Events This Week

Greetings Soldiers and Cinephiles,

There are a couple of events coming up around Philadelphia this week I wanted to let everyone know about. Tonight at 6:30pm at International House there will be a screening of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1972 film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. The film is being played in conjunction with ICA's Set Pieces exhibition and will be introduced by Set Pieces artist and curator Virgil Marti. I went to the Set Pieces screening last month of Antonioni's L'Avventura and it was a good turnout and they ended up having free pizza and beer afterwards. For my money, I think this is one of Fassbinder's best films and I highly recommend everyone come out for this one, it will definitely be worth it.
Tomorrow night at 7pm International House will be screening Walter Ruttman's 1927 film Berlin: Symphony of a Great City. This is one of those "city" films, which were so often being made in the 1920s celebrating modernity and progress a la Man with the Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov, Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand's Manhatta, and Joris Iven's Regen. The film is largely visual with no real story, though it is arranged chronologically to present a day from morning until night. The film uses many experimental and avant-garde techniques from the 1920s, including a reliance on soviet montage. It is a really interesting and visually beautiful film.
Again, at International House on Saturday at 7pm, there Janus series continues with Fellini's 1954 film La Strada. The Janus series is always great, so this is worth checking out. For my money, Fellini and especially La Strada are kind of overrated, but as far as good film events going on in Philadelphia, I recommend going to see this instead of going to see another stupid documentary at the Ritz.
There really isn't anything that I can recommend playing at the Ritz right now.
Stay posted for more information about where to obtain your copy of the first issue of Shooting Wall!