The Chattanooga Film Festival is hosting a Cine-Rama Summer Series with a collection of six classic films. From samurais, to alien landscapes, to an unforgettable installment from the sultan of sleaze, John Waters, each week in July and August, CFF’s own Cine-Rama will present an eclectic mix of movie masterpieces, many of which appear in newly restored versions.
Here’s a review of each film in the Cine-Rama Summer Series. Cost of all six films is $40, $35 if a Cine-Rama Patron Program member. Individual films are $8 each.
Dragon Inn (July 6)
The Chinese wuxia (martial arts) picture was never the same after King Hu’s legendary Dragon Inn. During the Ming dynasty, the emperor’s minister of defense is framed by a powerful court eunuch and then executed; his children are pursued by secret police. In the ensuing chase, a mysterious group of strangers begin to gather at the remote Dragon Gate Inn, where paths (and swords) will cross.
Blood Simple (July 13)
Joel and Ethan Coen’s career-long darkly comic road trip through misfit America began with this razor-sharp, hard-boiled neonoir set somewhere in Texas, where a sleazy bar owner sets off a torrent of violence with one murderous thought. Actor M. Emmet Walsh looms over the proceedings as a slippery private eye with a yellow suit, a cowboy hat, and no moral compass, and Frances McDormand’s cunning debut performance set her on the road to stardom. The tight scripting and inventive style that have marked the Coens’ work for decades are all here in their first film, in which cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld abandons the black-and-white chiaroscuro of classic noir for neon signs and jukebox colors that combine with Carter Burwell’s haunting score to lurid and thrilling effect. Blending elements from pulp fiction and low-budget horror flicks, Blood Simple reinvented the film noir for a new generation, marking the arrival of a filmmaking ensemble that would transform the American independent cinema scene.
Black Girl (July 20)
In 1966, Senegalese novelist-turned-director Ousmane Sembène achieved international acclaim with his debut feature-length film, Black Girl. His urgent and intimate portrait of a young woman who leaves behind the struggles of her native Dakar for an equally challenging life as the maid for a French family on the Côte d’Azur immediately established him as one of the most important creative visionaries of world cinema.
Chimes at Midnight (Aug. 3)
The crowning achievement of Orson Welles’s extraordinary film career, Chimes at Midnight was the culmination of the filmmaker’s lifelong obsession with Shakespeare’s ultimate rapscallion, Sir John Falstaff. Usually a comic supporting figure, Falstaff—the loyal, often soused friend of King Henry IV’s wayward son Prince Hal—here becomes the focus: a robustly funny and ultimately tragic screen antihero played by Welles with looming, lumbering grace. Integrating elements from both Henry IV plays as well as Richard II, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor, Welles created a gritty and unorthodox Shakespeare film, one that he intended, he said, as “a lament . . . for the death of Merrie England.” Poetic, philosophical, and visceral—with a kinetic centerpiece battle sequence that rivals anything else in the director’s body of work—Chimes at Midnight is as monumental as the figure at its heart.
Fantastic Planet (Aug. 6)
Nothing else has ever looked or felt like director René Laloux’s animated marvel Fantastic Planet, a politically minded and visually inventive work of science fiction. The film is set on a distant planet called Ygam, where enslaved humans (Oms) are the playthings of giant blue native inhabitants (Draags). After Terr, kept as a pet since infancy, escapes from his gigantic child captor, he is swept up by a band of radical fellow Oms who are resisting the Draags’ oppression and violence. With its eerie, coolly surreal cutout animation by Roland Topor; brilliant psychedelic jazz score by Alain Goraguer; and wondrous creatures and landscapes, this Cannes-awarded 1973 counterculture classic is a perennially compelling statement against conformity and violence.
Multiple Maniacs (Aug. 24)
Cult icon John Waters’ body of work isn’t the most accessible, unless you know where to look. Thanks to a restoration and theatrical re-release by Janus Films, Multiple Maniacs is now as accessible as your friendly neighborhood Cine-Rama. Released in New York on Aug. 5, Multiple Maniacs can be seen by Chattanooga Waters fans a day later. “Restoration is an amazing thing,” Mr. Waters said in a release. “Finally, ‘Multiple Maniacs’ looks like a bad John Cassavetes film! I couldn’t be more thrilled!” Multiple Maniacs stars Waters regular Devine as a the leader of a traveling freak show called the “Cavalcade of Perversion.” When the group of misfits gets bored, craziness ensues.
To purchase a series pass or individual tickets, go to Cine-Rama's website at http://thecinerama.org/schedule