February 22, 2008
STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING (2007; PG-13)
Tues Feb 26, Thurs Feb 28, Sat Mar 1- 7:30PM; Sun Mar 2- 1, 3:10PM.
Frank Langella has earned some of the best notices of his career as an aging novelist struggling to recapture his creative fire, while baffled and bemused by the sudden appearance of a forward young graduate student who’s chosen him as the subject of her master’s thesis - and perhaps more. “Refreshingly subtle…. It’s not what you expect, and it’s not something you’ve seen before” –Newsweek. 111 min.
JOURNEY FROM THE FALL (2007; R)
Tues Mar 4, Thurs Mar 6, Sat Mar 8- 7:30PM; Sun Mar 9- 1, 3:40PM.
When Saigon falls in 1975, a South Vietnamese family endures hell and high water to reach freedom in California. “Sweeping camerawork, gorgeous yet forbidding natural vistas, and enough shocking tragedies, brazen escapes and crowd-pleasing acts of defiance to feed several action-adventure pictures” –NY Times. 135 min. English and subtitles.
BLAME IT ON FIDEL (France 2007; NR)
Tues Mar 11, Thurs Mar 13, Sat Mar 15 - 7:30PM; Sun Mar 16 - 1, 3PM.
Young Nina Kervel delivers a remarkably mature and knowing performance as the curious 9-year-old daughter of leftist activists in Paris in 1970, obliged to sort out many questions of life and politics on her own while her parents commit all their energies to the cause of Salvador Allende. “A wrenching, funny
and wise little picture, with a diva-like junior star at its center” –Salon.com. 99 min. Subtitles.
NANKING (2007; R)
Tues Mar 18, Thurs Mar 20 - 7:30PM; Sat Mar 22- 9PM; Sun Mar 23- 1, 2:50PM.
A distinguished cast including Woody Harrelson and Mariel Hemingway gives voice to the journals of westerners acting bravely to save as many helpless lives as they could, when they were caught amid the chaos of Japan’s attack on one of China’s great cities in 1937. “Crafts an impossible-but-true hymn to the
power of the individual conscience” –Salon.com. 88 min. English & subtitles.
PERSEPOLIS (France 2007; PG-13)
Tues Apr 1, Thurs Apr 3, Sat Apr 5- 7:30PM; Sun Apr 6- 1, 2:55PM.
Marjane Satrapi teams with co-director Vincent Paronnaud to animate her rueful memoir of a free-thinking adolescent coming of age during the Khomeini Revolution in Iran. “Not to be missed… in a year that has given us such marvelous animated movies as Ratatouille and Paprika, this vibrant, sly and moving personal odyssey takes pride of place” –Newsweek. Academy Award Nominee, Best Animated Film of 2007. 95 min. Subtitles.
4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (Romania 2007; NR)
Tues Apr 8, Thurs Apr 10, Sat Apr 12- 7:30PM; Sun Apr 13- 9PM.
Amid the wreckage of Nicolae Ceausescu’s corrupt and crumbling Romanian Communist dictatorship in 1987, two college roommates go through a tensely illicit scheme to obtain an illegal abortion for one of them. Cristian Mungiu’s Cannes Festival Grand Prize Winner has earned overwhelming critical acclaim. “No lover of greatness in filmmaking will want to look away from one of the very best movies of 2007″ –Entertainment Weekly. 113 min. Subtitles.
OUTSOURCED (2007; PG-13)
Tues Apr 15, Thurs Apr 17, Sat Apr 19- 7:30PM; Sun Apr 20- 1, 3PM.
A young Seattle executive (Josh Hamilton) caught in a corporate downsizing gets both a cultural and a romantic education when he must supervise the transfer of the customer service department to India. John Jeffcoat’s clever satire of globalism triumphant is “a sweetly acted and neatly executed social comedy” –Boston Globe. 103 min.
ARRANGED (2007; NR)
Tues Apr 22, Thurs Apr 24, Sat Apr 26 - 7:30PM; Sun Apr 29 - 1, 2:50PM.
Despite the fact that they come from antagonistic cultures, young Brooklyn schoolteachers Rochel and Nasira are friends with a lot in common - chiefly a parental mandate to find a husband without further ado! “A lovely little gem of a film, beautifully shot and perfectly cast… I can’t remember the last time
I screened a similarly low-budget film that pulled all the pieces together so well” –Filmcritic.com. 89 min.
