Film
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Frank Capra Restored We film critics have ambivalent feelings about Capra (1897-1991), one of the most successful writer/directors of the 1930s and ‘40s. He won all the awards, he sold millions of tickets, but then he suddenly became obsolete in the postwar period-totally square. Baby boomers in particular were dismissive of his conservative values and coerced sentimentalism (“Capracorn” is the enduring shorthand slight). He was an auteur before the Cahiers du Cinema crowd coined the term, but American critics shuddered to grant him such status. Apart from that holiday perennial It’s a Wonderful Life (which has played for 44 consecutive years at the Grand Illusion), his canon has fallen out of favor. So here’s a chance, with five 4K digital restorations running Tuesdays through February 24, to appreciate the craftsmanship in his very populist oeuvre.
Tonight, the road comedy It Happened One Night (1934) was just the tonic we wanted during the Great Depression. Clark Gable, as a wisecracking journalist, perfectly embodied the ideal American response to hard times: flippant, jaunty, indefatigable, never discouraged, always game for a new adventure or a new dame-the latter of course being escaped heiress Claudette Colbert, whom he rescues from snootiness and dull fortune. Capra loved to celebrate the common man, without airs or pretensions; yet that same noble everyman was also fundamentally a Hollywood construct. We bought the fantasy for a time, then grew tired of it as Capra kept pushing the same product. (Following are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.) SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net. $7-$12. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109 $7-$12 Tuesday, January 27, 2015
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Naked Lunch & The Burroughs: The Movie This two-fer tribute comes slightly overdue, since 2014 was the centennial of William S. Burroughs’ birth (he died in 1997). Still, David Cronenberg’s amusingly deadpan 1991 adaptation of Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch gets the tone right, and Peter Weller is quite marvelous as Bill, the droll authorial stand-in. The film, running second tonight, is packed full of pert supporting performances from Judy Davis, Roy Scheider, Julian Sands, and Ian Holm. Much more seldom seen is Howard Brookner’s 1983 doc Burroughs: The Movie, made over a half-dozen years and including Burroughs cronies like Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Lucien Carr, and Terry Southern. But the star attraction, of course, is Burroughs himself, who discourses upon his artistic methods, discusses the accidental shooting of his wife, and enacts a passage from Naked Lunch. Surprising to some will be the sad presence of his son, William Jr., an addict who died during the long course of the film’s production. The author, worshipped by so many young acolytes, rarely spoke of him afterward. (Through Sun., Jan. 31.) Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, grandillusioncinema.org. $5-$9. 7 & 9 p.m. BRIAN MILLER Grand Illusion Cinema, 1403 N.E. 50th St, Seattle, WA 98105 $5-$9 Tuesday, January 27, 2015
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Naked Lunch & The Burroughs: The Movie This two-fer tribute comes slightly overdue, since 2014 was the centennial of William S. Burroughs’ birth (he died in 1997). Still, David Cronenberg’s amusingly deadpan 1991 adaptation of Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch gets the tone right, and Peter Weller is quite marvelous as Bill, the droll authorial stand-in. The film, running second tonight, is packed full of pert supporting performances from Judy Davis, Roy Scheider, Julian Sands, and Ian Holm. Much more seldom seen is Howard Brookner’s 1983 doc Burroughs: The Movie, made over a half-dozen years and including Burroughs cronies like Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Lucien Carr, and Terry Southern. But the star attraction, of course, is Burroughs himself, who discourses upon his artistic methods, discusses the accidental shooting of his wife, and enacts a passage from Naked Lunch. Surprising to some will be the sad presence of his son, William Jr., an addict who died during the long course of the film’s production. The author, worshipped by so many young acolytes, rarely spoke of him afterward. (Through Sun., Jan. 31.) Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, grandillusioncinema.org. $5-$9. 7 & 9 p.m. BRIAN MILLER Grand Illusion Cinema, 1403 N.E. 50th St, Seattle, WA 98105 $5-$9 Wednesday, January 28, 2015
