WINTER 2005

NOV 26-DEC 9 Fri-Thurs at 7:15, 9:15pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
FILMMAKER AVI LEWIS IN ATTENDANCE NOV 26, 27!
THE TAKE
Fire The Boss.
(Avi Lewis, written by Naomi Klein, Canada, 2004, 35mm, 87 min)
Sponsored by University of Washington Division of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, and Canadian Studies Center, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Written by NO LOGO's Naomi Klein and directed by noted radio commentator Avi Lewis, THE TAKE is one of the only pieces of journalism thus far to take on the fascinating, alarmingly inspiring developments among the workers of Argentina. Once a prosperous nation on the cusp of the first world, economic deregulation bankrupted the country almost overnight, leaving hundreds of abandoned factories. In the past two years, however, the armies of unemployed workers have started a major movement to retake these factories. In a time when political docs are a dime a dozen, THE TAKE stands head and shoulders above the crowd as a rousing, intelligent and thought-provoking film.

"Stirring!" �NEW YORK TIMES

"A cross between Michael Moore's caustic style and Ken Loach's eloquence." �INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

"Builds tension like a quality thriller... [A] remarkable film that demonstrates that in the fight against corporate globalization, resistance isn't futile." �MOTHER JONES

--

DEC 2 Thurs at 6, 7:45, 9:30pm ONLY!
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE!
THE FOURTH WORLD WAR
(Richard Rowley & Jacqueline Soohen, USA, 2004, DVD, 76 min)
Shot in: Iraq, Palestine, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, Korea, Quebec, Italy, New York Activist filmmakers Richard Rowley and Jacqueline Soohen offer an eyeball-to-eyeball look at the people's battle against the growing global empire in this documentary. Compiled from footage shot in Mexico, South America, Korea, Palestine, Argentina, and Iraq, THE FOURTH WORLD WAR abandons the concept of "embedded journalists" offering a stage-managed image of war in favor of filming in the midst of revolutionary forces who fight for their own freedom and survival against long odds. Sharing a common desire to throw off government forces following the political and/or corporate backing of the United States and its allied powers, the subjects of THE FOURTH WORLD WAR position themselves on the frontline in a series of separate but related battles of people struggling to retain control of their destiny.

"A powerful, radical cry from the front lines of the war on people. This film captures the spirit of resistance: it is as beautiful and global as humanity itself." �Naomi Klein, author, NO LOGO

"An affirmation of shared humanity in defiance of nationalism." �Village Voice

--

NOV 26-DEC 1 Fri-Wed at 7, 9pm
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
25th Anniversary!
REAL LIFE
(Albert Brooks, USA, 1979, 35mm, 99 min)
Sponsored by Broadway Video
After creating offbeat short films for the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live, Albert Brooks directed his first feature film,this biting satire of intrusive media. Co-written with Harry Shearer (THIS IS SPINAL TAP), REAL LIFE spoofs the 70s PBS documentary series AMERICAN FAMILY. Brooks stars as an obnoxious and obliviously underqualified director who aims to capture a year in the lives of a model suburban family, the Yeagers. But his pestering and manipulating ultimately destroy the family and the project. One of the greatest overlooked comedies of our time, REAL LIFE predicts dead-on the conflicts inherent in today's rampant "reality" entertainment. Join us in celebrating the 25th anniversary of this classic mock documentary.

"One of the greatest American movies."-Jonathan Rosenbaum

--

LATE NITE: BRAND NEW PRINT! TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE NOV 26-27 & DEC 3-4 Fri-Sat at 11pm - See BELOW for descriptions.

--

DEC 3-8 Fri-Wed at 7, 9pm
40th ANNIVERSARY!
MICKEY ONE
(Arthur Penn, USA, 1965, 35mm, 93 min)
Sponsored by Broadway Video
An often-overlooked gem from director Arthur Penn (BONNIE AND CLYDE), MICKEY ONE is a stylish existential thriller starring Warren Beatty as a young Detroit nightclub comic who believes he is being hunted by the mob and flees to Chicago with a new identity. The film's experimental narrative and gorgeous black and white cinematography-filmed by the great French cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet (NIGHT AND FOG)-are supported by an innovative musical score by jazz saxophonist Stan Getz. Considered a seminal 1960s film and the turning point in the great director's career, MICKEY ONE is rarely screened and has never been released on home video. Don't miss this special engagement celebrating the film's 40th anniversary.

"With its surrealistic, Felliniesque presence, MICKEY ONE is a stunning piece... by turns taunting and wickedly funny." �Peter Stack, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

--

NOW PLAYING!
DEC 9-12 Thurs at 8pm, Fri-Sun at 7, 9pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
Northwest Film Forum's NEW production initiative The Film Company presents
TELEPHONE POLE NUMBERING SYSTEM
(William Weiss, USA, 2004, 16mm, 102 min)
Robert Stamm, a man in his 70s, drives a paper route in the late hours of the night. It�s not only an occupation, but an opportunity to isolate himself from the world and focus his attention on his hobby: investigating the mystery of the Telephone Pole Numbering System. As Robert learns, sometimes the answers to life's seemingly complicated questions are remarkably simple. Directed by William Weiss, the man behind the critical and audience hit "Emergency Pants Collection" series at this year's Local Sightings. GRAND OPENING PARTY after Thursday screening!

--

NOW PLAYING!
DEC 10-16 Fri at 7pm, Sat-Sun at 5, 8pm, Mon-Thurs 5:30, 8:30pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
NEW RECONSTRUCTED CUT!
FULLY RESTORED PRINT!
Sam Fuller's THE BIG RED ONE
(Sam Fuller, USA, 1980, 35mm, 158 min)
Sponsored by Broadway Video

THE BEST REVIEWED MOVIE OF THE YEAR!!!
One of legendary director Samuel Fuller's best-loved features, THE BIG RED ONE was thoroughly mutilated by the studio, nearly cut in half for its original release. Thanks to heroic efforts by film critic Richard Schickel, this reconstruction is the most complete version of the gritty battlefield classic that's ever been screened. A loosely autobiographical tale of young Americans trying to survive World War II, THE BIG RED ONE features an all-star cast including Lee Marvin, Robert Carradine, Mark Hamill, and an appearance by Fuller himself.