CARAMEL (Lebanon 2007; PG)
Tues Apr 29, Thurs May 1, Sat May 3 - 7:30PM; Sun May 4 - 1, 2:55PM.
Likeable characters, universal situations, and an invitingly luxuriant atmosphere spark this highly enjoyable ensemble comedy about the regulars at a Beirut beauty salon. “The penetrating musical score, the snappy and confident pacing, and the emergence of [director Nadine] Labaki as an international talent to watch all combine to make the film a satisfying confection” –Premiere. 95 min. Subtitles.
STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME (2007; NR)
Tues May 6, Thurs May 8, Sat May 10 - 7:30PM; Sun May 11 - 1, 2:50PM.
When a Dutch Jewish married couple and the husband’s girlfriend are all deported to the dreaded Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1943, an ordinary romantic triangle continues under the most extraordinary and forbidding circumstances any love story could imagine. “If Michele Ohayon’s absorbing documentary didn’t provide the proof, you’d never believe the story she tells” –NY Daily News. 94 min. English & subtitles.
DIRECTIONS TO CINEMA 320 (950 Main St., Worcester):
Take Route 290 to the Route 9/Framingham-Ware exit in downtown Worcester. Turn left off exit ramp if coming from the south, turn right off ramp if coming from the north. Follow the signs for Route 9 West (Highland Street) through Lincoln Square. Stay on Highland about a mile. Turn left onto Park Avenue at Elm Park. Proceed about 1.2 miles up Park Avenue to Downing Street (Peppercorn’s
Restaurant). Turn left onto Downing. Go through one stop sign. Cinema 320 parking permitted in Clark Downing Street lot on left. Cinema 320 is in the building directly across Downing Street. Use main campus entrance in middle of building and follow theater signs.
Cinema 320 is located on the third floor of the Jefferson Academic Center, at the corner of Main and Downing streets. The auditorium is elevator-accessible via the Geography Library entrance on Main Street, until 5 minutes before showtime.
January 15, 2008
CATCH HER (AND THE GUY)
Worcester lover Andrea Ajemian has us in her Web
By Robert Newton
Man, if I were any more of a fan of local filmmaker Andrea Ajemian, there would be a restraining order involved. While I may not be totally Hinckley for her, I have been known to sing her praises, often and with great gusto. Apart from her obvious drop-dead good looks, perpetual smile and jolt of positive energy she brings to any room, she has ambition and an ability to get others excited about whatever she chooses to bolster by virtue of her involvement, and that’s what’s most attractive about her. The latest project from this charismatic, 32-year-old, Worcester-born, Rutland-raised dynamo is “Worcester Love,” a Web-native series spotlighting the finer – or more precisely, funner – points of our fair city.
(more…)
December 5, 2007
Last week, the Dedham-based National Amusements, which operates Showcase Cinemas Worcester North and the Cinema De Lux in Millbury, started pre-sales for the one-week engagement of Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert in 3-D. “Hannah Montana,” for those who don’t know a child between the age of 6 and 14 (2/3 of whom watch or have watched the show), is a Disney Channel show about a girl, played by Miley Cyrus, whose alter ego is a pop star by night. The movie is a stitching-together of three concerts from the sold-out concert, tickets for which some rabid fans have had to pay well in excess of $1000 a piece. Tickets to the February 1-7 run of the show, which runs February 1-7 at both local National Amusements theatres, run a considerably more modest $15.00. Tickets can be purchased in advance online at NationalAmusements.com or by calling the (508) 853-4000. Please note that Prestige Tickets, passes and other discounts cannot be accepted for this special engagement.
December 1, 2007
There’s a pretty meaty interview with Worcester writer/filmmaker/horror movie devotee Mike Baronas over at FilmFanaddict that fellow fans might want to check out. Baronas, who produced a slew of bonus DVD content for former backer Media Blasters’ horror line, is still hard at work on his seven-year labor of love, a comprehensive biography of his idol, legendary master Lucio Fulci. Fulci, who passed away in 1996 with nearly 100 titles in his filmography, was Italy’s answer to zombie king George Romero.
In the interview, Baronas recalls having read Stephen Thrower’s Fulci book Beyond Terror back in 1999. “When I was done with it, I really didn’t know any more about who Fulci was than when I began. And please know that that’s not a slam on Thrower at all as he’s been most cordial toward my project and is a better writer than I’ll ever hope to be. The fact is it revolves around Fulci’s films almost solely. I thought how cool it would be to have a companion book that was about his life and times as told by those who worked with him and knew him best.”
