Gimme Shelter
This film, which captures that awful moment at Altamont, is a documentary that seemingly captures the very moment when the peace-and-love generation lost its naivete and innocence.
Dames Du Bois De Boulogne, Les
Dames Du Bois De Boulogne, Les NR, 95 min. Directed by Robert Bresson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Maria Casares, Elena Labourdette. The dialogue for this melodrama of revenge was written by Jean Cocteau. Praised by such filmmakers as Jean-Luc Godard and Michelangelo Antonioni, the film is rarely screened.
The Trial of Joan of Arc
The Trial of Joan of Arc NR, 65 min. Directed by Robert Bresson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Florence Carrez, Jean-Claude Fourneau, Roger Honorat. Perhaps Bresson’s most famous film, The Trial of Joan of Arc is shot entirely in medium shots and close-ups. The dialogue comes from the trial transcript and the film’s…
The Navigator
The Navigator NR, 69 min. Directed by Buster Keaton, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Buster Keaton, Donald Crisp, Kathryn Mcguire. This Buster Keaton silent feature is also part of the Alamo’s excellent Movies & Music series. The movie will have a live musical accompaniment by Shorty Long, a ukulele-based novelty jazz act. The…
The Mystery of the Leaping Fish
The Mystery of the Leaping Fish NR, 19 min. Directed by John Emerson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr.. The cult short, The Mystery of the Leaping Fish also screens and stars Fairbanks Sr. as Coke Ennyday, a coke-snorting detective who is tracking down an opium ring. Made before Hollywood adopted…
Motel Hell
Motel Hell 1980, R, 102 min. Directed by Kevin Connor, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Rory Calhoun, Paul Linke, Nancy Parsons, Nina Axelrod, Wolfman Jack, John Ratzenberger. When spending the night at this place, don’t opt for the smoked sausage.
Parents
Parents 1989, R, 82 min. Directed by Bob Balaban, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Randy Quaid, Mary Beth Hurt, Sandy Dennis, Bryan Madorsky, Juno Mills-Cockell, Kathryn Grody, Deborah Rush, Graham Jarvis. Actor Balaban directs this mordantly funny story set in the Fifties about a kid who worries about his parents’ endless consumption of…
I Drink Your Blood
I Drink Your Blood 1970, R, 83 min. D: David E. Durston; with Bhaskar, Jadine Wong. All the gore has been restored in this genre classic about vicious hippies who douse the locals with LSD. In revenge, the townsfolk fed them rabid meat pies, which make them foam at the mouth.
No Early Birds
No Early Birds NR. Directed by Michael Bayer, Stan Steen, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This locally made documentary peeks into the world of the garage-sale subculture. For more info see www.noearlybirds.com.
Lone Star Skate: New Directions in Skateboard Cinema
Lone Star Skate: New Directions in Skateboard Cinema NR, 107 min. Directed by Helen Stikler, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Helen Stikler, the director of Andre the Giant Has a Posse, and Reel Women, Tekgnar Skate Shop, and ATX Skate Team have combined forces to produce this showcase, which in addition to…
Frat House
Frat House NR, 59 min. Directed by Todd Phillips, Andrew Gurland, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This is a rare opportunity to see on the screen this controversial documentary, co-directed by Todd Phillips who later went on to direct Road Trip. The film, which offers an inside look at hazing rituals and…
Exhibitionism
In the 16 color photographs that comprise the exhibition “Ann Pizer: Folly,” the photographer captures some sense of the magic in formal gardens, of our foolishness in trying to tame nature, and of the way we sway between the two.
Day Trips
Sleep and shop 19th-century style at the Comfort Common Bed and Breakfast in Comfort, TX.