"Fuller's most ambitious feature...this multifaceted earthy and philosophical reflection on war runs the gamut from realism to surrealism." �Jonathan Rosenbaum

"If you want the full measure of the experience of war, THE BIG RED ONE is the movie. It gives us a sense of why men... still break down in tears when the memory of what they went through comes rushing back to the surface." �Kent Jones, FILM COMMENT

--

NOW PLAYING!
LATE NITE: SEATTLE PREMIERE! FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE! RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: THE ADAPTATION DEC 10-11 Fri-Sat at 11pm - See BELOW for descriptions.

--

DEC 20 Mon at 7-11pm
NORTHWEST FILM FORUM'S HOLIDAY BALL!
Join us for our annual holiday bash - as we continue old traditions (delicious eggnog from scratch) and start new ones (rawkus rock bands playing into the night). Start off the evening with holiday cheer and a screening of the Lubitsch classic SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, or come crash the bash later in the evening. Sit on scary Marxist Santa's lap, see the once-a-year performance by holiday band The Silver Bells, and look for a new friend under the mistletoe!

Party and screening FREE for members in holiday dress, movie $7.50 for non-members, and party $30 admission fee for those not in holiday dress. For real. Your outfit will be assessed for holiday cheer at the door by three of Seattle's hottest metro-sexuals!

--

DEC 17-23 Fri-Thurs at 7:15, 9:15pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
THE MANSON FAMILY
(Jim Van Bebber, USA, 2003, 35mm, 95 min)
10 Years in the Making!
Part sober-minded, grittily realistic re-enactment, part 1970s exploitation flick, this decade-in-the-making epic shows Charles Manson and his followers in their slow descent from drug-tinged idealism and relatively harmless lives of indulgence and excess into the nightmarish violence that burned them forever into the consciousness of the American populace.

"The film accomplishes the near-impossible, conjuring up and maintaining an unremittingly bad vibe that speaks wordless volumes about the Family's evolution from sex-driven hippie commune to drug-fueled slaughter machine." �Maitland MacDonagh

"Have no illusions: this is exploitation filmmaking at its most insane, deranged and unforgiving." � Jamie Russell, BBC

--

LATE NITE: TWO NIGHTS ONLY!
EXTREMELY RARE SCREENING OF DIRECTOR'S OWN 35MM PRINT!
DIRECTOR LEWIS JACKSON IN ATTENDANCE!
SPECIAL 9pm SCREENING!
YOU BETTER WATCH OUT! AKA CHRISTMAS EVIL
DEC 17-18 Fri-Sat at 9, 11pm - See BELOW for description.

--

DEC 17-23 Fri-Sat at 7pm, Sun at 7, 9pm, Mon at 7pm, Tues-Thurs at 7, 9pm
THE AWFUL TRUTH
(Leo McCarey, 1937, USA, 35mm, 91 min)
One of the great screwball comedies, THE AWFUL TRUTH pairs Cary Grant with a fiery Irene Dunn. In this deranged slapstick study in post-divorce life, two wisecracking socialites who quite obviously deserve each other. Armed with some of the greatest comedic dialogue ever written for the screen, the onetime couple does their best to ruin each others lives, and drive away the other's newest flames. With a delightful supporting role from Hollywood's most famous canine actor (and frequent Grant collaborator) Mr. Smith (Asta from the Thin Man series.)

"The most accomplished of all the screwball comedies..." -Andrew Sarris

--

NORTHWEST FILM FORUM WILL BE CLOSED DEC 24-JAN 2 FOR THE HOLIDAYS. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

--

JAN 7-20
GLOBAL LENS FILM SERIES
Cinema Seattle presents an exciting series of feature films from the developing world from the Global Film Initiative. Please see www.seattlefilm.com for details.

--

JAN 7-13 Fri-Thurs at 7:15, 9:15pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
UNKNOWN PASSAGE
(Kate Fix and Jason Summers, US, 2004, BetaSP, 88 min)
UNKNOWN PASSAGE is a loving documentary tribute to Northwest band, Dead Moon, and members Fred and Toody Cole, who have been together since 1968 and are now both legendary rock survivors and grandparents. As a member of the psychedelic garage rock band, The Lollipop Shoppe, Fred crossed paths with the likes of Janis Joplin, the Yardbirds, Moby Grape, and others. In the 70s, he was in a succession of blues metal and trash punk acts before forming Dead Moon with his wife Toody and drummer Andrew Loomis. Fiercely independent, they distribute and even press their own records, run a thriving guitar shop, and still manage to get out on the road and play for devoted fans worldwide.

"While tracing the Nuggets-to-new wave history of a quirky Portland three-piece, UNKNOWN PASSAGE introduces a captivating mommy-rock icon in bassist Toody Cole."-VILLAGE VOICE

--

LATE NITE: TWO NIGHTS ONLY!
EXTREMELY RARE SCREENING! OVER THE EDGE JAN 7, 8 Fri-Sat at 11:30pm - See BELOW for description.

--

JAN 14-19 Fri-Wed at 6:30, 9pm
WHO KILLED BAMBI?
(Gilles Marchand, France, 2003, 35mm, 120 min)
The feature-filmmaking debut from Gilles Marchand, screenwriter of the worldwide smash hit WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY and Lauren Cantet�s acclaimed HUMAN RESOURCES, the stylish WHO KILLED BAMBI? is a darkly surreal thriller set in the surgical unit of a large hospital. Nursing student Isabelle (aka Bambi) meets a seductive surgeon named Dr. Philipp who sends her into mysterious swoons every time they cross paths. When this strange, ever-present doctor starts to show an unhealthy interest in her newly-developed illness, she becomes convinced that he's hiding something.

"A sustained atmosphere of bleached-out horror."-David Ng, VILLAGE VOICE

--

Jan 20 Thurs at 8:30pm
VAGINAL CREAME DAVIS IN PERSON!
YES, MS. DAVIS!
VAGINAL CR�ME DAVIS CAREER RETROSPECTACLE
The LA doyenne of drag and queer punk rock makes a rare Seattle appearance to take the NWFF and friends through her illustrious career as filmmaker and high-powered scandal generator. An evening spent in the company of the international blacktress is like getting sucked into a conceptual vortex where unleashed dementia and high delusional rule! Featuring such films as THAT FERTILE FEELING, STREETWALKER FASHIONS, THE WHITE TO BE ANGRY and DR. CHRIS TEEN-SEXUAL SURROGATE.

