[Rose-movies] Rose Theatre Newsletter for 10/25/04

[The Rose Theatre]

This week's newsletter includes:
    * NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE starts Friday, October 29
    * SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW held over
    * BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE ends Thursday, October 28
    * INTIMATE STRANGERS ends Thursday, October 28
    * RAY starring Jamie Foxx starts Friday, November 5
    * 2004-2005 Lecture Series Continues Nov. 14 with Marine Geologist John 
Delaney
    * Gift Suggestions
    * Coming Attractions
    * Rose Theatre Movie Challenge
                               ______________________________________________________

Show Times: Monday, October 25 - Thursday, November 4

NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE
October 29              4:30, 7:30
October 30              4:30, 7:30, 9:40
October 31              4:30, 7:30
November 1, 2           7:30
November 3, 4           4:30, 7:30

SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW
October 25, 26          7:30
October 27, 28          4:30, 7:30
October 29              4:00, 7:10
October 30              4:00, 7:10, 9:20
October 31              4:00, 7:10
November 1, 2           7:10
November 3, 4           4:00, 7:10

BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE
October 25, 26          No Shows
October 27, 28          4:00

INTIMATE STRANGERS
October 25-28           7:10

                                ______________________________________________________

NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE
Directed by Jared Hess
Cast: Jon Heder, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell, Efren Ramirez, Tina Majorino, 
Diedrich Bader
Rated PG: It has almost none of the prurience or naughtiness characteristic 
of most other high school comedies.  85 min.  <http://www.foxsearchlight.com>

One of the overarching jokes in NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE, the odd, amusing debut 
of the 24-year-old filmmaker Jared hess, is that such a grandiose, 
explosive title should be attached to such a small-scale, dead-pan 
film.  Napolean Dynamite is also the name of the movie's awkward, 
frizzy-haired hero, a high school student in Preston, Idaho, whose 
world-conquering potential is invisible to everyone but him.

Napolean, played by Jon Heder with unnerving conviction, is a gangly 
mouth-breather whose affectless eccentricity could easily be mistaken for 
simple-mindedness.  "He's a tender little guy," says his Uncle Rico, a sad, 
sleazy fellow who drives around in an orange-and-brown Dodge van selling 
plastic food storage containers.  This is about the kindest thing anyone 
says about Napolean, who is taunted, harassed and laughed at in school.  It 
is also the truest, though it may take you a while to appreciate Napolean, 
and to grasp that the movie's attitude toward him is ultimately more tender 
than cruel.

Mr. Hess grew up in Preston, which he films as a collection of lonely 
houses dropped in the middle of an empty landscape of mountains and 
rangeland, and his filmmaking style is well suited to the rhythms of 
small-town Western life.  His mockery of the local quirks and delusions is 
grounded in both affection and impatience, and his dry, barbed visual and 
verbal jokes reflect the humor of a place where time doesn't move too 
quickly and people don't talk much.

At the end, Mr. Hess turns his meandering assembly of quiet observations 
and slapstick inventions into an unconvincingly uplifting fairy 
tale.  Napolean's triumph is sure to please audiences who need to forgive 
themselves for laughing at his earlier misfortune, but it comes a little 
too easily, and it compromises the film's most interesting quality, which 
is its stubborn, confident altogether weird individuality.  (Excerpted from 
THE NEW YORK TIMES)

"Deadpan hilarity.  You'll laugh till it hurts"-ROLLING STONE.  "Our pick 
to be the season's sleeper"-NEWSWEEK.  "Comedy of nerd 
triumph"-ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY.  "'Napolean Dynamite' rules!"-THE WASHINGTON 
POST
                                _____________________________________________________________

SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW
Directed by Kerry Conran
Cast: Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Giovani Ribisi, Michael Gambon
Rated PG.  107 min.  <http://www.SkyCaptain.com>

A shimmering zeppelin named the Hinderburg III docks at the tip of the 
Empire State Building in the ravishing opening moments of SKY CAPTAIN AND 
THE WORLD OF TOMORROW.  Passengers disembark; the men, in their fedoras, 
look particularly elegant and faintly disreputable, the way only men in 
fedoras can to moviegoers for whom RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is old hat.  The 
entire city looks as if were designed by Norman Bel Geddes for the 1939 
world's fair - streamlined, sophisticated, and besotted with the power and 
promise of modern machines.  The giant, glamorous metropolis is 
sepia-toned, shrouded in shadow and fog.  The time is a futuristic past 
located somwhere in the zone of Buck Rogers, early DC Comics action heroes, 
and Fritz Lang - a time when monstrous robots stomp the streets.

