Capital Projections: It takes a village edition
Capital Projections is The DC Line’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting arthouse and repertory screenings in the coming week.
THE SOWER
In a remote farming village in 19th-century France, women were left to fend for themselves after then-President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte had all the local men arrested. What would happen if a handsome man stumbled upon the village? The feature debut from writer-director Marine Franssen, The Sower is adapted from a manuscript with an unusual publishing history. Violette Ailhaud wrote a brief memoir in 1919, when she was in her 80s, and told the executor of her estate not to publish it until 1952, a century after the events she described took place. Yet for reasons unknown, L’homme semence (The Seed Man) was not published until 2006. The Hollywood Reporter likens this historical drama to “The Beguiled meets Black Narcissus” and calls it “a fundamentally serious film leavened by a streak of deadpan, droll humor.”
Watch the trailer.
Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 8 p.m. at the Avalon Theatre. $12.75.
GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933
On Thursdays in January, the Mary Pickford Theater hosts Fraudway, which I curated for the Music Division at the Library of Congress, where I work. Inspired by the outrageous production numbers in such ‘80s films as The Fan and Staying Alive (which screens Jan. 24), the series takes a look at Hollywood’s sometimes strange relationship with Broadway. Next week’s program offers a 35mm print of one of the greatest musicals of the 1930s. During the Great Depression, Hollywood responded to America’s bleak mood with glamorous spectacle: Some of the greatest musicals of the 1930s feature a wild visual invention that was positively psychedelic — thanks to choreographer Busby Berkeley, whose elaborate staging turned flanks of chorus girls into geometric patterns synchronized to bubbly pop. Yet Berkeley’s terpsichorean imagination soared to new heights with Gold Diggers of 1933, which features a particularly inventive scene with Ginger Rogers wearing a costume made of silver dollars and singing “We’re in the Money” — in pig Latin. The escapist entertainment didn’t ignore the financial crisis in the real world, however: The movie opens with a rehearsal of a show that’s suddenly shut down because the producers haven’t paid their bills.
Watch the trailer.
Thursday, Jan. 17, at 7 p.m. at the Mary Pickford Theater on the third floor of the Madison Building at the Library of Congress. Free advance tickets are available via Eventbrite. Doors open 30 minutes before screening. Seating is limited, but standbys are encouraged to line up starting at 6:30 p.m. In the event of a sellout, unclaimed seats will be released to standbys five minutes before show time. For information, call 202-707-5502. Learn more about the Library of Congress’ concert season here.
THE HATCHET MAN/HARD TO HANDLE
Moviegoers looking for a fix of 35mm celluloid should just camp out at the Library of Congress next week. In addition to the screening of Gold Diggers of 1933, which I programmed, the Mary Pickford Theater will host a double bill of two rarely screened pre-code titles. Director William A. Wellman’s 1932 thriller The Hatchet Man stars Edward G. Robinson as a Chinese Mafia boss (a casting decision that would never occur today). The Hatchet Man screens with director Mervyn LeRoy’s 1933 rom-com Hard to Handle, starring James Cagney as a PR agent who, according to program notes, promotes “everything from marathon dance contests to skin creams and Florida real estate.”
Tuesday Jan. 15, at 6:30 p.m. at the Mary Pickford Theater on the third floor of the Madison Building at the Library of Congress. Free. Tickets are not required for this event. Doors open at 6 p.m.
MY SWEET LITTLE VILLAGE
Next week, Bistro Bohem’s monthly Film and Beer series presents a comedy directed by Jiří Menzel, the Czech new wave pioneer whose 1968 drama Closely Watched Trains won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. In this 1985 film, the residents of a small village battle a big city bureaucrat looking for a summer cottage. Roger Ebert gave the film 3 1/2 stars and wrote that Menzel “uses everyday life as an instrument for a subtle attack on bureaucracy and a cheerful assertion of human nature. This movie is joyful from beginning to end — a small treasure, but a real one.”
Watch the trailer.
Tuesday, Jan. 15, at 7 p.m. at Bistro Bohem, 600 Florida Ave. NW. Admission is free, but make reservations by calling 202-735-5895 or emailing bistrobohem@gmail.com. Guests must arrive by 6:45 p.m. to keep their reservation.
RETURN TO SAVAGE BEACH
Next week the Washington Psychotronic Film Festival screens this 1988 action movie from writer-director Andy Sidaris, a lowbrow auteur known for such ridiculous — and ridiculously entertaining — products as Hard Ticket to Hawaii. The dated plot is set in motion by a stolen computer floppy disc, whose contents will lead the lucky thief to a mythical treasure on Savage Island. It’s up to the women of the crime-fighting organization known as L.E.T.H.A.L. (Legion to Ensure Total Harmony and Law) to make sure the information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Watch the trailer.
Monday, Jan. 14, at 8 p.m. at Smoke and Barrel. Free.
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