Austin Film Society Announces November and December 2018 Programming
AUSTIN, TX (October 4, 2018) —AFS announces its November and December programming calendar. November highlights include Essential Cinema: Devil in the Garden: Films of Luchino Visconti, with five films by the Italian filmmaker, Hill on Earth: Three Films by Walter Hill, a small selection of films by one of our favorite filmmakers, and The Puppet Master: A JirÍ Trnka Retrospective, by this pioneer of a remarkable genre of animation that utilizes puppets and stop-motion photography.
MEDIA CONTACT
Christine Lee, Director of Marketing and Communications
christine@austinfilm.org / 512-322-0145
Featured series in December include Home For The Holidays which will include holiday favorites like Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life and Vincente Minnelli’s Meet Me In St. Louis. Noir Canon returns by popular demand, with special introductions by AFS Lead Programmer Lars Nilsen. On December 6, AFS welcomes writer and critic Karina Longworth for a one-night only screening and discussion with AFS Artistic Director Richard Linklater. Longworth is the host of the podcast “You Must Remember This” and her upcoming book, Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood, will be published on November 13.
AFS teams with local partners for the Jazz in Film series programmed by University of Texas at Austin Professor Paul Stekler, and with The Women of KOOP, AFS presents Grace of My Heart, Allison Anders’s tune-filled movie about a singer-songwriter whose life story mirrors that of the legendary Carole King.
Ticket prices range from $9 to $11.25, with discounts for AFS members. Special pricing is noted if applicable.
For a complete list of film screenings and special events, please visit www.austinfilm.org. A digital press kit, including the two-month calendar PDF and high-res images, is available.
AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2018 CALENDAR
New Releases
Opens November 9; additional showtimes to be added
Chang-Dong Lee, South Korea, 2018, 148 min.
Based on a story by Haruki Murakami, this epic new film from South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-Dong (POETRY, SECRET SUNSHINE) follows a troubled young man (Steven Yeun of The Walking Dead) as he finds himself part of a love triangle.
Opens November 16; additional showtimes to be added
Frederick Wiseman, USA, 2018, 143 min.
Documentarian Frederick Wiseman has taken us inside mental hospitals, police departments, universities, and libraries, and now he takes us to a small town of under 1,000 people in the middle of one of the reddest states in the union. With compassion, insight, and humor, we observe how the community works as its people go to church, buy and sell guns, manage the town government, and more.
Shoplifters
Opens December 7; additional showtimes to be added
Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan, 2018, 121 min.
Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the new film from Hirokazu Kore-eda shows us the close bonds that exist within a Japanese family of petty thieves and hustlers who take in a lost child and raise her as their own.
People’s Republic of Desire
Dates to be announced
Hao Wu, China, 2018, 95 min.
This SXSW-winning documentary is a surprising look at China’s live-streaming star system in which certain popular chat personalities make millions of dollars a year. The film centers on the online idol competitions that attract wealthy patrons and supporters to individual “teams.” It’s a dizzying and sometimes disturbing portrait of the cutting edge of celebrity culture in a new age of technology.
Evergreens
Alexander Payne, USA, 1999, DCP, 103 min.
November 1, 7 p.m.; November 3, 4:30 p.m.; November 5, 7 p.m.
Matthew Broderick and a career-best Reese Witherspoon face off as a well-liked high school government teacher and an overachieving student in Alexander Payne’s twisted satire.
Satoshi Kon, Japan, 2006, 35mm, 90 min. In Japanese with English subtitles
November 17, 7:30 p.m.; November 18, 3:30 p.m.
Writer/director/artist Satoshi Kon (PERFECT BLUE) takes us into the shadow-world between dream and reality in an inventive and beautiful phantasmagoria of a film. A classic of Japanese animation.
John Waters, USA, 1970, DCP, 96 min.
November 24, 7 p.m.
Before making his mark with PINK FLAMINGOS, John Waters wrote and directed this hilariously vulgar display of perversion, officially unavailable for decades, but back on screens in a new restoration.
Andrei Tarkovsky, Russia, 1972, DCP, 166 min. In Russian with English subtitles
December 1, 6:45 p.m.; December 2, 12:30 p.m.
