SCREENINGS AND MORE SCREENINGS!!!!The Japan Society looks at Families, We look to Berlin, NYICFF is on sale, Monster Rama and Mahoning announce titles

Starting this week at the Japan Society’s  latest edition of ACA Cinema Project (Feb. 15-24) opens. This  is focused on  "Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux". Starting this week at the Japan Society’s  latest edition of ACA Cinema Project (Feb. 15-24) opens. This  is focused on  "Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux". Having seen a number of the films I know what treats await you. Films like TOKYO SONATA from one of my favorite director Kiyoshi Kurasowa, Ozu’s TOKYO TWILIGHT and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s STILL WALKING are of course easy choices.  What you want to do is go beyond those and see  the films by Ryota Nakano who is not well known outside of those who love Japanese cinema. Nakano makes wonderful films that are so good that you kind of wonder why he isn’t better known. I’m thrilled because the series is going to be a chance to catch up on two films that have not played New York. (Look for reviews, hopefully, soon.)

For more information and tickets go here. 

(But seriously this whole series is stacked top to bottom so just buy tickets and go)

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This week also marks the start of the Berlin Film Festival.

As we did last year we will be covering a number of the films playing. Reviews will drop after the embargoes do. 

If I might direct you toward a couple of the best films I’ve seen seen so far:

THE EDITORIAL OFFICE ponders the place of a good man in a corrupt world. It has some stunning sequences that will rock you,

REAS is a wonderful off beat musical recreation of life in an Argentine prison by the people who lived it.  Along the way they form a rock band. It’s just good time with great people,

YOUNG HEARTS is a wonderful film about a first love

RAÍZ  THROUGH   ROCKS AND CLOUDS  is one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. It's also a hell of a good story too.

And for now that’s it. Pieces will be dropping when I am amble to do so.

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The New York International Children’s Film Festival announced it’s slate this past Wednesday. It’s a killer collection of films and I can’t wait to see them.

Tickets are on sale for members and to the general public tomorrow.  The festival is going to be all over Manhattan for three weekends in March plus at the Jacob Burns Center in Westchester the first weekend and in Sag Harbor the last one.

I’ve already seen ROBOT DREAMS, WHERE IS ANNE FRANK, CHICKEN FOR LINDA and SIROCCO AND THE KINGDOM OF THE WINDS so I know what there is good stuff playing. Note the last two films will be having Q&As with the filmmakers. I’m planning on going to SIROCCO again to meet the filmmaker.(And there are other Q&As – including one with the director of the new film from Cartoon Saloon- so check the website)

My advice is look over the schedule and make some plans. That’s what I’m doing.

I’ll have more soon

Check here for the festival website

And here for the information at Jacob Burns Film Center

And here for Sag Harbor

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They have announced the films for the April Drive in Monsterama at the Riverside Drive-in in Vandergrift PA so start watching their Facebook page for when tickets will go on sale

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The Mahoning Drive in has started to post their shows. First up is the annual WIZARD OF OZ / WILLIE WONKA double feature. There is also a listing for a Thursday night screening of REPOMAN and a weekend of double features of original films and remakes (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and 13 GHOSTS)

Details on their webpage.

The Mahoning Drive-In Theater's screening of DAWN OF THE DEAD was.... disappointing

Built in 1947 and welcoming visitors since 1948, The Mahoning Drive-in has become legendary in the last few years since it decided it couldn't afford to convert to digital and it would struggle forward as a retro drive-in and only running 35mm films. Everyone thought it wouldn't work but the  move was a success and the theater has carved out a niche showing various series ( say the recent Zombie Fest which is in its 7th year) and having special events (Joe Bob Briggs will be there for several days in July). And while the theater won't put it forward, they have been successful enough that they now have a digital projector.

My brother Joe and I have been aware of the theater for a while now but we just didn't get there until this past week when they ran a 4K restoration of the original DAWN OF THE DEAD.  DAWN is Joe's favorite film. He has loved the film ever since we saw it at the Westbury Drive-in on the original opening night. With stars Gaylen  Ross and Scott H Reiniger being there we had to go.

The theater is an absolutely huge screen  on the edge of a field in the middle of a rural area, There is a snack bar/projection booth in the middle of the field looking like it was randomly dropped in the middle of a field.  Forward of the front row is a small shack that I believe is where the digital projector is. You feel more like you are on a farm than in a theater. It makes for a one a kind viewing experience that makes it feel like being at a fiends house.

When we arrived we parked on the front row to one side and then went off to look around. 

Ms Ross and Mr Reiniger were signing at a tent next to the snack bar. The lines to meet them were very long all evening as people went up to get signatures and photos. They and the people meeting them were very nice.

Joe and I watched people cycle through the signing lines for a while  and then wandered off hoping it would die down and we could slip in and get an autograph. (it never did). We bought some raffle tickets then went to the snack bar for  a dinner of burgers, fries, chicken fingers, and mozzarella sticks. We spent the rest of the evening talk between us and the gentleman next to us who looked like our Uncle Alan but had driven up from Florida for the weekend.

Before the film they ran a reel of 35mm George Romero zombie film trailers. They ran trailers for all the films in the series except for that nights films. They also ran the trailers for Tom Savini's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and Zack Snyder's remake of DAWN.

And then it was show time....and it was just okay. While DAWN remains a classic the presentation was less than optimal.

Even in adjusting the picture it didn't seem bright

I don't know why but the projector bulb used for the projection of  DAWN OF THE DEAD was woefully dim. It was so bad during the first half of the film that many darker  sequences were almost devoid of detail. 

How devoid? When the zombie bites the woman in the hall way and you see the flesh rip away, but it was invisible in shadow. When the one legged priest comes out of the room with the dead we couldn't see that his leg was a crutch. Any daylight sequences looked like they were shot at night. 

It was so bad  that much of Joe's conversation was focused on the technical issues of just how off the illumination was.(He was going into great detail about how off it was and what the correct ratio of projector light to ambient light should be) It bothered him so badly that he got out of the car and walked around the drive in to see if it was simply a problem with the angle of where our car was, It was not,

Yes in the second half the image magically improved, but it still was not bright. It was almost as a bright as the trailer reel which seemed a bit dim itself (though in fairness the sun still hadn't fully set). 

Both Joe and I were disappointed. Admittedly part of the reason for our disappointment is the result of seeing the April Ghouls at the Riverside Drive-in about four weeks earlier. There, the images were sharp and bright, even in a rain storm. (With rain predicted for the next three nights of Zombie Fest I don't want to think about what the images looked like.)

Would be go to the Mahoning again? Yes. But it would depend on the movie, and it would depend if it was listing as digital. I don't want to risk seeing a digital film at the theater.

I should point out that one some level I don't know how many people cared. I have no clue how many were there to see the movies and how many are there to just hang out. A large number of filmgoers seemed to know each other and be there more for a social outing than the film. In many ways this seemed to be more a party than a film screening. Being some one who love film as a social event I am all for it. However this time out I was there for the film and it was disappointing.