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Naked Lunch & The Burroughs: The Movie This two-fer tribute comes slightly overdue, since 2014 was the centennial of William S. Burroughs’ birth (he died in 1997). Still, David Cronenberg’s amusingly deadpan 1991 adaptation of Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch gets the tone right, and Peter Weller is quite marvelous as Bill, the droll authorial stand-in. The film, running second tonight, is packed full of pert supporting performances from Judy Davis, Roy Scheider, Julian Sands, and Ian Holm. Much more seldom seen is Howard Brookner’s 1983 doc Burroughs: The Movie, made over a half-dozen years and including Burroughs cronies like Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Lucien Carr, and Terry Southern. But the star attraction, of course, is Burroughs himself, who discourses upon his artistic methods, discusses the accidental shooting of his wife, and enacts a passage from Naked Lunch. Surprising to some will be the sad presence of his son, William Jr., an addict who died during the long course of the film’s production. The author, worshipped by so many young acolytes, rarely spoke of him afterward. (Through Sun., Jan. 31.) Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, grandillusioncinema.org. $5-$9. 7 & 9 p.m. BRIAN MILLER Grand Illusion Cinema, 1403 N.E. 50th St, Seattle, WA 98105 $5-$9 Thursday, January 29, 2015
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Cinema Italian Style 2014 was a quiet past year for new Italian movies; the well-reviewed Human Capital, which arrives here in February, didn’t even make the Oscar short list. So maybe it’s time for a repertory glance back at past peninsular glories with this nine-film series, running most Thursdays through March 19. In addition to proven classics like Luchino Visconti’s 1963 The Leopard, it includes new additions to the canon-notably last year’s Oscar winner, The Great Beauty. Beginning the retrospective tonight is Ossessione, Visconti’s 1943 adaptation of the James M. Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, with its timeless themes of adultery and murder. That noir tale was filmed here in 1946 and ‘81, and there’s even a French take from 1939, but Visconti’s version-his first feature-wasn’t seen for decades in the U.S. because he didn’t clear the copyright. (Whether he had Cain’s verbal permission is another matter.) Only in 1977 did it get a stateside release, when critics noted a far more class-conscious treatment than the 1946 Lana Turner-John Garfield version: neorealism layered atop the noir. And another fun fact: This 35 mm print belongs to Martin Scorsese, that champion of film preservation and Italian cinema. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $63-$68 series, $8 individual Thursday, January 29, 2015, 7:30 – 8:30pm
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Naked Lunch & The Burroughs: The Movie This two-fer tribute comes slightly overdue, since 2014 was the centennial of William S. Burroughs’ birth (he died in 1997). Still, David Cronenberg’s amusingly deadpan 1991 adaptation of Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch gets the tone right, and Peter Weller is quite marvelous as Bill, the droll authorial stand-in. The film, running second tonight, is packed full of pert supporting performances from Judy Davis, Roy Scheider, Julian Sands, and Ian Holm. Much more seldom seen is Howard Brookner’s 1983 doc Burroughs: The Movie, made over a half-dozen years and including Burroughs cronies like Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Lucien Carr, and Terry Southern. But the star attraction, of course, is Burroughs himself, who discourses upon his artistic methods, discusses the accidental shooting of his wife, and enacts a passage from Naked Lunch. Surprising to some will be the sad presence of his son, William Jr., an addict who died during the long course of the film’s production. The author, worshipped by so many young acolytes, rarely spoke of him afterward. (Through Sun., Jan. 31.) Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, grandillusioncinema.org. $5-$9. 7 & 9 p.m. BRIAN MILLER Grand Illusion Cinema, 1403 N.E. 50th St, Seattle, WA 98105 $5-$9 Friday, January 30, 2015
