New 35mm Essential Cinema Series, ‘Surrealist Love Goddesses’, Starts June 9
Our next Essential Cinema series, Surrealist Love Goddesses, begins June 9. Over the course of four weeks we will examine the bold, daring lives and careers of four of the most magnetic personalities ever to grace the screen. All screenings are 35mm. Watch the trailer!First, on June 9, is G.W. Pabst’s bizarre, silent melodrama DIARY […]
Cool Movie Event Alert: New French Cinema Comes To Austin This Weekend
Heads up for a really special event this weekend, Friday, June 3 through Sunday, June 5. For the second year, AFS is partnering with Premiers Plans, a film festival and organization located in the Loire Valley capital of Angers France, to create a cross-cultural dialogue about independent film. Four new award-winning French language films, all […]
Filmmaker Robert Greene Critiques the Trump “Performance”
Robert Greene is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today. His work frequently mines the area of life where “performance” and “real life” intersect. His 2011 doc FAKE IT SO REAL takes us into the real/fake world of backyard wrestlers as they live through their personas. More recently, his film ACTRESS shows us how […]
Happy Birthday Pam Grier! Watch These Hilarious, Fascinating and Raw Interview Clips
It’s a funny thing. The camera just loves some people more than others. Sometimes it’s a matter of bone structure and light. Often it’s in the eyes. In many cases, it’s just a person’s authenticity coming across – we just like that person. Actress Pam Grier, who, it should be noted, also has a fantastic […]
Watch This: KUSAMA’S SELF-OBLITERATION, a 1967 Film Portrait of Artist Yayoi Kusama
One of the big, exciting cultural events of the year is happening in a city a few hours to our east, the city is called Houston and the event is an exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s dazzling, colorful “infinity rooms.” You can read the description here on MFAH’s page. You need a damn good reason to […]
Nora Ephron’s Favorite Love Stories
Nora Ephron (born on this date in 1941) wrote a piece shortly before she died about her favorite romantic comedies. The novelist, journalist and filmmaker knew quite a lot about the subject, having herself written and produced WHEN HARRY MET SALLY(1989) and having written and directed SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE (1993). Here is the article, and […]
Listen Here: French Tough Guy Jean Gabin Sings… Kind Of
Jean Gabin, born Jean-Alexis Moncorgé on this date in 1904, was a great actor. That much is clear from his screen work for Jean Renoir, Marcel Carné, Julien Duvivier, Max Ophuls and many other masters. He was also the kind of actor whom audiences take to heart for reasons we can’t necessarily explain but that […]
Watch This: Louise Brooks Speaks!
“She was the most seductive, sensual image of woman ever committed to celluloid. When Hollywood bored her she walked out on Hollywood. When men bored her she walked out on them. She’s the only unrepentant hedonist, the only pure pleasure seeker I think I’ve ever known.” – Kenneth Tynan Here is a very interesting documentary […]
Rossellini ’77: Outrage at Cannes
The 69th Cannes International Film Festival kicks off tomorrow, and Austinite Jeff Nichols’ LOVING will appear in competition, alongside other global greats like Asghar Farhadi, the Dardenne brothers, Pedro Almodovar and Andrea Arnold. But LOVING isn’t the only thing that Austin and Cannes have in common this week, the other is Roberto Rossellini, who is […]
Watch This: Two Time Oscar Winner & British MP Glenda Jackson Raises Hell in Parliament
Glenda Jackson, born 80 years ago today, had an enviable acting career both on stage and screen. As a member of the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company, where she and her cohorts helped to bring about a widespread, modern reappraisal of the Bard’s work and later as a film actress, where she brought a new kind […]
Amazing But True: Orson Welles and The Mercury Wonder Show
Orson Welles produces Rita Hayworth from a steamer trunk, 1943 In 1943 world famous actor and filmmaker Orson Welles (who was born on this date in 1915) was eager to do something special for the war effort. Though he was a poor physical candidate for service – he rated a 4F – he could do […]
Watch This: OUTSIDER, Episode 1: The True Story Behind MIAMI CONNECTION
As the screwed-and-chopped narration intones at the beginning of the first episode of the new Vice show OUTSIDER, “Welcome to the show that reveals the beautifully complex and unique minds behind the world’s most inadvertently insane movies.” This new show, produced by sometime-AFS staffer Zack Carlson and Vice-lord Evan Husney, promises to take us into […]
