digs at Nitehawk Cinema – with VICE SQUAD and the hallowed Harris Theater! Star GARY SWANSON in person!

The VICE SQUAD screening be welcomed by Jeff Cashvan and will feature a theater history lecture by Archivist & Historian, Andrew McCarthy, a raffle, and an after-party with a DJ Bones in the downstairs bar (complimentary beer special for ticket holders)!

Hot off the heels of his weird and wonderful horror hit – Dead & Buried – director Gary Sherman turns his lens on the lasciviousness of the L.A. underbelly in VICE SQUAD! Druggies and degenerates! Freaks, floozies and Fredrick’s of Hollywood! Pimps, prosties and perverts! Runaways and way-out wackos! VICE SQUAD visits the mean streets with an engaging mix of Exploitation and Social Realism – getting the details of the detritus straight from those whose world it reveals. Trolling through the “neon slime” of Los Angeles, Wings Hauser IS Ramrod!! A pimp with an anger problem – “psychopath” is putting it mildly… Season Hubley’s sensitive soon-to-quit prostitute, Princess, navigates the sex gutters of Hollyweird to help desperate Detective Gary Swanson put an end to Ramrod’s mean streak –  and to settle a score of her own… Sherman serves up a smorgasbord of the sleazy – as well as a somewhat loving look at L.A.’s lonesome losers, boozers, users, and midnight cruisers… A well crafted feast of a stew of sex, serious drama, and social morality – full of fine acting and fast, furious action – the demanding denizens of the Deuce got their money’s worth and more when this hit the screen of the Harris – VICE SQUAD… it’ll shatter your senses!

Part of THE DEUCE series at Nitehawk.

Paths of Glory

Part of the VICE Presents: The Film Foundation Screening Series at Nitehawk Cinema. Includes a recorded introduction by Patti PodestaProduction Designer who designed the KUBRICK exhibition at LACMA.

As Stanley Kubrick’s first large-scale feature made at the tender age of 28 and based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb, Paths of Glory depicts the horrors of Europe in its harsh portrayal of the French Army in WWI (a depiction that would see the film banned in France until 1975).

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike th’inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
-Thomas Gray – “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Paths of Glory reveals power and class struggles through the representation of the hierarchical nature of the military and its sanctioning of soldiers (i.e. the lower class) as disposable figures. When tasked with a suicide mission to capture a well-defended German fortification, General Mireau (George Macready) deals with the inevitable failure of this mission and the subsequent retreating of his men by court-marshaling three of the soldiers. Régiment Colonel Dax (in a career performance by Kirk Douglas), who knew the mission was destined to disaster, defends these three men but to no avail. In an ending that expresses the futility of war and the simultaneous experience of life and death, beauty and horror, Paths of Glory is the truest of anti-war films.

Paths of Glory stands about from the scope and technical focus inherent in Kubrick’s future works by being very tight, precise, and exceptional emotional. It may not be his most well known work but it’s certainly one of the most power and one that foretells incredible vision by an extraordinarily talented director.

*A portion of each ticket sale goes towards The Film Foundation. Tickets also include complimentary Larceny Bourbon drinks at an after-party in Nitehawk’s downstairs bar! 

PATHS OF GLORY (1958, director Stanley Kubrick)
Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. with funding provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation.

35mm preservation print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Also courtesy of Park Circus Limited.

In a World…

Written and directed by Lake Bell, In a World… is a hilarious and heart-felt comedy  about a struggling vocal coach who strikes it big in the cutthroat world of movie-trailer voiceovers, only to find herself in direct competition with the industry’s reigning king—her father. Amidst pride, sexism and family dysfunction, she sets out to change the voice of a generation.

In a World… also stars Fred Melamed (A Serious Man), Rob Corddry (Hot Tub Time Machine), Demetri Martin (“Important Things with Demetri Martin”), Michaela Watkins (“Enlightened”), Ken Marino (“Burning Love”), Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”), Alexandra Holden (The Hot Chick) and Tig Notaro (“The Sarah Silverman Program”).

 

Aint Them Bodies Saints

The tale of an outlaw who escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas hills to reunite with his wife and the daughter he has never met.

Writer/director David Lowery weaves this 1970s poetic drama centered on the journey of a notorious outlaw who breaks out of prison to reunite with his beloved wife, and the daughter he’s never met. Bob Muldoon and Ruth Guthrie were two outlaws on the run when their crime spree came to a sudden end deep in the Texas hills. When the gun smoke cleared following a shootout with police, a local officer lay critically wounded by deadeye Ruth. Determined to save his love from getting thrown behind bars, however, Bob claims responsibility for the shot, and receives a stiff prison sentence. A few years later, when Bob learns that Ruth has given birth to their daughter, he makes a daring escape, and flees to be with them at any cost. (New York Times)

Prince Avalanche

One weekend only – this Friday and Saturday at midnite! Two highway road workers spend the summer of 1988 away from their city lives and women they left behind. 

An odd couple of sorts, meditative and stern Alvin and his girlfriend’s brother, Lance, dopey and insecure, leave the city behind to spend the summer in solitude repainting traffic lines down the center of a country highway ravaged by wildfire. As they sink into their job in the remarkable landscape, they learn more than they want to about each other and their own limitations. An unlikely friendship develops through humor and nasty exchanges, leading to surprising affection.

Adapted from Icelandic film Either Way, Prince Avalanche is driven by wonderful performances by Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch, and Lance LeGault. Writer/director David Gordon Green gets back to his independent roots with this character study, which shows his knack for realistically capturing people and finding meaning in their lives and dreams. With a soundtrack by Explosions in the Sky and David Wingo and gorgeous cinematography by Tim Orr, Prince Avalanche bucks convention by exploring male bonding in a refreshingly genuine way.

Life of Brian

Born next door to Jesus on Christmas Day, poor Brian is forever mistaken for the Messiah in Life of Brian co-penned by (and starring) Terry Gilliam.

Who better to tackle the silliness of biblical films, religious intolerance, bureaucracy and, well, life in general than the glorious Monty Python crew? Brian is a Jew growing up in Roman-occupied Judea who joins up with an anti-Roman political group (Judean People’s Front or the the People’s Front of Judea?), becomes mistaken for a prophet, becomes a reluctant Messiah and then hangs on a cross. And not for nothing, John Cleese looks great in a toga. Always look on the bright side of life…

Life of Brian is part of THE WORKS – TERRY GILLIAM program.

12 Monkeys

Starring: Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Madeleine Stowe, Christopher Plummer

12 Monkeys
is a time-traveling, mystery unravelling, science-fiction thriller set in a post-apocalyptic future 1996 after a deadly virus on Earth’s surface has forced all survivors to exist underground. In order to find the source of this viral outbreak, scientists send convict James Cole (Bruce Willis) in an unsteady time machine to gather all the information he can about the man-made virus. But time travel and villainess plots are never straightforward, especially when the story is told by Terry Gilliam, so welcome to the new world of mental institutions, The Army of the Twelve Monkeys, and a stellar performance by Brad Pitt.