Inside are classic works of art, the building is cold, and the mood is calm and quiet. Yet the outside at the Hammer Museum shows a very different scene as images of murder and sex play across the museum’s courtyard screen.
The Hammer and the UCLA Film and Television Archive have joined forces to host “Hot and Bothered,” a five-week film series replete with live music and a bar. Inspired by Eden’s Edge, Hammer’s current art exhibit exploring the darker side of nature, the Hot and Bothered event expands on Eve’s infamous capitulation to temptation in the Garden of Eden. Representatives from both the archive and the Hammer Museum selected five films for the series.
“Each of the films has a different take on temptation ““ temptation of the heart, for a better life or for a second chance,” said James Bewley, the director for public programs at Hammer Museum. “The content is dark ““ you’re dealing with graphic violence, cannibalism and prostitutes, but they’re all really beautiful films.”
The movies may each deal with different forms of temptation, but beneath the surface, they all share the same message.
“The common thread in each film is a protagonist whose want for something causes his or her complete downfall,” said David Pendleton, a programmer from the UCLA Film and Television Archive. “I think it’ll allow audience members to indulge their hidden desires while at the same time distancing themselves from it.”
The films span different time periods and genres, ranging from the independent cult hit “The Honeymoon Killers,” to “Samson and Delilah,” a Hollywood classic, to “Gate of Flesh,” a subtitled Japanese film. But each of the films is relevant to today’s cinema.
“”˜The Honeymoon Killers’ is a very deadpan open look at the lives of two serial killers. … It’s a really good example of the kind of independent filmmaking in the style of producing that Quentin Tarantino does today,” said Pendleton.
“”˜Gate of Flesh’ has the eye-popping visuals that inspired directors like John Woo and Quentin Tarantino, who’s a huge Seijun Suzuki (director of “Gate of Flesh”) fan,” added Pendleton.
Each screening will take place in the courtyard of the Hammer Museum, accompanied by a cash bar and live performances by The Not So Lonelies, an independent-minded band of street performers. The band pointedly eschews the L.A. music scene to play exclusively on Hollywood street corners. Their folksy covers and Decemberist-esque vocals will add an indie feel to the event. Guy Worthless, the lead singer of The Not So Lonelies is excited to be playing at the film screenings, a nice change from the usual music audience.
“Booking a club is a real drag: There’s all kinds of crap you have to go through, then you don’t get any money, no one shows up and no one cares” said Worthless, who described his band as “me and a lot of hot chicks.”
While the Hammer Museum has offered outdoor film screenings in summers past, this series marks the museum’s first major collaboration with the Film and Television Archive on an event of this kind. The combination of the archive’s resources with those of the Hammer Museum has helped the archive reach new audiences, according to Pendleton.
“The relocation of our programs to the new Billy Wilder Theater in December of 2006 has made us more accessible to the off-campus community,” Pendleton said. “It has at times been very daunting to convince people who aren’t otherwise associated with the university to come on campus and find the James Bridges Theater inside Melnitz, whereas at the Hammer, we can give people an address and tell them we’re at the intersection of Westwood and Wilshire Boulevard.”
While the move has had the unfortunate effect of estranging the archive’s programs from UCLA students, the relocation of the archive’s programs to the Billy Wilder Theater is an important step in creating a position of relevance for UCLA in the cultural environment of Los Angeles. The massive resources of the Film and Television Archive have the potential to signficantly contribute to the L.A. arts environment at the new location, creating a mutually beneficial intersection of the audiences of both the Hammer Museum and the archive.
“I hope that people will come to the screenings and discover what we have at both the Billy Wilder Theater and the Hammer Museum,” said Pendleton.