Press enter after choosing selection

Cinema Ann Arbor

Cinema Ann Arbor Banner

From the 1930s through the 1990s, Ann Arbor was home to a vibrant alternative/art/experimental film scene, led by University of Michigan student film societies. Before home video and cable movie channels caused their demise, the film societies offered Hollywood and foreign classics, curated series, and regional premieres year-round, sometimes seven nights per week. The societies also brought guests like Frank Capra, Jean-Luc Godard, Maya Deren, Robert Altman, and Andy Warhol and The Velvet Underground to town; helped launch internationally renowned festivals dedicated to 8 mm and 16 mm experimental films; supported local filmmakers with equipment and screenings; and served as a film school for future notables like Ken Burns, Lawrence Kasdan, Owen Gleiberman, and Michael Moore. 

All of this happened with minimal support or oversight from the university, and the societies’ cutting-edge programming sometimes got them in trouble. In 1967, four Cinema Guild members were arrested by Ann Arbor police for showing the “obscene” short Flaming Creatures, and there were protests and even bomb threats over screenings of the racist The Birth of a Nation, the gay-stereotyping The Boys in the Band, and the pope-condemned Hail Mary.

Ann Arbor Film Coop Film Schedule Fall 1979
Ann Arbor Film Cooperative, 1979 Fall Film Schedule

Graphic for events post

Film & Video Events

Film: The Armor of Light

Tuesday December 5, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Pittsfield Branch: Program Room
Grade 9 - Adult

Graphic for events post

Lectures & Panel Discussions

Lights, Camera, Austen: the screen adaptations of Jane Austen

Wednesday December 13, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Westgate Branch: West Side Room

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Los Angeles plays itself (Anderson [2003] 2014)

by henrymo@umich.edu

Maybe we live in Ann Arbor, a semi-dense municipality with a population of 118,000 and ranked as the most educated city in the U.S., so why would we be interested in a film about L.A., the sprawling concrete jungle that is home to 3.9 million and the interstices of Hollywood? Well for starters, this essay-film/documentary offers a fascinating analysis of the city behind the facade. It is a critique of the decay of Los Angeles in and through cinema.

Accordingly, director, Thom Anderson (professor at the California Institute of Arts) presents a study of how the city has been interpreted, represented, and obliterated through the movies. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the critique reveals the failings of cinema to capture the true essence of a place as experienced by residents far removed from the screen. The film seeks to reclaim the city from cinema, and in so doing seeks to save cinema in itself.

Los Angeles plays itself (2003) was not released commercially and was originally only seen in film festival screenings and through file-sharing. Since garnering a larger audience, the film has won critical acclaim and was recently remastered in 2014.

Professor Anderson uses footage from what seems to be hundreds of films (and television shows) spanning from the 1920s to 2001, which are reassembled with his own shots of Los Angeles into a comprehensive, inside, and cinephilic perspective. The film is organized into two parts covering numerous themed essays around brilliant and lucid analyses of the city. These include the city as backdrop and character, past and future, high and low tourism, and modernist architecture and simulacrum that reveal the socio-economic conditions of the times. Although part one of the film at times drags on - when dealing with architecture - the second part is where it all comes together - when addressing urban planning.

In part two, Anderson's critiques become a fascinating historical recount of Los Angeles' public transportation system and the automobile, aqueducts and infrastructure, and working class and non-white neighborhoods. He takes the viewer from a Singing in the Rain Los Angeles to a Boyz in the Hood Los Angeles (see Mike Davis 2014).

In the finale, it is evident that Los Angeles plays itself is a celebration of cinema born of the city and not the other way around. Although the film is a few notches below the poetics of Italo Calvino, it seemingly serves as a tribute to his novel Invisible Cities (1978).

