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A “Lost-and-Found Delight,” THE KING AND THE MOCKINGBIRD Finally Restored and on U.S. Movie Screens

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A animated classic, Paul Grimault’s THE KING AND THE MOCKINGBIRD, written by Grimault and legendary poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert, has been restored and after many decades finally getting a theatrical release in the United States. Based on a Hans Christian Andersen story, this wildly satirical film follows a chimney sweep and shepherdess on the run from a tyrannical king. A masterpiece of traditional hand-drawn cell animation, THE KING AND THE MOCKINGBIRD is credited by celebrated Japanese animators Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata as inspiring the creation of their own studio, the now world-famous Studio Ghibli. Its influence can also be felt in such films as Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant.

Read Ben Kenigsberg’s recent New York Times review of the restoration:

The French animated film “The King and the Mockingbird” has been more influential than known or seeable, at least in the United States. The movie is belatedly opening here in a subtitled restoration, with special dubbed showings for children.

Released in France in the 1950s in a version that the animator Paul Grimault called “an impostor” and completed, after an overhaul, in 1979, “The King and the Mockingbird” is commonly cited as an influence on Studio Ghibli, from Japan. Yet in its humor, its fairy tale origins and the characters’ rounded features, it plays more like a vintage Disney work, only nimbler and freer.

Adapting a Hans Christian Andersen story, Mr. Grimault wrote the screenplay with Jacques Prévert (“Children of Paradise”). The film takes place in Tachycardia, where King Charles XVI — the numbers are tallied aloud whenever his name is spoken — is an avid if inept hunter. That hunting makes him a nemesis of the hero, a showman of a mockingbird.

With its muted rose and yellows, the angular animation is classical but inventive, even surreal. Tachycardia collapses periods, combining an ostensibly medieval setting with a futurist streak. When the king rides a rocket-­shaped elevator to his secret apartment on the 296th floor, you could easily see it as a gag on “The Jetsons.” A giant automaton with spotlight eyes seems the source of the key design in “The Iron Giant.”

Still, a catalog of the movie’s pleasures barely does justice to this lost-­and-found delight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMnV6KCfOqQ&feature=youtu.be

THE IMMORTALIST Q&A’s at the NoHo

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THE IMMORTALISTS is the story of two eccentric scientists struggling to discover medical breakthroughs to create eternal youth. And yet they fight to gain support for their cause in our world, which they call a world “blind to the tragedy of old age.” Bill Andrews is a lab biologist and famed long-distance runner racing against the ultimate clock. Aubrey de Grey is a genius theoretical biologist who conducts his research with a beer in hand. They differ in style and substance, but are united in their common crusade: to cure aging or die trying. They publicly brawl with the old guard of biology who argue that curing aging is neither possible nor desirable. As Andrews and de Grey battle their own aging and suffer the loss of loved ones, their journeys toward life without end ultimately become personal.

THE IMMORTALISTS filmmakers David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg and subjects Bill Andrews and Molly Sheridan will participate in Q&A’s at the NoHo after the 7:30 PM screenings Thursday-Saturday, December 11-13. Executive producer Chuck Braverman will join them for the Thursday screening.

http://vimeo.com/43515949

BEFORE I DISAPPEAR Q&A’s at the NoHo 7

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A troubled young man and his straight-laced niece embark on a thrilling odyssey through New York City in the heartrending drama BEFORE I DISAPPEAR, based on an Oscar-winning short. As his life hits rock bottom, twenty-something Richie decides to end it all, only to have his half-hearted suicide attempt interrupted by an urgent request from his sister to baby-sit her precocious daughter. So begins a madcap tour of Manhattan after dark, as uncle and niece find unexpected bonds in the unlikeliest of places.

BEFORE I DISAPPEAR actor Paul Wesley will participate in a Q&A after the 1 PM screening at the NoHo on Sunday, December 7. Producer Terry Leonard will participate in Q&A’s after the 8 PM screenings on Friday, December 5 and Sunday, December 7.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bosMzZh916I

Art in the Arthouse Painter Mary Woronov on KCET: “Artist, Chelsea Girl, and B-Movie Queen”

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The woman behind our Art in the Arthouse exhibition “Mary Woronov: Something About Mary,” on view at the NoHo 7 through December 15, was recently profiled by KCET. It’s by the award-winning arts journalist Victoria Looseleaf, features a generous selection of Woronov’s striking pieces and begins “At almost 71 years old, Mary Woronov is still a beauty whose quick wit, sharp mind and striking countenance belie the decades. Born in Palm Beach’s five-star Breakers Hotel in 1943 — then a converted hospital during World War II, she recalled.

