Montgomery Movie Time

 

 

Click Images for individual show tickets.

    March 20: ARMY OF SHADOWS (1969 Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville Starring: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel 145mins) This film, released in Paris in 1969, was never shown in the USA until 2006 when it was restored and released by Rialto Pictures. That year it was voted Best Foreign Film by the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics – 37 years after its release! It is a story about the French Resistance in the Second World War, but it is neither a traditional “war picture” nor an “action picture.” It is a gripping, tense tale based upon a novel by a member of the Resistance, Joseph Kessel, and the director, who also served in the Resistance.  Post-film Zoom call with Bruce Goldstein, Founder and Co-president of Rialto Pictures and Founding Repertory Artistic Director of New York’s Film Forum.

March 27: PSYCHO (1960 Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Martin Balsam, Vera Miles 109mins) After the financial and critical success of North by Northwest, Alfred Hitchcock’s next project was a low-budget, black and white movie that was made by the crew of his then popular tv show. Upon its initial release, some critics were shocked by the film and even more shocked at when it broke all box office records internationally. It is now considered one of Sir Alfred’s best films and his most famous and influential work thanks to the direction, camerawork, score and the iconic performances of Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh.

April 3: HIGH NOON (1952 Dir: Fred Zinneman Starring: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly 85mins) He is about to leave his job and his town for a more tranquil future. He receives a telegram that Frank Miller, a notorious criminal that Kane had captured some years before, has been paroled and is heading back to town with his gang. Against everyone’s advice and preference, Kane stays because it’s the right thing to do. The screenplay was written by Carl Foreman who, during the film shoot, was called up by HUAC to “name names” – which he refused to do and was later blacklisted.  After the film, we will (by Zoom) discuss the complexity of these events with Amanda Foreman (the daughter of Carl Foreman and the author of Georgiana; A World on Fire: Britain’s Role in the American Civil War; and The World Made by Women) and Maria Cooper Janis (the daughter of Gary Cooper.)

April 10: THE CIRCUS (1928 Dir: Charlie Chaplin Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Myra Kennedy, Henry Bergman 72mins) The last feature film made by Charlie Chaplin during the silent era, this comedy is a pure delight from start to finish, yet, made at a time of great personal stress and difficulty in the life of one of the cinema’s greatest artists.  Following the film, we will have a Zoom Call with Scott Eyman the author of numerous biographies of Cecil B. DeMille, John Ford, Cary Grant, John Wayne and others. His latest book is: Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex and Politics Collided.

April 17: LA STRADA (1957 Dir: Fredericco Fellini Starring: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, RIchard Basehart 108mins) Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the film that made Federico Fellini an international figure and elevated him to the ranks of one of the world’s great filmmakers, this film shows a quite different aspect of life in the circus world from Chaplin’s. It also includes wonderful performances by Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart and the great Giulietta Masina.

April 24: WILD STRAWBERRIES

(1957 Dir: Ingmar Bergman Starring: Victor Sjostrom, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin 91mins)

Professor Borg (Victor Sjostrom) is a widowed 78-year-old doctor who is being given an Honorary Doctorate at Lund University. He decides to drive from Stockholm to Lund with his daughter-in-law and meets various people along the way and revisits places that were important in his life and is forced to reevaluate his life. This elegiac study and one of Bergman’s most accessible films, with a wonderful performance by Sjostrom, is ultimately a celebration of closure and the affirmation of life.