MOTHERS & MOVIES: THREE SONS

"Mothers of America, let your kids go to the movies! ...It's true that fresh air is good for the body but what about the soul that grows in darkness, embossed by silvery images?"—Frank O'Hara, "Ave Maria" (from Lunch Poems, 1964)

During one of my conversations with film historian Matthew Kennedy, I realized that both of us had acquired our love for movies through our mothers, which led me to wonder how many other cinephiles—filmmakers and audience alike—have shared a similar experience? In the past year, I have asked several individuals: "Did your mother have any influence on your cinephilia? Did she influence the movies you watched or—in the case of filmmakers—the movies you've made?" Along with the generous anecdotes received from various Bay Area cinephiles (published at SF360), and the contributions from international cinephiles at MUBI, these three responses to my inquiry were particularly eloquent and I felt they grouped into a theme and warranted an entry of their own. To Jesse, Jonathan and Richard, I extend heartfelt thanks for being so open with theirs.

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, Impresario / Educator

My Mother returned from an East Coast trip in the Summer of 1985 with a handful of recorded VHS tapes. I was nine years old. As we watched Wes Craven's A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), my life changed forever. My parents had already blown my tiny mind a few years prior when (at the age of five) they took me next door to watch Ridley Scott's Alien on the neighbor's HBO cable TV setup. But this very particular concept: watching a VHS tape on Fridays, after school, with my Mother, became a weekly After School special.

She would pick me up in the back of Nibley Park Elementary School in Salt Lake CIty, Utah. We would speed up Foothill Drive, order some gourmet nachos at a nearby restaurant (The Mushroom Company) and make a mad dash into our favorite rental store (Neighborhood Video). You see, my Father was a DJ at the community radio station on Friday's "Drivetime", so if we could load up and be back home by 3:00PM, we might be able to pack in three films before he arrived home at 6:45PM (7:00PM if traffic was slow). So running around the jam packed video store, I scanned the wire racks, grabbing every horror film that my subscription to Fangoria had ever mentioned. Then, as I wove my way over to my Mother in the comedy section, I lingered at the New Release wall, eavesdropping on the older staff's "new favorites". I wanted to work there! I wanted to know which films had just come out! I wanted first dibs on all those movie posters hanging on the walls! Uh oh ... I could see Mom walking over to me! "The nachos are probably getting cold. Are you all ready? Did you pick one out yet?!" I sheepishly would raise up my pick: Return to Oz, Stand By Me and Halloween III: Season of the Witch (again). She had two picks herself: Real Genius and St. Elmo's Fire. (She had such a crush on Val Kilmer and Andrew McCarthy!) What to do? It was pushing 3:15PM already! So my Mother would do what any Mother should do ... Rent All Five!

Every Friday, from the age of nine to fourteen, we would arrive home, heat up the nachos, cook up some extra cheese and set up our living room plates. But wait ... had I remembered to turn on the radio to record Dad's radio show?! "Come on Mom, it's on!" Mom would come running in with her newly filled tupperware of dried papaya, unsweetened carob chips and sunflower seeds. "It's Friday 'Drivetime' and this is Professor R&B. You are listening to KRCL, 91FM. We're gonna start things off with a little Booker T. and the MG's." As soon as the first song came on, we were good to go! The cassette button ON, down went the sound and the movie extravaganza could begin! It was 3:30PM and we were gonna somehow watch all five films in three hours. Of course we would normally only get through two and a half. And when our DJ would come home, we would rave about how Booker T actually sounded so much better than the previous time we had heard him and then give each other a secret, subtle smile.

But when this little boy started High School, all of this ended. He was 15 and he didn't want to come home on Fridays and hang out with his Mom anymore! In fact he didn't even want to live at home anymore! He acquired a job at a movie theatre. He started plotting ways to run away. In fact, he pretty much did everything not to be with his Mom and Dad. Sometimes he was even in the house on some of those teenage Fridays, locked away downstairs in his room. What was his Mom suddenly doing with her Friday afternoons? Was she silently upstairs hoping for her son to magically get over his adolescence so she could have her movie companion back? Was she cooking nachos all by herself, predicting that he was going to move away from her for the rest of their lives? Was she going to know that these magical times were going to be something that neither of them would ever forget for the rest of their lives?

As MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS reaches its 10th Anniversary this year, this Mother needs to know that the monthly triple bill (which sometimes stretches into that hypothetical quintuple feature) screens at the greatest Silent-era movie palace in the USA, The Castro Theatre, and screens on those same Friday and Saturday nights and that it's all because of her. Not only have most of these past decades events been created from the exact movies they watched together, but as the film series continues to surprisingly grow, every and all of the future extravaganzas are a sincere tribute to her unconditional love. I love you Momma.

Jonathan Marlow, Executive Director SF Cinematheque

When I was a child, it was essentially just me, my 11-month-younger brother and my mother. Our father disappeared when I was not quite two years old and my mother remarried my (largely absentee) step-father a few years later. Whether that meant there was stronger-than-usual connection between me and my mother (and me and my brother) is difficult to say. The connection was strong and the "father figure" didn't play much of a role at all. At any rate, I largely spent much of my childhood time alone. I was a "reader" and tended to tear through any book that I could get my hands on (a fairly solitary behavior, of course). I could talk (complete sentences at six months) and read (phonetically at about ten months) before I could walk.

One of my earliest memories was watching television with my mother. We lived in the middle-of-nowhere and there weren't many viewing options. I don't suppose this will make sense to children today but there were only a handful of channels at the time. My mother was quite fond of watching programming in syndication and we regularly watched Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. I wager I was more fond of these latter two programs at the time (since their fantastic premises appealed to me) but it was the former show that really had an impact. It was the first time that I really started to understand the role of the "director" in a film. This rotund fellow—the host of the show (with his name in the title, no less)—also made films.

Occasionally, his films would air on television and we would watch these together. I remember three in particular. The first (I believe) was Rear Window. There was something about watching the film on television which, by extension, was watching Jimmy Stewart looking out a window (the same dimensions, relatively, as the television itself) and, by further extension, Stewart watching the activities in the courtyard of his apartment building. These layers of voyeurism were fascinating to me. Around this same time, we watched Vertigo and the whole use of a real city as a backdrop for the action was fascinating to me. A whole other disconnection was created during our lone family trip (when I was ten) to San Francisco. The images of the city were still lingering from the film and it was amazing to see a number of those same landmarks during the brief visit. I'm certain it played a part in my decision to move here. The third featured Jimmy Stewart, again, and it was (at the time) my absolute favorite. Whereas Rear Window used Stewart's limited mobility as a key plot point (since we never leave his room), this other film—Rope—used a single location and the illusion (which Hitchcock significantly breaks at two dramatic moments) of a single take.

I've watched this film many, many times. Most folks consider it to be a grand experiment but a failure nonetheless. I think it is absolutely brilliant in nearly every respect. I should admit that I was a fairly naive kid. I watched Lolita in my pre-teen years and thought it was merely about a fellow with an unhealthy obsession. When someone told me (as a teenager) that the subtext was that James Mason and Sue Lyon had a sexual relationship, I thought the idea was absurd. Of course that didn't happen! As you can guess, I entirely missed the point of Farley Granger and John Dall's relationship in Rope. Perhaps it just wasn't something that I was even prepared to understand. I knew the story was based on a true story but I never bothered to investigate the details. That would've been a clue. I also have to presume that Hitchcock was having a bit of fun with his audience. Of course, at the time, he couldn't really address the sexual preference of the lead characters. But casting two gay actors to play these roles ... certainly not a coincidence. The screenwriter? Arthur Laurents (who was in a relationship with Granger at the time the film was made). Even the choice of Francis Poulenc as the composer of the piece that Granger keeps practicing doesn't strike me as accidental in the slightest. The whole thing is particularly subversive. What keeps me coming back to this film is that fact that Hitchcock does something that is quite unbelievably difficult. He takes this despicable and sadistic act with no prior explanation and then finds a way to make these characters human. You never want them to get away with it but you definitely want to hear them out. You want to understand why they did what they did. In particular, it is interesting that the murder itself is not enough. The thrill is in putting themselves in a position where they can get caught. "Did you think you were God, Brandon? Did you think you were God when you served food from his grave?" Murder? Well, that can happen. A dinner party after a murder? Clearly, there are limits!

