Swans, Swine, and Serial Killers in This Week’s Recommended Events

News From Home

Monday 7, Hyperreal Film Club

If you’ve ever felt homesick, congratulations – you have something in common with Sight and Sound’s greatest film of all time director Chantal Akerman (Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles). Bonus points if you’ve ever felt lost and lonely in New York City, as Ackerman’s News From Home plumbs similar woes to Joan Didion’s Goodbye to All That, following a 21-year-old Akerman existing ambiently in 1970s New York as she contemplates the letters her mother writes from Belgium over her first year away. Both a time capsule of the city and a bittersweet meditation on family and leaving home, this nuanced, touching avant-documentary screens at Hyperreal with doors at 7pm, movie at 7:30.   – Lina Fisher

Rope

Monday 7 & Wednesday 9, Alamo Mueller

Somehow, these Drafthouse screenings do NOT fall under Queer Film Theory 101, but by god they should. Alfred Hitchcock portrayed in faux-single-shot cinematography the murderous dinner party of “friends” Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan. These aesthetes were based on real-life killers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, whose crime Hitchcock correctly edits to be an age-appropriate strangling rather than college-kids Leopold & Loeb’s murder of a 14-year-old. Here, these so-called sophisticates squirm and sweat their way through a dinner party while mere feet away their dead peer rots in an antique chest. They clutch, scream, and gaze at each other with varying levels of loathing and lust – well, that might be me editorializing. Later dismissed by fellow cast member Jimmy Stewart as “worth trying” but not totally successful, he did remark that it was a singular work: “Nobody but Hitch would have tried it.”   – James Scott

The Gardener’s Year

Tuesday 8, Violet Crown Cinema

Czech That Film Texas settles into the Violet Crown for the whole of April to exhibit award-winning Czech cinema every Tuesday. First up: Jiří Havelka's The Gardener’s Year, a 2024 drama about a gardener (Oldřich Kaiser) trying to resist encroachment on his property by a wealthy new neighbor. The series also includes Veronika Lišková's Year of the Widow (April 15), Kristina Dufková's animated film Living Large (April 22), and Adam Martinec's family-focused tragicomedy Our Lovely Pig Slaughter (April 29). Hang around the lobby afterwards to chat with other Czech culture enthusiasts.   – Kimberley Jones

Swan Lake

Wednesday 9, Bass Concert Hall

Swan Lake? Oh, just your classic tale of a playboy prince who falls in love with a swan who turns out to be the cursed princess Odette, who he then confuses for another swan, Odile, whose dad is the dastardly sorcerer who caused all the trouble to begin with. If any of that sounds familiar, you’ve probably seen Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, or maybe heard Tchaikovsky’s enduring score. [Editor’s note: Or seen animated classic Barbie of Swan Lake.] The State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine, currently touring North America, brings this much-loved ballet to Bass Concert Hall for one night only.   – Kimberley Jones

If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?

Wednesday 9, Alamo South Lamar

This week, Texas lawmakers railed against depravity in cinema and called for good, family-friendly, and Christian moviemaking. Anyone who has ever seen this particular devotional movie might be able to set them straight, since this work of faith is one of the most unhinged exploitation flicks ever made. South Baptist preacher and political paranoiac Estus Pirkle was convinced that regular god-fearing Americans were endangered by communists, sex ed, cartoons, and dancing (aka “the front door to adultery!”). He selected cinema as the medium for his message and turned to recently born-again director Ron Ormond. However, no amount of baptismal water could wash away a filmography that included sexploitation classics like The Girl From Tobacco Row and goona-goona epic Untamed Mistress. The end result can only be described as the Bible Belt’s Plan 9 From Outer Space with inadvertently hilarious gore, unconvincing decapitations, homemade arm bands, outrageous foreign accents, and out-of-control eyelash batting.   – Richard Whittaker

Lise Olsen: The Scientist and the Serial Killer

Wednesday 9, BookPeople

True crime fans know that oftentimes a forensic scientist can be the unsung hero that brings justice to crime victims by answering decades-old questions. Forensic anthropologist Sharon Derrick is one such hero, discovering and acting on unprocessed 1973 evidence at the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office regarding the cases of Houston’s “Lost Boys.” In a gripping new book, journalist Lise Olsen (Code of Silence) tells the story of the scientist who gave names to over two dozen teen victims of a serial killer dubbed the “Candy Man.” Hear from Olsen in a fascinating conversation moderated by Texas Observer staff writer Michelle Pitcher, and be sure to pick up a copy to be signed and personalized.   – Kat McNevins

