Explore a post-apocalyptic world with Nitehawk’s LIVE SOUND CINEMA presentation of Ralph Bakshi’s WIZARDS with a live, new original score by BLACK LODGE. Presented in 35mm!
After the death of his mother, the evil mutant wizard Blackwolf (Steve Gravers) discovers some long-lost military technologies. Full of ego and ambition, Blackwolf claims his mother’s throne, assembles an army and sets out to brainwash and conquer Earth. Meanwhile, Blackwolf’s gentle twin brother, the bearded and sage Avatar (Bob Holt), calls upon his own magical abilities to foil Blackwolf’s plans for world domination — even if it means destroying his own flesh and blood.
Providing the live score to Wizards is Black Lodge, a collective of musicians led by guitarist/composer Geoff Gersh, who re-score films and perform these original pieces live to them.
NOTE: This will be an experimental soundtrack featuring a new original score. The original soundtrack or audio will not be played.
Nitehawk’s LITTLE BOOKWORMS series presents Dick Van Dyke and CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG on 35mm!
Ian Fleming wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1964.
Based on Ian Fleming’s novel, Roald Dahl’s screenplay of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang achieves the anticipated level of mischief and dark humor as we witness the legendary flying car taking Professor Potts, Truly Scrumptious, Jemima and Jeremy off to a faraway world where children are trapped by a vicious child catcher and locked away out of sight. With a great score by the Sherman brothers and hearty performances by Dick Van Dyke et al, it is easy to see why, almost 40 years on, the movie has achieved its status as one of the greatest family films of all time.
Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies, River Phoenix
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade shows us where Indy gets his adventurous spirit and smarts from: his father! This adventures kicks off when Mr. Jones is drawn away from his day job after an art collector approaches him with a proposition to find the much sought after Holy Grail. But circumstances reveal that there was another avid archeologist in search of the famed cup — Indiana Jones’ father, Dr. Henry Jones — who had recently disappeared during his efforts. The Jones family find themselves in a series of tough situations in locales ranging from Venice to the most treacherous spots in the Middle East. Complicating the situation further is the presence of Elsa, a beautiful and intelligent woman with one fatal flaw: she’s an undercover Nazi agent. The search for the grail is a dangerous quest, and its discovery may prove fatal to those who seek it for personal gain.
MUSIC DRIVEN presents THE NEW BREED COMPILATION documentary.
Wednesday, March 30: Q&A with Djinji Brown, Freddy Alva, Orlando Arce, & John Woods. Moderated by Tony Rettman.
Saturday, April 2: Q&A with Chaka Malik, Freddy Alva, Orlando Arce, & John Woods. Moderated by Tony Rettman.
Saturday, April 3: Q&A with Freddy Alva, John Woods, Orlando Arce & Joe Songco (Outburst). Moderated by author Anthony Pappalardo
The New Breed Documentary chronicles a cassette compilation put out by Freddy Alva and Chaka Malik in 1989. New York Hardcore was undergoing a transition at the end of the 80s and this generational shift was exemplified by the bands that were featured on the compilation. The story of the tape is at heart the story of NYC and kids that grew up in its five boroughs as well as related outposts in Long Island/Yonkers. A unique set of social/economic circumstances during the 70s and 80s forged the individuals that went on to make up the New York Hardcore scene. This full length documentary profiles band members/fanzine editors/record label heads and fans that made up this vibrant scene with narration by NYHC book author Tony Rettman. It’s unheard of for a feature film to focus on an outdated analog format like a cassette compilation but it is through the eyes of these individuals that a spotlight is shined onto those tumultuous times and what is ultimately a tribute to a bygone era.
A BIGGER SPLASH is a sensuous portrait of desire, jealousy and rock and roll, under the Mediterranean sun.
In A Bigger Splash, rock legend Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) is recuperating on the volcanic island of Pantelleria with her partner Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) when iconoclast record producer and old flame Harry (Ralph Fiennes) unexpectedly arrives with his daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson)and interrupts their holiday, bringing with him an A-bomb blast of nostalgia from which there can be no rescue.
Nitehawk’s LIVE SOUND CINEMA and ART SEEN time travel with Jean Cocteau’s TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS and a live original score by PARLOR WALLS.
In his last film, legendary writer/artist/filmmaker Jean Cocteau portrays an 18th-century poet who travels through time on a quest for divine wisdom. In a mysterious wasteland, he meets several symbolic phantoms that bring about his death and resurrection. With an eclectic cast that includes Pablo Picasso, Jean-Pierre Leáud, Jean Marais and Yul Brynner, Testament of Orpheus (Le Testament de Orphée) brings full circle the journey Cocteau began in The Blood of a Poet, an exploration of the torturous relationship between the artist and his creations. – Criterion
Parlor Walls is an experimental group featuring Alyse Lamb (guitar/sounds), Chris Mulligan (drums/keys), Kate Mohanty (sax), and Jason Shelton (clarinet).