The threat, as we soon learn, isn't just those robots, but the hidden 
Oz-like power who has programmed all those lethal automatons, as well as 
other incoming winged and streaking weapons of mass destruction.  And the 
fate of citizenry rests on the derring-do of one reedy girl reporter, and 
the dashing flying ace who's also her old flame.  Can they stop a nefarious 
doomsday plan from wiping out civilization?  And can they stop bickering 
and just, you know, kiss already?

If we think we've seen something like this before in a melodramatic 
sci-fi-saturated ripping yarn, well, we haven't - not exactly.  Which is 
what writer-director Kerry Conran has in mind.  His shimmering zeppelin of 
an entertainment, born of his own cinematic and technological obsessions, 
is, as they say in crossword puzzles, a oner - as singular in its vision 
and wit as "Wallace & Gromit" or THE ROAD WARRIOR is.

SKY CAPTAIN is the very opposite of a committee-made Hollywood 
production.  It's the creation of one talented guy making his first feature 
film who has been given once-in-a-lifetime, big-budget backing and 
cartoonishly famous movie stars to make his dream come true.  The 
investment is optimistic and wise; SKY CAPTAIN is a gorgeous, funny, and 
welcome novelty.  (Excerpted from ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY )

"In its heedless energy and joy, it reminded me of how I felt the first 
time I saw 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'"-Roger Ebert.  "Breathtakingly 
beautiful...it grabs you with the very first scene, a jaw-dropping 
expressionistic vision"NEW YORK POST.  "Superb, brilliantly conceived"-NBC
                               _____________________________________________________________

BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE
Directed by Rick McKay
Cast: A Who's Who of Broadway Legends.  Not Rated.  110 
min.  <http://www.broadwaythemovie.com>

Rick McKay's exceptional documentary BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE presents a 
veritable avalanche of interviews with some of the biggest names in the 
history of the American theater, preserving for posterity their wise words 
and disarming anecdotes.  In addition, there's a glittering hope chest of 
stashed mementos - including magnificent archival footage of Broadway 
productions from the pre-video era.

BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE is born from a deeply personal yearning on McKay's 
behalf to investigate what became of the Broadway of his youth - the one 
immortalized for him via the splashy, New York-set Hollywood spectacles he 
viewed as a child in a very uncosmopolitan Beach Grove, Ind.

By the time McKay finally made it to the Big Apple, it was the era of CATS 
and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, of darkened theaters and few major new plays 
(especially musicals) by American writers.  Was Broadway's Golden Age 
merely a myth manufactured by moviemakers and unleashed on naive 
suburbanites?  Armed with only a small digital video camera and mostly 
acting as his own camera crew, Mckay set out to interview anyone he could 
find who might be able to give him a straight answer.

Lucky for McKay, lots of folks were willing to talk, and talk and talk, 
with the resulting film perhaps the screen's most authoritative 
encapsulation of Broadway history - and an intimately resonant one.  What's 
special about the film is the specificity of the anecdotes, the openness 
with which McKay's subjects relive their youth.  In a particularly charming 
bit, Carol Burnett recalls how she and three roommates (also aspiring 
actresses) pooled their meager funds together ($20) to buy a single good 
dress, which they would take turns wearing (and then dry-cleaning) whenever 
one of them was lucky to land an audition.  (Excerpted from VARIETY)

"Miracles happen over and over again in Rick McKay's BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN 
AGE"-DALLAS MORNING NEWS.  "Don't miss this absolute stunner of a 
film.  There is magic in it"-ROLLING STONE.  WINNER - AUDIENCE AWARD, Santa 
Barabara International Film Festival, Denver International Film Festival, 
Palm Beach International Film Festival
                                ___________________________________________________________

