May 13 - 17

Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview

Dir: Paul Sen
2011, USA / Color / 70min / Blu-ray

In 1995, during the making of his TV series "Triumph of the Nerds" about the birth of the personal computer, Bob Cringely did a memorable hour-long interview with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in October, 2011. The film was shot 10 years after Jobs had left Apple following a bruising struggle with John Sculley, the CEO he brought into Apple. At the time of the interview Jobs was running Next, the niche computer company he had founded after leaving Apple and would later sell to his old company, enabling Jobs return to his Apple roots. During the interview, Jobs was at his charismatic best – witty, outspoken and visionary –- already anticipating the digital future that one day he would do so much to make possible. In the end, only a part of the interview was used in the series and the rest was thought lost. But recently a VHS copy was found in the series director’s garage. Cleaned up with modern technology and put into context by Cringely, this is a unique and very candid interview that reveals as never before the burning passion of Steve Jobs, a passion that would go on to give us the iMac, the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

"Ultimately the docu shows Jobs, as always, ahead of his time." Variety

"A remarkable rediscovery - a candid look at the tech world's most successful leader." Hugh Hart, Wired

May 18 - 24

Holiday

Dir: George Cukor
1938, USA / B&W / 95min / 35mm - Brand New Print!

"George Cukor's masterful 1938 film of Philip Barry's play about a society girl (Katharine Hepburn) who falls for her sister's charming, eccentric fiancé (Cary Grant). The light comedy achieves perfection, but beneath it lies Cukor's serious concern for the ways in which we choose to live our lives. There are a thousand nonconformist comedies, but only one Holiday." Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

"Hepburn is great, and Cary Grant is untouchable." Robert Horton

May 24 -- Free for GI members!

Hard Boiled

Dir: John Woo
1992, Hong Kong / Color / 126min / 35mm

The Grand Illusion is proud to partner with the 20/20 Awards to present one of the greatest action films of all time in a super rare 35mm screening. Hard Boiled was ignored by every major awards group in 1992 and the 20/20 Awards is offering it up for re-evaluation. Free for GI members!

"…arguably Woo's masterpiece, it is an action film to end all action films, an experience so deliriously cinematic it makes 'True Romance,' a film that clearly aspires to it, look like a cheap copy." Boston Herald

"Choreographically stunning…" Jonathan Rosenbaum

Co-Presented by the 20/20 Awards.

May 19 & 20

The 43rd University District StreetFair

Stop by our booth at the annual U District StreetFair for membership deals, movie posters, free movie tickets, and hopefully some brand new t-shirts for sale! We'll be at the corner of University Way and NE 50th Street.

May 20
Steampunk Film Festival Marvelous Meandering Cinema Salon

May 25 - 31

Post Mortem

Dir: Pablo Larrain
2010, Chile, Germany, Mexico / Color / 98min / 35mm - Seattle Premiere

Pablo Larrain's follow-up to TONY MANERO is another unnerving look at one man's psychosis set against a country's political and moral turmoil -- here, a lonely morgue clerk whose infatuation with the burlesque dancer next door plays out against the violent chaos of Chile's 1973 military coup. In Spanish with English subtitles.

"[A] grim, intense, mordantly comic film…" NY Times

"Utterly distinctive...takes Tony Manero's sardonically macabre humor even further" Sight & Sound

June 1 - 7

The Samaritan

Dir: David Weaver
2011, Canada / Color / 90min / 35mm - Seattle Premiere

After twenty‐five years in prison, Foley (Samuel L. Jackson) is finished with the grifter’s life. When he meets an elusive young woman named Iris (Ruth Negga), the possibility of a new start looks real. But his past is proving to be a stubborn companion: Ethan (Luke Kirby), the son of his former partner, has an ingenious plan and he wants Foley in. The harder Foley tries to escape his past, the tighter he is ensnared in Ethan’s web of secrets, until it becomes all too clear to Foley that some wrongs can never be made right.

June 1 - 7

Ultrasonic

Dir: Rohit Colin Rao
2012, USA / Color / 93min / Blu-ray

Ultrasonic tells the tale of Simon York, an aspiring musician with a beautiful wife and baby on the way. Ruth, Simon's wife, is supportive of Simon's dream, but their recent financial problems prove to be a strain on them. Simon begins to hear things that Ruth believes is just a result of his stress. Ruth's brother Jonas, an eccentric young conspiracy theorist, is the only person that seems to take Simon seriously. Simon's ailment leads the two of them into an obsession that spirals out of control and leaves everyone wondering, is it real?

