The coronavirus edition: 10 films to shelter with
With the Harvard Film Archive and Brattle Theatre announcing they’re going dark due to Covid-19 health concerns, there’s not a lot to write about here in terms of special movie events and local arthouse and repertory programming. Instead: 10 films to start streaming, renting or buying online.
War, Prince and Space Week share Brattle; sustainability sells out; HFA has ‘First Cow’ (updated)
As part of Space Week at Harvard, The Brattle Theatre hosts the Space Film Festival – but also a run of Klimov’s “Come and See” and Prince’s “Purple Rain – and the Harvard Film Archive brings in Kelly Reichardt to show her latest, “First Cow.” There’s also food for thought at the Somerville Theatre.
Reichardt of ‘Meek’s Cutoff’ knows her way; Brattle offers primary ‘Color,’ top murders
The Harvard Film Archive focuses on Kelly Reichardt, the brilliant but under-the-radar director behind “Meek’s Cutoff,” while the Brattle has the cure for political primary jitters: an insane Nic Cage and “Eight Perfect (Films About) Murder,” with works ranging from Hitchcock to the Coen brothers.
From ‘My First Film’ to three from Douglas before Channel Zero resurfaces a ‘Socrates’
With Zia Anger’s “My First Film,” the artist is present – and every performance is different. The Brattle also honors the late Kirk Douglas, and the Channel Zero series continues a 25-year history of treasured “relentless obscurity” with a resurfaced take on “Socrates.”
Don’t tread on him? Colorado man built tank; then scene shifts to Chile, and South Central
The coming week brings a three-night area premiere of Paul Solet’s fearsome documentary about the man who terrorized a Colorado town with a homemade tank, as well as Patricio Guzmán’s Chile Trilogy and a screening of the modern classic “Boyz N the Hood.”
For Valentine’s Day, familial love captured and tortured romances impossible to hold
Looking for love? The DocYard kicks off its season with “América,” about a family coming together when its matriarch is hurt – but if it’s actually romance and sex that’s wanted, tortured classics “Casablanca,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Eternal Mind” and “Betty Blue” are here for you too.
Science Fiction Film Fest lands with its ’Thon, and see ‘Once Upon a Time’ a few more times
The 45th incarnation of the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival comes to town, an 11-day fest with shorts, area premieres, documentaries and a sci-fi movie marathon. And if you missed Quentin Tarantino’s bright, fierce ’60s homage “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood” in July? The Brattle will help.
Wexler’s ‘Medium Cool’ takes us to riots of ’68, while Brattle schools us on the eclectic Varda
As part of its “Cinema of Resistance” program, the Harvard Film Archive screens Haskell Wexler’s brilliant directorial debut “Medium Cool,” with footage in which actors pass through actual riots, while The Brattle Theatre kicks off its “Varda Rarities” in honor of French New Waver Agnès Varda.
MLK holiday gets screen treatment at Brattle, while Film Archive remembers ‘Eve’s Bayou’
On Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, The Brattle Theater honors the civil rights activist via the Belmont World Film’s 17th Annual Family Festival before heading off for a look at “Things to Come: The Birth of Sci-Fi Cinema.” The Harvard Film Archive resurrects a Kasi Lemmons gem and more.
Brattle’s ‘best of’ includes crawl with gators, while HFA toasts Hitchcock and Schanelec
The Brattle Theatre continues its “(Some of) The Best of 2019” series with the alligator-iffic “Crawl” from French gore maestro Alexandre Aja, and the Harvard Film Archive kicks off a celebration of Hitchcock silent films and, separately, of German filmmaker and actress Angela Schanelec.
