Revival: Cabin in the Sky

LENA HORNE in the CABIN IN THE SKY


Showtimes:
Monday, June 28 at 7PM
Thursday, July 1 at 9PM.


1943 Dir. Vincente Minnelli. Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Rex Ingram, Duke Ellington. 98m. bw.


One can easily criticise this all-black musical (Minnelli's first feature) for falling prey to the same 'Uncle Tom' stereotyping that characterised Green Pastures, but there's no denying both the compassion with which Minnelli treats his characters and the immense cinematic talent on view. The gorgeous dreamlike sets and consummate control of the fantastic atmosphere that imbues the story (an idle, poverty-stricken farmer dreams of being sent to Hell upon dying) are already well developed. And the cast are magnificent, delivering the lovely Harold Arlen score with style and power. (Time Out)

Revival: Roma

FELLINI'S ROMA


Showtimes:
Saturday, June 12 at Noon
Monday, June 14 at 7PM
Thursday, June 17 at 9PM


ROMA 1972 Dir. Federico Fellini. Peter Gonzales Falcon, Fiona Florence, Britta Barnes, Pia De Doses. In Italian, English and French with English subtitles. 128 m. Technicolor.


Rome exerted a powerful influence over Fellini throughout his life but rarely did he express his love for it more clearly than here. Mixing documentary-style reportage, self-contained dramatic set-pieces and strange, impressionistic sequences, Roma explores the director's youth, the process of filmmaking and the mysterious allure of The Eternal City itself.


Essentially a series of loosely-connected vignettes, the first section of the film sees the young Fellini (Gonzales) arriving in Rome in the 1920s. Thereafter the focus moves to a wartime variety show at the Barafonda Theatre. We visit a brothel, witness Fellini fall in love with a prostitute and listen to the American writer Gore Vidal's bleak assessment of the city's future. Binding these threads together is a team of documentary filmmakers shooting in 1972, when traffic chokes the ancient streets and hippies gather to get stoned on the steps of the Basilica. (Film 4)

Revival: Easy Rider

EASY RIDER RESTORED PRINT


Showtimes:
MONDAY, JUNE 7 at 7PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 10 at 9PM
(No Saturday Show)


EASY RIDER 1969 Dir. Dennis Hopper. Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Phil Spector. 95 m.


"(Hopper's) most influential accomplishment was directing and starring in 'Easy Rider,' the 1969 biker film about two alienated souls who (as the tag-line said) went 'looking for America.... and couldn't find it anywhere.' Made on a $400,000 budget (it grossed $60 million worldwide), it blew the hinges off the big studios' doors. It helped open American movies to contemporary content and new styles of acting and storytelling." (Michael Sragow) Read "Dennis Hopper 1936-2010" at Mike Sragow Gets Reel


"The formative film of the new Hollywood.... When he got the chance to make Easy Rider, he poured a decade's worth of desire, liberation, nihilism, despair, and hunger into it, and the freedom of the movie is there in every image."
(Owen Gleiberman)



In the oldest, finest tradition of teenpics, Easy Rider (1969) became a hit with kids mainly because adults found it unwatchable. Director Dennis Hopper borrows from the avant-garde to suggest the LSD experience, and some of the trips have a definite flavor of Kenneth Anger and Maya Deren. The film may be a relic now, but it is a fascinating souvenir—particularly in its narcissism and fatalism—of how the hippie movement thought of itself. This was the same year, remember, that Hopper played a heavy offed by John Wayne in True Grit. (Dave Kehr)

Charles Theatre Workers Union Art Wall

The Charles Theatre Art Wall 

Native Weapons

Presenting work by Gerry Mak, Annie Grey Robrecht, Melody Often, Adam Beaver, Sarah Matson, and Jordan Bernier.