Live Shots
Super the Phat, Virginia Robot Manufacturing Co., TV PeopleRoom 710, August 22 Standing outside the Rock & Roll Free for All Sunday, watching the new UT freshmen get their first gander at the Hole in the Wall, I realized I’m becoming what Chris Rock called “the old guy in the club.” Maybe not at the…
The Big Picture
Bounce Plane crash romances don’t always translate into cinematic magic (see Random Hearts), but writer/director Don Roos hopes to put a bit of, er, bounce back into the genre with this film, which Miramax bumped from a summer release to position it in the cozy autumn Oscar race. Gwyneth Paltrow stars as a widow who…
ALSO PLAYING
DéJà Vu? Screenwriters James Herzfeld (Meet the Deedles) and John Hamburg (Safe Men) retooled the 1992 cult comedy Meet the Parents into a slick Hollywood slapstick comedy. Ben Stiller plays Greg Focker, male nurse, whose bonding time with the in-laws-to-be (Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner) turns into a weekend from hell. Jay Roach (Austin…
Exhibitionism
In the Earth and Sky Acting Co.’s 8 Tracks (No Disco), john daniels, jr. has conjured the Seventies rock world of hot chicks, backseat lovin’, and sentimental ballads via a spate of endless musical numbers and ill-conceived poems and skits.
About AIDS
Could two diseases be better than one?
Live Shots
James Hyland, The DangedHole in the Wall, August 24 Sure, Austin is growing by leaps and bounds. Ask anyone who has been here for 10 or more years and you’ll hear stories of how it just isn’t the same place. But there are some places where things are still done the way they’ve always been,…
The Big Picture
Dancer in the Dark Q: What do you get when you mix Icelandic chanteusse-naif Björk, Danish auteur Lars Von Trier (Breaking the Waves), and 100 Sony PD-100 digital video cameras? Answer: the Cannes Film Festival 2000 Palme d’Or and a whole lotta attention from the world cinematic press corps, apparently. Von Trier has already taken…
ALSO PLAYING
Fright Nights As a cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski has lensed some of the most acclaimed films of the last decade, including Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, but his directing debut looks more like Stigmata than Spielberg. In Lost Souls, Winona Ryder plays a woman who assists priests during exorcisms, during which she discovers the devil’s…
The Name’s the Thing
Hugo. It’s not a name that conjures mental images of soaring poetry or flights of fancy. Hugo is a good, solid, vaguely Germanic name. Straightforward. Morally sober and true. A Boy Scout, even, with a slide rule in one hand and a compass in the other. Hugo just isn’t a name that inspires the fantastic,…
Hot Shots
Nearly 300 stalwart salsa chefs braved the heat and the potential ridicule of the preliminary judges to compete in the 10th Annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival. Here’s the list of those who came out on top.
What’s In Store
The city’s self-storage business is changing as corporate giants push mom and pop operations aside.
The Big Picture
Charlie’s Angels The sweetest kittens have the sharpest claws, and this time out one of them’s in the producer’s chair as well. Specifically Drew Barrymore, whose very long year has included both starring in and overseeing production of this sometimes temperamental shoot (helmed by commercial and video master McG), various last-minute retoolings of the John…
ALSO PLAYING
Holiday-Appropriate Dr. Seuss’ classic story-cum-television special How the Grinch Stole Christmas gets a big screen, big-budget make-over from director Ron Howard. So does Jim Carrey, who endured five-hour makeup sessions every day to play the infamous curmudgeon and thief… Jerry Maguire’s Jonathan Lipnicki teams with Richard E. Grant for the tot-friendly adventure film The Little…
Postscripts
Texas politicians just decided who the state’s next poet laureate is.
