Institute History
Description
It was love at first sight.
—Beth Ann
Money is the road to hell and damnation.
—Ricky Lee
It seemed like what love wanted was a free ride that cost forever. I mean real love—that it would just up and grab you by the collar and never let you go.
—Beth Ann
Love. Money. Hell. They're all part of Frameup, Jon Jost's reworking of A classic American film genre: two losers on the road spread their wings and crash to hell. In this case the couple are Ricky Lee, a cocky ex-con, and Beth Ann, a dilly waitress in way over her head. Naturally the couple come to the necessary bad end, although—as with any passion play—there is redemption at the last. As Beth Ann says, death really isn't so bad; it's just getting there that is.
In Frameup the unpredictable Jost (All the Vermeers in New York, Sure Fire) combines conventions of avant-garde cinema, B-movies, exploitation flicks and pulp romance novels. There are echoes of Bonnie and Clyde and Badlands, punctuated with bold, splashy graphics and an intense undercurrent of eroticism, all set against the evocative landscapes of Oregon, Idaho, Washington and northern California and the banal interiors of motel rooms. Contributing immeasurably to the effectiveness of this essentially two-character tragicomedy are veteran stage actors Nancy Carlin and Howard Swain (husband and wife in real life), whose obvious commitment to the film's concerns and challenges extends to a taboo-breaking moment of male frontal nudity.
Saturday Jan 23 10:15 pm
Holiday Village Cinema II
Monday Jan 25 10:00 pm
Egyptian Theatre
Wednesday Jan 27 1:15 pm
Holiday Village Cinema II
Friday Jan 29 7:15 pm
Holiday Village Cinema II
$6.00