From director Andrei Tarkovsky (STALKER), an epic glimpse into the vast emptiness of the cosmos. An exceptional work of science fiction that encompasses the wonder of our interior universe as well.
Paul Thomas Anderson, USA, 2002, 35mm, 95 min.
December 8, 8 p.m.
P.T. Anderson’s delightfully strange and beautiful love story starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villainous Mattress Man.
Martin Scorsese, USA, 1978, DCP, 117 min.
December 15, 7 p.m.
Widely considered the greatest rock documentary of all time, Martin Scorsese’s portrait of The Band’s farewell concert features appearances by Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Muddy Waters, and a show-stopping Neil Young.
AFS Lates
Lates are late-night weekend screenings of the new cult film canon.
David Lynch, USA, 1997, 35mm, 134 min.
November 2, 9:30 p.m.; November 3, 9 p.m.; November 6, 8:30 p.m.
One of David Lynch’s most polarizing films, LOST HIGHWAY is a cryptic supernatural film-noir that somewhat prefigures TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN. Starring Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, and Robert Blake.
Harmony Korine, USA, 1997, 35mm, 89 min.
November 16, 10p.m.; November 17, 10 p.m.
Black metal, albino Patrick Swayze fans, chair-wrestling, and a carefully taped piece of bacon converge in Harmony Korine’s unforgettable directorial debut.
Richard Lowenstein, USA, 1986, 35mm, 103 min.
November 23, 9:30 p.m.; November 24, 9:30 p.m.
Michael Hutchence of INXS stars in this legendarily weird slice of Australian New Wave life. Nearly plotless, impressionistic, and endlessly fascinating, this movie replicates the experience of living in a communal punk-house better than any other film.
Agusti Villaronga, Spain, 1989, DCP, 118 min. In Spanish with English subtitles
November 30, 10 p.m.; December 1, 10:30 p.m.
In this loose adaptation of Aleister Crowley’s novel of the same title, director Agustí Villaronga (IN A GLASS CAGE) creates a cult fairy tale of terror, punctuated by a pounding score by Dead Can Dance.
Peter Strickland, United Kingdom, 2014, Digital, 104 min.
December 7, 9:45 p.m.; December 8, 10 p.m.
In what must surely be the greatest B&D love story of the millenium to date, Peter Strickland (BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, IN FABRIC) ushers us into the beautiful shared world of a female couple who live and love by their own rules.
Barbet Schroeder, USA, 1975, DCP, 112 min. In French with English subtitles
December 14, 9:45 p.m.; December 15, 9:45 p.m.; December 19, 7 p.m.
Boy meets girl in this classically uncompromising film from Barbet Schroeder (MORE). Bulle Ogier (DUELLE) plays a dominatrix whose romantic life intersects with that of a small-time thief (Gérard Depardieu).
Newly Restored
Roman Polanski, USA, 1974, DCP, 130 min.
December 21, 7 p.m.; December 22, 7 p.m.; December 23, 4 p.m.; December 23, 7 p.m.
Roman Polanski directs Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston in Robert Towne’s Oscar-winning script about a detective (Nicholson) operating in 1930s L.A. who uncovers a family’s – and a culture’s – dark side.
Diane Kurys, France, 1977, DCP, 97 min.
November 20, 6:15 p,m.; November 23, 4 p.m.
From writer-director Diane Kurys (ENTRE NOUS) comes a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in France in the fall of 1963. A pair of teenage sisters grow up together as the world changes around them in this acclaimed film.
Hill On Earth: Three Films by Walter Hill
Writer and film producer Zack Carlson joins us to present a small selection of films by one of our favorite filmmakers, Walter Hill, whose tales of bare-knuckle brawlers, swampland vengeance, and urban gang violence are imbued with a strong sense of humanity and justice.
Walter Hill, USA, 1975, DCP, 93 min.
November 2, 7 p.m.
Walter Hill’s directorial debut is a massively entertaining exploration of mankind’s desire to triumph at the animal level. Starring Charles Bronson as a musclebound drifter who becomes a bare-knuckle boxer. With James Coburn and Strother Martin.
Walter Hill, USA, 1981, 35mm, 105 min.
