The information below is from Pleasant Street Theater and Amherst Cinema
Friends,
In the coming weeks, we will be showered with several special events, in
addition to our first-run films.
In Amherst for a limited run starting Friday, we present the inspiring
"Pray the Devil Back to Hell," Gini Reticker's documentary exploring the
grassroots resistance to Charles Taylor's oppression of the Liberian
populace and featuring the brave women who led the successful cause.
"Sunshine Cleaning," an offbeat and oddly endearing drama with just the
right amount of comedy to even things out, screens in both Amherst and
Northampton, and there's still time to catch "The Class" and "Two Lovers"
in Amherst and Adventureland at the Pleasant Street Theater.
Monday 4/13 at 3:30pm at Amherst Cinema, filmmaker Lucien Castaing-Taylor
presents selections from "Sheep Rushes," an astonishingly beautiful yet
unsparing elegy to the American West, set in Montana's Absaroka Beartooth
mountains. With support from all of the Five Colleges. This event is
FREE.
On Wednesday 4/15 at 7pm, Amherst Cinema celebrates the Town of Amherst's
250th Anniversary in collaboration with the UMass Fine Arts Center,
presenting a reading by poet Martin Espada. The event is FREE. NO ADVANCE
TICKETS! SEATING IS FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVED THE EVENING OF THE EVENT.
Saturday, 4/18 at 11am brings filmmaker Jill Vickers for a special
screening of "Once in Afghanistan" (DVD), a film of hope which recalls the
1960s experiences of young Peace Corps workers helping to eradicate
smallpox. Several of the women featured in the film will be present for
the screening, including Amherst's own Kristina Engstrom. All tickets $3.
A benefit for projects rebuilding Afghanistan.
We conclude our Shakespeare Film Festival this week with two screenings of
"Othello," starring Laurence Fishburne. At Amherst Cinema Sunday 4/12 2pm,
and Thursday 4/16 7pm. The Sunday showing includes commentary by Nathaniel
Leonard of the UMass Renaissance Center.
Enjoy the spring flowerings at our cinemas!
Carol M. Johnson, Executive Director
Hillary Milens, General Manager
info@amherstcinema.org
AMHERST CINEMA programming
programming)
Amherst Cinema
28 Amity Street
Amherst, MA 01002
Tel: (413) 253-2547
Fax: (413) 253-2541
www.amherstcinema.org
PLEASANT STREET THEATER programming
Pleasant Street Theater
27 Pleasant Street
Northampton, MA 01060
Tel: (413) 584-5848
Fax: (413) 584-5855
www.pleasantsttheater.org
ENDS THURSDAY 4/2 at Pleasant Street Theater!
THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD
at Pleasant Street Theater
Friday 4/3 through Thursday 4/9 4:15, 7:00, 9:30
Plus Wednesday 4/8 10:00am and Baby-friendly show at 1:45
Once upon a time, mentalist extraordinaire Buck Howard (John Malkovich)
spent his days in the limelight. But 61 appearances on Johnny Carson’s
Tonight Show later, it’s clear to everyone but Buck that his act has lost
its luster; he performs in faded community centers and hasn’t sold out a
theater in years. Yet, Buck Howard perseveres, confident in his own
celebrity, convinced his comeback is imminent. He just needs a new road
manager and personal assistant. As it turns out, recent law school drop-out
and unemployed, would-be writer Troy Gable (Colin Hanks) needs a job and a
purpose. Working for the pompous, has-been mentalist fills the former
requirement, but how it satisfies the latter is questionable, especially to
his father (Tom Hanks), who still assumes Troy is in law school.
Nonetheless, with the aid of a fiery publicist (Emily Blunt) and a bold
stroke of fate, Buck surprisingly lands back into the American
consciousness, taking Troy along for the ride of his life. Director Sean
McGinly. 90 mins, Rated PG
OPENS FRIDAY 4/10 at Pleasant Street Theater
SUNSHINE CLEANING
at Pleasant Street Theater
Friday 4/10 through Thursday 4/16 5:00, 7:30, 9:30
Plus Saturday 4/11 and Sunday 4/12 3:00
Wednesday 4/15 10:15am and Baby-friendly show at 2:15
On the surface, "Sunshine Cleaning," about a small-time crime scene cleanup
crew in a crumbling corner of Albuquerque, is an offbeat and oddly
endearing drama, leavened with just the right amount of comedy to even
things out. But dig in a bit deeper, and you uncover a smartly done
morality tale that couldn't be more in sync with these troubled times.
With Amy Adams as Rose, a struggling single mother on the downside of a
life she expected more from, and Emily Blunt as Norah, her younger sister
caught in a free fall of her own, director Christine Jeffs has given us the
sorts of faces that have mostly been forgotten these days -- people and
places already on the edge, hit by the one-two punch of bad breaks and an
unforgiving economy that has left so many reeling. With Alan Arkin.
