Capital Projections: Changing of the guard 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 LEOPARD
The National Gallery of Art’s Luchino Visconti retrospective continues with the director’s 1963 masterpiece. Prince Don Fabrizio Salina (a dubbed Burt Lancaster) is the patriarch of a proud noble family in decline, an elegant dinosaur on his way out with the advent of the modern world — 1860s Sicily. Lancaster was an unconventional choice for the role of the distinguished patriarch, but his bankable name helped get the movie made, and as the actor told Roger Ebert nearly two decades later, “It was my best work.” If the ornate scenery and graceful cinematography aren’t pretty enough for you, the film also co-stars Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale.
Watch the trailer.
Saturday, Nov. 24, at 2 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art. Free.
CHEF FLYNN
Culinary prodigy Flynn McGarry was developing sophisticated meals in his bedroom kitchen at an age when most of us were lucky to be able to open up a can of SpaghettiOs by ourselves. Yet what makes the movie interesting isn’t its portrait of the young chef, but its candid depiction of his sometimes-resentful mother, an independent filmmaker who laments, “There are times with Flynn where I feel I’ve lost my identity of who I am.” As I wrote in my Spectrum Culture review, the portrayal of this dysfunctional family dynamic “makes director Cameron Yates’ film something of a failure as a conventional food documentary. But it’s that very tension that makes the material work as nonfiction drama.” (Note: Last week Capital Projections erroneously listed this film for a Nov. 16 opening. It debuts Nov. 23.)
Watch the trailer.
Opens Friday at the Landmark E Street Cinema. $12.50.
IF….
Before he became a long-lashed rebel icon in A Clockwork Orange (1971), Malcolm McDowell sowed the seeds of subversion in his breakout role in this satire of life at an English boarding school. Shifting between color and black-and-white footage, the movie charts the misadventures of schoolboy Mick Travis, a character that McDowell and director Lindsay Anderson would revisit in O Lucky Man! (1973) and Britannia Hospital (1982). With echoes of Jean Vigo’s Zéro de Conduite, a 1933 film whose surreal depiction of mutinous schoolchildren inspired generations of rebels, If…. was one of the defining statements of the pivotal, volatile year of 1968.
Watch the trailer.
Friday, Nov. 23, at 9:30 p.m; Monday, Nov. 26, at 7 p.m.; Tuesday, Nov. 27, at 9:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Nov. 28, at 5 p.m.; and Thursday, Nov. 29, at 9:45 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. $13.
OUTDOORS
A 30-something Israeli couple (Udi Razzin and Noa Koler) leaves bustling Tel Aviv to build a dream house in the countryside, but it turns out that the pressures of the city weren’t the only things weighing on them. First-time director Asaf Saban shot the film over the course of a year, adding a sense of authenticity as we see the home’s construction and actress Koler’s real pregnancy progress. Screen Daily writes, “While these scenes from a marriage owe a debt of gratitude to Bergman, the warmly lit, open-air photography gives them their own unique tag.” This 2017 drama will be screened as part of the Avalon’s monthly Reel Israel series, presented in partnership with the Embassy of Israel and the Washington Jewish Film Festival.
Watch the trailer.
Wednesday, Nov. 28, at 8 p.m. at the Avalon Theatre. $12.50.
THE LOST WEEKEND
This harrowing 1945 drama charts the tragic descent of a New York writer (Ray Milland) who becomes increasingly desperate for a drink. Director Billy Wilder used a mix of gritty realism and distorted, expressionistic visuals to convey the alcoholic’s delirium, and Milland’s performance earned one of four Oscars for the film. The Library of Congress (disclaimer: I work there, but was not involved with this program) will screen a 35mm print.
Watch the trailer.
Wednesday, Nov. 28, at 7 p.m. at the Mary Pickford Theatre, third floor of the Madison Building, Library of Congress. Free. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
RAIDERS OF THE LIVING DEAD
A mad doctor revives executed prisoners at an abandoned penitentiary, but these unholy creatures are no match for a crafty teenager who builds a weapon out of his laserdisc player. The Washington Psychotronic Film Society hosts this 1986 horror movie from director Samuel M. Sherman, a ‘60s exploitation movie producer known for repurposing a documentary short about Lithuanian milkmaids into two different feature films. Read an enthusiastic history of Sherman and Raiders of the Living Dead at Temple of Shlock.
Watch the trailer.
Monday, Nov. 24, at 8 p.m. at Smoke & Barrel. Free.
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