SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents

Part of our THE MASTER: ALFRED HITCHCOCK DIRECTOR OF 2023 Series, Saturday, December 2, 2023

LOCATION: The Million Dollar Theater Movie Palace, 307 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90013

*Please note, there is parking available at the Grand Central Market Parking Structure at the corner of 3rd and Hill Street (entrance on Hill Street) and at various lots. We have a limited number of $6 all day parking passes available for purchase via add-ons on Eventbrite!

6p REAR WINDOW (1954, dir by Alfred Hitchcock, Universal, 112mns, 35mm)

9p BLUE VELVET (1986, wri & dir by David Lynch, Park Circus, 120mns, 35mm)

We've saved a number of Hitchcock's best for last. And tonight, we kick off the holiday season and our final month of Hitchcock as our director of the year with this programmer's personal favorite Hitchcock Rear Window along with David Lynch's ground breaking masterpiece inspired by Hitchcock's classic Blue Velvet (both on 35mm!).

If you've never seen Rear Window, it's hard to overstate just how all the elements of Hitchcock's art are at their very apex in this movie. Hitchcock had made several single location movies prior to Rear Window (Lifeboat and Rope) but here he transcends everything so that you forget the entire movie is actually contained to the point of view of ONE NEW YORK APARTMENT LIVING ROOM!

James Stewart stars as home-confined photographer LB Jeffries, recuperating from a broken leg in a wheelchair, who begins to suspect his neighbor across the courtyard may have killed his wife. At the same time, Jeffries' girlfriend socialite Lisa Fremont (a luminous Grace Kelly) begins to despair that confirmed bachelor Jeffries will ever want to make their relationship more serious.

Hitchcock used production design, sound design, performance, and subjective POV editing to create one of his most entertaining suspenseful movies of his entire career. Balancing on a knife's edge, Hitch doesn't answer whether the neighbor (played by Raymond Burr) actually did or did not kill his wife until the final twenty minutes. At the same time, Hitch used the various apartment windows that Jeffries voyeuristically stares at to tell different stories of loneliness, marriage, sex, commitment so that the entire apartment complex becomes a kind of cinema of Jimmy Stewart's sub conscious.

There is one classic shot near the end of the movie that NEVER fails to elicit a collective gasp from anyone in the audience who has never seen the movie. Even 70 years on, REAR WINDOW remains a high water mark of cinema.

We follow this with David Lynch's mind blowing 1986 BLUE VELVET. Lynch has often mentioned how Rear Window, Sunset Boulevard, Jacques Tati movies, and Fellini's 8 1/2 are all seminal texts for him. In BLUE VELVET, Lynch miraculously overcomes the devastation he experienced helming 1984's DUNE and turns in the first of what would be near constant masterpieces.

Here Kyle Machlachlan plays Jeffrey Beaumont, an optimistic young man, who discovers a severed ear in an abandoned lot in his Northwest town of Lumberton. Wanting to get to the answers of this mystery, Jeffrey plays amateur detective only to find himself embroiled in a strange psychodrama of local nightclub singer Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini) in a horribly abusive relationship with master criminal Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). As things go from voyeuristic to darkly sexual, Jeff struggles to maintain his sense of self at the same time he tries to help Dorothy and solve the mystery.

All the elements of Lynch's mid period and late period are here including his two main alter egos-Machlachlan and Laura Dern (who plays Jeffrey's girlfriend and girl Friday, Sandy. BLUE VELVET remains one of the seminal movies of the 1980's and one of Lynch's key films.

Join us for these two masterpieces on 35mm film at the Million Dollar Theater movie palace!

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 MILLION DOLLAR THEATER MOVIE PALACE PARKING TIPS:

If you are attending any or all movies on any given day, you can go to ADD ONS and pre-order an all day $6 Grand Central Parking Structure Pass (while SUPPLIES last). This parking pass provides all day validation at the Grand Central Market Parking Structure located on Hill St between 3rd and 4th St. one block north of the Million Dollar Theater, accessible only on Hill St.

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.