Seattle: Harry's Coming To Town To Screen HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS and SPLIT SECOND!!!

Hey folks, Harry here -- Every now and again - there's a film that I love so much that I actually take it somewhere... non-Austin. I know, shocking isn't it. Like the time I captured GLADIATOR and took it to San Francisco nearly 6 months before it opened. Or the time I hosted the restored AKIRA in New York. Or the time I screened TWO FAMILY HOUSE off the coast of Argentina aboard that Dutch Cruise Ship. Well, usually, a couple of things has to happen for these screenings to work out. One, I have to find a film that I absolutely LOVE in all-caps. Next, I have to figure that the film would play great, no matter where in the world I took it. AND - I've got to have fun folks to share it with.

An Age ago, Norm at Scarecrow Video contacted me about writing an introduction to SCARECROW's VIDEO MOVIE GUIDE - an exhaustive 800 page bi-polar document of love & hate dedicated to cinema rare and cool. The reviews were to be written by the workers of SCARECROW VIDEO - many of whom have contributed over the years to AICN. So, turnabout was fair play... and I was enchanted by the endless halls of SCARECROW when I was there a few years back. So I wrote the introduction.

Then - about a month ago, Norm called me again. This time, he wanted me to host a screening of some sort for the Book Release of SCARECROW'S VIDEO MOVIE GUIDE. He told me it could be any film that I wanted that I could find a print for. Gosh Norm, thanks for narrowing it down! Sheesh! Something old, something new... even something blue... he wasn't opposed to pornography. Gotta love that Norm.

At the time, the fine folks at SONY CLASSICS were screening HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS to me in a beautifully stunning 35mm print. The second I saw it, I thought... "This is a kung fu movie to present in the Seattle Museum of Art!" As much as I loved HERO, I love HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS more. It is more beautiful, more emotional, more breath-taking. From the sound design to the art design to the cinematography - this film is an aural and visual work of art meant to live and breathe in the cerebral cortex of cinema lovers the world over. Yes, I'd say I loved the film.

Norm flipped at the suggestion. As did Sony Classics' Tom Bernard... so, now I get to screen the film and present it in one of America's finer Art Museums... And yes, there's a giddy part of me that is ecstatic to be presenting a Kung Fu movie in an Art Museum! To Get Tickets for this coming Tuesday the 16th of November at 7pm - CLICK HERE!!!

Now - as the fates would have it... While I just happened to be presenting one film in Seattle on this particular week - the FILM NOIR SERIES happened to be screening a film I love, that hardly anybody seems to be familiar with called SPLIT SECOND (1953) and directed by Busby Berkeley's fave juvenile... Dick Powell. It's an 85 minutes of pure pulp. A film I know, almost by accident. However, when I was in Seattle a couple of years ago, the director of the Film Noir series and a group of cinephiles were sitting around doing that typical bit of film geek throwdown where you attempt to stump the other film geek with a film they don't know. Well, SPLIT SECOND has always been my fave "nobody knows it" Film Noir. And sure enough, at the table that night, other than Father Geek, nobody knew it. So ironically - this film HAPPENED to be playing at Plestcheeff Auditorium at the Seattle Art Museum - and I'll be introducing it - bad news though... the event has been sold out since like... August 31st, before I was even attached. If you live in the area and want to find out more about the series - Click Here - My screening is on November 18th at 7:30pm - and I can't believe I'm going to get to see SPLIT SECOND on film. I'm terribly excited about this!

So - I'll be in Seattle from Tuesday through Friday of next week - gotta watch PARALLAX VIEW to prepare. Chat with y'all later!