May Day carries an ancient connection to Floralia, a Roman festival that honored the blossom goddess Flora in early May. It’s only fitting that local cinemas would screen dreamy, surreal films this month, yeah? Two screening series at Clinton Street Theater and Tomorrow Theater wander toward the uncanny, offering opportunities to drift through the otherworlds of David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and other auteurs. Plus, 3 Women is the dusty, daydreamy Altman entry you might not have seen yet, and did you know Björk starred in a witch fantasy before she was famous-famous? Let’s go to the pictures!
3 Women
For fans of Barbara Loden’s Wanda (1970), Terrence Malick’s Badlands (1973), Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1966).
Robert Altman—a bona fide New Hollywood hero, known for his restless experimentation—directed a psychodrama so tonally removed from Popeye and M*A*S*H that one wonders what he was going through at the time. 3 Women (1977) unfolds in Southern California’s hazy desert, where Millie’s (Shelley Duvall) breezy, talkative nature entrances her naïve new roommate/coworker, Pinky (Sissy Spacek). Hovering at the edge of the narrative, stoic artist Willie (Janice Rule) paints an eerie, reptilian mural in an emptied swimming pool.
Millie and Pinky become friends and enemies at different points. Like many such relationships, one of them wants what the other has, while the other has much less than it appears. “I wonder what it would be like to be twins,” Pinky says. “Do you think they know which one they are?”
Duvall’s fragile, funny performance in 3 Women spotlights her singular presence and deep artistic connection with Altman. Dreamers should see it. (Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park, Sat May 2, 2 pm, $15, more info, PG)
Exquisite Automatism: Surrealist Cinema Series
For fans of Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadisches Ballett, Leonora Carrington, the uncanny.
Of May’s two surreal screening series, Clinton Street’s leans a little more ambiguous and esoteric. We love that around here! The series title, “Exquisite Automatism,” gives us some hints as to its curatorial aims. Merriam-Webster defines “automatism” in a few ways: “a theory that views the body as a machine and consciousness as a noncontrolling adjunct of the body,” “suspension of the conscious mind to release subconscious images,” or simply “the quality or state of being automatic.” Indeed, several films on the slate have a stream-of-consciousness, or subconscious, feel.
Opening with the Surrealist Cabaret, an eclectic performance art showcase, the series moves into experimental works like Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus (1950), Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel (1967), and Maya Deren’s avant-garde short films. Denis Villeneuve’s psychological thriller Enemy (2013) is a contemporary highlight—it’ll be followed by a Q&A session with its screenwriter, Javier Gullón. (Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton, May 2-28, more info)
The Juniper Tree
For fans of Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Lamb (2021), Erik Blomberg’s The White Reindeer (1957), Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (1960).
Nietzchka Keene’s folk tale The Juniper Tree is an easy sell, with a lean 78 minutes steeped in otherworldly Icelandic landscapes and teen Björk in her first cinematic role. Drawing from a Brothers Grimm tale, the story weaves together supernatural beats—bird omens, ghost witches, love spells—and demonstrates a clear influence on the austere, dreadful exile of Robert Eggers’ The Witch. Although the film was modest in budget and length, nothing feels sacrificed. The Juniper Tree’s mythic intensity and feminist undertones linger. (5th Avenue Cinema, 510 SW Hall, May 8-10, more info, not rated)
Surreal Summer Series
For fans of the Green Man, Terence McKenna, Transcendental Meditation®.
Tomorrow Theater’s spin on surreality skews a touch more familiar, without sanding down any strangeness. A few cult staples screen this month, with more to come in June. Visceral, unsettling experiences abound. On May 21, El Topo (1970) is the definition of an acid Western–it’s a twisty desert odyssey in which director Alejandro Jodorowsky also stars. The following night, David Lynch’s neo-noir Lost Highway (1997) follows a saxophonist and his wife as they receive ominous VHS tapes. Everything is fine. Truly. Promise.
If you haven’t seen The Wicker Man—the ’73 original, sans Nicolas Cage—make it your business to do so on May 15. A remote Scottish island teems with sacrifice-happy pagans and wanton lust. That’s always a challenging combination, right? Virtually every folk horror film owes credit to its psychedelic influence. (PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater, 3530 SE Division, May 15-June 21, more info)
Also worth it:
Frederick Wiseman: 44 films in 6 days
NW Documentary, the Nyback Archive, and Spectrum Between join heads for the most ambitious and flat-out cool film marathon the city’s seen in ages. Celebrating the prolific output of documentarian Frederick Wiseman, the team brings round-the-clock screenings of his films to the Sunnyside Community Center. It’s free, but consider throwing a donation their way. Read the Mercury’s preview. (Sunnyside Community Center, through May 4, more info)
Clockwatchers
In Jill Sprecher’s ’97 film, Toni Collette, Lisa Kudrow, and Parker Posey navigate an unfortunate truth: Work sucks and then you die. Clockwatchers reads a bit like Office Space, but it’s a little smarter, more pointed, and (obviously) more femme. You’re welcome. (Clinton Street Theater, May 1, more info)
Nights of Cabiria
Federico Fellini’s wife Giulietta Masina stars as the ultra-charming sex worker Cabiria in the director’s glittery drama Nights of Cabiria. It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1958 and serves as a glowy introduction to Fellini’s realist, yet sensuous world. (Cinema 21, May 16, more info)
Fancy Dance
Not to be confused with the 2023 film Fancy Dance, Masayuki Suô’s ’89 flick follows Yohei, a punk rocker with a half-shaved head who shaves the other half to enter monastic life and (hopefully) inherit his family’s temple. Predictably, monkhood is grueling and highly disciplined, and things complicate when Yohei’s girlfriend shows up. (Tomorrow Theater, May 17, more info)
Woman in the Dunes in 35mm
Hiroshi Teshigahara, an avant-garde director and major player in the Japanese New Wave, traps an entomologist and a widow in a bleak village surrounded by sand dunes. This 35mm print of Woman in the Dunes (1964) promises to heighten the film’s shadowy, tactile effect. (Hollywood Theatre, May 21, more info)
