Quentin Tarantino In Person, The Beaches of Agnes, In the Loop Just Added to February Calendar

Just when you finished circling all the programs you wanted to attend at the American Cinematheque this month, we went and added more shows...

Quentin Tarantino In Person

Monday, February 8 - 6:00 PM
Quentin Tarantino In-Person! Double Feature!
PULP FICTION, 1994, Miramax, 153 min. Director Quentin Tarantino's dazzling, nitro-fueled homage to 1930's crime fiction, Elvis Presley flicks, Los Angeles diners, Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Melville is arguably the most audacious and exciting American film of the 1990's. The movie's brilliant, against-type casting includes John Travolta (in a career-reviving performance), Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Harvey Keitel, Eric Stolz, Maria de Medeiros, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Christopher Walken and Ving Rhames. Winner of LAFCA Awards for Best Picture, Actor (John Travolta) and Screenplay (Tarantino and Roger Avary).

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, 2009, Universal Pictures, 153 min. Tarantino's most recent cinematic achievement blends the director's trademark fetishism of film history with an emphatically violent, gung-ho pop culture assault against the 20th century's greatest villains: the Nazis. When a beautiful Jewish film projectionist recognizes the SS general (a magnetic Christopher Waltz) who riddled her family with bullets several years earlier, she brews a plan that involves revenge and celluloid. Meanwhile, a guerilla clan of Jewish-American soldiers and their twangy lieutenant (Brad Pitt) have plans of their own for the venomous Nazis. Nominated for 4 Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture, Director, Screenplay, and a win for Waltz for Best Supporting Actor. 8 Oscar nominations. Discussion following each film with director Quentin Tarantino, moderated by Todd McCarthy.


Tuesday, February 9 - 7:30 PM
Double Feature: Cannes Film Festival Version!
KILL BILL: Vol. 1, 2003, Miramax, 111 min. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. With Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica Fox, Darryl Hannah, Michael Parks, Sonny Chiba. Kill Bill is both an homage and a reimagining of the genre films that Quentin Taratino has seen and loved: spaghetti westerns, Chinese martial arts films, Japanese samurai movies and anime. The film is conceived in chapters, each with the characteristic look and pulse of a specific genre and then interwoven with references from pop culture. It is the tale of Beatrix Kiddo (a perfectly cast Uma Thurman) and her quest for bloody justice after being left for dead on her wedding day.

Cannes Film Festival Version!
KILL BILL: Vol. 2, 2004, Miramax, 136 min. The second and final installment in Tarantino's pulsating KILL BILL epic, Vol. 2 finds Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman at her most raw and empowering) waking from a lengthy coma and having the devastating realization that the baby she was carrying has died. This loss only serves as more fuel to her vengeful fire, and The Bride begins hunting down the final three people on her to-kill list: Budd (Bill's brother), Elle Driver (a one-eyed doozy), and Bill himself. Hyperbolically innovative death sequences, punchy color and a first-rate score by Wu-Tang Clan's The RZA make this one of the best action films of the new millennium - and also so much more than an action film. Also starring David Carradine, Michael Madsen, and Daryl Hannah.


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Critics Buzz

We're bring some films back to the big screen that we don't think got enough time on the big screen when they were initially released - and the critics think so too. See the films that were mentioned on a number of Critic's end of year lists...
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FEBRUARY 11 - 14:
Critic's Buzz Special Screenings:


THE BEACHES OF AGNES [Spielberg Theatre]
Thursday, February 11- 7:30 PM THE BEACHES OF AGNES
Friday, February 12 - 9:30 PM IN THE BEACH OF AGNES
Saturday, February 13 - 7:30 PM THE BEACHES OF AGNES
Sunday, February 14 - 4:00 PM THE BEACHES OF AGNES

THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS (LES PLAGES D’ AGNÈS), 2008, 110 min. "If you opened people up, you would find landscapes," Varda says in the opening voiceover of her new film. "If you opened me up, you would find beaches." Varda’s latest work is an autobiographical essay that takes a nostalgic yet penetrating look back at her life and films. Using photographs, recreations and scenes from her films, Varda illustrates the various stages of her life, from her marriage to Jacques Demy and his death in 1990 to her childhood memories of Sète, the fishing village that would become the subject of her first film. Woven through these reminiscences are lonely, dreamlike sequences shot on the beaches that have influenced and inspired her. View Trailer
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FEBRUARY 10 - 13:
Critic's Buzz Special Screenings:
Oscar Nominee for Best Adapted Screenplay
IN THE LOOP [Spielberg Theatre]

Wednesday, February 10 - 7:30 PM
IN THE LOOP

Thursday, February 11- 9:30 PM
IN THE LOOP

Friday, February 12 - 7:30 PM
IN THE LOOP

Saturday, February 13 - 9:30 PM
IN THE LOOP

IN THE LOOP, 2008, IFC Films, 106 min. Dir. Armando Iannucci. With Anna Chlumsky (Liza), Chris Addison (Toby), David Rasche (Linton), Gina McKee (Judy), James Gandolfini (General Miller), Mimi Kennedy (Karen), Olivia Poulet (Suzy), Peter Capaldi (Malcolm Tucker), Steve Coogan (Paul Michaelson), Tom Hollander (Simon Foster) and Zach Woods (Chad).

