Just when you thought it was safe to put away your go-go boots, Day-Glo hip-huggers and Nehru suits – the American Cinematheque returns with THE 3RD ANNUAL MODS & ROCKERS FILM FESTIVAL (June 29 – July 8, 2001), a 15 film celebration of the music, fashions and popular culture of the the shag-a-delic 1960’s. Among others, last year’s festival brought out AUSTIN POWERS director Jay Roach who presented an award to guests Michael York and Lynn Redgrave for their contribution to ’60s culture and a surprise appearance by Olivia Newton John in connection with the rarely seen TOOMORROW. This year’s bevy of Tripped-Out, Tuned-In treasures once again features “lost” psychedelic and Mod rarities like WORK IS A 4-LETTER WORD, OTLEY and CAPTAIN MILKSHAKE, plus screenings of ultra-rare 35 mm prints of Joseph Losey’s MODESTY BLAISE and Michelangelo Antonioni’s ZABRISKIE POINT. And what would the 60’s be without the Secret Agents on Acid madness of CASINO ROYALE, MODESTY BLAISE, SEBASTIAN and Woody Allen’s WHAT’S UP TIGER LILY? Also screening is Bruce Brown’s classic surfing flick, THE ENDLESS SUMMER; GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE starring Marianne Faithfull and Alain Delon, plus Jane Fonda in BARBARELLA and much more! Austin Powers fans who are having trouble waiting for number three (coming next summer), can get a major Swinging ’60s fix for seven nights at MODS & ROCKERS 2001. For detailed information about the films see www.modsandrockers.com A special highlight of our Mod 2001 Fest will be in-person appearances by directors Bruce Brown (THE ENDLESS SUMMER), Val Guest (CASINO ROYALE) and Richard Crawford (CAPTAIN MILKSHAKE). More guests will be announced as they are confirmed. (Guests subject to their availability. All screenings are at the newly renovated Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the historic Egyptian (6712 Hollywood Boulevard between Highland and Las Palmas) in Hollywood. Here’s the line-up of films:
Friday, June 29, 2001 ^ The Friday, June 29th program begins at 7:00 PM with CASINO ROYALE, 1967, MGM/UA, 130 min. Dirs. Val Guest, John Huston, Ken Hughes, Robert Parrish, Joe McGrath. A classic everything-but-the-kitchen-sink cinematic carnival with a record number of loopy spy film cliches skewering the James Bond mythos, all done up in candy-colored, psychedelic wrapping. A Sixties who’s who of old-and-new hip stars appear including Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, David Niven, Woody Allen, Deborah Kerr, Orson Welles, Daliah Lavi and too many others to mention. Featuring Burt Bacharach’s loveliest score, highlighted by Dusty Springfield’s heavenly “The Look of Love.” Discussion following with director Val Guest. Following at 9:45 PM is a Wild Child Double-Feature beginning with GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE, 1968, Euro London Films, 91 min. Director/cinematographer Jack Cardiff adapts the erotic novel, La Motorcyclette, with songbird Marianne Faithfull as a young French housewife seething with masochistic obsession for sadistic lover Alain Delon. Her sexy, psychedelic daydreams as she travels by motorcycle to visit him — clad head-to-toe in black leather — must be seen to be believed, and serve as punchline to the mind-blowing ultimate climax of the movie. Next on the same bill is BEAT GIRL, 1960, 85 min. Dir. Edmond T. Greville. Released in the U.S. as WILD FOR KICKS, this is one white-hot slab of pre-Mod madness. The lovely Gillian Hills (BLOW UP) is jealous of her new French step-mom and smitten by handsome singer Adam Faith, two things which get her into all kinds of trouble when she starts hanging out at Christopher Lee’s swingingly sinister, sleazy nightclub. With Oliver Reed and Shirley Anne Field.
