Halloween
Halloween 1978, R, 93 min. D: John Carpenter; with Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis. There’s no more appropriate movie for Halloween night than this John Carpenter original. They should have broken the mold when they released Halloween, for when it comes to escaped-maniacs-on-the-loose films this one’s the real deal. If nothing else, see how Jamie…
Blind Faith
Blind Faith 1999, NR, 120 min. Directed by Ernest Dickerson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Charles S. Dutton, Courtney B. Vance, Kadeem Hardison, Lonette Mckee. The Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF) presents one of the favorites from the recent festival in this monthly series that screens on the first Tuesday…
Aurora Picture Show
Aurora Picture Show NR. Directed by Bjørn Melhus, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Limboland: Film & Video by Bjørn Melhus is a selection from 11 years of work by artist Bjørn Melhus. Melhus was included in the 1999 Venice Biennale, and is touring throughout the U.S. with this program. Limboland is a…
Willie Varela: Maverick Outsider
Willie Varela: Maverick Outsider NR. Directed by Willie Varela, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Willie Varela: Maverick Outsider is the current focus of the Austin Film Society’s bimonthly Expanding Cinema series that focuses on experimental film. The series is also co-sponsored by Cinemaker Co-op. Varela is a well-known El Paso filmmaker who…
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
The Ballad of Cable Hogue 1970, R, 121 min. Directed by Sam Peckinpah, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, David Warner, Strother Martin, L.q. Jones, Slim Pickens. This eight-part film series dedicated to a reassessment of Sam Peckinpah’s career is curated by local access TV’s Show With No Name and…
Vengeance is Mine
Vengeance is Mine 1979, NR, 128 min. Directed by Shohei Imamura, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ken Ogata, Rentaro Mikuni. The Austin Film Society series examines the films of Japanese director Shohei Imamura, one of the most important ñ and least internationally known ñ post-war filmmakers. Vengeance Is Mine is Imamura’s chilling portrait…
Sundays and Cybele
Sundays and Cybele 1962, NR, 110 min. Directed by Serge Bourguignon, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Hardy Kruger, Nicole Courcel, Patricia Gozzi, Daniel Gozzi. This now-scarcely seen French film was an Oscar winner for best foreign picture. It tells the tragic story of a man’s involvement with a young waif.
The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera 1925, NR, 79 min. Directed by Rupert Julian, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry. Based on the 1909 novel by Gaston Leroux, this classic Universal Pictures silent follows a mad, disfigured musician who kidnaps a young opera singer and holds her captive in…
Off the Bookshelf
Short reviews of recently published books.
The Nine Lives of Ol’ Possum
An overview of country legend George Jones’ life and career.
My Friend Murr
While Attorney General John Cornyn was gaining little traction in his fight with the five attorneys in the state’s tobacco case, he scored major points in his investigation of former AG Dan Morales and Morales’ friend, Houston lawyer Marc Murr. During his first few weeks in office, Cornyn began looking at a deal Morales made…
The Wild Bunch
When I first saw The Wild Bunch in El Paso in 1969, my reaction was gut-level and cinematic — probably just what Sam Peckinpah intended. Afterward, my date, who is now my wife, asked me what I thought. Standing in stunned silence outside the Plaza Theater, looking at the poster of the film for a…
Crazy in Alabama
Crazy in Alabama 1999, PG-13, 111 min. Directed by Antonio Banderas, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Fannie Flagg, Noah Emmerich, Robert Wagner, Richard Schiff, Rod Steiger, Meat Loaf Aday, Cathy Moriarity, Lucas Black, David Morse, Melanie Griffith. There’s something deliciously off-kilter about Melanie Griffith in Crazy in Alabama: her breathy cadence, that coy…
Second Helpings: Breakfast Ole!
The weekly Chronicle feature “Second Helpings” offers readers the opportunity to sample tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week’s entries were compiled by Chronicle Cuisines editor Virgina B. Wood. When you need quick, reliable information about Austin eateries, check here in the print edition or look…
Off the Bookshelf
Short reviews of recently published books.
