THOSE SATISFACTIONS ARE PERMANENT: WARREN OATES IN TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, by Jim Hemphill

Toward the end of Monte Hellman's 1971 classic Two-Lane Blacktop, the GTO driver played by Warren Oates finishes a story by telling his audience, "That'll give you a set of emotions that'll stay with you." The same can be said about Oates himself, an actor who was poetic and sensitive and macho and brutal and forceful and restrained all at once - it's no wonder he was one of director Sam Peckinpah's favorite collaborators. Oates was Cary Grant and Clint Eastwood in the same package - charming, witty, and warm as well as minimalist, dark, and self-destructive. It's not just that he was capable of playing any note on the emotional scale; it's that he could play them all at the same time, not only in the same movie but sometimes in the same scene.  There's never been another actor quite like him, and no filmmaker brought out more of his unique qualities than Monte Hellman.

THIS SUMMER, THERE'S A CINEMATIC VOID FILLED WITH INSANITY, by Heidi Honeycutt

Cinematic Void is the brainchild of American Cinematheque programmer Grant Moninger and technical director James Branscome. It’s also an insane film party, usually packed into the intimate setting of the Spielberg Theatre, with giveaways, curated trailers, unexpected oddball extras, often costumes, and even special guests from the specially-selected films. The Cinematic Void films themselves are only familiar to the most die-hard cult, horror, bizarre and eclectic cinema fans (and even in that context, sometimes they’re obscure as hell).  Cinematic Void screenings are, according to Branscome, “an opportunity to screen some summertime horror favorites and mix in some serious deep cuts. Obviously things like The Burning or Friday the 13th don’t need much of an introduction. But introducing film fiends to the mind-bending lunacy of Wild Beasts and Demonoid is something special. Those are films that should be seen with a rabid audience. It’s also great to work with some of my favorite boutique home video labels: Severin Films and Vinegar Syndrome.”

MOLLY SHANNON, BRUCE MCCULLOCH AND STEVE KOREN DISCUSS SUPERSTAR, by Claudia Oberst

"She lives these lives; she doesn't just read these lines,"

-Screenwriter Steve Koren on working with Molly Shannon

Actress Molly Shannon, director Bruce McCulloch, and screenwriter Steve Koren stopped by for a discussion following the May 20, 2016 screening of their comedy Superstar at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The Alamo Drafthouse partnered with the American Cinematheque for the occasion. Shannon, McCulloch, and Koren let fans in on their favorite scenes, talked about kissing trees, and gave away why Drew Barrymore was crucial for the making of the movie.

BARRY LYNDON: PATTERNS, WEALTH, AND FATE, by Scott Nye

Like the life of its protagonist, Barry Lyndon only came to be by chance. Stanley Kubrick planned to make a film about Napoleon Bonaparte but, when mega-producer Dino De Laurentiis not only beat him to the punch but also flopped at the box office in so doing, nobody with any money really felt like more failure need be associated with that particular subject. Kubrick would spend the final twenty years of his life researching and planning and aborting plans for a handful of films, but in the early 70s, he wasn’t about to let all that preparation go to waste. He was at the peak of his critical and commercial viability, and Hollywood was feeling particularly generous to directors at this point. Especially ones who made money. So he funneled all that enthusiasm and research for his Napoleon film into an adaptation of a lesser-read novel by William Makepeace Thackeray (set not too far from from Napoleon’s time) that cost a great deal of money, fared poorly at the box office, and has figured very little into the legacy of one of cinema’s most renowned and popular filmmakers. This may be fitting for a film that summarizes itself with a sort of complacent irony - “good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now” - but hardly for what it is, which is Kubrick’s absolute masterpiece.

CHARACTER WITNESS: THE FILMS OF TED KOTCHEFF, by Susan King

Acclaimed Canadian director Ted Kotcheff will be visiting the Aero Theatre June 23-25, 2016 for a five-film series that illustrates his versatility as a director. Among the films featured in the mini-retrospective “Character Witness: The Films of Ted Kotcheff” are the 1971 thriller Wake in Fright, the hit 1989 comedy Weekend at Bernie’s, and the 1982 action-drama First Blood, in which Sylvester Stallone introduced his iconic character of the Vietnam vet Rambo.

Kotcheff, now 85, has never been typecast in a certain genre. Kotcheff, who began directing at CBC in Toronto in 1955, credits his early years in live television for cultivating his interest in all film genres.

“I started directing in live television,” said the spry Kotcheff during a recent phone interview from his home in Mexico, where he was putting the finishing touches on his autobiography.

MARXISTS UNITE! by Nick Santa Maria

No, this isn't a political message. It means that the American Cinematheque is having a Marx Brothers festival in June. Let the celebration begin!

You say you've never heard of the Marx Brothers, or that you haven't seen their films?  Or, perhaps you haven't seen their films in a while.  Well, this is your opportunity to see one of the most unique and hilarious acts in the history of cinema.  And to top it off, you'll be seeing them the way they are supposed to be seen, in a theater with a live audience.

That last part is very important in the case of the Marx Brothers.  Unlike other comedy acts, before some of their films were shot they actually took the comedy scenes on the road and played them in front of live audiences. That way they could clock the laughs for timing and response.  This told the editor how to pace the scenes, and also told them what material should stay and what should go.

Who were the Marx Brothers, you ask?  Read on, MacDuff.

STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: WOMEN MAKING MOVIES, by Stacy Pippi Hammon

I’m often pulled into various discussions on the representation of women in film. In front of the camera. Behind the camera. Sitting in the audience. There is chatter on the marketing of toys. Who is choking whom on a billboard. The types of films women direct. The types of films women watch. How women can change their behavior to fit into the industry. How there is a lack of female representation in the film industry and what we can do to increase women in the filmmaking arena.

DE PALMA (AND BAUMBACH AND PALTROW) ON DE PALMA, by Jim Hemphill

The American Cinematheque was thrilled to be granted some time today with the filmmakers of the new documentary De Palma, Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow, as well as De Palma himself. To take on the task, we sent in a serious De Palma fan, writer and director Jim Hemphill, who conducted the interview below. As a companion to this interview, we encourage you to read his appreciation of Brian De Palma's work in a previous article on this blog.

American Cinematheque members will have an opportunity to see a sneak preview of De Palma on Sunday, June 5th. If you are not a member and would like to join our organization and see this sneak preview, click here. Our De Palma retrospective is June 1 - 4, 2016. The documentary De Palma opens theatrically June 10.

Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow’s De Palma is one of the best movies about moviemaking that I’ve ever seen, a documentary on a great director in which that director’s story serves as a metaphor for the seismic shifts in the American film industry as a whole. The film is deceptively simple, consisting entirely of one long interview with Brian De Palma interspersed with clips from his movies; Baumbach and Paltrow eschew interviews with any of De Palma’s collaborators, critics, or champions, opting instead to let the director and his work speak for themselves. Leaving no film out and progressing in chronological order from De Palma’s first short to his latest feature, Baumbach and Paltrow extract a wealth of fascinating stories, insights, and observations about classics like Carrie, Dressed to Kill, and The Untouchables – as well as commercial and critical disappointments The Bonfire of the Vanities and Mission to Mars. A feast for De Palma fans, it’s also essential viewing for anyone who cares about how and why American movies have changed, as De Palma’s career trajectory mirrors and comments upon the evolution of Hollywood as a whole. It’s an extraordinary work, worthy of its subject, and I was honored to speak with De Palma, Baumbach, and Paltrow about the project on the eve of its release and the Cinematheque’s De Palma retrospective.