[Rose-movies] Rose Theatre Newsletter for January 31, 2005
The Rose Theatre
rocky at rosetheatre.com
Mon Jan 31 19:16:14 PST 2005
This week's newsletter includes:
* VERA DRAKE starts Friday, February 4 - 3 Academy Award Nominations
* THE AVIATOR held over - 11 Academy Award Nominations
* IN GOOD COMPANY ends Thursday, February 3
* School of Athens Lecture Series Continues Feb. 13 with Pramila Jayapal
* Admission Prices
* Gift Suggestions -
* Coming Attractions
* Rose Theatre Movie Challenge
______________________________________________________
Show Times: Monday, January 31 - Thursday, February 10
VERA DRAKE
February 4 4:30, 7:10
February 5 4:30, 7:10, 9:40
February 6 4:30, 7:10
February 7 7:30
February 8 7:30
February 9 4:30, 7:30
February 10 4:30, 7:30
THE AVIATOR
January 31 7:30
February 1 7:30
February 2 4:00, 7:30
February 3 4:00, 7:30
February 4 4:00, 7:30
February 5 4:00, 7:30
February 6 4:00, 7:30
February 7 7:30
February 8 7:30
February 9 4:00, 7:30
February 10 4:00, 7:30
IN GOOD COMPANY
January 31 7:10
February 1 7:10
February 2 4:30, 7:10
February 3 4:30, 7:10
______________________________________________________
VERA DRAKE
Directed by Mike Leigh
Cast: Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Peter Wright, Ruth Sheen, Alex Kelly,
Daniel Mays
Rated R for depiction of strong thematic material. 125
min. <http://www.veradrake.com>
In some ways, Mike Leigh's latest film, VERA DRAKE, is a departure for the
director. In others, it's quintessential Leigh, charting the ways in which
every little chord of human emotion ripples through the world, touching
everyone it passes through. Whether or not they even know it.
VERA is the story of a generous working-class woman in London in 1950,
surrounded by a loving family and coming to the point in her life where she
ought to be able to sit back and catch her breath. The war is over and her
family has come through it intact; her son and daughter are grown, and
while there's little luxury in her life, the ends meet.
By all appearances, Vera is supremely ordinary - certainly not someone you
would look at twice in the street. But of course, like every supremely
ordinary person in a Mike Leigh film, she is anything but: into her busy
schedule of cleaning upper-class houses and caring for a variety of ailing
and lonely neighbors and relatives, Vera manages to quietly perform illegal
abortions in the same brisk, kind, get-on-with-it manner that she does
everything.
But Vera's ordered life lurches off the rails when one of her young
patients winds up in the hospital: the authorities descend with astonishing
speed, and her life is turned inside out.
One of the criticisms against Leigh in the past has been his tendency to
make things black and white, to frame his working-class characters as
good-hearted and pure, and his upscale characters as shrill and
self-absorbed. That isn't the case here. VERA DRAKE feels gentler and
more forgiving; emotionally and morally, it's a study in shades of
gray. In a subplot that runs parallel to Vera's story, a rich young woman
obtains a legal abortion by knowing what to say, and to whom - and by being
able to afford the high cost. But her ordeal is certainly no less painful
than anyone else's.
As usual with Leigh, an extraordinary ensemble cast inhabits the
film. Peter Wright is hugely sympathetic as the grave, unsurprisable
police inspector who gently interrogates Vera. Vera's friend Lily, an
enterprising black marketeer who works as the go-between in the abortion
arrangements, is played by the inimitable Ruth Sheen, a master of tiny,
freighted gestures that manage to be simultaneously frightening and funny.
But Vera is the heart of the film, and Staunton gives an exquisite
performance. The story moves mesmerizingly along with her as she bustles
around the city.
No film so explicitly about abortion can escape political scrutiny, and
it's clear where Leigh's sympathies lie, but what's most affecting about
this portrait is the way in which Vera has no agenda beyond simple
kindness. She isn't making a statement or taking a stand; that isn't who
she is.
"I help young girls out," she explains, shaken, to the police officers who
come to question her. One of them presses her to elaborate, wanting her to
say that she performs abortions.
"That's not what I do, dear. That's what you call it." (Excerpted from
THE SEATTLE TIMES)
3 Academy Award Nominations - Best Actress (Staunton), Best Director
(Leigh), Best Original Screenplay.
"Suffused with humanity...Leigh's best film in a decade...directed with
love and beauty"-THE NEW YORK TIMES. "Perfection down to the last
detail"-NEW YORK DAILY NEWS. "A powerfully moving film that is unmissable
and unforgettable"-ROLLING STONE
_______________________________________________________________
THE AVIATOR -
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly,
Alec Baldwin, Alan Alda, Jude Law, Gwen Stefani, Ian Holm, Danny Houston.
