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NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Museum of Modern Art

A massive overview of Bulle Ogier continues, this weekend bringing Out 1.

Roxy Cinema

Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table plays on Saturday, as does Time to Die and the latest “City Dudes“; a print of Night Tide shows Friday; The Last of the Mohicans and The Outsiders play on 35mm this Sunday.

Paris Theater

13 Assassins, Collateral, and Bullitt all play on 35mm in a hitman retrospective.

Museum of the Moving Image

America’s largest-ever Hiroshi Shimizu retrospective continues (watch our exclusive trailer debut).

Bam

Horace Ove’s Pressure plays in a new restoration.

Metrograph

A Kelly Reichardt retrospective has begun (watch our exclusive trailer debut) while ’90s Noir, Euro-Heists, Dream with Your Eyes Open, Ethics of Care, and Animal Farm continue.

Film at Lincoln Center

Peter Kass’ restored Time of the Heathen opens.

Film Forum...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

Our House of Tolerance 35mm presentation returns Friday; prints of Night Tide and Eddie Murphy: Raw show Saturday; The Last of the Mohicans and Thief play on 35mm this Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

A massive overview of Bulle Ogier has begun, this weekend bringing Fassbinder, Rivette, Buñuel, Duras, and more.

Museum of the Moving Image

America’s largest-ever Hiroshi Shimizu retrospective begins (watch our exclusive trailer debut); The Abyss screens on Sunday.

Anthology Film Archives

A new Marguerite Duras retrospective begins, while “Cinema of Palestinian Return” continues.

Bam

“Uncharted Territories” highlights Black British cinema from 1963 to 1986.

Film at Lincoln Center

“Seeing the City” presents an avant-garde vision of New York.

Metrograph

“’90s Noir” brings Bound and Deep Cover, while Euro-Heists, a Jane Schoenbrun curation, Dream with Your Eyes Open, Ethics of Care, and Animal Farm all start; meanwhile,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSNo Bears.Jafar Panahi was released on bail last Friday, two days after starting a hunger strike to protest his seven-month imprisonment. “His next fight is to have the cancellation of his sentence officially recognized,” said Michèle Halberstadt, his French distributor. “He’s outside, he’s free, and this is already great.”Recommended VIEWINGPersonal Problems.Maya Cade of the Black Film Archive has chosen 28 films for the 28 days of Black History Month in the US and compiled online streaming links for each. The lineup includes films by Saundra Sharp, Bill Gunn, and many others.Filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (We're All Going to the World's Fair)'s A Self-Induced Hallucination, their archival documentary about the Slenderman, is available for free on Vimeo. For more on the project,...

Lock the doors. Turn on the lights. Check under the bed. Crank up the volume. It’s time for another Halloween Parade!

Please help support the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Click here, and be sure to indicate The Movies That Made Me in the note section so Josh can finally achieve his dream of showing Mandy to his wife!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Scream Blacula Scream (1973)

Mandy (2018)

Carnival of Souls (1962) – Mary Lambert’s trailer commentary

Night Tide (1961) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

A Bucket Of Blood (1959) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s DVD review, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Dementia 13 (1963) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Region B Blu-ray review, Glenn Erickson’s director’s cut Blu-ray review

The Godfather (1972) – Ernest Dickerson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

The Godfather Part II (1974) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary

The Conversation (1974) – Josh Olson...

It is hard to know where to begin and what to say first when it comes to Dennis Hopper, both on screen and off. As an actor he began in the late 50s with small roles in films like Rebel Without A Cause (1955) and numerous TV performances. James Dean was a hero and friend to Hopper. A great way to view Rebel Without A Cause is to watch Hopper’s intense studying of and admiration for Dean on screen in that film. Hopper was witness to so many periods of American culture, a complex masculine figure much like his friend and contemporary Harry Dean Stanton, the whiskey, cigarettes and American highway mythology follows his legacy. This mix scratches the surface of an iconic figure of 20th-century popular culture and a great artist, it is a time capsule with no linear trajectory, bending back and forth across genre and feeling.Coming...

In another packed edition of Horror Highlights, we have the lineup for Scream Factory's 31 Nights of Horror, details on Black Mansion Films and their funding campaign, information on Roommate Wanted and its Salem Horror Fest premiere, an announcement on the Guardian Project from Supernatural's Mark Pellegrino, and word of Mr. Mercedes coming to Peacock:

Scream Factory, Shout! Factory TV Host '31 Nights of Horror' Streaming Every Night in October: "This October, Shout! Factory TV and Scream Factory proudly present 31 Nights of Horror. Fans can tune in each evening throughout the entire month for a macabre movie that’s sure to satisfy cravings for all things creepy. Each night of the stream will feature a genre favorite such as Witchboard, Bad Moon, Sleepaway Camp, The Exorcist III, Clive Barker’s Nightbreed: Director’s Cut and many more.

