Week of Jul 29
American Cinematheque's retrospective of queer Taiwanese slow cinema autuer Tsai Ming-Liang starts July 31 and runs through August 17. This fourteen film series will have Tsai in attendance at all screenings, accompanied by actor Lee Kang-sheng, who has appeared in all of Tsai's films.
For those new to Tsai Ming-Liang, check out The Cruising Ground of Tsai Ming-Liang's Slow Cinema by Travis Jeppesen in the latest issue of Queer Majority:
His stories usually entail the listless adventures of protagonists adrift in the neon wash of urban landscapes in which they struggle to discover a sense of belonging. Despite their glacial pacing, Tsai’s films are underwritten with the manic energy of pure desire. Their prolonged sequences tend to culminate and erupt in scenes of erotic release. Perhaps the most stunning example comes at the end of The River (1997) when the main character, played by Lee Kang-sheng, gets a handjob in the darkness of a gay bathhouse from an older man who turns out to be his closeted father.
More info about the series from American Cinematheque >
In addition to the Tsai retrospective, this week has screenings of Paris is Burning, Call Me By Your Name, Orlando, Jennifer's Body, and Pumping Iron II: The Women.
Tsai Ming-Liang
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone
Jul 31, 7:30 pm @ Aero Theater
Rawang, an immigrant from Bangladesh living in awful conditions, takes pity on a Chinese man, Hsiao-kang, who is beaten up and left in the street. Rawang lovingly nurses him on a mattress he found. When he is almost healed, Hsiao-kang meets the waitress Chyi. His love for Rawang is put to the test.
Tickets from American Cinematheque >
Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Aug 2, 7:00 pm @ Egyptian Theatre
On a dark and rainy night, a historic and regal Taipei cinema sees its final film: 1967 martial arts feature “Dragon Inn”. As the film plays, the lives of the theater’s various employees and patrons intersect, and two ghostly actors arrive to mourn the passing of an era.
Tickets from American Cinematheque >
The River
Aug 3, 7:30 pm @ Aero Theater
Xiao-Kang shares a modern highrise apartment in Taipei with his parents, but the three of them rarely speak to each other and lead very separate lives. His mother, an elevator operator is having an unsatisfying affair. His father, now retired, visit’s the city’s gay saunas, while Xiao-Kang drifts through life without a job. Xiao – kang’s life suddenly changes when he develops a chronic neck ailment and his family seeks ways to cure it. THE RIVER is a metaphysical meditation on the anomie of modern urban life.
Tickets from American Cinematheque >
Also This Week
Paris is Burning
Jul 31, 7:30 pm @ Eagle Theater
This iconic documentary, filmed over seven years at the beginning of the AIDS crisis in New York City's ballroom scene, captures the end of a "Golden Age" drag scene--and introduced a whole lot of Queer vocabulary to mainstream audiences.
Call Me By Your Name
Aug 1, 7:00 pm @ Los Feliz 3
In 1980s Italy, a relationship begins between seventeen-year-old teenage Elio and the older adult man hired as his father’s research assistant.
Tickets from American Cinematheque >
Orlando
Aug 1, 7:30 pm @ Eagle Theater
Adapted from Virginia Woolfe's novel, this film follows Tilda Swinton as Orlando, an young nobleman who lives for centuries, and awakes one day to find himself transformed into a woman. Watch it, then check out last year's Teddy documentary winner Orlando: My Political Biography.
Jennifer's Body
Aug 2, 6:30 pm @ New Beverly Cinema
Panned on release, queer film fans have since reclaimed this Diablo Cody-written horror film about a (literally) man-eating undead cheerleader and the... um... complicated relationship she has with her best female friend.
Tickets from The New Beverly >
Pumping Iron II: The Women
Aug 3, 8:00 am @ Whammy Analog Media
This 1985 documentary about female bodybuilders just screened a retrospective at Frameline this year--and this is a rare chance to catch it on Laser-Disc at Whammy!