CHELSEA CLASSICS SUMMER 2023

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, USA

Ace in the Hole

(Billy Wilder, 1951, 111 min)
Sat July 1, 4:00 pm
Wed July 5, 7:00 pm

Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole is one of the most scathing indictments of American culture ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker. Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter who washes up in dead-end Albuquerque, happens upon the scoop of a lifetime, and will do anything to keep getting the lurid headlines.

Starship Troopers

(Paul Verhoeven, 1997, 129 min)
Sun July 2, 4:00 pm
Thu July 6, 7:00 pm

Part comic book–style action adventure, part scathing satire of the military-industrial complex, Starship Troopers is one of the most subversive artistic acts ever perpetrated with a $100 million budget. Welcome to the 24th century, where fresh-faced,
idealistic teens are encouraged to join up and become “citizens” by enlisting in the intergalactic army

NEW RESTORATIONS

Drylongso

(Cauleen Smith, 1998, 86 min)
Saturday July 8, 4:00 pm
Tuesday July 11, 7:00 pm

A lost treasure of 1990s DIY filmmaking, Cauleen Smith’s Drylongso embeds an incisive look at racial injustice within a lovingly handmade buddy movie/murder mystery/ romance.

Millennium Mambo

(Hou Hsiao Hsien, 2001, 107 min, in Mandarin with English subtitles)
Sun July 9, 4:00 pm
Wed July 12, 7:00 pm

A stylish and seductive submersion into the techno-scored neon nightlife of Taipei, Hou’s much-misunderstood marvel stars Shu Qi (The Assassin) as an aimless bar hostess drifting away from her blowhard boyfriend and towards Jack Kao’s suave, sensitive gangster.

SELF-DECEPTION

 A New Leaf

(Elaine May, 1971, 102 min)
Sat July 15, 4:00 pm
Tue July 18, 7:00 pm

Writer-director-star Elaine May’s first feature concerns stunted manboy Henry (Walter Matthau) who, having squandered his inherited wealth, plots to marry and murder the very rich and very maladjusted Henrietta (May.)

Young Adult

(Jason Reitman, 2011, 94 min)
Sun July 16, 4:00 pm

 Wed July 19, 7:00 pm

If Lydia Tár traded classical music for YA literature and Berlin for Minnesota, she’d probably behave a lot like Young Adult’s Mavis. As in writer Diablo Cody’s previous feature, the lately re-appraised Jennifer’s Body, Young Adult centers a complicated, unlikeable female protagonist.

JLG
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Contempt

(Jean-Luc Godard, 1963, 102 min, in French with English subtitles)
Sat July 22, 4:00 pm
Tue July 25, 7:00 pm

Jean-Luc Godard’s subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a star-studded Cinemascope epic starring Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European director (played by legendary director Fritz Lang), a crude and arrogant American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife, Camille (Brigitte Bardot), as he attempts to doctor the script for a new film version of The Odyssey.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Her

(Jean-Luc Godard, 1967, 87 min, in French with English subtitles)
Sun July 23, 4:00 pm
Wed July 26, 7:00 pm

The most intellectually heroic of Jean-Luc Godard’s early features was inspired by his reading an article about suburban housewives daytripping into Paris to turn tricks for spending money.