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Naked Lunch & The Burroughs: The Movie This two-fer tribute comes slightly overdue, since 2014 was the centennial of William S. Burroughs’ birth (he died in 1997). Still, David Cronenberg’s amusingly deadpan 1991 adaptation of Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch gets the tone right, and Peter Weller is quite marvelous as Bill, the droll authorial stand-in. The film, running second tonight, is packed full of pert supporting performances from Judy Davis, Roy Scheider, Julian Sands, and Ian Holm. Much more seldom seen is Howard Brookner’s 1983 doc Burroughs: The Movie, made over a half-dozen years and including Burroughs cronies like Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Lucien Carr, and Terry Southern. But the star attraction, of course, is Burroughs himself, who discourses upon his artistic methods, discusses the accidental shooting of his wife, and enacts a passage from Naked Lunch. Surprising to some will be the sad presence of his son, William Jr., an addict who died during the long course of the film’s production. The author, worshipped by so many young acolytes, rarely spoke of him afterward. (Through Sun., Jan. 31.) Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, grandillusioncinema.org. $5-$9. 7 & 9 p.m. BRIAN MILLER Grand Illusion Cinema, 1403 N.E. 50th St, Seattle, WA 98105 $5-$9 Saturday, January 31, 2015
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Frank Capra Restored We film critics have ambivalent feelings about Capra (1897-1991), one of the most successful writer/directors of the 1930s and ‘40s. He won all the awards, he sold millions of tickets, but then he suddenly became obsolete in the postwar period-totally square. Baby boomers in particular were dismissive of his conservative values and coerced sentimentalism (“Capracorn” is the enduring shorthand slight). He was an auteur before the Cahiers du Cinema crowd coined the term, but American critics shuddered to grant him such status. Apart from that holiday perennial It’s a Wonderful Life (which has played for 44 consecutive years at the Grand Illusion), his canon has fallen out of favor. So here’s a chance, with five 4K digital restorations running Tuesdays through February 24, to appreciate the craftsmanship in his very populist oeuvre.
Tonight, the road comedy It Happened One Night (1934) was just the tonic we wanted during the Great Depression. Clark Gable, as a wisecracking journalist, perfectly embodied the ideal American response to hard times: flippant, jaunty, indefatigable, never discouraged, always game for a new adventure or a new dame-the latter of course being escaped heiress Claudette Colbert, whom he rescues from snootiness and dull fortune. Capra loved to celebrate the common man, without airs or pretensions; yet that same noble everyman was also fundamentally a Hollywood construct. We bought the fantasy for a time, then grew tired of it as Capra kept pushing the same product. (Following are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.) SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net. $7-$12. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109 $7-$12 Tuesday, February 3, 2015
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Cinema Italian Style 2014 was a quiet past year for new Italian movies; the well-reviewed Human Capital, which arrives here in February, didn’t even make the Oscar short list. So maybe it’s time for a repertory glance back at past peninsular glories with this nine-film series, running most Thursdays through March 19. In addition to proven classics like Luchino Visconti’s 1963 The Leopard, it includes new additions to the canon-notably last year’s Oscar winner, The Great Beauty. Beginning the retrospective tonight is Ossessione, Visconti’s 1943 adaptation of the James M. Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, with its timeless themes of adultery and murder. That noir tale was filmed here in 1946 and ‘81, and there’s even a French take from 1939, but Visconti’s version-his first feature-wasn’t seen for decades in the U.S. because he didn’t clear the copyright. (Whether he had Cain’s verbal permission is another matter.) Only in 1977 did it get a stateside release, when critics noted a far more class-conscious treatment than the 1946 Lana Turner-John Garfield version: neorealism layered atop the noir. And another fun fact: This 35 mm print belongs to Martin Scorsese, that champion of film preservation and Italian cinema. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $63-$68 series, $8 individual Thursday, February 5, 2015, 7:30 – 8:30pm