Nitehawk’s BOOZE & BOOKS presents a 35mm screening of GRAND HOTEL in celebration New York Review Books’ revised translation of Vicki Baum’s novel. Introduction by Noah Isenberg.
Booze: THE BERLIN (Bourbon, Barenjäger, Underberg Bitters) – $10
Books: Copies of GRAND HOTEL will be for sale days before release!
In the great 1932 screen drama, Grand Hotel, based on the novel by Vicki Baum, the glitz and glitter of Berlin’s opulent Grand Hotel comes alive with the personal stories of its guests and employees. Set in a single day in Berlin’s Grand Hotel, jewel thief Baron Felix von Geigern (John Barrymore) covets both prima ballerina Grusinskaya’s (Greta Garbo) jewels and the beautiful Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford), who is the mistress of the Preysing (Wallace Beery), boss to the terminally ill Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore). In just 24 hours, the lives of these people will change forever in this Hollywood classic and winner of the “Best Picture” Academy Award.
Featuring an introduction by Noah Isenberg, the New York Review Books’ revised translation of Vicki Baum’s Grand Hotel is officially released on June 7. Isenberg is director of screen studies at the New School and the author, most recently, of Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins (California, 2014). His new book, We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie, is due out from W.W. Norton in 2017.
This June – a rarity un-earthed! A prize catch worth the fight to finally land! THE DEUCE Boys turn up the temperature when it gets to be 92 IN THE SHADE, at that rat-trap known as the ANCO Theatre – where it screened – un-advertised – for one week only in 1976!! Perfect for the sweat-sticky seats of Summer – keep your cool if you can – this one is 100% HOT! Don’t let it slip through your fingers!
Plus: Prizes and surprises, a Fernet-Branca sponsored after-party, and music by Maestro Jeff! Hosted and presented by THE DEUCE JOCKEYS: Jeff, Andy, and Joe!
THE DEUCE heats it up with the rarely – pretty much NEVER – screened Florida fishing face-off fun of 92 IN THE SHADE! Delicious dark comedy set amongst the kooks of sun-bleached Key West … Flip-floppin’ blue-blood bum Peter Fonda bungles his way into treacherous territory when he decides to take up the charter trophy fishing guide biz against bonkers boat captains Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton … Tenuous friendships and tensions in the Tropical heat! A temptress in a tutu! Rich in ribald dialogue and raucous raconteuring … With a cast that can’t be beat! The sole directorial effort of cult hero/author Thomas McGuane – adapted from his own 1973 National Book Award winning novel – mining the minutiae of Eastern Seaboard eccentricities and mannerisms with maniacal precision and pointed poeticism … Languid, laid-back, and looney as they come – 92 IN THE SHADE was “dumped” in Times Square’s most decrepit depot – the Anco – by a studio too stumped to know what to do with it – and it’s a trip you won’t want to miss! Did you look at that cast list?!? What else would you need?!?
A boy growing up in Dublin during the 1980s escapes his strained family life by starting a band and moving to London in SING STREET.
Sing Street tells the story of a 14-year-old named Cosmo growing up in 80’s Dublin who must break free of a home strained by his parents’ relationship and money troubles, deal with his drop-out older brother’s antics, and survive a new public school where the kids are rough and the brothers are tougher. Cosmo writes a song, forms a scrappy band with some school mates, writes more songs, and shoots some wicked music videos. How to shoot pop videos in a recession ridden country? Beg, borrow and steal. And steal. But when he realizes he can’t save his family, he must make a family of his own.
Ethan Hawke lights up the screen as jazz legend Chet Baker in BORN TO BE BLUE.
In Born to Be Blue, the tumultuous life is thrillingly reimagined with wit, verve, and style to burn. In the 1950s, Baker was one of the most famous trumpeters in the world, renowned as both a pioneer of the West Coast jazz scene and an icon of cool. By the 1960s, he was all but washed up, his career and personal life in shambles due to years of heroin addiction. In his innovative anti-biopic, director Robert Budreau zeroes in on Baker’s life at a key moment in the 1960s, just as the musician attempts to stage a hard-fought comeback, spurred in part by a passionate romance with a new flame (Carmen Ejogo). Creatively blending fact with fiction and driven by Hawke’s virtuoso performance, Born to Be Blue unfolds with all the stylistic brio and improvisatory genius of great jazz.