Viewers will also be treated to a deadly double feature every Saturday...

You’ve asked questions. Prepare for the answers.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

The Beguiled (1971)

Tenet (2021? Maybe?)

Smokey Is The Bandit (1983)

Robin Hood (2010)

Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

The Devils (1971)

Song of the South (1946)

Gremlins (1984)

Dillinger (1973)

Marcello I’m So Bored (1966)

Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

Big Wednesday (1978)

Swamp Thing (1982)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Payback (1999)

Bell, Book And Candle (1958)

Blowup (1966)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Medium Cool (1969)

25th Hour (2002)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Palm Springs (2020)

Groundhog Day (1993)

Mandy (2018)

The Sadist (1963)

Spider Baby (1968)

Night Tide (1960)

Stark Fear

Carnival of Souls (1962)

The Devil’s Messenger (1961)

Ms. 45 (1981)

Léolo (1992)

The Howling (1981)

Showgirls (1995)

Green Book (2018)

The Last Hurrah (1958)

The Best Man (1964)

Advise and Consent (1962)

The Candidate (1972)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Seven Days In May (1964)

The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)

The Man (1972)

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)

Four Lions (2010)

Pump Up The Volume (1990)

Nightmare In The Sun (1965)

The Wild Angels (1966)

The Omega Man (1971)

The Nanny (1965)

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man...

Movies to watch when you’re staying in for a while, featuring recommendations from Dana Gould, Daniel Waters, Scott Alexander, and Allison Anders.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Destroy All Monsters (1969)

Planet Of The Apes (1968)

Beneath The Planet of the Apes (1970)

Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971)

Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes (1972)

Battle For The Planet Of The Apes (1973)

Suparpie

The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

Hello Down There (1969)

Koyaanisqatsi (1982)

Thirteen Days (2000)

Stalker (1979)

Last Year At Marienbad (1961)

No Exit (1962)

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Sleeper (1973)

The Tenant (1976)

Final Cut: Ladies And Gentlemen (2012)

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990)

La classe américaine (1993)

The Sex Adventures of a Single Man a.k.a. The 24 Hour Lover (1968)

The Omega Man (1971)

Soylent Green (1973)

Knives Out (2019)

The Hunt (2020)

Banana Split (2020)

The Cocoanuts (1929)

Animal Crackers (1930)

Monkey Business (1931)

Horse Feathers (1932)

Duck Soup (1933)

A Night At The Opera (1935)

The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant (1971)

Susan Slade (1961)

My Blood Runs Cold...

Night Tide

Blu ray

Powerhouse/Indicator

1960/ 1:85:1 / 86 min.

Starring Dennis Hopper, Linda Lawson

Directed by Curtis Harrington

During the early fifties, an anxious era that leaned on fanciful songs like Faraway Places, Beyond the Sea and Robert Maxwell’s Ebb Tide, Curtis Harrington wrote a similarly dreamy fable called The Girl from Beneath the Sea. The 34 year old director’s script was finally produced in 1960 and premiered as Night Tide at the Spoleto Film Festival in 1961. Thanks to Filmgroup, Roger Corman’s distribution company, the movie reached American theaters in 1963. Instead of the windswept romance of Maxwell’s song, ticket buyers were treated to a fatalistic thriller with the unpredictable qualities of a New Wave film.

Dennis Hopper plays Johnny Drake, a navy recruit from the arid climes of Oklahoma. Though he looks seaworthy in his white uniform and cap he still seems pretty landlocked, ambling through the beachfront...

The Only God Forgives director has made his first foray into TV with a supernatural noir series, and it’s just as horrible and upsetting as you’d expect

When I spoke to Nicolas Winding Refn at the Lumiere film festival in Lyon a while back, he told me that though cinema would find a way to return in the digital multiplatform age: “Television is dead. And television will not be reborn.” He can only of course have meant that mischievously, because Refn has just completed a huge new TV show, a quasi-supernatural La horror-thriller noir entitled Too Old to Die Young, two episodes of which premiered on the bigger-than-big screen of the Grand Theatre Lumiere at Cannes. The programme is produced by Amazon, with whom Cannes’s relations are considerably better than with Netflix. It incidentally contains a clip of Curtis Harrington’s cult thriller Night Tide, starring Dennis Hopper,...

Director Nicolas Winding Refn is creating his own streaming service (via Slashfilm), and it sounds like something a hardcore film buff would be interested in. Refn, who has brought the world features like Drive, The Neon Demon, and Bronson, is creating an absolutely free streaming service that will give access to several obscure cult films from around the world. Have you ever heard of the films Night Tide, The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds, The Burning Hell, or Hot Thrills and Warm Chills? Most of you haven't but for the low cost of nothing, you can experience these films and others, some of which have been remastered by Refn.