Q&A on Saturday, June 2nd with director/producer Rohit Rao.

June 8 - 14

Pretty Poison

Dir: Noel Black
1968, USA / Color / 89min / 35mm - New print!

Easygoing but psychotic Dennis (Anthony Perkins) is released from jail, where he has served a sentence for his complicity in a suspicious death. Wandering through a small, working-class New England town, Dennis befriends apparently normal high school A-student Sue Ann (Tuesday Weld). He fills her head with lies about his imaginary career as a secret agent. Noel Black’s first feature after his acclaimed short Skaterdater is both an excruciatingly suspenseful thriller and an ecologically prescient black comedy. Adapted by Lorenzo Semple Jr. from Stephen Geller's novel She Let Him Continue.

"Subtle and very smart! Perkins gives what may be his most sensitively conceived performance..." Pauline Kael

"A simmering small-town New England noir with an acidic comic streak." Slant Magazine

June 15 - 17 -- Three days only!

Possession

Dir: Andrzej Zulawski
1981, France, West Germany / Color / 123min / 35mm - New print!

Never released in the US! Seattle Premiere!

"Editor's pick! Amazing and hard to shake! It's less a horror film than a drama in which the psychic corrosion within its characters suddenly becomes concrete and explicit." NY Magazine

"Has to be seen to be believed! Starts as an unusually violent breakup film, takes a turn toward Repulsion-style psychological breakdown, escalates into the avant-garde... and ends in the realm of pulp metaphysics..." J. Hoberman, Village Voice

"A head-spinning masterpiece! Incorporates more and more fantastical elements as it goes on--such as a spectacular goo-and-gore-covered creature built by E.T. designer Carlo Rambaldi--but the story somehow remains rooted in the harsh realities of human experience. That the film is much more than a gawk-at-it freak show is testament to Zulawski’s talent for making even the most exaggerated behavior resonate with pointed and potent emotion." – Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York

June 15 - 21

Last Days Here

Dir: Don Argott, Demian Fenton
2011, USA / Color / 91min / Blu-ray

Cult rock legend Bobby Liebling has been churning out genre-defining hard rock for over 36 years as the lead singer of the band Pentagram. Various acts of self-destruction, multiple band break-ups, and botched record deals have condemned his music to obscurity. Frozen for decades in his parents' basement, Bobby is finally discovered by the heavy metal underground. With the help of Sean 'Pellet' Pelletier, his friend and manager, Bobby struggles to overcome his demons. Directed by Don Argott and Demian Fenton (“Rock School, “The Art of the Steal”), Last Day Here chronicles the triumphs and downfalls of this underground icon who finds himself at the crossroads of life and death.

June 22 - 28

Beyond the Black Rainbow

Dir: Panos Cosmatos
2011, Canada / Color / 110min / 35mm

Set in the strange and oppressive emotional landscape of the year 1983, Beyond the Black Rainbow is a Reagan-era fever dream inspired by hazy childhood memories of midnight movies and Saturday morning cartoons. From the producer of Machotaildrop, it is the outlandish feature film debut of writer and director Panos Cosmatos. Featuring a hypnotic analog synthesizer score by Jeremy Schmidt of the band Black Mountain, Beyond the Black Rainbow is a film experience for the senses.

"Visually inventive… an immersive masterpiece." Hollywood Reporter

"A reverential ode to Kubrick, Argento, Cronenberg, Altered States, John Carpenter synth scores, '70s sci-fi and '80s fantasy, and mind-boggling, hyper-stylized madness." Nick Schager

"Something like a trippy grindhouse homage whose familiar images are refracted through a prism of blacklight posters, Jodorowsky films…" Simon Abrams, Slant Magazine

TBD in July

Sports, Leisure, and Videotape

Various everything / 80min / VHS

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of athletic competition...sidesplitting laughs...cheap thrills...unintentional hilarity...and astonishing music videos... This is Sports, Leisure, and Videotape! Another amazing night of uproarious entertainment culled from the astounding VHS collection of Scarecrow Video. One night only – Not to be missed! Sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon. 21+ only.