SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our DISCIPLES OF HITCHCOCK Series, Thursday, September 14, 2023
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 1917 Bay St building. Our entrance is NOT on Bay Street. You access our entrance from Wilson Street by turning into the street art alleyway/corridor in the back of the building. Look for our signs which are always posted on Wilson and in the corridor to guide the audience.
7:30pm BAD EDUCATION (2004, dir. Pedro Almodóvar, Sony Pictures Classics, Spain, 105mns, 35mm)
9:45pm LIVE FLESH (1997, dir. Pedro Almodóvar, Sony Pictures Classics, Spain, 103mns, 35mm)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to the NC-17 rating of BAD EDUCATION, only audience members who can prove they are 17 years or older will be admitted into theater for the first movie.
One of the greatest heirs of the Hitchcock mantle is Spanish writer-director Pedro Almodovar. While Almodovar may not leap out to the cineaste’s mind immediately as an acolyte of the Master the way say Brian De Palma or David Fincher might, Almodovar is every each the equal of anyone working today. . .and in some ways even the best.
Almodovar started as a punk-rock LGBTQ force of nature filmmaker of transgressive hilarious unclassifiable cinema in the early 1980’s. Over time though, Almodovar stunned and surprised everyone by taking his clear cinematic talent and marrying it to stunning craft.
By the time he had crossed the chasm of his 80’s work and entered his deeper, more soulful, yet still iconoclastic 90’s and 00’s period (bridged by The Flower of My Secret), he was exhibiting on a regular basis a masterful control of color, cinematography, production design, music. . .hell all the elements of cinema could he bend to his will. And he has done it for decades now with the same level of craft, control, and purpose as Alfred Hitchcock.
While there are Almodovar movies that are more clearly homages to Hitchcock-2009’s Broken Embraces and 1987’s Law of Desire are two that immediately jump to mind-we wanted to pick two masterworks where the influence of the master appear to be completely absorbed in Almodovar’s DNA so that the work produced is something transcendent, inexplicable, and wholly Pedro.
First up is one of this programmer’s favorite Almodovars (and one of the great films of the 21st century), 2004’s Bad Education. When Almodovar has allowed himself to go very very dark, his films pack an angry power that startles amidst the hypnotic style.
Here, Almodovar with the collaboration of Gael Garcia Bernal (in one of his best performances) tells the story of two childhood friends who suffer through child sexual abuse by a priest at their early 1960’s elementary school, discover cinema, and part ways. As an adult, one of the friends has managed to transfer his trauma to his moviemaking. When a stranger arrives claiming to be the other friend, the moviemaker is intrigued but senses something is wrong.
While Almodovar cited noir and Double Indemnity as the big influences on Bad Education, the Catholicism, focus on the power of cinema, and the filmmaking itself all feel suffused with the spirit of Hitchcock.
We follow this with 1997’s Live Flesh which really marks the beginning of Almodovar’s deeper, more soulful, yet just as transgressive and disturbing middle period. Adapted from a novel, Almodovar tells the story of a criminal who paralyzes a cop and then returns after prison to seek redemption. Told agains the final 26 years of the fall of the Franco regime and Spain’s return to some kind of functioning democracy, Live Flesh is at once deeply sexual, deeply psychological, deeply entertaining, deeply political. It also features Penelope Cruz (who would go on to become an Almodovar regular) and Javier Bardem (as the paralyzed police officer).
Live Flesh is an incredible movie that somehow balances sex, violence, joy, despair, emotion, genre on a razor’s edge. Hitchcock loved high wire acts as challenges and so does Almodovar.
Come tonight to watch two of Almodovar’s best. On 35mm.
Best always,
Craig Hammill
Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
*Please note that though we strive to always show titles on 35mm film if advertised, we may have to screen digitally if the print we receive is in such bad shape or if we don't receive the print in time because of a shipping delay. We will do our best to alert the audience. When this does occur, we will offer each ticket holder who chooses not to attend a complimentary ticket to a future event in exchange. (Disclaimer: Good for 90 days – Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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 to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening, good for 90 days. (Disclaimer: Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
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.
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?
You can follow us on Instagram/Twitter: @secretmovieclub or Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm
You can also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter at secretmovieclub.com or by writing to us at community@secretmovieclub.com and using the header “SUBSCRIBE ME TO NEWSLETTER”.
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.