INTIMATE STRANGERS
Directed by Patrice Leconte
Cast: Sandrine Bonnaire, Fabrice Luchini.  In French with English 
subtitles.  105 min.  <http://www.paramountclassics.com>

Patrice Leconte's INTIMATE STRANGERS opens with the brisk economy of a film 
made by a master screen storyteller.  A beautiful but distraught-looking 
young woman (Sandrine Bonnaire) enters a fine old Paris building.  Its 
concierge, who has been wrapped up in a silly TV soap, directs her to the 
office of a psychiatrist, Dr. Monnier. In her confused state of mind she 
enters the wrong office and starts pouring out her troubles to a man 
sitting behind a desk who she assumes is Monnier.  The man can't get in a 
word edgewise, and by the time she's through he's too concerned and too 
intrigued to clear up her mistake.

More visits follow, but Fabrice Luchini's diffident but empathetic tax 
attorney William and Bonnaire's troubled Anna are so hooked on each other 
that their relationship sustains Anna's inevitable discovery of William's 
true identity.  From this simple setup of Anna's visits to William becoming 
as regular as if he were an actual therapist, Leconte and co-writer Jerome 
Tonnerre create a rich study of a complex relationship developing between 
two seemingly very different people.

This is a Leconte specialty: One need look no further for a prime example 
than his film, MAN ON THE TRAIN, about a friendship struck up between an 
aging bank robber and a retired poetry teacher.  INTIMATE STRANGERS unfolds 
as a drama of psychological suspense.  In its telling, Leconte contemplates 
the powerful role imagination plays in the sexual aspect of love - and of 
the challenge in turning longing and desire into reality.

Luchini and Bonnaire are among France's foremost screen actors, and the 
resources and experience they bring to William and Anna are 
formidable.  Luchini has always been able to use his ordinary looks to 
great advantage to create characters who confound expectations.  Similarly, 
Bonnaire expresses Anna's lurching attempts at self-discovery - if that, in 
fact is what they really are - with tantalizing persuasiveness.

In contrast to Hollywood's brooding, heavy foray into psychological drama 
back in the '40s, INTIMATE STRANGERS is light and buoyant, and has the feel 
of a romantic comedy, albeit one of the upmost sophistication.

The mysteries of INTIMATE STRANGERS are those of the human heart, at once 
timeless and immediate.  Like other major French directors, Patrice Leconte 
has long ago mastered a Gallic specialty: the knack of making impeccably 
polished graceful films with an unpretentious ease while allowing them to 
emerge seeming fresh and spontaneous.  Leconte's latest film to reach the 
U.S. reveals him to be at his slyest best.  (Excerpted from the LOS ANGELES 
TIMES)

"One of the best movies of the year"-WALL STREET JOURNAL.  "Playful erotic 
suspense.   In the spirit of the best Hitchcock"-THE NEW YORK TIMES.  "One 
of the most delectable romances of the year"-ELLE
                               _______________________________________________________________

RAY starts Friday, November 5

An uncannily fine performance by Jamie Foxx provides solid footing for RAY, 
a rangy, straightforward and entirely engrossing biopic of the late Ray 
Charles.  Bursting at the seams with music, director Taylor Hackford's 
ambitious film provides a good sense of the pioneering journey and brings 
it to life with plenty of colorful detail.

With the singer's support, Hackford tried for 15 years to find backing for 
this project, which clearly wouldn't have been worth doing unless the right 
actor existed for the central part.  With his performance here, Foxx's 
quick ascent to the top of the Hollywood talent list is complete, as he 
socks over and completely convinces in the difficult part of a blind, 
driven and tragedy-scarred musical genius.  Role's made even more 
challenging by public familiarity with the real man, who died only three 
months ago at age 73.

Excerpted from VARIETY
                               ________________________________________________________________

2004-2005 Lecture Series Continues November 14 with Marine Geologist John 
Delaney

Six speakers of national renown will lecture in Port Townsend this fall and 
winter in a new humanities series that its organizers hope will become an 
annual contribution to the intellectual and imaginative life of Port 
Townsend.