The Winners
WINNERS* Denotes previous winners Overall Winner Larry Blanton (Houston) Individual Category Red SauceFirst Place: Rosa I. Salas Second Place: Paula Stanley Brent Third Place: Brian S. Morrison* Green SauceFirst Place: Jason Hill Second Place: Ronald Walters Third Place: Marvin Perez Special VarietyFirst Place: Dennis Willms* Second Place: Paulino Castillo Third Place: Jimmy Williams* Restaurant Category…
Staff Infection
Johnnie Conley worked at UT for almost 11 years before she decided to take a second job. Conley, a reticent, bespectacled administrative assistant in UT’s aerospace engineering department, had never been one to make trouble or complain too loudly when asking politely would do. But after more than a decade of service to the university…
The Big Picture
The Contender Former ABC critic Rod Lurie didn’t make much of a splash with his first feature, Deterrence, but things are shaping up nicely for the director’s follow-up, which casts Joan Allen as a senator in line for the vice presidency. This political thriller, being championed as a film “in the tradition of All the…
ALSO PLAYING
Funny Ha-Ha While This Is Spinal Tap, perhaps the greatest film satire of the past two decades, gets a limited re-release this fall, one of the evil geniuses behind that mockumentary presents Best in Show. Christopher Guest, whose last effort was the underrated Waiting for Guffman, takes on the competitive world of dog shows in…
Book Reviews
Experience: A Memoir by Martin Amis Talk Miramax Books, 406pp., $23.95 It’s a cliché to call Martin Amis the bad boy of contemporary English letters, and what’s more, as it happens, that’s no longer true. For one thing, at 50, the explosively brilliant author of London Fields, Time’s Arrow, and The Information is no longer…
People’s Choice Awards
People’s Choice Awards Commercial Bottlers Red SauceFirst Place: Texas Lava — Simply Delicious Salsa (Austin)* Second Place: Ana’s Salsa (Austin)* Third Place: Texas-Texas Salsa (San Saba & Austin)* Green SauceFirst Place: Smoky Hill Verde Sauce (Austin Spice Co.)* Second Place: Sgt. Pepper’s Tomatillo Chipotle (Austin)* Third Place: Texas Heat Ranch — Green Chile Salsa (Odessa)*…
Read My Chips
George Bush claims he supported Children’s Health Insurance in the 1999 legislative session. He did, but only at the lowest level.
The Big Picture
Dr. T and the Women After serving up a sweet Cookie with their well-regarded first collaboration, veteran director Robert Altman and new screenwriter Anne Rapp hope audiences will wash it down with some spiced T. The team’s follow-up to their critically acclaimed 1999 sleeper Cookie’s Fortune, a humorous and endearing look at life in a…
ALSO PLAYING
Family Fare If you loved 101 Dalmations, you’ll at least like 102 Dalmatians, starring Glenn Close and Frenchy phenom Gerard Dépardieu (not to mention those pups!) in a film directed by Kevin Lima, the man behind Disney’s stand-out animated Tarzan… Digimon marks the big-screen debut for the “digital monsters” whose television show is a home…
Book Reviews
The Mile High Club: A Novel by Kinky Friedman Simon & Schuster, 224 pp., $23 Thirteen books into his novelistic career, erstwhile kosher-kowboy singer Kinky Friedman is proving to be consistently inconsistent. The shtick that once was brilliant and original is a little threadbare with overuse. But, still, he’s an irreverent and entertaining conundrum and…
Food-o-File
Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood has finally found the perfect Helen Corbitt cookbook.
Naked City
Austin Energy’s attempt to shut close its books to the public will be considered by city council September.
The Big Picture
The Legend of Bagger Vance The previews for The Legend of Bagger Vance would have you believe that Robert Redford’s newest feature is another entry in that most meager of subgenres: the golf movie. But if you talk to the folks who cut those trailers, they’ll tell you that they’re being asked to sell the…
ALSO PLAYING
The Love Boat Nora Ephron promises her latest, Lucky Numbers, contains a little more bite and edge than the sweetness and light we’ve come to expect from the woman who brought us Sleepless in Seattle. John Travolta stars as a weatherman who colludes with Lisa Kudrow to swindle the state lottery… Angelina Jolie and Antonio…
Off the Bookshelf
Further Cuttings From Cruiskeen Lawn by Flann O’Brien Dalkey Archive Press, 189 pp., $11.95 (paper) It has become a commonplace that comedies don’t win the Academy Awards. The same prejudice is at work in the ranking of writers. E.M. Foster and Graham Greene are both generally esteemed above P.G. Wodehouse, although Wodehouse wrote like a…
Liquid Assets
Chronicle Wine writer Wes Marshall scours the city for fine wines both under $10 and over $10.
