Viva la France!

Tonight's Georges Franju double feature was a lot of fun - and I'm pleased to report that everyone survived a full evening of subtitles!

Eyes Without a Face is a classic horror film celebrating it's 40th anniversary this year (more commonly known in the states under its alternate, if more exploitative title: The Horror Chamber of Doctor Faustus).

Judex is at it's heart a superhero movie based on a silent French serial of the same name. I thought it was excellent. And the bit at the party with folks wearing bird masks is priceless. You can check it out here:



We hope you'll be able to join us for our next party on February 21st. We'll be deciding on the theme for that in the next few weeks.

2009 Kick off!

This Saturday, 1/24 we kick off the Mad Movie Party 2009 season with a festival of films from French director Georges Franju.

From his Wikipedia entry:
Franju was one of the co-founders of the Cinémathèque Française. His first film was a 1949 documentary short, Le Sang des bêtes (Blood of the Beasts) which was shot in a Parisian slaughterhouse. It demonstrated his ability to combine the poetic and the graphic and revealed his ability to perceive the cruel and the uncanny within a realistic setting. Best known for his 1960 horror film, Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes Without a Face), which was described by Pauline Kael as "[p]erhaps the most elegant horror movie ever made."

We are pleased to feature two of Franju's most famous films - Eyes Without a Face and Judex. We have withdrawn Blood of the Beasts from the schedule.

Doors open at 5:30 for food and refreshments, and we plan to begin the first feature around 6pm. We look forward to seeing you at our first monthly event of the New Year!

The Prisoner, Khan and Tron

What a day. Stan and I finally moved the Tron and Discs of Tron to the new house. And after preparing dinner for the Movie Party crowd, we got the double-whammy that we've lost The Prisoner himself, Patrick McGoohan, and Ricardo Montalban (Kahn).

So, Be Seeing You.

And KAAAAAAAHHHHHNNNN!

P.S. In all seriousness, in Slaughtered Lamb Cinema History, Montalban shall be remembered as the man who single handedly brought about the Planet of the Apes.

Bob Wilkins 1932-2009

I sat down to post a quick note about tonight's kick off of Joss Whedon's Firefly, and what a great time everyone had, only to encounter the news of Bob Wilkins' passing.



During the preparation for our All Day of the Dead celebration of Night of the Living Dead's 40th anniversary last October, I took the opportunity to use the event as a fundraiser to help with his care as he battled alzheimer's. You can read what I had originally posted about Bob here.

Suffice it to say, Bob was a major influence on me growing up, and he will be missed.