The talks will range from species extinction to civil rights, from a love 
of books to underwater volcanoes, from Chinese scholarship to chimpanzees 
and cognitive neurology.  Talks are scheduled at the Rose Theatre, at 1:00 
PM, every second Sunday, October through April, excepting December.

The 2004-2005 speakers are:

Peter Ward, paleontologist and University of Washington earth science 
professor, led new research on a mass extinction that occurred 200 million 
years ago killing off more than fifty-percent of all species on 
Earth.  Evidence from the extinction was gathered at sites in the Queen 
Charlotte Islands, off Canada's British Columbia coast.  Ward is lead 
author on a paper detailing the evidence in the journal "Science." October 
10, 2004

John R. Delaney, marine geologist at the School of Oceanography, University 
of Washington, studies active submarine volcano-hydrothermal 
systems.  After recovering a unique set of rocks with the submarine ALVIN 
from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in 1980, Delaney focused on establishing a 
permanent sea-floor observatory to study submarine voclanoes.  November 14, 
2004

Nancy Pearl, former director of the Washington Center for the Book and 
Youth Services at Seattle Public Library, now writes, reviews books for 
local and national publications and speaks to library and community groups 
full time.  She reviews books regularly on KUOW, a Seattle affiliate of 
National Public Radio, as well as Wisconsin and Tulsa, OK., public radio 
stations.  January 9, 2005

Pramila Jayapal is executive director and founder of Hate Free Zone 
Campaign of Washington and has been a voice for immigrant and refugee 
communities targeted after 9/11.  Jayapal has worked for social justice for 
over twelve years in Africa, Asia, Latin America and in Washington.  She 
serves on the board of Chaya, the Institute of Current World Affairs, and 
Hedgebrook Woman Writers Retreat.  February 13, 2005

Bill Porter, also known by his literary pseudonym, Red Pine, is a 
translator of Chinese literary and religious texts.  He studied 
anthropology at Columbia University before moving to a Buddhist monastery 
in Taiwan for four years.  Later, he produced 1,100 short programs of trips 
he took throughout China for a Hong Kong radio station.  Recently he 
focused on China's great Zen monasteries, and traveled to scores of 
remaining abodes of ancient Zen teachers.  He lives in Port 
Townsend.  March 13, 2005

William H. Calvin, Ph.D., author of "A Brief History of the Mind: From Apes 
to Intellect and Beyond," is affiliate professor of psychiatry and 
behavioral sciences at the University of Washington, School of 
Medicine.  He co-authored a study, "Reconciling Darwin and Chomsky with the 
Human Brain," with Derek Bickerston.  Calvin's "A Brain for All Seasons" 
was awarded the Phi Beta Kappa book award for science in 2002.  April 10, 2005

The organizers, a group of local citizens including Leslie Cox, Rocky 
Friedman, Rick Kenney, and Peter Simpson have established an informal 
organization they call The School of Athens, Port Townsend Extension.  The 
self-styled School of Athens takes its name from the Vatican fresco by 
Raphael.  This painting depicts the ancient Greek gymnasia, or speaker's 
forum, with all the philosophers of that period including Aristotle, Plato, 
Socrates, Zeno and many others.  With interest in all things, the local 
chapter of the School of Athens brings an array of first-rank original 
thinkers to Port Townsend to speak about their research, passions, and 
concerns.

Business sponsors of the 2004-2005 series are: William James, Bookseller, 
Skookum, Inc., BaDd Habit/Gray Wolf Ranch, Brent Shirley & Associates, 
Hildt & Reid, Inc., P.S. Law Offices, Homer Smith Insurance, and the Rose 
Theatre.

All series passes to the lecture series have been sold, but there of plenty 
of individual tickets for the remaining lectures still available for 
purchase at $10 each at Quimper Sound Music & Media, 901 Water Street. Cash 
or check only.