Sign up for the streaming service by visiting his website here, and take a look at a clip from one of the upcoming films offered below:...

by Nathaniel

You guys. I only just recently learned about "Mermay" in which you celebrate mermaids during the month of May. How did I not know about this? We could have been celebrating mermaids in film and television all month long! The least we could have done is pay tribute to Tully's mermaid dream imagery. Because that film did Not get enough attention. Jason Reitman + Diablo Cody + Charlize Theron = dream team (see also: Young Adult)...

I thought I could whirlpool up a top ten list of movie mermaids but realized I hadn't seen some key texts like Mr Peabody and the Mermaid (1948), Night Tide (1961), the silent film The Mermaid (1904) and a few others. Sadly merman films seem all but nonexistent... ...

Nicolas Winding Refn has announced he is launching a curated website of films, essays, photography, and more art in February 2018. The website, entitled “byNWR.com,” will be completely free for users, including the streaming films. Refn made the announcement during an appearance at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, France, where he described the project as “an unadulterated cultural expressway of the arts” that will “create a modern idea of what cinema will become.”

Read More:Nicolas Winding Refn Teases ‘Too Old To Die Young’ TV Series With Punk Track

The website’s mission statement reads: “byNWR shares Nicolas Winding Refn’s passion for the rare, the forgotten and the unknown, breathing new life into the culturally intriguing and influential. Quarterly volumes of content divide into three monthly chapters, each featuring a fully-restored film. These revived cinematic gems inspire a wealth of original content, curated by special Guest Editors.”

The...

It's that time of year again. Shall we call it Musical Theatre Christmas No less than 20 original musical theatre works will be wrapped and placed beneath audiences proverbial tree, as The New York Musical Festival gears up again. We here at Broadway Sessions got a sneak peek at some of the festivals hottest shows including The Body Politic,Generation Me, Miss Blanche Tells it All, Happily The Musical, Cadaver Synod, Georama, The Demise, Night Tide, I Am, I Will, I Do, Camp Wanatachi In Concert and more. Enjoy these highlights and don't forget to get out there and support new musical theatre The future is now... and we got itfirst...

Thanks to The Omen (1976) and little Damien’s watchdog, Hollywood figured they could mine some horror from our canine friends, on the assumption that there’s something inherently evil to exploit. Except…they’re not. Are they sometimes vicious? Definitely. But I would hardly call dogs evil, especially ones allegedly in favor with Satan. Which brings us to todays’ Tube, as TV naturally had to take a shot at demonizing our four legged friends, a task at which Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) fails spectacularly. It is however, a blast and more fun than a bowl full of kibble.

Originally airing on Halloween night of 1978 on CBS, Devil Dog was up against Linda Blair and her demonic cousin in Summer of Fear over on NBC, a true dilemma for horror fans as both satisfy in different ways. But since I’ve already covered that Wes Craven helmed Ya adaptation...

A mythical story about friendship and discovery, A Mermaid’s Tale swam home on DVD and Digital HD on May 16 from Lionsgate. Awarded the Dove® seal of approval, this “enchanting modern fairy tale” (The Dove Foundation) stars Jerry O’Connell, Caitlin Carmichael, and Barry Bostwick. When a young girl is forced to move with her father to a small seaside town, she struggles to fit in and make new friends. One day she discovers a secluded cove where she befriends a mysterious mermaid, and together they uncover a secret that could help save the town. A Mermaid’s Tale will be available on DVD for the suggested retail price of $19.98

Now you can own the A Mermaid’S Tale DVD. We Are Movie Geeks has Two copies to give away. All you have to do is leave a comment answering this question: What is your favorite movie about mermaids? (mine is Night Tide!

Piper Laurie, still flush with her success in 1976’s Carrie, is mother to another supernatural trouble-child in this 1977 possession potboiler from director Curtis Harrington (Night Tide). Laurie plays the titular Ruby whose deaf-mute daughter begins to show signs that her personality has been taken over by the spirit of her dead father, a sleaze-ball mobster executed by his own associates. Perennial tough-guy Stuart Whitman plays Laurie’s current lover and Janit Baldwin, who left acting in 1984, plays the levitating teen.

The perennially chatty Nicolas Winding Refn gave fans the opportunity to ask the filmmaker anything in a brand new Reddit Ama session earlier this week. The director of “Drive,” “Only God Forgives,” and 2016’s “The Neon Demon” took the time to respond to a handful questions on various topics. As ever, Refn didn’t hold back and delivered some true insights alongside some profound head-scratchers.

Here are 10 highlights from his “Ask Me Anything” Q&A:

Rumors about him making a superhero movie:

“I love watching superhero movies, in a way you can say ‘Drive’ is one. So I don’t think I would want to make another, ‘Drive’ is my version of a superhero movie.’’

On one of his favorite films from the 20th century:

“A film that made a very big impression on me was ‘Pretty Woman.’ I went to see it in the cinemas two times!’’

On what...