Director Christine Jeffs. 92 mins, Rated R.
HELD OVER at Pleasant Street Theater
ADVENTURELAND
at Pleasant Street Theater
Daily through Thursday 4/9 4:30, 7:15, 9:45
Plus Wednesday 4/8 10:15am, 2:00
Friday 4/10 through Thursday 4/16 4:30, 7:00, 9:00
Plus Saturday 4/11 and Sunday 4/12 2:15
Plus Wednesday 4/15 10:00am and Baby-friendly show at 2:15
It's the summer of 1987, and James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg), an uptight
recent college grad, can't wait to embark on his dream tour of Europe. But
when his parents (Wendie Malick and Jack Gilpin) announce they can no
longer subsidize his trip, James has little choice but to take a lowly job
at a local amusement park. Forget about German beer, world-famous museums
and cute French girls -- James' summer will now be populated by belligerent
dads, stuffed pandas, and screaming kids high on cotton candy. Lucky for
James, what should have been his worst summer ever turns into quite an
adventure as he discovers love in the most unlikely place with his
captivating co-worker Em (Kristen Stewart), and learns to loosen up.
Director Greg Mottola. 107 mins, Rated R.
BABY-FRIENDLY SHOW
at Pleasant Street Theater
Wednesday 4/15 ADVENTURELAND 2:15pm
SPECIAL EVENTS at Amherst Cinema
Shakespeare in Film!
ROMEO AND JULIET
at Amherst Cinema
Thursday 4/9 7:00pm only
For many people, the definitive version of Romeo and Juliet is Italian
director Franco Zeffirelli's groundbreaking 1968 production. With the look
and feel of robust Renaissance vitality instead of wan romanticism, it
proved a worldwide phenomenon. Zeffirelli, who had worked as an assistant
to film director Luchino Visconti, had been a stage and opera designer and
director. While working on his feature film directing debut, The Taming of
the Shrew (1967), starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, he began
discussing the possibility of making a film of Romeo and Juliet with a
youthful cast. Zeffirelli embarked on a worldwide search for unknown
teenage actors who were beautiful and talented, finally choosing 17-year
old Leonard Whiting, and 15-year old Olivia Hussey. Interiors were shot on
modest sets in the studio, but exteriors were shot in the Renaissance towns
of Pieza, Gubbio, and Artena in central Italy. Director Franco Zeffirelli.
1968, 138 mins.
Shakespeare in Film!
OTHELLO
at Amherst Cinema
Sunday 4/12 2:00pm only
Introduction and discussion by Arthur F. Kinney, Director of the
Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, University
of Massachusetts Amherst, and Nathaniel Leonard, Associate Director of the
Renaissance Center Theater Company.
Thursday 4/16 7:00pm only
Laurence Olivier filmed his own stage version; Orson Welles constructed a
flawed but brilliant film; James Earl Jones toured on stage in the part.
And all these actors gave heroic dimension to Othello: Olivier gave him
effrontery, Welles fury, Jones dignity. Laurence Fishburne now gives him
sexuality. Though he may not read the lines as well as his predecessors,
his visual presence on the screen is stunning. Exactly as director and
screenwriter Oliver Parker intended, Fishburne's Othello is heightened so
that he is at least cinematically equal to the Iago of Kenneth
Branagh—arguably the English-speaking world's greatest living actor.
Cognizant of Othello's empty unreflectiveness, Parker fills the void with
sex and violence, all of it realized through Fishburne's visual
presence—made all the more stunning because someone had the ingenious idea
of tattooing the side of his shaved head, making him unforgettably iconic.
Director Oliver Parker. 1995, 123 mins.
Filmmaker Lucien Castaing-Taylor in Person!
SHEEP RUSHES
at Amherst Cinema
Monday April 13 3:30pm
FREE and Open to the Public!
Sheep Rushes (2001-9) is the latest project by the imagemaking couple
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash, and consists of a series of
films, video installations, and photographs that they have been working on
since 2001. Widely regarded as one of the more thoughtful and vanguard
teams in visual anthropology today, Barbash and Castaing-Taylor deliver an
unsentimental elegy to the American West in this astonishingly beautiful
yet unsparing series of works set in Montana’s Absaroka Beartooth
mountains. Sheep Rushes offers a sensorial evocation of a world in which
nature and culture, animals and humans, climate and landscape, and
vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed. With his work at the
Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard, Castaing-Taylor firmly believes that
the future of the study of visual culture in the academy lies in
practice-based work, rather than in traditional scholarship. He will
screen and discuss selections from Sheep Rushes. 120 mins.
Anthropologist, artist and filmmaker, Lucien Castaing-Taylor is Assistant
Professor of Visual & Environmental Studies and of Anthropology, Director
of the Film Study Center, and Director of the Sensory Ethnography Lab,
Harvard University.