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Frank Capra Restored We film critics have ambivalent feelings about Capra (1897-1991), one of the most successful writer/directors of the 1930s and ‘40s. He won all the awards, he sold millions of tickets, but then he suddenly became obsolete in the postwar period-totally square. Baby boomers in particular were dismissive of his conservative values and coerced sentimentalism (“Capracorn” is the enduring shorthand slight). He was an auteur before the Cahiers du Cinema crowd coined the term, but American critics shuddered to grant him such status. Apart from that holiday perennial It’s a Wonderful Life (which has played for 44 consecutive years at the Grand Illusion), his canon has fallen out of favor. So here’s a chance, with five 4K digital restorations running Tuesdays through February 24, to appreciate the craftsmanship in his very populist oeuvre. Tonight, the road comedy It Happened One Night (1934) was just the tonic we wanted during the Great Depression. Clark Gable, as a wisecracking journalist, perfectly embodied the ideal American response to hard times: flippant, jaunty, indefatigable, never discouraged, always game for a new adventure or a new dame-the latter of course being escaped heiress Claudette Colbert, whom he rescues from snootiness and dull fortune. Capra loved to celebrate the common man, without airs or pretensions; yet that same noble everyman was also fundamentally a Hollywood construct. We bought the fantasy for a time, then grew tired of it as Capra kept pushing the same product. (Following are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.) SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net. $7-$12. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109 $7-$12 Tuesday, February 10, 2015
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Cinema Italian Style 2014 was a quiet past year for new Italian movies; the well-reviewed Human Capital, which arrives here in February, didn’t even make the Oscar short list. So maybe it’s time for a repertory glance back at past peninsular glories with this nine-film series, running most Thursdays through March 19. In addition to proven classics like Luchino Visconti’s 1963 The Leopard, it includes new additions to the canon-notably last year’s Oscar winner, The Great Beauty. Beginning the retrospective tonight is Ossessione, Visconti’s 1943 adaptation of the James M. Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, with its timeless themes of adultery and murder. That noir tale was filmed here in 1946 and ‘81, and there’s even a French take from 1939, but Visconti’s version-his first feature-wasn’t seen for decades in the U.S. because he didn’t clear the copyright. (Whether he had Cain’s verbal permission is another matter.) Only in 1977 did it get a stateside release, when critics noted a far more class-conscious treatment than the 1946 Lana Turner-John Garfield version: neorealism layered atop the noir. And another fun fact: This 35 mm print belongs to Martin Scorsese, that champion of film preservation and Italian cinema. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $63-$68 series, $8 individual Thursday, February 12, 2015, 7:30 – 8:30pm
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Frank Capra Restored We film critics have ambivalent feelings about Capra (1897-1991), one of the most successful writer/directors of the 1930s and ‘40s. He won all the awards, he sold millions of tickets, but then he suddenly became obsolete in the postwar period-totally square. Baby boomers in particular were dismissive of his conservative values and coerced sentimentalism (“Capracorn” is the enduring shorthand slight). He was an auteur before the Cahiers du Cinema crowd coined the term, but American critics shuddered to grant him such status. Apart from that holiday perennial It’s a Wonderful Life (which has played for 44 consecutive years at the Grand Illusion), his canon has fallen out of favor. So here’s a chance, with five 4K digital restorations running Tuesdays through February 24, to appreciate the craftsmanship in his very populist oeuvre.