Saturday, June 30, 2001 ^ The Saturday, June 30th program begins at 5:00 PM with BARBARELLA, 1968, Paramount, 98 min. Jane Fonda, the final word in comic-strip space heroines, trips the light fantastic in director Roger Vadim’s delightfully whacked-out romp in the 41st century, an acid-trip lightshow of a universe populated by blind birdman John Phillip Law, one-eyed dominatrix Anita Pallenberg (Keith Richards’ one-time girlfriend!) and galaxy dictator Duran Duran (Milo O’Shea) and his orgasm machine. Ultra-groovy soft-psych soundtrack by Bob Crewe and the Glitterhouse. With David Hemmings, Marcel Marceau. Following at 8:30 PM is MODESTY BLAISE, 1966, 20th Century Fox, 119 min. Director Joseph Losey’s brilliant Pop Art spoof stars gorgeous Monica Vitti as jewel thief/spy-for-hire “Modesty Blaise,” with Mod poster-boy Terence Stamp as her catlike cockney sidekick. Dirk Bogarde co-stars as Modesty’s nemesis, a villain who always seems to have goldfish swimming in his cocktails. And watch out for Mrs. Fothergill (Rosella Falk) who enjoys strangling men with her thighs! We’ve brought in the only existing 35 mm. print of the film from England, just for this screening.
Sunday, July 1, 2001 ^ The Sunday, July 1st program begins at 5:00 PM with THE ENDLESS SUMMER, 1965, Bruce Brown, 90 min. Director Bruce Brown treats us to the ultimate Sixties hymn to young, footloose surfers everywhere, as he embarks on a round-the-world odyssey in search of the perfect Wave! Justly famous for Brown’s go-for-broke attitude in recording some of the most spectacular, brain-jangling wave-rides ever captured on celluloid. With a legendary surf-instrumental soundtrack by the Sandells. Discussion following with filmmaker Bruce Brown. Following at 7:30 PM is I’LL NEVER FORGET WHAT’S ‘IS NAME, 1967, Universal, 99 min. Dir. Michael Winner. One of the great lost films of the Sixties. Commercials director Oliver Reed just can’t stomach his job’s hypocrisy any longer, so he tries to break away from Machiavellian boss Orson Welles and rediscover his true roots working for a “small literary journal.” Unfortunately for him, it’s the middle of Swinging 60’s London, and he’s pursued/distracted by an endless Mod bevy of girlfriends, mistresses and soon-to-be ex-wives, while struggling to figure out just what he wants from life. Co-starring Wendy Craig, Marianne Faithfull and Carol White.
Thursday, July 5, 2001 ^ The Thursday, July 5th program starts at 7:30 PM with a Lost Psychedelic Rarities Double-Feature beginning with CAPTAIN MILKSHAKE, 1970, Richard Crawford, 100 min. Director Richard Crawford enerated this profoundly-felt protest film about a marine-on-leave (Geoff Gage) falling-in-love with an anti-war militant (Andrea Cagan), in and around real San Diego locations. Things get complicated with conservative relatives, irate hippies and an ill-fated Mexican drug run, all set to the trippy sounds of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe & The Fish, The Steve Miller Band and Kaleidoscope! Next on the same bill is REVOLUTION, 1969, MGM/UA, 90 min. Dir. Jack O’Connell. A groovy time machine that not only chronicles the hippie street life of 1967 San Francisco, but also includes director O’Connell’s late 1980s revisiting of various interviewees, most prominently All-American blonde flower child Today Malone, who subsequently became a suburban single mother in small town New Mexico. With a sterling psychedelic soundtrack by Quicksilver Messenger Service, Mother Earth, The Steve Miller Band and Country Joe & The Fish. Discussion between films with CAPTAIN MILKSHAKE director Richard Crawford.
