Sideshows by the Seashore, Coney Island Museum
1208 Surf Ave. at West Twelfth St.
October 2-4
Festival Pass $45, individual screenings $6-$15
718-372-5159
http://www.coneyislandfilmfestival.com
This ninth annual festival consists of narrative and documentary films made in and about Coney Island and Brooklyn. In addition to the below screenings, there are several shorts programs, featuring such alluring titles as FRANK SIDEBOTTOM SAVES CONEY ISLAND, RISING UP: THE STORY OF THE ZOMBIE RIGHTS MOVEMENT, X-MESS DETRITUS, DEAD SUCKS, CESAR SALAD, WHO SHOT CONEY ISLAND?, and ATTACKAZOIDS, DEPLOY!!
Friday, October 2 Opening Night: THE PRINCE OF MERMAID AVENUE (Charles Denson, 2009), preceded by STEP RIGHT UP (Luke Marshall 2009), screening $6 (7:30), screening and afterparty at the Freak Bar and Sideshows by the Seashore $25 (9:30)
Saturday, October 3 FLYING PUMPKINS, THE LEGEND OF PUNKIN CHUNKIN (Costa Mantis), 1:00
Saturday, October 3 FRIENDS (WITH BENEFITS) (Gorman Bechard), 5:00
Saturday, October 3 SEA LEGS (Craig Butta), preceded by THE RELEASE OF JAN (Jordan Roettele), 7:00
Saturday, October 3 RED HOOK (Elizabeth Lucas, 2009), preceded by BAD DAY AT RED HOOK (Greg Kotis, 2009), 9:00
Saturday, October 3 Special Screening: THE WARRIORS (Walter Hill, 1979), 10:30
THE WARRIORS (Walter Hill, 1979)
At a huge gang meeting in the Bronx (actually shot in Riverside Park), the Warriors are wrongly accused of having killed Cyrus (Roger Hill), an outspoken leader trying to band all the warring factions together to form one huge force that can take over the New York City borough by borough. The Warriors then must make it back to their home turf, Coney Island, with every gang in New York lying in wait for them to pass through their territory. This iconic New York City gang movie is based on Sol Yurick’s novel, which in turn is loosely based on Xenophon’s ANABASIS, which told of the ancient Greeks’ retreat from Persia. Michael Beck stars as Swan, who becomes the de-facto leader of the Warriors after Cleon (Dorsey Wright) gets taken down early. Battling Swan for control is Ajax (SEX AND THE CITY’s James Remar) and tough-talking Mercy (TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT’s Deborah Van Valkenburgh). Serving as a Greek chorus is Lynne (LAW & ORDER) Thigpen as a radio DJ, and, yes, that young woman out too late in Central Park is eventual Oscar winner Mercedes Ruehl. Among the cartoony gangs of New York who try to stop the Warriors are the roller-skating Punks, the pathetic Orphans, the militaristic Gramercy Riffs, the all-girl Lizzies, the ragtag Rogues, and the inimitable Baseball Furies. Another main character is the New York City subway system. There’s nothing quite like THE WARRIORS, currently celebrating its thirtieth anniversary. Be sure to come out and play in this special annual screening on the gang’s home turf — and before Tony Scott’s upcoming remake sours us all.
Sunday, October 4 STRONGMAN (Zachary Levy), 5:00
Inspired by nightmares she has in which she commits murder, Lucrecia Martel’s THE HEADLESS WOMAN details a woman’s emotional and psychological reaction after having possibly killed someone. María Onetto gives a mesmerizingly cool, distant performance as Veronica, a middle-aged, upper class wife and mother whose biggest worry appears to be the turtles that have infested the new pool built behind a veterinary office. But one afternoon, while out driving carelessly in her Mercedes along a twisting, barren road, she hits something. Not sure if it was a child, an adult, or an animal, she decides to continue on, telling no one what she has done. But when a poor, local boy goes missing, she begins to suspect that she might have killed him. An intriguing mix of Buñuel’s class-consciousness and Poe’s flair for suspense, THE HEADLESS WOMAN is an unusual kind of murder mystery. In Veronica, Argentine writer-director Martel (LA CIENAGA, THE HOLY GIRL) has created a compelling protagonist/villain, played with expert calm and faraway eyes by Onetto. 
After getting a biopsy taken and drawing the death card while consulting a fortune-teller, popular French singer Cléo (Corinne Marchand) begins looking back at her life — and wondering just what’s left of it — while awaiting the dreaded results. The blonde beauty talks with old friends, asks her piano player (Michel Legrand, who composed the score) to write her a song, and meets a dapper gentleman in the park, becoming both participant and viewer in her own existence. As Cléo makes her way around town, director (and former photographer) Agnès Varda shows off early 1960s Paris, expertly winding her camera through the Rive Gauche. Just as Cléo seeks to find out what’s real (her actual name is Florence and that gorgeous hair is a wig), Varda shoots the film in a cinema verité style, almost as if it’s a documentary. She even sets the film in real time (adding chapter titles with a clock update), enhancing the audience’s connection with Cléo as she awaits her fate, but the movie runs only ninety minutes, adding mystery to what is to become of Cléo, as if she exists both on-screen and off, alongside the viewer. A central film in the French Nouvelle Vague and one of the first to be made by a woman, CLÉO DE 5 À 7 is an influential classic even as it has lost a step or two over the years. Varda, now in her eighties, has also made such well-regarded films as LE BONHEUR (1965), VAGABOND (1985), THE GLEANERS AND I (2000), and THE BEACHES OF AGNÉS (2008), among others. Big Dance Theater has reimagined the film in a multimedia production, COMME TOUJOURS HERE I STAND, that will run at the Kitchen October 1-4 and 7-10.