Realism Haunts 2 ‘60s Science-Fiction Shorts

Too blase for old-fashioned science-fiction movies?

Drop by Chapman University in Orange on Monday night for a change.

Two short films--one experimental sci-fi, the other a docudrama so realistic it won an Oscar for best documentary--will probably haunt you for years.

Both were reactions to the worst days of the Cold War and the prospect of nuclear annihilation.

“La Jetee” (The Pier) was made in 1962. It has only one moving image during its 28 minutes, and it’s so subtle you could miss it.

What you will remember most is its powerful, almost hypnotic, use of striking, black-and-white still images that impart reality to a bizarre plot.

In “La Jetee,” survivors of World War III try to save themselves through the only resource they have--time travel. Though the images are frozen and the narration is sparse (French with English subtitles), a surprising amount of plot and character development is accomplished in less than half an hour.

Damian Cannon, reviewer for Movie Reviews UK, called the photographs “superlative . . . grainy enough and shot in such a way that the immediate impression is of wartime photojournalism.”

The technique is so successful, he wrote, that “the basic structures utilized in cinema are stripped bare and revealed unadorned.”

The film was made by Chris Marker, who built a reputation for creating idiosyncratic documentaries and film essays. “La Jetee,” one of his best, was the inspiration for Terry Gilliam’s 1995 film “Twelve Monkeys.”

The second film at Chapman, “The War Game,” was produced in 1965 for the British Broadcasting Corp. as a chillingly realistic television docudrama about nuclear war’s aftermath in a typical English city.

The BBC refused to air it because it succeeded too well. How realistic is it? Though fiction, it won the 1967 Oscar for best documentary.

Peter Watkins, the film’s producer, was a BBC staffer when he proposed the project. He produced a 48-minute film on a $50,000 budget using no professional actors and classic newsreel techniques of grainy, black-and-white film in a hand-held camera.

His results startled BBC officials, and they previewed the film for British military, civil defense and post office officials. The result was a suppression of the film because it was “too horrifying,” Watkins said in a previous interview. He said BBC officials told him they feared “mass suicides.”

As word about the film spread, the BBC gave four by-invitation-only screenings at the National Film Center, to which the film reels were delivered under guard. Eventually, the BBC agreed to release the film in theaters.

The films screen at 7 p.m. in Room 208 of the Argyros Forum, Chapman University, 333 N. Glassell Ave., Orange. Free.

Noir Treachery

You may need to schedule your weekend carefully, for there is even more more showing on local alternative screens.

Tonight, Chapman University’s film-noir series continues with another gem, “The Killers,” released in 1946, which earned a best-director Oscar nomination for Robert Siodmak.

In best noir fashion, the film starts at the end, when two professional killers murder a service-station attendant (Burt Lancaster), who is not only expecting them but also resigned to his death.

An insurance investigator (Edmond O’Brien) sets out to untangle the story of treachery and crime that led to the killing. Ava Gardner portrays the mysterious and very dangerous Kitty Collins.

The film starts at 7 p.m. in Room 208, Argyros Forum, Chapman University, 333 N. Glassell Ave., Orange. Free.

Cold War Chills

For Friday night, you have a choice: “The Manchurian Candidate,” a tense, gripping, Cold War thriller screening in Newport Beach; “The Brother From Another Planet” at UC Irvine, and “Bad Manners” in Costa Mesa.

“The Manchurian Candidate” was released in 1962 when its star, Frank Sinatra, was still doing serious acting. But the Oscar nomination and Golden Globe went to supporting actress Angela Lansbury.

The plot centers on a platoon of soldiers, some brainwashed by Communists before they returned from the Korean War.

Trivia: All the soldiers of the platoon are named after cast and crew members of TV’s “The Phil Silvers Show.”

The film starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Orange County Museum of Art, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. $5 general, $3 for museum members, students and senior citizens.

Space, Race Issue

Despite the hokey title and hokier premise of “The Brother From Another Planet”--a black slave from outer space escapes to Earth only to find himself in Harlem--the 1984 film directed John Sayles rises to great heights. It is rich in detail, delicate characterization and humor and is a touching plea for a world free of racism.

The film screens at 7 and 9 p.m in UCI’s Student Center Crystal Cove Auditorium. $4.50 general admission; $2.50 for UCI students.

Talk Soup

In “Bad Manners,” which begins at least a one-week run Friday at Edwards Town Center, Costa Mesa, two academic couples on a long weekend in New England engage in a psychological tug of war. If that sounds boring, think “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

This satire of academia is directed by Jonathan Kaufer, who was 24 when he wrote and directed “Soup for One” in 1982, then the youngest produced director in the business.

Reviews of “Bad Manners” writing have been mixed, but all seem to agree that the acting by David Strathairn, Bonnie Bedelia, Saul Rubinek and Caroleen Feeney is first-rate.

Woo-ing Action

On Saturday, UCI offers the 1990 John Woo film “Bullet in the Head” (Die xue jie tou) as part of its continuing Hong Kong film series.

Woo--who rewrote much of his script to reflect his reaction to the Tiananmen Square killings in Beijing in 1989--describes the movie as the Hong Kong equivalent of “Apocalypse Now,” because it had the same exhausting effect on him as the other had on Francis Ford Coppola.

In the film, shown with English subtitles, three young men flee Hong Kong in 1967 after killing a gang member, and they wind up running black market goods to Saigon. They inevitably become embroiled in the war there, and eventually are pursued by both sides.

Hong Kong producer Terence Chang is scheduled to introduce “Bullet.”

It screens at 7 p.m. in Room 100 of the Humanities Instructional Building. Admission is $6 general, $4 for students, faculty and staff. Parking is $2 if you don’t have a UCI parking permit.