"See if this sounds familiar: A U.S. president is pushing for a war in the Middle East, going for a U.N. resolution though there's no reliable intelligence to back him up. And the Brits are staying carefully neutral, to give their prime minister room to maneuver.
Been there, seen that, you say? Not like this, you haven't. In the blistering British political satire In the Loop, bureaucratic bungling in the run-up to war is played for scabrous laughs, not a few of which will be pained laughs of recognition."
- Bob Mondello, All Things Considered (In the Loop: Wartime Fever As Screwball Tragedy)

"...a sharply written, fast-talking, almost dementedly articulate satire on modern statecraft..." - A.O. Scott, The New York Times (more)
View Trailer | In the Loop review on "All Things Considered"
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Updates & Trailers at: www.americancinematheque.com

'Beaches of Agnes' Sneak to Highlight In Person Retrospective of the work of Filmmaker Agnes Varda

Agnès Varda, one of the founding members of the French New Wave will appear In Person at the Aero Theatre with a Sneak Preview of her latest film, plus a mini-retrospective of highlights of her long career as a filmmaker (including a 'Los Angeles' night featuring work from Varda's stay in LA in the 1960s. All this takes place at the Aero Theatre from June 24 - July 1. Learn more & see a film schedule.

A gifted and outspoken feminist and one of the most acclaimed directors anywhere in the world, Agnès Varda could be considered the prototype of today’s independent filmmaker. Varda is a survivor, a stubborn and patient observer of her time and her people, like the pop singer in CLÉO FROM 5 TO 7, the lovers in LE BONHEUR (HAPPINESS) or the drifter in VAGABOND. "I have fought so much since I started … for something that comes from emotion, from visual emotion, sound emotion, feeling, and finding a shape for that," Varda has said.

Varda directed her first feature, LA POINTE COURTE, in 1954, with no formal training in filmmaking. The movie has often been identified as the film that started the French New Wave ("and a famous flop," as Varda has wryly noted). Along with Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, she made up the so-called "Left Bank Group" of the early 1960s, distinct from other New Wave directors for their interest in both documentary and fiction and their passion for both political and social filmmaking. Her marriage to Jacques Demy (1931-1990) made her one-half of the most beloved filmmaking couple of their day, and her tribute to Demy, JACQUOT DE NANTES, is one of her finest films.

In 1962, Varda directed the legendary CLÉO FROM 5 TO 7, a French New Wave classic about two hours in the life of a pop singer. The film’s sense of profound realism crossed with lyrical visual poetry pointed the way toward much of Varda’s later work, which would alternate between acclaimed documentaries and romantic but naturalistic fiction features. Capable of crafting both gritty cinematic time capsules and expressionistic mood pieces like LES CREATURES, the breadth of Varda’s talent is nearly as astonishing as its depth. For more than 50 years, she has continued to experiment and innovate, creating one of the first digital video masterpieces (THE GLEANERS AND I) as well as timely portraits of cities from L.A. (LIONS LOVE) to Paris. She has worked in nearly every form of filmmaking that exists, from shorts to documentaries to a delightful celebration of film history (ONE HUNDRED AND ONE NIGHTS), and has mastered them all.

As if that weren’t enough, Varda also helmed one of the greatest French films of the 1980s, VAGABOND, and published a highly acclaimed autobiography. Recent years have seen no slowing down of her output and no lessening of her talent: Her latest film, THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS, won the Cesar (the French equivalent of the Academy Award) for best documentary. Varda has been quoted as saying that she wants "to illuminate women’s lives—not only their hardships, although they’re important, but also the light, the transparency, the pleasure of being a woman." While Varda has certainly accomplished this, the range of her work is more expansive than perhaps even she knows—it is not enough to label her a feminist filmmaker, or a New Wave filmmaker, or a political filmmaker. She is simply one of the greatest living directors in any country, working in any language, in any form.

Agnes Varda's official website.
Senses of Cinema Article on Agnes Varda

See a Trailer for Beaches of Agnes

The Cinematheque is proud to present a sneak preview of THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS along with a series of Varda’s masterpieces, with the director herself live and in-person.