My mother never commented on the storyline (or the moral ambiguities) of any of the films that we watched together. Most helpfully, she always emphasized that it was "only a movie." Unlike other children, I presume, nothing in a film ever really scared me. I understood that what I was seeing was fiction* (and, even in documentaries, what we were being presented wasn't all that far removed from fiction as well). No matter whatever I saw, it had little evident effect. There are two exceptions. I remember staying up late one night to watch Brian De Palma's The Fury, a horrible piece of dreck that I evidently watched when I was eight (based on the year of release). Probably the first time I saw John Cassavetes in a film! There is a sequence toward the end of the film where one of the characters (Cassavetes, perhaps; I've never watched it again) is hovering in the corner of a room. It was probably 1:00AM when the film ended and it was a long walk down the hall from the living room to my bedroom. It was only disturbing because it was particularly unexpected. The only other instance of freak-out was the plot of The Other. I was probably six or seven when I saw it. The whole notion of these two boys really resonated with me since it was reminiscent (unsurprisingly) of me and my brother. I don't know if you've seen it and, if not, I don't want to ruin it for you. If you're familiar with the plot, you'll understand why the "reveal" really messed with me. Not appropriate for a six year old!

*[Unfortunately, due to the limited channel selection at the time and the rapid expansion of home video at the time, we rented plenty of films in my youth. Plenty of horror films, actually. The whole "it's all fiction" thing allowed me to tolerate a considerable amount of nonsense that, these days, I don't have the patience to sit through.]

Richard Von Busack, Film Critic

My mother was a very left wing, very earthy woman (having five kids will do that) and we were both the big cinema fans in the family. She was terrific about driving me to movies I wanted to see. One of the greatest acts of kindness she did for me was driving me 25 miles to see Dr. No and From Russia With Love when it was in re-release, on a last night in a theater in a far away suburb called Monrovia; I'd been spending the summer with my grandparents in Oklahoma and I couldn't convince them to take me. (An excruciating childhood moment: seeing the theater marquee across the highway near Tinker Air Force base, and not being allowed to go. I was a slave to those 007 movies.)

If I was home sick from school with asthma, she'd take me to a bargain matinee, sometimes on Hollywood Boulevard to the cavernous, unplexed palaces that the audiences had deserted in the early 1970s; we saw The Great White Hope at the Chinese Theater at the first show on opening day. One thing about the 1970s: the word "inappropriate" was never used. I'll never be shocked again, after seeing the kind of movies I saw then (Von Trier tries). No matter what age you were, if you turned up at the theater they were ready for you! I can remember my mom's big rough hand covering my eyes during the money scene in Catch 22 ... and there were other bloodbath scenes in M*A*S*H that were slightly tough for a 12-year-old. And I'll never forget the time we saw Otto Preminger's The Cardinal on the late show: that's the day I learned about abortion, rape and the Ku Klux Klan!

I'd become a film critic—i.e., a pain in the ass—toward the end of her life. So we didn't always agree on what was good anymore. I loved John Huston's The Dead, and had to basically be lead out in tears; the ending of the story, with the snow on the graves, reminded me that my mother would be gone someday. She didn't understand why I was so stricken. And when we left Breakfast Club, and I was so furious at that Reagan era conformist ending, she didn't understand that, either.

She died very early, at age 49, and she went just as a director was rising up who I know she would have loved: Tim Burton. We were about a half an hour from seeing Batman, and she had a flare up of pain and couldn't go to the movies with me and my brothers. Don't know how many times I've since seen it—probably 6 or 7 times—and the scene of Michael Keaton leaving roses on the sidewalk was something I mentally dedicated to her.

