Revival: The Mystery of Picasso

THE MYSTERY OF PICASSO





Showtimes:
SATURDAY, MARCH 27 at NOON
MONDAY, MARCH 29 at 7 PM
THURSDAY, APRIL 1 at 9 PM

1956 Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot. Pablo Picasso. In French with English subtitles. 78 m.


"Pablo Picasso conspired with filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Wages of Fear) to create this 1956 pseudodocumentary on the genius at work; through the miracle of time-lapse photography, we see the master knocking out a dozen major works over what purports to be the course of a single day. The film begins in the standard format, and then expands to CinemaScope when Picasso whimsically demands more room. With music by Georges Auric; photographed by Claude Renoir." (Dave Kehr)

Revival: Shampoo

SHAMPOO


Showtimes:
Saturday, March 20 at Noon
Monday, March 22 at 7PM
Thursday, March 25 at 9PM.


1975. Dir. Hal Ashby. Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant. 109m.

"At some point the bottom fell out of the American sex farce and romance moved back in. But 25 years ago, "Shampoo" was a jigsaw puzzle of carnal knowledge deceptively told through the eyes of its nymphomaniac hairdresser (Warren Beatty) and from the perspective of both genders. Directed by Hal Ashby and written by Beatty and Robert Towne ("Chinatown"), the film is an elaborate roundelay of sex, a screwball masterpiece that's inspired everything from "Three's Company" and Beck's "Midnite Vultures" to the Clinton Administration. Opening on the eve of the '68 presidential election in the Hollywood Hills and ending the next day with Nixon and Agnew's victory, "Shampoo" has Beatty's George bed-hopping while trying to get a loan to open his own shop, presumably so he can settle down with actress girlfriend Jill (Goldie Hawn). George is a player so addicted to women that, as Hawn puts it, he's incapable of love. The beauty of Beatty's performance - and it remains his best - is that George is miserable. His infidelity is like a curse whose shame he wears from his first come-on right through intercourse." (SF Examiner)

Revival: Wild River

Elia Kazan's WILD RIVER


Showtimes:
SATURDAY, MARCH 6 at NOON
MONDAY, MARCH 8 at 7PM
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10 at 9PM
NO THURSDAY SHOW.


1960 Elia Kazan. Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, Jo Van Fleet, Jay C. Flippen. 110m. CinemaScope.


"Never mind the grainy opening footage of flooded streets; the river is the tamest thing in Elia Kazan’s terminally neglected 1960 melodrama. That newsreel snippet sets up the social-issue background: Chuck Glover (Clift), New Deal idealogue from the Tennessee Valley Authority, is overseeing the much-needed building of a dam. But the minute he steps onto the condemned property of cantankerous matriarch Ella Garth (Van Fleet) and sees her widowed daughter-in-law (Remick), all bets on stark realism are off. Battle lines are drawn—tradition versus progress, individual rights versus government mandates, black versus white. But the movie is primarily concerned with one question: When will this handsome Fed and his hillbilly hottie explode from too much repressed lust? Kazan’s films are better known for showcasing stratospheric Method-emoting over visual expressiveness, which makes Wild River’s gorgeous imagery a shock; the shots of scorched-earth backwoods and a barge drifting through the morning mist are the most lyrical scenes Gadge ever filmed. Clift’s awkwardness (he was in steady decline when he reported for duty) punctures the movie’s attempts at reaching Sirkian dizziness. Remick, however, was Kazan’s ace in the hole; known for allowing directors to subvert her girl-next-door demeanor, she’s finally given a role that calls for sexuality and chops, delivering wildly on both fronts." (Time Out New York)