Is this Rod Serling's best teleplay ever? Van Heflin, Everett Sloane and Ed Begley are at the center of a business power squeeze. Is it all about staying competitive, or is it corporate murder? With terrific early performances from Elizabeth Wilson and Beatrice Straight. Patterns Blu-ray The Film Detective 1956 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 83 min. / Street Date September 27, 2016 / 14.99 Starring Van Heflin, Everett Sloane, Ed Begley, Beatrice Straight, Elizabeth Wilson, Joanna Roos, Valerie Cossart, Eleni Kiamos, Ronnie Welsh, Shirley Standlee, Andrew Duggan, Jack Livesy, John Seymour, James Kelly, John Shelly, Victor Harrison, Sally Gracie, Sally Chamberlin, Edward Binns, Lauren Bacall, Ethel Britton, Michael Dreyfuss, Elaine Kaye, Adrienne Moore. Cinematography Boris Kaufman Film Editors Dave Kummis, Carl Lerner Art Direction Richard Sylbert Assistant Director Charles Maguire Written by Rod Serling Produced by Michael Myerberg Directed by Fielder Cook

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Let me roll off the titles of some 'fifties 'organization...

This kitty needs no introduction: Simone Simon is the purring-sweet immigrant with a dark atavistic secret. It's Val Lewton's debut smash hit. The real hero is director Jacques Tourneur, who conveys a feeling of real life being lived that won over audiences of 1942 and drew them into his web of fantasy. Cat People Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 833 1942 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 73 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 20, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt, Elizabeth Russell, Theresa Harris. Cinematography Nicholas Musuraca Art Direction Albert S. D'Agostino, Walter E. Keller Film Editor Mark Robson Original Music Roy Webb Written by De Witt Bodeen Directed by Jacques Tourneur

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Val Lewton never had to be 'discovered,' actually. Life magazine awarded him his own photo layout and the critics praised him as the maker of a new brand of psychologically based horror films.

In a commendable effort to save forgotten genre items either cloaked in obscurity or in danger of disappearing completely due to degrading source materials, distributor Arrow Video releases its first volume of a new series called American Horror Project. Fans of vintage indie horror from a game changing golden era should be enthused for this trio of inventive efforts even if not all live up to the excitement promised by the vibrant packaging. Lurid, carnivalesque, and even tawdry, it’s a new formidable platform for films unfairly dismissed upon release and deserving of another opportunity to provoke.

The earliest film here is the ungainly titled Malatesta’s Bucket of Blood, the 1973 debut and solo feature of Christopher Speeth. The plot synopsis promises palpable weirdness, concerning a middle aged couple, Mr. and Mrs. Norris (Paul Hostetler, Betsy Henn) who show up seeking employment at a seedy, run down carnival. Their zeal is a ruse,...

Jack Nicholson found his personal favorite role in this fine road picture: Navy signalman Buddusky, charged with escorting sad-sack prisoner Randy Quaid to prison. Hal Ashby's direction and Robert Towne's script pitches the story at the human scale favored by '70s director-driven filmmaking. The Last Detail Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 104 min. / Ship Date January 19, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, Randy Quaid, Clifton James, Carol Kane, Michael Moriarty, Luana Anders, Kathleen Miller, Nancy Allen, Gerry Salsberg, Don McGovern, Pat Hamilton, Michael Chapman, Jim Henshaw, Derek McGrath, Gilda Radner, Jim Horn, John Castellano. Cinematography Michael Chapman Film Editor Robert C. Jones Original Music Johnny Mandel Written by Robert Towne from the novel by Darryl Ponicsan Produced by Gerald Ayres Directed by Hal Ashby

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Bring up the 'golden age' of director-driven movies in the 1970s and the...

The wait is almost over, Ultimate Night of the Living Dead #3 issues will be released on February 24th. Also in this round-up: details on The X-Files UFO event, Shudder's partnership with Sundance Film Festival, two Doctor Who Blu-rays, Yoga Hosers comic, and House Shark.

Ultimate Night of the Living Dead #3: "For those of you that have been looking for our 3rd issues, your patience will be rewarded. Issue 3 Super Packs and individual titles will be released on February 24th, 2016.

Follow as Evans County continues to fall into the grips of an undead invasion. See the invasion from 10 different perspectives.

Sh*t’s about to get real."

---------

The X-Files UFO: "It’s an Out-Of-This-World X-Files Experience That Fans Won’t Want to Miss

Come See the UFO Today in Los Angeles At The Grove (189 Grove Dr., La) from 8:00 Am – 10:00 Pm

Share your Pictures on Your Favorite...

Curtis Harrington took an assignment nobody else would and fashioned a gem of low-budget Sci-Fi. A Russian space epic provides expensive-looking special effects scenes for a new horror show about a deadly alien rescued from a crash landing on Mars. The extras include excellent interviews with Roger Corman and effects specialist / historian Robert Skotak.