--

Jan 21-27 Fri-Sun at 6, 8:30pm, Mon-Thurs 6:30, 9pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
DOLLS
(Takeshi Kitano, Japan, 2002, 35mm, 114 min)
From master filmmaker Takeshi Kitano, DOLLS is a strange, poignant film that weaves together three stories about tragic love in modern-day Tokyo. A major departure from the Yakuza films for which the director is most famous, this beautiful, elegiac film is one of his most accomplished works, bringing to the surface the delicate emotional play at work in the background of all his films.

"Incredibly moving. Kitano is masterful in using nonverbal means to convey a particular feeling, thought or message but this is one of his most beautiful films yet." �Michelle Carey, SENSES OF CINEMA

"A breathtaking experience." �Brandon Wee, SENSES OF CINEMA

"His most challenging and finest work to date."-Darrin Keane, FILM THREAT

--

Jan 21-27 Fri-Thurs at 7:15, 9pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
NOTRE MUSIQUE
(Jean-Luc Godard, France/Switerland, 2004, 35mm, 80 min)
Divided, with a nod to Dante, into three parts: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise; NOTRE MUSIQUE (Our Music) is a poetic meditation on war that begins with the brutal onslaught of battlefield images making up the Hell section; moves on to Purgatory�s complex and touching narrative set in Sarajevo, in which idealism and the cold, hard realities of war meet head-to-head; and finds an unexpected and satisfying conclusion in Paradise. The most politically, intellectually and artistically mature film from Godard in more than a decade, NOTRE MUSIQUE is one of the most gorgeous, thoughtful films from one of the great masters of world cinema.

"Beautiful and elegant." �A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES

"A revelation." �Michael Wilmington, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"A marvel of lucidity and wit!" �John Powers, LA WEEKLY

"One of the old master's most direct and heartfelt works."�Stuart Klawans, NEW YORK TIMES

--

GUY MADDIN AT THE NWFF!!!

The Northwest Film Forum is thrilled to announce that GUY MADDIN will be coming to town for the week of Jan 28 - Feb 3 to introduce his fantastic new film COWARDS BEND THE KNEE, playing in our cinemas. Even more exciting, the NWFF and its brand new production initiative, The Film Company - the only non-profit film studio in the nation - will be filming Guy's BRAND NEW FEATURE FILM! Join us in welcoming one of our ALL-TIME FAVORITE FILMMAKERS.

Jan 28-Feb 2 Fri-Wed at 6, 7:45 and 9:30pm
SEATTLE THEATRICAL PREMIERE!
GUY MADDIN IN ATTENDANCE!
COWARDS BENDS THE KNEE
(Guy Maddin, Canada, 2003, 35mm, 60 min)

Originally an installation designed to be viewed as a series of peepshows, Guy Maddin's silent tour de force might be the closest the cinema has ever come to reproducing the twisted logic of dreams. With a thrillingly insane plot involving severed hands, hockey stars and cross-dressing surgeons, as well as the hyper-Freudian hand-wringing over forbidden desire and monstrous repression that we've come to expect from Winnipeg�s favorite son, COWARDS BEND THE KNEE is a genuinely affecting melodrama. In the film, the star player for the Winnipeg Maroons, "Guy Maddin" (played by Darcy Fehr), gets caught in the middle of a violent, absurd love triangle-or perhaps rectangle-when he leaves his pregnant girlfriend for a lusty, deranged femme fatale with a fierce loyalty to her deceased father. Featuring the most kinetic, grittily gorgeous visuals we've seen from Maddin since HEART OF THE WORLD, COWARDS marks a new highpoint for the ever-inventive Guy Maddin. Plays with a mess of Guy Maddin shorts!

"A lovingly self-loathing peek at myself, but only as I would have enough courage to look through a cracked glass made foggy by hairspray." �Guy Maddin

"MADDIN'S MASTERPIECE! Wildly tawdry. What's truly extraordinary... is that it not only plays like a dream but feels like one." �J. Hoberman

"Practically indescribable. And it is pure genius." �Jamie Bernard, DAILY NEWS

LATE NITE: DIRECTOR GUY MADDIN IN ATTENDANCE JAN 28-29! GUY MADDIN'S TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL JAN 21-22 Fri-Sat at 11:30pm, JAN 28-29 Fri-Sat at 11pm - See BELOW for descriptions.

--

Jan 28-Feb 3 Fri-Sat at 6:15, 8:45pm, Sun-Thurs at 7, 9:15pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
DISTANT
(Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey, 2002, 35mm, 110 min)
When Yusuf leaves his small village to find work in Istanbul, he finds that Mahmut, a distant relative with whom he's staying, is less than welcoming. Mahmut, a relatively successful commercial photographer who aspires to greater things, has become cynical and reclusive and unable to appreciate the charms of his sweet but unrefined cousin. Preoccupied by his own troubles (about which he remains firmly silent), Mahmut fails to see that the jovial Yusuf can provide him with the companionship he so desperately need. This funny, bittersweet character study presents two men who live in the same apartment but might as well be living on separate worlds. In Turkish with English subtitles.

WINNER GRAND PRIZE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2003
WINNER BEST ACTOR CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2003
WINNER FIPRESCI INTERNATIONAL CRITICS PRIZE � BEST FILM OF THE YEAR 2003

"Few recent films have been so accomplished in capturing the way people drift through their lives, unable to communicate their emotions and feelings."-Tom Dawson, BBC

"The film's extraordinary shifts from windswept sorrow ... to deadpan comedy ... are uniquely, triumphantly their maker's own."-Scott Foundas, LA WEEKLY

--

LATE NITE: SEATTLE PREMIERE OF BRAND NEW 35MM PRINT! THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT FEB 4-5, 11-12, 18-19 Fri-Sat at 11pm - see BELOW for description.

--

Feb 14 Mon at 7, 9 pm
THIRD EYE CINEMA
A Quarterly film series dedicated to the very best in Experimental / Direct Animation and Personal Cinema. From around the World curated by Northwest filmmaker Jon Behrens. For our second installment we will have films by Rachel Lordkenaga, Richard R. Reeves and Devon Demonte among others including the World Premier of Sarah Biagini's latest opus MEDUSA THINKS I'M UGLY. In addition to these fine films we will also be screening a selection of classic experimental cinema including the work of Michael Whitney, Jonas Mekas and Marie Menken.

