Sunday, May 4, 2014

Seattle International Film Festival: May 15 - Jun 8


It's that time of the year again! SIFF once again arrives at the end of May, heralding a spectrum of cinema from across the world! This year, like the string of years since 2008, we're witness to a bit of a qualitative diversity-dip in the percentage of foreign cinema, arthouse, auteur and all things challenging or on the more adventurous end of the spectrum. This content once dominated the festival, making it of a caliber to challenge Toronto and New York. Nonetheless, this year's fest isn't as painfully omissive as 2011 or 2010 for that matter. Things have taken a turn for the qualitative with 2012, thankfully being the beginnings of a return to form and 2013 suggesting a further trend in that direction. So here we are possibly at the end of a string of years with a program that looks the strongest SIFF has been since 2008!

That considered, we're again witness to a glut of middle-ground contemporary romances, clever quirky dramas for the sub-Sundance sect and a lot of filler seemingly there to entice some imagined suburban demographic out of their Bellevue hobbles and into the city. But there's a good bit of legitimate, original, challenging, crafted cinema to be found in here too. SIFF in the past has existed as a focal-point of visionary cinema curatorialship, with the resources, funds and legacy to be hugely influential. This year I found some 24-30 films of interest, curiosity or gravitas that I plan to attend, by both directors of note and new developing artists. Overall a quality year, suggesting the promise of a return to the per-capita of more adventurous programming we saw in the decade spanning 1997 - 2007.

I continue to be enthused about their new home at the SIFF Cinema at the Uptown and expanded screens between that venue and their Film Center. Their curation for these year-round venues has exhibited the scope of SIFF, with this year's Recent Raves series suggesting a visionary path forward for the cinema. Anticipating the likely highlights of the festival in Aleksei German's vision of the Strugatsky Brothers allegorical science fiction novel, as though rendering Bruegel on the screen, another entry in 1960's Eastern Bloc science fiction, Ari Folman's animated adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's "The Futurological Congress", early reviews have positioned Tsai Ming-Liang's most recent on growing resource inequality in urban Asia as a condensation of everything he's created to-date, there's also Cattet & Forzani's transgressive, highly stylized ongoing homage to Itialian Giallo, and Mohammad Rasoulof's bold defiance of a 20 year ban on making films.


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Friday, May 16
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10:00 PM - Iain Forsyth "20,000 Days on Earth"
Lincoln Square Cinemas
20001614

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21015

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Saturday, May 17
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9:30 PM - Ari Folman "The Congress"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
CONG1714

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21048

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Sunday, May 18
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1:00 PM - Noaz Deshe "White Shadow"
AMC Pacific Place 11
WHIT1814

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21061

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Tuesday, May 20
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6:30 PM - Alain Resnais "Last Year at Marienbad"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
LAST2014

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21122

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Tuesday, May 20
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9:30 PM - Alex van Warmerdam "Borgman"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
BMAN2014

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21130

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Wednesday, May 21
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7:00 PM - Pawel Pawlikowski  "Ida"
Harvard Exit
IDA2014

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21149

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Wednesday, May 21
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7:30 PM - Claude Lanzmann "The Last of the Unjust"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
LAST2114

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21151

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Wednesday, May 21
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9:00 PM - Arnaud des Pallières "Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas"
Harvard Exit
AGEO2114

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21153

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Wednesday, May 21
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9:00 PM - Tsai Ming-Liang "Stray Dogs"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
STRA2114

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21152

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Friday, May 23
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7:00 PM - Kelly Reichardt "Night Moves"
Lincoln Square Cinemas
NIGH2314

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21205

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Saturday, May 24
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1:00 PM - Aleksei German "Hard to Be a God"
Lincoln Square Cinemas
HARD2414

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21225

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Saturday, May 24
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7:30 PM - Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani "The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
STRA2414

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21243

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Saturday, May 24
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12:00 AM - Sion Sono "Why Don't You Play in Hell?"
Egyptian Theatre
WHYD2414

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21252

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Sunday, May 25
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1:15 PM - Oliver Hockenfull "From Neurons To Nirvana: The Great Medicines"
AMC Pacific Place 11
FROM2514

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21263

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Sunday, May 25
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8:30 - Albert Serra "Story of My Death"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
STOR2514

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21283

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Sunday, May 25
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9:30 PM - Fruit Chan "The Midnight After"
Lincoln Square Cinemas
MIDN2514

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21287

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Monday, May 26
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7:00 PM - Luc Jacquet "Once Upon A Forest"
Egyptian Theatre
ONCE2614