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, sexual content, nudity, language and a
crash sequence. 169 min. <http://www.theaviatormovie.com>
Three hours can be a very, very long time, or it can pass by as quickly
as...well, as Martin Scorsese's biopic THE AVIATOR, which waltzes through
the midlife years of billionaire Howard Hughes with grace, style and a
certain breeziness. And while we leave the film without much more of an
understanding of Hughes' legendary obsessions than we did upon entering,
we nonetheless leave with a sense of having been glamorously, thoroughly
entertained - which these days, is a rare pleasure.
And much of that sense comes from Leonardo DiCaprio's performance as
Hughes, tamping down his usual boyishness with a blunt, gruff charm and a
maturity that takes on a haunted quality as the film progresses. Beginning
in the mid-1920s and continuing through the mid-'40s, THE AVIATOR is less a
full biography than a depiction of a man's glory years.
For Hughes, those years brought Hollywood fame as a director and womanizer,
world-wide renown as a pilot whose exploits included setting a record for
flying around the world in 1938, and both acclaim and ridicule as an
inventor, of planes (most notably the Hercules, aka the "Spruce Goose,"
then the world's largest airplane) and of brassieres (designing a special
push-up to support Jane Russell's assets for THE OUTLAW, which promptly got
the movie banned).
Scorsese let's all of this fly by with surprising ease. Supporting players
are ushered in and out of DiCaprio's orbit, some with
blink-and-you'll-miss-it speed, while others get a more languorous turn in
the spotlight. Cate Blanchett's turn as Katherine Hepburn is a wonder;
everything she says, in Hepburn's characteristic r-less drawl, is both
funny caricature and affectionate tribute. (Listen to what she does with
the name of a rival, spitting out "Gin-guh Ro-guhs.")
By the end, we've been shown just enough strangeness to get hints of the
sad, lonely, germ obsessed man he became. But the busy, bustling AVIATOR
doesn't really want to go there. With its glorious colors, dreamy costumes
(Kate Beckinsale, as Ava Gardner, is a vision in lipstick red), and
adventurous swagger, Scorsese's film is essentially about a man who wants
to fly - and does plenty of soaring of its own. (Excerpted from THE
SEATTLE TIMES)
"One of the best pictures of the year. An exhilarating, razzle-dazzle,
high-flying movie-movie"-NEWSWEEK. "The best picture of the
year. Leonardo DiCaprio gives a stunning performance. This is filmmaking
on a grand and rare scale"-TIME. 6 Golden Globe Award Nominations - Best
Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actress
(Blanchett)
____________________________________________________________
IN GOOD COMPANY
Directed by Paul Weitz
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson
Rated PG-13 for mild adult language and some tame bedroom
preliminaries. 109 min. <http://www.ingoodcompanymovie.com>
Resting lightly on the relaxed shoulders of Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace,
IN GOOD COMPANY has that rarest of qualities for a studio film: genuine
charm. On paper, it shouldn't work at all: It's a fairly predictable
corporate comedy about how older guys with old-school values will always
triumph over soulless young guys only interested in making money. But the
movie is written with such snap and intelligence that it just floats along,
effortlessly entertaining.
Dan (Quaid) is a 51-year-old regular fellow, a Manhattan advertising
executive at a sports magazine who lives in the suburbs with his
picturesque family. Enter Carter Duryea (Grace), a skinny, fast-talking
26-year-old who looks like an overgrown kid in his expensive suits. He's
being groomed, to his delight, for upper management, and he talks a
mysterious corporate language that leaves Dan slack-jawed and skeptical.
Though IN GOOD COMPANY has the bouncy rhythms of a romantic comedy, it
really isn't one. The focus of the movie is decidedly on the men. But
this is one of those unusual American movies in which the women, though
manifestly marginal to the story's core meaning, have inner lives that
linger long after the characters have served their purpose.
Quaid is well-cast and immensely likeable as Dan, who often has the
mystified air of a man who's fallen down a rabbit hole into a strange new
world. But the movie belongs to Grace and his irresistible comic rhythms.