Keep up with Mike’s efforts at his website at www.PauraProd.com.
June 13, 2007
Young movie fans have it made in the shade:
Red Sox pitcher and wife team up for cancer awareness and free movies
By Elizabeth Meyer
From afflictions genetic to preventable, Red Sox star pitcher Curt Schilling and his wife, Shonda, have the bases covered. They have fought Lou Gehrig’s Disease with Curt’s Pitch For ALS since 1993, and in 2002, skin cancer with Shonda’s group, the non-profit SHADE Foundation of America.
This summer, the Schillings and The SHADE Foundation, which educates children to the dangers of overexposure to the sun, are partnering with Dedham-based movie theatre chain National Amusements for the “SPF-Sun Protection Flicks” series of free summer movies. The program was created by National Amusements, which runs Showcase Cinemas Worcester North, its adjoining Showcase Ciné Art and the Blackstone Valley Cinema De Lux in Millbury, to help raise awareness of the importance of sun protection, and to offer families “Out of the Sun Fun” in support of the SHADE Foundation’s important mission.
“One in five kids will grow up to develop skin cancer,” notes Shonda Schilling, herself a skin cancer survivor. “We are hoping parents, babysitters and camp directors take advantage of these free sun-safe movies and keep their children shaded this summer in an attempt to help reduce that alarming statistic.”
The program officially kicks off on June 25, 2007 and will feature a free family film every Monday at 11:00am at select National Amusements Showcase Cinemas locations. Patrons will also be able to purchase special Curt Schilling 44 ounce “Collector’s Cups” with a portion of the proceeds to benefit The SHADE Foundation. The films that are to be shown at Showcase Worcester North are Rugrats in Paris (6/25), Madagascar (7/2), Shark Tale (7/9), Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events (7/16), The Rugrats Movie (7/23), The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (7/30), The Wild Thornberrys Movie (8/6) and the 2005 remake of Yours, Mine and Ours (8/13).•••
April 19, 2007
Keep the home fires burning, indeed. The Dedham, MA-based National Amusements, which operates Showcase Cinemas Worcester North and Showcase Ciné Art in Worcester and Blackstone Valley Cinema De Lux in Millbury, is offering free admission and snacks to active duty military personnel and their families. The offer, good through April 30, includes free admission and free small popcorn and fountain drinks at all National Amusements movie theater locations in the US. Also, effective May 1, 2007, all National Amusements movie theaters in the US will institute an ongoing military discount price policy for all active service personnel, their spouses and dependents. The special military program pricing will be $7.00 for general admission, and $5.00 for matinee and children (with ID). –Robert Newton
NATIONAL AMUSEMENTS FUN FACTS
•The company’s first screen was The Sunrise Drive-In Theater in Valley Stream, New York. It opened in 1936.
•Their first indoor theater was the Webster Cinema 1 in Webster Square in Worcester on April 4, 1963.
•The first actual Showcase Cinema location was the Showcase Cinema 1-2 in West Springfield on November 25, 1964.
April 12, 2007
Poetry in motion picture
Worcester-born poet immortalized in new film
By Chris Mellen
The polis was the ideal city-state to the Ancient Greeks. What makes the poet Charles Olson’s adopted North Shore island hometown of Gloucester a polis? How important is the history and geography of a place to the way we perceive and live in that place? Would Olson have written his epic “Maximus” if he stayed in Worcester, the city of his birth? These are some of the questions Henry Ferrini asks in his film Polis Is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place, free screenings of which begin in Worcester tomorrow.
“Worcester is a big city,” says Ferrini, a Gloucester native. “Gloucester is a small town — 30,000 people — you can walk around it, you can get to know it, the whole of it. The citizens have a relationship with this place.”
In the academic world, Charles Olson is considered one of the prominent poetic voices of the 20th century (who “affected and infected” Beat poets such as Jack Kerouac and Gregory Corso), but how is he remembered in the town that was the subject of much of his work? (more…)
March 22, 2007
Saying the word “free” ’round these parts is akin to baiting shark-infested waters with buckets of chum. Add the word “movie” to the mix, and you’ve got yourself a certified cinematic soiree. This Saturday, March 24th starting at noon in Kennedy 112 at Assumption College on Salisbury Street in Worcester, the school will present, free to the public, its “Reality Cinema” film festival, comprised of four documentary films:
12:00PM - BEYOND BELIEF, A WORK IN PROGRESS
Two 9/11 widows fight for their own war on terror as they make the journey to desperate Afghan villages and discover an unlikely kinship with widows halfway around the world.
