Carnage Becomes Expressive in Salute to Director John Woo

John Woo made his mark as an action director with films that play strong sentiments of loyalty and self-sacrifice against violence. Not since Sam Peckinpah has anyone choreographed carnage to such stunning effect. Woo has won international acclaim not only for himself, but also for his frequent charismatic star, Chow Yun-Fat.

In “Hard-Boiled: A Tribute to John Woo,” American Cinematheque presents a selection of films that put the Hong Kong director on the map and established him in Hollywood. The series--which continues through Sunday at the Egyptian in Hollywood--begins tonight at 7:30 p.m. with “A Better Tomorrow,” high-style vintage (1986) Woo with a premise that could well have been lifted from early Warner Bros. films: One brother (Ti Lung) becomes a gangster, the other (Leslie Cheung) a cop. It extols loyalty between friends in the tradition of Howard Hawks. The film’s success, however, rests on a well-developed plot and three-dimensional characterizations. The central figure is the older brother’s former partner in crime (Chow), now destitute. Followed by “A Better Tomorrow 2”(1987).

“The Killer” (1989), Friday at 7:30 p.m., is an example of the addictively supercharged Hong Kong cinema at its most outrageous. Woo sets off a plot with more twists and turns than a drive up the city’s Victoria Peak with the simplest of premises: A hired killer (Chow) takes one last job but accidentally blinds a nightclub singer (Sally Yeh) in the cross-fire.A discussion follows with Woo, who will also introduce the 9:45 p.m. second feature, “Hard-Boiled” (1992), also with Chow, in which a gangster (Ti) is torn between his allegiance to his rookie cop brother (Cheung) and his hit-man pal. It boasts a bravura 45-minute shootout finale.

The 1990 “Bullet in the Head” (Saturday at 5 p.m.), arguably Woo’s masterpiece, is a dynamic variation on “The Deer Hunter.” At once an epic adventure, war picture, gangster melodrama and buddy movie, it features three petty Hong Kong crooks who in 1967 take off for Vietnam, where wartime dangers are equaled only by the illicit opportunities. Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung and Waise Lee star. Afterward, Woo will discuss the film and introduce his 1997 “Face/Off,” with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, screening at 8:30 p.m.

The series ends Sunday with a 5 p.m. double feature, “Once a Thief” (1990) and an encore of “The Killer” (1989). In the first, Woo adds comedy to his usual potent blend of sentiment and action to create a terrific mix of slapstick and sophistication in which Chow, Leslie Cheung and Cherie Chung star as big-league art thieves. (323) 466-FILM.

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Zachary Hansen’s “Killer Me,” which screens today in the Method Festival at 4:30 p.m. at the Playhouse 7 in Pasadena, is a striking portrait of a young man, Joseph (George Foster), who alternates between moments of the utmost tenderness with the lonely young girl Anna (Christina Kew), who has worked up her courage to reach out to him, and his impulses to strike out at others or himself. Joseph’s escalating turmoil is expressed eloquently by Foster’s intensely interior performance and by the dynamic camerawork of “The Blair Witch Project’s” audacious Neal Fredericks. Contributing crucially to this ambitious film’s unsettling impact are Kew’s delicately shaded portrayal, Arlan Boll’s imaginative sound design and an eerie, disturbing score by Hansen--he recorded it (and then distorted it) on an old PXL 2000 sound camera. Amazingly, this beautifully realized film cost $12,000. (626) 844-6500.

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The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Out of India: The Films of Satyajit Ray” begins its final weekend tonight at 7:30 p.m. with the 1962 “Abhijaan” (“The Expedition”), one of the few films in the series that did not receive an American release. A big hit on home ground, it is not an easy picture: It takes a long time to gather power and features a difficult protagonist, but it is ultimately so affecting it is worth the effort.

Set in Bihar, northwest of Bengal, sometime in the 1950s, it stars Soumitra Chatterjee as Narsingh, a taxi driver whose cherished vehicle is an elegant but shabby Chrysler touring car, circa 1930. Narsingh is as impoverished as his fellow cabbies, but comes from an old warrior family that feeds both his delusions of grandeur and his frustrations. One day he impatiently and riskily overtakes a car on a dirt road, not realizing it is a government vehicle carrying, among others, his boss, who promptly fires him and rescinds his cab driver’s permit. He has no recourse but to take off to a new region. On the way, in the dark of night, a middle-aged man, Sukhanram (Charuprasash Ghosh), whose oxcart has overturned, flags him down. Sukhanram is so grateful for a lift he promises Narsingh he will set him up in his nearby town, get him a permit and provide him a place to stay. Sukhanram takes his time in spelling out what he expects in return. The way “Abhijaan” plays out is stunningly effective, and Chatterjee delivers a selfless, far-reaching portrayal that manages to surmount a rather too obvious wig and beard.