Queen of Blood Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1966 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 80 min. / Street Date December 1, 2015 / 29.95 Starring John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, Florence Marly, Judi Meredith, Dennis Hopper, Robert Boon, Don Eitner, Forrest J Ackerman. Cinematography Vilis Lapenieks Film Editor Leo Shreve Original Music Ronald Stein Written by Curtis Harrington from the Soviet film Mechte navstrechu Produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, George Edwards Directed by Curtis Harrington

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

A.I.P. released some tacky movies in its day but none were less respected than those cobbled together from foreign imports spiked with new filmed-in-Hollywood storylines.

There have been few names to enter the film landscape quite like the late-thespian/enfant terrible Dennis Hopper. Best known for directing and helping write the iconic New Hollywood masterpiece Easy Rider, Hopper began his career starring in various TV series until hitting big screens with pictures like Rebel Without A Cause, Giant and eventually Night Tide, a film that would become a calling card for the actor and a movement of surrealist filmmaking unlike anything the Us had seen cinematically up to that moment. However, while his career would continue growing from Rider, his work on that film would seemingly change him from avant garde character actor to the idol of his generation.

And then there was The Last Movie. Still nearly impossible to see, Hopper’s Rider follow up would see him heading to New Mexico to make what sounds like a masterpiece of the “films about films” genre,...

Well, this is lousy timing. Several horror movies, including "The Exorcist," "Night of the Living Dead," and "Interview with the Vampire" are leaving Netflix on October 1, right before Halloween.

Also leaving October 1, some spooky TV titles, including "The Dead Files."

More than 150 titles are leaving Netflix in October; here's the entire list of movies and TV shows that will disappear from Netflix streaming in October.

Leaving Oct. 1, 2015

"Aces High" (1976)

"A Fond Kiss" (2004)

"Agata And The Storm" (2004)

"A Good Day to Die" (2013)

"Alakazam The Great" (1960)

"All Is Lost" (2013)

"An Affair to Remember" (1957)

"Agora" (2009)

"A Liar's Autobiography" (2012)

"America Declassified" (2013)

"Analyze This" (1999)

"Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues " (2013)

"Angela's Ashes" (1999)

"Annie Hall" (1977)

"Another Woman" (1988)

"Apocalypse Now" (1979)

"Apocalypse Now Redux" (2001)

"Axed" (2012)

"Baby's Day Out" (1994)

"Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession" (1980)

"Baron Blood" (1972)

"Beaufort" (2007)

"Belle of the Yukon" (1944)

"Big Night" (1996)

"Blue Velvet" (1986)

"Brewster's Millions" (1945)

"Buying & Selling" (2013)

"Caesar and Cleopatra" (1945)

"Caprica" (2009)

"Carve Her Name With Pride" (1958)

"Casanova...

★★★☆☆ Variations of metamorphoses are the underlying catalysts in Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's sophomore feature, Spring (2014). It plays like a reinvention of Curtis Harrington's Night Tide (1961) inflected with modern indie sensibilities and viewed through a burnished Instagram filter. Much like Dennis Hopper's Johnny in that film, Spring's Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) is a young American with little experience of the wider world enchanted by a mysterious and exotic woman. Evan's flown the nest of his recently deceased mother to grieve overlooking a picturesque Italian coastline. Capturing his attention more than the landscape is the beautiful, enigmatic Louise (Nadia Hilker).

CopAt the ripe age of twenty-six—the two were born within days of each other in 1928—James B. Harris and Stanley Kubrick formed Harris-Kubrick Productions. With Kubrick leading the charge behind the camera and Harris acting as the right-hand-man producer, the duo completed three major critical successes: The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), and Lolita (1962). But where Kubrick’s subsequent work has achieved a supreme, hall-of-fame stature, Harris’s own directorial career—consisting of five excellent movies made across a four-decade span—remains, despite the valiant effort of a few notable English-language critics (Michael Atkinson, Jonathan Rosenbaum), on the relative sidelines. The latest attempt to boost Harris’s reputation: BAMcinématek’s week-long retrospective of Harris’s producing and directing output, selected by “Overdue” co-programmers Nick Pinkerton and Nicolas Rapold.Harris and Kubrick stopped working together amidst a pre-production disagreement during the making of what would become Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb...

This week's show is a little light on Halloween goodness but what's there is, is choice. Night Tide is an early Dennis Hopper vehicle full of sea siren sideshows and tragic surrealism. The Purge is one of the better home invasion movies in recent times. Also appearing for the first time on stateside Blu-ray are High Plains Drifter, in which Clint Eastwood may or may not be a ghost, the shorts compilation Chilling Visions (go Emily M. Hagins), and the scary no matter how you look at it The Untold History of the United States from Oliver Stone. You can watch the entire video below. Bat Country shirt by Harebrained ...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Review by Sam Moffitt

When you are a true movie geek some titles become a sort of Holy Grail. When I was a monster kid growing up in the 60’s I read Castle of Frankenstein magazine avidly (one of the greatest magazines ever published by the way!) That periodical discussed so many movies that I just knew I would never get a chance to see, foreign films, independent films, odd ball avant garde’ experimental films, it made me determined to see them by any means necessary.