For more information and links to the speakers and the Vatican fresco see 
the web site : <http://www.athens-pt.org>
                                __________________________________________________________

Gift Suggestions
Rose Theatre T-Shirts - $16.00
Rose Theatre Mock Turtlenecks - $22.00
Rose Theatre Sweatshirts - $32.00
Admission Gift Certificates - $7, $6, $5
Discount Cards - $30.00 - saves $1 off each general admission
Concession Certificates - any denomination
                          ______________________________________________________________

Coming Attractions*

MOTORCYCLE DIARIES - Oct. 29 - From director Walter Salles (CENTRAL 
STATION) and actor Gael Garcia Bernal (Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) comes this 
beautifully-told story based on Che Guevara's boyhood memoirs about 
motorbiking through South America in the 1950s with his best friend. (One 
of my favorite movies at the Telluride Film Festival-rf)  "Unabashedly 
revives  the venerable, romantic ntion that travel can enlarge the soul, 
and even change the world"-THE NEW YORK 
TIMES.  <http://www.themortorcyclediariesmovie.com>

SIDEWAYS - tba - From writer-director Alexander Payne (CITIZEN RUTH, 
ELECTION, ABOUT SCHMIDT) comes this wonderful sophisticated comedy wine and 
men growing up.  Starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia 
Madsen, Sandra Oh.  "A comedy that is...moving, fresh and original"-Roger 
Ebert.  "...a transcendent human comedy and the best American movie so far 
this year"-ROLLING STONE.  <http://www.foxsearchlight.com>

RAY - Nov. 5 - Jamie Foxx - sure to be nominated for an Academy Award - 
delivers an incredible performance as the legendary Ray Charles.  Directed 
by Taylor Hackford.  <http://www.raymovie.com>

VERA DRAKE - tba - Director Mike Leigh (SECRETS AND LIES) has created an 
extraordinary portrait of a seemingly ordinary woman.  Imelda Staunton in 
the title role is truly remarkable.  "A powerfully moving film that is 
unmissable and unforgettable"-ROLLING STONE.  "Perfect down to the last 
detail"-NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

BEING JULIA - tba - An intoxicating combination of wicked comedy and smart 
drama, starring Annette Bening as the beautiful and beguiling actress Julia 
Lambert.  "Bening is diva-licious...pure charisma in this big, bravura, 
take-no-prisoners performance"-US WEEKLY.  "Bening lights up the 
screen...full of sparkle and urbanity"-CHICAGO 
TRIBUNE.  <http://www.sonyclassics.com>

MOOLAADE - tba - Embracing, affirming, world-changing humanist cinema at 
its finest.  This powerful masterpiece from Senegal is infused with 
remarkable buoyancy of spirit, complete with villains, brave heroes and a 
finale that will bring tears of amazement to your eyes.  "Magnificently 
beautiful.  A strong, true and useful film..that resonates with life"-THE 
CHICAGO SUN TIMES.  <http://www.NewYorkerFilms.com>

*schedule subject to change.
                               ________________________________________________________

Rose Theatre Movie Challenge

Question: A surprising number of actors in BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE mention 
a single performance as the  greatest influence on them.  Identify the 
actress and the play she appeared in.

Rules: Answers must be e-mailed to moviechallenge at rosetheatre.com with Rose 
Theatre Contest in the subject line.  One winner will be selected at random 
from correct responses received by midnight, October 29, and will be 
notified by e-mail.  Your free passes will be held at the box office so you 
must include your name with your movie challenge answer.
                               ________________________________________________________

Last Week's Question:  What's the movie connection between Sylvia Sydney 
and the 2003 Port Townsend Film Festival?

Answer:  Sylvia Sydney appeared in SUMMER WISHES, WINTER DREAMS, which was 
written by Stewart Stern, a featured guest at the 2003 Port Townsend Film 
Festival.

Congratulations to RW, our winner this week.
                               ________________________________________________________

Soundtracks to movies featured at the Rose Theatre are available at Quimper 
Sound Music & Media, 901 Water Street, Port Townsend.

E-mail addresses are collected only for the Rose Theatre Newsletter.  They 
are not transferred to any third party for any reason.  Our complete 
Privacy Policy is available at <http://www.rosetheatre.com>







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