Sharmila Tagore will introduce two important Ray films in which she starred: the 1960 “Devi” (“The Goddess”), Friday at 7:30 p.m., and “Days and Nights in the Forest” (1970), Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Prints of all three films were restored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Archive. (323) 857-6010.

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“Rutenberg,” a stirring saga of the man who built a hydroelectric plant across the Jordan River in 1931, screens in the Israel Film Festival Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills as part of a retrospective of the films of director Eli Cohen. It’s a traditional, absorbing film biography, and clearly Pinchas Rutenberg (1880-1942), a Russian Jewish emigre to Palestine, was a man of unusual force of character who succeeded in getting Winston Churchill’s backing for his project. Menahse Noy’s Rutenberg is a brilliant, formal, self-absorbed man who had the ability to compel the most recalcitrant worker to follow his lead. The crux of this drama is how a man with a seeming limitless capacity to bend the will of others for his purposes is gradually affected by the accidental death of one of his most trusted workers. There will be repeat screenings. (310) 274-6869.

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The Laemmle Theaters’ Documentary Days 2002 continues with the screening of J.T.S. Moore’s witty “Revolution OS” Saturday and Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Sunset 5 in West Hollywood. It charts a group of self-described hackers’ rebellion against Microsoft, and the creation of Linux operating system and the Open Source movement. While the fundamental issue of sharing information over the Internet in the face of the monolithic Microsoft is clear enough, this film will be better appreciated by more advanced computer users. Moore, however, deserves credit for maintaining a brisk pace for his assembly of articulate talking heads. (323) 848-3500. “Revolution OS” has 11 a.m. screenings April 27 and 28 at the Monica 4-Plex in Santa Monica, (310) 394-9741; May 4 and 5 at the Playhouse 7, (626) 844-6500; and May 18 and 19 at the Lido in Newport Beach, (949) 6763-8351.

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On March 20, 1984, a thin but cheerful Andy Kaufman made what would be his final public appearance, two months before his death from cancer. The occasion was the premiere at the Nuart Theater of “My Breakfast With Blassie,” a spoof of “My Dinner With Andre” conceived by Johnny Legend and Linda Lautrec, that would find Kaufman meeting fabled wrestler Freddie Blassie at the long-gone Sambo’s coffee shop at 6th Street and Vermont Avenue in L.A. “My Breakfast With Blassie” repeats Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Egyptian along with Lynne Margulies and Joe Orr’s 1992 Kaufman documentary “I’m From Hollywood.”

Back in the ‘50s, when local TV was dominated by popular orchestra programs and wrestling matches, ferocious Freddie Blassie, self-proclaimed “King of Men,” became a household name, a man whose favorite put-down was “pencil-necked geek.” Since Kaufman became notorious for wrestling with women, it was only natural that an acquaintance would spring up. Kaufman wears a neck brace, from having been body-slammed by heavyweight champ Jerry Lawler on the David Letterman show, and the massive Blassie arrives deeply tanned and silver-haired, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, white trousers and gold jewelry. They seem genuinely fond of each other, and their restaurant conversation is sometimes funny and outrageous. Bob Zmuda gives the film a welcome, if gross, jolt as a weirdo customer. “My Breakfast With Blassie” is not exactly a thigh-slapper but is a record of two distinctive personalities. There’s a discussion between films with Margulies, Legend and Zmuda. American Cinematheque: (323) 461-2020.

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When infomercials-maker Steven Dworman went through a painful divorce and protracted custody battle, he decided he needed the catharsis of making “Divorce: The Musical,” a wholly inept and unfunny business about an infomercials director (Dworman) who attempts to win favor with his estranged 14-year-old daughter (Anneliese van der Pol) by staging a musical in which she will star. It opens Friday at the Aero in Santa Monica. (310) 395-4990.

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On Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Village at the Ed Gould Plaza, Outfest will screen Christopher Muench’s acclaimed “The Hours and Times,” about a four-day vacation Beatles manager Brian Epstein and John Lennon took in 1963. Preceded by a 6:30 p.m. reception. (213) 480-7090.