I recall reading about Night Tide in Castle of Frankenstein and wanting to see it very badly. I didn’t get to view that title until sometime in the 90s. I found it on vhs on the Rhino label and was happy to finally get to see it, it lives up to its reputation, for me anyway. Now I am happy to report Image...

Kino Lorber makes an exciting restoration this month with the 1961 directorial debut of genre favorite Curtis Harrington, Night Tide, which starred a nubile and then unknown Dennis Hopper in an early lead role. An independently financed film, Harrington’s atmospheric and moody debut feels like a Val Lewton production transposed onto the carnivalesque dread of the Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach, where the specter of metamorphosis haunts the narrative into an ambiguous fever.

Johnny Drake (Dennis Hopper) is a sailor on shore leave and almost immediately while on break he spies a beautiful woman named Mora (Linda Lawson) and he offers to buy her a drink. She lives above the merry-go-round at or around the Santa Monica Pier and she professes to like the music as it reminds her of childhood. It turns out that Mora headlines the sideshow act titled Mora the Mermaid, where she dons a tail...

August 2013 -

The cast of characters in writer/director Curtis Harrington’s autobiography Nice Guys Don’t Work In Hollywood: The Adventures of an Aesthete in the Movie Business (Drag City Incorporated, www.dragcity.com) is nothing short of amazing. A partial list of featured and supporting players includes avant-garde pioneer Kenneth Anger, director James Whale, Jean Cocteau, Shelley Winters, Robert Bresson, Forrest (Forry) Ackerman, Christopher Isherwood (who punched Harrington), Stanley Kubrick, Debbie Reynolds, Roger Corman and the cast of Charlie’s Angels. To call his CV eclectic is something of an understatement, and it’s doubtful that any other major or minor Hollywood figure’s career moved as Harrington’s did: from the resolutely experimental to the realm of low brow American television drama of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Born and raised in California, Harrington was entranced by movies, art and literature at an early age. Among his early accomplishments,...

Just about every horror fan knows about Chris Alexander – writer, musician, journalist, and most famously Editor-in-Chief of Fangoria magazine. Now you can add film directing, cinematography and editing to that resume, as Chris has recently completed his first feature Blood for Irina – a surreal, dreamlike and provocative experiment inspired in part by some of international cinema's most beloved auteurs. I had a very cool Q&A with Chris about the film, his creative process, and the musical score, which he composed and performed himself.

FEARnet: I'm excited that Blood for Irina is making the rounds now. How does it feel seeing it on the big screen? Chris: It is exciting, and extra special for me, considering it was made for nothing and was my “hobby” movie. A few people actually like it and some even think it's destined for cult status. Who knows? But I'm enjoying the ride. How many...

Craig Baldwin's Mock Up On Mu is the first example I've seen of his brand of Bruce Conner-influenced experimental cut-up narratives. I get the impression this one differs from most in featuring original material amid the found footage: this is only partially successful, and I wonder if it was necessary. The archive film has such iconic quality, culled as it is from Hollywood movies, documentaries, educational films etc., all bringing their payload of memories and associations to the story, so that no newly-shot material can compete. Also, Baldwin, an exponent of "film povera," or "poor cinema," can't afford production values even on a par with the Prc Z-movies he quotes and misquotes. Still, the fact that all the actors in the specially staged scenes are unconvincingly dubbed is a nice touch: it helps make them feel as contrived and out-of-time as the rest of his jumble of footage.

We start the Top 7. You finish the Top 10.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, starring Johnny Depp, brings mermaids back to the big screen. If you get the urge to see mermaids (or other similar sea women) at home, try out some of these titles. It’s The Scorecard Review’s Top 7 Mermaid Movies.

Read Jeff Bayer’s full “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” scorecard review

Read Aaron Ruffcorn’s Top 7 “Pirates of the Caribbean” Characters

7. Night Tide (1961)

Recap: Sailor Johnny Drake (Dennis Hopper) meets a beautiful woman named Mora (Linda Lawson) while on shore leave in Santa Monica. He pursues her and things seem to be going well, until she reveals that she not only plays a mermaid on the Amusement Pier, but also believes she’s really a “sea person.” Then Johnny learns two of her past boyfriends died mysteriously and wonders if he’s in trouble.

With 2010 only a week over, it already feels like best-of and top-ten lists have been pouring in for months, and we’re already tired of them: the ranking, the exclusions (and inclusions), the rules and the qualifiers. Some people got to see films at festivals, others only catch movies on video; and the ability for us, or any publication, to come up with a system to fairly determine who saw what when and what they thought was the best seems an impossible feat. That doesn’t stop most people from doing it, but we liked the fantasy double features we did last year and for our 3rd Writers Poll we thought we'd do it again.