Naked City
Plans for the Bennett tract, potentially a major economic blockbuster for East Austin, are still ongoing and may include small retail, offices, and some residential.
The Big Picture
Pay It Forward Every year, social studies teacher Reuben St. Clair (Kevin Spacey) gives his class the same assignment: Think of an idea for world change and put it into action. Did he ever imagine that one of his students could do something to dramatically improve the world? “No, I thought they all would,” Reuben…
QT Quattro Schedule
AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY “QT Quattro”: QT Quattro is the fourth go-round for this unique, only-in-Austin film festival in which Quentin Tarantino programs and presents 10 days of film screenings culled from his personal archives. The selections are as wide-ranging and as ungovernable as the man who chose them. Tarantino’s introduction to each film provides lots…
Off the Bookshelf
Suburban Nation The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck North Point Press, 256 pp., $30 Americans cite in poll after poll that they prefer small towns to cities, nice neighborhoods more than nice homes — yet featureless, thoughtless, economically unsustainable suburbs continue to…
Mini-Review
A Mediterranean Feast: The Story of the Birth of the Celebrated Cuisines of the Mediterranean From the Merchants of Venice to the Barbary Corsairs, With More Than 500 Recipesby Clifford A. Wright Morrow, 815 pp., $35 A Mediterranean Feast by Clifford A. Wright is one of those cookbooks that falls between the cracks in terms…
Naked City
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act is back, and this time it may be a bit more bulletproof.
The Big Picture
Requiem for a Dream So do we really need another movie about heroin? But wait: Darren Aronofsky, who wowed critics and annoyed moviegoers with the frantic, portentous Sundance winner Pi, offers a film that is less about heroin than it is about addiction — the soul-eroding desperation it brings and the lunacy/fantasy that fuels it.…
Short Cuts
Upcoming events and workshops of interest to the Austin film community.
Off the Bookshelf
Living on the Earth by Alicia Bay Laurel Villard, 224 pp., $16.95 (paper) It all seemed a lot simpler in 1971. The simple solution to my misery was to get back to nature and learn to grow my own food and weave my own fabric and live in a field with dozens of other dispossessed…
Express Success
Sometimes a Round Rock Express game resembles a combination county fair and amusement park : with the baseball game as background more than a sporting event.
Naked City
Amungme tribal member Tom Beanal signs a “memorandum of understanding”with Freeport-McMoRan : a major coup for the company.
The Big Picture
Urbania Ever hear the one about the kid who has a few too many drinks, goes home with a mysterious girl, and wakes up in an ice-filled bathtub with a major hangover and no kidneys? To this day, The Daily Texan, alleged to have published a version of the urban myth, still fields phone calls…
Video Reviews
(“Video Reviews” wishes to thank Blockbuster Movies & Video, Encore Movies & Music, I Luv Video, Vulcan Video, and Waterloo Video for their help in providing videos, laser discs, and DVDs.)HeatD: Paul Morrissey (1972); with Joe Dallesandro, Sylvia Miles, Andrea Feldman, Pat Ast, Ray Vestal. Movies aren’t supposed to work like this. Paul Morrissey plonks…
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
49th-Inning Stretch
Both the players and the announcer have the same dreams of going to the major leagues. The difference between the players and announcer Mike Capps is that none of the young men on the roster of the Round Rock Express earned an Emmy nomination, covered the Persian Gulf War for CNN, or did a 10-hour…
Naked City
Council approves the to-be-redesigned Gotham on second reading; the Chestnut neighborhood plan becomes the first to win zoning changes from the council.
Screens Feature
winners of the the texas filmmakers production fund
Video Reviews
Friday D. F. Gary Gray (1995); with Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, John Witherspoon, Nia Long, Tiny Lister Jr., Bernie Mac. Who would have thought living in the inner city would be a laugh riot? While it’s safe to say that much of Friday is overblown comic hype, Ice Cube and D.J. Pooh’s screenplay illustrates that…
Page Two
There’ll be no hoolpa over our 19th anniversary.
For the Good Times
The Life and Times of Texas country crooner, Ray Price.