“It was a mistake,” Woronov, her gray eyes matching her stylishly cut gray hair, the latter tinged with mint green, said with a boisterous laugh, adding, “no…it wasn’t.”

Talking in her airy apartment near downtown, one filled with dozens of her oil paintings, hundreds of books and a cache of memorabilia, this erstwhile star of numerous classic Andy Warhol films, including 1966’s “Chelsea Girls,” continued, “I was a preemie, preemie, preemie and they immediately put me in a box. My grandmother looked at me and I had black fur on me — pre-natal hair — and a coccyx cyst. So I had a tail and my grandmother said, ‘That’s not ours. Take that back.'”

Woronov, who went on to appear in some 80 films, including such B-classics as “Death Race 2000” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,” as well as making mainstream TV appearances in “Charlie’s Angeles,” “Knight Rider” and on the soap, “Somerset,” is a walking Wikipedia of several by-gone eras.

As to her rebel nature, well, that’s obviously embedded in her DNA.”

Read the full piece by clicking here.

Art in the Arthouse Painter Mary Woronov on KCET: "Artist, Chelsea Girl, and B-Movie Queen"
Mary Woronov

Q&A with 21 YEARS: RICHARD LINKLATER Co-Director Tara Wood Opening Night at the NoHo

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It’s been said that the first 21 years defines the career of an artist. Few directors have single-handedly shaken up the film establishment like the godfather of indie, Richard Linklater. From the groundbreaking SLACKER to his innovative BOYHOOD, Linklater has reached the 21-year mark and has unapologetically carved his signature into American pop culture. 21 YEARS: RICHARD LINKLATER offers a raw and honest perspective on Richard through candid conversations with his collaborators.

Tara Wood, co-director of the new documentary 21 YEARS: RICHARD LINKLATER, will participate in a Q&A after the 7:40 screening at the NoHo on Friday, November 7.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duW5VFPNRhw

 

 

REVENGE OF THE GREEN DRAGONS Q&A at the NoHo Opening Night

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In the vein of crime classics like MEAN STREETS and INFERNAL AFFAIRS, REVENGE OF THE GREEN DRAGONS follows two immigrant brothers Sonny (Justin Chon) and Steven (Kevin Wu), who survive the impoverished despair of New York in the 1980s by joining Chinatown gang “The Green Dragons.” The brothers quickly rise up the ranks, drawing the unwanted attention of hard-boiled city cops. After an ill-fated love affair pits Sonny against his own brother, he sets out for revenge against the very gang who made him who he is.

Join actors Leonard Wu and Eugenia Yuan from REVENGE OF THE GREEN DRAGONS at the 7:30 screening Friday night, October 24 at the NoHo 7. They’ll host a Q&A after the movie.

A FULLER LIFE Q&A’s at the NoHo with Filmmaker Samantha Fuller and Many Special Guests

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Don’t forget to enter our A FULLER LIFE Sweepstakes. You can win a private tour of Samuel Fuller’s personal study where he wrote such films as WHITE DOG.

A FULLER LIFE, which we are pleased to open at the NoHo 7 this Friday, celebrates the independent spirit of a true American maverick, Sam Fuller, whose unique output broke new ground in journalism, filmmaking, storytelling and even service to his country. The story takes us through highlights of Mr. Fuller’s unconventional and adventurous life spanning a century of American history, a great man’s great yarn, a love song to democracy, and a hymn to independence, originality, and endurance.

A FULLER LIFE director Samantha Fuller will participate in Q&A’s after all screenings and will be joined by special guests after several screenings:

Joe Dante after the 7:10 screening on Friday, October 24;

Mark Hamill, Bobby Carradine, Perry Lang and Kelly Ward after the 7:10 screening on Saturday, October 25;

Bill Duke after the 5 PM screening on Sunday, October 26;

Amos Gitai after the 7:10 screening on Sunday, October 26;

Paul Fuller after the 5 and 7:10 screenings on Wednesday, October 29, joined by Illeana Douglas and Eric Sherman for the 7:10.

Bobby Carradine, Kelly Ward, Perry Land and Christa Fuller after the 7:10 show on Thursday, October 30.

http://www.vimeo.com/68643499
A FULLER LIFE Q&A's at the NoHo with Filmmaker Samantha Fuller and Many Special Guests
Samantha Fuller