Here in Austin, the Best of QT Fest continues through Sunday night at Alamo Downtown. I'm going to test my film-watching stamina at the all-night horror marathon on Saturday. The festival is already broadening my film horizons in the biker and kung-fu genres. In addition, I've spotted Mike Judge and Elvis Mitchell at screenings and heard Quentin Tarantino's unforgettable rendition of the theme from the movie Hollywood Man. I'll share more about the festival next week after it wraps.
- The Sinus Show guys are helping the Texas School for the Deaf with their Relay for Life fundraiser at an outdoor event tonight (Friday) at midnight. The guys will be adding their humorous commentary to Karate Kid. You can buy tickets through Rolling Roadshow.
- The Paramount is hosting the Banff Mountain Film Festival on Saturday. The festival is a collection of short documentary and experimental films about mountain and outdoors adventures, such as kayaking, skydiving, and mountain climbing.
- If QT Fest didn't provide enough biker-film excitement for you, Alamo Downtown is offering more this week: the 1966 film The Wild Angels screens on Monday and Tuesday nights. Bruce Dern, Peter Fonda, and Nancy Sinatra star in this Roger Corman film written by Charles B. Griffith and Peter Bogdanovich. The supporting cast includes Diane Ladd, Michael J. Pollard, Dick Miller, and Joan Shawlee (whom I remember as Sweet Sue in Some Like It Hot). Admission on Monday is only $2.
- The 2005 movie Film Geek is playing Monday through Thursday at Alamo on South Lamar. I am a little scared that the characters in this movie might seem too familiar to me, so I'm not sure if I should see this film.
- Josephine Baker is this week's actress spotlighted in the Austin Film Society series "Three Actresses Abroad." Princess Tam-Tam, the 1935 French film starring Baker, screens on Tuesday at Alamo Downtown.
- Nobelity is screening on Wednesday night at Alamo Lake Creek. Director Turk Pipkin will attend the screening of his documentary about Nobel Laureates and the ways they suggest we help improve the planet. Proceeds from this screening benefit the American Red Cross.
- I had no idea that Kenneth Anger's tell-all book Hollywood Babylon had been adapted into a movie ... and a soft-core 1972 flick, at that. The cast includes Uschi Digard (from Russ Meyer's Vixen films) as Marlene Dietrich. The film is this week's Weird Wednesday midnight selection at Alamo Downtown. Admission is free. Weird Wednesday programmer Lars says that "viewers turned off by boob-laden naugahyde sex spectaculars may wish to seek entertainment elsewhere." I feel so dirty for thinking about going.
- The "Widescreen Classics" series at Alamo South Lamar continues with Dr. Zhivago, starring the charismatic Omar Sharif. The movie screens Tuesday-Thursday: Wednesday's screening will feature live music (including "Lara's Theme") during the intermission, and Thursday's screening includes a multi-course Russian feast. When I posted a photo of Sharif recently, I did say I should see this film in a theater, didn't I?
- Sneak previews: The Austin Chronicle is giving away tickets to preview screenings of Just My Luck and Poseidon.
