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Film Archive 1985

010485

This critically praised sleeper stars Geneviève Bujold as Dr. Nancy Love, a romance-phobic radio sex therapist who inadvertently becomes roommates with Eve (Lesley Ann Warren), a sexually uninhibited bar owner and one of Dr. Love’s frequent callers. Handsome, smooth-talking mental patient Mickey (Keith Carradine) comes to the bar and proceeds to woo and confuse both women as well as an aspiring poetess, Pearl (Rae Dawn Chong), who suspects Nancy is having an affair with her abusive French husband, Zack (Patrick Bachau). As the wild nights progress, all the women find themselves drawn to the mysterious Mickey, arousing the wrath of Zack and ensuring hilarious, moving, and thought-provoking moments. It's a dreamy concoction of sex, love, and brilliant dialogue, all wrapped up in a purposely artificial neon-drenched atmosphere with deliriously romantic music from soul crooner Teddy Pendergrass. Filled with neat performances and cockeyed grace, CHOOSE ME was a career-defining hit for director Alan Rudolph, who would go on to make acclaimed films such as MRS. PARKER AND THE VICIOUS CIRCLE and AFTERGLOW.

THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET

013185

The Brother is an alien who has crash-landed on Earth, in New York City. While mute, strongly empathic, and able to fix things, he resembles a Black man with strange feet. His attempt to make a place for himself in Harlem is an allegory for the immigrant experience in the United States. Meanwhile, two bounty hunters from the Brother's home planet arrive and try to capture him.

PURPLE RAIN

020185 LATENITE

Music star Prince stars as "The Kid" in this semi-autobiographical film, which follows the escapades of a tortured young musician trying to survive in a dysfunctional environment. He finds solace in the affections of a lovely young singer, but his first love is making his funky, unique brand of music, which he performs at an ultra-hip Minneapolis nightclub. The Kid must also contend with Morris, his nemesis both in music and romance
The popular soundtrack of this highly successful film contains many of Prince's most popular tunes, such as "Let's Go Crazy", "When Doves Cry", and the title song.

REVENGE OF THE NERDS

LATENITE 022185

When lovable nerds Gilbert and Lewis embark on their freshman year at Adams College, little do they realize the perils that await them. They're beset with taunting by the jocks of Alpha Beta fraternity, which only worsens when the jocks accidentally burn down their house and are forced toss the freshmen out of the freshmen dorm. To make matters more problematic, Lewis develops a crush on pretty Betty Childs, popular sorority sister and quarterback's girlfriend. Joined by the aptly named Booger and the violin-playing Pointdexter, the nerds soon realize they must form their own fraternity in self-defense. Soon the tables are turned as the nerds employ high-tech warfare against the jocks.... but can they really win and make a difference?

THE GODS MYST BE CRAZY

030185

A tribe of bushmen living in the Kalahari Desert find their peaceful, happy existence threatened when a Coca-Cola bottle falls from the sky. The natives squabble incessantly over ownership of the mysterious item, which they believe to be a gift from the gods. Hoping to restore order, one tribesman is elected to return the bottle by journeying to the ends of the earth, which brings him into contact with modern civilization.

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE

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Upon hearing that vandals have desecrated a graveyard where her grandfather is buried, Sally recruits her boyfriend Jerry, her brother Franklyn, and her friends Pam and Kirk to investigate. On a side trip to the grandfather's deserted farm, the travellers pick up a slimy hitchhiker who cuts himself and slashes Franklyn. After arriving at the farm, Pam and Kirk search for an old swimming hole--Kirk hears a generator and believes he can find some gasoline. He enters the house hoping to find the owner. Unfortunately, this is the home of the hitchhiker, as well as Leatherface, who has some surprises for the travellers consisting of sledgehammers, chainsaws, and assorted cutlery.

STRANGER THAN PARADISE

040585

Beginning in New York City and ending up in Florida, Jim Jarmusch’s STRANGER THAN PARADISE is a highly original comedy that has greatly influenced a new generation of filmmakers (most notably, Kevin Smith and Finland’s Aki Kourismaki). Willie (John Lurie) is annoyed to learn that his younger cousin, Eva (Eszter Balint), is flying in from Hungary and plans on staying with him for ten days. When she arrives, she and Willie waste their days doing nothing. Eventually, Eva gets bored and leaves New York in order to visit her Aunt Lotte in Cleveland. When Willie and his friend Eddie (Richard Edson) get into trouble while cheating in a poker game, they decide to hit the road and track down Eva. Cleveland is even less exciting than New York, so the trio decide to take the plunge and journey to Florida, where they dream of winning an enormous amount at the track. Unfortunately, the reverse occurs, forcing them to confront the gravity of their situation head-on. Jarmusch fuses his love of European cinema with a New York hipness to create one of the decade’s most influential films. Photographed in a static black and white by Tom Di Cillo (director of JOHNNY SUEDE and LIVING IN OBLIVION), STRANGER THAN PARADISE features comically understated performances by its three leads--who are all professional musicians.

