Thirty
Years of Film at International House
FILM
WITH LIVE SCORE
Screening
movies with a live soundtrack is a staple of Film @ International
House programming. From Phantom of the Opera to The
Valerie Project, we seek to expand the film-going experience
by adding newly composed music to classic and contemporary films.
We once again merge these two elements into one fantastic evening
of sight and sound.
Saturday,
February 9 at 8pm
Aelita,
Queen of Mars - Philadelphia Premiere
dir.
Yakov Protazanov, Russia, 1924, video, 100 mins, b/w, silent
w/ English intertitles
Live
Score by Gene Coleman for Theremin and ensemble
with
guest artist Anthony Jay Ptak, theremin and
Ensemble Noamnesia -
Gene Coleman, bass
clarinet; Marina Peterson, cello; Jason Calloway, cello; Alban
Bailey, guitar + accordion; Dustin Hurt, trumpet + accordion;
Evan Lipson, double bass
with
Q & A with Theremin player Anthony Jay Ptak
A
classic of Soviet cinema, Aelita, Queen of Mars follows
radio engineer Los from Moscow to Mars and back again. After
receiving a message from space, Los begins to wonder who sent
it while Aelita watches him through a telescope. Once on Mars
and with the support of Queen Aelita, Los leads a popular uprising
against her father the king. Switching action from Russia to
Mars, Aelita’s message may not be as revolutionary
as it seems. It is not about Mars but life in Russia. While
very popular at first, the film later fell out of favor with
the Soviet government and was thus very difficult to see until
after the Cold War period.
Aelita,
Queen of Mars is presented with live
music created by Philadelphia composer Gene Coleman, performed
by Ensemble Noamnesia and features the Theremin, an electronic
instrument invented in the early 20th century, which many people
are familiar with from its use in music for sci-fi films of
the 1950s.
Gene
Coleman is a composer, musician and artistic director. He has
created over 50 works for various instrumentation, often-using
complex notations and improvisation in the same score. Founded
by composer Coleman in Chicago in 1987, Ensemble Noamnesia consists
of about 10 musicians who work on a project-by-project basis
in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York. Many of the players come
from a classical music background, but are equally versed in
new types of interpretation and sound production, as well as
improvisation. Over the years a stellar cast of international
guest artists have worked with them, including Jim O'Rourke,
Helmut Lachenmann, Otomo Yoshihide, Luc Ferrari, George Crumb
and many others.
SOUND
ON SCREEN
A
monthly series of music and music related films, Sound on Screen
gives a home to the growing list of music documentaries, bio-pics
and concert films that have captured some of the some of the
most unique sounds from around the globe. Music is an incredibly
influential tool that unites people, while at the same time,
is almost always a uniquely personal journey. These films
will surely bring a deeper understanding of the power that music
has over all of us.
Thursday,
February 7 at 7pm
Building
a Broken Mousetrap
dir.
Jem Cohen, US, 2006, video, 62 mins, color
Co-presented
by Small Change Screening Series
Director
Jem Cohen (Benjamin Smoke, Instrument) captures
Dutch punk legends The Ex in a performance at New York City’s
Knitting Factory. The explosive, politically charged music of
The Ex is inter-cut with New York City street scenes including
footage of protests from the 2004 Republican convention. Capturing
the magic and precision of a group of musicians who have been
performing together for decades, Jem Cohen’s film is powerful
musical experience.
preceded
by
Smells
Like Teen Spirit
dir.
Jem Cohen, US, 2007, video, 8 mins, color
Jem
Cohen presents Patti Smith’s unique take on the Nirvana hit.
Thursday,
March 6 at 7pm
My
Name is Albert Ayler
dir.
Kasper Collin, Sweden, 2007, video, 79 mins, color
Co-presented
by Ars Nova Workshop
In
1962 free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler recorded his first album
in Sweden. Eight years later he was found dead at 34 in
New York’s East River. This new documentary follows the trail
of Ayler from his native Cleveland by way of Sweden to New York,
meeting family, friends and close colleagues. Ayler himself
guides us with his voice and music. Seven years in the
making, the film includes newly discovered footage of Ayler
and band.
One
of the most starkly beautiful and moving documentaries ever
made about a jazz musician - Jazz Times
Thursday,
April 17 at 7pm
An
Evening with Jeff Krulik
Co-presented
by Small Change Screening Series
Jeff
Krulik, the man behind the cult short Heavy Metal Parking
Lot takes over International House for a night of screenings
and discussion. You can expect to visit a few parking lots as
well as catch a glimpse of some of Krulik’s more recent works.
Washington
DC-based director/producer Jeff Krulik has screened films at
the Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, the American Film
Institute and on PBS. His documentaries include Hitler's
Hat, Ernest Borgnine on the Bus and the award
winning I Created Lancelot Link. Heavy Metal Parking
Lot was turned into Parking Lot, a reality TV
series on TRIO. In 2002, Jeff Krulik was honored as a guest
filmmaker at the 48th Annual Robert Flaherty Film Seminar and
2004 he received the first Peter C Rollins Film Award for Achievement
in Documentary Film, given by the Popular Culture Association.
His resume includes work for Errol Morris, Discovery Networks
and National Geographic Channel.
