Reviews by Kelly Vance and Dave Kehr
Thu., Jan. 10
Thrillville’s Bat-Tastic Bat-Show — Screening of the film version of the 1966 TV classic Batman, plus a live performance by burlesque dancer Kitten on the Keys. (PW, 9:15)
Fri., Dec. 11
Andrei Rublev — Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky directed this three-hour epic drama that chronicles the life and struggles of the legendary 15th-century Russian icon painter and monk. The screenplay, written by Andrei Konchalovsky, is composed of eight fictional episodes in the life of the artist, involving his faith and his art. Anatoly Solonitsyn stars. Filmed in black and white (185 min., 1966). (PFA, 7:00)
Sat., Dec. 12
Beware — Jazz singer-saxophonist Louis Jordan stars as a swing-band hepcat who comes to the aid of a black university, his would-be alma mater (he dropped out), when it gets into financial straits. The 1946 musical is directed by Bud Pollard from a screenplay by John E. Gordon, and costars Frank Wilson, Valerie Black, and the Aristo-Genes Girls Club (51 min.). (PFA, 6:30)
Too Late Blues — Bobby Darin stars as a hip West Coast jazz pianist eking out a living playing small-time dates before he hits the big time and deserts his jazz roots for more commercial music in John Cassavetes’ first Hollywood film. Film historian Albert Johnson describes this 1962 music film as one that captures “the argot — swift, hardboiled, and sometimes poetic — of music-making hipsters without a cause” in the world of LA jazz musicians in the late ’50s and early ’60s. Stella Stevens and Everett Chambers co-star (103 min., 1961). (PFA, 8:10)
The Maltese Falcon — Humphrey Bogart at his most cynical, director John Huston at his nastiest, and the detective genre at its most hard-boiled (faithfully adapted from Dashiell Hammett’s novel) (80 min., 1941). (EC, 6:00)
Sun., Dec. 13
Alexander Nevsky — Contrived as a patriotic warning to Russians against foreign invaders, Sergei Eisenstein’s 1938 historical epic is a riot of geometric shapes — from the trapezoidal helmets of the cruel Teutonic knights to the clashing phalanxes of the “battle on the ice” of frozen Lake Peipous. Through it all strides Nikolai Cherkasov as the 13th-century prince from the river Neva, backed by Sergei Prokofiev’s thrilling musical score. A monumental film in every way, and one of Eisenstein’s most elegantly designed, Nevsky is a masterpiece to stand with his Battleship Potemkin. Directed by Eisenstein from a screenplay he wrote with Piotr Pavlenko (112 min.). — K.V. (PFA, 2:00)
Muriel — Complex and disturbing film by Alain Resnais about a middle-aged woman trying to connect with her past by returning to her first lover. Resnais’ films are concerned with the structure of time, and Muriel, which studies the effect of the past on the present through memory, is as intelligent as it is bleak. Written by Jean Cayrol. With Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Kerien, and Nita Klein (115 min., 1963). — D.K. (PFA, 4:15)
The Maltese Falcon — See Saturday. (EC, 5:00)
The Goonies — Filmmaker Richard (Superman) Donner’s 1985 kiddie adventure sends juvie leads Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Martha Plimpton, and Corey Feldman in search of a pirate ship and buried treasure (114 min.). (EC, 2:00)
Tue., Dec. 15
Best in the West — Maryam Kashani looks at US-Iran relations through the lives of her father and uncle, who left Iran in the ’60s and settled in San Francisco (71 min., 2006). (PFA, 7:30)
Meeting Resistance — Documentary on the Iraq insurgency by Molly Bingham and Steve Connors (84 min., 2007). (GL, 7:30)
Wed., Dec. 16
The Valley of the Bees — Czech filmmaker Franticek Vlácil takes us into the awful Middle Ages in this 1967 shockeroo. It stars Petr Cepek and Jan Kacer (97 min.). (PFA, 6:30)
Muriel — See Sunday. (PFA, 8:30)