--

CHILDISH FILM FESTIVAL
JANUARY 29-FEBRUARY 3
VISIT www.nwfilmforum.org/childish for more information! Sponsored by Plexipixel. Media Sponsor Parent Map. Click HERE for the official site.

RETURN OF THE CHILDISH FILM FESTIVAL!
For childish people age 3 and up
Winter is a dreamy time for audiences of all ages to burrow into the movie theater, and this year the Childish Film Festival comes to the Northwest Film Forum for the dark months, when the cinema is the most inviting. Join the NWFF for a wide array of non-commercial films and videos, found mostly via a growing international children's film festival circuit. With a smorgasbord of animation, live-action, fiction, nonfiction, shorts, and features, the Childish Film Festival promises again to take Seattle youngsters (and the adults that accompany them) on an adventurous journey into new cinematic territories.

TICKET INFO:
Everyone is childish during the Childish Film Festival, admission is kid�s price of just $5!
$5 kids/adults/NWFF members
BONUS TO NWFF MEMBERS, FREE POPCORN!

New Shows for Schools!
Note that we have added morning shows during the week�an excellent field trip opportunity�so tell a teacher or childcare provider! Special screenings are available. Contact: george@nwfilmforum.org.



--

THE LATE SHOW
DEC 4 & 11, JAN 15, FEB 5 & 19 Sat at 11pm
Nothing useful ever gets done after 11pm

Come see local artists present an extravaganza of new work in film, video, theater, music and dance into the wee hours of the night. All this at the economical price of $7.50 ($5 for members). We can stay up as late as we want.

--

FEB 3-MARCH 10
SACRED CINEMA
A YASUJIRO OZU RETROSPECTIVE
One of the most treasured figures in all of cinema, master filmmaker Ozu Yasujiro, whose universally- revered films are today celebrated by filmmakers and audiences all over the world, was not discovered outside Japan until a few months before his death in 1963. The quiet humanity expressed in Ozu's films is so astoundingly evocative that one can know what a character is saying without understanding the language. There is perhaps no body of film work held as universally sacred as that of Yasujiro Ozu. The influence of Ozu's poignant, heartfelt filmmaking is still felt today, cited as a major inspiration by such disparate filmmakers as Claire Denis, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Lindsay Anderson, Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Aki Kaurismaki, Abbas Kiarostami and Paul Schrader. Northwest Film Forum is truly honored to be presenting a retrospective of the master's existing work.

THE SILENT FILMS
A majority of the films in the retrospective are extremely rare silent films from young Ozu's pre-war era. We have commissioned scores for these silent films from internationally-reknowned composers Lori Goldston and Elizabeth Falconer, Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Bill Frisell, and the Aono Jikken Ensemble. They will be performing to silent films on Thursdays throughout the series with Chroma Studio recording their performances live!

"If there was still such things as sacred objects in our century...then for me that would have to be the work of the Japanese director, Yasujiro Ozu."-Wim Wenders

"It is through this elegant quietness that Ozu navigates his slight stories... Nothing is forced. All that is left on screen are the smallest details of human nature and interaction, delivered through a lens that is delicate, observational, reductive, and pure."-Jim Jarmusch

"Ozu speaks to me in a way that goes beyond mere cinephilia."� Claire Denis

"Sooner or later, everyone who loves movies comes to Ozu. When you see his films, you feel in the arms of a serenely confident and caring master. In his stories about people who live far away, you recognize, in one way or another, everyone you know." �Roger Ebert


FEB 3 Thurs at 7pm
ORIGINAL SCORE BY LORI GOLDSTON AND ELIZABETH FALCONER
PERFORMED LIVE BY LORI GOLDSTON, CELLO AND ELIZABETH FALCONER, KOTO RECORDED LIVE!
I WAS BORN, BUT...
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1932, 35mm, 91 min)
Perhaps the best-loved of Ozu's comedies, I WAS BORN, BUT... is not so much a children's film as a film about childhood, the rules of its peculiar universe and its antagonistic relationship with an adult world it at times uncannily mirrors. (Ozu hints at which side has lessons to learn from the other by subtitling his film A PICTURE-BOOK FOR ADULTS.) When Yoshi moves into his boss's neighborhood, his two young children find themselves mercilessly bullied. They fight back, claiming inspiration from their authoritarian father, only to be shocked one day when they observe his obsequious manner in front of his boss. Determined to rid him of his self-demeaning ways, the boys go on a hunger strike. In Japanese with English subtitles. $15/$12.50 NWFF members, silent with score performed live by Lori Goldston and Liz Falconer, live recording provided by Chroma Recording Studios

"His first great film...funny, poignant."-LA WEEKLY


PLUS! FEB 5, 12 Sat at 11am
I WAS BORN, BUT...
Special screenings for families with subtitles read allowed by actors.
$7.50 general admission, $5.50 kids, $5 NWFF members
These screenings will not have a live score.


FEB 4-9 Fri-Sun at 5:30, 8:15pm, Mon-Wed 6, 8:45pm
TOKYO STORY
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1953, 35mm, 135 min)
Chosen as one of the five greatest films ever made in the 2002 SIGHT AND SOUND International Critic's Poll, TOKYO STORY is universally considered one of the seminal masterpieces of world cinema. The film's elegantly heartbreaking story follows an elderly couple whose visit to the city finds them callously treated by their self-absorbed offspring. Only the surprising kindness of their widowed daughter-in-law provides a measure of spiritual relief. TOKYO STORY climaxes with a poignant, quietly electrifying exchange that actor Chishu Ryu's otherworldly serenity renders nothing short of sublime. TOKYO STORY was Ozu's first film to receive theatrical distribution in the U.S., introducing American audiences to the filmmaker posthumously in 1972. In Japanese with English subtitles.


FEB 4-5 Fri-Sat at 7, 9pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
THERE WAS A FATHER
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1942, 35mm, 88 min)
In this wartime father-and-son drama, Chishu Ryu plays a self-abnegating schoolteacher who sternly insists on placing duty above personal feelings. Once again, as in THE ONLY SON, a parent is separated from his child in order to provide for his education. Considered one of Ozu's most perfect films-a box-office hit upon its release-critics have called Chishu Ryu's performance one of the best in the history of Japanese cinema, and it has become one of the country's most esteemed classics. In Japanese with English subtitles.

