SUNDAY 2 - Revising the Musical
Programmed by: Honor Torrance and Cyrus Westerlund
The era of Classical Hollywood featured a set of tried-and-true genres which would later be revised and transformed as tastes and sensibilities shifted with the changing times. The Westerns of the ’30s through the ’50s would become “Revisionist Westerns,” classic noir films would become “Revisionist Noirs” or “Neo-Noirs,” and so forth. Thinking of these genre shifts, we (Cyrus and Honor) couldn’t help but ask ourselves: what of the revisionist musical?? In the ’70s and ’80s, filmmakers began to undertake original movie musicals that redefined what the genre could be. The musical was no longer limited simply to Broadway-style whimsy: it could also be psychological, absurd, thrilling, personal, or strange. The genre became more eclectic than ever: some were genre bending (Earth Girls are Easy), overtly political (Une Chambre en Ville), contributions to iconic franchises (The Muppet Movie), or even creative outlets for non-Hollywood musicians (True Stories). In this series Revising the Musical, we have assembled a set of original musicals to encapsulate this unique era, made inside and outside of Hollywood, with several that facilitated the evolution of the genre into the following decades. This series is first and foremost a celebration of the musical that strives to illustrate the versatility of the genre…and it’s also a ton of fun!
All That Jazz (1979)
Bob Fosse · 123m · 35mm
Our Sunday 1/7 screening is now a digital screening. The 35mm screening will be rescheduled to a later date. We sincerely apologize.
If you paid online, the Logan box office does not refund tickets but we can offer a reimbursement of some sort in the form of another screening of your choice (or the TBA 35mm screening). Or if you show up in person and decide to not watch the film, we can offer reimbursement. Please email doc@docfilms.org
In an autobiographical character study, Bob Fosse – filmmaker and legendary stage director/choreographer –metaphorically turns the camera on himself. Roy Scheider plays Joe Gideon, a Broadway stage director at the prime of his career. Despite his successes, he can feel his time in the sun running out. Tumbling down an increasingly debaucherous life outside of the limelight, Gideon is visited by an angel of death named Angelique.
Sunday, January 7th 7:00PM · Sunday, February 11th 4:00PM
Une Chambre en Ville (1982)
Jacques Demy · 90m · DCP
Set against a workers strike that becomes increasingly violent, a working-class man falls in love with the wife of a television shop owner. Despite its formal and visual similarities to Jacques Demy’s blissful musicals like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Une Chambre en Ville is an operatic tragedy as well as a scathing indictment of the modern French bourgeoisie.
Sunday, January 14th 7:00PM
Labyrinth (1986)
Jim Henson · 101m · 35mm
Sarah is a teenage girl with a penchant for fantasy novels and a misplaced disdain for her baby half-brother, Toby. Left to babysit, Sarah wishes out loud for him to be taken away by goblins. To her horror, her wish is granted, leaving Sarah to traverse an enormous Escher-esque labyrinth to confront none other than rock legend David Bowie, who looms large (in, uh, more ways than one) as Jareth the Goblin King.
Sunday, January 21st 7:00PM
Golden Eighties (1986)
Chantal Akerman · 96m · DCP
Multiple love stories unfold against the backdrop of a modern shopping mall, centered around three women working in a hair salon. All of them are pursuing the same man–the son of a clothing store owner. In the legendary arthouse filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s take on a technicolor MGM musical, Golden Eighties both lampoons and celebrates the mall as a communal apparatus through the eyes of the lovelorn characters who occupy it.
Sunday, January 28th 4:00PM · Sunday, January 28th 7:00PM
The Muppet Movie (1979)
James Frawley · 95m · 35mm
Carefree banjo-playing swamp-dweller Kermit the Frog is approached by a talent agent, who convinces him to embark on a career in Hollywood. On his trip across the country, Kermit makes wacky friends while being chased down by an entrepreneur selling French fried frog legs. An origin story for Jim Henson’s iconic puppet comedy show, The Muppet Movie features appearances by many of Hollywood’s greatest stars.
Sunday, February 4th 7:00PM
Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
Julien Temple · 100m · 35mm
Manicurist Valerie (Geena Davis) is down on her luck, having discovered that her fiancé is cheating on her — until a UFO suddenly crash-lands in her swimming pool. With the help of Valerie's stylist friend Candy (Julie Brown), the furry aliens inside are transformed into the Valley's three hottest new bachelors…in the form of Damon Wayans, Jim Carrey, and Jeff Goldblum. Interplanetary love and incomprehensible musical numbers ensue.
Sunday, February 11th 7:00PM
True Stories (1986)
David Byrne · 89m · 35mm
Talking Heads frontman David Byrne’s vibrant vision of America centers on a Texas town celebrating its sesquicentennial. Inspired by tabloid headlines, Byrne crafts an idiosyncratic look at the country’s changing landscape and the culture of everyday Americana. True Stories is suffused with colorful characters and songs from the band’s album of the same name — one of which would later inspire another legendary rock band, Radiohead.
Sunday, February 18th 7:00PM
Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)
Darren Lynn Bousman · 98m · 35mm
The year is 2056, and the human population has been devastated by a plague of organ failure. The solution? Rent your organs from the surely-benevolent megacorp GeneCo! The problem? Miss a payment, and you'll be hunted down by Repo Men, who will stop at nothing to get the organs back. Repo! is a Gothic rock opera featuring, among others, Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton; a Rocky Horror for a new age.
Sunday, February 25th 7:00PM
The Lure (2015)
Agnieszka Smoczynska · 92m · DCP
Sirens Silver and Golden spend their nights luring hapless young men to their doom. When they become employed as nightclub singers, Silver falls in love with handsome young musician Mietek. Golden, the more murderous of the two, discovers that if he does not marry Silver, she will turn into sea foam. An '80s style goth-disco musical horror retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid, The Lure masterfully bends genres like no other.