THE TERMINATOR

LATENITE 040585

A cyborg is sent from the future on a deadly mission. He has to kill Sarah Connor, a young woman whose life will have a great significance in years to come. Sarah has only one protector - Kyle Reese - also sent from the future. The Terminator uses his exceptional intelligence and strength to find Sarah, but is there any way to stop the seemingly indestructible cyborg ?

COMFORT AND JOY

041985

When Alan "Dicky" Bird's girlfriend unexpectantly dumps him, "Dicky's" best friend urges him to see this as an opportunity to begin a new life. It's not easy at first, but he begins by merely glancing at other women who strike his fancy, and graduates to following them in his car. One afternoon, a beautiful young woman in a "Mr. Bunny" ice cream van catches his eye, and Alan tails her all the way into the suburbs. There he buys some ice cream from the young woman. As he's about to go, Alan notices two men vandalizing the van. He intervenes, but the brutes respond violently by threatening him and destroying his car. Shaken up, but determined to get to the bottom of things, Alan does some amateur sleuthing. He soon realizes his attackers are part of a mob family, ferociously fighting over ice cream territorial rights with the "Mr. Bunny" clan. And, to the surprise of everyone, when Alan gets in the middle of this ice cream war, his ingenuity melts the cold hearts on both sides of the battle... It might also make him a very rich man.

STOP MAKING SENSE

050385

David Byrne walks onto the stage and does a solo "Psycho Killer." Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz join him for two more songs. The crew is busy, still setting up. Then, three more musicians and two back-up singers join the band. Everybody sings, plays, harmonizes, dances, and runs. They change instruments and clothes. Bryne appears in the Big Suit. The backdrop is often black, but sometimes it displays words, images, or children's drawings. The band cooks for 18 songs, the lyrics are clear, the house rocks. In this concert film, the Talking Heads hardly talk, don't stop, and always make sense.

PARIS, TEXAS

060785

Winner of the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984, Wim Wenders's PARIS, TEXAS tells the haunting story of an amnesiac (Harry Dean Stanton) and his struggle to rebuild his shattered life. Featuring a story by Sam Shepard and a renowned score by Ry Cooder, the film also stars Nastassja Kinski and Dean Stockwell.

A SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY

062885

Set in pre-World War I France, this lovely drama is about an aging painter whose family comes to visit him in the Parisian countryside one Sunday afternoon. A poignant depiction of family life directed by the award-winning filmmaker Tavernier.

REPO MAN

LATENITE 071185

Frustrated punk rocker Otto quits his supermarket job after slugging a co-worker, and is later dumped by his girlfriend at a party. Wandering the streets in frustration, he is recruited in the repossession of a car by a repo agent. After discovering his parents have donated his college fund to a televangelist, he joins the repossession agency (Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation) as an apprentice "repo man". During his training, he is introduced into the mercenary and paranoid world of the drivers, befriended by a UFO conspiracy theorist, confronted by rival repo agents, discovers some of his one-time friends have turned to a life of crime, is lectured to about cosmic unconsciousness by the repo agency grounds worker, and finds himself entangled in a web of intrigue concerning a huge repossession bounty on a 1964 Chevy Malabu driven by a lunatic government scientist, with Top Secret cargo in the trunk...

MY NEW PARTNER

071285

Rene, a lowlife and corrupt undercover detective, is given a new partner, the rigorously honest and reputable Francois. When Francois refuses to adopt his partner's seedy lifestyle, a frustrated Rene resorts to an underhanded scheme to make Francois change his rule-following ways.

STAR TREK III : THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK

LATENITE 071885

In the third STAR TREK feature film, directed by Leonard Nimoy, Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) has defeated the genetically created genius Khan, but Spock (Nimoy) is dead and McCoy (DeForest Kelley) is suffering from a strange mental aberration. Defying Starfleet orders, Kirk takes the Enterprise to Genesis to recover the body of Spock. Wonders--and dangers--await the Enterprise crew on the strange new planet.

A PRIVATE FUNCTION

071985

A satiric British comedy about the efforts of a small community to fatten a pig during the time following the Second World War when ham was contraband due to short supplies.

ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

LATENITE 072585

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW is a magical phenomenon unlike anything ever before seen onscreen. Borrowing largely from cinema's horror conventions, the film begins as an innocent young couple is stranded at the home of a mad scientist who is building the perfect man. The castle is filled with a most bizarre group of characters who worship their master, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, played magnificently by the fabulously sexy Tim Curry, in leather jacket, pearls, fishnet stockings, and heavy makeup. Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) are forced to examine their own sexuality as the voluptuous doctor releases the hidden desires in each of them.

PUMPING IRON II: THE WOMEN

080285

Join five women bodybuilders as they prepare for the 1983 Caesars Palace World Cup Championship. Featuring Rachel McLish, Bev Francis, Lori Bowen, Lydia Chang, and Carla Dunlap.

THE CLINIC

082585

A series of humorous vignettes set in a clinic for venereal diseases. Although the film concentrates on relationships, it is also a source of instruction on safe sexual practices and STD (the script-writer worked at a clinic for three years!).

SECRET PLACES

083085

Set in the lush, rolling English countryside, "Secret Places" is the story of the friendship between two young girls during the turbulent years of the Second World War. One of the girls, a German refugee, has a dark secret - her brother is a Nazi.

GEORGE STEVENS: FILMMAKER'S JOURNEY

091385

Biography of director George Stevens by his son. It includes clips from many of his films with commentary by the actors and by directors such as Frank Capra, John Huston and Alan Pakula, among others. Also included are Stevens's war "home movies," found only after his death. Assigned by Eisenhower to film the war in Europe, Stevens used the opportunity to produce, at the same time, the only color footage ever shot in World War II. There is breathtaking film of D-Day and its aftermath; the triumphal march through Paris of the Allied liberators; and the unspeakable horrors of Dachau. This is what Goya might have done with a movie camera. On a more mundane level is a segment on Cecil B. DeMille's 1950 underhanded attempt to oust Joseph L. Mankiewicz, then president, from the Directors' Guild, which Stevens was instrumental in blocking.

A FILM ABOUT JIMI HENDRIX

LATENITE 091985

Considered by many to be the greatest rock guitarist of all time, Hendrix was an enigmatic, contradictory character; an impassioned, extroverted performer and a timid, unsure man at the same time. Sadly, Hendrix went the way of many other rock legends, dying in an alcohol-related accident well before he reached middle age. This absorbing documentary gives insight into the life and career of Hendrix through both interviews and rare performances. Included are sequences from the Monterey Pop, Woodstock, and Isle of Wight Music Festivals.

UTU

092085

Te Wheke (Anzac Wallace), a Maori tribesman serving in the British Army, returns home to find his village and family destroyed in a senseless raid by English settlers. He vows "Utu" - the ritual revenge demanded by his culture. One of New Zealand's first critical and commercial successes, UTU was originally released in a truncated version that was devoid of a few battle scenes deemed too violent by censors. Kino on Video has restored these scenes, about 14 minutes of footage, adding significant impact to an already powerful film.

ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

LATENITE 092685

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN

101185

Hector Babenco's Oscar-nominated drama, adapted from Manuel Puig's novel and set in an unspecified Latin American country, takes a penetrating look at the role of entertainment in a politically oppressive regime. When activist Valentin (Raul Julia) is tossed in a cell, already beaten and tortured by prison guards anxious to get information out of him, he ends up sharing the space with Molina (William Hurt), a homosexual deeply engaged with popular culture--especially the movies. The two men have widely divergent views of life: while the leftist Valentin strives to bring forth a revolution, Molina buries himself in elaborate fantasies taken directly from the cinema. In particular, he relates two fanciful narratives--one a Nazi melodrama, the other an escapist fable about a glamorous "spider woman" (Sonia Braga), harkening back to the glory days of film noir and murderous femme fatales. The impatient and dedicated Valentin tries to raise his cellmate's conscience, and gradually the two men come together and, in a stunning and shocking conclusion, each one truly learns to put himself in the other's place. Hurt delivers an Oscar-winning performance in this captivating tribute to the power of film and fantasy as an escape from inhumane conditions.

QUADROPHENIA

LATENITE 101785

After essentially inventing the rock opera format, The Who followed the cult favorite TOMMY and numerous aborted rock-opera projects with the album QUADROPHENIA. This film version, directed by Franc Roddam, illuminated the feelings of disillusionment and confusion evident in songs such as "Love Reign O'er Me," "Dr. Jimmy," "The Real Me," and "Bellboy."

BLOOD SIMPLE

LATENITE 102485

Abby is cheating on her saloonkeeper husband, Marty. The object of her affections is Ray, one of Marty's bartenders. Marty hires Visser, an unscrupulous detective, to kill them. But Visser has other, more lucrative plans of his own. So begins a calculating round of double and triple crosses that build to a bloodcurdling, surprise-filled climax.