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21316

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Tuesday, May 27
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7:00 PM - Agnieszka Holland "Burning Bush"
Egyptian Theatre
BURN2714

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21341

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Tuesday, May 27
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7:00 PM - Sylvain Chomet "Attila Marcel"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
ATTI2714
http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21340

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Tuesday, May 27
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9:30 PM - Philippe Garrel "Jealousy"
AMC Pacific Place 11
JEAL2714

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21350

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Wednesday, May 28
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7:00 PM - Michel Gondry "Mood Indigo"
Harvard Exit
MOOD2814

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21367

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Wednesday, May 28
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9:30 PM - Yasuhiro Yoshiura "Patema Inverted"
Egyptian Theatre
PATE2814

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21375

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Thursday, May 29
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7:30 PM - Alejandro Fernández Almendras "To Kill a Man"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
TOKI2914

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21394

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Sunday, June 01
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4:30 PM - Yoji Yamada "The Little House"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
LITT0114

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21483

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Sunday, June 01
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Sunday, June 01
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8:00 PM - Richard Linklater "Boyhood"
Harvard Exit
BOYH0114

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21491

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Monday, June 02
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9:30 PM - Hong Sang-soo "Our Sunhi"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
OURS0214

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21515

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Tuesday, June 03
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9:30 PM - Andrzej Wajda "Walesa. Man of Hope"
Egyptian Theatre
WALE0314

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21536

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Wednesday, June 04
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9:30 PM - Noh Young-seok "Intruders"
Egyptian Theatre
INTR0414

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21556

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Thursday, June 05
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4:00 PM - Benjamín Naishtat  "History of Fear"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
HIST0514

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21564
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Thursday, June 5
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9:45 PM - Catherine Breillat "Abuse of Weakness"
SIFF Cinema Uptown
ABUS0514

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21581

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Sunday, June 08
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1:30 PM - Diao Yinan "Black Coal, Thin Ice"
AMC Pacific Place 11
BLAC0814

http://myaccount.siff.net/cinema/reserve.aspx?fid=334&id=21648

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Sunday, June 08
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Saturday, May 3, 2014

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. and LOOP US Tours: April 16 - May 28


Two shows of note at Chop Suey this month! From Japan on the far out Psych, Noise, Improv-freakout end of the spectrum, the Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. ship is landing in Seattle again, after having played a pretty stellar show here just last year. Acid Mothers Temple, who's earliest western tours in the early 2000's inspired such acolytes as Jhon Balance of Coil, The Wire magazine, and Guru Guru, their arrival on this side of the globe making converts all summer long with the Kosmische Jam Assault of what is probably their masterpiece to date, "Absolutely Freakout Zap Your Mind", coinciding with the "New Geocentric World" tour. A spectacular decade of psychedelic freakout and cosmic rock explorations ensued, as covered in The Quietus' interview with guitar guru Makoto Kawabata, "From Another World: Acid Mothers Temple Interviewed". Highlights of this ten year+ stretch include the self-described "Electric Heavyland" more galactic meanderings of "Glorify Astrological Martyrdom" the folksy pastoral bliss of "41st Century Splendid Man Returns" and the brutal riffage assault that was "Recurring Dream And Apocalypse Of Darkness", arriving in the present day to a higher plane with "Astrorgasm From The Inner Space" featuring members of the original AMT in an expanded lineup. Hopefully exactly what we'll be witness to on the "Astrorgasm From The Inner Temple Tour 2014"!


The second act needs little introduction if you were even remotely attuned to the post-Spacerock happenings of the 90's, LOOP were largely known for their legendary shows of immense volume and total psychedelic droned out submersion of the audience. Over the span of their brief existence from 1986-1991 they produced a number of recordings that attempted to capture the staggering e-v-e-n-t of their live incarnation in the studio, none of them quite equating those heights. Their debut full length, "Heaven's End" comes closest, and immediately got them signed to Beggars Banquet's then taste-maker imprint Situation Two, who released the following more polished and constrained sound that most listeners are accustomed to on albums like "A Gilded Eternity". Shortly after the band disbanded amidst a barrage of UK press, with only interviews of recent years like that (again) for The Quietus, "Never Fade Out: Loop's Robert Hampson Interviewed" shedding any light on the period. Come 2013 and out of nowhere LOOP's founding member Robert Hampson is joined by John Wills, and new additions; bassist Neil MacKay and James Endeacott on second guitar, after their issuing a statement describing the conditions of this one-off tour across the UK, North America and central Europe. Regardless of whether they realize the kind of greatness suggested by early reports, it's a singular, final, opportunity.
Photo credit: Greg Cristman & rubicante_kid

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