Starring: Prince, Cat, Sheila E., Dr. Fink, Wally Safford, Greg Brooks, Sheena Easton
It’s time to party with The Deuce like it’s… 2025!! As in: Two-Thousand Zero Twenty-Five!! In that, we could all die any day – ’tis nigh high time to open your eyes and ears and with witless wonder bear witness to – a SIGN “☮️” THE TIMES! Writer/director/star/Maestro Prince’s 1987-era musical manifesto Concert Film (capital “C”, capital “F”) cavalcade of choreographed, costumed, consummate consummation of stage-strutting splendor! Searing! Steamy! Sexy! Sleazy! A harbinger for the year to come!! New Year! New U! New Deuce!! Same OLD Deuce-Dummies… ready to roar!!
A watershed of jaw-dropping show-stopping that Slate mag proclaims to be “the single-greatest concert film of all time” – a sentiment much echoed elsewhere – only ever (if ever) edged from top-slot by Demme and The Talking Heads’ STOP MAKING SENSE… equally behemoth and yet altogether different beast… SIGN “☮️” THE TIMES is His Royal Badness at his (arguably) Bestness!! And despite what the naysayers may naysay – to whit: it being “fake” as a “concert film” as per the bulk being shot on Prince’s personal concert-hall sized Paris soundstage due to The Purple One having pshaw’d parts of the previously filmed live Rotterdam footage as not being up to his particulars – the pulse-pounding PERFORMANCE (more than deserving of its all-capitalization) is pure preening High Priest Of Pop perfection… pitched at a pinnacle of all-outness on every level… “makes Michael Jackson look like he’s nailed to the floor…”!!
While opening to critical raves if not so boffo box-office returns in more haughty halls the likes of Broadway’s Warner or the Village’s Art Greenwich, it was when it hit the eponymous Times Square Theater when the party really started as though 1987 was instead the year of 1999 – where everybody, everybody said “PARTY’!!
(ed. Despite the preponderance of references/allusions to the Prince song “1999” peppered throughout these program notes, the aforementioned number – despite its having been part of the live stage show – is for some bizarre reason NOT performed in the aforementioned film… as per Prince’s perhaps perfunctory design of said film being a kind of “promo” for the also for some bizarre reason “under-performing” double album of the same name… oops! outta time! ✌️+💜)
Starring: Jack Hedley, Almanta Suska, Howard Ross, Andrea Occhipinti
A burned-out New York police detective teams up with a college psychoanalyst to track down a vicious serial killer randomly stalking and killing various young women around the city.
Starring: Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale
A young woman inherits an old hotel only to find it sits atop a gateway to Hell and all manner of creatures lurk in the darkness.
Starring: Christopher Connelly, Laura Lenzi, Brigitta Boccoli, Giovanni Frezza, Cinzia de Ponti
An archaeologist opens an Egyptian tomb and accidently releases an evil spirit. His young daughter becomes possessed by the freed entity and, upon their arrival back in New York, the gory murders begin.
Starring: Pharrell Williams, Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg
Piece By Piece is a unique cinematic experience that invites audiences on a vibrant journey through the life of cultural icon Pharrell Williams. Told through the lens of LEGO animation, turn up the volume on your imagination and witness the evolution of one of music’s most innovative minds.
Starring: Raimund Harmstorf, Amadeus August, Gianni Macchia
Rolf Olsen’s Bloody Friday (1972) is one of the more underrated examples of West German crime cinema. The film opens with an explosive courtroom escape by convicted criminal Heinz (Raimund Harmstorf) and doesn’t let up from there: Heinz and his friends plan a bank robbery to break free of their repressive daily lives. The heist becomes predictably violent, with the police viewing them as leftist terrorists, and things go from bad to worse when the group begins to turn on one another. With uncredited script work from poliziotteschi master Fernando Di Leo, Bloody Friday straddles the line between gritty exploitation film and political arthouse movie. Though director Rolf Olsen was primarily known for a series of low budget exploitation films and mondo movies, Bloody Friday has themes similar to a lot of the more consciously political New German Cinema crime films from directors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff and Reinhard Hauff.
Bloody Friday screens in connection with the release of Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960–1990 from writers and editors Andrew Nette and Samm Deighan, with an introduction from Samm Deighan, who will have copies of the book for sale.
The Queen’s Cartoonists perform music from cartoons! Pulling from over 100 years of animation from around the world, The Queen’s Cartoonists bring animated films to life, perfectly synchronizing their performances with the films projected on stage. The band matches the energy of the cartoons, leading the audience through a world of virtuosic musicianship, multi-instrumental mayhem, and comedy.
For the first time ever, The Queen’s Cartoonists are partnering with Animation Nights New York (ANNY) and Nitehawk Cinema to present 15 contemporary animated films from around the world. Animation Nights New York is a monthly screening event and festival showcasing the finest animated short films from around the globe. Since 2015, ANNY has curated independent animation programs, providing a platform for artists to showcase their work. The majority of the films screened were originally curated as part of ANNY’s monthly showcases.
The six members of The Queen’s Cartoonists, all now residing in Queens, New York, originally hail from four continents. TQC has performed in wide variety of venues, including opening for the New York Philharmonic, selling out the Blue Note Jazz Club, a sold out residency at Konzerthaus Berlin, and an extended run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They have been featured in over fifty publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The L.A. Times, The San Diego Tribune, The Houston Chronicle, NPR’s All Things Considered, Mashable, and on BBC Radio 3.
Starring: Auggi Alvarez, Jody Rovick, Jerry Angell, Carol Barta, Rodney Joiner
Vinyl DJ set pre-party at 7:30
Members of a teenage street gang break into an abandoned movie theater, kill the owners, and dump their bodies in the basement. But by doing so they have unknowingly awakened an army of satanic beasts led by an ancient witch named Haggis, who have been waiting over 100 years to escape the theater and destroy all life on earth. The gang must fight to the last drop during a gore-soused night of slaughter to stop the demons from breaking loose, while they are torn to pieces and devoured!
Director/ producer/ co-writer Todd Sheets graduates with full honors from his SOV undergrad work in his previous Zombie Rampage and Moonchild with this 1993 opus, that is stuffed to the edges with action, clever camera and lighting work, and truckloads of the sloppy red stuff that would become his trademark in the low budget realm. He outdoes himself at every turn with the splatter set pieces and inventive kills, and gives nods to everything from Deadbeat at Dawn, Hellraiser and Demons, all set in the ultimate filming location – an actual vintage movie palace.
Starring: Danny Glover, Paul Butler, Mary Alice
Vagabond Harry (Danny Glover) pays an unexpected visit to his old chum Gideon (Paul Butler), who accepts the aimless man into his home, despite the fact that the household is already overcrowded. Hard-drinking yet charismatic, Harry both entertains and enrages Gideon and his wife, Suzie (Mary Alice). However, after Gideon falls gravely ill, Harry decides to step in and take his friend’s place in the household. Unfortunately, his intentions are far from pure, and the consequences are tragic.