"There is a naturalness and a consequent feeling of inevitability that is rare in cinema. At the same time there is...the links between the generations-which is seen every day by every one of us, but which has almost never been so perfectly shown."-Donald Richie, author of OZU


FEB 6-9 Sun-Wed at 7:15, 9pm
RECORD OF A TENEMENT GENTLEMAN
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1947, 35mm, 72 min)
Widowed Otane is initially reluctant to take care of a homeless boy her neighbor puts in her charge. But eventually she takes to him, and when the boy runs away in fear of punishment for wetting his bed, she goes on a frantic search. The war left in its wake many orphans, and RECORD OF A TENEMENT GENTLEMAN represents Ozu's contribution to the genre of films depicting that problem. It also harkens back to the warmhearted, "just folks" neighborhood drama that was the specialty of Ozu's studio, Shiro Kido's Kamata division, in the 1930s. In Japanese with English subtitles.

"If Ozu had made only this seventy-two minute film, he would have to be considered one of the world's great directors." �David Bordwell


FEB 6 Sun at 11am, 2:30pm
TOKYO TWILIGHT
(Yasujiro Ozu, 1957, 35mm, 141 min)
The grimmest and most melodramatic of Ozu's postwar films, TOKYO TWILIGHT takes place in a dark, wintry Tokyo, a nocturnal town of smoke-filled bars and seedy mahjong parlors. A father whose wife left him years ago for one of his subordinates has led his daughters Takako and Akiko to believe that their mother is dead. At a time of crisis for both sisters�Takako returning to her family home following an argument with her abusive husband, Akiko seeking an abortion after a futile search for her boyfriend�the long-missing mother makes a visit to Tokyo with her new husband to devastating results. One of Ozu's darkest films, TOKYO TWILIGHT courts melodramatic excess as it tries to paint a picture of a forlorn generation severed from past traditions and bereft of hope for the future. In Japanese with English subtitles.


FEB 10 Thurs at 7, 8:30pm
WORLD PREMIERE OF ORIGINAL SCORE BY WAYNE HORVITZ
PERFORMED LIVE BY WAYNE HORVITZ
RECORDED LIVE!
WOMAN OF TOKYO
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1933, 35mm, 47min)
One of Ozu's preferred ways to present intergenerational conflict was by pitching self-sacrificing parents against progeny of various degrees of self-absorption. Rarely, though, did he dramatize that clash with such overt intensity as here. Elder sister Chikako secretly moonlights in a sleazy nightclub in order to put her brother Ryo through college. When them unsuspecting Ryo finds out, he attacks her for bringing shame to the family, and comes rapidly unhinged with guilt. A tribute to Ozu's favorite filmmaker, Hollywood auteur Ernst Lubitsch, this sizzling melodrama is a perfect illustration of how great a range Ozu actually possessed. In Japanese with English subtitles. $15/$12.50 NWFF members, silent with score performed live by Wayne Horvitz, live recording provided by Chroma Recording Studios


FEB 10-12 Thurs-Sat at 6:30, 9pm
AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1962, 35mm, 115 min)
As much a reworking as an updating of LATE SPRING, Ozu's final film once again presents an aging widower anxious to settle his daughter's marriage, this time in the more progressive 60s, as the women become stronger and the men less domineering. The film's Japanese title, THE TASTE OF MACKEREL, alludes to the time in late summer when the delicacy is in season, and Ozu's wistful swansong is never less than poetic in its evocation of particular moods, flavors, and places, not least the hauntingly empty house to which Ryu once again returns in an unforgettable coda. In Japanese with English subtitles.


FEB 11-16 Fri-Sun at 6:15, 8:45pm, Mon-Wed at 6:30, 9pm
LATE SPRING
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1949, 35mm, 108 min)
A heartbreaking, bittersweet movie about the relationship between a widower and his pretty but aging daughter. The father worries that he is being selfish by not remarrying, and the daughter refuses to get married herself and leave her father alone. This poignant masterpiece was Ozu's favorite of his films, a sentiment shared by such admirers as Claire Denis, Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Wim Wenders. In Japanese with English subtitles.


FEB 13-16 Sun, Tues-Thurs at 7:15, 9pm
No show Monday
WHAT DID THE LADY FORGET?
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1937, 35mm, 71 min)
Following THE ONLY SON, Shochiku demanded something lighter, and Ozu responded with this sparkling comedy that takes him from his usual "downtown" milieu to the well-appointed dwellings of the privileged classes. The plot revolves around the henpecked Professor Komiya as he's prompted to rebel against his overbearing wife during a visit by his high-spirited niece Setsuko. Ozu has great fun � la Lubitsch skewering bourgeois niceties, while the comic disconnect between carefree youth and their often stuffy, intractable elders looks forward to such postwar work as EQUINOX FLOWER, AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON, and THE FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE. In Japanese with English subtitles.


FEB 13 Sun at 4pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
Silent with live accompaniment
DRAGNET GIRL
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1933, 35mm, 100 min)
A stylish compendium of cleverly reworked Hollywood genre conventions, DRAGNET GIRL dazzlingly appropriates the baroque flourishes and brooding atmospherics of Josef von Sternberg's early films, luxuriating in the fantasy of a Tinseltown-inspired dreamland where jazz is played non-stop and gangsters and molls haunt the pool halls. A moody former boxing champion turned small-time ringleader finds himself torn between the affections of a vamp and an innocent maiden. An eye-opener for those who know Ozu primarily through his postwar films, DRAGNET GIRL is among the most brazenly stylized of his silents, a neon-lit, aggressively modern world filmed through mirror reflections and distorting panes of glass. In Japanese with English subtitles. $15/$12.50 NWFF members, silent with live score