FREE PUBLIC EVENT!
A Reading by Poet, Essayist, Editor & Translator:
Martín Espada
at Amherst Cinema
Wed, April 15 7:00pm only!
NO ADVANCE TICKETS!
Seating is limited and available to first come, first served the evening of
the event.
Amherst's own luminary writer Martín Espada will read from recent work.
Called "the Latino poet of his generation" and "the Pablo Neruda of North
American authors," Martín Espada has published sixteen books in all as a
poet, editor, essayist and translator, including two collections of poems
last year. Espada is a professor in the University of Massachusetts
Amherst Department of English, where he teaches creative writing and the
work of Pablo Neruda.
Filmmaker Jill Vickers in Person!
ONCE IN AFGHANISTAN
A Benefit for Projects to Rebuild Afghanistan
at Amherst Cinema
Saturday April 18, 11:00am only!
Special Admission: $3.00
"We walked in on weddings, on funerals... whatever was going on and
vaccinated everyone." Returned Peace Corps Volunteers recall their
experiences as female members of Afghan male vaccinator teams in the late
60s.The women vividly recall trying to convince the women to be vaccinated
and their dependence on the Afghan counterparts and the people in the
villages. Their stories and photographs go behind the walls where people of
completely different backgrounds could recognize one another in spite of
their differences. In a world in which messages of hate travel faster than
ever before, this is a message of understanding. Producers/Directors Jill
Vickers and Jody Bergedick. 70 mins, NR
This is a DVD Presentation
ENDS THURSDAY 4/9 at Amherst Cinema
HARVARD BEATS YALE 29-29
at Amherst Cinema
Daily through Thursday 4/9 2:15, 7:00
“So much fun! An extraordinary football game, played at a time when the
country was a political powder keg. The former players are almost
uniformly, witty, funny and reflective.” – John Anderson, Variety
HARVARD STADIUM, NOVEMBER 23, 1968: for the first time since 1909, the
football teams of Harvard and Yale are undefeated as they meet for their
final game. Yale is heavily favored, with Brian Dowling, its captain and
quarterback, satirized in classmate Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury strip.
Harvard’s lineman is Tommy Lee Jones — Al Gore’s roommate. Kevin Rafferty
(ATOMIC CAFÉ) intercuts original footage with the hilarious, suspenseful
recollections of the 50 men who played in what has become one of college
football’s most famous games. Director Kevin Rafferty. 105 mins, NR
OPENS FRIDAY 4/3 at Amherst Cinema
PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL
at Amherst Cinema
Friday 4/10 through Thursday 4/16 2:15, 7:00
"Uplifting, disheartening, inspiring, — the mind reels while watching the
documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell" – New York Times
Gini Reticker's documentary Pray The Devil Back To Hell recalls Liberia's
darkest days, when President Charles Taylor set makeshift armies of
drug-addicted pre-teens loose on the streets to terrorize the populace.
After a recent string of films and TV news reports about the atrocities in
Rwanda, Somalia, and Darfur, Liberia's plight might seem over-familiar to
arthouse moviegoers, but the women telling their story to Reticker give her
movie particular meaning. In the early '00s, a network of Christian and
Muslim women began brainstorming ways to persuade the men of Liberia to lay
down their guns. They demonstrated in the marketplace, withheld sex from
their husbands, and threatened their sons and brothers with ancient curses.
Largely due to their dedication, Taylor was deposed, and in 2005, Liberia
elected Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf their new president. Director Gini Reticker.
72 mins. NR
HELD OVER at Amherst Cinema
SUNSHINE CLEANING
at Amherst Cinema
Daily through Thursday 4/16 2:30, 5:00, 7:30, 10:00
Plus Saturday 4/11 and Sunday 4/12 12:15
Baby-friendly Show Tuesday 4/14 2:30
On the surface, "Sunshine Cleaning," about a small-time crime scene cleanup
crew in a crumbling corner of Albuquerque, is an offbeat and oddly
endearing drama, leavened with just the right amount of comedy to even
things out. But dig in a bit deeper, and you uncover a smartly done
morality tale that couldn't be more in sync with these troubled times.
With Amy Adams as Rose, a struggling single mother on the downside of a
life she expected more from, and Emily Blunt as Norah, her younger sister
caught in a free fall of her own, director Christine Jeffs has given us the
sorts of faces that have mostly been forgotten these days -- people and
places already on the edge, hit by the one-two punch of bad breaks and an
unforgiving economy that has left so many reeling. With Alan Arkin.
Director Christine Jeffs. 92 mins, Rated R.