Here are a handful of the prominently featured and celebrated works in Los Angeles plays itself that are well worth brushing up on:

Dragnet (television series: 1951-1959)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (2003)
Blade Runner (2007)
Chinatown (1974)
Killer of Sheep (1977)

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

2 or 3 things I know about her : 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (Godard 1967)

by henrymo@umich.edu

This 1967 French film by Jean-Luc Godard is part of the Criterion Collection and asserted by film critic Amy Taubin to be one of the greatest achievements in cinema. The film is largely a critique of Charles De Gaulle's Politics of Granduer, an economic infrastructure project in the mid-1960s in Paris that tore up the inner city with highways relocating the upper-middle-class into monstrous housing complexes in the outer arrondissements. In particular, Godard captures a social phenomenon of the time in which one in two housewives living in these high-rises had turned to part-time prostitution in order to maintain the self-necessitated class status.

2 or 3 things I know about her captures the banality and alienation of the bourgeoisie by following 24-hours in the life of Juliete Jeanson (Marina Vlady), a mother and housewife who traverses her own violation through that of Paris and the Vietnam War. Ultimately, the film is a critique of the fragmentation of capitalist society, as expressed through the indifference of "objects" such as cleaning products, magazine advertisements, fashion shopping, finger nail polish, children, and especially sex with strangers.

The film is perhaps most notable for its radical departures from narrative form through its documentary-essayist style, 360-degree camera pans, non-synchronous sound, seemingly random dialogue, and percussive editing. Godard's own voice is in the film, whispering in first-person to the viewer and off-screen to the actors via earpieces who are responding directly, often breaking the fourth-wall.

For those interested in urban planning this film gives a rare window into De Gaulle's Paris, which conjures urban histories from Haussmann's Paris (1850s-1870s), Robert Moses' New York City (1920s-1960s), and Lúcio Costa's and Oscar Niemeyer's Brasilia (1950s-1960s; excerpt from The Shock of the New narrated by Robert Hughes). The preface to David Harvey's book Rebel Cities offers a good setup for this film and even mentions it! (here is a link to an interview with Harvey).

Finally, if you enjoy French essay films, you may also appreciate Chris Marker's works, such as his 1977 film A Grin without a cat. Amusez-vous bien!

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Free Radicals: a history of experimental film (Chodorov 2012)

by henrymo@umich.edu

[cover_image]|1424607[/cover_image] What is experimental film? How did it emerge? Who are the groundbreaking artists? What is the intention in the form? If you want to get polished up for the 55th annual Ann Arbor Film Festival, then this gem of a film is an excellent refresher! Free Radicals: a history of experimental film summarily captures a bricolage of formats from non-film stop motion, to etching on film (and leader), to mixed-medium nonlinear performances.

In this documentary, Director, Pip Chodorov narrates a personal journey that retraces his childhood through first-hand exposure to the pivotal figures of the avant-garde film movement in Europe and America. The film - an homage to experimental form itself - showcases precious archival footage, as well as the filmmaker's home videos that feature a rare and insightful interview with Hans Richter. Chodorov masterfully weaves the story of experimental film together through biographical interviews with notables Jonas Mekas, Peter Kubelka, Stan Brakhage, Ken Jacobs, and Robert Breer amongst others. Chodorov, himself an experimental filmmaker, actively supports the marginal form by documenting his personal journey and participation throughout the piece.

Surprisingly, the Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF) - a key proponent of the experimental film scene - is not mentioned in this work. Perhaps this is because George Manupelli, founder of AAFF, had a different and less curatorial idea to supporting the art form. Rather than promote a certain taste, his vision was for a more inclusive venue to foster an emerging diversity of its form (see our interview with the festival's Executive Director, Leslie Raymond). Nonetheless, Free Radicals not only serves as a useful historical view into the genre but more so is able to stand on its own as a work of art.

I hope you enjoy watching this remarkable and informative 2012 documentary on the history of experimental filmmaking!