MIDNITES FOR MANIACS—Diablo Cody On Jennifer's Body (2009)

As part of his "Sheroes" triple bill on Friday, June 11, 2010, Midnites for Maniacs host Jesse Hawthorne Ficks welcomed Oscar®-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody to the Castro Theatre stage to talk about her script for Jennifer's Body (2009). Before inviting Cody on stage, Ficks reminded his rowdy audience that Midnites for Maniacs "is a film series about underrated and overlooked films and watching them in a neo-sincere way." Ficks defined neo-sincerity as "post-ironic" where "you know you can make fun of something if you want to; but, you don't really need to" and you can—in this hate-free zone—admit geeky love for a film like Jennifer's Body. Sure, Ficks admitted, some people weren't there to see Jennifer's Body because they think they don't like Megan Fox and, yes, it's true, Megan Fox polarizes people; but, usually only those who don't want to admit that they want to have sex with her or become her. Or, as I shouted out, both. At Midnites for Maniacs, Jennifer's Body becomes a film to be celebrated, and what better way to celebrate than with the story's creator? Shockingly, Ficks announced that Jennifer's Body would be shown in HD cinema because—though no less than a year or so after its release—no 35mm prints of the film currently exist, having all been destroyed by the studio. What the....?

On Cody's Expectations of Jennifer's Body

I feel like I need to be honest in this case. I actually had dinner with Karyn Kusama last night, the director of this movie. Neither of us expected the film to be a blockbuster. We were surprised by the studio's expectations. They thought this was going to be this great big Megan Fox movie and we were like, "Have you seen it? It's weird. It's a weird movie and there are a lot of people who are not necessarily going to be loving it." We kind of loved that it was polarizing because we're freaks. I was maybe disappointed [in the box office] but certainly not shocked.

On Whether Jennifer's Body

Is A Feminist Horror Film

We were proud of what we were doing because there aren't a lot of situations where you have a female screenwriter and a female director making a mainstream horror movie that's going to be at the mall. A "feminist horror movie"? Yeah, that was our point, for sure. We were trying to turn the genre on its ear.

One thing I'm obsessed with is that I don't think women are allowed to be anti-heroes. They're not allowed to be flawed. The same week, for instance, that Megan got lambasted for talking about Michael Bay, Shia LeBouf—who I also like as an actor—came out and started sassing about another director and he's [seen] as refreshing and honest while Megan is seen as this horrible bimbo who should never work again. That's the way those two stories were interpreted and it had never been more obvious to me how aggravating it is that women are not allowed to be as complicated as men. We get shoved into these little boxes. It's weird. I've experienced it myself.

On Whether We are In

A "Post-Gender" Environment

No way. I think we're less post-gender than we were 10 years ago. It's getting worse. It's such a big global thing to discuss that I wouldn't even know how to express it. I work in Hollywood. The Kathryn Bigelow thing was awesome—that was a great thing to happen—but, it's difficult to be a female filmmaker and, believe me, nobody wants you to impress your feminist agenda on their nice clean celluloid. It doesn't sell.

On Whether Jennifer's Body

Isn't Funny Enough or Scary Enough

Probably true on both counts. I do think it's not scary enough; but, you have to understand, ordinarily when you make a movie you have these test screenings, which are horrible. You go to some large shopping mall cinema in Huntington Beach, California, they bring in a bunch of kids, put them in the front—you have to sit in the back so they can't turn back and see you—and at the end of the movie they fill out these little sheets. Most of the time you do that once because it's expensive; but, we had to do it about four or five times because the scores were so horrendous. I kept a lot of the score sheets because they had these incredibly articulate criticisms going on, like one said, "Need more bewbs." They misspelled boobs! The studio's looking at these going, "We need more boobs, lady." What you ultimately see in the movie—and I think it's cool—is a neutered version of what we had originally planned. It's not scary enough but I do think it's pretty funny, though.

Originally, I wanted it to be intense, poignant and dramatic. Then, as I wrote it, I found humor creeping in and it started to become campy. I decided to go with that; but, that was not something that I originally had in mind.

On Whether Her Script Was Questioned

Constantly. Here's the thing: would this movie have been made in this incarnation in this script at an earlier time in my career? Absolutely not. I had just won the award for Juno—and let's not talk about it—but, it was really a strange time. Honestly, for six weeks of my life I had carte blanche. I would say, "This is another script I wrote" and they'd say, "Okay!" I couldn't get away with that now and I couldn't have gotten away with it five years ago. They would have turned it into something a lot more high concept and digestible; but, I was able to do that at that time. It's kind of a miracle that Jennifer's Body exists.