Naked City
Two weeks ago, the council added an item to the November ballot to “alienate” parkland at Lake Walter E. Long to allow a private developer to build the Prairie Grass golf course and hotel.
Screens Feature
A note about the following dates: Due to Hollywood’s notorious last-minute date-shifting, the following release dates may change. In fact, we’d be willing to bet they will, as marquee movies cause nervous shifting for independent films either just opening or opening nationwide after a limited release (see October 13, a good candidate for this scenario).…
Video Reviews
Next FridayD. Steve Carr (1999) with Ice Cube, John Witherspoon, Tamala Jones, Tom “Tiny” Lister Jr., Mike Epps, Justin Pierce, Don D.C. Curry.Not quite as potent as its predecessor, this sequel scores a few points for being a capable farce. Still, those wanting to see more of the original Friday’s cast might be disappointed. The…
Public Notice
Public Notice asks you to notice what time of year it is. Yes, baby, it’s Telethon Time.
Murder on Music Row
Nashville, we have a problem.
Naked City
The TNRCC votes to delay working on ways to reduce Texas’ contribution global warming, focusing instead on cleaning up pollution in the state’s big cities first.
TV Eye
Television goes back to school; Fox Family picks up Freaks and Geeks; promising TV movie Witchblade could become a series.
Bring It On
Catfights, navel-baring, a Top 40 soundtrack, sugarcoated sentiments: Cheerleaders grab center stage.
Letters at 3AM
Al Gore is the only presidential candidate who’s hot and bothered about global warming.
Dancing About Architecture
101X fires program director Alan Smith; Man’s Ruin ain’t coming back after all.
Naked City
Phil Gramm visits hostile territory : Travis County : to shill for Bush appointee Ernest Garcia, who’s running against Darlene Byrne for 126th District Court.
ALSO PLAYING
Drama Queens Denzel Washington plays Coach Boone, the new football coach at the recently integrated T.C. Williams High, who must battle prejudice from the white man he works with (Will Patton) and the team he must unite. Remember the Titans is the first release from Jerry Bruckheimer’s “kindler, gentler” Technical Black division… Spike Lee’s Bamboozled…
Godzilla 2000
Godzilla 2000 2000, PG, 97 min. Directed by Takao Okawara, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Takehiro Murata, Shiro Sano, Hiroshi Abe, Naomi Nishida, Mayu Suzuki, Tsutomu Kitagawa. I’ve always seen Godzilla as something forcedly kitschy, a view, I’m told, that disregards the complicated history of Godzilla, a creature borne out of a nuclear-testing…
Second Helpings: Bagels to Beignets to Donuts
Chronicle Cuisines writer MMPack provides the perfect dining guide for Austin’s sweet tooths.
After a Fashion
Fashion correspondent Tom Palmer reports from Iceland’s Futurice fashion week.
Live Shots
Tamasha AfricanaCentral Market Cafe, August 27 Few would put “Texas grocery store” and “Central African dance music” together in the same breath, but that’s what happened when Austin’s own Tamasha Africana performed at the Central Market Cafe. And we’re not talking about an ordinary supermarket — like the fluorescent nightmare depicted so well in Raising…
A Fan’s Notes
In Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe tells the story of his first assignment for Rolling Stone in 1973 and a day when the youth of America believed rock & roll could change the world.
ALSO PLAYING
Mysteries of the Unknown Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan follows up The Sixth Sense with Unbreakable, in which he re-teams with Bruce Willis to tell the story of a man who mysteriously survives a train wreck (i.e., he is unbreakable) and befriends a man suffering from brittle bone disease (Samuel L. Jackson)… Ah-nult is back. Schwarzenegger…
Saving Grace
Saving Grace 2000, R, 93 min. Directed by Nigel Cole, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Brenda Blethyn, Craig Ferguson, Martin Clunes, Tcheky Karyo, Valerie Edmond, Phyllida Law, Linda Kerr Scott. The premise of this movie might be better described as Amazing Grace rather than Saving Grace since the plot of this contemporary British…
Everything Is Possible … Again
Seemingly unadaptable, Greil Marcus’ 1989 opus Lipstick Traces proved to be the foundation for the Rude Mechanicals’ strongest theatre work to date. As they revive their hit adaptation, the Rude Mechs reflect on its creation, its success, working as a collective, and being told by Marcus, “You staged the book I wanted to write.”