No-Show Jones
During the heyday of George Jones’ absenteeism in the Sixties, promoters took advantage of the singer’s reputation by putting his name up on club marquees without ever having actually booked him. By the end of the evening, the bar would be better off, some fans would be drunk enough to not ask for their money…
Cornyn Responds
Here is Attorney General John Cornyn’s response to a list of specific questions submitted by the Chronicle: “The primary concern of the Office of the Attorney General is to protect the taxpayers of Texas from any potential liability. Currently, the 5 outside trial lawyers have broken their agreement to decide between the $3.3 billion from…
Straw Dogs
As a frontal assault on the tenuous restraints by which we trick ourselves into believing we govern our emotions, Straw Dogs might be peerless. The entire movie is structured as a series of encounters that are always getting out of control. A young married couple constantly bicker and taunt each other in a series of…
Head On
Head On 1998, NR, 104 min. Directed by Ana Kokkinos, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Alex Dimitriades, Paul Capsis, Julian Garner, Elena Mandalis, Elena Mandalis, Eugenia Fragos, Damien Fotiou, Andrea Mandalis. As the woefully conflicted young Greek-Australian Ari, the feral, dynamic Dimitriades is less a teenage house o’ fire than a self-made neutron…
Waves Coming to Shore
No artist in the last 50 years has combined dance, theatre, music, scenery, and costume into epic spectacles like Pina Bausch, and as this German visionary returns to Austin Dawn Davis explores her work and her impact on the city’s Johnson / Long Dance Company.
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Hectic but Good
Profile of country / bluegrass singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale
Seeing the Light
Capital Metro unveils plans for light rail, a bus-rapid-transit system, and HOV lanes for Austin.
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Nowadays, most movies look factory-made, mechanically repeating cast, storyline, or F/X from the last big blockbuster. They touch us skin-deep, ask nothing of us but box-office, kill time and vanish. In contrast, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is like getting accosted by a wild-eyed Ancient Mariner, a colorful dreg who draws you willy-nilly…
The Stendahl Syndrome
The Stendahl Syndrome 1998, R, 88 min. Directed by Dario Argento, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Franco Diogene, John Quentin, Julien Lambroschini, Paolo Bonacelli, Luigi Diberti, Marco Leonardi, Thomas Kretschmann, Asia Argento. In the mid-19th century while on a tour of Italian architecture, the famed French author Stendahl found himself so overwhelmed by…
All the World SA Stage
The audition notice calls for an actress to play a corpse. The role requires the actress to lie motionless in a gallery window in downtown San Antonio. The role will go to the actor who can lie still the longest — two hours or more. Such a notice might be standard fare in Berlin or…
Page Two
Peckinpah rides again at the Alamo Drafthouse.
Dancing About Architecture
Is the new Sir Douglas Quintet collection is from the original masters? Doug Sahm makes the final call. Also, Michael Nesmith, Junior and Tanya Rae Brown, and Clifford Antone updates.
Map 1: “Recommendation: Initial Phase”
The “Red/Green Line with BRT” — the package Capital Metro will submit to the Federal Transit Administration for “new starts” funding — starts at Howard Lane and runs south to Lamar and Airport along the Cap Met-owned Austin and Northwestern track (the Red Line). From there, it runs down Lamar, Guadalupe and Colorado, on the…
Peckinpah Schedule
Ride the High Country and The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage Thu, Oct. 21; 6:30 & 9:30 (1-hour documentary) The Wild Bunch Thu, Oct. 28; 6:30 & 9:30 The Ballad of Cable Hogue Thu, Nov. 4; 7 & 9:30 Straw Dogs Thu, Nov. 11, 7 & 9:30 The Getaway Thu, Nov. 18; 7 &…
That’s the Way I Like it
That’s the Way I Like it 1998, PG-13, 92 min. Directed by Glen Goei, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Kumar, Steven Lim, Pierre Png, Anna Belle Francis, Medaline Tan, Adrian Pang. Disco dead? Perish the thought. At least not in Singapore, circa 1977, an Americanized era of pleated bell-bottoms, white polyester sport coats,…
Articulations
A special visit to Austin by Theatre Communications Group executive director Ben Cameron.