I asked our contributors to pick a single new film they saw in 2010—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they saw in 2010 to create a unique double feature.

Filed under: Features, Cinematical

When Dennis Hopper passed away earlier this past May at the age of 74 due to prostate cancer, he left a remarkably varied body of work as an actor. Over five decades, Hopper appeared in more than two hundred films and television shows, some, maybe most forgettable, but rarely because Hopper chose to appear in them. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Hopper mixed appearances in film and on television, usually in supporting roles. Substance abuse, however, undermined Hopper's career multiple times (he went more than seven years without a film role at one point). Despite those setbacks, he continued to act, on television or in small, supporting roles. He also cultivated a talent for photography and, briefly, directing, most notably 'Easy Rider,' an existential biker flick that far exceeded its modest, low-budget origins as a B-level programmer.

Early in his career as an actor, Hopper crossed paths with James Dean,...

Filed under: Features, Cinematical

When Dennis Hopper passed away earlier this past May at the age of 74 due to prostate cancer, he left a remarkably varied body of work as an actor. Over five decades, Hopper appeared in more than two hundred films and television shows, some, maybe most forgettable, but rarely because Hopper chose to appear in them. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Hopper mixed appearances in film and on television, usually in supporting roles. Substance abuse, however, undermined Hopper's career multiple times (he went more than seven years without a film role at one point). Despite those setbacks, he continued to act, on television or in small, supporting roles. He also cultivated a talent for photography and, briefly, directing, most notably 'Easy Rider,' an existential biker flick that far exceeded its modest, low-budget origins as a B-level programmer.

Early in his career as an actor, Hopper crossed paths with James Dean,...

I finally got to attend a Famous Monsters Convention! I.ve been a huge fan of the magazine since I bought my first issue when I was 8 years old in 1969 at Wood Drug Store at the corner of Taylor and Manchester in Kirkwood. It was issue #64 with Basil Gogo.s painting of Vincent Price from House Of Wax on the cover and from then on, I lived for the magazine, buying all subsequent issues and eventually tracking the earlier ones until I acquired a complete run. In 1973 the first Famous Monsters Convention was held but I was too young to attend. The magazine, run by legendary editor Forry Ackerman, ended its original run in 1983 after 191 issues. Famous Monsters returned to newsstands (sans Forry) in a couple of brief incarnations (including an on-line form) over the next couple of decades and another Famous Monsters Convention was held in 1993 (I wish I...

Dennis Hopper’s long film career began with the 1955 teen angst classic Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean, and he helped usher in Hollywood’s New Wave as director and star of the counterculture anthem Easy Rider in 1969. He later became a respected character actor, specializing in such off-beat villains as the drug-addicted, obscenity-spouting Frank Black in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), crazed bomber Howard Payne in the 1994 action-thriller Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, and Deacon in Kevin Costner’s soggy post-apocalyptic saga Waterworld (1995).

Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas on May 17, 1936. He moved to San Diego, California with his family in the late 1940s, and began studying at the local Old Globe Theater while attending high school. He soon signed with Warner Brothers and was featured in a small role in 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause. He was later featured as Jordan Benedict III, the...

Technically, Ondine -- the title character of Neil Jordan's new film -- isn't a mermaid. When she winds up in fisherman Colin Farrell's net in the middle of the ocean, his daughter (Alison Barry) becomes convinced that she might be a selkie, a mythological seal-human hybrid of European folklore that the father and daughter take in as one of their own.

But, after all, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, and a mermaid by any other name would smell just as briny. Whatever you want to call its subject, "Ondine" certainly follows many of the rules of mermaid movies established by its cinematic predecessors. To wit, here are some rules to live by when your average Joe pulls out a mermaid from the sea (oh, and beware landlubbers, some Spoilers be near):

1) They're about testing the possibility of impossible love.

Most mermaid movies,...

Dennis Hopper will have his day — or rather, evening — on Turner Classic Movies on Tuesday, June 8. TCM has rescheduled its primetime and overnight lineup in honor of actor-director-screenwriter Hopper, who died May 29 at the age of 74. The most interesting-sounding of the five scheduled Hopper films is the one I haven’t seen, yet: Curtis Harrington’s Night Tide (1963), about a sailor (Hopper) who falls in love with a mysterious woman (Linda Lawson), the local "mermaid" on the Santa Monica pier. Henry Hathaway’s The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) is an enjoyable Western, with the cast — John Wayne, [...]...

HollywoodNews.com: We lost the great Dennis Hopper last week at age 74, but now the actor will be remembered for his groundbreaking work.

Turner Classic Movies will dedicate their entire lineup for a night in order to screen films that celebrate the life of Hopper. The collection will feature his debut film, “Rebel Without A Cause,” as well as the classic “Easy Rider.”