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

The Princess Diarist: Carrie Fisher rediscovers her diaries from the sets of the Star Wars films

by eapearce

In her new memoir The Princess Diarist pop culture icon Carrie Fisher revisits the wild days of filming the first Star Wars trilogy. Fisher, who, of course, plays Princess Leia in the movies (and is currently reprising her role in the latest trilogy), recently rediscovered her diaries from the time period when she was filming the original trilogy. She writes that she was astonished to see what her writing had preserved: not only the angst of her own early adulthood, but open and honest musings about the era, love poems she’d written while curled up on set, and intimate recollections of what happened behind the scenes of the blockbuster movies.

Beyond revisiting her younger years, Fisher also contemplates larger issues in The Princess Diarist. She writes about the joys and struggles of celebrity, her struggles with addiction, and the absurdity of being born to Hollywood royalty (she’s the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher). Star Wars fans will certainly enjoy the juicy details that Fisher shares about her life on set and her interactions with her costars (hint: she and Harrison Ford did more than “interact”), but even readers who aren’t fans of the movies or who aren’t as familiar with them will enjoy her insightful viewpoints on celebrity and pop culture as a whole.

Fisher is also the author of the memoirs Wishful Drinking and Shockaholic and of four novels, including Postcard From the Edge.

Graphic for events post

Film & Video Events

Film & Discussion: How to Let Go of the World And Love All the Things Climate Can't Change

Thursday December 1, 2016: 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Downtown Library Multi-Purpose Room

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

New Movies at the AADL!

by eapearce

The AADL has just added a plethora of new movies to our collection, from more obscure older titles to films that came out just this year. Here’s a peek at some of the brand new additions:

Everybody Wants Some!!, directed by Richard Linklater, is a hilariously accurate depiction of a 1980s baseball team and their antics the week before college classes start. Freshman pitcher Jake (Blake Jenner) is excited to start college, move into the baseball house and make new friends (and meet girls, of course). Although he feels pretty cool as he rolls up to his new home in his powder-blue car, record collection in tow, Jake realizes that he has a lot to learn about where he fits in among the ranks of his teammates. A weekend of parties, disco-hopping, honky tonk bars, drinking games and, of course, baseball, puts Jake in his place… but that place turns about to be a pretty good spot to be in. Everybody Wants Some!! is the best of lighthearted fun with a killer soundtrack, surprisingly good performances from a number of previously-unknown actors, and lots of classic 80s fashion. (This blogger admits a slight bias because she loves 80s fashion, Blondie and baseball.)

The Nice Guys, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, was one of those movies that, had it tried to take itself the least bit seriously, would have been a total bust. Luckily, director Shane Black knew better, and the movie is an outrageous comedy thriller that in many places makes no sense… but it doesn’t really matter. The Nice Guys follows a pair of private eyes, down-on-his-luck, yet still prideful Holland March (Gosling) and tough guy enforcer Jackson Healy (Crowe) who somewhat inadvertently get involved in the investigation of a missing girl. The movie features mysterious fires, amateur filmmakers, unnamed thugs that attack you in the night, investigative journalism and the dramatically delivered line, “what’s good for Detroit is good for America.”

Slow West is a classic western film starring Michael Fassbender that was quietly released in 2015. The story of a 16-year-old boy searching for his lost love in the nineteenth century American West, the movie is as much a great road trip (well, trail trip) film as it is an action-packed western. Young Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) travels to America from Scotland to search for his childhood love, Rose. Upon his arrival, he encounters a bounty hunter, Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender), whom he hires for protection. Unbeknownst to Jay, however, Silas has his own reasons for working for the young boy. As the two travel together seeking Rose and her father, they encounter all of the typical trials and tribulations that you might see during a game of Oregon Trail, along with much, much more. Although the movie is action-packed, one of the best parts are the serene, glorious shots of the scenery that Silas and Jay travel through on their journey. It’s increasingly rare these days that true western movies are made, and Slow West is made even more of a treat for its unarguable claim of that categorization.

Want to see what other great movies we’ve just put into the collection? Click on the “New DVDs” link under the catalog search bar!

Graphic for events post

Film & Video Events

Film and Discussion: We Rock Long Distance

Thursday July 7, 2016: 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Secret Lab
Grade 6 - Adult