To-do: Week starting Thursday 12th May: Your Highness, Tsui Hark retrospective, Horrors of Malformed Men, The Red Shoes, Water for Elephants
Week starting Thursday 12th May
New releases this week:
Your Highness is the probably very stupid and hopefully very funny fantasy film directed by David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, George Washington) and written by Danny McBride and Ben Best (Eastbound and Down). The film is about two warriors on a quest to save a beautiful virgin from an evil sorceror who wishes to impregnate her with a dragon.
A Chinese Ghost Story (a.k.a. A Chinese Fairy Tale) is a wu xia film inspired by the original A Chinese Ghost Story directed by Tsui Hark and starring the late Leslie Cheung.
Short seasons:
Cinematheque begins a 3-week retrospective of the films of Tsui Hark, the legendary action film director who breathed new genre-blending life into Hong Kong cinema. This week’s films are Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (1980), Tsui’s controversial third film about delinquent youths on a bombing spree; and Once Upon a Time in China (1991), the highly popular film starring Jet Li as a martial artist tasked with recruiting and training a local militia of civilian martial artists to help defend the town.
On Tour (Tournée) is a comedy directed by actor Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) starring himself as a burleque troupe leader who brings a group of American performers to France. At ACMI until May 16.
Old films:
Last time to catch Freaky Fridays’ second program of films by Mike and George Kuchar, American filmmakers who came to prominence in the late 50s/early 60s for their underground no-budget lo-fi cinema work. The films are Sins of the Fleshapoids (1965), Hold Me While I’m Naked (1966) and The Craven Sluck. At ACMI, May 13.
CineCult303 presents The Horrors of Malformed Men (1969), a Japanese film by Teruo Ishii about a young man trapped on an island where he confronts a mad scientist who deforms human beings into misshapen monsters. At Bar 303 in Northcote, May 17.
Powell and Pressburgers’ highly acclaimed and recently restored The Red Shoes screens at ACMI, May 14-16.
Festivals:
The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival runs from May 14-21.
Also opening this week:
Water for Elephants is a remake of Titanic but with Leonardo DiCaprio replaced by Robert Pattinson, Kate Winslet replaced by Reese Witherspoon and the boat replaced by an elephant. The film still ends with the elephant crashing into an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean.
Jet Li in "Once Upon a Time in China" at ACMI
