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Repertory
A weekly roundup of what else is screening around town. by Matt Prigge
Ambler Theater
$3.50-$8.50. 108 E. Butler Ave. 215.345.7855. www.amblertheater.org
Pierrot le Fou (1965) (Shown on film): Jean-Luc Godard’s finest moment was debatably this delirious
pop pastiche, in which a gutter-noir plot—Jean-Paul Belmondo runs from gangsters with
fatale Anna Karina—serves as the basis for Brechtian gags, political jabs, melancholy
brooding, musical numbers, pastoral loveliness and loud bursts of ’Scope color
(including a party scene presented in various tints). Not to mention the best ending shy
of George Romero’s Martin. A Thurs., March 27,
7pm.
How to Eat Fried Worms (2006) (Shown on DVD): Thomas Rockwell’s kiddie fave, first published back in 1973,
made a super-belated graduation to film—the most interesting part of which appears to be
a score by Devo’s Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh. (Not reviewed.) Sat., March
29, 11am.
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
$3.50-$9.25 (unless otherwise noted). 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr. 610.527.9898.
www.brynmawrfilm.org
Pierrot le Fou (1965) (Shown on film): See Ambler Theater. A Wed., March 26,
7pm.
Antz (1998) (Shown on DVD): After which Woody Allen had a chance to commence with a
fruitful second career writing for children’s movies and/or voicing them, but decided
the world really needed The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and
Scoop instead. Shame. B- Sat., March 29, 11am.
Chestnut Hill Film Group
Free. Screening room at the Chestnut Hill Branch of the Free Library, 8711 Germantown
Ave. 215.248.0977. www.armcinema25.com
A Star Is Born (1954) (Shown on film): Judy Garland and James Mason play each other’s roles—he an
unraveling star and she his increasingly successful rock—in George Cukor’s lavish but
never less than intense reworking of William A. Wellman’s 1937 psychodrama. The version
shown will be the 1983 version, which restores most of the half-hour cut just after the
premiere. A- Tues., April 1, 7:30pm.
Colonial Theatre
$4-$7. 227 Bridge St., Phoenixville. 610.917.0223. www.thecolonialtheatre.com
The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) (Shown on film): Already bored on his third go in the series, Roger Moore faces
off against triple-nipped villain Christopher Lee—sadly, only the best Bond villain in
theory. C+ Sun., March 30, noon.
County Theater
$3.50-$8.50. 20 E. State St., Doylestown. 215.345.6789. www.countytheater.com
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985) (Shown on DVD): “I bought this pen one hour before my bike was stolen. Why?
What’s the significance? I don’t know!” A Sat.,
March 29, 11am.
Black Maria Film and Video Festival (Shown on film and video): Named for the first movie production studio, designed by
Thomas Edison, this annual festival swings by the County with a set of short films
ranging from experimental to narrative, from documentary to animation.
Mon., March 31, 7pm.
Gershman Y
401 S. Broad St. www.pjff.org
Spielberg on Spielberg (2006) (Shown on film): Carrie Rickey hosts this career-spanning look at Steven
Spielberg, directed by Time critic Richard Schickel. Spielberg doesn’t
do commentary tracks, which should make this a useful experience. He does, however, put
in plenty of appearances on DVD special features, so chances are you’ve heard all this
before, albeit not in the same place. B- Mon., March 31, 7pm. $12.
International House
Free, unless otherwise noted. 3701 Chestnut St. 215.387.5125. www.ihousephilly.org
Cinevardaphoto (2004/1982/1963) (Shown on video): Collecting three of her many short docs from the
last five decades, French New Waver Agnes Varda’s trifecta ruminates on the relationship
between photography and memory. Pointedly enough, it’s structured so the film hurtles us
backward in time. The most recent, Ydessa, the Bears and Etc., portrays
a museum exhibit covered in archaic photos of kids with their teddy bears, including
many pre-Holocaust Jews and Nazis. Ulysses was made two decades
earlier, but its subject is older than that: a photo she snapped in the ’50s which, in
20 crammed minutes, she examines, bringing back its context and interviewing those in
the shot. Another two-decade time jump takes us to Hi There, Cubanos! and Cuba in 1963, celebrating the revolution in a flurry of still photos—a moment of joy
poignantly frozen in time. B+ Wed., March 26, 7pm.