November 11, 6 p.m.
A bunch of Louisiana National Guardsmen on a routine weekend training exercise in swamp country make enemies with the wrong bunch of ragin’ Cajuns. Superlative action drama from the great Walter Hill, starring Powers Boothe, Keith Carradine, and Fred Ward.
Walter Hill, USA, 1981, 35mm, 92 min.
November 16, 7:30 p.m.; November 18, 6 p.m.; November 21, 8:30 p.m.
One of the prototype urban action movies, THE WARRIORS follows the eponymous New York street gang as they try to fight their way home from the Bronx all the way to Coney Island as a no-rules street war erupts around them.
The Puppet Master: A Jirí Trnka Retrospective
Revered as the pioneer of a remarkable genre of animation that utilizes puppets and stop-motion photography, the Czech filmmaker Jirí Trnka conveys the drama and psychology of his characters through his figures’ body language, expressive lighting, and camera movement. We are proud to present a selection of the master’s best films.
Jirí Trnka, Czechoslovakia, Various, DCP, 120 min.
November 3, 2 p.m.
This selection of short films from the visionary Czech animator Jirí Trnka includes the films SPRINGMAN AND THE SS, ARCHANGEL GABRIEL & MISTRESS GOOSE, THE HAND, SONG OF THE PRAIRIE, and THE DEVIL’S MILL.
Jirí Trnka, Czechoslovakia, 1953, DCP, 91 min. In Czech with English subtitles
November 17, 2 p.m.
This stop-motion feature tells the story of the founding of the ancient land of the Czechs. It is a compendium of legend, lore, and fact, imbued with Jirí Trnka’s strange and beautiful magic.
Jirí Trnka, Czechoslovakia, 1959, 35mm, 76 min. In Czech with English subtitles
November 24, 2 p.m.
Puppet animator Jirí Trnka is in many ways the perfect filmmaker to illustrate Shakespeare’s tale of magic and love deep within the wooded domain of the fairies. Baroque and luminous.
Premieres and Special Events
In Conversation: Karina Longworth and Richard Linklater
December 6, 7 p.m.
Writer, critic, and podcaster Karina Longworth, whose podcast “You Must Remember This” is required listening, joins us for a one-night only screening and discussion with AFS Artistic Director Richard Linklater. Longworth’s upcoming book, Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood will be published on November 13.
Women of KOOP
Allison Anders, USA, 1996, 35mm, 116 min.
November 7, 7 p.m.
We are joined by DJs from community radio station KOOP to present a special film selection. Allison Anders’ GRACE OF MY HEART is a loving, tune-filled movie about a singer-songwriter (Illeana Douglas) whose life story mirrors that of the legendary Carole King. Anders join us for a Skype Q&A after the film.
Essential Cinema: Devil In The Garden: Films of Luchino Visconti
Born into a prominent family of Milanese aristocrats, Luchino Visconti had a rare perspective on social class and familial tradition that informs his work. His films, small at first, grew to operatic proportions as his career went on, with a thematic grandeur to equal their visual opulence. We are honored to present several new restorations of his films as part of this touring series.
Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1951, DCP, 108 min. In Italian with English subtitles
November 15, 7 p.m.
In his last Neorealist film, Luchino Visconti tackles the vast changes underway in postwar Italian life in this quasi-operatic tale of a stage mother (the marvelous Anna Magnani) and her little girl.
Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1954, DCP, 117 min. In Italian with English subtitles
November 29, 7 p.m.
Director Luchino Visconti perhaps never achieved more elegant heights than he does in this beautifully photographed pairing of 19th-century Italian aristocracy and the operatic grandeur of Bruckner and Verdi.
Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1960, DCP, 177 min. In Italian with English subtitles
December 5, 7 p.m.
In this epic melodrama, Visconti documents a family torn apart by sexual passion, urban decay, and rampant corruption. With Alain Delon and Renato Salvatori as rival brothers and Annie Girardot as the woman who comes between them.
Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1963, DCP, 205 min. In Italian with English subtitles
December 13, 7 p.m.