Adaptations Book Club: Muppet Treasure Island

Wednesday 9, We Luv Video

What are the two greatest performances by flesh-and-bones actors in Muppet films? Why, Michael Caine as the grasping old miser Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol, and Tim Curry as duplicitous pirate Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island. But the reasons for their excellence in the world of fur and googly eyes are completely opposing. Caine acted like a human and treated the Muppets as such. Curry was a Muppet. Few actors could ever pull that transformation off, but then they’re not Curry, who grins, cavorts, and laughs like he was to this madcap manner born as he sets sail into Robert Louis Stevenson’s great adventure.   – Richard Whittaker

Indie Meme Film Fest

Wednesday 9 - Sunday 13, AFS Cinema

Austin’s own celebration of cinema from the Indian subcontinent welcomes a true innovator and boundary-pusher for its 10th anniversary with a special appearance by Anurag Kashyap. The writer/director has proved that being prolific doesn’t mean sacrificing artistic power, as shown by his latest film, super-stylish corrupt cop drama Kennedy. Not only will he fly in for a special live Q&A, but he’ll be sticking around for a special filmmaking workshop looking at how he has helped turn the Indian film industry upside down. However, that’s just a taste of the lineup for this essential festival, with dramas, shorts, and documentaries from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and across the global diaspora that will remind American audiences that there’s more to the region than Bollywood blockbusters.   – Richard Whittaker

Artist Panel: Portrait Mode

Wednesday 9, Contemporary Austin Jones Center

The Jones Center brings artists from all locales and walks of life to Austin – most recently Jiab Prachakul, a self-taught Thai-born, France-based painter currently showing solo exhibition "Sweet Solitude." The show focuses on portraiture, often of Prachakul's famous artist friends including filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) and author Ocean Vuong (On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous). In keeping with this mode, the Jones Center is hosting a panel discussion between Prachakul and Texas-based portrait artists including Tsz Kam, Jieun Beth Kim, Dawn Okoro, and Alexandra Valenti. Multitudes can be contained in the portrait, meditations on age, class, fashion, emotion, identity, culture – as much as can be contained in a person. The conversation is free to those under 18, $5 for seniors, and $10 for adults.   – Lina Fisher

Vampire Hunter D

Wednesday 9 & Sunday 13, Alamo South Lamar, Slaughter Lane & Lakeline

Japanese animation arm of Iconic Events Releasing Anime Expo Cinema Nights brings this 1985 gothic classic back to screens across the nation for its 40th anniversary. An infamous genre feature, the titular hunter appears as a shadowy figure traversing a post-nuclear war landscape – here having stumbled upon a werewolf-hunter descendant struggling after a bite from the frightening Count Magnus Lee. While the film’s based on long-running light novels by Hideyuki Kikuchi, what truly makes it an iconic midnighter is the buckwild images: bright shining fangs, impossible yet transfixing outfits, and just a treasure trove of outdated boob physics. Catch this anniversary screening with a special intro from Shudder head of programming Sam Zimmerman.   – James Scott

Dial M for Murder

Through April 27, Trinity Street Playhouse

Film buffs know the Hitchcock version of Dial M for Murder, a delicate cocktail of a mystery movie with adultery, blackmail, and the blessed screen presence of Grace Kelly. Jarrott Productions has mixed up their own version of the timeless thriller. It’s got the signature intrigue, with a delectable twist courtesy of playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s more modern adaptation. Still set in the stylish 1950s, Jarrott’s serving up suspense with heavy dashes of queer romance, women’s liberation, and the fragile male ego. There’s more than money on the line with this production of surreptitious schemes gone awry.   – Cat McCarrey

Sara Goetter & Natalie Riess: Warriors Graphic Novel

Thursday 10, BookPeople

Shocking development from the writer who last week plastered local employed cats on the Chronicle cover, but I’m here to tell you that those Aughts-era feral-cat books are now going graphic. Warriors continues to be a certified kid classic for any animal-loving fantasy nerd, with its roving clans of felines living away from “two-legs” being (sorry) catnip for any child who loves a lore dump. Comic creators and partners – in the gay way – Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess set up at BP to sign copies and discuss the latest in the Thunderclan story. Last one there is a soft little kittypet!   – James Scott

The Young Girls of Rochefort

Thursday 10, Hyperreal Film Club

Jacques Demy’s follow-up to romantic classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg turns the Technicolor dial up a thousand percent – with Academy-nominated tunes set against a backdrop of a gorgeous French seaside. Musical comedy enjoyers will be excited to see genre favorites Gene Kelly, George Charkiris, and the always gorgeous Catherine Deneuve in her second leading Demy role. This romantic little romp screens at Third and Chicon’s informal cineplex as part of a temporary farewell from Hyperreal Film Club co-founder David McMichael, who recently accepted a new title: father. “[I] wanted to end this chapter with the most joyful movie I could think of,” writes McMichael, “which naturally is Jacques Demy’s springtime dream of a musical.”   – James Scott

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Want to see all of our listings broken down by day? Go to austinchronicle.com/calendar and see what's happening now or in the coming week.