On Whether She Had Actors

In Mind Writing the Script

I did not have any cast in mind. I have the superstition—actually, it's realism—that when I write something I never try to imagine anybody wanting to do this. You'll definitely be let down. So I write with this sort of pre-existing belief that my script will never see the light of day and my career is over. That way I'm pleasantly surprised.

On Whether the Cast

Was Behind the Finished Film

The actors were actually really supportive. Adam Brody loves this movie. I remember the first time he saw it, he came out saying, "This is the most awesome thing I've ever done" and I was like "Bless you." Megan was into it. Megan's mysterious, you can't always tell what she's into, but she'll tell you if she hates something. She didn't hate it, for sure, or I would have heard of it bigtime. I think Megan liked it and Amanda is just an unbelievably sweet person. The actors honestly seemed to be behind the movie, which is nice because that's not always the case.

On Megan Fox

People really hate Megan, right? I think that's interesting. She's a really nice girl. She really is. She's just outspoken. We all know that will get your ass in hot water real fast. You'd think everyone would be on her side for criticizing Michael Bay, right? I don't understand the whole thing. I felt it was really extreme.

Jennifer's Body got made because Megan Fox agreed to do it. There was this moment after Transformers came out where it was like, "Who is this girl?" She was a white hot energy. She read the script and agreed to play Jennifer and it was like—boom!—Fox will make this movie. It wasn't even a situation like she auditioned, she was just cast as Jennifer, which happens occasionally when you get somebody who's so sought after. Honestly, at the time, it was kind of a shock and overwhelming and exciting. I couldn't believe that I was going to get to make my movie. I just thought, "I hope this works out." Then when I saw her acting with Amanda, I was immediately not worried. Maybe I should have been? Because all I had to go by were these scenes of her fixing a car in Transformers, looking hot. But I had this blind faith that she'd be a good lead, and she was.

On the Failure to Market Amanda Seyfried

Amanda, the star of the movie, is not on the poster. I know that the belief was that she was not going to bring anybody in and now she's made three hit movies since then, which is kind of like, "Hmmmmm. Interesting."

On Making A Horror Film

I would like to do this again if I'm ever given the opportunity, which I'm not so sure I will; but, I would like to. I'm not one of these people into totally excessive gore or anything but the original script for this movie had a lot of jump scares. Somebody got eviscerated and it wasn't shown in shadow puppetry. A lot of the scenes in the movie that the female members [in the Huntington Beach preview screening] responded to wound up cut because—for some reason—the focus was on getting 14 to 18-year-old guys to like this movie. I mean, I like 14 to 18-year-old guys, some of you are brilliant, I know this, but you weren't in Huntington Beach.

One tactical error we made that actually turned out to be kind of cool is that nobody who worked on the film had ever done anything pertaining to horror, ever. Karyn had never made a horror movie, I had never written one, and our producers had never been involved. I love Jason Reitman but you don't want to sit with the guy and talk about what's scary. We didn't have anyone on the set who had any input on how to make a horror film. I think that's why the movie is so awesomely weird. We couldn't have adhered to the genre conventions if we tried. We just didn't know enough.

Horror movies have rules, that's what people would say to me. If you've seen Scream, they even parody that. This happens because of this. This movie does not have rules, it doesn't have logic, and so you have to decide why Jennifer is eating boys. So I said, "Okay, I'll think of something a little bit Scooby-doo." That's when I made up that whole concept of, "Oh, she's not actually a virgin so they fucked up the whole ritual." There's something specific about the horror genre where people demand logic. Sometimes I wish I could be European so I could be like, "That's the way it is." In America everyone wants to know why shit happens all the time.

On What Movies Inspired

And/Or Influenced Jennifer's Body

Visually, we looked at a lot of the Italian horror movies, the giallo. I love Dario Argento. Oh my God! I got to talk to him about Jennifer's Body a few months ago and that was an intense experience for me. [Using an Italian accent] He said he liked it! I was in Italy at a film festival and I ran into him in the lobby. It was a thrill. You want to run into Dario Argento in the lobby.

In terms of content, obviously Karyn and I both love Carrie. But in a lot of ways, rather than being an homage, Jennifer's Body is more reactionary. We saw something we didn't like and said, "Let's not do that."

