TAKE YOUR PICK
1 Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Meyer, 1970): Lexi Cinema, 9pm
This is a Roger Ebert tribute screening. A film to savour and highly recommended.
Here is the Lexi's introduction: Venerable and adored film critic Ebert crossed the line to become
scriptwriter in this collaboration with 1970s skin-flixster Russ Meyer.
An enduring camp cult classic, it follows three pneumatic wannabees who
come to Hollywood to make it big but find only sex, drugs and sleaze.
Sophisticate Ebert brings a touch of sly wit and class to this most
unlikely of projects.
From Kate Arthur, on BuzzFeed:
“…But always enhancing Ebert’s place as a seminal figure in movie
criticism was his hilarious contribution to movies themselves: the 1970
release Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. He cowrote it with
shlocktarian Russ Meyer, and it’s just an unparalleled spectacle of
amazingness. On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, Ebert wrote about
the experience in Film Comment: “We wrote the screenplay in six weeks flat, laughing maniacally from time to time, and then the movie was made.”
“The plot doesn’t make any sense, but if you want to try, Wikipedia has a good summary. And Louis Peitzman has written the “19 Reasons “Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls” Is The Greatest Cult Film Of All Time.” As Louis points out, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
gave us many gifts, but my favorite (and I’m sure I’m not alone) was
the Z-Man character, who Ebert said was based on Phil Spector (“but
neither Meyer nor I had ever met Spector,” he wrote).”
Two thumbs up, Roger!
Time Out review:
'With his first movie for a major studio,
Meyer simply did what he'd been doing for years, only bigger and
better. That's to say, he turned the homely story of an all-girl rock
band's rise to fame under their transsexual manager into a delirious
comedy melodrama, soused in self- parody but spiked with dope, sex and
thrills.' Tony Rayns
Here's one of the great songs from the soundtrack. In The Long Run by the The Carrie Nations.
2 A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971): Vue Cinema Islington, 9pm
This film, part of the Vue Cinemas Back to Vue season, is also being screened on Wednesday 5th June. More details here. You can find all the details of the full season here.
Here is the Vue's introduction: A Clockwork Orange is one of the most controversial films ever
made, the masterpiece of one of the world's greatest directors. In a
time not far in the future Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his gang are
wreaking havoc on a spree of murder and rape. When he is finally
convicted he is given the choice of languishing in jail or undergoing a
brutal aversion therapy that will cure him of his criminal tendencies.
But how can the authorities be sure he's ready to go back onto those
mean streets? A Clockwork Orange is an intelligent, challenging but highly enjoyable peek into an ultra-violent future.
Here is the trailer.
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