THE CLASS
at Amherst Cinema
Wed 4/8 2:00, 4:45, 7:15, 9:45
Thursday 4/9 1:30, 4:15, 9:45
Fri 4/10, Sat 4/11, Tue 4/14 2:00, 4:45, 7:15, 9:45
PLUS Sat 4/11 11:30am
Sun 4/12 11:15am 7:15, 9:45
Mon 4/13 7:15, 9:45
Wed 4/15 2:00, 9:45
Thurs 4/16 2:00, 4:30, 9:45
"an artful, intelligent movie about modern French identity" - Manohla
Dargis, NY Times
The Class was inspired by teacher Francois Begaudeau's autobiographical
novel, and director Laurent Cantet went right to the source: He cast
Begaudeau as the teacher and filled the classroom with actual Parisian
students. The script was developed through improvisation and shot
documentary style, with three hand-held cameras capturing the interplay
from one side of the room. Cantet's study is one of several remarkable
recent French films about school, but differs from its predecessors in
never leaving the building. We encounter Francois and his students only as
they encounter each other, without backstories to explain their behavior.
The battle is here, the director seems to be saying, and must be understood
here. Winner of the Palme D'OR, Festival de Cannes. Director Laurent
Cantet. 128 mins, NR. In French with Subtitles
TWO LOVERS
at Amherst Cinema
Daily through Thursday 4/16 4:30, 9:30
Plus Saturday 4/11 and Sunday 4/12 11:45am
This story is modest in scale, but the feelings that run through it are
large and intense. And why shouldn’t they be? The life of Leonard Kraditor
might seem ordinary, even drab — he lives with his parents, works for his
father’s dry-cleaning business, dabbles in photography — but his desires
and sorrows, his fundamental confusion about who he should be, certainly
don’t feel trivial to him. Hardly a feckless youth, Leonard is in his early
30s, with a breakup and a breakdown (involving a suicide attempt) just
behind him. Played with twitchy sensitivity by Joaquin Pheonix, Leonard is
by turns raw and benumbed, at once comforted and smothered by the homey
claustrophobia of life with his tactful old-world dad and his hovering,
anxious mother. As he struggles with the conflicting demands of filial
duty and the longing to strike out on his own, Leonard is confronted with
two women who compete for his attention and affection. The "good
girl"(Vinessa Shaw) is the daugher of a business associate of Leonard's
father wrapped in a witty, kind, and sexy package. But there's also
Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), the exotic mistress of a rich, married lawyer,
who seeks Leonard's confidence, and perhaps a bit more. With Isabella
Rossellini and Elias Koteas. Director James Gray. 108 mins, Rated R.
BABY-FRIENDLY SHOW
at Amherst Cinema
Tuesday 4/14 Sunshine Cleaning 2:30pm
Hampshire College, Amherst College, and Amherst Cinema present a screening of the movie Sleep Dealer (2008), written and directed by Alex Rivera 91F. A discussion with Alex about the film and immigrant rights will follow the screening. Wednesday, April 29 7 p.m. Screening, Amherst Cinema
Sleep Dealer won the screenwriting award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival as well as the festival’s Alfred P. Sloan Prize for the best film dealing with science or technology. The film envisions a future in which would-be immigrants remain south of the border and use network-connected robots to beam in their services. Rated PG-13; 90 minutes.
Visit http://www.sleepdealer.com for more information about the film.
Memberships – They're good at both theaters! Join or renew ONLINE
https://secure1.gaiahost.coop/
Silver Membership includes:
o Discounted "members only" ticket prices - $6.50 evenings, $5.50 matinees
o Free small popcorns or small sodas (six per year)
o Advance priority purchase for special events
o Discounts at participating businesses
o Weekly email movie updates (optional)
o Gift card surcharge waived (at box office)
o Individual Prices: Adult $60 (tax deduction $40); Senior 65+ or Student
w/ID $40 (tax deduction $25)
o Dual Prices (2 people at same address): 2 Adults $105 (tax deduction
$70); 2 Seniors/Students $65 (tax deduction $40); 1 adult & 1
senior/student $85 (tax deduction $55)
Gold Membership includes
o All Silver membership benefits (see above)
o Bring a friend - one guest can also be admitted at the member ticket
price
o Free small popcorn or soda every time you buy a ticket
o Invitations to donor events
o Prices: Individuals (all ages) $300 (tax deduction $270); Dual (2 people
at same address) $500 (tax deduction $450)
Ticket Prices
EVENING (shows starting at 5:00 pm and later)
Members: $6.50
Adults: $8.50
Seniors 65+, Students with ID, and Disabled with valid MediCare card: $7.50
MATINEES (shows starting before 5:00 pm)
Members: $5.50
Adults: $7.50
Seniors 65+, Students with ID, and Disabled with valid MediCare card: $6.50
Tickets can be purchased in advance and online www.amherstcinema.org and at
each box office. (Tickets must be purchased at the theater where you will
see the film). The box offices open 20 minutes before the first show of the
day and stays open until 20 minutes after the last show starts.