I love The Evil Dead. We have the poster up as a shout-out and then Needy's line when she says, "Is that my Evil Dead t-shirt?", a lot of people interpret that as a wink to The Evil Dead; but, actually, "my" is the operative word in that sentence. It's like, "Oh, she wears her clothes too? What a bitch."

On Whether Buffy, The Vampire Slayer Influenced

The Relationship Between Jennifer and Needy

I've never seen Buffy, though I know I need to. I'm a huge fan of Firefly. I think Josh Whedon is amazing. By the way, what an awesome idea to take the Buffy, the Vampire Slayer movie—which didn't do so hot—and turn it into a totally successful TV show. I wish that could happen to me, if there are any network executives here.

On Whether There Was A Lesbian Relationship

Between Jennifer and Needy

There was. Honestly, I think that the people in power were not interested in the richness of relationships, sexual or otherwise. I don't think that was a priority. In addition to that, there's a lot of connective tissue that's missing from the movie. There's a reason why Jennifer was fucking a police officer. Because of that, she had protection throughout this entire story; but, that was cut out. It's gone. Chris Pratt was so funny as the cop and now that's not in the film anymore; it's frustrating.

I had always believed that Needy loved Jennifer, moreso than Chip (Johnny Simmons). I wanted their relationship to be read as romantic. I hope it comes off that way. That's why it's strange for me when people say, "Oh, there's this random kiss" because there isn't anything random about it. I think if the characters were a boy and a girl, no one would think there was anything random about it. These two people had chemistry leading up to that. I'd always written in that they had this girly kind of Sixth Sense connection, which was another argument I made: why can't they just be connected in that way?

On Courtney Love's Theme Song

I don't know what happened but Courtney didn't write the song I thought she would. I can't remember what the complication was. Courtney is a friend of mine and her opinion about the movie has vacillated a bit. She's into it now. Check back next week. It's a creepy song. It's sort of like a horror movie.

On Narrative Similarities

to The United States of Tara

Actually, I feel like many of the things that I've done in my vast decade-long career have dealt with—not just similar things—but, the exact same thing of being female and not being able to decide what kind of female you want to be. In Tara, it's very literal. In Jennifer, it's creepier. Juno was kind of the same thing, but opposite sides of the same coin.

I like the second season of Tara a lot more than the first because before the first season I'd never done any television at all—I was learning and listening—and the second season I kind of turned into a bitch. I was more adamant about what I wanted, which was the kind of show I wanted to watch. We've grown into something that I can be proud of.

On the Naturalness of the Gay Character

in United States of Tara

I have to credit Showtime because at other networks that would not have been allowed. They would have had to turn it into the after school special.

On Whether Teenage Girls Are Really Clever

I hate that critique. Some people are just idiots. It's so condescending to say that. "Your characters should be less articulate to reflect our youth." What they are saying about teenagers is horrible and the people who are saying that are not spending time with teenagers.

On Her Sweet, Sensitive Male Characters

Honestly, I don't know how to write impressive men because my dad and my brother are both these two sensitive guys who get in fights and cry all the time. That's the model for me. That's all I know.

On Young Adult

[Scheduled for production in 2013 according to IMDb, Young Adult] is a weird script about a woman who has a mental break and decides she wants to return to the time in her life when she was happiest, so she ends up stalking her highschool sweetheart in earnest. It's deep. [Laughs.] I hope I can get it made; but, it's difficult because it is a small story. I'm hoping somebody will take a chance.

On Whether She Will Direct In the Future

The one sort of very strange thing about my career trajectory is, like, I don't direct. I really feel like I wanted Karyn to get her due as the director of this film and I'm sure she has a specific director's vision; but, I just write. I'm sure I have a final draft copy in the computer somewhere that reflects how I would want [a film] to come out; but, definitely not [from the perspective of a director].

I don't know when I'll direct. I'm so scared. It's a completely different skill set from what I do. I'm really solitary. Directing is like you're the coach, you're the captain of the team, and it really intimidates me. It's surprising to me how many writers freely make the jump into directors. In fact, most writers aspire to be directors. I would like to do it; but, I'm really dragging my feet.

Cross-published on Twitch.