Mr. Smarty Pants
I’d like a scoop of Cherry Garcia and … can I get a sample of that Dioxin Ripple?
Live Shots
Sir FinksCarousel Lounge, August 18 Hyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyaaaa, wipeout! It certainly was. Just the sort of white-water crash the Surfaris documented in 1963 with their immortal surf call-to-arms “Wipe Out.” Gone was drummer Damien Llanes, the Sir Finks’ tastefully delicate precision, and the local surf trio’s three-man lineup. Instead, there was a big new John Bonham-style basher,…
The Big Picture
Here at the Chronicle, we’re great anticipators. You know, we anticipate weekends and parties and vacations and generally ruin all the fun by building them up too much. We’re working on this. One of the things we anticipate most frequently is upcoming movies. It’s so hard not to. Trailers, billboards, early buzz, and roundups like…
ALSO PLAYING
Festival Favorites One of the most anticipated independent releases of the past year is Karyn Kusama’s Girlfight, which shared the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance (with Ken Lonergan’s You Can Count on Me, opening late this fall). It’s an ass-kicking, heart-breaking, star-making turn for lead Michelle Rodriguez, who plays a Latina boxer in New York…
The Crew
The Crew 2000, PG-13, 88 min. Directed by Michael Dinner, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Michael Sandoval, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jennifer Tilly, Seymour Cassel, Richard Dreyfuss, Dan Hedaya, Burt Reynolds. Galling as it must’ve been to get aced out in the Grizzled Former (Fill-in-the-Blanks) Regain Their Mojo sweepstakes, director Mike Dinner and company can’t…
Articulations
Another hefty infusion of cash for the Long Center, and no money necessary to see the new Austin Museum of Art exhibition
Coach’s Corner
The art of semi-educated pro football prognostication has gone the way of the quick-kick, the Packer Sweep, and Mike Tomczak: They all still exist in memory, in the playbook, or as a roster name, but they really aren’t there at all. A neat and tidy mirage — sounding quite convincing — to fill the pages…
Live Shots
Junior Brown, HeybaleContinental Club, August 20 Quite a study in contrasts at the Continental Club this fine Sunday night. First up, what can be said about Mr. Guit-Steel, i.e. Junior Brown, that hasn’t already? He was as hot as ever, rolling his eyes back in his head and making that face like he was chewing…
The Big Picture
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 The sequel to the most profitable movie ever made (with a 4,683% profit margin according to a recent Premiere magazine article), and also one of the few films not starring Pauly Shore to send viewers into on-the-spot paroxysms of uncontrollable upchucking (thanks to the endless shaky-cam videography) has as…
ALSO PLAYING
First Time at Bat Christopher McQuarrie, screenwriter for The Usual Suspects, gets behind the lens for The Way of the Gun, in which Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro are two skeezeballs who kidnap a rich couple’s surrogate mother (Juliette Lewis). Nicky Katt and Taye Diggs play cops sent to stop them… Minnie Driver and…
The Art of War
The Art of War 2000, R, 117 min. Directed by Christian Duguay, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Wesley Snipes, Anne Archer, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Marie Matiko, Maury Chaykin, Michael Biehn, Donald Sutherland. Wesley Snipes seems hell-bent on becoming one of the kings of the action film, with such recent films to his credit as…
10th Annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival Contest Winners
Individual Category Red Sauce 1st Place: Rosa I. Salas 2nd Place: Paula Stanley Brent 3rd Place: Brian S. Morrison Green Sauce 1st Place: Jason Hill 2nd Place: Ronald Walters 3rd Place: Marvin Perez Special Variety 1st Place: Dennis Willms 2nd Place: Paulino Castillo 3rd Place: Jimmy Williams Restaurant Category Red Sauce 1st Place: Trudy’s 2nd…