In this Palme d’Or winner, praised by Martin Scorsese as one of the greatest films ever made, Burt Lancaster gives a powerful performance as an aging aristocrat struggling to preserve his family amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860s Sicily.
Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1969, DCP, 156 min. In Italian with English subtitles
December 20, 7 p.m.
Helmut Berger portrays one of the most outrageously deviant characters in cinema history in this stunning and decadent first volume of Visconti’s Germany Trilogy. Hailed by the National Board of Review as the Best Foreign Film of 1969.
Sunday School
Sunday School is a monthly family-friendly series, which aims to introduce young audiences to global classics that parents and kids can enjoy together. Sunday School is guest programmed by local cinephile and mom Stacy Brick.
Jules Bass & Arthur Rankin, Jr, 1982, DCP, 92 min.
November 4, 12 p.m.
A young unicorn (voiced by Mia Farrow) joins forces with a sorcerer to save her kind from extinction in this cult classic animated musical. $5 tickets for kids under 18.
Gillian Armstrong, USA, 1994, DCP, 115 min.
December 23, 12 p.m.; December 25, 2 p.m.
An all-star cast portrays the famous March sisters and their struggles and triumphs in this much-loved film version of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel. $5 tickets for kids under 18.
Noir Canon
We return with a selection of the most important and best of these dark stories of tough guys and femmes fatale, of rainy streets and very, very bad life choices. The first screening of each will be preceded by an informative introduction by AFS Lead Programmer Lars Nilsen.
Orson Welles, USA, 1958, 35mm, 111 min.
November 23, 7 p.m.; November 25, 7 p.m.
Long exiled from Hollywood, Orson Welles returned to make this adaptation of a tawdry pulp novel about bordertown corruption and produced a masterpiece. With Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, and Welles himself.
Jules Dassin, USA, 1950, DCP, 96 min.
November 30, 7 p.m.; December 2, 4 p.m.
In Jules Dassin’s masterpiece, a cheap hustler (Richard Widmark) puts all his chips on his latest scheme, wrestling promotion, but everything goes terribly wrong and he finds himself a target of some very motivated killers.
Edmund Goulding, USA, 1947, 35mm, 111 min.
December 7, 7 p.m.; December 9, 4 p.m.
In the definitive carny-noir, roughneck carnival worker Tyrone Power schemes his way into a mind-reading act and becomes a top midway attraction, but when he tumbles, there’s no net to break his fall.
Howard Hawks, USA, 1946, 35mm, 116 min.
December 14, 7 p.m.; December 17, 4 p.m.
Howard Hawks’s perverse adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s novel stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in a detective story so convoluted that even Chandler couldn’t figure it out. With dialogue like this, you won’t care about the plot either.
Jazz on Film
Documentarian and University of Texas Professor Paul Stekler has programmed a selection of documentaries pertaining to jazz and the people who make this music and live by its rhythms. Jay Trachtenberg, host of Sunday Morning Jazz on KUTX, will introduce the first screening of each film. The series is presented in partnership with KUTX Austin.
Bruce Weber, USA, 1988, DCP, 120 min.
November 25, 2 p.m.; November 27, 7 p.m.
In Bruce Weber’s ultra-stylish jazz doc, the once angelic-looking singer and trumpeter Chet Baker is seen in his old age as he talks about his life and plays music so bruised and beautiful it’s likely to break your heart wide open.
Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together with co-feature Jackie McLean on Mars
Stevenson Palfi, USA, 1982, Digital, 76 min.
Kenneth Levis, USA, 1980, Digital, 31 min.
December 4, 7 p.m.; December 8, 2 p.m.
This double feature pairs Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together, a lively session of piano playing and talk starring legends Professor Longhair, Tuts Washington, and Allen Toussaint with Jackie McLean on Mars, in which the post-bop saxophonist imparts music and wisdom to the students in his college class.
Kaspar Collin, USA, 2016, DCP, 92 min.
December 11, 7 p.m.; December 15, 2 p.m.
This documentary about the life and murder of jazz legend Lee Morgan is anchored in large part by the tape-recorded reminiscences of his ex-wife, the one who pulled the trigger.
Doc Nights
Doc Nights features new and repertory documentaries.
Heather Courtney and Anayansi Prado, USA, 2018, DCP, 85 min.
