Though we seem to be getting an at least temporary reprieve from this summer’s scorching heat wave, The Brattle Theatre’s “Cruel Summer” program continues Thursday with two classics of boiling tempers in boiling temperatures. Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” (1989) is, of course, one of the great American films on just about every level, but particularly in the way in which Lee conveys the blistering heat of the Bed-Stuy sidewalks; from the opening monologue of Samuel L. Jackson’s Greek-chorus DJ to the near-apocalyptic climax, one can understand instantly how the punishing weather can bring simmering class and racial tensions to the surface. It screens with Joel Schumacher’s “Falling Down” (1993), which, while perhaps not on the same level as Lee’s film, presents a fascinating companion piece in its satirical(?) exaggeration of white, middle-class aggrievement pushed to the extreme. Watch both and thank your lucky stars the Brattle is air-conditioned.
In many cases, so-called “director’s cuts” are simple cash grabs designed to sell an extra round of movie tickets for a movie that was usually pretty good in its original form. In others, a recut is a life-saving triage, an attempt to restore a troubled film into something resembling its makers’ original intent. Such is the case of “Caligula: The Ultimate Cut,” a new attempt at salvaging one of cinema’s most notorious boondoggles. On paper, the 1979 film should have been an epic landmark: It was written for the screen by novelist Gore Vidal, starred Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren, and was granted an unprecedented budget for an independent film. Producer (and Penthouse publisher) Bob Guccione had final cut, though, making such bizarre choices as inserting unsimulated sex scenes without the lead actors’ knowledge. Though a commercial success, “Caligula” was savaged by critics, and Vidal sued to keep his name off the film (in a compromise, the film’s sole writing credit read “Adapted from a Screenplay by Gore Vidal”).
The “Ultimate Cut” of “Caligula,” which opens in regular showings beginning Friday at the Somerville Theatre, is something unlike any director’s cut you’ve seen before. Not only does it restore the film’s narrative to something closer to Vidal’s original vision, it is constructed entirely of previously unseen footage: unused takes and alternate angles, as well as scenes initially left on the cutting room floor. It also includes a prologue that was never filmed to begin with, here realized via animation by Vertigo Comics illustrator Dave McKean. Time will tell whether this new “Caligula” will replace the first version in the public imagination, but it is a fitting afterlife for such a bizarrely conceived epic.
IFFBoston’s Hot Summer Nights series continues at the Somerville on Saturday with perhaps the quintessential erotic thriller: Paul Verhoeven’s “Basic Instinct” (1992), the film that made Sharon Stone a star and revolutionized the world of leg-crossing. Such a juggernaut of a film requires an expert to place it in its proper cultural context, and the folks at IFFBoston have found one in the Cambridge Day’s own film critic extraordinaire Tom Meek! Other highlights of the series this week include “Thelma and Louise” (1991), which screens Sunday with an intro by IFFBoston’s Christian Kincaid; “Poison Ivy” (1992), hosted by Brattle executive director Ivy Moylan on Monday; “The Last Seduction” (1994) on Tuesday, introduced by DigBoston’s Jake Mulligan; and the infamous “Showgirls” (1995), which screens Wednesday in a double feature with the fan-documentary “You Don’t Nomi” (2019), hosted by film critic Charlie Nash.
If you’re looking for less steamy fair, pop by the Somerville on Sunday afternoon for the return of the theater’s “Silents, Please” series. This month’s installment, William Wellman’s “Wings” (1927) looms large in Hollywood history as the first Oscar winner for Best Picture. It also exemplifies the dazzling creativity and technical virtuosity of silent filmmaking just before the advent of sound confined production to stuffy soundstages (the film’s famous tracking shot, in which the camera seems to glide impossibly over the tables of a crowded nightclub, still goes viral regularly on social media nearly a century on). As always, the film will feature live musical accompaniment by local treasure Jeff Rapsis, whose live, improvised scores, when heard inside the ornate movie palace of the Somerville’s main room, will transport you directly back to the dawn of silent film.
The Brattle’s centennial tribute to the music of Columbia Pictures continues Monday with a rare screening of a true cinematic oddity. Released to widespread critical and commercial befuddlement in 1953, “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T” is notable as a rare foray into live-action filmmaking by Springfield native Theodore Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss. In addition to writing the screenplay for “Dr. T” – about a little boy who dreams he’s imprisoned in a cartoonish hellscape by a maniacal piano instructor – Seuss also oversaw production design and penned the lyrics for a full book of original songs. Seuss was reportedly unhappy with the final result due to studio interference, but the film remains a strikingly bizarre fever dream of ’50s-era special effects, and a must for fans of the author’s unmistakable brand of whimsy.
Oscar Goff is a writer and film critic based in Somerville. He is film editor and senior critic for the Boston Hassle and his work has appeared in the monthly Boston Compass newspaper and publications such as WBUR’s The ARTery and iHeartNoise. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Online Film Critics Society.
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