Tag: Crosstown Arthouse Film Series

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series presents WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN at Crosstown Theater.

Pedro Almodovar / 1988 / 88 minutes / Rated R
Tickets: $5 at the door
Films begin at 7:30 pm (sharp!) at Crosstown Theater

Creating “one of the jauntiest of all war-of-the sexes comedies” (Pauline Kael), Pedro Almodovar, Spain’s premiere writer-director, creates an off-kilter universe of madness, mayhem, and pure fun. Nominated for the 1988 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and co-starring Antonio Banderas, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is “a wild, wanton, wickedly witty farce!” (People) High atop one of Spain’s poshest penthouses, three women have come to the end of their mental ropes. Super-sexy Pepa (Carmen Maura) is forever teetering around atop her skyscraper spikes as she obsesses over Ivan (Fernando Guillen), the lover who just jilted her over the answering machine! Her neutoric best friend Candela (Maria Barranco) is seeking refuge at Pepa’s place because she recently realized her lover is a Shiite terrorist. And Ivan’s ex-wife Lucia (Julieta Serrano) was just released from a 20-year stint in a mental institution. They’re all mighty mad — in fact, they’re on the verge of a nervous breakdown and one of them is about to commit a murder unless the other half-crazed femmes fatales can stop her!

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series presents BLOW OUT at Crosstown Theater.

Brian De Palma / 1981 / 108 minutes / Rated R
Tickets: $5 at the door
Films begin at 7:30PM (sharp!) at Crosstown Theater

A Philadelphia sound-effects man witnesses and records a car accident that turns out to be a politically motivated murder. Brian De Palma’s stylish and quite inspired mash up of Coppola’s The Conversation and Antonioni’s Blow Up remains one of the key conspiracy thrillers of the 1980s and was to have a profound influence on ’90s directors as diverse as Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone. Blow Out is arguably De Palma’s masterpiece.

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series presents LOVE JONES at Crosstown Theater.

Theodore Witcher / 1997 / 108 minutes / Rated R

Tickets: $5 at the door

Films begin at 7:30 pm (sharp!) at Crosstown Theater

LOVE JONES is an unconventional love story between a young poet and a photographer. Larenz Tate and Nia Long play these passionate young artists who both definitely feel the pull of love but are too afraid to commit to it. With Nia Long (BOYZ N THE HOOD! BIG MOMMA’S HOUSE 1 AND 2!!!! ARE WE THERE YET!!!), Larenz Tate (MENACE II SOCIETY! DEAD PRESIDENTS!!)

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

Crosstown Arts is requesting proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test for this event. Please be prepared to present your vaccination card or a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours at check-in.

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series presents FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT at Crosstown Theater.

Alfred Hitchcock / 1940 / 120 minutes / Rated M
Tickets: $5 at the door
Films begin at 7:30 pm (sharp!) at Crosstown Theater

When Hitchcock’s REBECCA won Best Picture in ’41, he also had another film in contention: FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT. Expertly paced, it finds Hitchcock honing the formula of a breathless chase across multiple locations, even sketching out ideas later to appear in NORTH BY NORTHWEST. The impulsive slugging of a cop by reporter John Jones (Joel McCrea) gets the attention of his editor, who seeks a scribe to cover Europe’s unstable situation without the biased tone of a foreign correspondent. Things get sinister when Jones’ first interview subject, a Dutch diplomat, is assassinated in a spectacularly Hitchcockian sequence involving a gazillion umbrellas. From there, Jones is embroiled in a deadly plot to undermine the stability of the Western world. A flawless example of a classic Hollywood thriller with perfect balance between comedy, tension, and visual ingenuity. The film is also a harbinger of things to come from the director, who also dabbled in war-themed shorts and chronicled WWII’s evolution in SABOTEUR and LIFEBOAT, followed by a perverse look at its aftermath in NOTORIOUS.

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series presents THE FILMS OF MAYA DEREN with live score by Optic Sink at Crosstown Theater.

Maya Deren / Multiple Years / 60 minutes / Rated M
Tickets: $5 at the door
Films begin at 7:30 pm (sharp!) at Crosstown Theater

Maya Deren is one of the most important American experimental filmmakers of all time. Along with being a filmmaker, Deren was a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer, and photographer, and she brings all of these disciplines together in her dreamlike and ecstatic films. The history of avant-garde film is unthinkable without her. For this presentation Deren’s films will be curated and performed with a live score by Memphis no-wave and Goner Records recording artist OPTIC SINK.

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series presents THRILLING BLOODY SWORD  at Crosstown Theater.

Hsin-Yi Chang / 1981 / 89 minutes / Rated R
Tickets: $5 at the door
Films begin at 7:30 pm (sharp!) at Crosstown Theater

If He-Man and the Masters of the Universe dropped acid with the Shaw Brothers while knocking out a martial arts horror-fantasy movie, that movie would be THRILLING BLOODY SWORD. This head-spinning slice of Taiwanese psychotronic cinema builds a movie out of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, impossible fight scenes, and wild monsters that include a cyclops, a pterodactyl, and Satan himself! A comet impregnates a queen. She gives birth to a fleshy egg. In disgust, the king tosses the egg in the river. Seven little people stumble onto the egg. They stab it with a knife and find a cute baby inside —one who grows up to be a beautiful princess. One day, she runs into a prince, who is fighting a multi-headed dragon. Of course, the two royals fall in love. Unfortunately, a group of dastardly wizards want to keep them apart, and they’ll use every creature at their disposal to do it! Previously only available via VHS bootlegs, Gold Ninja Video is proud to present this hallucinogenic fantasia in a new 2K preservation from the only known 35mm print in existence.