Tonight, the road comedy It Happened One Night (1934) was just the tonic we wanted during the Great Depression. Clark Gable, as a wisecracking journalist, perfectly embodied the ideal American response to hard times: flippant, jaunty, indefatigable, never discouraged, always game for a new adventure or a new dame-the latter of course being escaped heiress Claudette Colbert, whom he rescues from snootiness and dull fortune. Capra loved to celebrate the common man, without airs or pretensions; yet that same noble everyman was also fundamentally a Hollywood construct. We bought the fantasy for a time, then grew tired of it as Capra kept pushing the same product. (Following are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.) SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net. $7-$12. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109 $7-$12 Tuesday, February 17, 2015
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Cinema Italian Style 2014 was a quiet past year for new Italian movies; the well-reviewed Human Capital, which arrives here in February, didn’t even make the Oscar short list. So maybe it’s time for a repertory glance back at past peninsular glories with this nine-film series, running most Thursdays through March 19. In addition to proven classics like Luchino Visconti’s 1963 The Leopard, it includes new additions to the canon-notably last year’s Oscar winner, The Great Beauty. Beginning the retrospective tonight is Ossessione, Visconti’s 1943 adaptation of the James M. Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, with its timeless themes of adultery and murder. That noir tale was filmed here in 1946 and ‘81, and there’s even a French take from 1939, but Visconti’s version-his first feature-wasn’t seen for decades in the U.S. because he didn’t clear the copyright. (Whether he had Cain’s verbal permission is another matter.) Only in 1977 did it get a stateside release, when critics noted a far more class-conscious treatment than the 1946 Lana Turner-John Garfield version: neorealism layered atop the noir. And another fun fact: This 35 mm print belongs to Martin Scorsese, that champion of film preservation and Italian cinema. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $63-$68 series, $8 individual Thursday, February 19, 2015, 7:30 – 8:30pm
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Frank Capra Restored We film critics have ambivalent feelings about Capra (1897-1991), one of the most successful writer/directors of the 1930s and ‘40s. He won all the awards, he sold millions of tickets, but then he suddenly became obsolete in the postwar period-totally square. Baby boomers in particular were dismissive of his conservative values and coerced sentimentalism (“Capracorn” is the enduring shorthand slight). He was an auteur before the Cahiers du Cinema crowd coined the term, but American critics shuddered to grant him such status. Apart from that holiday perennial It’s a Wonderful Life (which has played for 44 consecutive years at the Grand Illusion), his canon has fallen out of favor. So here’s a chance, with five 4K digital restorations running Tuesdays through February 24, to appreciate the craftsmanship in his very populist oeuvre.
Tonight, the road comedy It Happened One Night (1934) was just the tonic we wanted during the Great Depression. Clark Gable, as a wisecracking journalist, perfectly embodied the ideal American response to hard times: flippant, jaunty, indefatigable, never discouraged, always game for a new adventure or a new dame-the latter of course being escaped heiress Claudette Colbert, whom he rescues from snootiness and dull fortune. Capra loved to celebrate the common man, without airs or pretensions; yet that same noble everyman was also fundamentally a Hollywood construct. We bought the fantasy for a time, then grew tired of it as Capra kept pushing the same product. (Following are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.) SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net. $7-$12. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109 $7-$12 Tuesday, February 24, 2015
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Cinema Italian Style 2014 was a quiet past year for new Italian movies; the well-reviewed Human Capital, which arrives here in February, didn’t even make the Oscar short list. So maybe it’s time for a repertory glance back at past peninsular glories with this nine-film series, running most Thursdays through March 19. In addition to proven classics like Luchino Visconti’s 1963 The Leopard, it includes new additions to the canon-notably last year’s Oscar winner, The Great Beauty. Beginning the retrospective tonight is Ossessione, Visconti’s 1943 adaptation of the James M. Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, with its timeless themes of adultery and murder. That noir tale was filmed here in 1946 and ‘81, and there’s even a French take from 1939, but Visconti’s version-his first feature-wasn’t seen for decades in the U.S. because he didn’t clear the copyright. (Whether he had Cain’s verbal permission is another matter.) Only in 1977 did it get a stateside release, when critics noted a far more class-conscious treatment than the 1946 Lana Turner-John Garfield version: neorealism layered atop the noir. And another fun fact: This 35 mm print belongs to Martin Scorsese, that champion of film preservation and Italian cinema. BRIAN MILLER Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $63-$68 series, $8 individual Thursday, February 26, 2015, 7:30 – 8:30pm