Below is the full lineup:

Tuesday, June 8

8 p.m. (Et) The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) – Dennis Hopper co-stars with John Wayne and Dean Martin in this rowdy Western about the sons of a frontier woman determined to learn why their mother died penniless.

10:15 p.m. True Grit (1969) – Hopper found himself in the presence of “The Duke” once again with this Western about an aged marshal who helps a girl find her father’s killer. John Wayne earned an Oscar® for his performance.

12:30 a.m. Rebel Without a Cause...

It's very hard to pick just one role from the late Dennis Hopper's enormous body of work, especially since so many are landmark films in their own right. Hopper had smaller roles like Rebel Without a Cause, Giant, and Cool Hand Luke, but even a glimpse of him praying and making the childlike gesture for "Open up the church and see all the people" in Luke makes an indelible impression. He played an innocent sailor in love with a possibly murderous mermaid in Night Tide in 1961, but by 1969 he was already notorious for the tumult surrounding his directorial debut, Easy Rider.

Easy Rider, both the film itself and the history behind the film, symbolized the end of the '60s, the era of peace and love turning dark and violent: the Manson family murders, the Kent State shootings, the Altamont Speedway concert where a Rolling Stones fan was stabbed...

Hollywood icon Dennis Hopper, who passed away on May 29 at the age of 74, had a brief flirtation with the underground film scene of the 1960s mostly due to his personal relationship with the artist Andy Warhol. Embedded above is a homemade video of a screening of the Screen Test that Hopper filmed for Warhol accompanied by a live performance by Dean and Britta. The screening occurred in 2009 in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.

In the early ’60s, although he had appeared in films like Giant, alongside James Dean, Hopper was primarily a TV actor who also performed in off-Broadway productions in NYC. During this time, the actor very wisely began buying paintings by artists in the then burgeoning Pop Art movement, including work by Pop’s biggest star Andy Warhol.

In addition to painting, Warhol was also beginning to move into filmmaking, first producing very static films such as Sleep, Eat,...

Filmmaker Curtis Harrington: 1926-2007.

Our Friend Curtis Harrington

by Jon Zelazny

Curtis Harrington was born in Los Angeles in 1926. He made short films as a teenager, graduated from USC, and began his Hollywood career in the 1950’s. By the end of the decade, he was directing: independent films, studio pictures, made-for-tv movies, and episodic TV. He completed his last short film in 2002, and died in 2007 at the age of 80.

I knew Curtis well in his final years, as did writer-producer Dennis Bartok, the former head programmer of L.A.’s famed American Cinematheque.

Dennis Bartok: I think the most interesting aspect of Curtis’s career is that he was really the only filmmaker to successfully transition from the avant-garde scene of the late 1940’s to directing Hollywood feature films. And when you see how distinctive his movies are, you wish he could’ve made more… but when you...

I have no life and I work a weird shift, so unless 85 Flood is playing somewhere, I'm usually home at midnight on Saturdays.

I know it's a terrible TV night ("SNL"? Is That still on?) but occasionally I take the remote for a spin anyway and a few months ago stumbled upon "The It's Alive! Show," on a near-public-access station out of Pittsburgh that usually tries to sell me stuff I don't need.

It's an extremely-no-frills monster movie show, of the kind that everyone seemed to have when I was growing up (as long as everyone lived in Pittsburgh or Cleveland). Somewhere around midnight there'd be a low-low-budget monster movie interspersed with alleged comedy vignettes by the host and a motley crew of sidekicks and buxom babes.

In Pittsburgh, this guygave 20 years to hosting "Chiller Theater" and doing other newscasting and host jobs, plus the occasional bit part in movies...

The word “notorious” can be loosely tossed around when describing a filmmaker that veers even slightly outside of mainstream cinematic confines, but when applied to Bruce Labruce, the term couldn’t be more accurate. Scenes of hardcore gay porn, Nazi fetishism and explicit gore, either separately or brazenly combined, are just a few of the subjects Labruce explores in films like No Skin Off My Ass, Skin Gang, Super 8 1/2, Hustler White and The Raspberry Reich.

Labruce’s latest film, Otto; Or, Up With Dead People, is a meditation on homosexuality, cinema and intimate relationships through the filter of a zombie flick. The first of his films to employ a full-on horror convention (zombies), Otto furthers Labruce’s boundary pushing reputation. And yet, mainstream audiences have taken the bait. Yes, it’s true—Otto is the first zombie film with hardcore gay porn scenes to screen at Sundance.

Labruce generously took...

Curtis Harrington's "Night Tide" (made in 1960 but not released until 1963) features Den nis Hopper in his first leading role.

In the days before he was typecast as a weirdo, Hopper plays an innocent, baby-faced sailor who ventures into the Blue Grotto, a basement jazz club in Venice, Calif., and meets a dark-haired woman in a fetching white dress. For him, it's love at first sight.

She's Mona (Linda Lawson), who lives in a funky apartment above a merry-go-round (with a view to die for) and earns...