Val Kilmer had both a thrilling acting career with many memorable hits and a tough luck one. He died on April 1 at age 65, officially from pneumonia, but the damage from the throat cancer first diagnosed in 2015 had left him struggling to speak. As Diane Janicki did after David Lynch’s and Gene Hackman’s recent deaths, she’s remembering Kilmer’s life with a film retrospective at the Esquire Theatre in May. She has four titles lined up, mostly big hits and lighter comedies from his earlier work:
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a 2005 action film co-starring Robert Downey; screens at 1:15 and 7:30 p.m. May 1.
- Real Genius is a 1985 sci-fi comedy directed by Martha Coolidge in which Kilmer plays a problematic physics wiz at a university contracted by the CIA to develop a secret weapon power source. It screens at 7:30 p.m. May 7 and is sponsored by Leontine, the local organization presenting films with women directors.
- Two other Kilmer films will play May 2-8: Kilmer’s first film, Top Secret, the spoofy 1984 sight-gag-heavy comedy from the team that had recently scored with Airplane; and Top Gun, the tremendous 1986 Tom Cruise juggernaut that made Kilmer a star.
Find more screening times and film details here.
Bonjour Tristesse
[Watch the trailer. Opening May 2 at the Mariemont Theatre.]
The title of this new film, which translates from French as “Hello, Sadness,” holds an important place in that nation as a scandalous novel. Francoise Sagan was just 18 in 1954 when she published the erotic story set during an idyllic summer on the French Riviera. A teenage girl, her new summer boyfriend, and her beloved but philandering father and his mistress have their peace disrupted when Anne, a friend of Dad’s late wife, arrives and upsets the romantic status quo. It all sounds very French, so it’s odd that the 1958 film adaptation was made in English by the Austrian-American director Otto Preminger, who relished making controversial films. As the girl, Cécile, Jean Seberg won great praise in just her second film.
Now, 67 years later, there’s a new adaptation out, also in English, starring the inestimable Chlöe Sevigny as Anne. Canadian Durga Chew-Bose makes her debut as a feature film director.
Early reviews from the festival circuit are mixed, but Marya E. Gates did have some nice things to say in review for RogerEbert.com: “Shot on the Mediterranean fishing port of Cassis, the film is as gorgeous as a picture postcard or a coffee table travel photography book. Chew-Bose evokes the source material’s mid-century setting through timeless art direction and costume design. However, she slowly reveals her film’s modern setting through the occasional appearance of a cell phone. This timelessness is heightened by the film’s languid pace, itself seemingly inspired by the works of French auteur Éric Rohmer, master of summer malaise.”
When Fall Is Coming
[Watch the trailer. Expected to screen this month at the Esquire or Mariemont.]
This is a genuine French movie in all ways: It’s filmed in French and directed and co-written by one of that country’s top filmmakers, Francoise Ozon. The plot synopsis sounds like the opposite of a lazy idyll on the French Riviera and more like Alfred Hitchcock in a perverse mood.
Reviewing it for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis writes, “The French filmmaker François Ozon has cooked up a little mystery and an enigmatic heroine. A sleek, modestly scaled entertainment about families, secrets and obligations, it features fine performances and some picture-postcard Burgundian locations. It’s there in the heart of France, in a picturesque village in a large, pretty house, that Michelle (Hélène Vincent) makes her home. With her kind eyes, guileless smile and upswept hair, she looks the very picture of a sweet old lady. Looks can be deceiving, though, as we’re reminded, and as Ozon’s movie goes along, that picture grows amusingly slyer.”
Stop Making Sense
[Watch the trailer. Screening at 8 p.m. May 3 at the Taft Theatre, downtown.]
Since its 4-K restoration and re-release in 2023, the Talking Heads/Jonathan Demme 1984 concert film has played regularly in local venues. Now, upping the stakes, the Taft Theatre offers the film on its big screen with Head keyboardist/guitarist Jerry Harrison as host. He’ll offer introductory and post-screening remarks and take questions from the audience.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
[Watch the trailer. Screening May 4 and 7 at the Esquire.]
To celebrate the comedy masterpiece’s 50th anniversary, the Esquire screens it six times on May 4 and three times on May 7.
Cornucopia
[Watch the trailer. Screening at 7:10 p.m. May 7 at Cinemark Oakley.]
This concert film presents Björk, the major worldwide superstar from Iceland, in Lisbon, Portugal during her five-year world tour. She’s known for her wild and beautiful artful sensibility; her puffy Swan Dress at the 2001 Oscars—a film she starred in, Dancer in the Dark, was nominated for its song—is justly famous. Cornucopia features some fantastical musical instruments, including a magnetic harp, a circular flute, a reverb chamber, and an “aluphone.”
Hung Up on a Dream
[Watch the trailer. Screening at 7:30 p.m. May 12 at the Woodward Theatre, Over-the-Rhine.]
The Zombies were one of the original British Invasion groups, and their 1960s hits include the highly memorable “She’s Not There,” “Tell Her No,” and “Time of the Season.” They’re the subject of a new documentary focusing on how this band managed to not only maintain their legacy once the ’60s hits stopped but also to stage a legitimate comeback as a live band in the 2000s that saw them get inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. “During the title sequence of the new film Hung Up On a Dream, singer Colin Blunstone and keyboardist Rod Argent perform ‘The Way I Feel Inside’ in a church,” writes David Hopper of 360 Degree Sound. “Blunstone begins the song singing a cappella, and Argent joins in on the pipe organ. What a lovely way to start an engrossing documentary.”
More Woodward Screenings
Beyond music, The Encampments is a new documentary about 2024’s Columbia University Gaza Solidarity Encampment. It screens at 7:30 p.m. on May 7 and 11.
And for those looking for some decidedly adult entertainment, Dan Savage’s Hump! 2025 Part 1 debuts at the Woodward at 7 p.m. May 16. It’s being promoted as the world’s “best erotic film fest” and is sure to be fast moving; no film is longer than five minutes.
Get more screening details here.
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