Public Notice
Club Skirt, autumn leaves, and the flu are all back!
Live Shots
Descriptions of live shows
Map 2: Future Plans
After Phase 1 — the Red/Green light rail line from Howard Lane to downtown, and the South Congress BRT from Slaughter Lane to downtown — Capital Metro says its phasing strategy for rail is not set in stone. The Inner Orange Line: Phase 2A — also described as Phase 1B — is a Fourth Street…
Exhibitionism
Reviews of recent and ongoing exhibitions and performances around Austin
Mr. Smarty Pants
HAL, Hendrix, Seven of Nine
Live Shots
Descriptions of live shows
Naked City
South Austin Democrats give Mayor Kirk Watson the Yeller Dawg award of the year, Geoff Rips goes to work for AISD, City Council will have new meeting places next year.
Citizen Hong Kong
CITIZEN HONG KONG D: Ruby Yang In 1997, on the eve of Hong Kong’s handover from British colonialism to mainland China, filmmaker Yang journeyed back to the city of her birth to document not only the political changeover itself but also its inescapable impact on five young people just starting out in the midst of…
Exhibitionism
Reviews of recent and ongoing exhibitions and performances around Austin
After a Fashion
When did the concept of breaking in jeans become obsolete?
Live Shots
Descriptions of live shows
Naked City
Capital Metro outlines transit alternatives; the Texas Constitution gets ready for a makeover; Ronnie Earle’s sparse death penalty record suggests he may not seek death in the yogurt shop murders; the Police Oversight Focus Group prepares its recommendations for city council; and the Third Choice Conference unites third parties for ballot reform.
The Hi-Line
THE HI-LINE D: Ron Judkins; with Rachel Leigh Cook, Ryan Alosio, Margot Kidder, Stuart Margolin, Rainer Judd. A fragile beauty caught in a loser world, Rachel Leigh Cook has the kind of trapped doe eyes that made Winona Ryder famous. The pint-sized star of She’s All That (and perhaps more impressively, “This Is Your Brain…
Exhibitionism
Reviews of recent and ongoing exhibitions and performances around Austin
Day Trips
Museum-hopping in Houston.
Live Shots
Descriptions of live shows
Naked City
The attacks on Gov. George W. Bush’s environmental record are increasing. Two weeks ago, rival presidential candidate Vice President Al Gore said Bush “carries water — dirty water — for the special interests.” On Tuesday, a coalition of 44 environmental, health, and public interest groups attacked Bush for the decline in Texas’ air quality. Gore…
Museum of Television and Radio Program II
MUSEUM OF TELEVISION AND RADIO PROGRAM II Once Upon a Savage Night D: Robert Altman (1964); with Phillip Abbott, Ted Knight, Robert Ridgley. A Walk in the Night D: Robert Altman (1966/8); with Carroll O’Connor, Andrew Duggan. Yes, there was Nashville. And the classic Warren Beatty-Julie Christie Western McCabe & Mrs. Miller. But for dedicated…
A Portrait of the Artist as a Grad Student
Chronicle reviewer David Garza uses Tom Grimes’ new history of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop to question whether creative writing can be taught.
Coach’s Corner
Everybody hates a winner.
Live Shots
Descriptions of live shows
Naked City
A long, long time ago — about 11 months — as City Hall busied itself with getting Computer Sciences Corp. into downtown, Mayor Kirk Watson proclaimed that CSC was the anchor of an incipient “Digital Downtown District.” Last week, the Downtown Austin Alliance heard from a pro about how it can entice high technology into…
Tiara Tango
TIARA TANGO D: Werner Molinsky; with Jean Smart, Robert Wagner, Emily Procter, Justin William Root, Jorja Fox, Mink Stole. Mix the tackiness of The Valley of the Dolls and the campiness of The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, and you get a sense of what Tiara Tango is all about. Jean Smart (Designing…
Tom Grimes’ The Workshop reviewed
The Workshop: Seven Decades of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop: 43 Stories, Recollections, and Essays on Iowa’s Place in Twentieth-Century American Literature edited by Tom Grimes Hyperion, $30 hard The attempt to issue one encompassing, conclusive statement about The Workshop seems pointless. The book defies tame categorization. If there is a common element to the cacophony…
About AIDS
Keep walking – we’re not there yet: The 12th annual AIDS Walk Austin is this Sunday.