The NextFrame International Student Film Festival (Shown on film and video): Your chance to see shorts by students from all over the
world. Some of the filmmakers will be present for a Q&A session. Thurs., March 27, 7pm. $5-$7.
Jellyfish (2007) (Shown on film): Winner of the Camera d’Or at Cannes last year, Etger Keret’s
drama portrays life in modern-day Tel Aviv through the stories of three different women:
a waitress, a wedding reception server and a domestic worker who doesn’t speak Hebrew.
Shown as part of the Israeli Film Festival. (Not reviewed.) Sat., March
29, 8:30pm.
Riddles of the Sphinx/Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti/Amy! (1977/1983/1980) (Shown on video): Like those in the French New Wave, feminist film
theorist Laura Mulvey graduated from dissertations to filmmaking—though at least judging
from the three films offered here, her work erred more to the essayistic Jean-Luc Godard
of the 1970s than, say, Truffaut. The feature-length Riddles of the
Sphinx (co-directed, as with all three, with Peter Wollen) is divided into
seven sections, the largest of which shows fragments of the life of a newly single woman
through 13 360-degree pans. Mulvey is most famous for the classic 1975 essay
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, which dissected the male gaze
in movies. Fittingly, Sphinx obliterates the gaze altogether. Her
camera moves indifferently of its subjects, and vice versa—life carrying on as the
camera goes about its business, even as the circular movements imprison them. The night
is rounded out with two short experimental docs, Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti,
which compares and contrasts the life and art of the Mexican painter and
photographer; and Amy!, a mixed-method doc on 1930s aviator Amy
Johnson. B+ Tues., April 1, 7pm.
Little Theater
$5. 7141 Germantown Ave. 215.247.3020. www.mtairyvideolibrary.com
The Kite Runner (2007) (Shown on DVD): First Everything Is Illuminated, then
Running With Scissors, now this. How do these movie versions of
unstoppable bestsellers keep tripping up? Apart from the obvious? C
Fri., March 28-Sat., March 29, 8pm; and Sun., March 30, 7pm.
National Mechanics
Free. 22 S. Third St. www.philebrity.com
Alucarda (1978) (Shown on DVD): Espers’ Greg Weeks pops up at the Philebrity/TLA screening
series with this Mexican “nunsploitation” classic, featuring an orphan who arrives at a
miserable nunnery and becomes a Satanist. Of course. (Not reviewed.)
Thurs., March 27, 7:30pm.
Small Change
$5. Space 1026, 1026 Arch St. www.smallchangescreenings.com
Cartune Xprez: 2008 Sprng Cruisr Tour (Shown on video): Last seen here in 2006, Portland, Ore., duo Hooliganship returns to
Small Change with another bag of independent ’toons, including work by Shana Moulton,
Takeshi Murata and Bruce Bickford—a legend discovered by Frank Zappa in the ’70s who
handcrafts his work in his parents’ basement. Hooliganship will also be represented with
another of their multimedia works, this time employing 3-D. Sat., March
29, 9pm.
Trocadero
$3. 1003 Arch St. 215.922.LIVE. www.thetroc.com
Amèlie (2001) (Shown on DVD): After it had once upon a time played virtually every hour on
the hour, I think it’s safe to watch this again. B Mon., March 31,
7:30pm.
Wooden Shoe Books
Free. 508 S. Fifth St. 215.413.0999. www.woodenshoebooks.com
Rana’s Wedding (2002) (Shown on DVD): Before his Oscar- nominated Paradise Now,
Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad made this more scaled-down and more perceptive tale
of a teen (The Syrian Bride’s Clara Khoury) who tries to locate her
boyfriend mere hours before her arranged wedding. B Sat., March 29,
7:30pm.
Questions? Comments? Email mprigge@philadelphiaweekly.com
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