(Not actually Science Fiction) Double Feature...

posted by Neil Gaiman


As tickets go on sale in half an hour, I thought I had better put something up here about....
“You Show You Mine, I’ll You Show me Yours: The Neil & Amanda Double Features”
When you start a relationship with someone -- long before you get married -- you occasionally get baffled by the films they haven't seen that you think everyone must have seen.
In the case of Amanda and me, we made lists of our favourite films about four years ago and swore that one day we would have a long romantic weekend where we would do nothing but watch each other's films. It's not actually happened. A couple of times, late at night, we've downloaded and watched a film in bed, but the whole planned "I'll show you mine, you show me yours" hasn't happened.
And then we were seeing Nick Flynn talk at the Brattle Theatre, hanging around backstage, and I was reminiscing about doing the CBLDF "Last Angel" Tour stop there over a decade ago, and Amanda was reminiscing about all the times she'd seen things there, and they were doing a Kickstarter to get a digital projector, and we thought it would be good to get involved, and the upshot of it all was...
May 18th and 19th, there will be a double bill each night at the Brattle. I'll show a film I love to Amanda and she'll show one she loves to me. In each case, a film the other one hasn't seen. (I do not know why I haven't seen Santa Sangre. I'd never heard of King of Hearts.) The tickets benefit the Brattle (and the Kickstarter -- which was fully funded -- means we'll be going out to eat first of all with people who backed it at that rate.) We'll introduce the films, probably talk afterwards about what we thought of the films we saw that night...
And the films are:

Saturday, May 18DROWNING BY NUMBERS
Introduction by Neil Gaiman
at 6:30pm | Tickets (on sale today at 3PM)

(1988) dir Peter Greenaway w/Joan Plowright, Juliet Stevenson, Joely Richardson, Bernard Hill, Jason Edwards [118 min]
Three women in the same family (all named Cissie Colpitts) each drown their troublesome husbands – and convince the local coroner to help cover up the crimes. It sounds simple but in the hands of masterful visual artist Peter Greenaway, the film becomes a baroque meditation on the nature of life and games – and the game of life.SANTA SANGRE
Introduction by Amanda Palmer
at 9:15pm | Tickets (on sale today at 3PM)

(1989) dir Alejandro Jodorowsky w/Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra [123 min]
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s wildly unrestrained flights of cinematic psychedelia are legendary midnight movies and SANTA SANGRE is no exception. Fenix, the scion of a circus family has entered an asylum after witnessing his mother commit a heinous crime and get both her arms cut off. Eventually she secures his release and forces him to become her arms.“This is a movie like none I have seen before, a wild kaleidoscope of images and outrages, a collision between Freud and Fellini. It contains blood and glory, saints and circuses, and unspeakable secrets of the night. And it is all wrapped up in a flamboyant parade of bold, odd, striking imagery, with Alejandro Jodorowsky as the ringmaster.” – Roger Ebert…………………Sunday, May 19IF…
Introduction by Neil Gaiman
at 6:30pm | Tickets  (on sale today at 3PM)

(1968) dir Lindsay Anderson w/Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan, Rupert Webster [111 min]
Lindsay Anderson’s searing excoriation of British boys school traditions features the screen debut of Malcolm McDowell.
Digital PresentationKING OF HEARTS
Introduction by Amanda Palmer
at 9:15pm | Tickets  (on sale today at 3PM)

(1966) dir Philippe de Broca w/Alan Bates, Genevieve Bujold, Adolfo Celi, Jean-Claude Brialy [102 min]
This counter-culture cult classic screened for over five years straight in Cambridge during the late ‘60s and one can see why. Alan Bates plays a Scottish WWI soldier dispatched to disarm a bomb left by the retreating Germans in a French town. When he arrives he discovers that the supposedly abandoned hamlet is actually still inhabited – what he doesn’t realize is that it’s been taken over by the cheerful lunatics from the local asylum.……….Tickets for individual films are $10 general admission; $8 students, seniors, Brattle members
Double feature tickets are $15 general admission; $12 students, seniors, Brattle members
A limited number of full weekend passes are available for $30
Brattle member passes will be accepted for individual screenings at the door only.
We strongly advise that you buy tickets in advance.tickets will be on sale starting at 3 pm EST today (friday april 26th)ticket link: bit.ly/YouShowMe

If it's fun we may do it again.

Labels:  films, Brattle