2:00PM - THE GROUND TRUTH
Hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers have been released by the military after serving in Iraq. This is the truth they hope to share with their fellow citizens.
3:00PM - ***OPEN DISCUSSION***
Congressman James P. McGovern will be on hand for a panel discussion on the four-year anniversary of the Iraq War.
4:40PM - STOLEN
The 1990 art robbery at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum remains unsolved to this day, and this film explores the crime and the fascinating, disparate characters involved.
6:00PM - PLAGUES & PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA
Once known as the “California Riviera,” the Salton Sea is now called one of America’s worst ecological disasters. Through the perceptions of the residents who still remain on the Sea, the strange history and unexpected beauty of the Salton Sea is revealed. Narrated by John Waters, and a 2006 MassBay Film Festival fan favorite.
March 14, 2007
Creative thrill
Local writer-director premieres debut film in Worcester
By Robert Newton
Rob Parent’s locally produced thriller, Voice Of Reason, may not have big Hollywood stars in it, but the writer-director has big Hollywood vision. Parent, who lives in Oakham, co-produced the full-length feature with his wife, Karen, and will present it to a local audience at its premiere at Showcase Cinemas Worcester North on Thursday, March 22nd at 7:30PM, followed by a Q&A with the cast and crew.
The story is about a young woman named Tracy (Kortney Adams) who wakes up in an institution, disoriented, with no idea of who she is or how she came to be there. As she undergoes a psychological evaluation, she begins to put the missing pieces of her life together, all the while becoming more and more unglued until she discovers the shocking truth.
“Central Mass. has a very diverse culture scene,” Parent says, “with a lot of history and talent, which is why we produce films here.” The Worcester date marks the beginning of the $60,000 film’s festival circuit tour, which Parent expects to keep him very busy as he travels with it to some of the United States’ hundreds of festivals.
The film was shot largely at the very creepy and now-defunct Paul A. Dever State School in Taunton, and the place became a character unto itself.
“I was not all that optimistic about the place when the Mass. Film Office first arranged a tour for us,” Parent says, “but when they showed us around, I knew it was absolutely perfect.”
On the 1,700 acre property, there is a parcel of between 20-30 acres with 17 buildings — some still with electricity — all connected with underground tunnels.
“This old rehabilitation school was like a back lot, and it really helps the story,” he notes. “It was run down, and it looks like nobody cares about it any more, like nobody knows it’s there.”
Parent’s next project, an untitled environmentally aware love story, is in pre-production and is scheduled to start shooting later this year.
“While this film represents about four years of my life,” Parent explains, “I’m always thinking ahead to the next project.”•••
Learn more about ‘Voice Of Reason’ (and reserve tickets) by visiting www.NWAFilms.com.
Snow home theater
WPI grad engineers good times out of winter weather
By Robert Newton
An igloo is a shelter built out of snow bricks, and is most often associated with the Inuit people, who, B.P.C. (Before Political Correctness), were known as Eskimos. The places one would expect to find an igloo are mostly in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland’s Thule area.
Rainer Reichel built an igloo, though he is not Inuit, nor did he build it in the Great White North; he built it in Worcester, right off the campus of his alma mater, Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
“It’s a tradition in my family,” says Reichel, who is 29 and works as a landlord in the city. “My mom built my first one with me when I was around 6 or 7, and I’ve been building one every year since.”
Construction of this impressive structure, which averages 12 feet across and stands over 12 feet at its highest point, began on February 17th, and took about two weeks.
“It was like working on a cathedral,” Reichel says, lightly, the movie March of the Penguins playing on a TV in the corner. “You do a little bit each day until it is how you like it.”
This is no little snow fort, either, as it has a full-size entryway, electricity and external lighting. At a movie party last weekend, he hosted fourteen people quite comfortably, with temperatures (from body heat alone) over 60 degrees, and a gas heater kicking in on below-freezing nights.
“For tools,” the part-time violinist in the local 10-piece ensemble Jubilee Gardens explains, “I only used a sled to collect the snow, and a shovel to move it. I made the bricks by hand, and packed them with just the weight of my body.”
In that this has been a mild winter, the time to enjoy such a cool retreat is naturally shorter, though Reichel is not worried about a catastrophic collapse.
“It’s engineered to never really collapse,” he says, his wife’s dog Papelbon (the Papillon) jumping up on his lap to watch the movie. “It’s a controlled fall, and I always know when it’s time to vacate…and start planning for next year.”•••
