Saturday
night we’re screening two films with playfully creative takes on film and
reality itself.
Luminaris
is a short comedy about a worker in a light bulb factory who tries to get ahead
by cheating, and what goes wrong—and right—when he’s caught. This gem of a film is beautifully crafted
with pixilated animation and a snappy story—told only with visuals and a score,
no dialogue—by Argentinian director Juan Pablo Zaramella. Cinephiles will recognize elements of silent
film comedy, day-in-the-life documentaries like The Man with a Movie Camera,
and other great works. And not just
films. As noted on the website ShortOfTheWeek:
“The
setting of the film is a classic Buenos Aires, revisited from a fantastic point
of view. The film uses a collage of styles, combining art deco, tango,
surrealism, and neorealism. This mix of influences is directly linked with the
history of Buenos Aires: the city and
its population themselves are a mix of different cultures.”
In
addition to numerous other honors, Luminaris
was named to the 2011 Academy Award shortlist for Best Animated Short Film.
Our accompanying
feature fits our independent sensibility to a T, or an X. The Ghastly
Love of Johnny X is a campy mash-up of 1950s juvenile delinquent films,
sci-fi thrillers, musicals, and comedies.
Banished to Earth for intergalactic juvenile delinquency, Johnny X and
his gang set off in search of a piece of alien technology that could change the
fate of the universe forever—the so-called “resurrection suit.” They’re soon embroiled in a wacky scheme with
characters including a femme fatale, a shifty concert promoter, and a recently
deceased musician “who won’t let a little decomposition stop him from rocking.” Really.
Johnny X also is the last feature shot on
Eastman Kodak's discontinued Plus-X 5231 stock, which was used on the likes of Raging Bull and Schindler's List—and will look great at the NoHo 7. And it has the final screen appearance of Kevin McCarthy, which alone makes it a must see for some
of you out there.
Click here to
see filmmaker extraordinaire Paul
Bunnell introducing the film for us.
Screening Saturday
evening (11/10) at 9:30.
----
By James
Latham
The Valley
Film Festival returns to NoHo for its twelfth annual celebration of independent
film and local production, Wednesday, November 7 – Sunday, November 11, 2012.
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