House of Cards
Critics say the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs awards low-income housing tax-credits to undeserving developers.
Naked City
Should East 12th Street be a commercial corridor, or a residential promenade? You’d think that after nearly five years of planning and debate under the auspices of the Austin Revitalization Authority, this fairly basic issue would be resolved. But not yet — although ARA board members and 12th Street property interests are working to beat…
Short Cuts
Film news from around Austin
Postscripts
Upcoming events in Austin’s literary scene.
Tailgating Teasips
Mick Vann makes a foray into the curious and often elaborate rite of University of Texas fandom known as “tailgating” and discovers some intriguing practices.
The Six Million-Dollar Men
Tax-credit projects associated with six developers and builders, all familiar names from past tax-credit allocation rounds, came away with fully a third of the total 1999 credits, worth nearly $60 million in resale value. Half of them have either shown litttle experience with tax-credit projects or compiled a history of compliance problems. Developer Awards Projects…
Naked City
Art in Public Places will hold a meeting Thursday, Oct. 21, at the Parks and Recreation building, 200 S. Lamar, to discuss how public art can be utilized at the Community Events Center and Garage proposed for Town Lake Park. Call 397-1455 for more information. The Alliance to Save Hyde Park, a neighborhood group opposed…
Video Reviews
(“Video Reviews” wishes to thank Encore Movies & Music, I Luv Video, Vulcan Video, Waterloo Video and Curley’s Videos (Lakeway) for their help in providing videos, laser discs, and DVDs.)The Manchurian CandidateD: John Frankenheimer (1962); with Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, Laurence Harvey, John McGiver, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, James Gregory. THE TRAIN D: John Frankenheimer…
Book Reviews
Ahab’s Wife, or The Star-Gazerby Sena Jeter Naslund William Morrow & Co., $28 hard Sena Jeter Naslund’s novel Ahab’s Wife is very much like a romance novel with an English degree. If you don’t remember Ahab’s wife from Melville’s novel, don’t worry, because neither did he. Arguably the most hypermasculine American writer next to Hemingway,…
Tom Blanton’s Salsa Verde Especial
Yield about 5 1/2 pints 8 cups tomatillos 3 cups green onions, finely chopped (approx. eight to 10 bunches) 4 cups cilantro, chopped (approx. four to five bunches) 3/4 cup minced garlic (approx. 15 cloves) 3 cups fresh lime juice (approx. 15 limes) 4 tablespoons sea salt 4 tablespoons coarse ground black pepper 1/2 cup…
A Developer’s Jackpot
Low-income housing tax credits are subsidies that builders can get from the Texas Dept. of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) to build new apartment complexes that rent at least 40% of their units below market rates. The IRS funds the subsidy by forgoing tax receipts that are bundled into credits and parceled out to states…
Council Watch
City Council considers status of various development-related lawsuits in executive sessions.
TV Eye
Good TV shows don’t go to heaven, they go to Barnes & Noble; also, Larry David’s HBO special is worth the price of cable.
Book Reviews
Distance No Object: Stories by Gloria Frym City Lights Books, $10.95 paper In the first story of Gloria Frym’s new collection, the narrator and her husband hold each other tightly in a movie theatre “for one of the last times.” They have just watched the Russian movie Burnt by the Sun, and the husband begins…
The Flask Section’s “Owlballs”
Serves 4 3 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 cup pineapple juice 1/3 cup pickled jalapeño juice 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, coarse ground Liberal pinch oregano leaves 12 dove breasts, boned (or 4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless) 4 large, pickled jalapeños, quartered (seeded or not, depending on the amount of heat desired) 4…
How Austin Fared
Despite Austin’s reputation as the most expensive rental market in Texas, the state Department of Housing and Community Affairs has approved only one low-income housing tax credit project for Austin this year.