Ultimately, this workplace fairy tale creates its own cheer. When its time
is up, you'll feel like you've been in good company. (Excerpted from THE
SEATTLE TIMES & NEW YORK TIMES)
"A smart, up-to-the-minute comedy. Dennis Quaid is at the top of his game:
he's a slow-burn delight. Topher Grace is a worthy successor to Tom Hanks,
his comic style an elastic mix of cockiness and stumbling
self-deprecation. A radiant, seductive Scarlett Johansson adds spice to
the movie's considerable charm. In a holiday movie season up to its neck
in darkness, this nimble comedy is a welcome
respite."-NEWSWEEK
______________________________________________________________
School of Athens Lecture Series Continues February 13 with Pramila Jayapal
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 SOLD OUT
John R. Delaney, Ph.D., 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 seafloor observatory to study submarine volcanoes. His recent
publications include "Life on the seafloor and elsewhere in the solar
system," Oceanus, 1998. November 14, 2004 SOLD OUT
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 SOLD OUT
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 individual
tickets at $10, are available at Quimper Sound Music & Media, 901 Water
Street, Port Townsend.
For more information and links to the speakers and the Vatican fresco see
the web site : <http://www.athens-pt.org>
__________________________________________________________
Admission Prices
General admission to the Rose is $7, senior citizens (62+) $6, children (12
& under) $5. The matinees are $1 less. The box office opens thirty
minutes before the first show of the day and tickets are only sold for the
next show once the preceding show has either sold out or started.
Asisstive listening devices are available by request at the concession.
___________________________________________________________
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*
MILLION DOLLAR BABY - Feb 11 - At the age of 74 Clint Eastwood just keeps
getting better and better and better. This beautifully told story about a
female boxer and the bond that develops with her trainer deserves all the
praise it's receiving. "So emotionally acute and beautifully realized that
it wraps itself around your soul and doesn't let go"-PREMIERE. "A
masterpiece, pure and simple. Hilary Swank is astonishing"-Roger
Ebert. <http://www.milliondollarbabymovie.net>
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>
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS - tba - Director Zhang Yimou reinvents himself as
an action filmmaker with this colorful, kinetic, breathtaking adventure
about the Flying Daggers, a shadowy squad of assassins waging a guerrilla
insurgency against a corrupt and decadent government. "An astonishing
combination of spectacle, suspense and passionate intensity. If there's a
more beautiful movie around I'm not aware of it"-Joe Morgenstern, THE WALL
STREET JOURNAL. <http://www.sonyclassics.com>
SPANGLISH - tba - Director James L. Brooks (AS GOOD AS IT GETS, BROADCAST
NEWS) has created a warm and absorbing story, part comedy, part drama,
starring Adam Sandler, Tea Leoni, Cloris Leachman and Paz Vega. "...it
gives us ideas to chew on, moments to laugh at and performances to
admire"-LOS ANGELES TIMES <http://Spanglish.com>
BAD EDUCATION - tba - From director Pedro Almodovar (TALK TO HER) comes
this delirious, headlong film about the wonder of storytelling and the
human instinct to embroider reality. "One of the best pictures of the
year"-TIME MAGAZINE. Gael Garcia Bernal is dynamite. A rapturous
masterwork"-THE NEW YORK TIMES. <http://www.sonyclassics.com> NC-17 - No
one 17 and under admitted
HOTEL RWANDA - tba - A stunningly powerful testament to an ordinary man's
remarkable heroism. "Don Cheadle is magnificent"-THE NEW YORK TIMES. "A
film of rare courage and imperishable heart"-ROLLING
STONE. <http://www.hotelrwanda.com>
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - tba - "Phantom, which is still running on
Broadway, is a rapturous spectacle and the movie goes the show one
better. It smolders"-ROLLING STONE. "One of the absolute must-see movies
of the year...a musical masterpiece...a truly brilliant work of art"ACCESS
HOLLYWOOD. <http://www.phantomthemovie.com>
THE SEA INSIDE - tba - Based on a true story (and my favorite movie of
'04), this Spanish film about a man's dream of a dignified death features
an altogether believable and beautiful performance by Javier Bardem. "A
monumentally moving experience...a potent blend of emotional and cerebral
filmmaking, anchored by what may be the year's most impressive performance
by the supremely talented Bardem"-USA TODAY. "One of the most profound and
uplifting dramas of the year"-LOS ANGELES TIMES. <http://www.theseainside.com>
*schedule subject to change.
________________________________________________________
Rose Theatre Movie Challenge
Question: Who said the following? "Oscar and I have something in
common. Oscar first came to Hollywood in 1928; so did I. We're both a
little weather-beaten but we're still here, and plan to be around for a
whole lot longer."
"From "70 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards"
by Robert Osborne
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, February 4 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: "Most conspicuous man of the night, next to Oscar
himself, was _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. During the course of the evening, he was
called to the stage four times to accept awards. No person - male or
female - had personally collected so many Oscars in one
session."* Identify this person and the year of the awards ceremony.
From "70 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards"
by Robert Osborne
Answer: Walt Disney, 1954
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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