FEB 17 Thurs at 7, 9pm
WORLD PREMIERE OF ORIGINAL SCORE BY ROBIN HOLCOMB
PERFORMED LIVE BY ROBIN HOLCOMB
RECORDED LIVE!
THAT NIGHT'S WIFE
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1930, 35mm, 65 min)
After he robs a bank to pay for his feverish daughter Michiko's medical treatment, impoverished artist Shuji finds himself trapped in his apartment, where his loving wife and a determined cop wait out a suspenseful evening until Michiko recovers. With this unusual silent hybrid of crime thriller and domestic drama, the young Ozu set himself a daunting technical challenge that he surmounted with a typically resourceful command of film language. Save for the opening reel, a visual tour de force depicting the bank heist in a tense eight-minute sequence without resort to a single intertitle, the whole of THAT NIGHT'S WIFE takes place on a single set. In Japanese with English subtitles. $15/$12.50 NWFF members, silent with live score by Robin Holcomb, live recording provided by Chroma Recording Studios


FEB 17-19 Thurs-Sat at 7, 9:15pm
BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE TODA FAMILY
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1941, 35mm, 105 min)
Following the death of their father, the brothers and sisters of the Toda family find themselves laden with debt. Mrs. Toda, with her youngest daughter in tow, tries to set up residence with one her married children, only to be shunted around from one household to the next. The youngest son Shojir returning from work in Tianjin, upbraids his siblings for their selfishness. This wartime movie-Ozu's first box-office hit, and winner of Kinema Jumpo First Prize-distinguishes itself from the ordinary "national effort" wartime product through its honesty and scrupulously detailed depiction of its upper-class milieu. In Japanese with English subtitles.



FEB 13-16 Sun-Wed at 6:30, 9pm EQUINOX FLOWER
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1958, 35mm, 118 min)
Stern, workaholic businessman Hirayama (an outstanding Shin Saburi) denounces the unromantic arranged marriage his parents imposed on him, yet recoils in anger when his own daughter, Setsuko, decides whom to marry without consulting him. Accused of being inconsistent, he angrily protests: "Everyone is inconsistent, except God. The sum total of inconsistencies is life!" With this ambivalent, seemingly hypocritical, patriarch, Ozu fashions one of his most memorable characters: a sad, remarkably dour pater familas of conflicted impulses stubbornly clinging to preordained, conservative thinking in spite of his own better judgment. Ozu's first full-fledged comedy in over twenty years, the gorgeously shot EQUINOX FLOWER was also his first film in color. In Japanese with English subtitles.


FEB 18-23 Fri-Sun at 6, 8:30pm, Mon-Wed 6:30pm, 9pm
FLOATING WEEDS
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1959, 35mm, 119 min)
Ozu's remake of one of his last silent films, FLOATING WEEDS presents a marginally talented acting troupe as they arrive in a peaceful town. The troupe�s leader has ties to this town that nobody, including his fiery, passionate mistress, has any idea about. While attendance continues to drop each night, it seems as if the troupe might disintegrate without having the money for so much as a train ticket out of town. Squabbles erupt and tempers grow short, but as this family breaks apart, the roots for another are planted. In Japanese with English subtitles.

"For me, FLOATING WEEDS is like a familiar piece of music that I can turn to for reassurance and consolation." �Roger Ebert


FEB 19, 26, MARCH 5 Sat at 11am
Special screenings for families with subtitles read allowed by actors.
OHAYO/GOOD MORNING
(Yasujiro Ozu, 1959, 35mm, 93 min)
Predicting that "TV will produce 100 million idiots," Hayashi refuses to buy his two young sons their much-demanded TV set. When he quiets their protest by scolding them for talking too much, the boys take a vow of silence, arguing that, after all, most adult talk is meaningless, idle chatter. And indeed, they are right. An amiable, at times sparkling, comedy filled, amazingly enough, with fart jokes, OHAYO demonstrates once again Ozu's mastery working with child actors and his wry view of consumerist Japan. In Japanese with English subtitles.


FEB 20 Sun at 4:30pm
THE LADY AND THE BEARD
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japans, 1931, 35mm, 70 min)
Kendo champ Okajima is conservative in more ways than one: he sports an unfashionable beard, refuses to wear Western clothes, and clings to old-fashioned conventions when dealing with women. When the love of a demure, kimono-clad office girl prompts him to shave his beard and modernize his ways, he finds himself suddenly attracting the affections of a chic, haughty aristocrat and a tough, brazenly westernized swindler. The anarchic humor of THE LADY AND THE BEARD is Ozu at his comic finest. A priceless gag (which narrowly escaped the attention of government censors) mischievously manages to conflate Abe Lincoln with the equally hirsute Karl Marx. The punch line: "All great men have beards!" In Japanese with English subtitles.


FEB 24 Thurs at 7pm
Silent with live accompaniment
ORIGINAL SCORE PERFORMED LIVE BY AONO JIKKEN ENSEMBLE
AN INN AT TOKYO
(Yasujiro Ozu, 1934, 35mm, 80 min)
AN INN IN TOKYO reflects the post-Depression reality of 30s Japan with a sensitive, sympathetic portrayal of the down-and-out that prefigures the neorealism of a De Sica. Under a harsh, unforgiving sun, widower Kihachi (Takeshi Sakamoto) wanders looking for work in the parched, industrial flatlands of Koto with his two young sons. After earning food by turning in stray dogs to the police, Kihachi finally finds work at a factory. Yet when the daughter of a kind woman they meet falls ill, Kihachi contemplates theft in order to save her life. The atmospheric cinematography has a near-tactile quality that renders the many scenes played out in scorching summer heat oppressively visceral. In Japanese with English subtitles. $15/$12.50 NWFF members


FEB 24-26 Thurs-Sat at 5:30, 8:30pm
EARLY SPRING
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1956, 35mm, 144 min)
Bored with his marriage and the routines of office life, young salaryman Shoji has a brief fling with a commuter friend. The liaison estranges him further from his wife and threatens their already precarious relationship. The rituals of workaday life, from the morning commute to the banal gossip among bored coworkers, have rarely been observed with as much patience and attention to their diurnal rhythms and patterns as here. "I wanted," said Ozu, "to portray the pathos of the white-collar life within the context of a transforming society... to let the viewer experience the peculiar sadness of the office man's existence." In Japanese with English subtitles.