The Passion of Sam Peckinpah
Excerpts From the Austin Film Society’s Peckinpah Monograph
Romance
Romance 1999, NR, 95 min. Directed by Catherine Breillat, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Rocco Siffredi, François Berleand, Sagamore Stevenin, Caroline Ducey. They say that sex is all in the head. If that is so, we wonder why we have to see so many naked bodies in this controversial new French film and…
Book Reviews
Collectors: A Novel by Paul Griner Random House, $19.95 hard A collector desires the unattainable, or at least the rare — the most limited edition possible. So “”death is always a draw,'” explains a character in Paul Griner’s eerie new psychological thriller. “”Collectors like nothing better.'” Collectors, the novel, is spare, elegant, and disturbing –…
Food-o-File
In this week’s edition of Food-o-File, Austin Chronicle Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood credits the Austin-based owners of Z’Tejas Grill for their inclusion on Gourmet magazine’s list of best restaurants for fun in the Phoenix / Scottsdale area and details several upcoming food events.
Tax Credit Development in Austin
Tax Credit Recipients, 1987-98 Since 1987, the Texas Dept. of Housing and Community Services has approved tax credits for almost 3,000 apartment units in Austin. The vast majority are in East Austin; none are in Central or West Austin. Here are all the projects of over 50 units approved for tax credits in that 12-year…
Hollywood’s Outlaw Saint
The story is that at the first screening of The Wild Bunch, 32 people walked out in the first 10 minutes. No surprises there. People were walking out on Sam Peckinpah his whole life, his whole career. And most of those who didn’t walk out stormed out, or were thrown out, or were taunted into…
The Limey
The Limey 1999, R, 89 min. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Starring Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda, Lesley Ann Warren, Barry Newman, Luis Guzman, Amelia Heinle, Nicky Katt, Joe Dallesandro. The film starts out in blackness as a Cockney-accented voice demands, “Tell me about Jenny.” With that, The Limey is off and running, looking not so much…
Book Reviews
Men Like That: A Southern Queer History by John Howard University of Chicago Press, $27.50 hard In the opening chapter of John Howard’s fascinating Men Like That: A Southern Queer History, he writes that the people “whose stories get told and how they get told are a function of power.” A pointed comment, given that…
Whenever We’re Opened
Mortician-for-a-night, Wayne Alan Brenner ponders life as he faces death.
In Housing We Trust
The city of Austin devotes $1 million for housing as part of city’s social equity initiative
Monograph Introduction
This film series and monograph is a buoy in a sea change of writing on Sam Peckinpah. During his lifetime, the media always found the colorful story of Bloody Sam more interesting than the films. The larger-than-life myth (consciously fueled by Peckinpah) of a Hollywood renegade tackling the world on his own absurd terms made…
Three to Tango
Three to Tango 1999, PG-13, 98 min. Directed by Damon Santostefano, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Oliver Platt, Dylan Mcdermott, Neve Campbell, Matthew Perry. Smart-ass men, foolish choices. Despite being this reviewer’s choice as one of the most likable, charming men on prime time, Matthew Perry couldn’t pick a good acting vehicle if…
Off the Bookshelf
Short reviews of recently published books.
The Code We Share
How a nice Jewish boy like Lorne Opler found G_d at a Christian seminary.
Money to Burn
John Cornyn tries to keep tobacco case lawyers from reaping all of the financial benefits.
Ride the High Country
Norman Mailer once said that Truman Capote was “the most perfect writer” of his generation. Sam Peckinpah combined the best of both of them and became the most perfect filmmaker of his generation. He had the irrepressible life force and expansive rhetoric of Mailer, and the love for misfits and for craft of Capote. And…
The Boys
The Boys 1998, R, 86 min. Directed by Rowan Woods, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Pete Smith, Anna Lise, Anthony Hayes, Jeanette Cronin, John Polson, Lynette Curran, Toni Collette, David Wentham. Absolutely uncompromising in its depiction of the tedium of garden-variety evil, this feature debut is as relentlessly downbeat — and as stoically…