November 14, 7 p.m.
An intimate portrait of three DACA recipients, documenting their struggles to attend college in Georgia, where they are forbidden to do so. Co-director Heather Courtney in attendance.
Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler, Jeff Springer, USA, 2017, DCP, 71 min.
December 1, 4 p.m.
It’s man vs. rodent in the town of Delacroix Island, where a pack of lively bounty hunters are hellbent on saving their town from a scourge of invasive 20 lb swamp rats. Directors in attendance.
John Hanson and Rob Nilsson, USA, 1978-1980, Total run time of all three films 120 min.
December 8, 4 p.m.
This remarkable trio of short documentaries, produced in the late ‘70s and now newly restored, introduces us to Henry Martinson, a North Dakota poet and ex-labor organizer, who shares the almost unbelievable story of his very rich and full life.
Homo Arigato
Rare and beautiful queer films. Brought to you by Mouthfeel and Young Creature.
Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands, 1983, 35mm, 102 min. In Dutch with English subtitles
November 20, 7:30 p.m.
A multi-sexual, religious-tinged, stylish erotic thriller that paved the way for Verhoeven’s later films BASIC INSTINCT and SHOWGIRLS.
Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion, & Disco
James Crump, USA, 2018, DCP, 95 min.
December 18, 7:30 p.m.
Immerse yourself in the colorful world of the most influential fashion illustrator of the disco era, Antonio Lopez, in this celebration of his life as told through his friends and artwork.
Home for the Holidays
The holidays are a period of travel for many of us as we venture to far-off homes and hearths. For some of us though, Austin is our home, and we are staying home for the holidays. With that in mind, we are presenting some of our favorite holiday classics on the big screen.
Frank Capra, USA, 1946, DCP, 130 min.
December 22, 4 p.m.; December 24, 6 p.m.; December 25, 7 p.m.
There’s a reason why families have made this Frank Capra classic a holiday tradition: it is an honest film full of deep, real emotion. Jimmy Stewart, a good man with the highest values, struggles to find his place in the world, but fortunately receives a little angelic assistance.
Vincente Minnelli, USA, 1944, DCP, 113 min.
December 23, 2 p.m.; December 25, 4 p.m.
In Vincente Minnelli’s moving musical, a close knit family with four daughters is shown over the course of a full year as they prepare to leave their St. Louis home for a new life in New York. Judy Garland has never been more affecting than she is here, singing “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.”
Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1982, DCP, 188 min. In Swedish with English subtitles.
December 24, 2 p.m.; December 26, 5 p.m.; December 28, 6 p.m.
Ingmar Bergman’s magical, mystical prism of childhood includes what must be one of the greatest family Christmas sequences in cinema history. In it, you feel the wonder of the season and the deep mysteries of familial connection.
Billy Wilder, USA, 1960, DCP, 125 min.
December 27, 7 p.m.; December 29, 7 p.m.; December 30, 4 p.m.; December 31, 7 p.m.
Billy Wilder’s serio-comic touch has never been more evident, or more rousingly engaging, than it is here. Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine play a pair of young people whose entanglement with corrupt company executives reaches a crisis point one New Year’s Eve.
PARTNER EVENTS
Various, 100 min.
November 28, 7 p.m.
A selection of diverse, award-winning shorts from Australia are presented in this annual traveling program.
November 18, December 9
Spend your Sunday enjoying the best classic and contemporary French films, brought to you by the Alliance Française Ciné-Club.
ABOUT AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY
Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, the Austin Film Society’s mission is to empower our community to make, watch, and love creative media. AFS curates and screens hundreds of repertory, international, and art house films annually at the AFS Cinema; delivers financial support to Texas filmmakers through the AFS Grant; operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, and Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse media makers to train and collaborate. Through its award-winning after school classes, intern training, and the Ed Lowry Student Film program, AFS encourages media and film literacy and provides a place for youth of all backgrounds to learn the craft of filmmaking and gain access to tools for media production. By hosting premieres, special events, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community. To learn more about the AFS Cinema or about Austin Film Society’s mission visit: www.austinfilm.org and follow @AustinFilm on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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