MIDNITE 4 MANIACS: A Bratpack Valentine for John Hughes

Now would be the time to put on Datarock's "Molly" off their Red album and sing along: "Molly Ringwald / you're pretty in pink / Molly Ringwald / I know what you think / that I'll forget you / the girl of my dreams / that I'll neglect you / as rude as it seems…."

Then, while crooning along with that tune, consider reading David Kamp's profile of John Hughes—"Sweet Bard of Youth"—in the current issue of Vanity Fair. Kamp offers a triple hitter, not only with his in-magazine feature, but an online exclusive of bonus thoughts and stories about John Hughes courtesy of the stars of his celebrated teen films of the 1980s. Plus: A selection of short stories by Hughes and photographs of items in his archives (including some fantastic drawings).

And all of this is, of course, to prepare for the Brat Pack valentine Jesse Hawthorne Ficks and Midnite 4 Maniacs have programmed this Friday and Saturday at the Castro Theatre. Here's their schedule:

Friday, February 12

7:30PM Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)—Finally, a 35mm print is available! John Hughes' most under-rated and uncompromised teen classic! Don't miss Mary Stuart Masterson in one of the most baadasssss performances of the 80s.

9:30PM Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)—Come save Ferris in this seminal high school gem at the greatest movie theatre in the country!

11:45PM National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)—Long before Van Wilder, National Lampoon made this spectacularly sleazy romp! Stay up late with the Griswald family and watch this uncut R-rated 35mm print!

Saturday, February 13

2:00PM Sixteen Candles (1984)—The film that changed teen films forever! Come on out and admire girls' panties, headgear and the almighty Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe)!

4:15PM The Breakfast Club (1985)—We're screening the original R-rated version, complete with sex, drugs and dandruff!

6:30PM Pretty In Pink (1986)—There's no better film to watch on Valentine's weekend! All hail to Andie, Blaine & The Duckman!

8:45PM Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)—Long before Up In the Air, this R-rated exploration of a "Business-Man" is not only Steve Martin's favorite film but packs quite a poignant punch! It's time Martin and Candy be recognized alongside cinema's comedic-duo greats!

Cross-published on Twitch.

Michael Hawley Previews YBCA's Summer 2009 Lineup

Norwegian Black Metal, Graphic Sexual Horror and a Headless Woman. Jeez, is it Halloween already? No, it's just this summer's insouciant film/video line-up at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. But before we dig into what curator Joel Shepard has in store through September, here's exciting news for YBCA filmgoers. Starting July 6, ticket holders will be allowed FREE admittance into YBCA's exhibition galleries, whose days and hours of operation have been adjusted to align with evening film and video screenings.

Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell's Until the Light Takes Us (July 9 & 11) shines a torch on the stygian world of Norwegian Black Metal, a musical subgenre that grabbed headlines for inspiring a wave of murder, suicide and over 50 church burnings in the early '90s. The filmmakers were reluctantly introduced to the music by an insistent employee at San Francisco's Aquarius Records, which subsequently inspired them to spend two years in Norway gathering materials for this film. Moving from extreme music to extreme sexuality, the following weekend at YBCA brings us Anna Lorentzon and Barbara Bell's Graphic Sexual Horror (July 16 & 17). This documentary tells the story of Insex, a now-defunct BDSM website featuring exclusively female submissives that was also an early pioneer of internet video streaming and live feeds.

"Where is The Headless Woman?" That was the big question on the lips of Bay Area cinephiles when the latest from Argentine director Lucrecia Martel failed to make the line-up of this year's SF International Film Festival. We'd been lusting to see this film since its world premiere at Cannes last year. My anticipation became further heightened when it got ranked #1 on Film Comment's list of 20 Best Unreleased Films of 2008. Well, leave it to YBCA to end up bringing us not only the film, but the director as well, in a program titled Holy Girls and Headless Women: The Films of Lucrecia Martel. The ground-breaking director will appear at a screening of her 2001 debut feature La Ciénaga on July 14, followed by The Headless Woman on the following evening. Her second and middle feature, 2004's The Holy Girl will be shown on July 23 without the director in attendance (Martel accompanied the film to the SF International Film Festival in 2005).