FEB 25-March 2 Fri-Sun at 6, 8:30pm, Mon-Wed at 6:30, 9pm
EARLY SUMMER
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1951, 35mm, 124 min)
One of Ozu's most critically acclaimed films, EARLY SUMMER looks at three generations of the Mamiya family-boisterous, bratty grandchildren and all-as their unmarried daughter's advancing age threatens the household's impending dissolution. The Mamiyas need daughter Noriko's income, but also need to find her a husband before it's too late. The impetuous young woman threatens to disrupt the family's existence by making a choice herself. An oblique memorial to those lost in the war, like Noriko's lively young brother who would have provided extra income, sweet and touching EARLY SUMMER is one of Ozu's most carefully observed cultural studies. In Japanese with English subtitles.
"I wanted this picture to show a life cycle. I wanted to depict mutability (rinne). I was not interested in action for its own sake. And I've never worked so hard in my life..."-Yasujiro Ozu


FEB 27-MARCH 2 Sun-Wed at 6:30, 9pm
LATE AUTUMN
(Yasujiro Ozu, 1960, 35mm, 129 min)
In a light-hearted reworking of LATE SPRING, a widowed mother (Setsuko Haro, the daughter from LATE SPRING) frets over her daughter's unwed status. Into the generally somber tone of the earlier film, Ozu injects a great deal of humor in the form of a trio of aging, emasculated businessmen, friends of the family who try to goad the widow into marrying one of them, and a fast-talking, lively friend of the daughter, who embodies the rapid movement away from traditional Japanese values in the face of Westernization. In Japanese with English subtitles.


FEB 27 Sun at 4:30pm
Silent with live accompaniment
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
A MOTHER SHOULD BE LOVED
(Yasujiro Ozu, 1934, 35mm, 71 min)
After her husband dies of a heart attack, widowed Chieko selflessly devotes herself to the raising of son Kosaku and stepson Sadao. Her unconscious refusal to deal with Sadao as strictly as her own son causes resentment in both. When, as a college student, Sadao finally uncovers the secret of his parentage, he tries to quit the family and live on his own. This is Ozu's characteristic, moving ode to selfless motherhood. In Japanese with English subtitles. $15/$12.50 NWFF members, silent with live score


MARCH 3 Thurs at 7pm
WORLD PREMIERE OF ORIGINAL SCORE BY TBA
PERFORMED LIVE BY TBA
TOKYO CHORUS (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1931, 35mm, 90 min)
Few have made truer depictions of a young household-the spontaneous, daily interactions between neophyte parents and their often unpredictable kids�than Ozu accomplishes in this beautifully realized film. When Okajima defies his boss by defending an unjustly dismissed colleague, he gets fired and joins the ranks of the unemployed. A chance encounter leads to a temp job carrying billboards through the streets, a task that requires Okajima to tame his pride. At once student comedy, salaryman film and domestic drama, TOKYO CHORUS is quintessential early Ozu, with a classic, Lubitsch-like sequence of coworkers nervously trying to figure out each other's bonuses that still rings uncomfortably true today. In Japanese with English subtitles. $15/$12.50 NWFF members


MARCH 3-5 Thurs-Sat at 7, 9pm
THE ONLY SON
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1936, 35mm, 87 min)
Ozu's first complete talkie, as well as one of his finest films, THE ONLY SON is also among his most disquieting depictions of parent-child discord. As a child, Ryosuke's promising achievement at school prompts his mother, the widowed Otsune (Choko Iida), to eventually agree to support his education by forsaking retirement and continuing to work in a silk mill. Thirteen years later, she visits him to find that, far from successful, her son ekes out a living as a lowly-paid night school teacher. Illustrating parental disillusionment with an unparalleled piercing sadness, and featuring a knockout performance from Choko Iida, THE ONLY SON is an unforgettable, emotionally devastating experience. In Japanese with English subtitles.


MARCH 4-9 Fri-Sun at 6:15, 8:45pm, Mon-Wed at 7, 9:15pm
THE END OF SUMMER
(Yasujiro Ozu, 1961, 16mm, 103 min)
An epic saga revolving around the decline of a bourgeois family, THE END OF SUMMER tells the story of the Kohayakawas. Neglecting the family sake business that's fast running out of steam, aging patriarch Manbei instead busies himself philandering with a former mistress. His actions cause the resentment of his daughters, but when he suffers a heart attack, the family rallies to his side. Ozu uncharacteristically sets the action outside Tokyo in the Kansai region, where the film alternates between the contrasting cities of Osaka and Kyoto, the one sparklingly modern, the other a sacred repository for tradition. In Japanese with English subtitles.


MARCH 6-9 Sun-Wed at 6:30, 9pm
THE FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1952, 35mm, 115 min)
Tired of her husband Mokichi's unsophisticated, earthy manners, spoiled, snobbish Taeko escapes on a hot spring getaway with her wealthier friends. In her absence, Mokichi encourages her young niece to run away from an arranged date. The unpardonable faux pas provokes Taeko to unleash her full fury, daring any further breaches of propriety. GREEN TEA is a genial, comic examination of how well the traditional folk virtues embodied by the unpretentious Mokichi stand up in a flashily modernized, bourgeois setting, brought to life in an vivid, dynamic depiction of postwar Tokyo, complete with pachinko parlors and baseball games. In Japanese with English subtitles.


MARCH 6 Sun at 4:30pm
Silent with live accompaniment
I FLUNKED, BUT...
(Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 35mm, 1930, 64 min)
Ozu was given a week to make this diverting "exam hell" vignette about a student who fails his graduation test when the shirt on which he wrote his crib notes gets taken away by the laundry lady. The film's gags are pulled off with characteristic aplomb, and Ozu cranks up the irony by letting the failed student enjoy his indefinitely prolonged school life while the graduates go on to suffer job search humiliations. In Japanese with English subtitles. $15/$12.50 NWFF members, silent with live score


MARCH 10 Thurs at 7pm
ORIGINAL SCORE BY LORI GOLDSTON AND ELIZABETH FALCONER
PERFORMED LIVE BY LORI GOLDSTON, CELLO AND ELIZABETH FALCONER, KOTO RECORDED LIVE!
PASSING FANCY (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1933, 35mm, 103 min)
Ozu grew up in Fukagawa, one of Tokyo's downtown districts strongly imbued with the lively neighborhood spirit of the Edo era. The brash, earthy types he remembered from his childhood inspired his series of Kihachi films, so-named for the recurring, central persona embodied by actor Takeshi Sakamoto. PASSING FANCY depicts the comic relationship between dim-witted day laborer Kihachi and his spirited young son Tomio. Fatherly love is put to the test when Kihachi's infatuation with a young girl and his drunken behavior prompt his son to protest. In Japanese with English subtitles. $15/$12.50 NWFF members, silent with live score by Lori Goldston and Liz Falconer, live recording provided by Chroma Recording Studios

--

KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: Weekend matinees for the whole family!
Saturday mornings at 11am.

