February 8–15, 2001

movies

Screenpicks

The week in repertory film, TV and video.

by Sam Adams

Black Maria Film Festival

(Thu., Feb. 8, 7 p.m., Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St., 215-569-9700, www.princemusictheater.org; Fri., Feb. 9, 7 p.m., University of the Arts, CBS Auditorium, 320 S. Broad St., 215-717-6300)

Named for Thomas Edison’s first projector, this locally based traveling film festival celebrates 20 years with a diverse lineup of experimental shorts ranging from the whimsical to the unsettling. Among the latter are Bill Morrison’s Ghost Trip (Thu.), a hypnotic reverie which follows a hearse across America, and Peter Rose’s Omen (Fri.), which transcends formal experimentation to produce an effect both narcotic and electric.

Same Old Song (On Connaît La Chanson)

(Fri., Feb. 9, 7:15 & 9:30 p.m., Sat., Feb. 10, 6 p.m., Sun., Feb. 11, 4 p.m., Prince Music Theater)

It’s a good thing Alain Resnais’ latest film opens with a dedication to Dennis Potter; otherwise you’d be screaming plagiarism about five minutes in. Drawing inspiration from the musically enhanced miniseries Potter crafted for British TV (The Singing Detective and Lipstick on Your Collar), Resnais takes the story of six middle-class Parisians attempting to untangle their messy love lives and turns it into an exploration of the power of pop music. As in Potter’s world, Resnais’ characters go from dialogue to lip-synching and back (dozens of pop standards by such chanteurs as Serge Gainsbourg and France Gall squeeze their way in). But Resnais eschews Potter’s production number approach, opting instead to integrate the songs naturalistically; the characters keep speaking normally, except it’s Edith Piaf’s voice instead of their own. This realist approach to musicals (seen most recently in Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You) has always struck me as absurdly daft — isn’t the whole point of musicals to give life to fantasy? — but Song uses the tunes to express the characters’ inner lives, which works nearly as well. (At least, that’s mostly how it works. Sometimes the songs just stand in for dialogue, which is jarring and not particularly effective.) The cultural barriers between Same Old Song and American audiences are significant — the songs are hits and are used as such, often appearing for only a few seconds, like fragments heard on the radio. But if not every reference hits home, the sense is clear enough, and once you adapt to the film’s rhythm, you can follow along ably. In addition to Sabine Azéma, the cast features screenwriters Jean-Pierre Bacri and Agnès Jaoui, who wrote the marvelous Un Air de Famille and whose A Taste of Others opens at the end of February.

Manhunter

($39.98/$24.98 DVD, $14.98/$9.99 VHS)

Soon to be established as the second-best Hannibal Lecter movie (after The Silence of the Lambs and well before Hannibal), Michael Mann’s 1986 adaptation of Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon introduces Lecter in the form of Brian Cox (Rushmore), who in his first appearance torments detective Will Graham (CSI ’s William Petersen), the man who jailed Lecter but almost became his last victim. Heavily influenced by Mann’s Miami Vice style, Manhunter is art-cheese, pretentious and lowbrow at the same time. (When Graham is harassed by a tabloid reporter, he flips him over the hood of a car so hard his foot cracks the windshield; a camera inside the car catches the action.) Still, there’s something enjoyable in Mann’s hyperglossy style, like a comic book written on veneered coffee tables. The film’s new transfer is exquisite, too, though avoid the "director’s cut," available as a separate tape or part of a two DVD set, at all costs. A few meaningless scenes are re-added, but the elderly transfer looks like it was run through a dishwasher. Though Lecter is a far more minor character in this tale, Cox is certainly spooky enough, even if he doesn’t suggest Hopkins’ feral, otherworldly evil.

John Waters

(Sat., Feb. 10, 2 p.m., TLA Video, 517 S. 4th St., 215-922-3838)

Meet John Waters and ask him "What the fuck happened, man?" when he signs copies of Cecil B. Demented.

Rhythm n’ Bayous: A Roadmap to Louisiana Music

(Sun., Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m., Prince Music Theater)

Area filmmaker Robert Mugge is back with this sweeping overview of Louisiana’s rich musical history. Though Bayous began as a project for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (like his unsatisfying previous film, Hellhounds on my Trail), Mugge broke free from his planned itinerary and roamed up and down the state, well off the beaten path. Most of his subjects aren’t well-known ("Sea Cruise" singer Frankie Ford about tops the list), but Mugge finds treasures wherever he looks, from the jazz of New Orleans’ Kermit Ruffins to the zydeco and swamp pop of the state’s northern regions. Mugge will appear with the film, which will be followed by a performance by Cajun musicians Eh, La-Bàs!, who appear in the film.

Mauchly: The Computer and the Skateboard

(Wed., Feb. 14, 4:30 p.m., Room 100, Heilmeier Hall, Towne Building, 220 S. 33rd St., www.blastoffmedia.com/mauchly)

Though this profile of ENIAC co-inventor John Mauchly has too many talking heads and drags on too long, it’s a compelling portrait of a brilliant scientist outgrown by his creation — the discussion of how others swept in and claimed the patents for Mauchly’s work is an object lesson in unscrupulousness.