SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our THE MASTER-DISCIPLE Series, Saturday, March 11, 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 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.
7:30pm DRESSED TO KILL (1980, dir. Brian De Palma, Park Circus, USA, 104mns, Digital)
9:40pm BLOW OUT (1981, dir. Brian De Palma, Park Circus, USA, 108mns, Digital)
No filmmaker lays as much claim to being a spiritual descendant of Alfred Hitchcock as Brian De Palma. In numerous movies, De Palma commits to not only the cinematic storytelling of the Master but also working to exceed even some of Hitchcock’s greatest techniques.
Dressed to Kill, about New York escort Liz (Nancy Allen) who works to find the true killer after she becomes the prime suspect in a brutal murder, channels Hitchcock so strongly you know within twenty minutes what movie De Palma is using as his reference. For those who have never seen Dressed to Kill, we won’t spoil it by telling you.
De Palma’s Hitchcock riffs (which include his Rear Window homage Body Double and his Vertigo riff Obsession) always find the filmmaker working to create tense sequences of pure cinematic storytelling.
This Programmer actually finds the most successful riff to be De Palma’s 1981 Blow Out about a movie sound designer, John Travolta, who accidentally records evidence of an assassination rather than the cover story of an auto accident of a politician. De Palma was so influenced by Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up (which is essentially the same story with a photographer) that he openly paid homage to the movie in the title. But what’s fascinating is that De Palma’s movie actually feels like his most successful attempt to synthesize De Palma’s obsessions with Hitchcockian cinema.
The famous parade chase sequence that serves as the climax of the movie had to be re-shot due to a film mix-up. One can only imagine the frustration De Palma must have felt but maybe it was meant to be. Because the climax and final shot of the movie are heartbreakingly painful in a way many of De Palma’s other Hitchcock covers are not.
A favorite movie of Quentin Tarantino’s, Blow Out serves as a kind of prologue to the open homage and post-modern approach of film criticism and appreciation that Tarantino and other moviemakers would come to embody in the 90’s and beyond.
Join us for two adrenaline shots of Hitchcockian cinema right to the jugular.
Best always,
Craig Hammill
Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
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
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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.