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Monday, May 1, 2023

Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair - Year 2 Coming June

 

By Jonathan Bilski

I know it's early, but, hey, I don't have Vidiots schedule yet either and Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday, but, I love, love reminding you about Bleak Week.

The ultra depressing film series is back this June and shows of some of the most sad and craven films on the big screen and for some reason is fun to talk about. It's such a engaging topic that with friends of my own online, we have our own June Gloom screening. We all choose a terribly sad film to watch together in both honor of Bleak Weak and the California weather phenomenon June Gloom, that other places don't get. And, that one of my friend's daughters named Juniper and we shorten to June and then use her as our mascot with sad baby pictures of her when she's frowning.

Come and See
I've made so many Criterion covers out of her face.

And excerpts from the main page of the week of sheer sadness that has me going, "Oh no."

 "And perhaps most shockingly, Agustí Villaronga’s infamous IN A GLASS CAGE (1986) follows a former Nazi child-killer who survives a suicide attempt, finding himself in an iron lung and at the mercy of one of his previous victims.

Finally, dark satire plays a key role in this year’s lineup with films from the US, UK and Russia. The elderly English couple at the center of Jimmy T. Murakami’s animated WHEN THE WIND BLOWS (1986) are comically oblivious to their impending demise from a nearby nuclear blast."

TEOREMA
June 1 - June 7, 2023
Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair - Year 2
Aero Theatre
1328 Montana Ave Santa Monica, CA 90403
Los Feliz Theatre
1822 N Vermont Ave Los Angeles, CA 90027

Anyway, this line-up is not for anyone who is suicidal or having dark thoughts.

This year’s program includes 35 films from 20 countries. Archival prints, premieres of restorations, live guests and more.

Here's the full schedule and a great note on little things about each, but you can of course rea more about each one by clicking on them.