Anyone who missed Chantal Akerman's revolutionary Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles when it screened at SF MOMA earlier this year, will get another chance on August 1 and 2. There may even be some repeat viewers—the SFMOMA screenings were marred by a missing second reel—replaced by a DVD at the first screening and 16mm at the second. This hypnotic, long (201-minute) 1975 film is considered one of the most important works in the history of cinema by many, and stars Delphine Seyrig as a middle-class widow and mother whose orderly universe s-l-o-w-l-y cracks apart.

Fewer things interest me less than sports, but I'm intrigued by several programs in Beyond ESPN: An Offbeat Look at the Sports Film. This month-long series, co-curated by Shepard and SF Bay Guardian Arts and Entertainment Editor Johnny Ray Huston, spans the full artsy to trashy gamut. Kicking off the series on August 6 is Rare Films from the Baseball Hall of Fame, followed by Jorgen Leth's A Sunday in Hell on August 9. Said to be the best film ever made about professional bicycle racing, Leth documented the grueling 1976 Paris-Roubaix race across northern France using 20 cameras and a helicopter. Contemporary audiences might know Leth best as the director assigned a series of wily filmmaking challenges by Lars Von Trier in 2003's The Five Obstructions.

Of all the films in the sports series, perhaps the one of most interest to cinephiles will be Claire Denis' 2005 never-seen-in-SF Towards Mathilde (August 13). Made in between L'intrus and 35 Shots of Rum, the film documents modern dance choreographer Mathilde Monnier as she creates a new work. The release of Criterion's Criteron's William Klein boxed-set last year generated renewed interest in the work of this American born and educated director who spent most of his career in France. He's represented in this series by The French (August 16), a documentary about the 1982 French Open tennis tournament in which Jimmy Connors, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe were participants (the film is not part of the Criterion set and is not available on DVD). Then on August 20 YBCA will screen Veronica Chen's visually striking Agua, an Argentine film set in the world of open water marathon swimming (specifically the 57-km Santa Fe-Cordoba river race.) The film appeared at the 2007 SF International Film Festival, and my review for The Evening Class can be found here.

Midnites for Maniacs—and its ebullient host Jesse Hawthorne Ficks—bring their swell act to YBCA on August 23, with Winning Isn't Everything: A Tribute to 1970s Sports Film. This triple-bill movie-marathon includes 1978 Robbie Benson-starring ice skating tear-jerker Ice Castles, Michael Ritchie's 1976 classic The Bad News Bears with Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal, and last but not least, The Cheerleaders, a 1973 exploitation film that threatens to reveal "everything you ever wanted to know about cheerleaders but were afraid to ask."

The final weekend of YBCA's sports series brings us two more classic, rarely seen documentaries. Visions of Eight (August 28) is an omnibus film centering on the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, with segments directed by Milos Forman, Kon Ichikawa, Claude Lelouch, Arthur Penn, John Schlesinger and others. Not too long ago, YBCA had a bona fide hit on its hands with numerous sold-out showings of Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, which followed French soccer star Zinedine Zidane through one complete match. The film which did this first, however, was Hellmuth Costard's 1971 Football as Never Before (August 30). Using eight cameras, soccer legend George Best is trailed though a 1970 Manchester United First Division game. Interestingly, Spike Lee employs the same method in an upcoming documentary on Kobe Bryant.

Although not officially listed on YBCA's website yet, there are two important films I'm anticipating beyond the current calendar. On September 10, 12 and 13, YBCA revives Nicholas Ray's 1956 Bigger Than Life, in which James Mason is transformed from mild-mannered schoolteacher to deluded megalomaniac—courtesy of the modern miracle drug cortisone. Then on September 17, 19 and 20 we get to see another critically acclaimed Latin American film from 2008, Lisandro Alonso's Liverpool. This latest work from the Argentine minimalist director placed 10th on the aforementioned Film Comment list of Top 20 unreleased films, and was another surprise omission from this year's SFIFF. Hopefully YBCA will continue to focus on Latin American cinema, given the fact that we no longer have a Latino Film Festival here in the Bay Area. At the top of my wish list you'll find Pablo Larrain's Tony Manero (#9 on the Film Comment list) and Rodrigo Plá's Desert Within (winner of eight 2008 Mexican Ariel awards).

Cross-published on film-415 and Twitch.