Andrew’s Video Vault at The Rotunda
FREE Screenings Continuous From 8 PM
on the Second THURSDAY of Every Month!
Since 2004, Andrew’s Video Vault is a free, once-a-month screening series at The Rotunda in West Philadelphia programed by film director and educator Andrew Repasky McElhinney. Andrew’s Video Vault programs original, obscure, neglected, marginalized and commercial unavailable video media. It connects the West Philly neighborhood to the University of Pennsylvania community and fosters a multicultural examination of motion pictures in a relaxed, educational setting.
This program is made possible through the generous support of the Cinema Studies Program and The Rotunda at the University of Pennsylvania.
VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
OCTOBER 12 – GRINDHOUSE GOTHIC
The Witch Who Came From the Sea (1976 / 88 minutes)
“Molly really knows how to cut men down to size!” was the tagline for this deeply atmospheric “video nasty” with great location cinematography, dramatic heft, and a haunting turn from Millie Perkins as Molly, who seems to leave a trail of deadly sexual multialtions in her wake, but why…?
Toys Are Not For Children (1972 / 85 minutes)
Jamie’s (Marcia Forbes) obsession with her absent father and the toys he gave her as a child ruins her marriage and leads her into a life of prostitution in this exploitation drama filled with equal parts of the bizarre and of melancholy.
Guest Host and Curator: Mike Zaleski
NOVEMBER 9 – PRE-CODE COMEDY
Show Girl in Hollywood (1930 / 77 minutes)
Flapper comedienne Alice White stars in this musical comedy as an unemployed chorus girl who decides to leave Broadway and go to Hollywood to find a job in the new field of “talking pictures”, but finds it’s not as easy to get into the movies as she had hoped.
Girl Crazy (1932 / 74 minutes)
Zany vaudevillians Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey star in this George & Ira Gershwin-scored musical comedy. Gambler Woolsey hires taxi driver Wheeler to drive him to Custerville, Arizona, where the sheriffs always get bumped off. Woolsey tries to get out of paying his taxi bill by talking Wheeler into running for sheriff against the town’s nastiest bandit, and hilarity ensues.
Guest Host and Curator: Andrew Gilmore
DECEMBER 14 – DIABOLICAL FRENCH DRAMA
Under The Sun of Satan [Sous le soleil de Satan] (1976 / 97 minutes)
Gerard Depardieu stars in Maurice Pialat’s film about the nature of evil, where a particularly zealous priest in the French countryside becomes tempted by the devil and is obsessed with saving a young murderess (Sandrine Bonnaire) who has killed one of her lovers.
The Devil, Probably [Le diable, probablement] (1977 / 95 minutes)
Robert Bresson’s penultimate film follows the attempts of a suicidal young man (Antoine Monnier) to find some meaning or value in society by immersing himself in religion, politics, and even psychology, all for nought.
Guest Host and Curator: Samm Deighan