Mar 27, 2012
Festival
The 55th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 19-May 3) has announced its annual Late Show program, a selection of the cream of the crop in bizarre and berserk international features. This year’s program delivers frantic action and a splash of black humor in Headhunters, tense thrills and bone-rattling screams in Last Screening and campy delight in Acid Queens: Peaches & Tommy, a Peaches Christ-hosted homage to Ken Russell’s psychedelic masterpiece Tommy.
“Pinball wizards, homicidal projectionists and art thieves on the run are only some of the characters you’ll encounter in this year’s Late Show-it’s an exciting and diverse line-up with a special appearance by the Bay Area’s own Peaches Christ,” said Rod Armstrong, programmer for the San Francisco Film Society. “Fans of the section also won’t want to miss Festival offerings in the World Cinema section such as Coppola’s creepy Twixt, the dystopian Russian epic Target and the Hong Kong action spectacle Wu Xia.”
Headhunters, Morten Tyldum (Norway 2011)
An art heist goes terribly wrong in this darkly comic, fast-paced thriller adapted from Jo Nesbø’s bestselling novel and featuring a winning, no-holds-barred performance from Norway’s most popular actor, Aksel Hennie.
Last Screening, Laurent Achard (France 2011)
Don’t look now: Informed that the movie palace where he works will soon be closed, a devoted (but psychopathic) projectionist is driven to homicide. Full of movie references and stylistic homage, this cinephilic horror film is clever, entertaining and suspenseful.
Acid Queens: Peaches & Tommy (USA 1975)
As her very name suggests, midnight movie maven Peaches Christ has a passionate understanding of cinematic religiosity and cult rites. These enthusiasms also run wildly through the outrageous career of Ken Russell (1927-2011), including one of Russell’s greatest commercial successes, the 1975 rock opera Tommy. Ann-Margret, Roger Daltrey and Tina Turner as the Acid Queen are all at the peak of their sex appeal in this musical tale of pinball wizardry and modern idolatry gone mad. For one night only, the Kabuki will be the Church of Ken Russell, and Peaches will be your preacher. A restored print of Tommy screens.
For tickets and information visit festival.sffs.org.
To request interviews or screeners, contact your SFIFF publicist.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.
55th San Francisco International Film Festival
The 55th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 19-May 3 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre, SF Film Society Cinema and SFMOMA in San Francisco and the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. Held each spring for 15 days, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities, featuring 200 films and live events, 14 juried awards and $70,000 in cash prizes, upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests and diverse and engaged audiences with more than 70,000 people in attendance.