Aero Theatre Wednesday, June 16 – 7:30 PM
CRIMINALLY UNKNOWN PRESENTS: LARRY FESSENDEN IN PERSON
WENDIGO, 2001, Magnolia Pictures, 91 min. Dir. Larry Fessenden. A blue Volvo makes its way through the fading light this chilly winter evening in Upstate New York. Kim, George (Jake Weber and Patricia Clarkson) and their eight-year old son, Miles (Erik Per Sullivan), are city dwellers stealing a weekend away at a friend’s country farmhouse. But a fluke accident sets off a chain of events that alters their lives forever and conjures up the ferocious spirit of the Wendigo. Smart, genuinely scary, unforgettable. “…as if John Cassavetes had been working for Universal in the early 30′s.” Dave Kehr, New York Times
HABIT, 1996, Glass Eye Pix/Passport Cinema, 112 min. Autumn in New York. Sam (Larry Fessenden) has broken up with his girlfriend and his father has recently died. World-weary and sloppy drunk, he finds temporary solace in the arms of Anna (Meredith Snaider), a mysterious woman who draws him away from his friends and into a web of addiction and madness. A beautiful “downtown” vampire tale. “a sad and haunting film…” Roger Ebert
Discussion in between films with director Larry Fessenden.
Larry Fessenden’s Wendigo…
Habit….
I love this movie…. a 4 star East Village Martin with an ambiguity that’s right in my wheelhouse… a horror film for the age of aids, heroin and paranoia… i love it to death….. and i’m happy to be showing it… downright giddy to see it on the big screen for the first time … but as much as i love it… it doesn’t hit me where i live…. the way Wendigo does…. (or bits of Fessenden’s No Telling for that matter…believe it or not…) it’s like a city i’ve never been to….. i love it… it just doesn’t ring any bells….
No Telling is rough for sure…. it falls apart after a while and people like to pick on the Blood Simple ground level camera shots…… (though i think Larry saw them more as Silent Spring meets The Willows force of nature shots… especially the sunscreen applying pull back in the middle of the field…)
The auction in the beginning is another piece of truth for me…. a scene straight out of a big part of my life growing up…. the hundreds of Bud Behm auctions.. and believe it or not… our mom would buy the same exact crap and nail it to the kitchen wall…. she ACTUALLY….. kid you not….. had a trap up there….. that alone gives No Telling 3 stars…. :)
As messy and compromised as the movie is….. i love it to death…. love the location… love the auction… love the shit on the walls….. and the dragging of the calves… and i’m still looking for a KILVAP shirt….
I don’t watch alot of DVD extras…. but i’ll leave you with the these words of wisdom from the Wendigo DVD extras…
Wendigo/Habit at the Aero on Wednesday night!
Then in July I have Tom Blair and Henry Rosenthal coming in from San Francisco!!
Aero Theatre Wednesday, July 21 – 7:30 PM
CRIMINALLY UNKNOWN: TOM BLAIR
SURE FIRE, 1990, Strand Releasing, 83 min. Dir. Jon Jost. A dark and mesmerizing portrait of a small town entrepreneur. Wes, portrayed brilliantly by Tom Blair, is a bully of a man full of get-rich-quick schemes. Strikingly shot in the “Morman Dixie” of central Utah, director Jon Jost captures an America we seldom see, through elegantly composed conversation and arresting visual stylistics. “It’s clearly an American masterpiece…Sure Fire burns slowly, then explodes.” Georgia Brown, Village Voice
THE BED YOU SLEEP IN, 1993, Complex, 117 min. Dir. Jon Jost Ray (Tom Blair) operates a lumber mill in central Oregon. Plagued by tough economic times and a inexplicably guilty conscience. A haunting portrait of a family in crisis. Accusations, tragedy, a family swept into the abyss. Shot on 35mm with a crew of three, it’s nothing short of a miracle. “A tragic, beautiful, and mysterious film….as evocative and apocalyptic as Jost’s cinema gets” Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader Discussion between films with actor Tom Blair and producer Henry Rosenthal.
DIRECTIONS TO THE AERO THEATRE
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