Friday, July 6, 2001 ^ The Friday, July 6th program begins at 7:00 PM with a screening of an ulta-rare British 35mm print of ZABRISKIE POINT, 1969, MGM (Warner Classics), 112 min. Director Michelangelo Antonioni’s mind expanding odyssey of two youths (Mark Frechette and Daria Halprin) on the run from the police after a violent student demonstration. Their surreal adventures in the California desert climax in slow motion apocalypse to the strains of Pink Floyd. The film had equally-strange echoes in real life: actor Frechette later robbed a bank, and died mysteriously in prison; co-star Halprin was Frechette’s off-screen girlfriend for a short time. Co-written by Sam Shepard, and co-starring Rod Taylor and a very-young Harrison Ford. This almost NEVER screens in 35 mm. – as with MODESTY BLAISE, we’ve brought in the only available print from England, just for this show!! Following at 9:30 PM is a 60’s Secret Agent Double-Feature beginning with OTLEY, 1968, Columbia, 91 min. Dir. Dick Clement. Tom Courtenay is a small-time thief and Romy Schneider the seductively-charming spy who draws him into a Mod whirlpool of secret agent shenanigans in this opulent, rarely-seen spoof, co-written by two of Britain’s sharpest satirists – Ian LaFrenais and Dick Clement (THE JOKERS, THE COMMITMENTS) – and directed by Clement himself. Next on the same bill is SEBASTIAN, 1968, Paramount, 100 min. Dir. David Greene. Colorful, pungently witty tale of conservative British code-breaker Dirk Bogarde enlisting hot-tempered, swinging interior decorator Susannah York into his all-female bevy of decoders and getting more than he bargained for, dosed with LSD by ex-girlfriend Janet Munro’s Soviet spy friends! Produced by master filmmaker Michael Powell with an all-star cast including Lili Palmer and John Gielgud. Discussion between films with OTLEY director/writer Dick Clement and writer Ian LaFrenais.
Saturday, July 7, 2001 ^ The Saturday, July 7th program starts at 5:00 PM with WHAT’S UP, TIGER LILY?, 1966, Castle Hill/Toho, 80 min. Dir. Senkichi Taniguchi, compiled by Woody Allen. One of Toho Studios’ INTERNATIONAL SECRET POLICE series, the already tongue-in-cheek KEY OF KEYS, becomes an even more demented parody of Sixties spy film conventions in the hands of comedian/dubbing director Woody Allen, in this side-splittingly, funny melding of Eastern and Western pop cultures. Who’s got that recipe for egg salad?? With music by Lovin’ Spoonful. Starring Tatsuya Mihashi, Akiko Wakabayashi and Mie Hama (note: the latter two were the Bond girls in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE.) Following at 8:30 PM is a David Warner Double-Feature beginning with MORGAN!, 1966, Kit Parker, 97 min. Dir. Karel Reisz. Downright amazing, unjustly-forgotten black comedy starring David Warner as Morgan, an emotionally immature young man obsessed with apes, Communism and ex-wife Vanessa Redgrave (in her film debut). His efforts to win her back are punctuated by deranged antics that place him on a trajectory straight for the asylum. Next on the same bill is WORK IS A 4-LETTER WORD, 1967, Universal, 93 min. Another true Pop rarity, from stage director turned filmmaker Peter Hall (A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM). David Warner and Beatles songbird pal Cilla Black star in this delightfully-absurd account of a young man on a mission — grow giant psychedelic mushrooms to promote happiness for Britain’s overworked masses!! Based on the play Eh?.
Sunday, July 8, 2001 ^ The Sunday, July 8th program begins at 5:00 PM with WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?, 1965, MGM/UA, 108 min. Dir. Clive Donner. Emotionally frazzled Peter O’Toole goes to analyst Peter Sellers for guidance with his complicatedlove-life, not counting on Sellers’ own hilariously-overheated sex-drive Mods & Rockers and a merry-go-round of the Sixties most beautiful women, including Romy Schneider, Capucine, Paula Prentiss and Ursula Andress. Co-starring and written by Woody Allen, with another brilliant Pop score by Burt Bacharach, WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT? is the ultimate Mod confection. *Our Mods & Rockers Tea Party is on hiatus this year, but will be back with a vengeance in 2002! Double features are one ticket price for both films. There is a five minute break between films.
For more information, visit the official site for THE 3RD ANNUAL MODS & ROCKERS FILM FESTIVAL. ^ Get ticket informat from the American Cinematheque, 1800 North Highland Avenue, Suite 717, Hollywood, CA 90028 and call 323-466-FILM.
