Double Bill: The Last Movie and The Return of Frank James

A double bill of Dennis Hopper's The Last Movie and Fritz Lang's The Return of Frank James for writer and filmmaker Iain Sinclair's 70x70 event series.

The Last Movie
Dir Dennis Hopper, US 1971, 108 mins
6.30pm - 8.45pm

The Last Movie is Dennis Hopper's second directorial outing, after Easy Rider. Hopper stars as Kansas, a movie wrangler on location in Peru. After witnessing the accidental death of a stuntman, he stays behind in the village, dreaming of a simple life with his Peruvian girlfriend Maria. But he finds himself drawn into the harsh, ritualistic world of the local peasants as they start to mimic violent scenes from the movie with their own wicker cameras.

'I like endgames. And final commissions. And films that make no sense, shot long after there is any space for them in the world. Hopper’s The Last Movie – which I’ve never seen, or felt the need to chase down – is in sympathy with Asylum. With elements of Herzog. With the Wurlitzer version of Peckinpah. With Budd Boetticher’s terminal charity-shop DVD, A Time for Dying. (A money-laundering exercise for Audie Murphy, who was in hock to the Mafia.)

A cast that includes Sam Fuller, Kris Kristofferson, Peter Fonda and Dean Stockwell is opening too many of heaven’s gates. ‘Persistently sabotages its own resolution.’ Great. That period of Hollywood (money) was about finding ways of subverting the possible. From the descriptions I’ve read – indistinguishable from the synopsis of a Wurlitzer novel – The Last Movie is the finish of American Smoke I wish I’d been capable of writing.' - Iain Sinclair

The Return of Frank James
Dir Fritz Lang, USA 1940, 92 mins
8.50pm

'What an endgame title: The Return of Frank James. Return? Where has he been? A (non)sequel nobody needs to a respectable film everybody has forgotten (Jesse James by Henry King). The Homeric Fritz Lang gets the job – with the original producer (Zanuck), photographer (George Barnes), actor (Henry Fonda: reluctantly). Lang's first western and his first colour film. He tried to be on his best behaviour. Fritz did a little location shooting near the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. ‘Bring in the mools,’ he screamed, furious that the crew couldn’t translate his pronunciation.' - Iain Sinclair