To check out the winter installment of the Northwest Film Forum's Saturday morning children's programming, KIDS ARE ALRIGHT, go to www.nwfilmforum.org/kids for details on titles and listings, or call our movie line for that week's listing 206.267-5380. Throughout the dark months of winter and some of spring, bring your crazy kiddies to the cinema for some artful non-commercial fun. There will be games, prizes, sing-a-longs and, of course, cartoons and comedies-new and old, homegrown and international. See you Saturday morning!

--

LATENITES!

NOV 26-27, DEC 3, 4 Fri-Sat at 11 pm
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
(Tober Hooper, USA, 1974, 35mm, 83 min)
Much more than the sum of its considerable shocks, thirty years later the original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE holds up as not just one of the scariest of the first wave of slasher movies, but as a gruesomely hilarious blacker-than-black comedy. Come see grunting bogeyman Leatherface and his squabbling, dysfunctional family of power tool-loving cannibals as they prey on a bratty bunch of lusty teenagers, and one whiny paraplegic.

"This film possesses more true scares than the entire "Horror" section of your local videostore."-FILM THREAT

--

DEC 10-11 Fri-Sat at 11 pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: THE ADAPTATION
(Eric Zala, USA, 1982-1988, 115 min)
In 1982, three 12-year-old kids from Mississippi set out to create a shot-for-shot remake of their favorite movie, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. They made their own props and costumes, created their own special effects, did their own stunts, and gathered their friends and siblings to fill out the cast. Six years later they finished. The end result is an amazing homegrown homage. The only thing more unbelievable than the kids' resourceful techniques is witnessing the cast go through puberty (the hero grows stubble, and the heroine grows breasts). We are proud to present RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: THE ADAPTATION in its Seattle premiere with co-director and star Chris Strompolis in attendance.

"A new and genuinely startling viewing experience...like nothing you've seen before." �Sarah Hepola, AUSTIN CHRONICLE

"A very loving and detailed tribute to our Raiders of the Lost Ark...vast amounts of imagination and originality." -Steven Spielberg

--

DEC 17-18 Fri-Sat at 9, 11pm
TWO NIGHTS ONLY!
EXTREMELY RARE SCREENING OF DIRECTOR'S OWN 35MM PRINT!
DIRECTOR LEWIS JACKSON IN ATTENDANCE!
YOU BETTER WATCH OUT! AKA CHRISTMAS EVIL
(Lewis Jackson, USA, 1980, 35mm, 100 min)
How would you feel if you saw mommy getting felt up by Santa Claus? For poor Harry, the site was far too much for his fragile young psyche. Fast-forward. Harry is a Santa-obsessed loner man-child working as a toymaker whose devotion to the holiday spirit is being met by nothing but cynicism and hypocrisy among his peers. Sooner or later, he�s gonna snap! Director Lewis Jackson�s holiday shocker played for 10 years on New York's 42nd Street in the 80s as a Christmas tradition, and now Santa's coming to Seattle! You better watch out!!!

"The BEST seasonal film of all time...True cinematic masterpiece." �John Waters

"Gripping, well-made little thriller...with Maggart excellent as the psychopathic Kris Kringle. A sleeper, with cult status possibilities..."-Leonard Maltin

--

JAN 7, 8 Fri-Sat at 11:30pm
TWO NIGHTS ONLY!
EXTREMELY RARE SCREENING!
OVER THE EDGE
(Jonathan Kaplan, USA, 1979, 35mm, 95 min)
Sponsored by Honey Hole
70s ROCK! DRUGS! AND A GUN! DESTROY!
The heat is rising in the planned housing community of New Granada and everyone's getting restless. The kids are bored, the parents oblivious, and the local juvenile officer is an a-hole. Let's have a coup! This widely revered teen rebellion film features the screen debut of a young Matt Dillon and is a bonafide cult classic. A 70s teen time capsule, with a soundtrack featuring the likes of Cheap Trick, The Ramones, and Jimi Hendrix, this film just plain ROCKS!

"The best movie about teenagers since REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE."-NEW YORK TIMES

--

JAN 21, 22 & 28, 29 Fri & Sat at 11pm
GUY MADDIN IN ATTENDANCE JAN 28, 29!
TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL
(Guy Maddin, Canada, 1988, 35mm, 72 min)
In celebration of Guy Maddin�s visit to Seattle, the NWFF is pleased to be showing his very first feature film, TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL. A major hit to be placed alongside ERASERHEAD as one of the great films to play the midnight movie circuit in the 80s, TALES was instantly recognized as a cult classic upon its release and today provides a fascinating portrait of a major filmmaker's first rustlings of genius. Compulsively offbeat, hopelessly eccentric and absolutely hilarious, TALES is set in the near-mythical past of Gimli, a small Winnipeg fishing town, where two patients compete for the nurses' attention by telling supposedly true stories that grow increasingly complicated and bizarre, with surreal digressions into puppet shows, traditional Scandinavian wrestling and tree-bark fish cutting along the way.

"Irresistible stuff... audacious filmmaking."�FILM COMMENT

--

FEB 4-5, 11-12, 18-19 Fri-Sat at 11pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE OF BRAND NEW 35MM PRINT!
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
(Jeff Stein, UK, 1979, 35mm, 101 min)
The Who in all their explosive, magnificent glory and rise to rock dominance (in Dolby stereo)! Using live concert footage (including the final performance of their late drummer Keith Moon) and interviews, KIDS presents an insider's look at the legendary band that made being loud and destructive cool. Being shown in a fully restored, brand new print, this is the closest you'll ever come to the wild theatrics, both on and off stage, of one of the greatest bands to ever smash a guitar. Most importantly is the reinsertion of the amazing live performance of A QUICK ONE for The Rolling Stones' Rock'n'Roll Circus, where The Who proceed to kick Jagger & Co.'s drugged-out ass.