THE
JANUS COLLECTION
Truly
one of our national treasures, American film culture without
Janus Films is unimaginable. Film @ International House is celebrating
our 30th birthday with a selection of titles from Janus’ extraordinary
collection, all in brand-new or restored 35mm prints.
Here’s your chance to celebrate their achievements and to be
dazzled all over again by highlights from their incomparable
collection.
Saturday,
February 16 at 7pm
The
Spirit of the Beehive
dir.
Victor Erice, Spain, 1973, 35mm, 95 mins, color, Spanish w/
English subtitles
The
Spirit of the Beehive is widely regarded as the greatest
Spanish film of the 1970s. In a small Castilian village in 1940,
directly following the country’s devastating Civil War, six-year-old
Ana (played by the luminous Ana Torrent) attends a traveling
movie show of Frankenstein and then becomes
seemingly possessed by its memory. Produced as Franco’s long
regime was nearing its end, The Spirit of the Beehive,
a bewitching portrait of a child’s haunted inner life,
is one of the most visually arresting movies ever made - from
one of cinema’s most elusive auteurs.
Click
Here for Spirit of the Beehive Program
Notes
Saturday,
March 15 at 7pm
Cleo
from 5 to 7
dir.
Agnes Varda, France, 1962, 35mm, 90 mins, b/w and color, French
w/
English subtitles
We
are with pop singer Cleo Victorie for 90 minutes of nearly real
time as she awaits the results of a doctor’s test for cancer.
Varda’s Cleo is an exhilarating and deeply
penetrating film: just beyond the beguiling surface, the spectre
of mortality is always waiting. “Through an arresting use of
Paris as both visual centerpiece and reflection of a woman’s
inner journey,” writes Molly Haskell, “Varda paints an enduring
portrait of a woman’s evolution from a shallow and superstitious
child-woman to a person who can feel and express shock and anguish
and finally empathy."
Click
Here for Cleo from 5 to 7 Program Notes
Saturday,
April 26 at 7pm
Confidential
Report
dir.
Orson Welles, 1955, US, 35mm, 105 minutes, b/w
Orson
Welles’ Mr Arkadin (aka Confidential
Report) tells the story of an elusive billionaire
who hires an American smuggler to investigate his past, leading
to a dizzying descent into a Cold War European landscape. The
film’s history is also marked by this vertigo. There are at
least eight Mr Arkadin's: three radio plays,
a novel, several long-lost cuts, and the controversial European
release known as Confidential Report. At last
Janus Collection is unraveling one of cinema’s great mysteries.
Click
Here for Confidential Report Program Notes
Saturday,
May 17 at 7pm
Tokyo
Story (Tokyo monogatari)
dir. Yashujiro Ozu,
Japan, 1953, 35mm, 135 mins, b/w, Japanese w/ English subtitles
Borrowing its premise from Leo McCarey's
Depression-era masterpiece Make Way for Tomorrow (1937),
as well as incorporating elements from Ozu's own Brothers
and Sisters of the Toda Family, Tokyo Story follows
the journey of an elderly couple (Chishu Ryu and Chieko Higashiyama)
from the countryside, whose visit to the titular metropolis
finds them callously treated by their self-absorbed offspring. Only
the surprising kindness of their widowed daughter-in-law (a
luminous Setsuko Hara) provides a measure of spiritual relief.
The occasion for the
most inspired pairing of Hara and Ryu since their collaboration
in Late Spring, Tokyo Story climaxes with
a poignant, quietly electrifying exchange between the in-laws
acknowledging life's inevitable disappointments that Ryu's otherworldly
serenity renders little short of sublime. Deservedly a perennial
favorite of the Greatest Films Ever Made polls (among its many
directorial partisans are Jim Jarmusch, Paul Schrader, Lindsay
Anderson and Aki Kaurismaki), Tokyo Story was also
Ozu's first film to receive theatrical distribution in the US,
introducing American audiences to the director posthumously
in 1972.
Click
Here for Tokyo Story Program Notes
Saturday,
June 14 at 7pm
Cria Cuervos
dir. Carlos Saura,
Spain, 1976, 35mm, 107 mins, color, Spanish w/ English subtitles
Ana Torrent (star of
Victor Erice’s Spirit of the Beehive) plays Ana, witness
to (and perhaps responsible for) her father’s death. Communicating
with the spirit of her beloved mother (Geraldine Chaplin), she
wanders through a tragically curtailed childhood. Torrent’s
wide dark eyes were made to absorb the sins of the adult world
and reflect them back to the audience; and they are perfectly
matched, visually and spiritually, with the haunted adult eyes
of Chaplin, who also plays the grown-up Ana.
Click
Here for Cria Cuervos Program Notes
Saturday,
July 12 at 7pm
The Cousins
(Les Cousins)
dir. Claude Chabrol,
France, 1959, 35mm, 103 mins, b/w, French w/ English subtitles
6th Bastille
Day Celebration
This tale of a country cousin trying
to make it in the big city and destroyed in the process, gets
offbeat treatment from promising new and youthful director Claude
Chabrol. The Cousins is an impressive display of experimentation,
and makes the film a treat for the eyes if not for the heart.
Click
Here for The Cousins Program Notes
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