This Weekend's Events

Friday October 9

The Strange World of Coffin Joe

at Midnight I Will Take Your Soul w/ This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse

In a feat of pure will and cinematic street smarts, first-time director Jose Mojica Marins took a few scraps of film, a 600 square-foot studio and a miniscule budget pieced together by selling his family's house and car, and created this dazzling garage Guignol masterpiece that rocked Brazil's pop culture and psyche with its extreme violence, taboo-smashing scenes, and the creation of an indelible fully-realized character that would go on to capture the imaginations of horror fans around the world - Coffin Joe!

God-defying and child-loving, philosophizing and self-aggrandizing, sadistic and ballistic, prone to proclamations and exaggerations (usually delivered via maniacally melodramatic monologues in Marins' unique acting style), Coffin Joe debuts here as a fearsome undertaker who terrorizes the citizens with his violent, narcissistic behavior. Just for kicks he ties up a woman and lets spiders crawl over her, and, even more horrifyingly, he voraciously eats meat on Good Friday! One of the great debuts in horror in history.

Dir. José Mojica Marins, 1964, 35mm, 84 min.

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The American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre Presents... Agnes Varda

THE BEACHES OF AGNES
June 24 - July, 1, 2009

Director Agnes Varda In Person with A Sneak Preview
of Her Latest Film: THE BEACHES OF AGNES

A gifted and outspoken feminist and one of the most acclaimed directors anywhere in the world, Agnes Varda could be considered the prototype of today’s independent filmmaker. Varda is a survivor, a stubborn and patient observer of her time and her people, like the pop singer in CLEO FROM 5 TO 7, the lovers in LE BONHEUR (HAPPINESS) or the drifter in VAGABOND. "I have fought so much since I started … for something that comes from emotion, from visual emotion, sound emotion, feeling, and finding a shape for that," Varda has said. Varda directed her first feature, LA POINTE COURTE, in 1954, with no formal training in filmmaking. The movie has often been identified as the film that started the French New Wave ("and a famous flop," as Varda has wryly noted). Along with Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, she made up the so-called "Left Bank Group" of the early 1960s, distinct from other New Wave directors for their interest in both documentary and fiction and their passion for both political and social filmmaking. Her marriage to Jacques Demy (1931-1990) made her one-half of the most beloved filmmaking couple of their day, and her tribute to Demy, JACQUOT DE NANTES, is one of her finest films.

Plus a Mini-Retrospective!
AGNES VARDA IN PERSON TRIBUTE
Including two documentaries capturing 1960s Los Angeles - shot when Varda and husband Jacques Demy lived in LA!

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