SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our POLITICS & THE PERSONAL series! Friday, May 13, 2022
LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021
*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the building. Make a right on Wilson Street, then a right behind the building. We’re the first set of black steps after the big gate. We’ll have staff to help guide/park you.
730pm CARLOS PARTS 1 & 2(2010, co-wri/dir by Olivier Assayas, IFC, 204mns, 35mm presentation)
SPECIAL NOTE: We'll be showing all 3 parts of CARLOS (the full 338 minute version seen in theaters, television) across 2 days. Tonight we'll be showing Parts 1 & 2. Saturday night 5/14/22 we'll be showing Part 3. Please make sure to buy the CARLOS TWO NIGHT PASS if you want to attend both nights to see the full version (and save money!).
IMPORTANT NOTES:
***ALL AUDIENCE are still required to show proof of vaccination at the door. PLEASE HAVE YOUR VIRTUAL OR PHYSICAL VACCINATION CARD READY BEFORE ENTERING THE THEATER. If you have an exemption, please have proof of a negative PCR level COVID test within 3 days of the screening.
***As of April 1, 2022, masks are now optional for indoor theater events if you're fully vaccinated. Anyone with a vaccination exemption can still attend as long as they have proof of a RT-PCR level negative Covid test ( within 72 hours of the event) but will be required to wear a mask. We will continue to update our protocols with the dynamic situation.
HOW TO:
1)PLEASE BRING YOUR VACCINATION CARD (digital cards accepted).
2)PRE-ORDER ANY CONCESSIONS OR MOVIE MERCHANDISE you would like from the additional Add-Ons. You can pick up all concessions & merchandise at our tables in our lobby prior to the screening.
We will be able to sell concessions & merchandise at the theater. But it will make everything much quicker and easier if you pre-order!
3)PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ANYONE EXHIBITING COVID OR FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS AT THE DOOR, WILL BE OFFERED COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS TO A FUTURE SHOW AND ASKED TO RETURN WHEN HEALTHY. So please, if you’re feeling sick, just write us at community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer your complimentary tickets to a future screening when you’re healthy. Let’s all do our part to beat this thing so we can go back to the complete movie going experience!
All May 2022, we're running a "POLITICS & THE PERSONAL" series. We're screening some of the most fascinating movies about politics, political movements, and political figures of the last 60 years.
We've worked to curate a selection of movies that personalize and humanize some of the most history affecting figures and moments of the 20th century. At the same time, we salute these movies because they often show the complexities on all sides of an issue and avoid the understandable trap of favoring a side or ideology based on a filmmaker's own personal beliefs or politics.
Rather all these movies are great cinema, great examinations, and great watches.
Tonight, we watch Olivier Assayas's stunning CARLOS Parts 1 & 2 on 35mm! Tomorrow night (Sat 5/14/22) we finish with CARLOS Part 3!
Much like Steven Soderbergh's epic stunning CHE Pts 1 & 2 (which we're also screening on 35mm on Sat, May 21, 2022), Assayas's Carlos commits to looking at both the highs and lows, the "successes" and "failures" of one of the 20th century's most influential political figures.
But whereas Che shows what happens when one commits fully to an ideology and value system out of a deeply ingrained sense of integrity, core belief, Carlos shows what happens when the beliefs that initially spurred one to become politically active get forgotten in the whirlpool of fame, celebrity, sex, rock and roll, the physical temptations and pleasures.
Carlos tells the story of Venezuelan terrorist/anarchist Ramirez Sanchez, better known to the world as "Carlos the Jackal". Young, fiercely intelligent, charismatic, handsome, brash, cocky, Ramirez/Carlos understands better than most, the importance of creating a "media event" to get the world's attention.
We meet Ramirez/Carlos in 1973 and follow him tonight through his meteoric rise in the international "terrorist" scene. Carlos (like so many) is initially motivated by truly held beliefs on the importance of disrupting the colonizing, brutal, violent occupations of the Western Capitalist powers who seem not to care at all about the autonomy of any other country.
To do this, he's willing to kill, hijack, assassinate, whatever the cost. But as his tactics gain attention and he overshadows the older terrorists, he starts to enjoy his fame and notoriety as it translates to press, media coverage, women, drugs, sex, food, alcohol. And soon he's playing a "part".
In Part 3, we follow Carlos's descent into hedonism, narcissism, laziness, temptation, and his ultimate downfall when he hides out in the Sudan, not to protest or fight for any cause, but just to buy himself more time to have sex, drink, and ultimately lose any discipline or focus or sight of an objective or cause.
Co-writer Olivier Assayas had the brilliant insight of the correlation between politics and celebrity. Something we see in campaigns all the time but more destructively in autocratic societies where leaders use the language of movies, television, celebrity to drive blind allegiance and rise to near "God" like status.
What Assayas shows us in these first two parts is almost no one, no matter how intelligent and strong, is immune to the temptations of power, celebrity, fame.
Scored with an amazing 70's punk soundtrack and kinetic filmmaking, Carlos goes next level because of Edgar Ramirez's hypnotic, vital, muscular, charismatic performance. There's something stunning about an actor understanding how to play a terrorist as an actor.
As with all the selections, Carlos surprisingly manages to explore both sides of the coin/equation. It's neither overly damning nor overly laudatory of Ramirez/Carlos's politics, aims, goals.
Instead, it burrows down with Fassbinder like intensity, to examine WHY and HOW terrorists are made AND the WHY and HOW of how they are caught and undone.
As audience, we are left to ponder the efficacy of tactics, objectives, goals when using the disruptive terrorist/anarchist playbook.
But we also understand why so many are radicalized in the first place.
Best always,
Craig Hammill
35mm Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR OUR IN-DOOR THEATER SCREENINGS
REFUNDS:
We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.
However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write us at: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening.
HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:
We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.
We will have a staff member on duty to monitor all cars parked in the street-art alleyway at our entrance.
There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.
HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?
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HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.