FRIGHT NIGHT

LATENITE 103185

For young Charlie Brewster, nothing could be better than an old horror movie late at night. Two men move in next door, and for Charlie with his horror movie experience, there can be no doubt that their strange behavior is explained by the fact that they are a vampire and his undead day guardian. The only one who can help him hunt them down is a washed-up actor, Peter Vincent, who hosts Charlie's favorite TV show, Fright Night. Vincent doesn't really believe that vampires exist, but does it for the money...

THIS IS SPINAL TAP

LATENITE 111485

A brilliant and hilarious documentary-style satire of a has-been British heavy metal band who never really was on an absurd American comeback tour that never quite gets off the ground, THIS IS SPINAL TAP practically birthed the mockumentary style. Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer are David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, and Derek Smalls, respectively--three clueless, self-absorbed men who form the nucleus of Spinal Tap, aging purveyors of overwrought songs with titles such as "Big Bottom," "Smell the Glove," and "Sex Farm." Shot in faux cinema verité-style with director Rob Reiner as fictional filmmaker Marty DiBergi, the film lampoons just about every rock & roll cliché (not to mention every rockumentary cliché) in the book as it follows these fallen rock idols from one disastrous gig to the next. Scenes of the tour's descent from desperation into total collapse are interspersed with interviews in which the band members delightfully prattle on inanely about the none-too-illustrious history and dubious vision of Spinal Tap. THIS IS SPINAL TAP is a striking and acutely hysterical directorial debut for Reiner and a deserved cult classic. Watch for an endless array of cameos by wonderful comic character actors along the way.

STOP MAKING SENSE

112285

Those who aren't familiar with the work of seminal 1980s band The Talking Heads may find themselves becoming instant fans after viewing this incredibly entertaining concert film. It starts with David Byrne stepping out alone on empty stage with an acoustic guitar to sing "Psycho Killer." The rest of the musicians follow one by one and the stage gradually fills to bursting with powerful, tightly orchestrated brilliance. Director Jonathan Demme (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, PHILADEPLPHIA) expertly captures the music's energy, fusing cinema with performance to create something more than the sum of its parts. Through it all, Byrne comes off as a charismatic artist of supernatural energy and robotic precision, and he's backed by an equally inspired group of musicians, including bassist Tina Weymouth. Artistically ambitious, filled with joyous but controlled energy, this is considered by many critics to be the best concert film of all time. Songs performed include "Take Me to the River," "Once in a Lifetime," "Girlfriend is Better," "Burnin' Down the House" and a hilarious cover of "Genius of Love, " by the Tom-Tom Club (a side project for bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Christ Frantz). It was filmed at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles.

DANCE WITH A STRANGER

112985

In the repressed atmosphere of 1950s Britain, Marilyn Monroe-lookalike Ruth Ellis is the ultimate bad girl. A divorced, former prostitute, Ellis now works as a hostess in a nightclub where she meets dissolute rich boy David Blakeley. Handsome, insouciant and cruel, Blakeley is a representative of the haute-bourgeois world Ellis longs to enter. Consumed with desire for a man and a social standing she can never possess, Ellis' obsessive relationship with Blakeley spirals ever deeper into despair and violence.

MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL

LATENITE 121985

The movie starts out with Arthur, King of the Britons, looking for knights to sit with him at Camelot. He finds many knights including Sir Galahad the pure, Sir Lancelot the brave, the quiet Sir Bedevere, and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Lancelot. They do not travel on horses, but pretend they do and have their servants bang coconuts to make the sound of horse's hooves. Through satire of certain events in history (witch trials, the black plague) they find Camelot, but after literally a quick song and dance they decide that they do not want to go there. While walking away, God (who seems to be grumpy) come to them from a cloud and tells them to find the Holy Grail. They agree and begin their search. While they search for the Grail, scenes of the knight's tales appear and why they have the name they have. Throughout their search they meet interesting people and knights along the way. Most of the characters die; some through a killer rabbit (which they defeat with the holy hand grenade), others from not answering a question right from the bridge of Death, or die some other ridiculous way. In the end, King Arthur and Sir Bedevere are left and find the Castle Arrrghhh where the Holy Grail is. They are met by some French soldiers who taunted them earlier in the film, so they were not able to get into the castle. The movie ends with both King Arthur and Sir Bedevere getting arrested for killing a real-life man who was a historian.

THE COCA COLA KID

122085

In an offbeat romantic drama/comedy, a hotshot Coca-Cola marketing troubleshooter from Atlanta, Georgia shows up at the headquarters in Australia, and immediately sets out to boost revenue by venturing into the Outback, where a very independent and cagey soft drink manufacturer has successfully kept out all competition.